Lo segnalo un po’ in ritardo, scusatemi, perché è un periodo un po’ pieno di cose: questa settimana, da ieri sino a venerdì, la mattina alle 0818 sono ospite del programma “In altre parole” della Radio Svizzera per parlare di:… molte cose!

Qui ci sono le puntate della trasmissione già andate in onda:

https://www.rsi.ch/rete-due/programmi/cultura/in-altre-parole/?f=podcast-shows

Un editor di codice molto semplice ma nient’affatto banale, che lavora con il Python ed è pensato per chi impara: bambini e non solo. Io con il Python ci sto giocando e trovo Mu ottimo pure per uno zuccone come me.

La frase portatrice sana di valore di questa breve meteora di contenuto su Mostly, I Write, è una citazione che appartiene ad Alan Kay, coioè a una generazione precedente a chi ha fatto questo editor, ma ha ispirato gli autori di Code with Mu.

Money quote: “It’s not a fake version of math. It’s kind of like little league, or even T-ball. In sports they do this all the time. In music, they do it all the time. The idea is, you never let the child do something that isn’t the real thing—but you have to work your ass off to figure out what the real thing is in the context of the way their minds are working at that developmental level.”

https://codewith.mu/

Non parliamo molto di security qui su Mostly, nonostante sia uno dei temi dei quali scrivo abbastanza regolarmente. Beh, ecco qui un bell’attacco...

Money quote: “A few months ago, I began to follow a winding path of research into a 10 year-old network attack called DNS rebinding. Put simply, DNS rebinding allows a remote attacker to bypass a victim’s network firewall and use their web browser as a proxy to communicate directly with devices on their private home network. By following the wrong link, or being served a malicious banner advertisement, you could inadvertently provide an attacker with access to the thermostat that controls the temperature in your home”

https://medium.com/@brannondorsey/attacking-private-networks-from-the-internet-with-dns-rebinding-ea7098a2d325

Sarà perché avrei voglia di viaggiare, o perché sono un nerd degli aeroporti, ma sono affascinato dalla storia di questo tizio che mescolando i codici aeroportuali cerca di formare parole di nove lettere con senso compiuto (in inglese)

Money quote: “Higgins started with a fairly limited vocabulary list, and came out with just 36 words that qualified, from AEROMETER (Sochi, Russia + Nome, Alaska + Terceira, Portugal) to TRICHROME (Bristol, Tennessee + Châteauroux, France + Nome again, Nome again, jiggity jig).”

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-many-words-can-you-make-with-airport-codes

Perché voi pensate che la rete sia una cosa seria, concertata, orchestrata. Invece è un simpatico meeting di anarchici egoisti capitalisti situazionisti, incompetentisti, furbeschi e truffaldini. Insomma, funziona per caso. Come la storia di Cloudflare e 1.1.1.1 dimostrano. (Però il servizio funziona alla grande).

Money quote: “Twitter cybersecurity celebrity @SwiftOnSecurity has been retweeting some of the more egregious allegations, such as 1.1.1.1 being used by Fortinet VPN as the virtual endpoint; 1.1.1.1 being used as the default logout for Nomadix controllers, which are primarily used in hospitality industry environments; AT&T Gigapower using 1.1.1.1 on an internal interface on at least one model of router-gateway, the Pace 5268AC, which effectively blocks this address; and even Vodafone Germany using it as an image caching server on their mobile network.

Huston is familiar with usages like this, and has also seen Wi-Fi hotspots using 1.1.1.1 as their router address. He's not impressed.

"Some folk, without any material to justify it, started configuring 1.1.1.1. Now, I can start using your IP address, I suppose, but we're both going to have a problem," Huston told ZDNet, laughing”

http://www.zdnet.com/google-amp/article/1-1-1-1-cloudflares-new-dns-attracting-gigabits-per-second-of-rubbish/

Me l’ero persa, ma non poteva mancare Milagros Caturla, la Vivian Maier catalana.

Secondo me, guardando le foto che non sono poi questa cosa stratosferica, ci sono anche delle speculazioni dietro. Perché poi fanno le mostre, i libri e soprattutto le stampe numerate.

https://barbarapicci.com/2017/05/26/milagros-caturla/

Intrigante (lungo e ben articolato) saggio sulle tre fasi della critica ad Apple: dall’odio perdonale all’amore sviscerato

Money quote: “Apple bashing is one of the tech world’s favorite pastimes, and having a headline that criticizes Apple, highlights the company’s shortcomings, or predicts their doom is a surefire way to attract pageviews from both Apple detractors and fans. Apple is the world’s richest company, and rooting for the underdog is more fun than backing the champion, so it’s understandable that people want to see Apple taken down a few pegs”

https://medium.com/rethink-reviews/airpods-and-the-three-stages-of-apple-criticism-fed70b84e435

La tesi di questo articolo non è rivoluzionaria né inedita ma sempre godibile. La magia dei libri, la capacità di generare un mondo, sta sospesa nello spazio tra chi scrive e chi legge.

