FCHouse

“Next” delusion by Michael Crichton

Posted by Carlo - 28/09/07 at 03:09:49 pm

When discussing about books, I admit that my taste are quite difficult to satisfy. I am looking for good books, with good story and well written. My brother pointed me to “Next“, the last work of Michael Crichton. I bought it at Borders two days later and, having finished Tom Clancy’s Executive Orders (good book), I immediately started it. I can summarize this book in a very simple sentence:

Next, the last book by Michael Crichton, is complete rubbish. IMHO of course!

Yes, this time I did not enjoy the book, I did not appreciate the story (which one) and I personally do not believe he was able to put some light on the issues he wanted to uncover. There are at least twenty different stories that does not go together well, some of those are completely useless in the storyline, other that have been forgotten before the end. Talking apes, talking parrots, human apes have been used too much in the book. All these “genetic… things” has been used SO much that when the third animal came up talking I said: “Oh, come on, stop with these rubbish!“. I do not mind if all these things can happen or not, but in a novel you start having some doubts, thinking that the author has gone too far.

Completely useless book, not worth the £3.99 paid!

I know Frank lost his lunch in order to read it, but this time I cannot support his enthusiasm for a book! The last book by the same author was not satisfactory either (you can read my review here) and with this one the quality has dropped so much that I will think twice before buying another new book by Crichton!

PS: I have just started The Time Traveler’s Wife, and it seems much more interesting than this one!

iPhone update: time to understand where the unlocked phones will end

Posted by Carlo - 27/09/07 at 08:09:36 pm

Today Apple released the update for the iPhone firmware. In the last days Apple warned that users who had installed different applications on the iPhone would have risked to find themselves with a non working device.

Personally I think that Apple is taking the wrong direction, I hope to be wrong, but the way they are dealing with these things seems so Microsoft-ish… I can understand that who unlocks the iPhone takes the risk, but I personally do not believe that a firmware update would block the device completely.

If you produce such a device, you have the technical capability to DO a disruptive update or NOT.

Avviso ai naviganti

Posted by Carlo - 27/09/07 at 08:09:07 pm

Ciao a tutti coloro che navigano su FCHouse, con cocciuta costanza o con piacevole casualita’. Da oggi FCHouse non sara’ piu’ aperto quanto fino a ieri: i commenti saranno moderati.

Chiedo scusa, ma per la mancanza di intelligenza, rispetto e maniere di qualcuno ho deciso di prendere questa decisione. Mi dispiace dover abbassare la liberta’ per la quale mi batto, ma ci sono stati commenti che hanno violato ogni possibile limite.

A colui che mi ha spinto a prendere questa decisione posso solo dire di vergognarsi.

iPhone: the hype was not enough!

Posted by Carlo - 25/09/07 at 12:09:53 pm

Today I had the possibility to play with the toy of my dreams: the iPhone.  In the beginning I wasn’t able to believe it, but after the first few phone calls I realized how cool it is.

First of all I have to admit that using it is easy, as easy as you can imagine. A child could use it without any problem! A comparison with some Nokia I have used lately cannot be made: the Jewel of Cupertino would destroy any competitors. Some days ago I have watched a comparison between the iPhone and the Noka N95 and the iPhone won for few points (25 to 22). I have to admit that even if some features are not the best available (like 3G) the iPhone is something solid, fast and fantastic!

One of my colleagues dismissed me telling me that “I am an Apple Fanatic“, but even if this is true, he was the first who wanted the iPhone! This thing is spectacular and I can easily understand how Apple sold one million of these in 73 days!

WOW!

Stephen Fry and his new Blog!

Posted by Carlo - 20/09/07 at 09:09:49 am

The first time I went to Stephen Fry’s website I asked myself: “Why isn’t he keeping a blog? I is a great writer, as far as I am aware he is a computer (Apple) literate… ”

Today, wandering around into the field of bits and bytes my RSS reader brings me, I discovered his first post in his shiny new Blog! Great news for we, little humans. Another spectacular news is that his first post is about the iPhone, or as he calls it, the fryPhone! Let me tell you two things about the iPhone:

1. I have never seen such an incredible hype about anything else.
2. On the 9th of November I will be in the queue for it. :)

However…

I have appreciated a lot Mr Fry’s post on the little jewel of Cupertino, mainly because he has told one very important thing:

Even I, mad for all things Apple as I am, want an iPhone killer. I want smart digital devices to be as good as mankind’s ingenuity can make them. I want us eternally to strive to improve and surprise. Bring on the iPhone killers. Bring them on.

Wow, what a spirit.  But he is right, let the competitors come. Let them sell us some piece of transparent technology. Using the iPhone seems to be the easiest thing in the world, have you ever kept in your hand a Symbian? (After a long week I still have problems finding some menu).

I liked the first post of this newborn blog, even if it was extremely long for a blog post… but if was definitely good!

