FCHouse

Wii and 3D VR Display

Posted by Carlo - 31/01/08 at 11:01:02 am

For long time I have believed that the Wii is by the most advanced console available right now. The possible applications are endless: watch this!

Please, take a look at other projects Johnny Lee did with the Wii Remote! Fantastic!

Beppe Grillo on “The New Yorker”

Posted by Carlo - 31/01/08 at 10:01:40 am

Not a part of a page, not an entire page, but seven. This is the space The New Yorker has dedicated to Beppe Grillo and to the shameless Italian politic (and politicians).

In the first page Grillo is compared to Michael Moore. “The Italian Michael Moore” is the title. Nice. When you open page 24 the shame starts. Yes, the shame. Reading the article I have laughed and cried. Laughed because it is ironic. Cried because it is the truth. Starting from the highest political salaries in the world, reaching the spitting fight in the parliament.

I would like the Italians to read that article, I would like them to use internet to skip the shameless censorship of the Italian mass media. Slave to the Political Power, there have been no newspaper to write about the article, no television to talk about it. The sad thing is that if they did it, it would have been just to defend our “Onorevoli“.

Is there anyone ready to ask me, again, why did I flee from the Persimmon’s Land? And tell me: is a comedian the only one who have the courage to reveal all the well-covered s**t in Italian politics?

If you are Italian and you are reading this, it means that you know English… go and read the article!

Being scared of blogging

Posted by Carlo - 30/01/08 at 10:01:57 am

This morning I ended up reading a new blog. I do not remember how I got there, but I remember that the first impression after the first post was: “S**t, I have to stop writing bulls**t on my blog… I can be sued!”

Yes, because the post was all on “Blogging and Law” and how you can prevent from being sued from this or that, for the fact that you wrote that you hate a corporation or because one of your reader sues you because of the joke you wrote six years ago.

One of the things that hit me a lot was that I physically met the owner of the blog. At Barcamp London 3 there was this person who was filming everyone (and even taking photos if I remember well), but who was scared as hell to have its (sorry, I want to cover ITS gender) face published. After reading the post (that I do not link, because there is the risk of being sued) I understand why: the theory is that if your boss knows you are a criminal… sorry… blogger, you can be fired immediately, for one reason or another.

In the end it is easy to laugh about these things, unless until you are not sued… the fact is that if we are scared as hell to be sued, the best thing is to shut our blog down. The reality is that if you play your world in a considerate way you will not get sued. If you do not write the secret of your work, your employer will not fire you (I support those that work with me to have a blog).

We can shut the door of the world, avoiding to speak or to express our idea. Do you think it is safe?

It is idiotic (IMHO)! 

Let the world scare you with the threat of a lawsuit and those who cannot care less about my right to speak will win!

O2 and the new iPhone contract

Posted by Carlo - 29/01/08 at 04:01:49 pm

When I decided to buy the iPhone I was delighted by the hardware, but more than sceptical about the O2 contract. It was not a good contract, but in the end I decided to buy it.

I have to tell you that the iPhone is a superb piece of hardware, and the connection, even if it is not a 3G, works well. You get used to have a slow connection with EDGE, nevertheless you are on a mobile.

Today I have been delighted by the contract too, because O2 decided to be less greedy with minutes and SMS, giving us more of both. I have been pushed from 300 minutes (they were not enough for the price I paid) to 600 and from 300 SMS (more than enough for me) to 500. So every iPhone contract, the new ones as well as the old ones (like mine) will receive the same amount of minutes and SMS. Good thing the retroactive contract overclocking! :S

I do not have to tell you that I am happy as a pie because of this improvement. I hate O2 a little less :P

Recycling my old computers!

Posted by Carlo - 29/01/08 at 01:01:51 pm

In these days I have tried to get rid of my old computers. They are not coming from the stone age. They are some years old (2 to 5), but they are working fine. I do not use them any longer and I would have love to donate them to someone (charity or whatever).

It happens, unfortunately, that if you do not have a car, you have to pay in order to have someone collecting your computer. Now, I can understand that it is a cost to take your car and grab my old PC, but in the end you will have it.

I think I will keep them with me, moving them in the new house.

If you know anyone in the London area willing to came and get them, I will gladly give them away! For Free!

Blogging or Copying?

Posted by Carlo - 29/01/08 at 10:01:06 am

I am a strong RSS eater. I have more than 60 feeds that comes in daily, giving me around 300 news every morning (and as many during the rest of the day I think). I follow blogs in English (mainly) and few others in Italian. I have decided to drop some blogs, though, because lately I have realised that they are not blogs, they are copycat.

Yes, I admit that sometimes I get news that I feel important and write them on my blog. “Sometimes” however, does not mean that I do it every day, for every post I write, and I always cite the source.

The blogs that I have decided to remove from my feeds copy every single news, without telling where they are copying from. They seems original post indeed, but they are copy (complete with the same images) from other blog, whose names are never written.

I think that redistributing information, telling your reader where they come from, is good. I can report you a special news, linking to the original blog, so I help them growing their visitors. Isn’t it lovely? Now I have decided to remove the copycats, just because they post the same news one day later, without writing the source. It is a fact of ideology!

