Il capitale di ventura, elemento essenziale per lo sviluppo delle economie digitali, sta crescendo in Cina (Pechino e Shanghai). Di brutto.

Money quote: “Silicon Valley tech startups pulled in the most funding of any metro region globally during the last six years at $140 billion, according to CB Insights’ Global Tech Hubs Report, which the New York-based research firm published Tuesday. But Beijing and Shanghai startups appear to be working to keep pace, reeling in $72 billion and $23 billion, respectively—meaning startups in the two cities added $95 billion between 2012 and 2018, according to the document, which focused on the top 25 metro area tech hubs in the world.

That level of investment in Beijing and Shanghai is thanks to large rounds for companies such as Didi, Toutiao, Mobike, and Ele.me, CB Insights says. On top of that, the two Chinese cities have 40 “unicorn” tech companies between them (companies with billion-dollar valuations), compared to the 57 that exist in the Silicon Valley.”

https://www.xconomy.com/san-francisco/2018/06/26/how-the-rise-of-beijing-and-shanghai-tech-may-impact-silicon-valley/

Rifiutarono di farla partecipare alla cena in onore di Charles Dickens, che era venuto a visitare New York. E lei per tutta risposta fonda il primo club per sole donne negli Usa, "Sorosis", il nome scientifico di una parte del fiore che sta fruttando. Il resto è storia, scandalosa per i benpensanti dell'epoca, ma sempre storia. Inclusa la location: il ristorante newyorkese Delmonico.

Money quote: "The choice of Delmonico’s was a statement. Not only had Charles Dickens been hosted there (he declined Croly’s invitation to attend the first Sorosis meeting), but Delmonico’s was the culinary center of America. Founded in 1827 as a pastry shop, Delmonico’s became America’s first true restaurant, an island of good taste and good food in a country previously indifferent to fine cuisine. During its mid-century glory years, the kitchen was ruled by French chef Charles Ranhofer, who created dishes such as Lobster Newburg for the politicians, luminaries, and upper crust who frequented Delmonico’s. Croly made the restaurant Sorosis’s headquarters."

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/delmonicos-womens-lunch

Geniale. Totale. Definitivo (grazie a Mattia Giovanni)

Money quote: "Isn’t writing about productivity the opposite of being productive?"

https://hackernoon.com/25-thoughts-about-personal-development-from-my-european-friends-ba37efe215d8

A cosa servono le biblioteche? In qualche modo costruiscono un catalogo dei gusti di chi le mette assieme, ma anche dei bisogni della società che le ospita, e della cultura delle persone che le frequenteranno. Un meta-racconto delle storie che contengono.

Money quote "“Libraries are an attempt to impose order in a world of chaos,” he writes. “They are places of redemption.”"

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/books-about-libraries-history

Andiamo a comandare anche Linux: il colosso cinese Tencent entra nel CdA della Linux Foundation - il mio articolo per La Stampa

http://www.lastampa.it/2018/06/28/tecnologia/andiamo-a-comandare-anche-linux-il-colosso-cinese-tencent-entra-nel-cda-della-linux-foundation-s64jrwdCPUcpFZoiXXjwoL/pagina.html

La prototipazione rapida è fondamentale perché chiude il loop tra quello che si intende a fare e quel che effettivamente viene fuori. Learning by doing e non solo. Diventa come manipolare cose che non si possono manipolare, torna fuori l'artigiano, il maker. Beh, la stessa cosa si applica anche al codice, ovviamente, e con risultati interessanti per chi lo scrive direttamente nel debugger

Money quote "However, after using Jupyter for a while, I’ve noticed that it has changed my programming process in a way more fundamental than simply inlining visualization of results. Specifically, Jupyter enables programmers to edit their program while it is running. "

http://willcrichton.net/notes/programming-in-the-debugger/

Se siete linguaggisti, questo vi interessa molto: sta per arrivare Scala 3.0. Se non siete linguaggisti, leggete almeno la prima parte, qualcosa si capisce anche se non si è (troppo) tecnici. Se il cervello vi fa già bau-bau, invece, beh, magari non leggetela, non fa per voi...

Money quote: "Now that Scala 2.13 is only a few months away, it’s time to consider the roadmap beyond it. It’s been no secret that the work on Dotty over the last 5 years was intended to explore what a new Scala could look like. We are now at a stage where we can commit: Dotty will become Scala 3.0."

https://www.scala-lang.org/blog/2018/04/19/scala-3.html

(ps: benvenuta, Dotty)

Il tizio che in passato aveva guardato dentro alcuni comandi Unix come "ls" l'ha fatto di nuovo. Questa volta, è il turno di "rm" (usare con cautela)

Money quote: "OK. Enough blabber. I’ve been working through a backlog of issues on the Zarf app. As such, I’ve been spending a lot of time on the command line. The backlog involved deleting a lot of code (insert satisfied sigh here) and sometimes this involved deleting entire files of source code (insert doubly satisfied sigh here). This got me wondering: what’s going on when you run rm on the command line. There’s a couple of variants of the rm command that I commonly run."

https://blog.safia.rocks/post/173241985600/unraveling-rm-what-happens-when-you-run-it

Ho pensato varie volte a fare un micro podcast su Mostly, I Write. Se non lo faccio è perché c’è già lei, che è perfetta

Il problema con questo tipo di scam, che poi è un hack fenomenale, è che chi li mette in piedi è un uomo morto. Non solo deve valerne la pena (economicamente) ma poi bisogna anche essere in grado di staccare al momento giusto e scomparire in Messico...

Money quote: “Dushaun Henderson-Spruce submitted a U.S. Postal Service change of address form on Oct. 26, 2017, according to court documents. He requested changing a corporation's mailing address from an address in Atlanta to the address of his apartment on Chicago's North Side.

