Se pensate che tornare a fare le foto con le macchine a pellicola in formato 136 (cioè il full frame o "piccolo formato" 24x36) sia un esercizio pensato per rendere la cattura delle immagini più consapevole e lenta, vuol dire che non avete mai provato il medio formato 120. Con 12 immagini per rullo. Altra roba.

Money quote: "These days everyone has a smart phone, and every tourist seems to either be touting a DSLR or a selfie stick. Locals see us coming and keep a wide berth. Shooting with a medium format camera will open a travel or street photographer to an entirely new world. People see the unusual looking camera and actually want to interact with you and to be photographed. Having a camera that people are interested in opens up a photographer to new experiences, whether it be a networking or an adventure opportunity. This advantage alone makes up for carrying the bulky weight of it. And although the camera itself may draw attention, a waste level viewfinder offers the ability for stealth shooting to catch natural and unexpected moments."

https://www.darksilverblog.com/mediumformat

Che fine ha fatto Doonesbury - il mio articolo per Fumettologica

https://fumettologica.it/2023/06/che-fine-ha-fatto-doonesbury-trudeau/

Credo che potremmo tranquillamente fare un titolo di giornale così anche in Italia

Money quote: "Poole said that his state’s government had larger issues to tackle than TikTok. "It’s so goofy to target them," he said. "We have terrible infrastructure; last year we had massive flooding that took out bridges and roads. There are so many other issues that nobody’s talking about, but they’re focusing on banning an entertainment app because they’re afraid of China mining data that the US already mines itself."

TikTok remains extraordinarily popular among young Americans; it has over 100 million users in the US. Representatives for TikTok told the AP that more than 200,000 people in Montana alone use the app."

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/may/19/montana-tiktok-ban-user-reaction-influencer

Avete presente quella operazione agli occhi che si fa con il laser e zac zac, tutto a posto in mezz’oretta? Beh, a quanto pare non va proprio liscia a tutti quanti.

Money quote: "According to the draft, doctors would be advised to share with their clients that their corneal nerves "may never fully recover, resulting in dry eyes and/or chronic pain", and that there have been reports of some patients who have experienced depression or suicidality they believe to be a result of the fallout from Lasik. (The FDA notes that "a definitive causal link between Lasik and these reported psychological harms has not been established".)"

(si parlasse di vaccini ci sarebbe già la guerra).

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/apr/18/lasik-laser-eye-surgery

La fascinazione per l’America del passato e la sua nostalgia è una specie di desiderio simmetrico o forse archetipo rispetto a quel che succede da noi. Questo racconto mostra a che punto della retromania sono arrivati.

Money quote: "To me, so much of the story of America over the past 50 or 60 years is told in not only the food that these places serve but also in how these places are marketed, and how their signage and their buildings are designed. Just look at, to take one of my favorite subjects, McDonald’s, and how their architecture evolved from gaudy, neon, massive arches on a slanted glass building.

By the late '60s, this is becoming a bit tacky, and McDonald’s needs to keep growing beyond the roadside. They want to get into downtowns and suburbs, so then they come up with the mansard building, which can fit into a New England downtown.

Then, a generation later, that look is becoming a bit dowdy. And now, of course, we seem to not want to market our stores using architecture or signage. They’re all gray boxes that are sterile and sleek and perhaps elegant in a Bahausian way, but they are not particularly interesting and not something that captures your attention."

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-to-retro-road-trip-guide

Apple Vision Pro SDK, il momento della verità - il mio articolo per Macity

https://www.macitynet.it/apple-vision-pro-sdk-il-momento-della-verita/

Perché non mettere un "Out Of Office" perenne alla nostra mail, spiegando che non rispondiamo in tempo reale e che la leggiamo solo una o due volte al giorno? Non sarebbe più sincero che non lasciare questo vuoto dove le persone si negano senza spiegazione, salvo riemergere all’improvviso?

Money quote: "While using an OOO response 24/7 may not be for everyone, according to Lauren Gordon, lead behavioural insights advisor at Bupa UK, it could be a great way to remove distractions, reduce presenteeism and help you feel more in control of your workflow.

"It’s hard to be productive at work without boundaries -- they help manage the expectations that our colleagues have for us," Gordon tells *Stylist*.

"For example, if you’re working towards a tight deadline, it might be helpful to put an out-of-office on to explain that it might take longer for you to reply while you concentrate on the task.""

https://www.stylist.co.uk/life/careers/setting-work-boundaries-out-of-office/632254

La cosa dell’accento tra americani e inglesi è fantastica. Ma non è così fuori di testa come sembra: segue dinamiche diverse ma regole simili anche da noi. Infatti, avete presente il gioco che c’è con gli accenti napoletani, siciliani, romani, milanesi tra i ragazzini? No?