Peccato che come al solito il repertorio di citazioni sia pressoché tutto centrato su autori di lingua inglese. Che provincialismo!

Money quote: “According to Gavron: ‘Omission is a form of creation. Limit, constraint and the compulsions of the unknown – the excluded – are the true foundation of narrative art. A place for the reader to enter more fully into the book.’”

https://aeon.co/ideas/in-the-gap-between-writer-and-reader-the-novel-comes-to-life

Il problema dell'innovazione è che, quando è lasciata completamente libera e selvaggia, va più veloce. Almeno, così pensano negli Usa. In Cina, invece, si pongono il problema opposto: innovare sì, ma con giudizio e senza pregiudizio per il governo.

Money quote: "China plans to require a security review of generative AI services before they’re allowed to operate, casting uncertainty over ChatGPT-like bots unveiled by the country’s largest tech companies including Baidu Inc.

Providers of services must ensure content is accurate and respects intellectual property, and neither discriminates nor endangers security, the Cyberspace Administration of China said in draft guidelines published for public feedback. AI operators must also clearly label AI-generated content, the country’s internet overseer said in a statement posted on its website".

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-04-11/china-to-mandate-security-reviews-for-new-chatgpt-like-services

Una storia particolare: il regista James Gunn e i "suoi" attori.

Money quote: "Nearly five years later, Gunn, 56, is in the midst of his own epic Hollywood comeback, in no small part thanks to the efforts of his cast.

Not only was he rehired to direct the film he was fired from, "Guardians 3", but while in postproduction he landed the coveted job of co-head of DC Studios, Marvel’s chief rival. By hiring him, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav clearly hopes Gunn will bring some of the Marvel magic with him. Gunn’s new gig also includes writing and directing a Superman movie. All of this makes him poised to be the most important figure in the comic book space since Feige, not to mention one of the busiest."

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/guardians-of-the-galaxy-chris-pratt-cast-saved-james-gunn-1235401687/

Purtroppo ci ha lasciati Tina Turner.

Tina Turner, Singer of Explosive Power, Is Dead at 83

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/24/arts/music/tina-turner-dead.html

Gli ultimi venti anni dello scorso millennio sono stati molte cose. Una di queste, di cui non si parla mai, è il modo con il quale hanno ridefinito il corpo della donna (e di molti uomini) con una versione semplificata di tutte le possibili forme che può assumere: la magrezza.

Money quote: "Three months later, I read the "Letters to the Editor" (which, miraculously, have been digitized), which framed the cover model “as a body you can relate to.” The first letter, written from a dorm at Wheaton College, expressed “relief”; the second thanked "Seventeen" for putting someone “who forgets to do their step aerobics from time to time,” and the third argued that if you’re going to put someone in a bikini on the cover, “she ought to have a better figure.”"

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-millennial-vernacular-of-fatphobia

I Marvel Studios vogliono farci godere con le piccole cose - il mio articolo per Fumettologica

https://fumettologica.it/2023/05/marvel-studios-nuova-fase-piccole-cose/

Usare degli alberi che volano, sospesi sopra la strada, come strumento mimetico. Ah, l'ingegno finnico.

Money quote: "This photo—which has appeared on social media in recent years, usually by accounts that specialize in history—is from the Finnish Defence Forces’ Photograph Archive. “War photographers were given instructions about generic topics to capture,” says Johanna Palokangas, the head of the archive. “Still, in the end they decided what to shoot and what not.” The collection contains around 160,000 images captured between 1939 and 1945, when Finland fought two separate wars against the Soviet Union: the Winter War and the Continuation War."

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/finland-world-war-ii-camouflage

Là fuori, da qualche parte, c'è la bolla in cui la conversazione sugli orologi meccanici di lusso procede imperterrita. A più livelli.

Money quote: "The purpose of this article is not to tell you that you need to buy an Omega Speedmaster. You don’t need to buy any watches, period. Here are just 10 reasons in favor of buying a Speedmaster watch. If you’ve been debating whether or not to buy one, these might encourage you to pull the trigger."

https://www.fratellowatches.com/10-reasons-to-buy-a-speedmaster/

Uno strano, lungo, interessante, ipnotico articolo letterario. È una madre vera, con una figlia vera, al tempo stesso è una creatura letteraria, artefatta come tutte le creature letterarie. Buone intenzioni, ideologia, autoanalisi, ritratto di una generazione che non sa esprimersi dentro un privilegio morbido, non radicale ed esposto: ci ritrovo tantissimi discorsi e tantissima America che ho incontrato in questi anni. Una ottima lettura per la domenica.

