Furono i postini americani a sconfiggere la Mano Nera degli immigrati italiani.

Money quote: “No law enforcement institution in the nation had been able to penetrate the criminal organizations that had begun quietly terrorizing cities across America, particularly those with large populations of immigrants from Italy. Nearly 6 million Italian immigrants entered the country in the last two decades of the 1800s and organized crime, common in their native country, often found its way across the Atlantic, too. Increasingly in the papers, the gruesome crimes were credited to “Black Hand” criminals because of several recovered threat letters penned by “La Mano Nero” that demanded exorbitant payments, or death.”

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/09/16/the-postal-inspector-who-took-down-americas-first-organized-crime-ring-219597

La poesia è tutt’altro che morta. E questo canale, con il suo poeta residente (Roberto “Bob” R. Corsi), lo sa bene.

Money quote: “In its most recent survey, conducted in 2017 and published in 2018, the NEA found that, contrary to the sharp decline it had observed in previous surveys, poetry—reports of its death, etc.—had in fact seen a massive rise in popularity. The number of self-reported poetry readers in the United States nearly doubled between 2012 and 2017, that survey found”

https://www.theatlantic.com/amp/article/567571/

Arriva la Ricoh GR III. Ho comprato anni fa la II, che è la mia piccola, meravigliosa macchina digitale.

Money quote: "Nel corso di oltre 20 anni di storia, la serie in questione ha mantenuto il concetto base di ottimizzazione dei valori essenziali di una fotocamera: qualità d’immagine, portabilità e praticità operativa; il produttore parla di “cambiamenti e perfezionamenti necessari per soddisfare le necessità emergenti” spiegando che i modelli della serie GR sono scelti da numerosi fotografi, professionisti ed amatoriali con esperienza."

https://www.macitynet.it/ricoh-gr-iii-fotocamera-digitale-compatta-di-fascia-alta-in-anteprima-a-photokina-2018/

Da buon fiorentino sono cresciuto a cervella di vitello fritte o al tegamino. Poi è arrivata la mucca pazza e ha rovinato tutto per 15 anni almeno. Però mi garbavano, ah se mi garbavano.

Questa delle cervella di maiale per di più a colazione devo dire mi fa un po’ senso. Temo l'infarto per eccesso di colesterolo oltretutto. Ma chissà, magari ne vale la pena.

Money quote: “The brains, typically pork, are seasoned with salt, pepper, and a bit of paprika, then tossed in a hot pan before the eggs are added into the mix. The protein medley is then served on its own or packed into a biscuit for those on-the-go mornings. Diners describe the texture as soft with a relenting firmness, akin to curdled yogurt or firm tofu with a fatty aftertaste. If you can get past the massive cholesterol punch this breakfast food delivers, you’ll be sure to enjoy its savory flavor.”

https://www.atlasobscura.com/foods/scrambled-brains-and-eggs

Signore e signori, fake news e tapas per tutti!

Money quote: "Merlo’s Victory Lab is one of the estimated hundreds of homegrown Mexican Cambridge Analytica–like marketing firms that are constantly filling up the country’s social media platforms with junk. Victory Lab will make anything trend on any platform for a fee. He said a hashtag like the one he made for BuzzFeed News would cost around $10,000 if the client really wanted it to trend at number one."

https://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/meet-the-29-year-old-trying-to-become-the-king-of-mexican

Perché l’acquisto di Shazam fa bene agli affari di Apple (e non solo) - il mio articolo per Wired.it

https://www.wired.it/economia/business/2018/09/25/apple-musica-shazam/

Al di là della storia personale di questa donna - drammatica, o meglio: traumatica - il concetto di "Woundology" è geniale

Money quote: "Have you ever met someone for the first time and they started telling you all of their problems, their aches and pains, the problems they have with the people in their personal life, work, or that life is just overall crappy for them? They lay it all out there, scapegoating whoever or whatever to blame for their ongoing suffering, to the point where you’re overwhelmed and walk away stunned, yet relieved you escaped. That person is living in their wounds, wearing them like a badge of honor. That’s Woundology."

