[ This is a long post, started on September 30rd and get done on October 9th, after spending some days in New York]
Richard Stallman tells us about his thoughts about cloud computing (wikipedia) and, as usual, he did it in his own very way:
"It's stupidity. It's worse than stupidity: it's a marketing hype campaign"
"One reason you should not use web applications to do your computing is
that you lose control, It's just as bad as using a
proprietary program. Do your own computing on your own computer with
your copy of a freedom-respecting program. If you use a proprietary
program or somebody else's web server, you're defenceless. You're putty
in the hands of whoever developed that software."
He's not the only having serious doubts about putting everything belongs to us in the cloud. Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle:
"The computer industry is the only industry that is more fashion-driven
than women's fashion. Maybe I'm an idiot, but I have no idea what
anyone is talking about. What is it? It's complete gibberish. It's
insane. When is this idiocy going to stop?"
My thoughts after the jump.
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Today, at 5PM (EDT, 11PM CEST), I'm going to say "YATTA!"
If everything went well, I should be on New York soil: maybe not in TImes Square as Hiro and for sure not thanks to some heroes superpower.
Thanks to our always friendly DHS, I'll not bring my laptop; therefore do not expect any blog posts or flickr's uploads.
See ya.
PS If the only words in this post you can't understand are "YATTA!" and "Hiro", you're late: the third season is already out.
I can't really asnwer to the question, I'm kinda biased. :)
Btw, someone invited me to add this picture to the flickr's pool "The best vehicles in the world".
No, non sto facendo campagna per la liberalizzazione delle droghe leggere.
Sto parlando della configurazione con cui dovrebbe uscire di fabbrica la Ducati Hypermotard: sto parlando del cannone singolo 2 in 1 Termignoni.
Dettagli dopo il salto!
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Do you know how do you feel after hitting a pheasant with your helmet while driving a motorbike at 130kmh?
I do.
Some details after the jump.
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This is a really great news: Andrea Dovizioso will be the the 2nd rider of the offical Honda HRC MotoGP Team! Finally!
I think Andrea is one of the most talented young riders out there and I'm sure he'll show that as he did during this season with a non competitive bike.
Next week (October 1st) I'll be in New York.
My first time in the Big Apple, my 2nd time in the US after the month spenth in San Francisco in summer 2007 (here on flickr).
Do you have any suggestion? Places to visit, meeting/party/festival to attend, things to buy?
So, the Google Phone is finally here.
I think you can say everything about the HTC G1 (that's the name of the gizmo) powered by Android OS but that it's nice looking. The device seems somehow like a pre-series unit but, unfortunately, it is not: this is really the first device powered by the Google phone platform.
I think the great opportunity of Android is in the open-ness of the platform but honestly I expected something cool and not a Windows Mobile like device.
Some thoughts, links and videos after the jump; and yes... if you read further you'll eventually get the point of the post's title. :)
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UPDATE: Unfortunately the worst economic meltdown since 1929 definitely played against me and against my project of moving to the US, with the support of my actual employer. In the last years it has been really difficult to be accepted for the international program, let alone for someone who's not a native english-language speaker. I'm strill trying but things are getting more and more unlikely.
Maybe you're wondering why my english sucks or - more likely - why I write most of my blog in english even if it sucks.
Answer to the 1st question is that I've never studied english at school. Never Ever: I have been always in german classes (and this is why I attended the Erasmus Project in Munich, Germany).
So, I'm learning english on my own with computers, internet, movie, TV Series and books.
"Even if you're a self-made man, your english still sucks".
That's right and here comes the answer of the 2nd question.
I decided some months ago to train myself writing the blog in english, except some "italian-only" posts.
If you feel yourself a teacher, please correct me when I write something wrong; in any case, I hope you can get what I mean.
BTW: since I asked my company to move to the US next year (Sept 2009), I'm running out of time and that's why I also hired an english teacher for private lessons. :)
This post will be "sticky" on the right of the homepage.
Thanks the New York Times I found two articles that could help to clarify what the hell is going on in the financial market during this 2008 financial crisis, mostly related to the subprime mortgages.
The first article, written by economists Doug Diamond and Anil Kashyap, is a FAQ on the 2008 financial crisis and, quoting a reader's comment, " [the authors] did what 10,000 journalists and reporters haven't been able to do for a week": they actually explain us, in human-readable english, why and how this moment could happen.
The second article is a editorial by Nicholas D. Kristof who asks himself how the hell Richard Fuld (former CEO of Lehman Brothers) managed to bring a wealthy company into dust (but the data-centers).
I think they're definitely a must-read. After the jump the most interesting parts (according to me, of course :) ).
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My Company (the $one_of_the_biggest_Consulting/Auditing_Company) used to say to us employees
" Our biggest asset here is you guys ", meaning that in a Consulting company the real asset is human, the people are working there and their knowledge and efforts.
