March 2008
Monthly Archive
From Radiohead, to Yuppie Flu
Posted by Michael on 29 Mar 2008 | Tagged as: italy
While I’m writing this post I’m listening to Yuppie Flu’s new album, Fragile Forest.
Yuppie Flu are an Italian band that plays lo-fi pop arranged with analog electronic keyboards [from Last.FM, I suck at recognizing genres]. Their songs are in English, so go ahead and look for them, it’s really worth it.
The new album came out today, with the cool formula that Radiohead pioneered last year: pay-as-much-as-you-want. Yes, even nothing, for a 160 kbit/s, MP3, DRM Free version of the album.
I bought it and I’m not telling you how much I paid. It’s not zero and it’s not 1 euro. But it’s not the 15€ they offer for the physical CD version, nor the 25€ CD + T-shirt version. I strongly encourage you to try the album, and pay, even a symbolical sum, for it. This is how music distribution should work.
Get it here. It’s the homepage, but the links to buy with paypal (not incredibly usable, to be honest, but maybe it’s monday’s Human Computer Interaction test speaking for me :-) )
Stay tuned, more to come.
-– EDIT:
I posted before learning of this kind of contest they have. Apparently, by posting on my blog about the new album, I might win a ticket for one of their concerts, and give away one to one of my readers.
But I have to set up a contest as well! So…the reader that will post the best comment (i.e. the most convincing one: BE ORIGINAL) is going to come to the concert with me, should I get the tickets. Start fighting, multiple entries allowed :)
…come on guys, not so fast…
iGoogle Header Remover
Posted by Michael on 26 Mar 2008 | Tagged as: Productivity, software, Michael
The curse of the tiny widescreen monitor strikes again. This might not be original, but I find it useful.
I created another script like Writing Room for Google Docs (<brag>featured script on LifeHacker!! </brag>).
This time is for iGoogle. Allows to get rid of the annoying (but pretty, with the right theme) header bar and the totally useless footer bar.
Should you need the header bar (e.g. for undo-ing a gadget removal), theres a convenient link on top, Writing Room style.
The default is NOT showing the headerbar, since I use iGoogle as a at-a-glance kickstart in the morning. (todo, agenda, mail….the usual)
Example? Sure, there you are.
Moon Hoax again on public TV
Posted by Michael on 10 Mar 2008 | Tagged as: italy, space, television
I’ve covered this topic before but it looks like there’s no end to the shameless audience hunting by means of sacrificing culture, perpetrated by the italian public service television, RAI.
Once again, I borrow the words of my friend and science communicator Paolo Amoroso, on his blog.
“RAI neglects science for the sake of audience”
[…]
“A waste of public money for shows that deny the genuinity of the Apollo lunar landings”
[…]
“In the march 3rd episode of the show ‘Voyager’ RAI gives free speech to the conspiracy theory ramblings”
[…]
“Roberto Giacobbo (hosts) Voyager, a TV show for everything misterious….for a 8 years old child!”
But there’s more. A friend and fellow partecipant in the italian Forum “Forumastronautico” noted and commented on every error and misconception presented in the shameful show, an impressive display of ignorance (or, more likely, lucid exploitation of the public ignorance) that totals an astounding rate of one error every 36 seconds of show. Enjoy (in Italian, sorry)
Makes me even happier for not owning a TV .
Stay tuned, more to come.
My 15 minutes of fame
Posted by Michael on 06 Mar 2008 | Tagged as: Productivity, software, Michael
My previously published script Writing Room for Google Documents became a Featured Greasemonkey Script in the Lifehacker weblog, by all means one of my favorite blogs.
Stay tuned, more to come.