Am I wrong?

Feedburner remembered me I am dumb!

Posted by Carlo - 28/01/08 at 03:01:30 pm

Before moving this blog on a new server I had around 40 to 50 visitor a day on my feeds. I am using feedburner, so the statistics go trough their site: I have nothing to do with them! It seems, however, that my RSS visitors did not like the new server: only 5 loyal visitors decided to support my decision. All the other subscribers have gone!

Clearly I have been so cute to remove all my old plug-ins… to “Bring Order“. Obviously there have been bits’n'bobs I forgot to reinstall. Guess what? The FeedBurner Plugin for Wordpress was one of them!

I have just restored the plugin, checking the links. The question is: what did I forgot to reinstall and I am forgetting to have forgot? No Idea!

Photo sharing made easy!

Posted by Carlo - 28/01/08 at 10:01:42 am

Lately I am using a lot Flickr. I have found an interesting video about the Photo Social Networks like it. Have a look, it is very nice! :D

Stranger

Posted by Carlo - 27/01/08 at 06:01:51 pm

Stranger, originally uploaded by carlo.nicora.

We were in a “Brasserie” in Paris. The weather was awful, as was the service, but I was hit by the contrast of her bright clothing with the dull day and the dark interior of the place.

MacBook Air: a personal view.

Posted by Carlo - 27/01/08 at 04:01:10 pm

I was one of those who followed the MacWorld, few weeks ago, in any possible way. I was interested in the banner “There is something in the Air” but I am still undecided if I am one of the Lovers or the Hater of the new Apple laptop.

One thing is essential before starting to discuss about the MacBook Air: it is NOT a normal laptop, it is NOT a desktop replacement, it is NOT intended to break the market as the MacBook. The Air is something different, different target, different specs required and different power. I have read a lot of reviews, a lot of people trying to analize the MacBook Air as if it was a new version of the MacBook Pro. I am sorry, you cannot expect to have everything you need in such a small shell, let’s face the truth!

Battery: It is not replaceable! A lot of people I know, when hear the news that the battery is a non-replaceable, started to breath fire. Hell on Earth, a laptop where you cannot switch battery! Well, let me think how many people I know walks around with a spare battery… let’s see… Yes, I think ONE of them. One, indeed! one on hundreds I know. Being honest I had the need for a replaceable battery maybe once in six years… and I did not have one, therefore it was useless. The target of this laptop is to be compact and light, and if you want to travel as light as you can, you do not bring a spare battery with you!

No integrated DVD reader! ALLELUIA! Yes, I need the DVD reader, I use it… probably as much as I use the external Hard Drive that sits on my desk (and that never leaves the desk, BTW). Apple did not present a laptop without drive, but with an external drive! It’s the best solution! The more sceptic are bothering that you cannot use the external drive with another Mac, but it is because of the power consumption, that is three times the power a normal USB port can provide. The USB port of the MacBook Air is extremely powerful, and Apple decided NOT to provide an external power chord for it: you need to travel light, don’t you?

Only one USB and no Firewire! Shame! Well… A second USB port would have been advantageous, but in the end you can live without it. I have two USB and a firewire on my laptop, and I try not to use all of them together. It uses less power, and I have less cables around. Do you need an external Hard Drive? Plug it in and out! Do you need the DVD? Plug it in and out? Do you need to attach your Firewire camcorder? You do not need a MacBook Air!

What a tiny Hard Drive! Well, when I bought my MacBook, one year ago, the normal drive was 60GB. The Air does have a 1.8inch drive, not a 2.5inch like every other laptop. This is because it has to be light. Obviously it does not have 60GB, but 80. Do you want to have the fastest, next generation hard drive, being a Early Adopter? You pay to receive less, for more money! Your choice!

Price! It costs too much! Well yes, it costs a lot. Miniaturisation  has always been expensive. You can buy a normal MacBook for much less, receiving more features (more processor, HDD, etcetera) for some pounds and inch more!

In the end I think that the MacBook Air is spectacular, stylish and… fantastic. I cannot see the time to see them in the Apple Store! I also think that the MacBook Air is designed for specific applications. I will never keep into consideration one of them: it is not powerful enough to support my development and my photos (Aperture is slow on my MacBook).

Requirements drive technology!

And the requirements the MacBook Air fulfil are clearly more dedicated to those who travels with their own computer everywhere, whitout the need of power. I think about Managers, Professional Bloggers, Journalists etcetera. I cannot stand those who are overcritic just because they cannot play the latest game on it, or because it is the last item from Apple.

Let’s see that shiny thing for what it is: a small, stylish, lightweight (in many senses) brand new computer.

I will not buy it, because the next laptop should be able to deliver a little more power than my MacBook, but I do not think the MacBook Air is a bad thing. I am one of those who needs his entire world with himself on his laptop. I need my laptop to be the Desktop replacement. I am not a MacBook Air user!
Last thing: do you know why there has not been so much hype on it? Because the target of the Air is different, smaller and more silent!

Cheerio!

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Carlo Nicora is at home in London.