Too stressed? here's the solution

Stressed?

A great talk from an expert; he suggests practical solution to be more relaxed and productive.

Check the video!

:)

PS thanks Alepasko!

8 People Who Will Ruin Your Party

Good link I found via digg.

"8 People Who Will Ruin Your Party": they describe 8 kind of people you can usually find in every party and who can ruin it. A bit exagerated but funny.

Look at the pictures: I really like the "6. Person Who Only Knows You" , "4. Person Who Just Got Dumped By Their Girlfriend/Boyfriend", "3. Creepy Dude Who Tries To Bang Chicks At The Very End Of The Party"

:)

Teaching our kids

Teaching our kids
Originally uploaded by orangeek

We complain the TV is not a good teacher for our kids.
Well, it seems like the newspapers aren't good ones too.

This is an advert of the Donald J.Trump book "Think Big and Kick Ass in Business and Life"

[the picture has notes on flickr]

The Pirate's Dilemma

Few weeks ago I finished reading "The Pirate's Dilemma - How Youth Culture reinvented capitalism" by Matt Mason.

 

I think it's a great book, especially since it succeeds to give a historical blackground to the "pirate" movement.

We (?) actually could think that the piracy is always related to mp3, p2p and file sharing in general.

And so, what happens if we learn that the some older pirates were into the filmmaking, cable companies, DJ/mixtape businesses?

And why we couldn't think at piracy as a new way to do business instead? an opportunity rather than a menace? A new way to follow the "Ocean Blue" strategy?

After the jump some highlights from the book (that is freely downlodable from the main site)

Poll: guess the words!

Here is the poll of the week (and so far, the first & only ]

Watch the video and try to guess what the bicyclist said to the officer.

BTW, he was the only byciclist knocked during the Critical Mass 2008 in New York. He was arrested, held for 26 hours, and charged with attempted assault and resisting arrest.

[ via boingboing ]

Consulting Crap

If you work for a $consulting/auditing_company, you'll get the meaning. :)

[ via feelbyte ]

Harley and Valley: Riding in California

My first attempt with the animoto service.

Harley and Valley: Riding in California

Picture taken from my flickr's set.

The World According to Banksy

The World According to Banksy

 

As the art world wondered whether the reclusive graffiti artist Banksy was finally caught on camera, TIME looks back upon some of his greatest hits

and your speed is ...

Supercool.

[ via motoblog ]

Pierfido Berlusconi

Pierfido Berlusconi
Originally uploaded by orangeek

original picture here
found via crisis
(poor) photo editing with gimp by me

Economic reasons not to buy an iPhone

But you can always sell me your old iPhone for 17 bucks! :)

Is it worth it?

Via Bruce Schneier I found this paper (in a downloadable 26 pages pdf) from researchers at the New Castle University (Australia).
"ASSESSING THE RISKS, COSTS AND BENEFITS OF UNITED STATES AVIATION SECURITY MEASURES" by M.G. Stewart and J. Mueller

The goal of the research is to perform a cost-benefit analysis over the countermeasures taken in the last years by the TSA United States Transportation Security Administration.
Even if reading some of the assumptions (giving to a human life an economic value, for example) could be synical, this is how the homo economicus thinks.

Hint: I know what are you thinking.
"Finally someone is going to prove that all the humiliating procedures (or, at least, time consuming) we - passengers - have to live, are completely wrong and useless."
Sorry. It's not about that. And better: actually the researchers assign a 50% success rate (in avoiding 9/11-like attacks) to the pre-boarding security(such as baggage check, no-fly lists, laptop check, ...). [UPDATE: after the jump, and after dasnake's comment, I inserted also an extract with the reason why the researchers assigned such rate]

After the jump, the parts I found most interesting.

Hacking: the only way to be

The quotation in the title is from "Floating Anarchy,[ the only way to be] " from Planet Gong but just a few of you (dasnake? :) could get that.

BTW, here Codejunkie talks hacking and why we do it (Why mod your PSP?) and here, on the contrary, some dude from (some) Locksmiths Association explains us (thanks pal!) how evil is the hobby of lockpicking and assure us they're going to stop that kind of dangerous time waste.

[ "if you can't open it", CC licensed picture by genista ]

Some thinks after the jump!

Knee on track!

Good Picture!

 

[ somehow taken from killboy.com; see the watermark ]

Earn with your music (without being Robbie Williams)

Thanks panoz (the guy behind ki55.org), I found this article.

The topic is how to avoid the usual distribution channel for your music and actually try to earn some money, without being Robbie Williams (in italian, "Come utilizzare una licenza Creative Commons e guadagnare dalla libera circolazione della propria opera?").

I know the article is in italian but you can try google translate. Or ask me :).

