Storia di Snoo, la mascotte aliena di Reddit. A me fa pensare a quelle cose strane ma istantaneamente simpatiche che sembrano facili ma sono in realtà molto complesse e fenomenali.
Money quote: “This creative canvas was, in some ways, illustrative of the early web, where nobody knew you were a dog. The closest thing to verification on Reddit, even now, is a confirmation that the email attached to your account is real. Anonymity is accepted, even encouraged. You can have multiple accounts, fake accounts, throwaways for posting the kinds of deep, dark musings that absolutely must not, under any circumstances, get traced back to the real you. (I have three usernames: one for lurking, one for reportage, and one for purposes I would never share in print.) Identities are fragmented; each version of you, a new Snoo.”
https://www.wired.com/story/the-transformative-power-of-reddits-alien-mascot/
Money quote: “This creative canvas was, in some ways, illustrative of the early web, where nobody knew you were a dog. The closest thing to verification on Reddit, even now, is a confirmation that the email attached to your account is real. Anonymity is accepted, even encouraged. You can have multiple accounts, fake accounts, throwaways for posting the kinds of deep, dark musings that absolutely must not, under any circumstances, get traced back to the real you. (I have three usernames: one for lurking, one for reportage, and one for purposes I would never share in print.) Identities are fragmented; each version of you, a new Snoo.”
https://www.wired.com/story/the-transformative-power-of-reddits-alien-mascot/
Wired
The Transformative Power of Reddit's Alien Mascot
It’s a happy accident that the cofounder's hurried sketch left Snoo colorless and genderless, a form onto which everyone could map themselves.
Se questo fine settimana siete a Mountain View, andare al Computer History Museum perché succedono cose alquanto interessanti. Sennò, immaginatevele a distanza...
Money quote: “The exhibits include everything from floptical disks, a fully restored and operation PDP-11/45, home computers from the UK and Japan, typewriters converted into teletypes, a disintegrated CPU, and LISP machines. The talks are equally spectacular, with a keynote from Tim Paterson, the creator of 86-DOS, the basis of MS-DOS. You’ll also hear about PLATO, the Internet before the Internet, PDP-1 demonstrations, and if we’re lucky they’re going to fire up the ancient IBM 1401”
https://hackaday.com/2018/08/01/this-weekend-the-vintage-computer-festival-west/
Money quote: “The exhibits include everything from floptical disks, a fully restored and operation PDP-11/45, home computers from the UK and Japan, typewriters converted into teletypes, a disintegrated CPU, and LISP machines. The talks are equally spectacular, with a keynote from Tim Paterson, the creator of 86-DOS, the basis of MS-DOS. You’ll also hear about PLATO, the Internet before the Internet, PDP-1 demonstrations, and if we’re lucky they’re going to fire up the ancient IBM 1401”
https://hackaday.com/2018/08/01/this-weekend-the-vintage-computer-festival-west/
Hackaday
This Weekend: The Vintage Computer Festival West
This weekend it’s all going down at the Vintage Computer Museum in Mountain View, California. The Vintage Computer Festival West is happening this weekend What’s going on this year at V…
Sapete che sono fissato con homebrew. Ma lui è più fissato di me...
Money quote: “I’m using OSX most of the time (you know, developer AND sales, plus being CEO) and this is the noscript I use to update it all the time, can be useful for some…”
https://medium.com/@waxzce/keeping-macos-clean-this-is-my-osx-brew-update-cli-command-6c8f12dc1731
Money quote: “I’m using OSX most of the time (you know, developer AND sales, plus being CEO) and this is the noscript I use to update it all the time, can be useful for some…”
https://medium.com/@waxzce/keeping-macos-clean-this-is-my-osx-brew-update-cli-command-6c8f12dc1731
Medium
Keeping macOS clean: this is my osx/brew/[…] update CLI command
I’m using OSX most of the time (you know, developer AND sales, plus being CEO) and this is the noscript I use to update it all the time, can…
Altri convertiti sulla via dell’iPad. Arrivano dopo ma arrivano bene, direi
Money quote: “I recently traded in my trusty iPad 2 against a new 12.9-inch iPad Pro. Not only has it become my primary work device, on many days I don’t turn on my laptop at all”
https://medium.com/@mrstevegold/the-year-was-2011-a708b7c76a17
Money quote: “I recently traded in my trusty iPad 2 against a new 12.9-inch iPad Pro. Not only has it become my primary work device, on many days I don’t turn on my laptop at all”
https://medium.com/@mrstevegold/the-year-was-2011-a708b7c76a17
Medium
It’s 2018 and yes, you can do “real work” on an iPad
The year was 2011. It was a simpler time: the earth was slightly cooler, the geopolitical landscape was more easily grasped, and I had…
Cosa c’è di peggio rispetto a una separazione? Ricominciare a vedere altre persone. Troppo presto. Perché non si è pronti: si è soli.
