In arrivo Pixel 3 XL: lo smartphone di Google si ispira all’iPhone X - il mio articolo per La Stampa

http://www.lastampa.it/2018/08/25/tecnologia/in-arrivo-pixel-xl-lo-smartphone-di-google-si-ispira-alliphone-x-WHrh3xuQqYbk6BllbxzbyH/pagina.html

Poesie dalla rete: cresta usando la funzione di auto completamento delle ricerche di Google

Un Paese dala superiore civiltà. Non solo il Giappone ha una parola per indicare chi compra libri senza leggerli – Tsundoku, un’arte vera e propria – ma oltretutto non è neanche un insulto, bensì una semplice constatazione. Ahhh, partirei stasera stessa.

Money quote: “"The phrase 'tsundoku sensei' appears in text from 1879 according to the writer Mori Senzo," Prof Gerstle explained. "Which is likely to be satirical, about a teacher who has lots of books but doesn't read them."

While this might sound like tsundoku is being used as an insult, Prof Gerstle said the word does not carry any stigma in Japan”

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-44981013

E adesso abbiamo i corsi gratuiti anche su Google. Che pare siano buoni per gli imprenditori e i manager, se non altro.

Money quote: “These classes, like many others, are all free. You can find most of them through Class Central. Here are a few of the most appealing.”

https://www.inc.com/minda-zetlin/google-free-online-courses-for-entrepreneurs-marketers-business-executives.html

Brutalismo per tutti. La Casa Sperimentale di Fregene

Money quote: “Giuseppe Perugini, with the help of his wife Uga De Plaisant and their son Raynaldo Perugini, built the unique structure in the late 1960s. They used the construction of their holiday home as an opportunity for a reflection on living spaces and a test of the technical feasibility of some of Perugini’s ideas.

The home is elevated and built around the surrounding pine forest. It’s only accessible by one bright red staircase, which functioned as a drawbridge and could be lifted to cut off the outside world. It’s sometimes referred to as the “repeatable house” or the “un-finishable house,” since it was completely modular and could be expanded on at any time.“

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/casa-sperimentale

Ci sono immaginari femminili che vengono generati da pochi centri di origine. Sono le Gwyneth, le Ivanka e poche altre. Argomento notevole. Avevamo cominciato a parlarne l’altro giorno con l’articolo sulla Paltrow, ma qui si generalizza di più.

Money quote: “This image seems to have just popped into my head, inexplicably. But deep in my grease-encrusted, black-coffee-pounding heart, I know its origin. It floated into my mind in the late 2000s, along with a recommendation for hibiscus-infused salts, and never floated back out. The woman in my fantasy isn’t me. She’s Gwyneth Paltrow.”

https://medium.com/s/story/gwyneth-ivanka-and-the-end-of-the-effortless-white-woman-9d8c4e01a026

Come si fa quando si ha un solo nome? (un nome-cognome). O due volte un solo nome? Nell'ambito della ricerca, qui sono stati raccolti un po' di "mono-professor" e di "professor professor"

Money quote: "(This list was updated July 30, 2007. The concept was announced in the December 2005 issue of mini-AIR. Additions to the collection are announced in mini-AIR, and recorded here. Mono-professors?professors who have just one name?are also included in this list.)"

https://www.improbable.com/2006/02/09/prof-profs/

La filosofia di Ernst Becker è piuttosto singolare ma anche interessante. Siamo animali pensanti e quindi capaci di capire che dobbiamo morire. Questa è la spinta, più o meno consapevole, della nostra esistenza come individui e sopratutto come specie. Superare la nostra mortalità (e l’altra idea, aggiungo, che cioè tutto venga fatto per impressionare la ragazza, è coerente perché ben sappiamo che Eros e Thanatos sono legati).

Ora, cosa ce ne facciamo del cogito ergo sum in chiave neo empirista? una risposata viene dalla dicotomia corpo-mente e dalle conseguenze della spinta legata alla consapevolezza della morte e il desiderio - molto umano - di superarla.

Money quote: “Much of the evil in the world, according to Becker, is born from our attempt to defy the limitations of the physical body by compensating with this image of self — an image that can technically survive and impact the world long after we die (often referred to as a legacy).”

https://medium.com/personal-growth/the-elements-that-shape-an-authentic-life-547f7e91db74

I venti film più belli/importanti di vent'anni fa. Cosa c'era al cinema nel 1998. Me ne sono perso quasi la metà, vedo, ma in effetti è stato un anno notevole.

