Author Archives: Berto

About Berto

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An Introduction to Guaro – Burning Water in Montezuma

It’s always risky fun to drink the locally-made alcoholic products. You don’t go to Germany to order a Miller Lite, and you shouldn’t come to Texas without a disappointingly bland Shiner Bock. And when traveling to Costa Rica, your desired weapon of self-destruction is Guaro.

Gauro is short for Aguardiente, which literally means “burning water”. It is made of fermented sugar cane that is grown, bottled, and distributed in Costa Rica. The dominant brand is …

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Costa Rica Boat Tours – The Circle of Life

It only took three billion years of evolution on planet earth, but the ultimate circle of life has finally been achieved… and destroyed all in one day.

On May 9th, 2007, Billy and I rode in the back of a truck with some tour guides to get to the Palo Verde Boat Tours near Bolson and Santa Cruz, Guanacaste.

While waiting for other tourists to come, Billy dropped a shrimping net, and managed

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RIP “berto”

This is part 1 of 3 of the new computer series, and part 1 of 3 of the new funeral series here on MikeRoberto.com

On December 31, 2006, I was setting up my new bedroom, which also serves as my office, design studio, and, of course, surfboard storage room. I turned on my computer, which was so creatively named “berto”, and noticed the power supply fan struggling to do its job.

Like any other idiot …

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Who the Cleveland Browns Will Draft on Saturday

I am a life-long Cleveland Browns fan. I have memories of the Browns and their colossal collapses ever since I was 5 years old. So when asked who I want the Browns to draft with their #3 pick in the draft this Saturday, I respond “nobody”.

With the possible exception of last year’s draft, our first round picks since the return have been absolute failures and horrible strategic blunders. Because of this, I want to …

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Documenting, Diagramming, and Critiquing the Pligg Database

Warning: This post shows how much of a geek I am

Recently, I have begun working with Pligg, which is a Web 2.0 content management system modeled after the popular site Digg.com. I am interested in helping this project as there are a few things I’d like to do with it.

To start learning how Pligg operates, I decided to look at the guts underneath, diagram the Pligg MySQL database, and see what …

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Kayak.com Quietly Launches Weekend Trip Search

Recently, airfare/hotel search engine Kayak.com has made a change that I’ve wanted for a long time: a weekend fare finder. There is now an option to be notified about the cheapest upcoming weekend flights to and from any destination. To many travelers, it doesn’t matter when the deal is good – It just matters that it’s a weekend trip.

This feature is great because it doesn’t bug you about Tuesday morning flights like other fare …

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