Last updated July 2008

Fernando Mässen's MetaFAQ

A. Meta

A1. Why did you make this thing in a FAQ-like style?
A2. Where are your previous pages/homepages/whatever?
A3. I liked your HTML, it's pretty neat. Do you coded it by hand?
A4. Why don't you write this stuff in portuguese? Aren't you Brazilian after all?
A5. What did you use to create this page?
A6. Do you know DreamWeaver?
A7. Why do you like this color scheme?

B. About Me

B1. What's your real name?
B2. What if the middle names weren't omitted?
B3. Your name, "Fernando", was given because of ABBA's "Fernando"?
B4. How old are you?
B5. What do you do for a living?
B6. How much do you earn for all this stuff?
B7. And what about women? What's the kind of woman do you prefer?
B8. Are you religious? Do you have any beliefs? Faith? Devotion?
B9. I know it may be difficult to answer this but... what is your greatest dream?
B10. And your "capitalist" dream?
B11. And your wildest dream?
B12. If you had to choose a famous woman to date, whom would be?
B13. Whom do you want to be, if you could?
B14. Favourite food?
B15. I've heard you don't watch television at all. Is that true?
B16. Where do you live?
B17. I've heard you worked for your university few years ago. Is that correct?
B18. It's true that you don't like soccer / association football at all?
B19. So you don't play sports at all?
B20. What's your favo[u]rite place in the world?
B21. What do you have against reggae music?
B22. So what kind of music do you like?
B23. Ok. What artists do you like?
B25. Where's the question "B24"?
B26. It's true that you don't care about your parents?
B27. What's your favo[u]rite music and album?
B28. And your favo[u]rite movie?
B29. They say you don't listen to radio either.
B30. Are you into cars? Vehicles?
B31. And some people say you even don't want to have children!!! BLASPHEMY!!! Are you a commie or something like that?
B32. What about telephones? And cell phones?
B33. What about your e-mail?
B34. Are you in Orkut, LinkedIn or another "social networking software"?
B35. Intelligent Design or Darwinist Evolution?
B36. Don't you miss someone, after all these years?
B37. Don't you think that, life being without any purpose, it's totally sad to live?

C. Computing

C1. The fact that this section starts with "C" it's not a coincidence, is it?
C2. What Operating Systems do you use?
C3. Why OpenBSD? It's because you're a security nut?
C4. But Linux is also cool! Why don't you use at home?
C5. What editors do you use?
C6. Do you have that urgent necessity to create your own editor?
C7. In what languages do you express yourself?
C8. What Operating Systems have you used?
C9. Phew! Is there any favo[u]rite out there?
C10. Is it true that you hate Pascal?
C11. Is it true that you hate Novell?
C12. GPL or BSD?
C13. Is it true that you like Motif and even perpetrated a CScience.org's pool to make Motif the preferred toolkit?
C14. Is it true that you dislike Java?
C15. What do you think of C#?
C16. What sites do you recommend?
C17. When did you first encountered UNIX?
C18. When did you first encountered Linux?
C19. What's your favo[u]rite Window Manager?
C20. I've heard you don't use Office anymore. What do you use?
C21. I've heard you have a plethora of machines. Is it true?
C22. What do you think of the whole "Apple going Intel" thing?
C23. Do you like Games? What kind of games? There's a favo[u]rite?
C24. What about Doom3?
C25. Which one is the true bracing style?
C26. What about your dream computer?
C27. What about your dream OS?
C28. What's your favo[u]rite mail client?
C29. Is there any hardware for sale?
C30. What's your favo[u]rite language?
C31. And your favo[u]rite compiler?
C32. Will you fix my computer?

D. About University

D1. When did you join Unisinos University?
D2. So why aren't you finished with it yet?
D3. Why didn't you stayed in your birthplace? Isn't a university there?
D4. So you moved to São Leopoldo to study?
D5. In which semester you're currently in?
D6. Do you hate / love some teacher?
D7. Do you hate / love some colleagues?
D8. What you're doing this semester? (As of 2007/2)
D9. When do you think you'll end university?
D10. What do you think about the current affairs regarding the University?

