January 2012
WatchWarren Buffett and his secretary go on a tour to explain that it is unfair that he pays 17% tax on income of $60M and she pays twice the tax rate for a fraction of the income.
Image via Wikipedia
Fifi cherche WiFi - Best Fon ad ever! by Belgacom
Belgacom (powered by Fon) has created an awesome campaign to advertise its fonspots. A dog called Fifi whose innate talent is to smell for wifi hotspots. In the middle of 2011, we announced the agreement between Fon and Belgacom and two months ago we reached 100.000 hotspots. Nowadays, we have 300.000,. Here you can see the video. The story would be as follows: Jean has a dog called Fifi that...
Lisa Randall and how science is on the defensive...
I just heard a great presentation by American theoretical physicist Lisa Randall at DLD 2012 in Munich. It was a fantastic talk on the challenges that physics faces and how instruments like the Large Hadron Collider helps solve them. In this talk I learned more about the inner workings of the collider and what a feat of engineering it is. There is enough material on the internet that explains...
I used to think Israel was different from its neighbors, but lately less and less so. My religion is better than yours is no formula for peace in the region. As a secular Jew I would feel so uncomfortable if I lived in Israel with a government who makes comments like this. It is also understandable how Europe, which is mostly secular, feels alienated from Israel now and USA which is mostly...
This moved me. It is a make believe restaurant in Vigo in which unemployed parents in Spain take their children to “eat out”. They take turns as volunteers. It is really a charity that makes children believe that their parents can afford to take them out to a restaurant. I felt so bad about for those parents. If you don’t live in Spain and you come here and go around you would...
Costa Concordia, what I think happened
When Spanair flight 5022 had its fatal accident in which most passengers died I said in my blog that most likely the accident was because the pilots made the tragic error of forgetting to take off with flaps. I mentioned that I was a pilot myself and could see how the pilots paid for these horrible mistake with their lives and that of most passengers. As you can see then some people criticized...
Nobody in my family gives a f*#ck about TV
We are 12 people at our home in Jose Ignacio, Uruguay, many teenagers. We have WiFi, computers, tablets, smartphone, Kindles, books but no TV. And I just realized that nobody gives a f… about TV During this vacation, nobody mentioned that we should buy a TV until recently a broker said we should have one for a tenant who comes in February. A tenant could not rent a house as this one without...
Geek vs. Nerd: The Infographic →
Jose Ignacio 2012 →
December 2011
After being on Twitter
I come to Tumblr and feel like I left a football stadium and entered a theater.
Some thoughts on Christmas from a non religious...
Little kids want to believe. Teenagers don’t want to believe. We are Jewish but we are not religious. I am glad we aren’t, especially for the upbringing of my 5 children. If we had been religious Jews I could not have dressed as Santa and brought gifts to my kids at a young age. I would have missed their faces of delight, and their smiles when they knew it was me, but pretended not to...
November 2011
Inseguridad aumenta en Jose Ignacio Uruguay
Queridas Inmobiliarias y amigos de Jose Ignacio, No se si estarán al tanto que han vuelto a entrar ladrones en nuestra casa del pueblo (“La Casa del Arbol”) durante la madrugada del Domingo pasado. Ya habían entrado en Agosto, cuando la casa estaba vacía y se llevaron una televisión plasma del living y todos los DVDs que había en la biblioteca. Ahora entraron con los inquilinos...
My impressions of Nokia's Lumia 800 with WP
I am testing a Nokia Lumia 800 that I got thanks to Hans Peter Brondmo a friend at Nokia. It is a beautiful phone. My favorite hardware right now, even better than an HTC, Samsung or iPhone in terms of look and feel. One hardware drawback though is the lack of a front facing camera which is not Nokia’s fault but Microsoft’s. The Nokia Lumia 800 feels pretty solid, whatever material is made of...
Tax fuel at the pump, balance the budget, and save...
In this time of huge deficits in Europe and USA a possible solution that I see that could address deficits, CO2 emissions and energy independence is the following one:
Each country should publicly announce that whatever the price of oil per barrel is in the next decade, consumers will pay for gasoline/diesel what they now pay plus a 10% annual increase that will go to the government to pay down...
