The Sixth Sense

Pranav Mistry is the inventor of SixthSense, a wearable device that enables new interactions between real world and world of data. I found this presentation and the device really amazing.
At the end of his talk, Mistry says the tool will be open-source...i'm already curious!

How many web browsers do you know?

It seems a tricky question, but it isn't. So, how many browser can you list a part the most famous firefox, IE and Opera?

Here it is my list:
Flock
Maxthon
Konqueror
Camino
evolt.org Browser Archive
iCab
Galeon
Crazy Browser
Neoplanet
SpaceTime
Backward Compatibility Viewer
NetCaptor
KidZui
Browzar
Amaya
SlimBrowser
Surf Monkey Kids Channel
Ghostzilla
Browse Happy
netomat
Phaseout
Winwap Technologies
Smart Explorer
Free Web Browsers.com
CubicEye
iRider
Buddy Browser
My Kids Browser
Klondike
AWeb
ChiBrow
OmniWeb
Arachne
CrystalPort
WebCopy
Chimera
Tablane
Terrapin Internet Software
Viola
Paessler Site Inspector
Auction Browser
QtWeb Internet Browser
BrowserSpy
Xanadu XP
OEMBrowser.com
Voyager
Smart Zone Kids Web Browser
General Picture
Breasy.com (Browse Easy)
International Browserday
Camera/Shy
Computer Science Services Group
Arena
AOL OpenRide
MMM
W3C Line Mode Browser
Charlotte (BC Systems)
Lynx


I counted almost 60 :) Surprised?

A tribute to Michael Jackson

Today will be held the funeral service of the King of Pop, Michael Jackson. I'd like to remind him with an episode of the Simpsons (he was a great fan of that series), in which he gives his voice to a white man who walks and talks like Michael Jackson.

The title of episode is Stark Raving Dad and can be watched on line here.

The Red Planet is very close! Hoax or not?

Yes, the Red Planet is about to be spectacular! This month and next, Earth is catching up with Mars in an encounter that will culminate in the closest approach between the two planets in recorded history. The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287. Due to the way Jupiter's gravity tugs on Mars and perturbs its orbit, astronomers can only be certain that Mars has not come this close to Earth in the Last 5,000 years, but it may be as long as 60,000 years before it happens again. The encounter will culminate on August 27th when Mars comes to within 34,649,589 miles of Earth and will be (next to the moon) the brightest object in the night sky. It will attain a magnitude of -2.9 and will appear 25.11 arc seconds wide. At a modest 75-power magnification Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye. Mars will be easy to spot. At the beginning of August it will rise in the east at 10p.m. and reach its azimuth at about 3 a.m. By the end of August when the two planets are closest, Mars will rise at nightfall and reach its highest point in the sky at 12:30a.m. That's pretty convenient to see something that no human being has seen in recorded history. So, mark your calendar at the beginning of August to see Mars grow progressively brighter and brighter throughout the month.

NO ONE ALIVE TODAY WILL EVER SEE THIS AGAIN! :)

Update: When posting these lines, I was bit confused whether it is hoax or not. My opinion is that some part, especially the description about how big Mars will be, are wrong, since it would be problematic if something like happened...but on the other hand, I consider that just a way to put emphasis on the event itself and attract more people... So, at the end, raise your eyes into in the sky, you will see a lightning Mars...but the moon is something else ;)

500GB of Data on a single DVD!

In the last decade, we took part in a tremendous expansion in our capabilities to both generate and collect data. Advances in scientific data collection, for example from remote sensors, or from space satellites have generated huge amounts of data. Moreover advances in data storage technology such as faster, higher capacity and cheaper storage devices, better database management systems and data warehousing technology have allowed us to transform this data into “mountains” of stored data Especially in the last case I recently read about a new device,
which should be able to store till 500 GB!

General Electric Global Research, the society that developed such a support, claims they found out a way to put up to 500GB of data on a regular-sized DVD disc under laboratory conditions.
This result has been reached by writing 3-dimensional patterns that represent data onto a disc made of highly reflective material. The disc then acts as a mirror that makes it possible for a laser to pick up the entire piece of data.

Out of consideration about such technology where I am definitely not an expert, I found that news really interesting and amazing. As a matter of fact, if we compare that with current storage, there is no chance for them: the highest capacity Blu-ray discs can store up to 50GB of data, while the most common type of DVD holds less than 9GB of information.
So, holographic disc-based storage is a long ways off from consumers, but its potential is really great in the storage community!