E. Professional Info

E1. Where are you working now?
E2. What are your work hours?
E3. How can I contact you?
E4. What about your skills?
E5. What about your interpersonal skills?
E6. What business-related activity do you had some exposure to?
E7. Have you ever worked outside Brazil?
E8. What's the kinds of activity you aren't willing to work?
E9. Why don't you go to a bigger city, or even outside the country?
E10. There's a preferred time of the day you are more productive?
E11. Do you have problems working with dress codes and the like?
E12. And neckties?
E13. What about working extra time?
E14. What about your perfect workplace?

F. About cscience.org

F1. When you were invited to cscience.org?
F2. Why software-l was brutally murdered?

G. About Politics

G1. In which side of the politics scope do you fit in?
G2. So you don't believe in changing the world?
G3. What do you think about the current state of affairs in Brazil's political landscape?

The Answers

A. Meta

A1. Why did you make this thing in a FAQ-like style?
Answer: Well. I was tired of writing homepages about myself and what I've been up to. Nowadays, I pretty much do what everybody seems to be doing: I maintain a Blog with my random ramblings.
I also did this in a FAQ-style because I think it's very informative. Everybody loves a good FAQ, even if it hasn't true frequently asked questions (I'd say it's not the case of 90% of this one. Yes, I made up some questions -- people don't ask random things about myself a lot. This speaks volumes about my popularity.)
A2. Where are your previous pages/homepages/whatever?
Answer: Scattered all over my internal computer infrastructure. You can still view the previous contents of my homepage Here.
Like anybody else, I feel very ashamed of previous internet content, not to mention mainling list ramblings. But I feel kinda proud of it, mainly because I am a firm believer of the evolution process in general.
Update @ 31/7/2005: These pages will be refetched and refreshed as the end of august 2005. Don't hold your breath over them.
Update @ 24/1/2006: Took off these to save apollo13's disk space.
Update @ 20/9/2008: It's dead, Jim.
A3. I liked your HTML, it's pretty neat. Do you coded it by hand?
Answer: Oh yeah. I hate the expression "old-school", but that's how I feel doing things like the mid-90s. I'm not too saudosist -- it's just the fact that modern HTML environments suck. Except that KDE editor, Quanta, which I have profound admiration.
Update @ 24/1/2006: It happens that Quanta sucks too. It mangled my HTML. Using 
emacs(1)
from now on.
A4. Why don't you write this stuff in portuguese? Aren't you Brazilian after all?
Answer: I think portuguese it's a beautiful language; a well-crafted, really a work of art, by all means. However english is the de facto language of the world, like it or not. I'm way more immersed in the Internet culture than the Brazilian one. Maybe because I'm a escapist. Maybe not.
A5. What did you use to create this page?
Answer: emacs(1). And vi(1) when remotting around.
A6. Do you know DreamWeaver?
Answer: I think I have a license of DreamWeaver somewhere around here. I have licenses of Photoshop, all this stuff. This is really strange, as I'm a Mac user, I don't use a bit of these things. Perhaps it will happen wherever I'll approach a project that requires this kind of software.
A7. Why do you like this color scheme?
Answer: Because it was the default color scheme from Emacs when it ran on Redhat 2.something. I was dazzled; never seen that possibility. I pretty much use this scheme in various applications. It makes me feel calm.
Not in Emacs anymore, because it mangles the scheme. D'oh.
Update @ 7/2008: Turns out that I've put some decent CSS on this page.

