art does not reproduce the visible, it makes visible (paul klee)
It’s now six months since Serena and I last visited Paris. This picture gives an idea of how I remember it. Espressionists used to paint using not the actual color but the closest one to their feelings. Well, I think that over-saturated pictures can deliver a similar result.
It’s not a breaking news anymore that Asus is going to distribute his brand new little toy - eeePC - starting from this September. The eeePC is a subnotebook, among the cheapest ones in its segment. It’s cheaper than the “smartphone companion” Palm Foleo, the Microsoft-driven nanobook and far cheaper than the UMPCs. It’s slightly more expensive than the “laptop for children” notebooks, but it will be offered worldwide as its design will appeal both the rich western countries looking for a light companion to fill the gap between smartphones and notebooks and the developing countries looking for an inexpensive solution to solve the digital divide issue. Starting at 199$, it’s going to shake the market as many of us will find out that to perform a number of common activities (email, web, photos etc.) a 199$ computer is more than enough. That’s of course possible thanks to a well featured linux OS, designed to fit the purpose. Actually I have already read bad news concerning price increases which would add 100$ to the final price, but let’s wait for the official figures from Asus, who’s planning to sell 500.000 worldwide next year! In the meantime, it’s nice to notice that Linux is getting more and more popular also in the consumer segment: Dell is widening its selection of products featuring Ubuntu as standard OS, Lenovo will sell laptops with Suse and HP will deliver hundreds of computers with Ubuntu for an Indian University. As Bob Dylan used to sing “times are a’changing”.
Era da molti anni che non giocavo a Monopoli. Ricordavo per lo più solo quei particolari che sono entrati a far parte della cultura popolare. Chi non conosce espressioni come “andare in prigione senza passare dal via” o luoghi come “Parco della Vittoria”?
E’ stato un po’ come giocarci per la prima volta, eppure - sarà forse perchè ho perso due volte di fila? - qualcosa non mi ha convinto. Passi il ruolo della prigione, attualissimo, che ti permette di riposarti per tre turni lasciando agli altri furbetti del quartierino l’onere di scannarsi sul tabellone per poi ritrovarti all’uscita più ricco di prima. Anzi, sarebbero da lodare gli ideatori del Monopoli per aver saputo anticipare i tempi, immaginando che nell’Italia del ventunesimo secolo la prigione sarebbe diventata un catalizzatore di fama e successo, un momento di riflessione in cui perdere qualche chilo di troppo e rivedere le proprie strategie, un trampolino di lancio per la carriera dello spettacolo, il giro di boa che trasforma la vita grigia del banchiere nello sfavillante mondo delle serate in discoteca, ambiente che ci ha già regalato soddisfazioni presidenziali. No, non è il ruolo della prigione ma quello della banca a rivelare l’età ormai avanzata del Monopoli: la banca, infatti, garantisce per il giocatore e copre in toto i suoi debiti in caso di default. Inoltre, ripropone all’asta i terreni oggetto del fallimento senza fissare una base d’asta minima. E vogliamo parlare della tassa patrimoniale a quota fissa (sempre 10000 lire indipendentemente dal reddito) o degli interessi sull’ipoteca (10% sempre e comunque, senza relazione con il numero di turni di gioco trascorsi tra accensione ed estinzione)? Pura utopia! Magari le banche di oggi fossero queste - ma lo sono mai state? Oggi le banche prestano soldi ad imprenditori con le pezze al culo e per riprenderli distribuiscono obbligazioni spazzatura della stessa azienda che hanno contribuito ad indebitare vendendole ai loro correntisti. Oggi le banche offrono mutui ad alto rischio che poi vengono cartolarizzati, rivenduti sul mercato e con due o tre passaggi finiscono nei portafogli dei gestori di fondi pensione. Oggi le banche non coprirebbero mai una perdita, non perderebbero mai i soldi di un’ipoteca. Già… Magari le banche fossero quelle del Monopoli.
Google has recently released a version of Google Desktop Search for linux. I was not happy with Beagle as it is not integrated with Thunderbird, while it works well with Evolution. There are huge stories about this Beagle-Thunderbird incompatibility pointing out that it’s not beagle to blame but the inefficient way of storing data in Thunderbird. Nevertheless, I wanted my mails indexed! I googled around and found that Google Desktop is now available for Linux. You can easily download the .deb package from Google site…
…but…
… you’ll see that the .deb it’s only for x86 architecture. Damn! Sometimes having a x64 system is a pain in the ass. Of course I could go for a more comfortable 32-bit OS but then why should programmers ever make ports of nice softwares to this platform if nobody is using it! And for sure x64 is the future!