https://medium.com/redoubtable/woundology-stop-using-your-past-to-define-your-life-70e68972b65a

Avete un po' di ossessione per Tetris? Non siete soli. Ma questa semplice partenza apre secondo me una porta inedita a molte altre considerazioni

Money quote: "What do Steve Wozniak and George H.W. Bush have in common? They’ve both been seriously into Tetris! But who can blame them? The object of the game (as if you didn’t know) is to complete horizontal lines using falling shapes of various configurations. When you finish a line, it disappears, causing the rest of the blocks to fall down a line. However, if you stack up shapes to the point they overflow the top of the playfield: Game Over. When you finish a certain number of lines, the level ends… and in the next, the shapes fall faster, and you need to complete more lines! The insanity never ends."

https://paleotronic.com/2018/06/26/tetris-for-applesoft-basic/

A Tokyo sono affascinato dalla linea di treni leggeri Yamanote, che fa il giro della parte interna della città. È anche una suddivisione simbolica, un confine fra le due macro-aree della capitale giapponese: i quartieri residenziali (la "mano della montagna") e la città bassa. Tanto che l'altro poarte, la città bassa o Shitamachi, ospita anche un museo della vita quotidiana delle classi lavoratrici piccolo-borghesi. Un museo attaccato al laghetto di Ueno, dove c'è il piccolo albergo tradizionale a gestione famigliare in cui sono solito andare quando visito privatamente Tokyo. La prossima volta, chissà...

Money quote: "The historic separation of Tokyo into two distinct regions has persisted even to this day, though the definitions of the city’s boundaries have expanded. Yamanote (meaning “mountain’s hand”) was the hilly area populated by the rich and the powerful, including Tokugawa vassals and the military elite. Conversely, Shitamachi (meaning “under city” or “low city”) was flat and marshy, and distinctly lower class.

The first floor of the Shitamachi Museum contains a reproduced living space, showing how the latter’s everyday people once lived. "

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/shitamachi-museum

Si dimette l’inventore di Linux: il suo pessimo carattere rischia di rovinare l’azienda - il mio articolo (a pagamento) per La Stampa

http://www.lastampa.it/2018/09/27/tecnologia/il-pap-di-linux-fa-un-passo-indietro-dopo-anni-di-mail-piene-di-insulti-ho-bisogno-di-aiuto-6kgt7yfVXxcTNCfTZqIIcN/premium.html

La fotografia computazionale non ci farà sbagliare più una foto - il mio articolo per Wired.it

https://www.wired.it/gadget/foto-e-video/2018/09/27/attimo-deciso-computazionale/

Come risolvere il problema dei font sfocati su macOs Mojave - il mio articolo per Wired.it

https://www.wired.it/gadget/computer/2018/09/27/font-sfocati-mojave/

Jamie Zawinski è uno dei fondatori di Netscape (Mozilla e poi Firefox, per intendersi) nonché creatore degli XScreenSaver, che sono un classico (totalmente gratuito) per macOS e soprattutto per Linux e Unix/Bsd. Ecco, qui il nostro uomo spiega perché non esiste - e non deve esistere - una versione per Windows.

Money quote: "Sometimes people ask me why there is no Windows port of XScreenSaver. The reason is that Microsoft killed my company, and I hold a personal grudge. They are a company with vicious, predatory, anti-competitive business practices, and always have been. They also happen to make terrible products, and always have. I do not use any Microsoft products, and neither should you."

https://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/xscreensaver-windows.html

Qui una spiegazione su Wikipedia sintetica di cosa siano e come funzionino gli screensaver in questione

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XScreenSaver

e qui "Dna Lounge", il night club molto cyberpunk (modo elegante per dire che ha uno spirito tardo anni Ottanta) che Zawinski gestisce a San Francisco. Ci sono stato, è un posto epico.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_Lounge

Qui, infine, il nostro uomo:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_Zawinski

Su Medium una catena di cinguettii di twitter di Stephen Sinofsky (che ormai si esprime solo così: ah!, la nevrosi che lo arde da dentro) annotati e amplificati per portare avanti il ragionamento su Amazon e la sua evoluzione. Interessante.