Money quote: "Americans have long been called out for their phony British accents – think Madonna in her Guy Ritchie era, or the friend who just came home from studying abroad in London. But Gen Z has embraced bad imitations of Cockney slang or a Yorkshire dialect, using obviously fake, theatrical voices to make light of low-grade daily dramas.

Vibe check: what does the most overused word of our era actually mean?
Read more
What’s behind the trend? Green, who is 26 and appeared on the US version of Love Island, blames it on her love for the original UK dating show.

“The accent really took over when I started watching the show,” she said. “It blew the accent the fuck up, and everyone was obsessed with their cute little sayings, like ‘doing bits’.” (For the uninitiated, that means getting intimate but not having sex.)"

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/may/14/fake-british-accents-americans-gen-z

L’autore di un libro sui funghi, che è una specie di divulgatore-intrattenitore, sta diventando una celebrità. Merito dei suoi talenti di public speaker ma anche dell’argomento che tratta.

Money quote: "At talks like these, Sheldrake is sometimes asked to answer a question he poses in the first chapter of his book: What is it like to be a fungus? The answer, at least according to Sheldrake, is at once alien and wondrous. "If you had no head, no heart, no center of operations," he began. "If you could taste with your whole body. If you could take a fragment of your toe or your hair and it would grow into a new you -- and hundreds of these new yous could fuse together into some impossibly large togetherness. And when you wanted to get around, you would produce spores, this little condensed part of you that could travel in the air." There were nods. In the audience, the woman next to me gave a long, affirming hum.

"Entangled Life" has turned Sheldrake, who is 36, into a kind of human ambassador for the fungal kingdom: the face of fungi."

https://archive.is/vy5K5#selection-611.0-623.125

Drew Barrymore si è reinventata alla grande. Vivendo in pubblico in maniera "terapeutica".

Money quote: "The Drew Barrymore Show launched into a void during the pandemic and, three seasons in, has become a therapy-infused, feel-good viral sensation — a part-Oprah, post-Ellen lovefest among its famous host, her famous guests, and her adoring audience. The show is by and for Barrymore: a venue for her to laugh, learn, love, cry, get rid of stains, and get snuggly. It is the purest distillation of the Drew Barrymore brand (also available as a chair at Walmart), which she has honed since becoming the most famous child star since Shirley Temple, overcoming her adolescent humiliation with a redemption arc as America’s rom-com sweetheart. Now, she’s bringing the public along for her postdivorce, don’t-call-it-sobriety alcohol-abstaining, single-mom journey of healing and self-discovery. She’s a conduit for all these emotions — hers, her guests’, yours — because rather than shut down or become self-protective, she opened up in the other direction: Let’s feel together five times a week."

https://www.vulture.com/article/drew-barrymore-show-profile.html

C’è una fotocamera miracolosa e di nicchia che però fa tendenza: la Leica M Monochrom, la fotocamera serie M che fa foto solo in bianco e nero (ma molto meglio di quelle a colori). Ecco, gli altri forse ci stanno arrivando. Ci ha provato Pentax, presentando una sua reflex digitale Aps-C con sensore monocromatico. Ma in molti si sono detti (me incluso) che forse l’azienda - Pentax è di proprietà di Ricoh – ha sbagliato bersaglio. Di brutto.

Money quote: "But if Ricoh was going to make an oddball camera for its fanbase, it missed one incredibly important opportunity. They should have made a Ricoh GR III Monochrome first. The GR has always been a camera for photo nerds by photo nerds, from the very start. Ricoh’s APS-C cameras have been phenomenal tools that are easy to shoot but can output impressive results in the right hands. Matching the street-smart GR III with a monochrome sensor would let users shoot in the dark practically, and ape the look that made photographers like Daido Moriyama famous. Rugged DSLRs like the K-3 III aren’t well suited for fast one-handed shooting, making the Monochrome version that much more of a head-scratcher."

https://www.dpreview.com/opinion/2301491718/did-ricoh-put-a-monochrome-sensor-in-the-wrong-camera

Gli appassionati di fotografia scoprono presto che ci sono differenti formati. Nel mondo digitale sono le dimensioni dei sensori, in quello analogico quelle della pellicola. Non è banalissimo e per quanto riguarda l’analogico anche piuttosto importante da capire. Questa guida non è fatta male perché fa capire un po’ di cose sugli obiettivi per il medio e il piccolo formato.

