1. Copyright should not be placed above citizens’ fundamental rights to privacy, security, presumption of innocence, effective judicial protection and freedom of expression.
2. Suspension of fundamental rights is and must remain an exclusive competence of judges. This blueprint, contrary to the provisions of Article 20.5 of the Spanish Constitution, places in the hands of the executive the power to keep Spanish citizens from accessing certain websites.
3. The proposed laws would create legal uncertainty across Spanish IT companies, damaging one of the few areas of development and future of our economy, hindering the creation of startups, introducing barriers to competition and slowing down its international projection.
4. The proposed laws threaten creativity and hinder cultural development. The Internet and new technologies have democratized the creation and publication of all types of content, which no longer depends on an old small industry but on multiple and different sources.
5. Authors, like all workers, are entitled to live out of their creative ideas, business models and activities linked to their creations. Trying to hold an obsolete industry with legislative changes is neither fair nor realistic. If their business model was based on controlling copies of any creation and this is not possible any more on the Internet, they should look for a new business model.
6. We believe that cultural industries need modern, effective, credible and affordable alternatives to survive. They also need to adapt to new social practices.
7. The Internet should be free and not have any interference from groups that seek to perpetuate obsolete business models and stop the free flow of human knowledge.
8. We ask the Government to guarantee net neutrality in Spain, as it will act as a framework in which a sustainable economy may develop.
9. We propose a real reform of intellectual property rights in order to ensure a society of knowledge, promote the public domain and limit abuses from copyright organizations.
10. In a democracy, laws and their amendments should only be adopted after a timely public debate and consultation with all involved parties. Legislative changes affecting fundamental rights can only be made in a Constitutional law.

Google Apps accounts are limited to a closed ring of Google services including Gmail, Talk, Calendar, Docs and Sites. So you had to create a normal Google account, aside from Google Apps, in order to use other interesting services such as Analytics, Reader, etc.

But there’s a solution for that problem. Just go to https://www.google.com/accounts and click on “Create an account now” to do so using the same email and password associated with your Google Apps account. Well done :) You’ll receive a confirmation message. Just click on the link included and your new account will be ready. Now you can use many other Google services (Blogger, Picasa & Web Albums, Bookmarks, iGoogle, Alerts, Groups, Web History, etc.) with your Google Apps account.

Software needed

• Download XAMPP. A free and open source cross-platform web server package, consisting mainly of the Apache HTTP Server, MySQL database, and interpreters for scripts written in the PHP and Perl programming languages. [More information on Wikipedia]
• Download Joomla! A free open source content management system for publishing content on the World Wide Web and intranets. [More information on Wikipedia]

Full installation process

A great video-tutorial by user slogen123 on Veoh. [Original source]

Step-by-step installation

1. Install XAMPP. Service section: check “Install Apache as service” and “Install MySQL as service”.
2. Extract Joomla! ZIP package and copy files and folders included to: (XAMPP installation directory)/htdocs/(yourproject)/
3. Go to http://localhost/xampp/index.php on your web browser and select “phpMyAdmin” from the left menu.
   • Enter a name for the database that will be used by Joomla! on the “Create new database” field.
   • Go to “Server: localhost” on the upper breadcrumb and press then the “Privileges” tab.
   • Select “Add a new user”. Enter your desired username+password and “localhost” for host field. If you’re going to use that user for administration tasks you can check all global privileges.
4. Go to http://localhost/(yourproject) on your web browser to start Joomla! installator.
   • Select your language for the installation process.
   • Check that all the minimum requierements are working properly.
   • Read the licence if you feel bored ;)
   • On the database configuration page, enter username+password and database name previously defined. Also “localhost” for host name field.
   • I won’t setup an FTP file system layer.
   • On the main configuration page, it’s time to give a name to your website. You must enter an e-mail address and a password that will be used by “admin” user. There’s an options area below for migration procedures. You can also press “Install sample data” button if you don’t want to start your Joomla! project from scratch.
5. Now Joomla! is installed and ready. Don’t forget to remove the installation directory. You’ll find your frontend at http://localhost/(yourproject) and access your administration area at http://localhost/(yourproject)/administrator, with user “admin” and password set on the previous step.

More information:

• Joomla! documentation.
• Joomla! quickstar video-tutorials.

Google has offered a list of configuration steps for common Gmail accounts. If you are a Google Apps user then you can set up Google Sync with the following process. First, get into your administration dashboard.
https://www.google.com/a/yourdomainhere.com/ServiceLogin?service=CPanel

Select “Mobile” link on the service settings menu. Then check “Enable Google Sync” option and save changes.

Now you just need to config your mobile device. I’ll use an iPhone for the example.

Go to “Settings” > “Mail, contacts, calendars”. Tap “Add account” and select “Microsoft Exchange”. Insert your domain name into the corresponding field and enter the user and password for the account you want to get synchronized.

Update. To sync multiple calendars with a Google Apps account, use the following process.

