It’s been a longtime since I decided to use Xgl / Compiz as the default composite window manager for my GNOME Desktop. I tried it out just after David Reveman’s talk at GUADEC 6 (in Stuttgart, Germany).
When I installed it for the first time (about one year ago), I thought to myself, what a cool piece of software I just installed !
Although at that time, I had to get the code from CVS and it was a bit unstable, it worked very good, especially the 3D cube which is my favorite compiz plug-in. Now, since I can update it through Portage (from Gentoo Foundation’s mirrors), I think I will forget 2D window managers for a while (maybe forever).

I just read a couple of mails where some people ask me if I hate the American way of life, especially the American capitalism. Because of those who have misunderstood my last post, I’m going to make a few comments on it.Some Mexican friends have told me they dislike America basically for the next reasons:

- War in the middle east (Iraq, Israel).
- Oil and weapons of mass destruction.
- Pollution record (Kyoto).
- Patriotism.
- Discrimination (racism)
- Just jealousy

Anyways, there’re a lot of reasons, most of them involving American foreign policies which are enough to convince people in both the eastern world (Islamic or otherwise theocratic nations) and western world (developing countries) that anti-American hatred is justified. But are they really enough to hate America as nation? I don’t think so, after all, the US is a very young nation which has actually a child as a government.
Even though the US government doesn’t show the faintest sign of humility and modesty, it has nothing to do with most American people who do their best in order to reach their goals and are actually the true power of the United States.

I’m not someone who has anti-American feelings, in fact, I got a lot of American friends who have always been very friendly toward me. I could say I love America as nation.

By the way, a Mexican friend of mine made a comment into his blog on my perception of richness. He actually mentioned that richness is an unlimited resource. I agree, if richness is measured in terms of knowledge. We can measure richness in terms of money as well, but in this case richness is a limited resource. Given this situation, the “American Dream” could be true just for those who create knowledge for producing richness in terms of money (in most cases). Unfortunately, “American Dream” is all about richness in terms of money, that’s the way most people see it at least. In this case, richness is a limited resource, then the “American Dream” is not a reality for every single person entering the US since most of them cannot create enough knowledge to produce unlimited richness (in terms of money), they’re just the support of an economic model which cannot be seen in the way “American Dream” does.

If “American Dream” were true, how would you explain poverty in the United States?

Although, I think the US is a great nation, I do believe “American Dream” is utter nonsense. Probably your views on it are completely opposite to mine, which is acceptable as well.

As simple as the John Lennon’s song “God” says: “I don’t believe in American Dream, I just believe in me and that’s reality“.

Nowadays, it is very common to hear non-American people speaking ill of the US. Probably most of them have already learned not to hate Americans as people, however, they hate America as nation. Then, why are there so many people who want to reach the “American Dream” ? That’s definitely beyond me.We all know the US is the world’s largest economy, the one country on the face of the earth which has reached the hyperpower status (militarily, politically, technologically, economically and culturally dominant). Most Americans think it has been earned through hard work and the right policies, maybe, maybe not. I’m not going to discuss it here for a couple of reasons that I don’t want to get into now. However, I’d like to know what exactly the worldwide known “American Dream” is or at least whose such pathetic idea it was. Very many people who claim it have told me about it as a satisfying and successful life, something like “come to America and you’ll become billionaire”. But is that really possible for every single person who wants to enter the US? I, myself, think “American Dream” is a fake idea for the next reasons: It ignores so many crucial factors such wealth and family one is born into which determines the initial conditions (the results are almost always different even with determination and hard work). Everything is about consumerism, people working hard for material possessions, which promotes social inequality (in most cases due to selfishness).

On the whole, the “American Dream” seen in terms of American capitalism is a great economic model which produces a lot of money, it is also an economic model which produces poverty, though. Then, where’s the true dream? I can’t see unequal opportunities as a common dream. After all, there are not great countries without big problems.

Last two days, I’ve had a disastrously bad time since I got an aweful lot of things to do and as I’ve been feeling ill for almost 48 hours, I’ve not been able to get them done. I had a terrible headache this morning so I decided to stay at home the whole day in order to feel better tomorrow. I think it worked, I’m in good health now.The first day, I tried to post a new blog entry but I didn’t even succeed in writing the first line. I crouched over my keyboard staring at a blank screen, that was the only thing I managed to do for a while (maybe for 36 hours).
I suddenly found a kind of strange inspiration and I started writing a story. If I tell you about it, you’ll surely find me crazy.