Google Street View goes on a Tricycle!

Strange but true.
Google’s street-level mapping service a part from some privacy problems and had technical problems with visiting narrow streets which usually can be encountered in the oldest parts of the main European cities. To overcome this issue, the Street View Trike packs (the same 3D camera usually mounted on Google’s road-travelling Vauxhall Astra cars) will be fixed on a three-wheeled bike designed to negotiate footpaths and dirt tracks.

What I'm very proud of, is the fact the first city in the world to test such vehicle will be my home town, Genoa!
If you like your city being visible by Google Street View, suggest your location to Mountain View here! :)

Watching soccer free on line

Are you a soccer fan as I am or simply a sport fan but you cannot see some events on TV for free? Then here you have the solution! I found some websites which offer tons of links to sport events, of every sport!!!

http://www.rojadirecta.com/
http://www.streamingx1.eu/
http://sportstreaming.atspace.com/
http://www.atdhe.net/
http://estv.tk
http://www.myp2p.eu/index.php?part=sports
http://www.bakoom.altervista.org/calcio.htm

Some of the links do not require software to watch the live broadcasting, but other do, so here you have a selection of the most used :

TVU Player
Sopcast
TVAnts
PPStream
VGO
Afreeca
Max-TV
PCast
UUSEE
StreamerOne

World's Happiest Places

Another day another classification! ;-)

Just a few day after my post about the Quality of Life Ranking, I found another interesting ranking: the world happiest places ranking (the full article can be found on Forbes)!
The report released by the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (a Paris-based group of 30 countries with democratic governments that provides economic and social statistics and data) looked at subjective well-being, defined as life satisfaction. Did people feel like their lives were dominated by positive experiences and feelings, or negative ones?

To answer that question, the OECD used data from a Gallup World Poll conducted in 140 countries around the world last year. The poll asked respondents whether they had experienced six different forms of positive or negative feelings within the last day.

Some sample questions: Did you enjoy something you did yesterday? Were you proud of something you did yesterday? Did you learn something yesterday? Were you treated with respect yesterday? In each country, a representative sample of no more than 1,000 people, age 15 or older, were surveyed. The poll was scored numerically on a scale of 1-100. The average score was 62.4.

In detail, the top 10 from the 10th to the 1st place is:

10. Belgium
Satisfaction With Present Life: 76.3
Predicted Satisfaction With Future Life: 75.5
2009 Gross Domestic Product Per Capita: $49,888
Unemployment Rate: 6.5

9. Norway
Satisfaction With Present Life: 76.5
Predicted Satisfaction With Future Life: 84.3
2009 Gross Domestic Product Per Capita: $98,822
Unemployment Rate: 2.6%

8. New Zealand
Satisfaction With Present Life: 76.7
Predicted Satisfaction With Future Life: 85.5
2009 Gross Domestic Product Per Capita: $30,556
Unemployment Rate: 4%

7. Switzerland
Satisfaction With Present Life: 77.4
Predicted Satisfaction With Future Life: 80.9
2009 Gross Domestic Product Per Capita: $65,563
Unemployment Rate: 3%

6. Canada
Satisfaction With Present Life: 78.0
Predicted Satisfaction With Future Life: 87.3
2009 Gross Domestic Product Per Capita: $46,799
Unemployment Rate: 6.1%

5. Ireland
Satisfaction With Present Life: 81.1
Predicted Satisfaction With Future Life: 91.4
2009 Gross Domestic Product Per Capita: $63,788
Unemployment Rate: 6.2%

4. Sweden
Satisfaction With Present Life: 82.7
Predicted Satisfaction With Future Life: 85.6
2009 Gross Domestic Product Per Capita: $54,908
Unemployment Rate: 6.4%

3. Netherlands
Satisfaction With Present Life: 85.1
Predicted Satisfaction With Future Life: 88.2
2009 Gross Domestic Product Per Capita: $55,453
Unemployment Rate: 4.5%

2. Finland
Satisfaction With Present Life: 85.9
Predicted Satisfaction With Future Life: 88.0
2009 Gross Domestic Product Per Capita: $55,344
Unemployment Rate: 6.4%

and the Winner is...