Money quote: "Much of the time, I feel like a girl. A curious girl of 48 who, today, is walking the neighborhood streets with a girl of 13, and listening to what this girl has to say. She happens to be my kid, this person I made, a living being that gave my life a whole new significance. She will grow up and leave me and yet never leave me; she will be mine forever, a being I shaped."

https://longreads.com/2023/04/27/girl-genius/

Sam Altman, il fondatore di OpenAI (leggi: ChatGPT), nel tempo libero si occupa anche di crittografia e cerca di trovare la quadra per entrare anche in quel mondo in maniera innovativa. Direi che sta facendo mosse interessanti, come questa di qualche settimana fa passata un po' sotto traccia.

Money quote: "As advances in AI make it more difficult to discern bots from humans, Sam Altman, the co-founder of Open AI – the company behind ChatGPT – thinks blockchains can help.
Altman’s crypto project, Worldcoin, rose to prominence last year with a controversial, Silicon Valley vision for a universal basic income (UBI): a crypto token that can be distributed in equal quantity to everyone in the world.
Worldcoin is back again this week with a new launch – this one poised to be its biggest yet. World App, Worldcoin’s crypto wallet, built on the Ethereum sidechain Polygon, is the first product from the elusive identity upstart that anyone, anywhere will be able to download.
The new app is one part minimalist crypto wallet, and one part passport for the AI era. It’s Worldcoin’s biggest swing yet to redefine itself in the eyes of consumers."

https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2023/05/08/sam-altmans-crypto-project-worldcoin-releases-first-major-consumer-product/

Da salvare e leggere con calma.

“Eight Things to Know about Large Language Models” è un paper di "literature review", vale a dire non fa ricerca originale ma serve per fare il punto della situazione. E lo fa in maniera estremamente chiara e comprensibile.

Il link è diretto al pdf.

Money quote: "The widespread public deployment of large language models (LLMs) in recent months has prompted a wave of new attention and engagement from advocates, policymakers, and scholars from many fields. This attention is a timely response to the many urgent questions that this technology raises, but it can sometimes miss important considerations. This paper surveys the evidence for eight potentially surprising such points:
1. LLMs predictably get more capable with increasing investment, even without targeted innovation.
2. Many important LLM behaviors emerge unpredictably as a byproduct of increasing investment.
3. LLMs often appear to learn and use representations of the outside world.
4. There are no reliable techniques for steering the behavior of LLMs.
5. Experts are not yet able to interpret the inner workings of LLMs.
6. Human performance on a task isn’t an upper bound on LLM performance.
7. LLMs need not express the values of their creators nor the values encoded in web text.
8. Brief interactions with LLMs are often misleading."

https://cims.nyu.edu/~sbowman/eightthings.pdf

Il personaggio interpretato da Julia Louis-Deryfus nella sitcom Seinfeld, Elaine Benes, è una bomba sexy o una ragazza normalina-bruttina?

Uno di quegli articoli come la cioccolata che, se non li avessero già pubblicati e letti in tutto il mondo, ti verrebbe voglia di tradurli e far finta di averli scritti tu.

Money quote 1: "Which is how, in a roundabout way, I’ve found myself thinking about Elaine Benes. Is Seinfeld’s best character hot? Obviously Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who played Elaine Benes for nine seasons, is a certifiably gorgeous woman, but that’s not the question. Is Elaine herself canonically hot? If she is, why is she hanging out with these dorks? Is she a hot woman doing dorky things? Or is she a dorky woman who happens to be extremely hot? Are hotness and dorkiness mutually exclusive properties?"

Money quote 2: "Sitcoms, especially those from the ’80s and ’90s, are a strange animal. There’s a baseline level of attractiveness that people, especially women, need to get on television, and sitcoms usually depict what are supposed to be “regular” people. Also, when I first watched Seinfeld, I was 8, and gay: Elaine’s attractiveness eluded me.

Elaine’s canonical hotness might seem clear to modern, adult eyes, but there are reasons to question it."

https://www.vox.com/culture/23721402/seinfeld-elaine-canonically-hot-julia-louis-dreyfus

C'è stato un momento nella storia della civiltà umana che negli Usa non avevano l'aria condizionata. Sembra incredibile, ma c'erano già delle persone in America.

Money quote: "People on West 110th Street, where I lived, were a little too bourgeois to sit out on their fire escapes, but around the corner on 111th and farther uptown mattresses were put out as night fell, and whole families lay on those iron balconies in their underwear."

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1998/06/22/before-air-conditioning

"Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse", la recensione - la mia recensione per Fumettologica

https://fumettologica.it/2023/06/spider-man-across-the-spider-verse-recensione-film-marvel/