Money quote: Salvate il soldato Ryan. Il grande Lebowski. The Truman Show. Shakespeare In Love. A Bug’s Life. The Thin Red Line. Out Of Sight.

https://film.avclub.com/the-best-movies-of-1998-1828534340

Sull'elaborazione del lutto e sulla nostra capacità di lasciare andare, secondo gli stoici

Money quote: "How should we grieve when someone close to us dies? Should we wail and gnash our teeth? Should we swallow our pain? Some would say there is no right answer. You feel whatever you feel, and heal however you heal, and that’s okay. But according to the ancient Stoics – those Greco-Roman philosophers making a comeback as preachers of practical wisdom in a self-help world – there is a correct answer to the question of how we should grieve. And the answer is that we shouldn’t. What’s done is done. There is nothing you can do to change the situation – so move on."

https://aeon.co/essays/do-not-weep-for-your-dead-how-to-mourn-as-the-stoics-did

Alcune cose su John McCain da leggere da chi ha lavorato con lui a lungo

Money quote: “ First, whoever’s been talking about John McCain’s funeral is doing no one any favors. There’s no need for that right now, and the McCain family will announce any details about the funeral. But the general principle here is this: One of things McCain says in this book, and something he would like the country to appreciate better, is that we have so much more in common than we have that divides us. George Bush and Barack Obama defeated him. He knows this. But he knows that they are fellow Americans with the same values and interests that he shares. He may disagree with how they served those values and interests, but he knows that we are all Americans”

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/05/john-mccains-greatest-fear/560915/

Lo considero un mio vecchio classico!

Per Fumettologica

Money quote: “Sappiamo che in questa colonna metafisica e digitale, Science Friction, si parla di fantascienza, argomento che dovrebbe essere off-limits per i protagonisti del Vecchio West a fumetti. Invece, a sorpresa per alcuni, il vecchio Tex entra in questo spazio dalla porta principale, anche se vedremo tra poco in che modo”

http://www.fumettologica.it/2018/02/fantascienza-tex-fumetto-bonelli/

Ok, questa notizia ve la rovino, non c'è bisogno di andare a leggerla. Il senso è: da dieci anni va a giro con il suo iPod, compagno di viaggi e sirena dei suoi stati d'animo. Con annesso gigantesco adesivo del duo Gaspard Augé e Xavier de Rosnay, a.k.a. “Justice”. Poi iPod si rompe, lui ne fa un mini funerale su internet e, a sorpresa, i due musicisti gli scrivono: te ne regaliamo uno con un po' della nostra musica, che ne dici?

Carramba che sorpresa! (e che marketing, devo dire! di quello come lo insegnano nei corsi fighi: ascolta il tuo cliente e avvia la conversazione, partecipa a quel che dice).

Money quote: "The user in question was named Effennekappa. “I’ve spent 10 years with this 160gb monster in my pocket, it’s been with me in every single trip, journey and commute I’ve made since I was 20,” the user wrote. “Today it played its last song. Farewell, you magnificent bastard.”

Justice is served
An accompanying image showed the battle-worn silver iPod, complete with a rear sticker for the French electronic music duo Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay, a.k.a. “Justice.”

The post got quite a bit of attention as fellow iPod users shared their thoughts on what it was like to lose a beloved MP3 player. Somewhere along the way, however, Justice stumbled across the thread, and paid their respects — as well as offering to replace the iPod in question.

“Hello u/effennekappa! Sorry to hear about your iPod,” Xavier de Rosnay posted. “Would it be possible for us to send you a new one? We’ll put some new music on it.”"

https://www.cultofmac.com/556293/ipod-memorial-earns-one-reddit-user-a-sweet-surprise/

In una stupenda rappresentazione grafica basata su dati provenienti dallo Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, le vendite di armi da parte di USA e Russia al resto del mondo.

Link: http://bit.ly/2MUbgi6

Ogni tanto penso che dovrebbero mandare a scrivere questi articoli giornalisti che hanno una vaga idea di cosa sia un computer. Comunque è godibile, soprattutto se avete una predilezione per la scrittura melodrammatica. Però non corretto tecnicamente.

Money quote: “Algorithms have changed, from Really Simple to Ridiculously Complicated. They are capable of accomplishing tasks and tackling problems that they’ve never been able to do before. They are able, really, to handle an unfathomably complex world better than a human can. But exactly because they can, the way they work has become unfathomable too. Inputs loop from one algorithm to the next; data presses through more instructions, more code. The complexity, dynamism, the sheer not-understandability of the algorithm means that there is a middle part – between input and output – where it is possible that no one knows exactly what they’re doing. The algorithm learns whatever it learns. “The reality is, professionally, I only look under the hood when it goes wrong. And it can be physically impossible to understand what has actually happened.””

https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/public/ridiculously-complicated-algorithms/

Storia più debole della sua bellissima premessa, letteralmente fantasmagorica. Però sempre una bella storia che para di Giappone e di Unicode. Che vuoi di più?

Uno spettro si aggira nei nostri computer...