1. Denmark
Satisfaction With Present Life: 90.1
Predicted Satisfaction With Future Life: 92.3
2009 Gross Domestic Product Per Capita: $68,362
Unemployment Rate: 2%

Top 10 Cell Phone Etiquette Rules People Still Break

Being a commuter I often have to deal with the problem of people using their mobile phone in a not so kind manner. I found very interesting these 10 (golden!) rules, which should be respected by everyone having a mobile phone (even if I guess this is just an illusion...)

1. Talking too loudly
“YES! FOR THE LOVE OF BABY JESUS, WE CAN HEAR YOU NOW!” For some bizarre reason people feel the need to raise their voices while on their phones. I think we’ve come far enough, technologically speaking, to trust the phone’s microphone to adequately amplify and carry your voice. Your mouth couldn’t physically be any closer to the microphone, so unless you’re talking into it from a Captain Kirk distance or calling in an airstrike while under heavy machine gun fire, there’s no need to yell. Hell, even Kirk never raised his voice and he was communicating with an alcoholic Scotsman on a space ship!
Note: There are attention-seekers out there who speak loudly on purpose to “show off” recent accomplishments and victories to impress surrounding strangers. Do not hate on them too much, they were probably adopted and are cursed to constantly seek approval from anyone within earshot.

2. Holding inappropriate conversations in public
No one needs to hear how wasted you were last night, or what colour your boyfriend’s boxers were on the night the two of you, um, “played Scrabble.” Keep your personal conversations personal. If you don’t want people to see you crying in line at the bank or while ordering a stuffed-crust pizza, refrain from having emotional conversations in public. Offer to call the person back, step outside, or find a quiet place where you can openly and unabashedly describe your new foot fungus.

3. Rudely interrupting conversations
Have you ever felt the only way to maintain a conversation with the person right in front of you is to give them a call? Ever arrive at the climax of a hilarious story, only to have the momentum ruined by “Sorry, I gotta take this”? Why is the disembodied voice of someone else more important than the flesh and blood standing before you? It’s very frustrating to stand around waiting while your “friend,” date, or family member gets into a phone conversation on your time. When this happens, I recommend simply walking away. Even when you’re sitting in a restaurant, if your date would rather chat with someone else, then you should get up and leave immediately to find someone else. Or, as I mentioned earlier, call them on their other line. “Hey, how’s it going? How’s your sea bass? Isn’t the wine delicious?” If you can’t beat ‘em, call ‘em.

4. Checking your phone at the movies
Movie theatre announcements and people who are quick to “shhhh” have done a decent job of reducing cell phone rings over the years. But people are still checking their calls and text messaging friends, silently, but equally annoyingly. There’s a reason why we spend an arm and a leg to watch movies in the theatre. When the lights go out and the screen lights up, we try to forget our everyday troubles and we submerse ourselves into whatever the hell world we bought tickets for. We escape. But when out of the corner of our eyes we see someone’s entire face light up while they check their phone messages, we’re yanked right back to reality and are reminded of how many jerks per square foot there are in the world. Turn your phones off, have a little consideration for the people around you. The world won’t stop spinning if you’re unavailable for 2 hours. “But what if there’s an emergency?” The odds of an actual emergency occurring are astronomical. Besides, if there was an emergency, it already happened. You already weren’t there, and chances are the people who could actually do anything about it, already have.

5. Texting while driving
Somebody please get the “Darwin Awards” on the phone. Of course, if you’re driving when you do, make sure you’re on hands free or have pulled over before you start explaining how there are people who send texts while behind the wheel of a vehicle. According to a Harvard University study, cell phones cause over 200 deaths and half a million injuries each year. And that’s with eyes on the road! Laws are in place to make sure people aren’t talking on their phones, and yet people are typing?!?! (I very rarely use the double question mark with the double exclamation point at the end of sentences, but this is ridiculous) I would love to see the tombstone: Was LOL when he WCTTFW (Went crashing through the freaking windshield). Anyone caught texting while driving should be stripped of their driving license forever.

6. Texting while talking
You ever have someone try to listen to your story while text messaging someone else? You want to give them points for making the effort as they clumsily insert “oh yeahs” and “un huhs” at all the wrong moments, cutting you off mid-sentence with a “no way” as they furiously thumb type in your face, but at the same time you want to volleyball spike their phone to the ground for being unbelievably rude. A third option is tell better stories.