The post office duly updated the address, and Henderson-Spruce allegedly began receiving the company's mail — including checks. It went on for months. Prosecutors say he deposited some $58,000 in checks improperly forwarded to his address.

The corporation isn't named in the court documents, but the Chicago Tribune reports that it's the shipping company UPS.”

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/05/10/610102872/man-allegedly-used-change-of-address-form-to-move-ups-headquarters-to-his-apartm

Un gioco online (solo per Mac/Pc: non funziona neanche su tablet) molto, molto divertente.

http://demo.curious-expedition.com/

Sino in estate. Tempo libero? È arrivato il momento di imparare JavaScript giocando? Perché no: gamification dal basso con questo divertente RPG da usare nel terminale (e l’AI del gioco è smart, molto molto smart)

Money quote: “In WarriorJS, you wear the skin of a warrior climbing a tall tower to reach The JavaScript Sword at the top level. Legend has it that the sword bearer becomes enlightened in the JavaScript language, but be warned: the journey will not be easy. On each floor, you need to write JavaScript to instruct the warrior to battle enemies, rescue captives, and reach the stairs alive...

No matter if you are new to programming or a JavaScript guru, WarriorJS will put your skills to the test. Will you dare?”

https://github.com/olistic/warriorjs

Ad Amsterdam hanno prosciugato un canale e messo online tutto quel che ci hanno trovato dentro. Spettacolare

https://belowthesurface.amsterdam/en/vondsten

Sfondi della scrivania (su Mac) come forma d’arte

Money quote: “In 2015, I finally solved the problem by building an app called Backgroundifier, which converted arbitrary-size images into wallpapers by superimposing them onto attractive, blurred backgrounds. By pairing an Automator Folder Action with the native wallpaper cycling functionality of macOS, I could now drop arbitrary images into a directory on my desktop and have them automatically show up in my wallpaper rotation. Peeking at an image was as simple as invoking the Show Desktop shortcut, and if I wanted to see something new, all I had to do was switch to a new Space”

http://archagon.net/blog/2018/05/02/a-native-art-gallery-for-your-mac/

Un australiano, che ha le sue idee su come va il mondo, sull’uso che vuole fare del suo computer autocostruito e per quanto tempo, e che vuole andare “off the grid” in un paio di anni, si è assemblato il suo perfetto computer silenzioso. Ed è uno spettacolo.

Money quote: “This computer makes no noise when it starts up. It makes no noise when it shuts down. It makes no noise when it idles. It makes no noise when it’s under heavy load. It makes no noise when it’s reading or writing data. It can’t be heard in a regular room during the day. It can’t be heard in a completely quiet house in the middle of the night. It can’t be heard from 1m away. It can’t be heard from 1cm away. It can’t be heard — period. It’s taken nearly 30 years to reach this point, but I’ve finally arrived. The journey is over and it feels great.”

https://tp69.blog/2018/04/17/completely-silent-computer/

Sono molto rare da trovare, ma sono le uniche che diano degli insegnamenti secondo me veramente validi (è un mio vecchio pallino). Sono le storie di fallimenti, casi di aziende che non ce la fanno, non ci riescono. Perché l’essere umano impara dagli sbagli, non dai successi. Ma non è buon marketing parlare di quella volta che la vostra azienda è fallita. Peccato.

Per fortuna che qualcuno di Fieldbook pensa che ne valga la pena

Money quote: “Would a more upmarket, sales-driven approach have worked? There were a few things pointing in this direction: Our most enthusiastic customers had some of the largest and most complex use cases, and offering custom manual setup seemed to get people over the activation hump.

We happily did manual onboarding for early customers, even though it doesn’t scale. It’s a great way to learn and to build a brand. But as growth strategy, it inexorably turns into a sales model, which requires a higher price point, around $300/mo.

We tried to nudge ourselves upmarket, offering higher-priced plans with custom manual setup, but we didn’t have enough takers. We just weren’t getting the right leads. To make this work, I think we would have had to relaunch as almost a different company. I concluded that you can’t nudge upmarket—you have to leap.”

https://medium.com/the-fieldbook-blog/what-happened-at-fieldbook-d70bf25b3968

Prendere un capello e spaccarlo un sacco di volte, con intensa decisione. Quale saggezza? Quale intelligenza?

Money quote: “This is, of course, a very simplified scenario, but the point is that knowledge is relational and the understanding of wisdom recognizes that rather than treating it simply as an isolated information point.”

https://qz.com/1284878/the-difference-between-intelligence-and-wisdom-and-how-to-acquire-both

Ci stanno togliendo anche le ultime certezze: che l’intelligenza sia/non sia innata

Money quote: “On a recent visit to DNA.Land, I scanned down the list of traits they offered to tell me about. I stopped at intelligence.

I took a breath before I clicked.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/amp/article/561392/

Uso fin dal principio Scrivener, che ha decisamente modellato il mio modo di lavorare. Questo tizio però esagera un po’.

Money quote: “Just being able to have one document that was a few hundred pages long seemed like a dream, but let’s face it: when your writing style is one that hops about a timeline like a jackrabbit on cocaine, that’s still not terribly efficient. There was a lot of “CTRL+F ‘Chapter XX'” going on.

Enter Scrivener.”

https://www.thedebutanteball.com/how-tech-controls-my-chaos/

Le proteine non fanno male, dice la BBC. Costa solo troppo farle.

Money quote: “The risk of consuming too much protein is small, but the bigger risk might just be falling for overpriced products offering us more protein than we need. “Some products labelled as high protein aren’t, and they’re quite expensive. Anyway, consuming more protein than need is wasteful in terms of money, and it’s paid down the toilet,” says Johnstone.”

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20180522-we-dont-need-nearly-as-much-protein-as-we-consume