Money quote: “To sum up - in 1978 a series of small mistakes created some characters out of nothing. The errors went undiscovered just long enough to be set in stone, and now these ghosts are, at least in potential, a part of every computer on the planet, lurking in the dark corners of character tables.”

https://www.dampfkraft.com/ghost-characters.html

Creare i propri nemici. O creare la loro stessa idea/ il mondo musulmano, ad esempio.

Money quote: “he idea of an ancient clash between the Muslim World and the Christian World is a dangerous and modern myth. It relies on fabricated misrepresentations of separate Islamic and Western geopolitical and civilisational unities. Pan-Africanism and Pan-Asianism offer a better context for understanding Pan-Islamism. All three emerged in the late 19th century, at the height of the age of empire, and as counters to Anglo-Saxon supremacy and the white man’s civilising mission. Pan-Islamists in the age of empire did not have to convince fellow Muslims about the global unity of their co-religionists. By racialising their Muslim subjects with references to their religious identity, colonisers created the conceptual foundations of modern Muslim unity”

https://aeon.co/essays/the-idea-of-a-muslim-world-is-both-modern-and-misleading

La trasformazione epocale in corso, che vede uno spostamento delle vendite di qualsiasi cosa dai negozi fisici a quello online, Amazon in testa, crea cambiamento anche nelle profondità del tessuto industriale.

Se si va un po’ a indagare si possono trovare succose (e voluminose) chicche come il Tetra Pak Index, un rapporto online che analizza in maniera approfondita le tendenze in atto, i cambiamenti, le esigenze dei diversi attori (industria e consumatori) sino ad arrivare a considerazioni ed esempi alquanto stimolanti, oltre a una comprensibile lettura delle opportunità “pro domo loro”.

Valida lettura per capire cosa stiamo diventando e cosa compreremo. Ad esempio, olio d’oliva italiano nel tetrapak...

Money quote: “Convenience, sustainability, quality and innovation are all key selling points for Di Carlo Extra Virgin Olive Oil - Italy's first ever extra virgin olive oil to be packed in Tetra Pak® packages. Available online via Amazon, ease of delivery is key to the product offering, hence the importance of the logistical and distribution efficiency of cartons over the alternatives - traditionally heavy, breakable glass in the case of olive oil. The environmental benefits of the packages, manufactured from FSC™-certified and controlled sources paperboard, are also cited in its marketing, along with the ability of the multiple layers to protect the contents from oxygen and light - the main causes of olive oil oxidation. A premium product made with 100% Italian, cold-pressed olives, it was launched in Tetra Prisma® Aseptic 100 Square packages with a convenient, easy-to-open and reseal cap in January 2018.”

https://www.tetrapak.com/about/tetra-pak-index/tetra-pak-index-online-report

Una bella e accorata difesa del l’insegnamento tradizionale - fisico, tangibile, tattile - anziché digitale, sullo schermo e mediato dal computer. Fenomenale.

Money quote: “If the move to digital learning continues, children will spend much, if not most, of their waking hours in front of screens. They will use apps before they go to school, spend their days in front of computers, do their homework online, and then entertain themselves with digital media. Children are losing opportunities to experience the world in all its richness”

Aggiungo un paio di cose. Qui si parla di usare il computer per insegnare e non si parla di insegnare l’informatica, che a sua volta è cosa diversa dal saper usare il computer. Beh, forse sarà sorprendente, ma si impara meglio anche l’informatica come scienza quando non si usa il computer.

https://aeon.co/essays/children-learn-best-when-engaged-in-the-living-world-not-on-screens

MacBook Pro 2018, la recensione: Apple mostra i muscoli - la mia prova del portatile Apple per Wired

https://www.wired.it/gadget/computer/2018/08/30/recensione-macbook-pro-2018/

Che ne pensate, il riscaldamento globale è vero o è una fake news? Non è una domanda banale, e non solo perché viviamo nell'era di Donald Trump. Come dimostrano quelli che negano l'evoluzione o anche la semplice idea che la Terra non sia piatta ma sferica (sì, sappiamo che ci siete, là fuori), semplicemente dire che una cosa è vera non la rende per questo vera. Servono prove, dimostrazioni, metodo scientifico. Ecco, tutto questo per quanto riguarda il riscaldamento globale è sul serio alla portata di tutti.

Money quote: "You don’t need a thermometer or a rain gauge to notice climate change, and you don’t need to be a scientist to see it.

Evidence is in the blueberry bushes in Henry David Thoreau’s Walden Pond, the dwindling population of polar bears of the Arctic and the dying corals worldwide. Scientists have documented 28,800 cases of plants and animals “responding consistently to temperature changes,” a 2008 study in the journal Nature said.

“Nature is extremely sensitive to temperature and nature is reacting to the warmer temperatures,” said Boston University biologist Richard Primack. “The dramatic change is happening right in front of us.”"

https://apnews.com/c895b9ac7e4a4370953e51862285c2ce/Looking-for-signs-of-global-warming