7. Texting small talk
Does our friendship mean nothing? Have we become so lazy and disinterested in each other’s lives that we’re asking people to sum up their days with a text? “How r u?” “What’s up?” “What’s new?” These arbitrary questions are annoying enough when asked in person, but at least we have the ability to fire back equally insignificant responses in one second or less. But expecting people to waste their time typing “not bad, u?” or “same sh*t” or heaven forbid “let me tell you about my day” is about as lame and pointless as your appendix.

8. Loud and annoying ringtones
I was riding the bus to work one morning, when out of nowhere the silence was shattered with screaming. It was the type of scream a frat boy lets out when a serial killer is in the process of gutting him with a fountain pen. I just about had a cardiac arrest and many of the people on the bus jumped out of their seats. It was only when the repetitive screaming suddenly tripled in volume that we all discovered the culprit: a cell phone. Some jerk pulled the phone out of his pocket, embarrassed at how loud it was, and accidentally dropped it on the bus floor. The joke now on him, the whole bus watched in amusement as this dude’s face grew redder and redder, scrambling to pick up and silence the screams coming from his phone. While there are far too many stupid ringtones out there to mention here, the story makes the point: turn down your stupid ringtone! No one thinks you’re clever, or funny, or musically savvy when you’re little pocket jukebox interrupts their thoughts. That guy on the bus probably thought his scream-tone was hysterical, but the looks on everyone else’s face read loud and clear: “What a douche bag!”

9. Disturbing live performances
Comedy shows, concerts, plays etc…Nothing boils my blood more than having art ruined by a ringing cell phone. I nearly gave a security guard a standing ovation when he grabbed a gentleman by the collar and escorted him out of a Cirque du Soleil show for having his cell phone go off during a particularly dangerous acrobatic stunt. You ruin someone’s comedy act or interrupt an actor on stage, in turn spoiling the experience for everyone around you who’s spent their hard earned money on a night out, and you’re an arrogant douche-monkey who should be put in the corner with the rest of the 5 year olds. But when you disturb a performer who’s very life depends on needle-point focus and concentration, you should be put in jail.

10. Location location location
There are countless locations where “taking the call” is inappropriate and extremely annoying to those around you. The first two off the top of my head as the most frustrating are in libraries, and fast food restaurant lines. One of the last places on earth, aside from an empty church or your own bathroom, where people can go to read, think, and study in silence, is under attack by people who refuse to disconnect from the outside world. Does the word SSSSHHHHH mean nothing to you? Take the call outside, before someone throws “War and Peace” or Stephen King’s “It” at your head.
While ordering food, there’s no need to explain how annoying a phone call can be for both the restaurant staff and for the customers in line behind you. Check out how one Subway restaurant dealt with this problem. Again, if people are going to act like children we need to treat them like children. Well played Subway, well played.

New IPhone Application!

A brand new application for the IPhone... surely a must have it! ;)

Quality of Life Index - a new statistic

Do you live in Vienna, Zurich, Geneva, Vancouver or Auckland? Be happy, your city is top 5 list of the quality of living ranking for cities worldwide!
According to the "Mercer's 2009 Quality of Living survey", Vienna won this annual competition, followed by Zurich, Geneva, Vancouver or Auckland. The quality of living rankings are based on a point-scoring index, which sees Vienna score 108.6, and Baghdad 14.4. Cities are ranked against New York as the base city with an index score of 100.
This survey covers 215 cities and is conducted to help governments and major companies place employees on international assignments. Moreover, this year’s ranking also identifies the cities with the best infrastructure based on electricity supply, water availability, telephone and mail services, public transport provision, traffic congestion and the range of international flights from local airports.

The following table (courtesy of Mercer) summarizes the top 5 cities afor the quality of living according to each world region :

Top 5 cities - Americas	Top 5 cities - Asia Pacific
Vancouver, Canada (tied 4th) Toronto, Canada (15th) Ottawa, Canada (16th) Montreal, Canada (22nd) Calgary, Canada (26th) The lowest ranking Americas city in the top 50 was Seattle (50th).	Auckland, New Zealand (tied 4th) Sydney, Australia (10th) Wellington, New Zealand (12th) Melbourne, Australia (18th) Perth, Australia (21st) The lowest ranking Asian city in the top 50 was Osaka (tied for 44th).