Tip: use a Creative Commons license and a lawyer (at least, if you live in Italy and you want to fight against SIAE - aka Italian Music Mafia -, who will go after you).

Remember, everything on my blog is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

Repubblica: avere la faccia come il culo

Incredibile. Non c'è più decenza: quelli di Repubblica.it hanno la faccia come il culo.

Se leggete il post in tempo andate ora sulla homepage di Repubblica e guardate per bene il titolo su Avril Lavigne nella "colonna della fica" [TM] (quella subito a destra della colonna centrale) e poi quanto scritto nella galleria.

Altrimenti guardatevi gli screenshot.

You really want an iPhone, uh?

Well, at least you can feel guilty for yourself.

Gina Trapani (from Lifehacker) writes a great (and honest too) post about the locked_as_usual Apple device (the new iPhone 3G) and why you shouldn't buy that JesusPhone.

She talks the five reasons the Free Software Foundation gave us not to buy the iPhone.

• iPhone completely blocks free software. Developers must pay a tax to Apple, who becomes the sole authority over what can and can't be on everyone's phones.
• iPhone endorses and supports Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) technology.
• iPhone exposes your whereabouts and provides ways for others to track you without your knowledge.
• iPhone won't play patent- and DRM-free formats like Ogg Vorbis and Theora.
• iPhone is not the only option. There are better alternatives on the horizon that respect your freedom, don't spy on you, play free media formats, and let you use free software -- like the FreeRunner.

After the jump some commentaries.

Carrotmob Makes It Rain

Nice idea (and video too) from the guys at Carrotmob.

Carrotmob Makes It Rain from carrotmob on Vimeo.

Definition of 'dumbass'

Here in Italy we used to say "The mother of a dumbass is always pregnant".

I don't know if the guy in the video below is the best example of 'being a dumbass' but anyway I think he's in the top three of all times.

Watch him, riding a motorbike, laying on the seat, watching his cellphone, texting and talking. Ah, he's riding on an highway.

[ via Geekologie ]

They're going to wiretap your iphone

While you are all that horny for your Jesus Phone 2.0, the US Senate approved the bill to extend the wiretapping capabilities of telcos (now they can legally  wiretap you without any warrant) ang give them immunity for the illegal - warrantless - wiretapping they did in the past.

Barack Obama voted for it, unlike Hillary Clinton. Incredible.

From the NYTimes:

Wiretapping orders approved by secret orders under the previous version of the surveillance law were set to begin expiring in August unless Congress acted. Heading into their political convention in Denver next month and on to the November Congressional elections, many Democrats were wary of handing the Republicans a potent political weapon.

The issue put Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, in a particularly precarious spot. He had long opposed giving legal immunity to the phone companies that took part in the N.S.A.’s wiretapping program, even threatening a filibuster during his run for the nomination. But on Wednesday, he ended up voting for what he called “an improved but imperfect bill” after backing a failed attempt earlier in the day to strip the immunity provision from the bill through an amendment.

Mr. Obama’s decision last month to reverse course angered some ardent supporters, who organized an Internet drive to influence his vote. And his position came to symbolize the continuing difficulties that Democrats have faced in striking a position on national security issues even against a weakened president. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat of New York, who had battled Mr. Obama for the nomination, voted against the bill.

Senator John McCain, the likely Republican presidential nominee, was campaigning in Ohio and did not vote, though he has consistently supported the immunity plan.

Support from key Democrats ensured passage of the measure.

Investing in the IT That Makes a Competitive Difference

Thanks Alfonso, I found out the Harvard Business Review and the article quoted in the title.

Investing in the IT That Makes a Competitive Difference

I link that, hoping that someone in Italy will read it too.

Online Documents: This is NOT your Cloud

Some days ago I read this post from Web Worker Daily: Who owns your Online Documents?

They went pretty deep in the legalese found in the Terms of Service of the three main players in the Documents Cloud Business: Google Documents, Zoho, Acrobat.

[ "logo", CC licensed picture by -sel ]

What they found is definitely not encouraging.

Italian providers and iPhone 3G: screw yourself

It's crazy.

Telecom Italia Mobile just published the service plans (for voice, text, data) for the upcoming iPhone 3G.

The plans are insane expansive and without any unlimited data plan: even the totally-dumb iPhone Unlimited (last column) with a 200€ per month fee doesnt have unlimited data traffic trough UMTS.

UPDATE: Vodafone, screw yourself too.

Garr Reynolds: Presentation Zen

Great video of Garr Reynolds, showing best practices for your presentations.

He's also the mind behind "Presentation Zen".

The presentation was performed during a "Authors @ Google" meeting: check out (and subscribe to the feed) their page on Youtube.