proper technique

Alessio wailed and screamed on the bus no.59. He was tired and over-heated. I was tired and scared, because I was alone with him.

A grumpy old lady felt the urge to tell me that my dummy technique was not effective nor appropriate. Like I should care

We got off the bus at the next stop

captatio benevolentiae

"A process is suspended when someone hangs their computer out of a tall building..?"

in a simple world...

... credentials would be believed

you gotta fight for your rights

waiting for april 08...

life as a fake plastic tree

afterall, life it is an easy matter

it's the revelation at 2:31 of a video

cheapee

(it is always advisable to have a plastic bottle when walking in london)

my browser's on fire

applause please

with these multi-billionaires, you never know if you should laugh or what

gimme my money

My blog is worth $564.54.
How much is your blog worth?

the flood from their point of view

The central part of the UK has been lately flooded and under so much rain.

That also means that swans in the Brayford pool, in Lincoln, cannot cross underneath the bridge, but instead wait for the level to go down...

Some meters away, people are waiting for the train to pass, and the rail-bar to go up...

computing and nutters

I knew there was something mental in what computing teachers do

eureka

There are days where life spins you around and doesn't make sense at all

Other days when you only have to go back to sleep, because figuring out what's going on is impossible

Others when you start drawing connections among the events, believing that where you are is actually a result of a relatively logical sequence of related events

...like Bono sings: "some days are better than others"

-----

But I am sure that I am not only one who...

...somedays believes that life makes a perfect sense, the (in)famous "meaning of life" becomes obvious, even too much and too soon, left with the feeling that you get the whole picture of what you are supposed to do

I have this recurrent feeling these days

that life is somehow a check-list of proverbs
you swim through events
and you check-in the proverb that you experienced on that event

for instance

today I checked-in (and fully understood) the saying

"Still waters run deep"

what have I done?

Despite living in UK for a while now, the drinking attitude never made it for me.
Happy, yes. Euphoric, yes. But I have to admit never loosing the control completely.

Just once in my life I experienced the "dark side" of alcohol: pretty awful state, and not just laughing or being depressed or such. What I do remember is that the morning after I didn't remember anything. I was up and working as usual. When I saw Ilaria, who reminded me about my performance, small pieces of a memory puzzle started fitting together, and I clearly remember thinking: "Oh gosh, what have I done?"

The movie Hidden from Michael Haneke gave me this type of feeling: for once, the director is not imposing his or her visions, or finale, on the story. In the end, you are left rummaging on the scenes just seen, with a vague sense of "that's useless cinema".

But then all the pieces start falling into place and you're left with a:


" oh my"


"what have I just...."


...


"seen?"

ongoing quest

Everyone with an uncommon name and/or surname knows this: when you're young, naive pupils make horrible jokes about assonances (i remember myself in the first grade making fun of a friend called maffiotto, of course associating it with the infamous southern italian respected families), and parents sometimes do not help in the choice (having a surname "Impalato", Empaled, the choice of "Crocifisso", Crucifixed, is not ideal: all true...)

I remember in the past being called many many different surnames, the best being Scialuppi, or the more updated Cappuccino, but I wasn't that pissed with my first name. That fitted quite ok, overall.

This before coming to the UK. Andrea is lately a joke to me: when i claim this as a male name, people giggle and look somewhere else; still it is one of the most common names in Italy!

Today I just found out that I'm not alone in this misunderstanding. Ordes of very italian, very masculine "Michele", stay put: your name here is meant to be for a Miss, a Mrs, or more gently a Ms.

my 2 cents

Global warming is an issue. Big issue. Both if you're considering it from a positivistic side ("yes! let's save our planet!") and if you're deemed by your worst pessimistic nature ("i didn't use my car in the last 3 years, what has changed in the world since then?")

here's my two cents for what is's worth:



1) cars, plane, trains, buses and all the vehicles should have a dynamo converter, using the pedals of passengers to gather energy and saving fuel. A discount should be applied to the fastest cyclers, who are contributing more to the accumulation of energy. Just imagining work commuters panting in the metro makes me eager to patent this idea. And no more hitch-hikers left behind!




2) differentiating rubbish here is (nearly) useless: you separate paper from glass from cans from plastics from all the rest, put it outside, and later the collectors throw everything in the same bin (they say "we will differentiate later"). There are tools available to make you own "homemade paper", based on recycled paper. PaperChase sells is, still at some astonishing price. I'd say: diffuse a converter per each family, and let them use their newspapers to create recycled toilet paper. Extra-fun when it comes to your most hated politician... And no more wasted paper pulp!


3) where we live I can "see" some 15 wireless networks, of course all of them encrypted and secure. A better approach would be: I use it when I use it, you can use it when I don't use it. Very similar to the SETI@home project (have you got extra CPU cycles on your pc? donate them to track extra-terrestrial radio messages!)

we will never be f**ing rock stars, but you know what? we don't give a f**ing sh*t

the wrens @ ULU, london

translation lost

when you speak in italian and you add some english words is like showing off:
"guarda, sono appena stato a un briefing"

sometimes it is simply, plain stupid:
"arrivo or ora da una sessione di inside trading"

If I had to show off in italian, I'd say: "L'altra sera ho visto i tool", and I'd get some appreciation for the ultra-metal band. But saying "yesterday i went to see the tool" is making sense only for a subset of people here, the others maybe thinking about some naughty erotic show.
Only when you're in an english-speaking country, you get to realise how silly some band-names are:

- city names: Berlin, Boston, Turin Brakes, Chicago, ... If i called my group "poirino" nobody would come and see me

- animal related: Animals, Bug, Cows, Cranes, Eels (what about "The Passero Solitario"?)

- my favourite category, objects: Cake, Can, Tool, Helmet, Alarm, Coil, Cream, Doors, Elbow, Shoes, Sky, Smile, Smog (wjat about "saracinesca" or the already existing "cerchi in lega"?)

- the out-of-context category: A House, All, The Band, Cleaners From Venus, Dinner Is Ruined, Handsome

any others?

i'm going down down down...

The latest italian elections were a real treat for ilaria and me.
We went off to Turin for voting properly, and we had the time of our lives following the exit poll projections with bated breathe.. personally I stayed up to 3 in the morning to have an idea of what was going on

Lately, a dvd is raising new questions, and they are heavy questions: what if the "sacred" right to vote, this taboo, was violated? What if my ballot was just a fake? What if the "almost draw" of Berlusconi and Prodi was driven by some external force?

For italian-speakers, this is the link

There are theories.
There are believers.
There are faiths and assumptions.
There are parties, political convictions.

I am an engineer, first and foremost, and I like data, as a matter of fact. And when I see something like this (projections of the votes for the Parliament through exit polls, during the day):



or, better, something like this (votes for the Senate):



i would love to be a statistician and claim that these curves were never seen in any elections. Never.

Pity I'm not a statistician

Five years on the run

my first academic paper has been accepted at the 2nd workshop on open source software in 2002. I remember vividly the sensations of flying to Florida and meet the legendary people I knew from their papers, the astonishment of hearing his presentation and thinking "oh gawd... THAT is sound...", and especially a long talk with Donald K. Rosenberg. The idea of speaking with him, his involvement in the discussion, and his book as a gift are among the best momories of that conference.

Five years later.

Another life.

During ICSE 2007, Grex and I will take over the workshop and run it ourselves.

Ok, it's only a workshop. But we will run it.