Top 5 cities - Europe	Top 5 cities - Middle East & Africa
Vienna, Austria ( 1st) Zurich, Switzerland (2nd) Geneva, Switzerland (3rd) Dusseldorf, Germany (6th) Munich, Germany (7th) The lowest ranking European city in the top 50 was Madrid (48th).	Dubai, United Arab Emirates (77th) Port Louis, Mauritius (82nd) Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (84th) Cape Town, South Africa (87th) Port Elizabeth, South Africa (93rd) NB: There are no Middle Eastern or African cities in the top 50

How will be the future ?

During the year 1996 the Magazine Wired asked specialists not simply to predict innovations to come but also to tie them to a particular year, from 1996 to 2225 and beyond.
The predictions were pretty good, and some of them, happened even earlier than expected!
For instance, a Computer defeating human chess master, which were predicted to happen in 2005, happened 8 years before: IBM's Deep Blue defeated Gary Kasparov in 1997.

After thirteen years, they proposed the same experiments and here it is a list of these new predictions, till 2045 (for the full article see):

2017
Energy-efficient buildings

2018
Everything online
The meal-replacement patch

2019
Electro-sex

2020
Artificial intelligence
Humans visit Mars
Affordable genetic prophecy at birth

2021
First conflict based on global warming
Remote controlled surgery
Male birth control

2024
AIDS Vaccine
Microbial diesel provides most of our fuel

2026
Vertical city farms

2029
Lab-grown meat in fast-food restaurants
Intelligent advertising posters

2033
Live to over 100 with ease

2036
Freeze out death with cryogenics

2038
Meet ET

2045
Super-intelligence

I hope I will live enough to check all of them ;-)

Earth day

As it happened last year, I remind with a post that on the 22nd of April the Earth Day is celebrated.
This day is designed to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's environment. It was founded by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teach-in in 1970 and is celebrated in many countries every year.
The promoters organized themselves into a community (Earth Day Network), whose goals are:

• Promote Civic Engagement
• Broaden the Meaning of "Environment"
• Mobilize Communities
• Implement Groundbreaking Environmental Education Programs
• Help Bring Clean Water and Sanitation to the World
• Inspire and engage college students to become environmental leaders
• Support Earth Day Events and Actions around the World

As the Earth Day Network says "all people, regardless of race, gender, income, or geography, have a moral right to a healthy, sustainable environment!". We don't have to forget that!

Kill your TV - Can you turn off your TV for a week?

The "TV Turn Off Week" has been invented by David Burke, and it takes place just this week (April 20-26).
I found this idea really appealing, and when I read some facts about TV, I was astonished:

• Number of 30-second commercials seen in a year by an average child: 20,000
  
• Number of minutes per week that parents spend in meaningful conversation with their children: 38.5
• Number of minutes per week that the average child watches television: 1,680
• Percentage of children ages 6-17 who have TV's in their bedrooms: 50
• Percentage of day care centres that use TV during a typical day: 70
• Hours per year the average American youth spends in school: 900 hours
• Hours per year the average American youth watches television: 1500
• Percentage of Americans that regularly watch television while eating dinner: 66

"American children and adolescents spend 22 to 28 hours per week viewing television, more than any other activity except sleeping. By the age of 70 they will have spent 7 to 10 years of their lives watching TV" (The Kaiser Family Foundation).

I think it's worth at least trying it! :)

Knowing, the movie - there is a pattern to predicting the future

I've recently seen a brand new movie with Nicolas Cage, Knowing.
The plot: In 1959, as part of the dedication ceremony for a new elementary school, a group of students is asked to draw pictures to be stored in a time capsule. But one mysterious girl fills her sheet of paper with rows of apparently random numbers instead. Fifty years later, a new generation of students examines the capsules contents and the girls cryptic message ends up in the hands of young Caleb Myles. But it is Calebs father, professor Ted Myles (Nicolas Cage), who makes the startling discovery that the encoded message predicts with pinpoint accuracy the dates, death tolls and coordinates of every major disaster of the past 50 years. As Ted further unravels the documents chilling secrets, he realizes the document foretells three additional events the last of which hints at destruction on a global scale and seems to somehow involve Ted and his son (If you want to know more, full synopsis can be found here... I don't like reveling the end of this film :)).