Money quote: "Numbers are pretty abstract, so I’ll include some more tangible examples from the lenses I’m currently using with my Hasselblad 500 C/M.

With a 6×6 aspect ratio, the 80mm lens is considered the 50mm equivalent on 35mm. It’s the lens I use most often, as it gives me the field of view that’s closest to what the human eye sees, and it’s versatile for shooting any subject matter."

https://shootitwithfilm.com/understanding-medium-format-vs-35mm-lenses/

L'incredibile solitudine delle grandi città

Money quote: "Throughout the town, Mike collects evidence that he has just missed people: Douglas Sirk’s movie Battle Hymn (1957) flickers in the empty cinema; a cigar burns in an ashtray; coffee boils on a stove in the diner; a phone in a phone booth rings, but no one is on the other end when he answers. A line of direction from Rod Serling’s noscript describes a long shot of the main street: ‘Once again the sense of emptiness and loneliness and that bizarre quality of activity with no actors.’"

https://psyche.co/ideas/struths-unpeopled-photos-evoke-the-loneliness-of-urban-life

Cory Doctorow ci prova a spiegare cos'è il Social Quitting dei social media e dove vorrebbe che andassimo tutti. Bella analisi ma assurdo lo sbocco.

Money quote: "In "Social Quitting," my latest _Locus Magazine_ column, I advance a theory to explain the precipitous vibe shift in how many of us view the once-dominant social media platforms, Facebook and Twitter, and how it is that we have so quickly gone asking what we can do to get these services out of our lives to where we should go now that we're all ready to leave them"

https://doctorow.medium.com/social-quitting-f049b33ad3f6

È arrivata Tilde 29!

Tappi o fucile ~ Leggere Wodehouse ~ Laptop o Mini PC ~ Pirateria ~ Magnum P.I. e PTSD

https://tilde.show

Il Vaticano e i suoi problemi di cybersicurezza.

Money quote: "In general, though, "the same security principles apply everywhere." The Vatican would need sufficient endpoint security, he says, alongside network security, physical security, "and perhaps an underestimated angle: training and awareness in an organization that is not particularly technology savvy.""

https://www.darkreading.com/vulnerabilities-threats/pope-mobile-security-vatican-mdm-move

Giochi da fare in spiaggia con il telefonino

: https://neal.fun/password-game/

Troppa, veramente troppa roba da fare in troppo poco tempo.

Money quote: "The following are five common self-sabotaging mistakes overwhelmed people tend to make. There are practical solutions for each that will help you feel like you're on top of things and do a better job of navigating your most important tasks and solving problems."

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/5-mistakes-we-make-when-we-re-overwhelmed

I ritagli di giornale. Nel 2023.

Strane abitudini.

Money quote: "Sharing newspaper clippings used to be common before the internet disrupted everything. It wasn't just the move from snail mail to email. There are now a lot fewer printed newspapers and magazines to clip from.

Peter Butkus said when he was growing up his father must have subscribed to as many as six newspapers and more than a dozen magazines. "It looked like a dentist's office in our house," said Butkus, a 39-year-old hedge-fund manager in Barrington, R.I. The elder Butkus doesn't dispute it.

During the golden age of print, when newspapers were generally regarded as having the last word, people regularly passed around articles on shared interests or to settle arguments in I-told-you-so missives. Parents often mailed clippings as thinly veiled advice or criticism to grown children."

https://archive.is/OQP5m

Speciale 4 di luglio: se stasera avete voglia di mangiare americano, cioè un hambuger, ecco qualche ricetta valida.

Money quote: "The slugburger is not alone. From a Prohibition-era speakeasy that still slings bitters-filled patties to a roadside stand that’s carrying on a century-old tradition of steaming burgers, American history is filled with unusual burgers born of unusual times."

https://www.atlasobscura.com/lists/unique-burger-ideas

La casa d'aste Sotheby’s si è comprata un palazzo storico di New York, il Breuer Building. Chissà come lo ridurrà.

Money quote: "Sotheby's will take over the Breuer in September 2024, before ultimately relocating in 2025. The auction house plans to "sensitively review the internal spaces and maintain key elements such as the building's striking lobby," as the new space will boast updated galleries, exhibition space, and a reimagined auction room. The galleries will be free and open to the public.

Sotheby's will retain ownership of its current headquarters in New York's Lenox Hill neighborhood, where it has been since 1980, for the time being."

https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/sothebys-buys-whitney-museums-iconic-breuer-building-1234670229/