B. About Me

B1. What's your real name?
Answer: Fernando Massen. The "omlaut" that I recurrently use in various signatures has been taken away from the surnames of our families in some rightful events, like the period of the second world war (where German-soundalike names weren't nice to have at all) and some misspellings made by the local identification-division officials. The über-correct way to spell the surname may be "Meissen", likewise that region from Germany where vases are made.
The plain "Massen" variation is said to be Dutch (try Maassen for special FX), and the family may even have some history there, but I'm not so sure of things anymore. Althought I use the simple "Massen" (with an acute "a") everyday.
People who spells "Massén" (with an acute "e") annoy me.
B2. What if the middle names weren't omitted?
Answer: Fernando Constanzi Lautert De Castro Mässen, or the more modern Fernando de Castro Massen. I usually joke about being close to Fidel.
Which I'm not.
B3. Your name, "Fernando", was given because of ABBA's "Fernando"?
Answer: Unfortunately is.
OF COURSE, after knowing that, you'll sing that damned song EVERY friggin' time you meet me. And I'll be very annoyed.
B4. How old are you?
Answer: Almost 30.
B5. What do you do for a living?
Answer: Computer-related stuff. I design computer systems (even mission-critical systems). Most of the time I implement them.
I like to do infrastructure stuff, too; even security-related stuff. I do prefer to develop software, though, as it is generally more rewarding (not exactly in the financial side, but alas).
B6. How much do you earn for all this stuff?
Answer: Not too much. Not too little. I'll feel underrated about this issue forever, like anybody else.
B7. And what about women? What's the kind of woman do you prefer?
Answer: Redheads. Natural redheads. BUT...
Nowadays, I'm kinda married ("kinda" because I don't believe in the traditional christian-or-whatnot marriage institution). So I don't have any more strong opinions on the issue.
B8. Are you religious? Do you have any beliefs? Faith? Devotion?
Answer: No. There's no afterlife and stuff.
B9. I know it may be difficult to answer this but... what is your greatest dream?
Answer: Sell tulips in Amsterdam's Bloemenmarkt. That and visiting Haarlem at least one day per hweek.
B10. And your "capitalist" dream?
Answer: Buy a penthouse somewhere in Zandvoort-aan-Zee. IJmuiden would be better.
Filled with high-tech. Powered by solar (just for the sake of it, since it's very inneficient).
B11. And your wildest dream?
Answer: I used to have plenty of wildest dreams. It happens that these are unreal, unfeasible... for now I really wanted to take a flight to Rio de Janeiro, make a tour at the bars and come back in the same/next day.
B12. If you had to choose a famous woman to date, whom would be?
Answer: Nicole Kidman. What a silly question, but it comes up on parties.
B13. Whom do you want to be, if you could?
Answer: What a silly question. That's just annoying.
B14. Favourite food?
Answer: Tomato soup. Herrings.
B15. I've heard you don't watch television at all. Is that true?
Answer: Not completely true. As I'm not blind, and there's plenty of TV sets here in Brazil, I cannot avoid to watch TV, even when I don't want it.
At home I avoid to watch TV, even if I own a TV capture card. I do more productive things, like programming and reading.
Update @ 5/2008 Long ago I sold my TV capture card. Left to my own devices, I'd be already TV-free.
Update @ 8/2008 Bought a TV, 'cause I needed some larger display to play MAME.
B16. Where do you live?
Answer: I live in southern Brazil, specifically in Campo Bom (a very small and incredibly noisy city near Porto Alegre).
I used to live in São Leopoldo until mid-2007. Good times then.
And increasingly I want to go back.
B17. I've heard you worked for your university few years ago. Is that correct?
Answer: Yes.
B18. It's true that you don't like soccer / association football at all?
Answer: It's true. Because it is pointless. People should play Doom instead.
B19. So you don't play sports at all?
Answer: I bike a lot. end of this year.
update @ 1/2006: After buying a car, I brought my bike from my father's house. Still in mint condition, I'm riding my bike every weekend now.
update @ 2/2008: Switched to plain gym, plus biking. Nicer than I expected.
B20. What's your favo[u]rite place in the world?
Answer: Haarlem, in the Netherlands. However, living here is already nice.
I'm also a sand person; like to go to any beach (chosen at random), sometimes.
B21. What do you have against reggae music?
Answer: Oh, come on, it sucks.
B22. So what kind of music do you like?
Answer: Wrong question. The right question would be "What artists do you like?".
B23. Ok. What artists do you like?
Answer: Pink Floyd (beyond "The Wall", of course!). James Brown. Dream Theater. Spock's Beard. Frank Sinatra. Triumvirat. Renaissance. Black Sabbath. Transatlantic. Marillion. Camel. Uriah Heep. ELP. Bruce Dickinson. Ella Fitzgerald. Miles Davis. Duke Ellington. Frank Zappa. Judas Priest. Deep Purple. Yes. Asia. King Crimson. Beethoven. Georges Bizet. Tchaikowsky. Händel. Bach. Schubert. Lizst.