I quite liked the film. I think it may belong to the catastrophical movie series, and I could find some relations or some links to many other movies like "The day the earth stood still", "Deep Impact" and so on.

What I also noticed is that it may be even considered a film about data mining and forecasting! As matter of fact, Ted Myles analyses a very long sequence of numbers and find relevant patterns in it. That's exectly the aim of data mining. And being compiled in 1959 the list also represents forecasting for both the already happened disasters and for the not already happened ones.

Furthermore I realized that the choice of names is intentionally done: one of two only adult Israelites allowed to survive forty years wandering in the desert and enter Canaan is Caleb, as a reward for his faith in God. This is recorded in the Book of Numbers. Caleb is called "my servant" by God in Numbers 14:24, a position of the highest honor heretofore used only for Moses. Similarly, Abby, whose meaning is "father rejoiced, or father's joy" or "gives joy", reminds the intelligent, beautiful Abigail, who was Old Testament King David's third wife, described as "good in discretion and beautiful in form".
Other symbolic reference are likely hidden in the film, but I'm still working on that ;)

If you are interested in the trailer (where appears the sentence "there is a pattern to predicting the future"): http://knowing-themovie.com/

Scribd, download a book for free

Are you interested in the new book from J.K. Rowling, Ken Follett and many many others? Try Scribd!
This web site offers the possibility to download (for free!) books from a plenty of authors and the success is guaranteed. According to an article I read on the Times, about 55 Million persons visited this site! I briefly tried it and I was very surprised to find usually copyright protected books or scientific papers (such as those published by Springer Link).

Whether they are pirates, or pioneers I cannot say now. For sure, I believe that as it happened for music, a new battle will begin and this time it will be about books.

Update (02/04/2009):
The Scribd Team reacted to the article appeared on the Times, which I referred to. Therefore, just to complete the post, I add their answer below:

"Yesterday, The Times of London published an article claiming that various authors, including J.K. Rowling, were “fighting” Scribd over copyrighted material on our site. Unfortunately, the Times’ article was misleading and included factual errors that must be corrected.

1. To make it absolutely clear, J.K. Rowling and the other authors mentioned are not suing Scribd and have never filed a lawsuit against us.

2. Scribd takes the concerns of copyright holders very seriously. It’s why we created our industry-leading copyright management system, which goes above and beyond requirements set forth in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Every time Scribd receives an official take down request from an author, publisher, or copyright holder, we remove the copyrighted document and add the reference file to our copyright database. If someone tries to upload a document that our system identifies as one of the tens of thousands of works in our copyright database, the document is automatically removed from Scribd. While the technology is not yet perfect, we are constantly working to improve it. And as our reference database grows over time, our system will become even smarter and faster.

3. Scribd is a document sharing site where people come to publish their grandmother’s 80-year-old pierogi recipe, to find Barack Obama’s latest economic plan, to read The New York Times’ official Madoff filing, to receive feedback on their new screenplay, and to reach a community of over 55 million readers.

Books are a small reason readers visit Scribd but growing thanks to our recent partnerships with leading publishing houses, including Simon & Schuster and Random House. (See: Scribd Publisher press release) These publishers and many authors are voluntarily giving us exclusive excerpts and full books because they see Scribd as a valuable way to get their works in front of tens of millions of readers. For a thoughtful and informed analysis of Scribd, here’s an Ars Technica post that presents a totally opposite take as The Times piece.

Also – our CEO is named Trip Adler, not Trip Adkins.

The Scribd Team"

Recharge your battery in 30 seconds!

Are you getting nervous since the battery of your mobile phone were empty when you need it ? Did your laptop automatically shut-down cause of low battery and you cannot save your work?
As many others, I also had to live these experiences at least once in my life and I was very angry. Damn it, why my battery was empty so quickly!?!

The solution to this problem is very close! As stated in an article of Nature, MIT researchers are experimenting new materials which would allow batteries to be recharged in less than 30 seconds! and they should appear on the market in a couple of years, giving a lot of benefits in a lot of application fields (not only mobile phone, notebooks, but also electric cars).

You can find the full article here.

That's not April Fools day!

A Businessman (Andrew Cheatle) lost his mobile phone on a beach. A week later he was amazed when it turned up it was still "alive": A fisherman found his lost phone in the belly of a 25lb cod and it still worked after a week in a fish!
Strange, but true (see) !