1. On your mobile device, go to m.google.com and click on “Google Mobile”.
2. Click on “Google Apps user?”, sign in and select the “Sync” icon.
3. Login in, select your device and choose which calendars to sync.

Official references:

• Google Mobile – Sync
• Google Apps – Set up Google Sync

Many Linux distributions offer a boot loader called GRUB. Using GRUB you can choose among different operating systems installed on your computer when it boots. If you install Windows later it will replace the loader into MBR so you won’t enjoy GRUB anymore. But you can get it back in five easy steps.

1. Boot a Desktop/Live CD (e.g. Ubuntu CD).
2. Open a terminal (e.g. on Ubuntu: Applications > Accessories > Terminal).
3. In terminal, start GRUB as root.
   sudo grub
4. And then:
   grub> root (hd0,0)
   grub> setup (hd0)
   grub> quit
   The “root” line must point to the location of your /boot/ partition. In that line “hd0,0″ means first disk and first partition. You can change it according to your system configuration (e.g. hd1,2 for second disk and third partition).
5. And finally, reboot.
   sudo reboot

Reference: Recovering Ubuntu after installing Windows – Community Ubuntu Documentation.

Firstly I only used it as a normal laptop, just to work away. But five months ago I started to work with it as my daily use computer. I attach it to a wireless keyboard+mouse combo and a widescreen monitor when at home. It works great but the daily tasks have revealed an insuficient RAM memory configuration. So I’ve recently made an easy upgrade.

1. Buy memory at Dell Store (United States – Spain) or Newegg.
   If looking for a 2 GB configuration you’ve to order 2 x 1 GB (matched pairs of modules).
2. Flip over your laptop and open the RAM cover (view).
   Take out the battery too.
3. Get rid of the old modules (view).
4. Insert your new memory (view).
5. Check it and enjoy (view).

Netvibes Universe – Formación Web (mobile version)

On the right column of every category I’ve added contextual Delicious blocks linked to my bookmarks on professional web design (already shared on 600+ References on professional web design).
You’ll also find this link on the Teaching area, as I always share these bookmarks with the students.

Fortunately, some of them such as Opera or Firefox, started to include a tabbed browsing system, so you can open all of your favourites at the same time on different tabs. Still it was a help at the time, it wasn’t a solution.

In 2005 a new family of buttons and links started to appear on a growing number of websites representing RSS formats. They let us to automatically get the latest content from our favourite sites. And it’s possible to group all those feeds on a RSS reader to gather all the information on a single place, a feed aggregator. No more browsing and time wasting.

The process is really simple as RSS means now Really Simple Syndication ;) But first, you need a feed aggregator (also known as RSS reader, feed reader or news reader). You’ll find a bunch of client software that can be installed on your computer, although there are a lot of Web based applications that work great and don’t need any installation or maintenance. I’ll use Netvibes for the example.

How to add a feed to your aggregator on three easy steps:

1. Go to one of your favourite sites and look for a RSS icon/link. Right click over it and select “Copy link location”.
2. Open your feed aggregator, click on any “Add feed” option and paste the URL that you have copied before.
3. The aggregator will check the feed and, if validated, it will be added to the rest of your feeds.

Now you can create your own newspaper by adding as RSS feeds as information sources you usually read.

There are also media aggregators (i.e.: Miro, Amarok, iTunes, Songbird, etc.) and I’ll talk about them soon.

More information on history of web syndication technology .

There are also tons of software solutions to create your panoramas and a growing market of cool 360º cameras to get your shots. Once you get your panoramic photos, you can share them on the following sites:

1. Gigapan .
   As they say “GigaPan allows users to upload, share, and explore brilliant gigapixel+ panoramas from around the globe”. Also available on Google Earth .
2. ViewAt .
   Another great site to share your panoramas. Map interface. Also available on Google Earth .
3. Fullscreen QTVR .
   Panorama images of the Grand Canyon, Paris, Rome, Barcelona…even Mars and the Moon. You can submit your panoramics following some simple guidelines .
4. 360 Cities .
   This site features panoramic photos of city scenes from around the world. Map interface. Also available on Google Earth . No sharing options, but you can apply to be a 360 Cities Featured Traveller .
5. Panoguide .
   A complete site about panoramic images. You can share your photos at the gallery or learn about shooting one at the how-to section .
6. Panoye .
   Map interface, sharing options, tags and other Web 2.0 look& feel elements.
7. Wikimedia Commons Panoramas .
   I know is not a panoramas site itself but they offer a gallery of amazing shots under GNU Free Documentation license .

But you might encounter some problems when trying to upload an image for the first time. The Choose File tabs will show you error messages:

• HTTP error.
• An error occurred in the upload. Please try again later.

Don’t try again later! :) Just add the following lines to the .htaccess file located in the root directory of your web server.

<IfModule mod_security.c>
<Files async-upload.php>
SecFilterEngine Off
SecFilterScanPOST Off
</Files>
</IfModule>

Add these lines below the existing code.