Venezuela’s biggest and most important ISP, CANTV, was my first serious email provider, since it is tied to my ADSL connection, and I previously used several different dial-up providers (T-Net, IFX Networks) with no specific interest in email. CANTV mail service used to be provided with the highest standards of quality in the country, particularly as per malware and UCE control, and general abuse surveillance. Hey, even one of the former insider guys is quite known inside our FOSS community!

Today we had the opportunity to be part of a very important event: Venezuela’s final meeting on DIS 29500 fast-tracking. Even though we’re working on this matter since 2007, and we weren’t approved official participation as a community, we managed to be there today. There was a strong discussion; and we had our chance to participate. I believe we were welcomed by the NB and hopefully we, as a community, can be part of future discussions in a very constructive way. Thanks again to all the committee members and our NB who made it possible for us to participate today.

Last saturday around 2100 (UTC-0400) some people started joining the #debian-ve IRC channel at OFTC, in order to participate on the very first Venezuelan Bugsquashing Party. We had a lot of people interested not only in squashing but also developing for Debian and other topics. Some DD’s were around, specially Aníbal Monsalve Salazar (anibal) who has been very helpful on testing and uploading packages.

apt-proxy has become an omnipresent tool in Debian-based environments. Both in work and in my clients I usually install it so we have a great way to save bandwidth (in a Country where a 512 Kbps ADSL line costs you around 50$/month, it matters) I have noticed also several Ubuntu users using it, even in big environments where a local mirror might be justified and even when other solutions like apt-cacher seem to be getting stronger.

I flooded the Planet just by upgrading WordPress.

So this weekend it’s happening in Caracas. The National Free Software Congress (CNSL) arrives to the capital in the second edition of the only nation-wide Free Software event. It will take place on Colegio Universitario de Caracas, in La Floresta, near the Indian Embassy, France Square and other nice landmarks of the city.