Translations

Being Italian, living in Austria and using English to communicate with the scientific community, the knowledge of words and their proper translation in at least three different languages is necessary.
Therefore I will list what I consider the best on line dictionaries which usually adopt, and I will try to keep this list updated:

• Leo (eng, ger, esp, fre, it)
• Pons (eng, ger, esp, fre, it, pol, rus)
• Lingo (it, ger)
• Garzanti (it, eng, fr)

If programming languages were religions

(Inspired by "If programming languages were cars")

C would be Judaism - it's old and restrictive, but most of the world is familiar with its laws and respects them. The catch is, you can't convert into it - you're either into it from the start, or you will think that it's insanity. Also, when things go wrong, many people are willing to blame the problems of the world on it.

Java would be Fundamentalist Christianity - it's theoretically based on C, but it voids so many of the old laws that it doesn't feel like the original at all. Instead, it adds its own set of rigid rules, which its followers believe to be far superior to the original. Not only are they certain that it's the best language in the world, but they're willing to burn those who disagree at the stake.

PHP would be Cafeteria Christianity - Fights with Java for the web market. It draws a few concepts from C and Java, but only those that it really likes. Maybe it's not as coherent as other languages, but at least it leaves you with much more freedom and ostensibly keeps the core idea of the whole thing. Also, the whole concept of "goto hell" was abandoned.

C++ would be Islam - It takes C and not only keeps all its laws, but adds a very complex new set of laws on top of it. It's so versatile that it can be used to be the foundation of anything, from great atrocities to beautiful works of art. Its followers are convinced that it is the ultimate universal language, and may be angered by those who disagree. Also, if you insult it or its founder, you'll probably be threatened with death by more radical followers.

C# would be Mormonism - At first glance, it's the same as Java, but at a closer look you realize that it's controlled by a single corporation (which many Java followers believe to be evil), and that many theological concepts are quite different. You suspect that it'd probably be nice, if only all the followers of Java wouldn't discriminate so much against you for following it.

Lisp would be Zen Buddhism - There is no syntax, there is no centralization of dogma, there are no deities to worship. The entire universe is there at your reach - if only you are enlightened enough to grasp it. Some say that it's not a language at all; others say that it's the only language that makes sense.

Haskell would be Taoism - It is so different from other languages that many people don't understand how can anyone use it to produce anything useful. Its followers believe that it's the true path to wisdom, but that wisdom is beyond the grasp of most mortals.

Erlang would be Hinduism - It's another strange language that doesn't look like it could be used for anything, but unlike most other modern languages, it's built around the concept of multiple simultaneous deities.

Perl would be Voodoo - An incomprehensible series of arcane incantations that involve the blood of goats and permanently corrupt your soul. Often used when your boss requires you to do an urgent task at 21:00 on friday night.

Lua would be Wicca - A pantheistic language that can easily be adapted for different cultures and locations. Its code is very liberal, and allows for the use of techniques that might be described as magical by those used to more traditional languages. It has a strong connection to the moon.

Ruby would be Neo-Paganism - A mixture of different languages and ideas that was beaten together into something that might be identified as a language. Its adherents are growing fast, and although most people look at them suspiciously, they are mostly well-meaning people with no intention of harming anyone.

Python would be Humanism: It's simple, unrestrictive, and all you need to follow it is common sense. Many of the followers claim to feel relieved from all the burden imposed by other languages, and that they have rediscovered the joy of programming. There are some who say that it is a form of pseudo-code.

COBOL would be Ancient Paganism - There was once a time when it ruled over a vast region and was important, but nowadays it's almost dead, for the good of us all. Although many were scarred by the rituals demanded by its deities, there are some who insist on keeping it alive even today.

APL would be Scientology - There are many people who claim to follow it, but you've always suspected that it's a huge and elaborate prank that got out of control.

LOLCODE would be Pastafarianism - An esoteric, Internet-born belief that nobody really takes seriously, despite all the efforts to develop and spread it.

Visual Basic would be Satanism - Except that you don't REALLY need to sell your soul to be a Satanist...

Keep in mind, this list is a joke I found hanging around the web, and is not meant to offend anyone. Then, if you're a Muslim, please don't kill me! ;)

Sketching your attention

I read an article saying that sketching lines or drawings when listening to someone talking increases the capability to memorize and help at concentrating in the topic of the discussion.

