FCHouse

WEDDING DAYS!!!!!!

Posted by Faby - 31/08/06 at 01:08:30 pm

Today and tomorrow are going to be two great days! Andrea and Silvia, Paco and Katy will get married!

It’s an important decision that comes in two completely different ways: Andrea and Silvia are to become parents and even if they don’t have a long love story, it seems that sometimes destiny makes you meet the right person by chance and without any apparent reason, but it works!!!

Paco and Katy met long time ago, and even though they had to get through a difficult relationship because of the distance, they succeed brilliantly and finally their dream is becoming true!

Wow! I’m very happy for them all, because this makes me hope that people still believe in marriage and in family ties, despite all that individuals that are scared about an EVERLASTING life together.

I know it’s difficult to be sure about your partner because you are worried about what you see and hear everyday: stupid arguments, couples that split up after a lot of years, children that suffer from lack of attention because their parents disagree. So, sometimes it happens that you ask yourself if he/she is really your soul mate, if he/she is the right person to share your life with, but I reckon that when the answer comes, all your concerns fade away in a moment. This has happened to me when I met Carlo. And I believe this is exactly what has happened to the two couples I’m talking about.

So, I wish these four GREAT people the best with all my heart!!!

Congratulations and happiness!!!!! Forever.

Povera Juventus? Ingiustizia? Calciopoli non la smette di far notizia!

Posted by Carlo - 24/08/06 at 12:08:03 pm

La Juventus ritiene “ingiustificata la gravita’ delle sanzioni” prese nei suoi confronti dalla giustizia sportiva italiana. Bravi! Giusto! Chi se ne frega se in due differenti sentenze la squadra torinese e’ stata ritenuta colpevole di aver giocato in quattordici contro undici (undici titolari, arbitro e due guardialinee)!

Ma si, dai, facciamo le cose all’italiana, giochiamola sporca fino in fondo! Chiediamo che la Juventus riprenda i sue scudetti persi. Anzi, di piu’, diamogli anche qualche punticino di vantaggio per la prossima stagione, in tal modo forse i dirigenti bianconeri non sentiranno la necessita’ di fare pressioni per ricevere aggevolazioni arbitrali.

Che ironia…

Sinceramente mi dispiace per i giocatori, innocenti fino a prova contraria. Mi dispiace perche’ avranno di fronte a loro un bel calvario.

Ora, visto che la Juventus ha fatto ricorso al TAR del Lazio, cercando di scavalcare la giustizia sportiva, cadra’ vittima della sua stessa ironia: infatti se la Giustizia Sportiva prende una decisione, chiunque impugni la sentenza davanti ad un tribunale civile, viola una regola sportiva italiana. Quindi la “Vecchia Signora” dovra’ vedersela di nuovo con la Giustizia Sportiva, per aver violato per l’ennesima volta il regolamento!

Ma non si sono resi conto di aver buttato lo sport italiano nel fango? Hanno imbrattato l’orgoglio di chi ama lo sport, hanno tradito i loro stessi tifosi. Questo NON E’ SPORT. Questo e’ Furto Aggravato! Hanno ribato per due anni? Allora per i prossimi due anni non dovrebbero poter accedere alla Serie A. Chiaro, limpido.

Se ora non si usa il pugno di ferro, non si manda un segnale chiaro, chiunque si sentira’ libero di rubare, di frodare, di giocare al di fuori delle regole! Chi rimarrebbe senza macchia, se la punizione fosse una pacchetta sulle mani?

Cattivo! Cattivo bambino, questa sera niente gelato!…

The Ghost of Christmas Past applied to the development

Posted by Carlo - 24/08/06 at 08:08:40 am

You worked hard to hit the deadline. You failed the middle milestones, run fast to get your code patched to work. But in the end the Customer was Happy! Did you think you did it! Did you think that your code, now up and running, have covered all the customer’s needs! did you think that the development process is finally over, that you could have left that piece of analysis, design and code to your back! Did you really think that it is over? Did you actually think that the patches, code duplication and bug hiding would have died while in production?

Oh, man, this is so far from being true! No… let’s say that your thoughts are completely wrong!

Good code lives long. Bad code lives forever.

And when the customer will ask you a “silly modification” you will understand that you have to set your hand in the mud again. You will understand that to change a point you will make your structure fall like a domino!

So, when you plan your code, always keep in mind that, sooner or later, you will have to put your hands in it again! Now, remembering this, the next time you will leave that “small bug” or that “useful code duplication“, remember that you will have to work on it again. The release of a project is only another milestone, it is not the end of your job!

In my opinion the development (and all the project management issues in general) should be used carefully. Running like hell to hit the deadlines means risking the quality and the stability of your work.