Money quote: “Everyone goes back to dating too soon. Everyone. Because it’s lonely being alone. But the weird thing is that it’s not for me. I like it. But 30 years of consistent relationships and sex is a powerful force feeding my brain misinformation on when the time is right.”
Resisting the Urge to Date Again – P.S. I Love You
https://psiloveyou.xyz/resisting-the-urge-to-date-again-690c747fedbd
Money quote: “Everyone goes back to dating too soon. Everyone. Because it’s lonely being alone. But the weird thing is that it’s not for me. I like it. But 30 years of consistent relationships and sex is a powerful force feeding my brain misinformation on when the time is right.”
Resisting the Urge to Date Again – P.S. I Love You
https://psiloveyou.xyz/resisting-the-urge-to-date-again-690c747fedbd
P.S. I Love You
Resisting the Urge to Date Again
When You Know You Are Not Ready, But…
Tu mediti per annullare il tuo essere egoista, e invece l’essenza del tuo ego cresce ipertrofica...
Meditate gente, meditate...
Money quote: “According to Buddhist teaching, the self is an illusion. The religion preaches a fundamentally selfless worldview, encouraging followers to renounce individual desires and distance themselves from self-concern. To advance this perspective, millions of people around the world practice yoga and meditation.
But a recently published psychological study directly contradicts that approach, finding that contemporary meditation and yoga practices can actually inflate your ego.”
https://qz.com/1307380/yoga-and-meditation-boost-your-ego-say-psychology-researchers/
Meditate gente, meditate...
Money quote: “According to Buddhist teaching, the self is an illusion. The religion preaches a fundamentally selfless worldview, encouraging followers to renounce individual desires and distance themselves from self-concern. To advance this perspective, millions of people around the world practice yoga and meditation.
But a recently published psychological study directly contradicts that approach, finding that contemporary meditation and yoga practices can actually inflate your ego.”
https://qz.com/1307380/yoga-and-meditation-boost-your-ego-say-psychology-researchers/
Quartz
People’s egos get bigger after meditation and yoga, says a new study
So much for quieting your inner narcissist.
Uso Scrivener fin dal principio per scrivere libri e altre cose. Mai pensato di usarlo per bloggare. Ma c’è chi lo fa. Interessante.
Money quote: “I used Word files to organize my blog posts for a long time. Why? I have no idea. I thought about using Scrivener, but I didn’t want to take the time to switch my files over and start a new system.
Don’t be like me.
Switch to Scrivener now”
https://www.victoriagriffin.net/blog/scrivener-for-blogging
Money quote: “I used Word files to organize my blog posts for a long time. Why? I have no idea. I thought about using Scrivener, but I didn’t want to take the time to switch my files over and start a new system.
Don’t be like me.
Switch to Scrivener now”
https://www.victoriagriffin.net/blog/scrivener-for-blogging
Victoria Griffin Fiction
Victoria Griffin Fiction: Blog and Short Stories
The end of web is near
Money quote: “That's why the wonder of the web is that it is not subject to the whims of chaotic corporate management. Now, I suppose at some point it will be owned, and then after that it will be shut down. That's how we lose huge amounts of IP, open stuff, non-corporate stuff.”
http://noscripting.com/2018/06/12/140329.html
Money quote: “That's why the wonder of the web is that it is not subject to the whims of chaotic corporate management. Now, I suppose at some point it will be owned, and then after that it will be shut down. That's how we lose huge amounts of IP, open stuff, non-corporate stuff.”
http://noscripting.com/2018/06/12/140329.html
Scripting News
Scripting News: I fear Google's control of the web
The wonder of the web is that it is not subject to the whims of chaotic corporate management.