What Southern Europe needs is not Austerity, it’s...
What each Southern European country needs now is not to spend less. Spending less alone will only exacerbate the recessions and make the countries insolvent, default and leave the euro. This is true even if the cuts in spending are made in areas in which today there is corruption and waste: less spending leads to less consumption and so on. Austerity, if it’s used as the only medicine, could have...
From Reed Hastings to all Netflix customers,...
How I would halt Europe's economic woes
If I were Germany and the Northern European countries that do well with the euro, and do not have spreads against Germany, I would tell all the countries that need rescuing, particularly Italy and Spain and in a smaller proportion Greece and Portugal, that Europe will guarantee their sovereign debt but in exchange they have to cut spending where it hurts less. One area that can easily endure...
Tumblr in an iPad
Tumblr as most self expression platforms originally designed for the web is vertical in nature. But the iPad is not vertical. It swipes sideways. It is pinched. You go in and to the side, not down. I wonder if Tumblr should be reconsidered in a totally different way to work on an iPad.
If you criticize Apple and work at Apple you get... →
October 2011
Fon launches in Brazil together with our partner...
Joining the ranks of Belgacom, BT, Softbank of Japan, SFR of France, Comstar of Russia and Zon of Portugal, I would like to welcome Fon’s newest partner: Oi of Brazil.
Today we’re officially launching our partnership with Oi, the largest telco in Brazil and the second largest telco in Latin America. This means that as of today, Fon has entered the Latin American market. With Fon you share a...
Steve Rogers of Aradian Aviation
If you ever have to deal with Steve Rogers or Aradian Aviation I do recommend that you ask me for my views on this brokerage firm. You can do so by writing to martin@fon.com.
The High School Subjects that Make a Difference
High School education is obsolete. As I see it high school programs around the world should be modified in different degrees. On top of the current high school curriculum, there are other relevant subjects that children should be introduced to. The additional subjects that I believe would benefit children most are: -basic household management, how to live on your own. -computer...
Looking at the Advantages and Disadvantages of...
Lately, I have been testing Android tablets. I am writing this with a Samsung Tab 10.1. It is big, very rectangular, SwiftKey doesn’t show well. There are less games than iPad. Some features are cool like screen captures, the way you move from app page to app page. The over WiFi set up. What is your experience?
I would like to know how accurate Android voice recognition is for native US speakers. I speak English with an Argentine accent but obviously a very slight accent because it is remarkable how well Android understands my English. Interestingly my wife has a German accent in English and Android cannot understand her at all. Android gets almost every word she says wrong, as if she was speaking...
Only one university in all of Latin America makes...
Is the Spanish Culture to Blame for the Country´s...
I have been debating with my Spanish followers on Twitter about why Spain has the highest unemployment rates of all developed nations - 21% for the population as a whole and 46% youth unemployment. To put Spain´s unemployment into perspective, the EU´s average rate of unemployment is less than half of Spain´s. In my view, Spain´s high unemployment is as much the product of poor financial/...
Amorexia
Idea for best seller. You will identify with it. Either because you suffer from amorexia or because someone you know does. I call amorexia the inability to fall in love. Amorexics then, are people who flirt, get into short non exclusive relationships, have sex, but are just unable to fall in love. There are many amorexics, they deserve a good study, they deserve a best seller.
Parenting is the best thing I have ever done
I am a father of 5. I also built 5 companies. Building 5 companies of which 4 did very well is a very rare accomplishment. Yet having 5 children is something that many more people could do if they wanted to.. If I have to compare, what gave me more satisfaction in life, as much as I have enjoyed building my companies and I now enjoy being CEO of Fon, being a father is just another level...
Filipinos don’t speak Spanish anymore but they speak English with a Spanish accent. Spaniards are not practicing Catholics but they live life with a Catholic accent. Spaniards are not pious anymore but they have an obsession with being humble. On Twitter, my blog, here, I frequently get accused of not being humilde enough, not humble enough. It’s as if I was a sinner of some...
