About
About The Blog
“Convalesco” in Latin means growing stronger. After thinking a few days for a name I came with no better choice than that. I like it!
The languages that I write the posts are English and Hellenic (Greek) and maybe Italian. Comments are slightly moderated to avoid hassles. The topics can vary from personal life to politics, technology, music, cars or travels.
About Me
Although I don’t have a degree in English, my English are quite decent. I speak fluently Greek and Italian. My mother is Italian, hence Italian is a sort of mother-tongue to me.
My computers are an iMac c2d 24″ which I spend most of a time on, a Macbook c2d 13″ 2.0 Ghz laptop and a Acer Aspire One Netbook running Moblin 2.0. I support all the UNIX based operating systems. Although I have not deep shell experience, command line is the only way for me to control a computer. I’m not familiar with MS-DOS, but I’m fairly familiar with GNU/Linux and I can find my way easily through every other UNIX -like operating system I’ve encounter, with some reading of course.
My gadgets are: an iPhone 3GS, a Dreambox 600 PVR running Germini 4.30 and a Nintento Wii.
As a part time business, I am involved with a new project still undefined though called Different Jollity, on local level as well. It’s mostly about organizing small, high quality events for the time being (20/04/2010 as I’m writing this).
I am also owner of a fantastic Lotus Elise MK2. I’ve been in love with this car since 2000 when I first saw the Lotus Elise MK1 in Milan. I couldn’t think that it will be mine someday but my father made me this amazing gift the October 24th, 2004. A dream came true! Although it’s a Spartan car, I never regret purchasing it. The Lotus Elise, has an added value which is hard to describe: Even when you are feeling down, a ride with this car can turn your mood up easily. The elise is a miracle of U.K. engineering as Jeremy Clarkson said and a wet dream as another famous journalist mentioned! The standard edition features only 122 hp and has a 0-100 km/h acceleration in less than 6 seconds, it’s steering capabilities are unbelievable and the design is unbeatable. I consider the Elise the most beautifully car ever designed, along with the Aston Martin DB9 and Maseratti 3200 GT. After 2.5 years of ownership, I still stand and admire the killer design and handling of the Lotus car!
My father has for cars the love that I have for computers. He owns 3 cars, the family car a Lancia Thesis 2.0, a Fiat Bertone model year 1979, and an old Golf 2T which is configured for Rally Sprint, a race tournament that we join occasionally. We race together from time to time, I am the co-driver.
Beliefs and Views
I believe that Open Source is (more than) often the right choice and a valuable public good. There are many reasons for people, companies and especially organisations, to use it when possible. I advocated the open source software most of the times, because I believe that the wider range of users doesn’t need proprietary software to do daily operations like: e-mail, browsing, file sharing, watch movies, etc. I am a strong supporter of the Open Source movement from the philosophical perspective as well. It is my strong belief that it should be open standards and open source should be the default choice whenever possible, because it’s the only software that do not discriminate among operating systems.
However I’m not an open source bigot, I don’t believe that proprietary software should cease to exist. For example, I dislike Microsoft, but I consider Microsoft Office suite the best software for office available. I believe that the MS Office suite worth it’s commercial price. It will pay back in a reasonable amount of time if someone needs the extensive features that MS Office has build in. Most of us, can do the same tasks with the same ease of use with Open Source office suites. I’d prefer using Open Office or other ODF tools for business and iWork with ODF support, for home usage. I am an Macintosh user after all!
Generally I try to avoid Microsoft’s software, and use open source tools, but I accept proprietary software when it’s the natural choice. Same goes for Apple’s software and other companies.
For example; If you are a professional photographer you must purchase Adobe’s Photoshop or a related software. It is a worthy package for photographers and web designers. It costs a lot of money, in my opinion, but if you get familiar with it, you can do amazing things. So, open source is not a panacea for everyone. Same goes for Final Cut Suite for video editors and so forth.
Politics
I don’t support a specific party in Greece, i like Barrack Obama, I would like to see Turkey in the EU, I dislike an EU controlled by foreign (US) interests. Regarding politics and beliefs, I’m still building an opinion, I don’t believe that I have the copmlete 360 dg. view on the matter, I just judge out of experience and culture. I used to say that “I’m liberal” but the banking sector proved that in a liberal economy controversies such social responsibility against profits can’t be regulated by states. So I’d like to see them all turned public. Now, how liberal does this sound?
Favourite Quotes
“Never argue with an idiot. They bring you down to their level and beat you with experience.” – unknown
“Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.” – Benjamin Franklin
“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not so sure about the universe.” – Albert Einstein
contact: atma[at]convalesco.org . My current GnuPG key can be found on pgp.mit.edu with key id: 0xFC4E8BB4
regards