Un ragionamento prezioso sul senso del lavoro al nostro tempo.
Money quote: “In “Bullshit Jobs” (Simon & Schuster), David Graeber, an anthropologist now at the London School of Economics, seeks a diagnosis and epidemiology for what he calls the “useless jobs that no one wants to talk about.” He thinks these jobs are everywhere. By all the evidence, they are. His book, which has the virtue of being both clever and charismatic, follows a much circulated essay that he wrote, in 2013, to call out such occupations. Some, he thought, were structurally extraneous: if all lobbyists or corporate lawyers on the planet disappeared en masse, not even their clients would miss them”
https://www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/the-bullshit-job-boom
Money quote: “In “Bullshit Jobs” (Simon & Schuster), David Graeber, an anthropologist now at the London School of Economics, seeks a diagnosis and epidemiology for what he calls the “useless jobs that no one wants to talk about.” He thinks these jobs are everywhere. By all the evidence, they are. His book, which has the virtue of being both clever and charismatic, follows a much circulated essay that he wrote, in 2013, to call out such occupations. Some, he thought, were structurally extraneous: if all lobbyists or corporate lawyers on the planet disappeared en masse, not even their clients would miss them”
https://www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/the-bullshit-job-boom
The New Yorker
The Bullshit-Job Boom
For more and more people, work appears to serve no purpose. Is there any good left in the grind?
Plasma, quarto sconosciuto. Un articolo sul mio stato della materia preferito.
Money quote: “Plasma physics is a rich and diverse field of enquiry, with its own special twist. In some areas of science, intellectual vitality comes from the beauty of grand theories and the search for deep underlying laws – as shown by Albert Einstein’s account of gravity in general relativity, or string theorists’ attempt to replace the Standard Model of subatomic particles with tiny oscillating strands of energy. The study of plasmas also enjoys some remarkably elegant mathematical constructions, but unlike its scientific cousins, it’s mostly been driven by its applications to the real world.”
https://aeon.co/ideas/plasma-the-mysterious-and-powerful-fourth-phase-of-matter
Money quote: “Plasma physics is a rich and diverse field of enquiry, with its own special twist. In some areas of science, intellectual vitality comes from the beauty of grand theories and the search for deep underlying laws – as shown by Albert Einstein’s account of gravity in general relativity, or string theorists’ attempt to replace the Standard Model of subatomic particles with tiny oscillating strands of energy. The study of plasmas also enjoys some remarkably elegant mathematical constructions, but unlike its scientific cousins, it’s mostly been driven by its applications to the real world.”
https://aeon.co/ideas/plasma-the-mysterious-and-powerful-fourth-phase-of-matter
Aeon
Plasma, the mysterious (and powerful) fourth phase of matter
Matter can exist as a solid, liquid or gas, but there’s also plasma – which might be the key to the birth of the Universe
Scrivener è una perla, ma è lontano dal mondo open. Oppure no? Un complesso ma non impossibile dialogo con Pandoc
https://github.com/iandol/scrivomatic/blob/master/README.md#introduction
https://github.com/iandol/scrivomatic/blob/master/README.md#introduction
GitHub
iandol/scrivomatic
scrivomatic - How to optimise Scrivener usage with Pandoc (via Pandocomatic)
Storie di gelati, torte e sale per signore come parte di una rivoluzione culturale e sociale per il ruolo e l’autonomia delle donne a cavallo tra otto e novecento. La rivoluzione passa anche così, da là.