And lots of others. Mainly these.
B25. Where's the question "B24"?
Answer: Nice joke.
B26. It's true that you don't care about your parents?
Answer: It was true.
B27. What's your favo[u]rite music and album?
Answer: Listening Miles Davis like there's no tomorrow. The list is too long to be enumerated (we're off-math-limits, here).
B28. And your favo[u]rite movie?
Answer: Blade Runner, Groundhog Day, and a brazilian one, "O Homem que Copiava".
B29. They say you don't listen to radio either.
Answer: That blind brainwashing machine? No way.
B30. Are you into cars? Vehicles?
Answer: I hate cars. They're the major drawback for the progress of the human race. And they're the main cause of most troubles we're seeing in today's world.
(Please don't confuse fast transportation with real progress).
Sad update @ 24/1/2006: After too many years (8?) saying no, I'm planning to buy a car. I'll not drive. Actually, it's for my wife. She wanted it so much, so repeatedly much... believe me, it's effortless to buy a car compared to the whining.
I still pretty much hate cars (even my own car. I hate it).
B31. And some people say you even don't want to have children!!! BLASPHEMY!!! Are you a commie or something like that?
Answer: I don't want to leave this world to my children.
B32. What about telephones? And cell phones?
Answer: I hate both. Interesting enough, I like to hack software for both "platforms".
B33. What about your e-mail?
Answer: Of course I have e-mail. You can check it right here.
B34. Are you in Orkut, LinkedIn or another "social networking software"?
Answer: I joined Orkut kinda early, when people had 1 or 2 degrees of relationship between them, and fewer brazilians. Now it's just plain boring. You can find me there very easily.
It's kinda unhelpful having never seen before, 11-year old "grlz" asking "cAn i AdD U?" all the time.
Updated @ 7/2008: Now I have a LinkedIn profile also, which is much more useful. Also, if you search around too much, you can find me twitteeing once in a while. Hey, I even have a Flickr account now.
B35. Intelligent Design or Darwinist Evolution?
Answer: Darwinist Evolution, of course. I'll add a little interesting fact here: the Universe doesn't revolves around us, humans; neither nature cares about us. Also life doesn't have a specific meaning or purpose. However, life it's amazing (from our point of view) and worthy to maintain.
Oh, and also, there's no god. Sorry.
(THIS LIFE IS NOT A TEST. MOVE ON.)
B36. Don't you miss someone, after all these years?
Answer: Not too much people. I always felt lonesome. Always was. Only recently (eight years or so) I gathered a good deal of friends. Cool people, I assure you. I miss these ones.
Once again, who cares?
B37. Don't you think that, life being without any purpose, it's totally sad to live?
Answer: No. Life is a joy. Any fool can see that. To some people, life is no fun at all. I'll say they're wrong. There's plenty of things to do. Plenty. Being cheap and stuff. Yes, you don't need to be rich. Of course being rich helps a lot.
So assure yourself you're having fun RIGHT NOW in your life before it's too late and you go towards The Big Nothing (tm).