Keep this in mind what I’ve just written, expecially the next time you will be temped to play some tricks. Shortucts, in development, are mind tricks: you THINK you are shortening the time, but you are simply asking for a “Time Mortgage“… you will be asked to pay a LOT of interests!

Body Double: my notes

Posted by Carlo - 23/08/06 at 09:08:45 am

As you have been able to read in the previous post, I have started reading “Lost City“, but before this I have read Tess Gerritsen (wikipedia) Body Double. It is quite well written, even if the style become a little overcomplicated in same passages.

The story itself is quite interesting in general, even if it is not a masterpiece (sorry Tess… :D ). Some characters are very well painted, some other are sketched and nothing more. Of course detective Jane Rizzoli and doctor Maura Isles, the main characters of the series, are perfect.

Unfortunately in the book I have read the outcome of the previous adventure of one of the characters… as always happens when you start reading a series withouth reading the first book first!

To be read on the underground, during the lazy morning or the tired afternoons Body Double is a good book, sometimes I have felt really inside the book… but unfortunately this happened only few times.

Tess Gerritsen has good  ideas for crime novels, even if sometimes she switch the speed of the happenings too fastly, without giving the reader the possibility to understand the general rythm of the scenes.

Few times foreseeable, few times well covered, the plot works. a total mark of 6.5 on 10 is its real value, IMHO!

BooksUnderground: Lost City

Posted by Carlo - 23/08/06 at 08:08:23 am

New Category from today on: Books UnderGround! In this category I will drop all the books I read, I am reading or I have read. Why Books Underround? Because In the hours spent weekly on the London Underground I read, read, read…

Yesterday I have started Lost City, from Clive Cussler. The beginning is not that great, quite fractioned, not this good… too many stories that will probably link one to the other during the book… but for now nothing expecial! When I bought it I didn’t notice the subtitles “A novel from the NUMA files” and “A Kurt Austin adventure“, because I don’t really like to read a group of novel without starting from the first!

For Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan I started from “The Hunt for Red October” and went on with all the books in the serie. I can’t really stand when I read something like:

“His leg was aching. From two years, when that Russian bullet hit him…” HEY, NO, STOP!!!! This is in the book I decided to read next time! HEY! He already told me how it will end! OUCH!!!!

So, for every “series” of novel I’d love to start from the “Book One“!

Computers and Cars

Posted by Carlo - 22/08/06 at 10:08:39 am

Funny, funny geek joke!

At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated, “If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon.”

In response to Bill’s comments, General Motors issued a press release stating: If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics
1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash twice a day.
2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.
3. Occasionally, your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.
4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause you car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.
5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive — but would run on only five percent of the roads.
6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single “This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation” warning light.
7. The airbag system would ask, “Are you sure?” before deploying.
8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lift the door handle, turned the key, and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.
9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.
10. You’d have to press the “Start” button to turn the engine off.

Sacred Words, Mr O’Leary!

Posted by Carlo - 18/08/06 at 10:08:02 am

Some minutes ago I checked the RSS feeds I’m subscribed to, and I found an interesting article about the airports problems for the new luggage rules. The article itself is not very interesting, but the most important part of it is a sentence from Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary:

The best way to defeat terrorists and extremists is for ordinary people to continue to live their lives as normal.

YES! yes, it is! Let the terrorists fear our strenght. Let them be scared by our reaction! Be strong, don’t fear those who hates the nation we love!

Is this a War, as someone suggested? Are we fighting aginst terror? Well, avoiding them to scary us is a way to fight them!

USA and the Human Right: Bush must withdraw the NSA mastiffs

Posted by Carlo - 18/08/06 at 09:08:08 am

Human Rights and Terorrism are two things that are not very compatible, at least this is what the Big Brothers think. Some days ago on the Metro the UK Home Office told that to fight terrorism the government will lower some Human Rights. From the other side of the Atlantic mr Bush has unleashed his NSA mastiffs in order to tap all the phone calls and internet communications.

In the name of security, the Human Rights, the Privacy and a lot of personal freedom can be sacrified.

U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor has decided that what the President of the United States did is unconstitutional! OPS, my dear Big Brother! Orson Wells is long gone, but his ideas are not. So it seems.

The most important question remains: does the Big Brothers really help our life against terror?

Personally I feel that the freedom in an imperfect world is better than the safety in a highly controlled one. Personal thoughts, of course!

Now, for the US law Bush abused of the power the americans gave him.

I don’t want to live in a world where everyone knows everything I do or I say. I have nothing to hide, but still my freedom to decide, to speak, to think are sacrosancts! We are lucky to live where the freedom can be smelled every day! If we were in China or in other parts of this world where the freedom is only a meaningless word, then we would fight to have them! We cannot let the governments to remove the rights that makes our nations Great Nations.

