New favicon
Not that I am an artist (well, not in the common meaning of the word), but I really like my new favicon. I’m not the creator, BTW: credits go to Irilium 
Add comment May 14th, 2008
Posts filed under 'Free (as in freedom) thoughts'
Pressing the unpause button
Aww, god, now that’s a long pause!
I didn’t write anything on this blog for almost a year, and not for lack of trying, I can tell you that (1 point to the one who guesses the quote 
).
Many things to do, jobs to complete, ideas to follow distracted me from maintaining this blog. Probably, also because this blogging thing is too much 2.0 for me, that prefer terminals (as in ttys ) and consoles to eye-catching rotating cubes or AJAX-powered (“powered” is almost a random word here 
) websites.
Anyway, coming back here I noticed that the theme I used for this Wordpress installation produced a tremendous lag on my laptop (or it was just fault of the youtube video previews?), so I temporary chose another one, promising to myself to hack it ASAP - which is another way of saying: who knows?
Another extra point for the closing quote
Add comment April 18th, 2008
Epiphany
And i’m not talking about the browser that comes bundled along with Gnome in many Linux distros. Instead, I mean that feeling that comes out when you realize the essence of something, the pure and true reality that promptly flashes in a dark cave… The light that, for a moment, burns your retina and forces you to draw the sight and close your eyes; the same light that, a few instants later, overcomes the weak resistance opposed by your eyelids and hits your brain like a BANG, leaving behind it only ash and silence… Like a thousand daggers, photons stab your optic nerve. And there you remain, alone in the dark, alone with the sensation that something incredible as happened; and you can’t resist her warm temptation, so like a kid that has just been beated by his father, you humbly dare to open you eyes, again… and there you see her… the holy knowledge…
The image posted on the Wikipedia article gives (to me, at least) the exact epical sensation that you feel during an epiphany and that I tried to explain above (even if the most correct explanation would be a long series of 1s and 0s, only apparently randomly chosen). That’s it. I just (…) had an epiphany.
Side note: Joan Baez’s “Here’s To You” (music by Ennio Morricone), as seen in Sacco e Vanzetti.
Add comment May 24th, 2007
Time
No, I’m not referring to Pink Floyd’s song, but to my spare time. I miss it. 
Add comment March 17th, 2007
Knowledge must remain free (as in freedom)
Yesterday, I watched Once Upon a Time in America, the last movie by the Italian director Sergio Leone and surely one among the greatest films of all times. The plot was very interesting, so the scene choice. At the end of the ~ 229 minutes of play, I felt satisfied, but rather curious about the name of the young actress that played the role of the little Deborah. Expecially her eyes remined me something familiar, but I wasn’t unable to further dig into my memory.
So, where’s the problem? I fired up Firefox and pointed it to en.wikipedia.org. A quick search led me to the page of the movie. And there was the answer: the mysterious actress was Jennifer Connelly, that I like particularly after her appearances in Requiem for a Dream (I simply love that movie, and I suggest you to watch Pi, the first movie by its director, Darren Aronofsky) and A Beautiful Mind. While I was thinking about the ease with which I satisfied my need of knowledge, a small but very appealing (for me) block of text drew my attention:
PAL editions of the DVD have a running time of 219 minutes (and 48 seconds). This is due entirely to PAL speed-up.
There’s no need to explain how much I was eager to know more about this technical question, so immediately I followed the link. And there I found the explanation (that I won’t write here, because I would use the same words used on the Wikipedia article), simply explained and cleverly displayed by the attached images.
What would have happened if Wikipedia didn’t exist? I wouldn’t have found the name of the actress and I wouldn’t have found that explanation about PAL speed-up. In short, my knowledge would have been limited.
Knowledge is like software, that on the other hand is like sex: it’s better when it’s free (as in freedom).
Add comment February 20th, 2007
The meaning of life
It’s 2:13 AM in Turin right now. I’m still awake, compiling stuff and listening to the Dark Side of The Moon album by Pink Floyd.
Half an hour ago a strong wind started to blow on the city. When I give a look through the window, I see the trees beside the street shaken and frightened by the strength of the elements. Nobody dares to walk at this time of the night: tomorrow everyone outside will have something to do, a goal to accomplish, someone to meet, a partner to satisfy. An alarm starts to sound in the distance… it seems like somebody will be tired and sleepy in the morning and will have to blame his neighbor’s absence or the electrician’s incompetence. Or both.
While Roger Waters explores the meaning of time, a window not carefully secured rams, some rooms on my left. I recognize that sound, it is the window in the stairs, giving onto the internal yard of the block. Even if its strikes are loud and frequent, nobody will get out and close it, so I guess it will continue to annoy the dreams of the inhabitants of the building for a long time. I recall that I’ve never seen that window properly shut, even in the coldest day of winter.
Money, get away.
Get a good job with good pay and you’re okay.
This is what keeps me living. This is the meaning of my life.
Add comment February 13th, 2007
Relaxing interlude
Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb“, live 1994
EDIT: There was a time in which I used to praise YouTube for its freedom. That period has passed away. For the third time in a few days, a video I was interested to has been removed for suspected copyright infringement. Quoting the error that displays when you try to watch the above video, “This video has been removed due to terms of use violation”. Shame on you.
Add comment February 12th, 2007
Fonera
I’ve just received (for free) La Fonera, the social router of Fon (www.fon.com). Accidentally, I let it upgrade its firmware… but I’ll see if it is worth hacking, in the next days…
4 comments February 7th, 2007
Random bash.org quote
<Reverend> IRC is just multiplayer notepad
True story. And really funny.
Source: bash.org
Add comment January 29th, 2007