C. Computing

C1. The fact that this section starts with "C" it's not a coincidence, is it?
Answer: Yes it is.
C2. What Operating Systems do you use?
Answer: Mostly OpenBSD, Solaris, Linux, Mac OS 7.x/9.x and Mac OS X.
And yes, I use them actively (Nowadays Solaris most of the time, like 90% of the day).
I'm trying to do a comeback to BeOS anytime soon. I was ready to buy a PowerMac multiprocessed machine, but that was unavailable (it was already sold) as of july 2005. So I'll buy a Celeron or something like that, just to nostalgia (one can buy one Celeron 900 around here for 150 bucks).
Update @ 24/1/2006: like 4 months or so ago I bought a PowerMac 6500 for BeOS tinkering. It's my working TV set (not that I watch it, but it's useful for videogame consoles and VCR stuff). It's also used as my (obligatory) second X display.
Update @ 20/12/2006: I'm also running HP/UX, 2% of the time (ha!).
Update @ 20/4/2007: Migrated lots of Linux stuff to OpenSolaris.
Update @ 7/2008: Also migrated temporarily my desktop to Linux again. Don't know how much this will last, tho. Servers continue to run either in OpenSolaris or OpenBSD.
C3. Why OpenBSD? It's because you're a security nut?
Answer: Definitely not. I use OpenBSD because of its small footprint, simplicity and completeness.
C4. But Linux is also cool! And Free as in Freedom! Why don't you use at home?
Answer: Hey, how do you know I don't use Linux at home? Well. I simply refuse to compile a kernel (or even by that matter, download a "custom" kernel) to make things that OpenBSD (for example) has for granted. And that's just the start.
I'll do a LFS again anytime not-to-soon, when in vacancy, just to see some old PPC hardware I have kicking with 2.6.
Update @ 2/2008: did my quasi-LFS, working good on old PPC hardware.
C5. What editors do you use?
Answer: Both emacs(1) and vi(1). For long-time hacking, emacs(1) do the trick. For remotting and quick adjustments, vi(1) is my personal saviour.
It took some months for me to understand vi(1); before that, I used ed(1) with SCO Unix (around 1991) and Solaris OpenWindows' textedit ported to Linux in 1995/1996. Also used kedit when KDE 1 was available (1998, in a wild guess).
Heck I loved OpenLook's TextEdit (or something like that) back then; I learned Pascal using this editor, and it brings me so schweet memories...
In 1998, I started to master vi(1) and used it without the arrow keys (I did learned that way because my keyboard hadn't arrow keys back then). I still use it that way.
In the first months of the year I started to use emacs(1) in a keyboard-only fashion. So, in barely two weeks, I almost ditched vi(1) to use emacs(1) to all my editing needs.
Oh, and I remembered just now that I also used nedit a fair bit of the past time.
Oh, and for Java business-related stuff, I'm all for Eclipse. Of course sometimes Eclipse gets along the way and I have to use emacs(1).
C6. Do you have that urgent necessity to create your own editor?
Answer: No. I have implemented a quick clone of ed(1) in PHP for my own amusement. It's such shameful piece of software.
C7. In what languages do you express yourself?
Answer: C. xBASE. SQL (yes, even in some vendor-specific extensions). Python. PHP. Java. ECMAScript (AKA JavaScript). Perl. Various BASIC installments (even Microsoft stuff! For real! For not-fun but profit). Pascal.
Ages ago I did somethings in COBOL. Tiny somethings. Let's forget it.
I can hack on C++ and LISP, for my own amusement (and work, if required).
In documentation I do LaTeX and HTML, thank you very much.
C8. What Operating Systems have you used?
Answer: Most Windows versions. BeOS PR's, DR2, DR3, R4, R4.5, R5, Dan0. Linux from 1.x onwards (the x is closer to 2 than you think). FreeBSD >= 3. NetBSD > 1.4. OpenBSD >= 2.7. Rhapsody (OS X DPR2), even on Intel. Most Mac OS versions. OS X since 10.0. OS/2 from 2.something. VMS (some times, when needed). Some mainframe OSses, which deserved to be forgotten. Various DOS and CP/M versions. The HURD (in recent Debian/Hurd incarnations). HP-UX 6, 9, 10 and 11i. SunOS 2.1, 2.7, 2.8, 2.9, 2.10, 2.11 (aka Solaris 7-11/OpenSolaris). Plan9 from Bell Labs and Inferno. QNX 4, 5 and 6. Ultrix in a DEC Alpha machine, many years ago.
C9. Phew! Is there any favo[u]rite out there?
Answer: OS X and OpenBSD.
C10. Is it true that you hate Pascal?
Answer: False; I really really hate Borland's Pascal. By the way, I hate much of the Borland products. It happens I used FreePascal since I started the university -- as I used Linux back then a good deal of time.
update @ 2/2006: Borland is dying. Cool.
C11. Is it true that you hate Novell?
Answer: I hate Novell fanboys specifically.
They think we still live in 1992, on the "File Server" world.
And the latest spurious agreements with Microsoft doesn't impress me.