Money quote: “Throughout the 19th century, restaurants catered to a predominately male clientele. Much like taverns and gentlemen’s clubs, they were places where men went to socialize, discuss business, and otherwise escape the responsibilities of work and home. It was considered inappropriate for women to dine alone, and those who did were assumed to be prostitutes. Given this association, unescorted women were banned from most high-end restaurants and generally did not patronize taverns, chophouses, and other masculine haunts”
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/why-is-it-called-an-ice-cream-parlor
Money quote: “Throughout the 19th century, restaurants catered to a predominately male clientele. Much like taverns and gentlemen’s clubs, they were places where men went to socialize, discuss business, and otherwise escape the responsibilities of work and home. It was considered inappropriate for women to dine alone, and those who did were assumed to be prostitutes. Given this association, unescorted women were banned from most high-end restaurants and generally did not patronize taverns, chophouses, and other masculine haunts”
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/why-is-it-called-an-ice-cream-parlor
Atlas Obscura
The Ornate Ice Cream Saloons That Served Unchaperoned Women
They welcomed women back when American restaurants prohibited dining without a man present.
Il 2018 è l’anno degli smart speaker - il mio articolo per La Stampa
http://www.lastampa.it/2018/08/04/tecnologia/il-lanno-degli-smart-speaker-4WMtA4DV1ie88rovH5wSkJ/premium.html
http://www.lastampa.it/2018/08/04/tecnologia/il-lanno-degli-smart-speaker-4WMtA4DV1ie88rovH5wSkJ/premium.html
LaStampa.it
Il 2018 è l’anno degli smart speaker
Raddoppiano le vendite degli altoparlanti intelligenti che ci ascoltano e ci fanno fare acquisti online. Guidano la tendenza Amazon e Google, mentre Apple è ferma al 4% del mercato con il suo HomePod
Un ragionamento sulla privacy senza parlare di privacy. Fantastico modo di vedere senza guardare.
Money quote: “Even so, we have handed to private companies the power to set and enforce the boundaries of appropriate public speech. That is an enormous cultural power to be held by so few, and it is largely wielded behind closed doors, making it difficult for outsiders to inspect or challenge.
Platforms frequently, and conspicuously, fail to live up to our expectations. In fact, given the enormity of the undertaking, most platforms’ own definition of success includes failing users on a regular basis.”
https://www.wired.com/story/how-social-networks-set-the-limits-of-what-we-can-say-online/
Money quote: “Even so, we have handed to private companies the power to set and enforce the boundaries of appropriate public speech. That is an enormous cultural power to be held by so few, and it is largely wielded behind closed doors, making it difficult for outsiders to inspect or challenge.
Platforms frequently, and conspicuously, fail to live up to our expectations. In fact, given the enormity of the undertaking, most platforms’ own definition of success includes failing users on a regular basis.”
https://www.wired.com/story/how-social-networks-set-the-limits-of-what-we-can-say-online/
WIRED
How Social Networks Set the Limits of What We Can Say Online
A researcher argues it’s time to take a new look at Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act—a 20-year-old law that shields internet platforms from liability for material posted by users.
Jimmy Carter probabilmente non è stato uno dei più efficaci presidenti degli Stati Uniti. Ma tra tutti gli ex ha un carisma e uno spirito straordinari. Ritratto fantastico, un altro articolo notevole di GQ.
Money quote: “About 40 Sundays a year, Mr. Jimmy materializes from thin air, flickering before us at Maranatha to lead Bible study, to say, No, the world's not going to end. Not just yet. Though he's elfin with age, you'd still instantly recognize him as our 39th president: with those same hooded ice-blue eyes, the same rectangular head, the same famous 1,000-watt smile. But when he teaches like this, he transforms from whatever your vision of Jimmy Carter is into someone different, some kind of 93-year-old Yoda-like knower, who in his tenth decade on earth still possesses that rarest of airy commodities: hope.”
https://www.gq.com/story/jimmy-carter-for-higher-office
Money quote: “About 40 Sundays a year, Mr. Jimmy materializes from thin air, flickering before us at Maranatha to lead Bible study, to say, No, the world's not going to end. Not just yet. Though he's elfin with age, you'd still instantly recognize him as our 39th president: with those same hooded ice-blue eyes, the same rectangular head, the same famous 1,000-watt smile. But when he teaches like this, he transforms from whatever your vision of Jimmy Carter is into someone different, some kind of 93-year-old Yoda-like knower, who in his tenth decade on earth still possesses that rarest of airy commodities: hope.”
https://www.gq.com/story/jimmy-carter-for-higher-office
GQ
Jimmy Carter for Higher Office
At 93, the ex-president is preaching wise and powerful sermons that make us realize we need Jimmy Carter now more than ever.
