It was June 8th,1974 and on a warm evening in the territory of Amapá, now a state in the northern part of Brazil, a baby boy was born. Other than being a couple of months premature, the one thing that made this birth a bit more interesting than any premature birth was the fact that this baby had its hands and feet completely bent inwards, almost fused into his arms and legs.

It’s been a while since I last posted anything new. That’s because I took some time off from work and headed down to my old stomping grounds… Brazil! It had been 5 years since I visited my friends and relatives and since I couldn’t make it to GUADEC and take my family on vacation at the same time, we hoped on a straight flight to Rio de Janeiro from Charlotte's international airport.

Depois de quase 5 anos estarei voltando à pátria amada! É isso aí! Como não vai dar para ir na Holanda na conferência GUADEC 2010 (muuuuito caro) este ano, vou então com a família toda para o Brasil. Vou ficar no norte do Espirito Santo por quase 2 semanas, vegetando e apresentando os primos, tios, tias, avós, etc para a minha filha mais nova (a minha esposa e filha mais velha já estiveram no Brasil antes).

An interesting read (sorry… free registration required) about Brazil’s involvement with the Open Source movement. It seems that Linux has joined Soccer as this country’s passion. The New York Times says “Brazil: Free Software’s Biggest and Best Friend”. Looking to save millions of dollars in royalties and licensing fees, Mr. da Silva has instructed government ministries and state-run companies to gradually switch from costly operating systems made by Microsoft and others to free operating systems, like Linux.