C12. GPL or BSD?
Answer: GPL, BSD, the Artistic License and a bunch of others.
You know, elitism just sucks.
C13. Is it true that you like Motif and even perpetrated a CScience.org's poll to make Motif the preferred toolkit?
Answer: Both assertions are true. Unix needs just one toolkit. It doesn't matter how ugly it is.
C14. Is it true that you dislike Java?
Answer: Nonsense. I dislike the JVM and the puny class library, as pretty much as everybody does.
I dislike the class library so much I did a implementation of what I think it's reasonable to have in a standard type library.
C15. What do you think of C#?
Answer: When I think in C#, the word "hype" comes to mind. The second word that comes to mind is "Borland".
C16. What sites do you recommend?
Answer: I have a selection of links elsewhere; someday I'll put the link to this list of links here.
C17. When did you first encountered UNIX?
Answer: 1988. It was also the first time I encountered a Pink Floyd record sleeve in front of me, and became interested in (good) music.
C18. When did you first encountered Linux?
Answer: 1994. I was in a ISP requesting for a account, and I saw a machine running it, and a proud Sysadmin. Not too much after, I was listening to Deep Purple's "Strange Kind of Woman" in K-7, when I booted it the first time in my (then-not-)puny hardware. I'll always remember that moments.
C19. What's your favo[u]rite Window Manager?
Answer: I felt in love recently (july 2005) with cwm (aka "calmwm"). Before I ran fvwm. I just happen to love fvwm too. Sometimes I give a shot on mlvwm.
Updated in May 2006: I'm actively using Plan 9 from User Space, which includes an emulation of the rio(1) windowing environment. It remembers cwm too.
When I need the "level of service" of OS X in X11, I just use WindowMaker.
Updated in September 2006: I'm using mlvwm in System 7 emulation mode.
Updated in August 2007: Nahh, I've been using plain fvwm 1.x since last december. I think that'll be it.
C20. I've heard you don't use Office anymore. What do you use?
Answer: When I really need it, I use OpenOffice.org. When there's no spreadsheeting need, I use python (for variated calculus) and LaTeX (for documents).
C21. I've heard you have a plethora of machines. Is it true?
Answer Kinda. I'm not only a computer collector: I actually use the machines when I'm home (I have a very understanding wife).
C22. What do you think of the whole "Apple going Intel" thing?
Answer: Oh, they're switching processors, don't they? Who cares?
I'm actively using obsolete Apple machines longer (7+ years!) than the time that Apple will phase out the G5. So why bother?
C23. Do you like Games? What kind of games? There's a favo[u]rite?
Answer: I like the old FPS, like DOOM, Hexen and Wolf3D. It seems I like RTSs too, as when I start playing Age of Empires I can't stop.
(May 2006 update): I'm hooked in Jedi Outcast; it made me buy an Radeon 7000 just for this.
And I like old videogames too, like the Sega Genesis and all Nintendo stuff. I'm planning to buy a real TV set and some real videogame hardware, like PS1 or PS2.
Or even a Dreamcast.
C24. What about Doom3?
Answer: Too much hardware required. It's clearly not for me.
(August 2006 update): I bought a G4-based Mac Mini, which runs Doom 3 and Quake 4. The machine tops at 640x480 @ 23 fps; nonetheless, it's still scary (and fun) to play Doom 3 in this lo-res configuration.
C25. Which one is the true bracing style?
Answer: Allman. I only use K&R, though.
Once upon a time, just for "shock" value, I used a very pedantic Allman-like style.
C26. What about your dream computer?
Answer: My current G3 450 fulfills my 1999-2000 dreams. Now I want a SGI system. More unrealistically speaking, a Dual G5 or Dual G4.
Oh, and I also pretend that Sony VAIO Picturebooks never existed; anytime I see one I want to buy it.
Updated at august 20, 2005: I'll never buy such VAIO Picturebooks. They're very overrated.
Updated at august 1, 2006: I bought a G4-based Mac Mini. It's enough for now on!
C27. What about your dream OS?
Answer: There's no such thing. All OSes suck.
C28. What's your favo[u]rite mail client?
Answer: Mail.app (bundled with OS X), or RMAIL (bundled with Emacs).
Oh, and in Mac OS 7.5, I use Eudora 3.1.3.
Update @ 2008 Switched everything to good ol' Mutt. Yeah, that's right: Mutt.
C29. Is there any hardware for sale?
Answer: All this hardware is for sale now. I'm planning to continue the endless upgrade circle pretty soon.
C30. What's your favo[u]rite language?
Answer: I'm just in love with Python. Previously I was a Perl/PHP addict.
C31. And your favo[u]rite compiler?
Answer: Apple's MPW suite of compilers. They're so FUN!
C32. Will you fix my computer?
Answer: I usually charge about 50 dollars per hour to do that.
I do not work for free. Unless you are Nicole Kidman.