Emacs, che io non uso, appartiene alla centralità del software open e anche alla centralità del software in generale, per come è costruito. La sua storia e affascinante.
Money quote: “Someone posted a chapter from Sam Williams’ book Free as in Freedom (online here), that discusses the early history of Emacs. The chapter, The Emacs Commune, is full of things I didn’t know about how Emacs evolved from the TECO editor”
http://irreal.org/blog/?p=7308
Money quote: “Someone posted a chapter from Sam Williams’ book Free as in Freedom (online here), that discusses the early history of Emacs. The chapter, The Emacs Commune, is full of things I didn’t know about how Emacs evolved from the TECO editor”
http://irreal.org/blog/?p=7308
Darsi agli acidi: è l’unica risorsa.
Money quote: “It’s 7 a.m. on the U-Bahn. Eyes still puffy from the night before. A woman slowly nibbles her morning brötchen while staring into the static on the broken TV above. Everyone is silent. And in this crowd of straight faces, there I am, grinning like an idiot.
Why? I have a little secret. There’s acid under my tongue.”
https://medium.com/s/story/the-mental-and-metaphysical-effects-of-microdosing-lsd-72819896215d
Money quote: “It’s 7 a.m. on the U-Bahn. Eyes still puffy from the night before. A woman slowly nibbles her morning brötchen while staring into the static on the broken TV above. Everyone is silent. And in this crowd of straight faces, there I am, grinning like an idiot.
Why? I have a little secret. There’s acid under my tongue.”
https://medium.com/s/story/the-mental-and-metaphysical-effects-of-microdosing-lsd-72819896215d
Medium
The Mental and Metaphysical Effects of Microdosing LSD
It’s 7 a.m. on the U-Bahn. Eyes still puffy from the night before. A woman slowly nibbles her morning brötchen while staring into the static on the broken TV above. Everyone is silent. And in this…
Sono critico nei confronti degli uffici open space (open office plan, in inglese) a prescindere da chi li organizza. Soprattutto, non li tollero quando lo spazio personale diventa virtuale e l’ufficio viene gestito in modalità provvisoria istituzionalizzata. Ogni mattina si cerca lo spazio dove lavorare e il posto di lavoro diventa l’armadietto.
Adesso ci sono anche delle valutazioni empiriche a supporto del mio stato d’animo.
Money quote: “Knowing that others are watching us limits the degree to which we might creatively solve a problem, and therefore be more productive, according to a study he conducted with factory workers. ‘Do I look busy?’ becomes more important than ‘Am I doing my best work?’”
https://work.qz.com/1322146/a-harvard-business-school-study-found-open-plan-offices-have-a-surprising-effect-on-our-collective-intelligence/
Adesso ci sono anche delle valutazioni empiriche a supporto del mio stato d’animo.
Money quote: “Knowing that others are watching us limits the degree to which we might creatively solve a problem, and therefore be more productive, according to a study he conducted with factory workers. ‘Do I look busy?’ becomes more important than ‘Am I doing my best work?’”
https://work.qz.com/1322146/a-harvard-business-school-study-found-open-plan-offices-have-a-surprising-effect-on-our-collective-intelligence/
Il gusto per l’Art Deco è forse ancora più strano di questo stile eclettico e trasversale, nato in laboratorio (per l’esposizione universale di Parigi del 1925), diventato il precursore del modernismo (nonché un elemento di base del nostro razionalismo) e poi rivalutato negli anni sessanta e in seconda volta negli anni ottanta.
Moda, design, tessuto, materiali (il legno laccato!) arte povera e arte africana. Mi piace, ne ho letto tanto e visto anche un bel po’ (dal Radio City Hall di New York al concomitante Chrysler building), lo mangio con gli occhi. Ma l’idea che Bombey (Mumbay) sia la seconda città al mondo per architettura in stile e con gusto Art Deco mi intriga e intristisce al tempo stesso. Già. Chissà.