So, to make a long story short, I tried the –force-architecture command and… it worked!
It’s working fine so far. I checked on the web and it seems I’m not the only one who did it. If you want to try, of course at your own risk, just download the .deb file from Google website, open a terminal window and type the following command:
sudo dpkg -i –force-architecture google-desktop-linux_1.0.1.0060_i386.deb
Of course you will be prompted for the admin password. Once the process is completed, press ALT+F2, type gdlinux and press ENTER. You will be asked if you want to enable the advanced features. After that the icon of the program will appear in the taskbar. Goodluck!
Non recidere, forbice, quel volto,
solo nella memoria che si sfolla,
non far del grande suo viso in ascolto
la mia nebbia di sempre.
Un freddo cala… Duro il colpo svetta.
E l’acacia ferita da sé scrolla
il guscio di cicala
nella prima belletta di Novembre.
montale
Sometimes Google results can be so funny… I was looking for some comparisons between TIM offers, a leading Italian provider in the cellphone sector, but the first result was “Tim Hortons“… I remember his Timbits… I loved them in Sudbury!
Browsing the web is like looking at old pictures: I always go like “Ah! I know this! I’ve been there! I must remember this” etc… At least, that’s why I like it (I guess 3 “like” in a sentence do not make me sound like (4) Shakespeare really…)
Last week I was having dinner with my flatmates. I don’t remember how we got there, but after a while we where discussing about the meaning of the word “brut”, about Champaigne, Prosecco and other sparking wines.
Wikipedia - as usual - helped us in deciding who was right and who was wrong. We finally got a clear picture about the differences between the Champenoise and the Charmat method. Differences of grapes (e.g. Chardonnay and Pinot or Moscato and Prosecco), process (second fermentation in bottles or tanks), time (years or months) etc. The italian version of Wikipedia, for those of you who can read Italian, has much deeper explanations of the two processes.
For a nice and quick explanation of the “Metodo classico” I advice you to visit the Cantine Ferrari website, which is - together with Berlucchi - one of the best Champagne produced in Italy (unfortunately they cannot use that name anymore, but just “Metodo Classico”)
By the way, here it comes the funniest finding: did you know that “Brut” means that the wine is dryer than an “Extra dry” one?
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A ship in harbour is safe, but that is not what ships are made for.
william shedd
So, so you think you can tell Heaven from Hell,
blue skies from pain.
Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail? A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?
And did they get you trade your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees? Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change? And did you exchange
a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?
How I wish, how I wish you were here.
We’re just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl,
year after year,
running over the same old ground. What have we found?
The same old fears,
wish you were here.
pink floyd, of course!
I spent last week in Vaasa (Finland). It was not the first time I was there. Wartsila HQ are located in Vaasa, so there are quite many business reasons that can take you there.
Wartsila Vaasa factory is located on the waterfront and every time I looked outside I coundn’t believe it wasn’t Sudbury Ramsey Lake I was staring at.
I’ve been in Sudbury (Ontario, Canada) for almost 9 months. It is and it will always be a major landmark in my life, one of those that simply make you different. I remember the first -30 °C morning of my life, the black rocks, the thin trees, the huge amount of coloured leafs, the lakes. I remember the yellow school bus who took us (Papo, Ale, Matteo and I) to New Sudbury center, which did represent one of the most awaited events of the week. I remember crossing an iced lake during a snow storm to go grocery shopping at Four Corners Indipendent’s. Well, I remember so many things, too many even for a blog!
But, even if memories can be bad friends when it’s time for decisions, I could still not believe that Vaasa and Sudbudy nature looked so similar.
This morning I googled a couple of words and I found the answer: the soil age is about the same. It’s called “Precambrian shield“, which of course in Canada becomes “Canadian shield“. It’s widely present in North America, while in Europe it can be found only in the Scandinavian area. It’s present in many different areas of the world (even Saudia Arabia) and corresponds to what in the very past used to be areas of vulcanic activity and very large mountains. Millenia of severe erosion and the last ice age left the areas as they are now: a strong thin layer rich of mineral ores. Furthermore, I’ve found that both Sudbury and Vaasa areas are thought to be the site of an asteroid impact milions of years ago.
Isn’t that funny, to get to know things about a place where you lived for months just looking out of the window thousands of kilometers away from that place?
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