D. About University

D1. When did you join Unisinos University?
Answer: In mid-1998, in the "Systems Analysis" course.
I was dazzled at the time about the quality of the university -- their teachings, their teachers, the infrastructure. Now everything changed. Not for the better.
It's far far worse than the time I joined. It has fewer students. Fewer teachers. Fewer quality everywhere. Of course the prices doubled from that time.
D2. So why aren't you finished with it yet?
Answer: I have three reasons for this. One is that I lived in almost poverty for several years, and didn't had a decent job. The second is that, when I got a good job, I dedicated myself to my employer at the time (and sortly after, when I started a business, I got addicted to working in the business too). The third is that I switched to "Computer Science" because "Systems Analysis" sucked.
D3. Why didn't you stayed in your birthplace? Isn't a university there?
Answer: Because that city sucked. The university sucked. The computers sucked. The teaching sucked even more. I would really go far and say the people sucked more than everything else, but let's not have this level of prejudice. Yet.
And because the weather there was friggin' cold for me.
D4. So you moved to São Leopoldo to study?
Answer: Not quite. I didn't moved completely until the end of 2001. So I had to waste endless hours bus-travelling (sometimes almost six hours a week, sometimes 600 kilometers travelling a week).
And I moved to work at the university, not only to study there.
D5. In which semester you're currently in?
Answer: Eighth semester or something like that. I'm leaving the math programmes to the end of the course.
I hate mathematics, albeit doing it fairly well.
But my wife is a Math teacher. Maybe it's my cursing?
D6. Do you hate / love some teacher?
Answer: I don't hate teachers. They're fine people. I don't always agree with them, and that's pretty natural.
D7. Do you hate / love some colleagues?
Answer: I particularly love the women. Oh, I can't say that here. Nevermind.
D8. What you're doing this semester? (As of 2008/2)
Answer: Math stuff.
D9. When do you think you'll graduate?
Answer: First I'll try to fund myself so I can study 2 or 3 years in a row without working at all (only studying). Maybe then I'll also get a Masters degree.
D10. What do you think about the current affairs regarding the University?
Answer: I think it's very bad and it's going to get worse. Maybe I'll switch to PUC (another university in Porto Alegre) in the following years.