Money quote: “But in Mumbai, believed to host the world’s second-largest collection of Art Deco buildings, such interest is hard to find. Tourists tend to focus on established landmarks, such as the Gateway of India, while residents, some of whom even live in Art Deco apartments, are hardly aware of their historical significance. Besides, in a city starved for space, conservation efforts haven’t always been able to save these heritage structures from damaging restoration or repair work, or even outright demolition”
https://qz.com/1014414/mumbai-has-the-worlds-second-largest-collection-of-art-deco-buildings-but-no-one-notices-them/amp/
Moda, design, tessuto, materiali (il legno laccato!) arte povera e arte africana. Mi piace, ne ho letto tanto e visto anche un bel po’ (dal Radio City Hall di New York al concomitante Chrysler building), lo mangio con gli occhi. Ma l’idea che Bombey (Mumbay) sia la seconda città al mondo per architettura in stile e con gusto Art Deco mi intriga e intristisce al tempo stesso. Già. Chissà.
Money quote: “But in Mumbai, believed to host the world’s second-largest collection of Art Deco buildings, such interest is hard to find. Tourists tend to focus on established landmarks, such as the Gateway of India, while residents, some of whom even live in Art Deco apartments, are hardly aware of their historical significance. Besides, in a city starved for space, conservation efforts haven’t always been able to save these heritage structures from damaging restoration or repair work, or even outright demolition”
https://qz.com/1014414/mumbai-has-the-worlds-second-largest-collection-of-art-deco-buildings-but-no-one-notices-them/amp/
Quartz India
Mumbai has the world’s second-largest collection of Art Deco buildings but no one notices them
Now these underrated structures have an online repository.
Questo articolo di Aeon è fenomenale. Più del solito. Tratta due argomenti che adoro, la cultura hacker e la gentrificazione. E li incrocia in modo magistrale. Se potessi prendermi qualche anno per scrivere un libro, magari un dottorato, questo sarebbe esattamente uno dei pochissimi argomenti che vorrei seguire.
Money quote: “This is not just about property. In cosmetics shops on Oxford Street in London you can find beauty products blazoned with pagan earth-mother imagery. Why are symbols of earth-worship found within the citadels of consumerism, printed on products designed to neutralise and control bodily processes? They’ve been gentrified. Pockets of actual paganism do still exist, but in the mainstream such imagery has been thoroughly cleansed of any subversive context.
At the frontiers of gentrification are entire ways of being – lifestyles, subcultures and outlooks that carry rebellious impulses. Rap culture is a case in point: from its ghetto roots, it has crossed over to become a safe ‘thing that white people like’. Gentrification is an enabler of doublethink, a means by which people in positions of relative power can, without contradiction, embrace practices that were formed in resistance to the very things they themselves represent.
We are currently witnessing the gentrification of hacker culture”
https://aeon.co/essays/how-yuppies-hacked-the-original-hacker-ethos
Money quote: “This is not just about property. In cosmetics shops on Oxford Street in London you can find beauty products blazoned with pagan earth-mother imagery. Why are symbols of earth-worship found within the citadels of consumerism, printed on products designed to neutralise and control bodily processes? They’ve been gentrified. Pockets of actual paganism do still exist, but in the mainstream such imagery has been thoroughly cleansed of any subversive context.
At the frontiers of gentrification are entire ways of being – lifestyles, subcultures and outlooks that carry rebellious impulses. Rap culture is a case in point: from its ghetto roots, it has crossed over to become a safe ‘thing that white people like’. Gentrification is an enabler of doublethink, a means by which people in positions of relative power can, without contradiction, embrace practices that were formed in resistance to the very things they themselves represent.
We are currently witnessing the gentrification of hacker culture”
https://aeon.co/essays/how-yuppies-hacked-the-original-hacker-ethos
Aeon
How yuppies hacked the original hacker ethos | Aeon Essays
The hacker ethos is wild and anarchic, indifferent to the trappings of success. Or it was, until the gentrifiers moved in