Do I feel my nations (considering both Italy and UK) better than other ones? I DO! Because they are great nations that gives their populations the Freedom! We should never forgive this: the freedom we have has been conquered with wars and blood. No f*****g terrorists should be able to let our government to remove our rights! This is why they try to terrorize us!
Freedoom is the Difference! Don’t let someone fool you, telling you that Human Rights (above all the rest) could be sacrified for the safety against terrorism.

I cannot say “Good Job, Judge” to Mrs Diggs Taylor, because she simply analyzed the law and told the USA what was lawful and what was not. One thing is certain: she had the courage to go against the rotten of power, against the Stars and Stripes Big Brother!

Letter from a Stupid Idealist

Posted by Carlo - 16/08/06 at 08:08:55 am

Dear Powerful Leaders of this strange world,

This letter comes from a Stupid young man that cannot understand the world. I am shocked from the complexity our insignificant planet has built on itself. Or maybe I should write the complexity we have built on it. I can understand that the human race is not linear, does not follow strict rules. I can understand that from a complex mind the only thing we can expect is a complex method to relate to the others. I can understand this, but what I can’t is why we are overcomplicating the already complicated things?

I am not whealty, rich or important, therefore I cannot understand why the power requires more power every day, the money requires more money every day. I cannot understand why we are not looking at the easiest fact we should: the common wealth will solve this overcomplication. Don’t fool me, I do not think for a single moment to tell “let everyone become rich“. If my neighbour would have the bread to feed his children, if he had the money to make his family live without pain, he will never try to steal what I have. this is a basic fact, neither you can deny it.

Now, I do not understand why you, leaders of the human nations, does not work to grant wellness of your population keeping in mind this simple rule. My neighbour is my friend. If my friend is suffering I can help him. I shouldn’t be envious of what he has, I should be grateful for the help he could give me. The helping hand that everyone, sooner or later, need. So why the first hand is not yours? Let the nation around you grow stronger, help them developing their ideals. One day they will be one with you in helping another one!

I know that I am simplyfing the issue a little bit. I know the complication, the different views. What I can’t accept is the fact that too many times this helping hand is not given because of a stupid Greed. “If I have a lot I could have more!“. Yes, everyone could. Yes, there is no limit to the wellness. Yes, this thought is Greedy and Selfish.

There is a couple of neighbours. I don’t know why they are Muslims. The woman has cute eyes, but I’ve never seen her hair. I don’t know the Koran, but I can see they are happy. The other neighbours couple is Christians. The man is righteous and he doesn’t eat meat on Friday. I don’t know the Bible, but I can see they are happy. The fact is that for us, the sugar never runs out, because we help one each other. We lend a helping hand when one of us is in trouble.
Me? No, I’m not a Muslim and neither I am a Christian. Maybe I’m agnostic, maybe I’m atheistic. But it doesn’t really matters. I help my neighbours. I respect them, even if they have ideals different from mine, even if they have a strong faith I have not. Am I lesser than them? No. I am like them, because we share the same world.

Why, dear Powerful Leaders, don’t you think, for a while, about your population? Don’t look back in anger. If a helping hand would have come before, 9/11 wouldn’t have a special date. If a helping hand would have been lent before, the children of your neighbours wouldn’t have died, starving for a crumb of your wellness.

This is a harsh thought, I know, but please forgive me. I’m only a Stupid Idealist, and I really can’t understand the world you are leading. I can’t understand it because it could be so easy.

Lending your hand, receiving a smile. Lending your hand to the brother you have forgotten. The brother that, maybe with the skin colour different from your, will lend his hand to save you when everything will turn wrong.

Best Regrads

The Stupid Idealist

Talking about Future

Posted by Faby - 15/08/06 at 02:08:52 pm

A few days ago I finally received a letter from Naric! The National Recognition Information Centre for the United Kingdom has stated that my qualifications are comparable to the British ones without any problems!!! Yes, time for big decisions is approaching…but unfortunately it’s not arrived yet! I have to wait still a week to have my situation completely clear and to understand what to do next. What do I mean? OK, let’s start from the very beginning.

I left Italy for a lot of reasons, but the big one was to find my own route, to build up a proper career and to succeed in my life. I’m not one of these silly people that want a glittering career thanks to a TV show like the Big Brother or something like this; all I want is to be appreciated for my skills, my knowledge and my intelligence and to have the possibility to demonstrate this every single day through my job. I was extremely bored to accept every post I could find only because I feared not to be indipendent. But I never asked myself if that was what I really wanted to do. Now I’m well aware that that time has gone. I’m not scared anymore. All I want now is to understand and drive my life towards the right direction. Continue reading Talking about Future…

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Carlo Nicora is at home in London.