That's a good reason to try SwarmSketch, an ongoing online canvas that explores the possibilities of distributed design by the masses... are you curious, try it! :)

Presentation Tips

You have to present something in front of someone or to give a talk and are you getting nervous ? Here you have some very useful tips from Edward R. Tufte’s! :)

Show up early
Something good is bound to happen—if there’s no need to fix a mechanical problem or resolve a room conflict, you can always mingle with the audience.

How to start
--Clearly tell the audience:
What the problem is, who cares, and what your solution is.

--Notes on the stumble-bum technique (a high-risk approach): Tufte described a talk given by a humble high school math teacher to a lecture hall full of mathematics professors. On his first slide, the math teacher had a simple proof, with an error on the third line. Naturally, the professors leaned forward in their chairs to point out the flaw. For the rest of the presentation, the audience hung on every word, waiting for the next slip.
Of course, there was no slip.
Caution: if you use this technique, you had better know your stuff.

--Write out your own introduction.

Never apologize
Most people wouldn’t have noticed the issues for which you’re apologizing—and it just sounds lame.

For complex information use: Particular, General, Particular
Give a particular specific example, then a general overview, followed by a repeat of the particular to reinforce the point.

Always provide a handout
--Text on paper can provide more information than verbal communication (e.g. it takes 22 minutes to read the top half of the New York Times aloud).

--This allows them to become engaged.

--Assures that each point is covered (even if you forget something).

Match your presentation to the level of The New York Times or Wall Street Journal
Audiences don’t suddenly become dumber when they sit down to hear you speak—no reason to "dumb down" anything!

Audiences are precious: respect them
Be clear—not simple-minded.

Humor—make sure it’s on point, not nasty or gratuitous
It’s preferable to leave humor out if you risk alienating anyone—let alone the possibility of not being funny.

Do not use masculine pronouns—use plurals
Even though it may not always be grammatically correct, you should say "they" instead of "him or her"and it will sound better—both because it’s shorter and because no one can be alienated. Why risk not communicating simply because someone may be sensitive?

Questions need to be treated very carefully
--People’s opinion may be based more on how you answer their question than on how you present.
People are often really saying "What about me?" when they ask a question.

--Right after you call for questions, count to 10 before assuming no one will ask.

--To assure questions are asked, plant a person in the audience and give them a question.
This also gets others motivated.

There must be a better way than using the overhead projector
Tufte refers to it as "a trapezoid strip show" because the shape of the projected image is distorted, and people often use the technique of revealing only one line of the image at a time. Two other problems are that you have to turn off the lights (some people will fall asleep) and overheads only provide a fraction of information that can fit on a handout.

Show your enthusiasm!
Don't hide behind a lectern. Use gestures. Walk around, directly engaging the audience.
(If you’re not enthusiastic, why are you presenting on that topic?)

Finish early
You never hear someone say "I really wish they had talked on and on for another 10 minutes."

Work hard
--Prepare and practice for a critical audience.

--Practice in front of a video camera to spot flaws, mannerisms, and idiosyncrasies.

--In addition to using notes for content, make "metanotes" reminding you to use techniques;
like making eye contact, not to mumble, not to keep sipping the water.

Innovate
Don't be trapped by the conventional forms of the presentation. Be creative: find ways to take the presentation beyond a linear presentation of facts, and instead make it become something like a dialogue with your colleagues.

Drink enormous amounts of water
If you’re flying to a presentation this is particularly important as air travel really dehydrates you.
And never drink alcohol.

Tired of your job? Try this one!

An Australian state is offering internationally what it calls "the best job in the world" : earning a top salary for lazing around a beautiful tropical island for six months.

The job pays 150,000 Australian dollars (105,000 US dollars) and includes free airfares from the winner's home country to Hamilton Island on the Great Barrier Reef, Queensland's state government announced on Tuesday.



In return, the "island caretaker" will be expected to stroll the white sands, snorkel the reef, take care of "a few minor tasks" -- and report to a global audience via weekly blogs, photo diaries and video updates.

The successful applicant, who will stay rent-free in a three-bedroom beach home complete with plunge pool and golf buggy, must be a good swimmer, excellent communicator and be able to speak and write English.

Applications are open until February 22. Eleven shortlisted candidates will be flown to Hamilton Island in early May for the final selection process and the six month contract will commence on July 1.

If you apply, good luck :)