As you know in the last days Lehman Brothers fell down: the assets of the former Bank have been bought by Barclays Bank for 1,7 billions USD.
From that amount, 1.5 billions are for the Data Centers.
[ via Slashdot ]
Are you wondering why your useful iPhone application has been rejected by Apple?
Thanks to Joy of Tech, here below you can see the official flowchart used by Apple to accept/reject applications in its AppStore.
Analyzing it you could exploit the process itself and get your application accepted!
:)
Yet another point so you can understand what I meant when I complained about the iPhone
[ via Gizmodo ]
PCMagazine just published his collection of the top 10 greatest hacks of all time.
My favorites is the internet-connected Coke machine (1991), created by the guys of Carnegie Mellon University (the very same guys who invented the smiley :) ).
That machine was connected to the PDP-10 server of the university and, running a custom software, all the nerds of the university could login to the server and see how many coke were available in the machine and if they were cold or not.
The guys at Adobe had a good idea: put online the DearAdobe website where everyone can complain about Adobe products.
They even publish the top 100 complaints.
So far, my favorite is the (as now) number 15.
" Could you make Adobe
Reader start up slower? I'd like to have enough time to go get a
sandwich before I read a one page document "
And I do know what this user is talking about: on my laptop with Vista (provided by my company) Adobe Reader takes ages to run.
Lurking on the top100 page, seems also that many people hate:
- Adobe Updater (old style, heavy on resources, starts when you start an Adobe application so when you actually want to use that software, requires you to close almost every application, browser included, and takes automatically focus over other applications)
- the high prices
- the lack of consistency between Adobe applications
- the poor performance even on modern hardware (someone points out that Adobe Reader is using more RAM that Supreme Commander LoL :)
- ...
What do you think?
A quick integration after commenting on JKOnTheRun:
Two question arised:
1. even if Nokia will preinstall this software on their device, what'll be the issue for a thief to reinstall a clean firmware on your stolen phone?
2. (most important) this software doesn't appear to be opensource. Would you trust such hidden and spy software on your device, if not opensource? How can you be sure what it's doing in the background? A service I really like, mostly because is opensource, is Adeona, an opensource platform to track your laptop, especially useful when some bastard steals it.
--
Via NYTimes I have known about "Maverick Secure Mobile", a software created by Maverick Mobile Solutions, aimed to protect your stolen cell phone.
Once installed, the software stays hidden in your phone and the thief can't know if it's installed or not. When the bastard will change your SIM card for his own, the software will do his job.
It'll encrypt all your data (phonebook, agenda, pictures, videos, ...), it'll phone home sending texts to another number, track the location, initiating a call letting you eavesdrop on the thief and playing as a loud siren troughout the speakers.
The easiest way (for a thief) is to install a stock firmware on the phone and get rid of this software but the good news is that the company is dealing with Nokia to pre-install that software from the factor.
I'm still not sure how you could be sure - if you have that software preinstalled on your device - that it'll not phone home (aka Nokia, or someone else) even if not stolen.
Today, 8 o' clock in the morning.
I get out my building, all shiny in business suit, tie, shirt and everything.
I'm almost getting into my car when a nice girl in blonde hair nearby looks at me. I look at her. She stares at me and I do the same.
Everything lasts so long, 2 or 3 seconds. I'm going to say something when, all of a sudden, she, touching her hair, says: "your hair... here on the left: it's kinda messy".
Gosh.
The words I was going to say die in my mouth... I can barely say "thank you", smiling.
She understands the disappointment and she gives me a huge smile.
At least she didn't say "It's that....it's... hair gel?"
I told you how to deal with your biggest competitor - pirates - and DRM in videogames.
Via Consumerist I found out that the Amazon webpage for Spore (the long awaited videogame by the genius Will Wright) is completely full of bad reviews (so far, 2016 users gave a 1-star rate to the game and only 200 a 2/5 stars rate).
The reason? DRM!
If you want an hint how to avoid the DRM for well-paying customers, take a look at this webpage.
After the jump some of the comments (pasted from Consumerist)
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According to Ducati website, the Hypermotard 1100 will be available in white too.
They're not the first who dress that bad-ass-bike in white. That's mine some months ago. :)
And the picture is even better. :P
Nope, the title doesn't refer to some amazing job posting.
All those nerds out there are gettin' wet for the upcoming (two hours left, I think) Apple's event in San Francisco.
Once Erasmus Always Erasmus, taken in Lisbon
Originally uploaded by orangeek
oh gosh... when I saw this in Lisbon (Bairro Alto), my heart leapt into my mouth.
Erasmus... so many wonderful moments! :)
If you're interested, please take a look at all the pictures I took when in Munich (Germany) for my Erasmus Project in 2003.
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