March 2005 – Page 3 – Here we are

The Six Laws of the New Software

Dror Eyal defines six interesting laws to have in mind when creating new software. Summarizing, they are the following ones:

Single idea (create software that fulfills a specific need, be able to explain what software does in a single sentence)
Collaborate (don’t create software that do everything, interoperate with other software complementing yours)
Disappear (reduce and simplify the user interface)
Simplify (reduce the learning curve of the technology)
Release (publish prototypes, think in iterative releases and let the user base grow)
Comply (follow standards)

Manuel Castells and the needs of learning English

La Vanguardia, a newspaper from Catalunya, publishes today an article of Manuel Castells in Spanish talking about the importance of learning good English for non-native speakers. Unfortunately, due to several reasons, the English knowledge level inside the Spanish State seems to be dramatically low.

Guadec-es 2005: In Galiza this year

The second edition of the Spanish speaking Gnome User and Developer European Conference (Guadec-es), is going to be held this year in Corunha, Galiza, 19-21 May. The first edition was held the past year in Almendralejo, Extremadura, and it was a big success.

It would be great to organize around the same days a similar meeting but with galician Portuguese as the communications language. It’s a real pity, but the Portuguese speaking community inside the Gnome project is not as big as it should be. We have to keep working in order to improve the situation.