Bloggers are under attack: death threats to Kathy Sierra, and an international response.

In these days, that people are simply throwing around death threats as if they were candy, it might be worth to revisit wikipedia:

A death threat is a threat (often made anonymously) against a person to kill him or her. Death threats are often intended to intimidate victims (such as dissuading them from pursuing a criminal investigation or an advocacy campaign). In other cases, people use death threats to manipulate behavior. Historically death threats were carried out against wealthy jews during the Spanish Inquisition. ...
Death threats are most commonly made against public figures, though they are also made against less public figures. In many states and jurisdictions, death threats are a criminal offense. If the threat is made against a governmental figure, it can also be treason.
Sometimes, death threats are made as part of a wider campaign of abuse against a person or group of people (see terrorism, mass murder).

Sadly, death threats are usually just the beginning, the opening shot of a very intimate conflict - there is nothing that the person threatened may do to avoid this, and since there is no crime yet, it is very difficult to get the police involved. Sometimes, as it happens in other countries, it is usually the police the one issuing the threats!

Times do change, and in this country, the USA, it is still a criminal offense to make a death threat. They do go on, however, as Chris Prillo points out:

It's worse when you know who that person is - or if they're not all that anonymous in the first place. I've dealt with my fair share of bullies (both before and after high school) - and in a few cases, was able to weather the situations long enough to seek some sort of resolution with the other parties.

All we read about in the news is about death threats to death threats to mayors, to the president of Virginia Tech, to editors, to bloggers. What importance does one more death threat have? Especially when there is only one witness?

Benedetti has always been political.

Torturador y espejo
(Torturer and mirror)
by Mario Benedetti

Found here and here as well.

Mirate as&icute;

qué cangrejo monstruoso atenazó tu infancia
qué paliza paterna te generó cobarde
qué tristes sumisiones te hicieron despiadado

no escapes a tus ojos
mirate
así

dónde están las walkirias que no pudiste
la primera marmita de tus sañas

te metiste en crueldades de once varas
y ahora el odio te sigue como un buitre

no escapes a tus ojos
mirate
así

aunque nadie te mate
sos cadáver

aunque nadie te pudra
estás podrido

dios te ampare
o mejor
dios te reviente.

I love ubuntu linux, but recent experiments with unsuspecting friends had led me to conclude that it is going to be a long and arduous time before there is mainstream acceptance for it.

Hey, ubuntu linux is the best, most amazing linux distro that there is. It installs in seconds, respects you as a user (ie no DRM crap), offers amazing possibilities and doesn’t cost a penny. And yeah, it has no games in it, either; not as many as in MSFT, at least, which, for me, is a bonus.

But there is still reluctance: a few months ago I got together with a friend who wanted some linux in his HP 64 bit laptop. The installation was a breeze, fast, efficient, the kind that makes you think that linux is definitely going to stay here for a while, to kick some ass.
It was that cool: Beryl? Easy. Repositories? Done. He even got a little bit about it, getting rid of the chains that Microsoft imposes on users.

All went well, until the beginning of last week, when he wanted to attach a printer. And then it all went to hell. He wanted a Canon, these printers being some sort of family tradition. But no!

Canon printers suck: the only available solution was spending some money on drivers and stuff, and then installing that thing. My friend and I tried that option, which, as expected, didn’t work.

So, he got rid of Canon, and is buying either an HP or a Dell. Something with open source drivers and more respect for the customer. Can you imagine the market that canon would tap if they released drivers for the canon, in some sort of linux flavor? By ignoring this market, they are just pushing the users away, opening doors for competition, and generally being regarded just as big goofy sort of a company. They might be giants, but they are goofy giants. Who can respect that?