E. Professional Info

E1. Where are you working now?
Answer: Now I'm doing a J2EE-based project at, an southern Brazilian logistics provider. Firstly, I'm developing the WMS (Warehouse Management System) for them, using a clean-room implementation. Soon, the ERP will follow.
E2. What are your work hours?
Answer: I'm working since 7:30 AM until 5:30 PM. Sometimes earlier, sometimes later
E3. How can I contact you?
Answer: Through the email plan9ner_@_gmail_.com_. Of course the "_" character is there to prevent spamming. Ah! and this is my Jabber account, by the way.
E4. What about your skills?
Answer: My works are very much computer-oriented, using standards-based IT tools and best-of-breed methodologies. I've been in the computer business more than twelve years, and since 1999 I'm staying more in the Unix-based technologies side, doing systems development, platform integration tasks, and a fair bit of infrastructure work (when needed and for fun). You can ask me any time for an custom curriculum vitae.
E5. What about your interpersonal skills?
Answer: Surprisingly for someone too immersed in computers, in the past jobs/projects I was able to be distinctly remembered about my good relationship skills.
E6. What business-related activity do you had some exposure to?
Answer: Once upon a time I had a business; so I had a fair bit of real experience about the subject. Because of my education, my work time is better applied in technical areas, though.
E7. Have you ever worked outside Brazil?
Answer: No; this would be insanely great, wherever place around the globe it might happen.
E8. What's the kinds of activity you aren't willing to work?
Answer: Mainly marketing. I wouldn't program in Delphi, either.
E9. Why don't you go to a bigger city, or even outside the country?
Answer: Because I wasn't invited yet.
E10. There's a preferred time of the day you are more productive?
Answer: At nights. Working in afternoons and evenings is very cool also (and I speak from vast experience on the issue).
E11. Do you have problems working with dress codes and the like?
Answer: Not at all, provided I'm well paid for it.
E12. And neckties?
Answer: I have a problem with those. Only when I'm very well paid to do so.
E13. What about working extra time?
Answer: I'll do this; sometimes I even like to. But there are (very rare) times when I want to take a break of one day. I must be very tired to do this.
E14. What about your perfect workplace?
Answer: Quiet place, with either 1) a powerful workstation running whatever I may like to run (generally Unix-like systems) or 2) my own machine, built for the required project. I'm used to buy a new machine for each project I'm joining in.
It should be well-illuminated, with a restplace (couch? sofa?) to think (or even sleep in the overtime). Also it must have the cleanest appearance possible, to allow even deeper concentration.
I'd like to stress the "noise" factor. I do not have problems with engines or almost anything mechanical; I only cannot cope with people talking all the time.

F. About cscience.org

F1. When you were invited to cscience.org?
Answer: 1998 or 1999 or 2000. Can't recall. Hades himself asked if I want to join some discussion group and stuff, and I said no -- I answered that I didn't had news access (yeah, I thought it ran on NNTP). Probably he can't recall this moment.
One year later (I don't know if it was only one year late -- I still can't remember the correct date) I joined the software-l mailing list.
F2. Why software-l was brutally murdered?
Answer: Stupid people, as always. Everything happens due to very few annoying, stupid, childish people.

G. About Politics

G1. In which side of the politics scope do you fit in?
Answer: Outside any scope. I don't do politics. I used to believe in the left, but even they were wrong. So far my current position is "non-politic".
Of course I still whine about stupid things governments do; but that's the way it is.
G2. So you don't believe in changing the world?
Answer: First we need to ask ourselves if the world really wants to be changed. Obviously it won't. The second question is "is politics the solution to the problems of the world?". I don't think politics it's the answer: governments and political systems failed for over 4 thousand years. We should change ourselves first.
G3. What do you think about the current state of affairs in Brazil's political landscape?
Answer: What affairs? The pervasive corruption? Bah, bring me some real news.
© 2005-2007, Fernando Massen