The point is that I found a new skill of mine, one skill I didn’t know I had. Anyways, I’m not good at characterization yet; That’s another thing I’ll have to improve in the near future, however, I do think I’m good at writing at least as an amateur writer.

I think that writing is a very good way to expand the intellect, in the same way reading expands our vocabulary, however, reading by itself is not enough to open the mind to new ideas, I mean, an interactive reading is always necessary (writing and doing).

This morning, while taking the breakfast, I read a couple of interesting articles on quantum physics (the physics of infinite probabilities). I was actually thinking to myself, in one of my very many imagined conversations with someone, that the implications of Quantum Mechanics theory for the way most people see their lives are quite a few. According to our perception of reality, everything has a definite position, momentum and time of occurrence. However, in a given space in a finite time, the Quantum Mechanics theory can’t give us the exact values for the position and momentum of a certain particle, instead, it provides a range of probabilities of where that particle might be (position) and where it might go (momentum). We can only know the position of that particle or its momentum but not both the position and momentum at the same time. These particles can even change spontaneously their position from one place to another for no apparent reason (it’s a strange behavior of nature). In other words, we can’t even be sure about the existence of things. Particle physicists have discovered that within the matter an object contains, there is actually much more empty space than matter, since the quantum effects constantly produce particles out of nothingness which disappear few moments later. The true nature of nature at the smallest scales seems to be so complicated to understand for the common human mind. For example, at this moment, I’m writing this blog entry into my laptop computer whose matter (small particles: protons, electrons…) appears and disappears all the time, however, there’s a high probability of its existence itself, at least as an object according to the perception of the human mind. Then, what the hell is reality? Life is not at all what most of us believed. I, myself, think what we see as reality is just a manifestation of our perceptions, just an illusion of the human mind.I’m not an expert at this subject but I enjoy spending time reading things involving mathematics in some way. Quantum Mechanics (quantum physics) and General Relativity (astrophysics) are the most important theories in modern physics, but there are apparent incompatibilities between them, especially within their fundamental assumptions. The resolution of these incompatibilities is an area of active research where the main goal is the formulation of a complete theory of quantum gravity, a unified theory involving the Quantum Mechanics theory and General Relativity theory.

By the way, I actually read an interesting book called “Faster than the Speed of Light” by Joao Magueijo which is an easy-to-read book on astrophysics (General Relativity and his own theory called VSL). I really recommend it to you.

I felt the need to post this blog entry just because I find it so difficult to explain it every single time someone asks me: “if you work as a software programmer why did you decide to study mathematics in a formal way rather than computer science?”. In order to answer that question, let me tell you what I do as a software developer. I’m just a computer enthusiast, probably a geek, who very much enjoys to hack on free source code. I use to work with Unix-like free operating systems like GNU/Linux and all sorts of free software. I really think freedom is crucial to the human knowledge, that’s exactly the philosophy behind everything I do and my way of thinking on life.

So what’s the role of Mathematics on the human knowledge? the answer is quite simple, the whole scientific knowledge depends on it. Carl Friedrich Gauss himself referred to mathematics as “the Queen of the Sciences”. Although the opinions of mathematicians on this matter are so varied, particularly those in pure mathematics who often feel that they’re philosophers instead of scientists as applied mathematicians feel to be, most of them feel that they’re working in an area more akin to logic where beauty, generality, simplicity and intrinsic aesthetics get together. Anyways, this is just another issue considered in the philosophy of mathematics. I, myself, think that the interface between mathematics and its applications in pure and applied sciences like engineering has driven much development in mathematics. Because of that reason, I almost always refer to mathematics as a science and that’s the way I use it as a software engineer. I could say I’m just an applied mathematician involved in Computer Science which is a discipline in its own right within applied mathematics. It basically considers the use of abstract mathematical tools in solving concrete problems in very many different areas.

In conclusion, I decided to study mathematics to improve my skills at programming as well as the logical thought and the basic operations of the mind. Actually, the field of mathematics in which I’m interested most is discrete mathematics, very useful in theoretical computer science; especially in mathematical analysis for symbolic and numerical computation.

By the way, I’d like to study a master’s degree in Artificial Intelligence at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), it has always been kind of my dream. I know it will be so expensive but I’m sure that I’ll find the way to do so. Meanwhile I’m so happy in Brussels studying my bachelor’s degree in mathematics.