Money quote: "A funny thing happens…"

https://medium.learningbyshipping.com/amazon-4648bdf511c

È un sacco di tempo che non scrivo per Il Post. Per questo ci tengo particolarmente. E poi perché la storia del primo Boeing 777 per me è speciale

Money quote: "Pian piano, uno dei giganti dell’aria, il primo della sua razza, è andato a dormire. Per sempre."

https://www.ilpost.it/antoniodini/2018/09/28/buonanotte-vecchio-triple-seven/

Dopo Vivian Maier, che secondo me era già di per sé una (geniale) forma di speculazione, arriva questo Barry Gfeller che è morto e sepolto lasciando però una tonnellata e mezzo di foto scattate di qua e di là. Ti fa capire però che quelle della Maier erano migliori.

Money quote: "“Ultimately, Gfeller drove over 100,000 miles across 44 states and six Canadian provinces between 1977 and 1996," says Mike O’Neill, a political strategist who first learned about Gfeller in 2016. After Gfeller died, the collection made its way from his estate to a Canadian charity. Sixteen years later, the charity asked O’Neill to help find a buyer who could donate the work to a museum. They didn’t have to look far. Fascinated, O’Neill purchased the collection himself in 2017. He's now begun to digitize the prints, and is searching for a long-term home for Gfeller’s archive."

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/barry-gfeller-photograph-collection

Perché Apple e Google vogliono che usiamo meno i nostri smartphone? Perché così ci sentiamo più sicuri. Ma pensa te!

Money quote: "With few exceptions, when a product harms people, consumers tend to use it less often or find better alternatives. The feature fight between these two tech rivals benefits everyone. The move to help users create healthy habits with their devices is an example of competition making products better."

https://medium.com/behavior-design/the-real-reason-apple-and-google-want-you-to-use-your-phone-less-37b2b7f1384

Se vogliamo conquistare Marte, prima dobbiamo creare dei guanti adatti allo scopo

Money quote: "This is nothing new for humans. We’ve built one world by hand, we can probably build another — even in harsh UV light, subzero temperatures, and a lethally low-pressure atmosphere. But if opposable thumbs were key to the evolution of human civilization, and humanity can’t be naked against the Martian elements, then it’s an unexpected and unglamorous factor that will determine whether or not we succeed: gloves."

https://medium.com/s/futurehuman/the-gloves-well-wear-on-mars-b5cb0f637e44

Questa cosa è psichedelica. Folle. Meravigliosa. Pannocchie colorate!

Money quote: "Soon, their questions were answered. Carl Barnes, a part-Cherokee farmer from Oklahoma, liked to experiment with ancestral corn varieties. After breeding several varieties together, the result was vibrantly-colored corn. The colored kernels ranged from vivid red to pale blue. Often, a single cob had a multitude of colors, each kernel the seed of a distinct plant. Through friends distributing the kernels and internet word-of-mouth, the lovely corn gained prominence on the seed scene. Though Barnes passed away in 2016, seed companies around the world still sell his jewel-like corn."

https://www.atlasobscura.com/foods/glass-gem-corn

E se mi volete in voce, eccomi ospite a Talos dove racconto la complessa storia dell'Eternauta

Achtung podcast!

https://rbe.it/2018/09/28/talos-la-complessa-storia-delleternauta/

La meravigliosa arte dell'hacking.

Money quote: "A few days ago on 25th April, while researching, I found that a lot of individuals and companies are putting their sensitive information on their public Trello boards. Information like unfixed bugs and security vulnerabilities, the credentials of their social media accounts, email accounts, server and admin dashboards — you name it, is available on their public Trello Boards which are being indexed by all the search engines and anyone can easily find them."

https://medium.freecodecamp.org/discovering-the-hidden-mine-of-credentials-and-sensitive-information-8e5ccfef2724