…and the blogsphere cheered the birth of a new, shiny blog!

Some thoughts about GIT

Posted by Carlo - 18/09/07 at 01:09:19 pm

I have played with it for some weeks now, trying to make up my mind on GIT, and the result are encouraging. Usually I love or hate some new things at first sight, and GIT was one of those I loved. Now I can give some judgments based on real testing more than on first impressions.

GIT is the best version control system I have ever used.

I think that my statement is strong enough to provide my point of view, isn’t it? But why do I think it?

• it is easy. I have started playing with it and few minutes later all my project were under it.
• it is fast. A (huge) project commits in an eyebeat.
• it is easy. Branching and merging are a childgame. No swearing, no problem for committing, no problems at all!

I did not have the time to test in big multi-user environments, but for what I can see playing with it is really what you should expect from a version control system.
For many users the lack of a good visual environment should be a weak point, but working from console is extremely simple and fast, so I do not really felt the need of a visual application.

Branching and merging are easy things, and the possibility of continuous commits to your local branch in order to maintain a concrete update log is something really useful. I have already moved every project I work on under GIT (sorry SVN, it was good as long as it lasted)  and I have to admit that it has been like I had always worked with GIT.

PS: try it, because it is worth the time lost, but be aware: you have to share its “Distributed” mentality, removing the “one place where every line of code is stored“.

You can get the OS X installer package here!

Capacity boost: laptop hard drives, “computer ages” and OSX

Posted by Carlo - 18/09/07 at 09:09:10 am

Ten years ago my first Powerbook was equipped with an impressive 20MB hard drive. No, there is no typo, they were 20 megabytes, not GB. The “computer age” we were living was quite different, and with my System 7 (Mac OS 7) I was left half of the space for my documents. As if I would have been capable of filling 10MB of space… I had some floppy disks, just to keep some of the first things downloaded from Internet, but that was it! Only lately I would have been pushed to take my first Iomega Zip: 100MB all in a single cartridge.

But times have changed and in ten years we have moved through the computer ages and now 120GB were not enough! Luckily for less than a hundred pounds I have been able to found a brand new 250GB Western Digital Skorpio for laptop. I’m quite happy after the switch for more than one reason.

First of all for the first time in months I have more than few GB free. Secondly (but not less important) I have tested another quality of OS X: the importation. Just after installing the OS on the new HDD, Mac OS X proposed me to import all my settings, documents and application from the old disk (connected via Firewire in an external case). In less than twenty minutes everything was restored in my new disk, everything set up as I needed.

A brand new OS installation has never been so easy and fast!

I don’t expect this disk to last long, the years have taught me that the hard disk space is never enough, but at least for some months (and some of my experiments) I shoud be fine!

Photoshop Express: the little (and FREE) brother

Posted by Carlo - 13/09/07 at 10:09:07 am

Today I have read that Adobe is preparing a new version of Photoshop. Lately I have dropped it for two reasons: the price and the volume. First of all for what I need, using Photoshop is like trying to kill a bee with a bazooka, and I do not want to spend so much for an application I use so rarely. In second stage I refuse to think that I need 2.5 GB of installer for it. When I installed the beta, it installed me a lot of side apps I do not need and I do not want!

So, the news that Photoshop Express will be “Light and Free” is a great news to me! Not only I will be able to use the (few) commands I already know, but I will not have to get the bazooka for my bees!

This is a link to John Nack’s Blog, senior product manager at Adobe!

Have you seen the new iPods?

Posted by Carlo - 05/09/07 at 11:09:30 pm

This evening I was sure I was missing something. Definitely. When a shitty film ended I open my eyes shouting: Oh Gosh, the Apple Event! And I run on the Apple website to see this:

WOW!

I mean… WOW! They are Fabulous, from the new Nano to the revised (huge) iPod, to the iPod Touch! I really would not know which one to choose if I needed one! (don’t I, right?)

Go and take a look at the specifications: they are really great and the prices seems to be lower than they were!

We’re out of the Tube strike!

Posted by Carlo - 05/09/07 at 02:09:45 pm

A good news, this morning, was that the strike of the tube union workers was over. This morning the nine lines were still suspended, but everything is returning to the normality. It seems that when the guarantees were written on paper, the union called the end of the strike.

Bob Crow, head of the RMT union, told the press: “This means that our members will now actually have their pensions restored to them, which is rather different than promises from a man in an expensive suit”

It is still unknown if the strike will start again next Monday, I personally hope for the best… It has been written that this one has been “The worst Tube crisis in the last ten years“, but apart from some ignorants who didn’t respect the queue, everything was quite fine. Everyone was working, maybe coming in with some delays, but I think that, would it have happened in another nation, the worker would not have been in the office at all… (ironic or true?)

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Carlo Nicora is at home in London.