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The 70 Best Lifehacks of 2007
Posted by Michael on 02 Jan 2008 | Tagged as: Productivity, stumblings, Michael
Happy new year to my readers.
Things have been a little slow here at S11, but something’s coming up :)
In the mean time, as a filler I’ll show you this link
Year in Review: The 70 Best Lifehacks of 2007 - Lifehack.org
2007 has been a year of renovation for me. I managed to meet most of my NYE Resolutions (and that “most” in place of “all” is the reason why I do NOT have resolutions for 2008. Graduation is among the 2007 casualties…)
I worked on myself in the productivity and personal development area. It sounds stupid, I know, but I did enjoy trying to follow small pieces of advice that look nothing different than “common sense”, but when put all together give a nice perspective of what I do right and what I do wrong when it comes to deal with personal productivity. Plus, I love the term “lifhacking”.
Time flies. I feel old thinking about how fast last year flew by, but I can say that I’m pretty satisfied of my 2007 and eager to do even better in 2008. I rank pretty high in the motivational scale these days, and I’m full of projects…
Don’t worry, I’m not turning this blog into a personal diary or something, but…I don’t want to jinx it so, as usual…
…stay tuned, more to come.
Thoughts about the Zune.
Posted by Michael on 28 Oct 2007 | Tagged as: stumblings
Seriously, why, WHY, PERCHE’! Why BROWN?
Anyway, I wouldn’t buy it either if it was white and better than an iPod.
*pet his nano* (this looked weird after I wrote it but I’ll keep it…)
Random surfing on a thursday morning
Posted by Michael on 04 Oct 2007 | Tagged as: stumblings
I might have an idea about WHY she left you :-)
Just kidding, I think it’s brilliant.
Stay tuned, more to come.
Vinton Cerf on future of TV and the Internet
Posted by Michael on 27 Aug 2007 | Tagged as: software, television, stumblings, video
Although non really tecnhical, this is a good example of what it’s like to be the “father” of a technology that changed our life and having a “vision” of the future.
I like what Vint says about TV. My family can confirm, having heard me saying the exact same thing over and over in the last few years, since I got a broadband access in my apartment. TV as we know it is nearly dead technology. When you realize that 85% of TV programming is NOT LIVE, it suddenly seem SO stupid that you have to sit on your couch at a predetermined time, for a defined amount of time, to watch something that is been recorded, edited, postproduct, and stored on digital media.
You must have the option to watch it when you can and want. And don’t “you already had the VCR” me. It’s not the same, even if that was a first step in the right direction.
To be coherent with my opinions, I ditched TV at home since January this year, and haven’t regretted it for a minute.
News? I can read them online, or listen them on the radio. Even better, radio on the web! And most tv news are streamed from the tv website on demand. Still regular TV, but the way it should be.
As for sports (yeah,of course, soccer. Is there something else in Italy? ;-) ), instead of paying a yearly subscription or a enormous fee of 5€+ per game, I grab my bike, head to the bar, have a beer and chat with other supporters. You know… socialize. Scary uh? :-)
Want a peek of what TV will become if things go the way they should? Check out www.joost.com
And if you need a beta invitation, feel free to ask in the comments. I don’t know if I got unlimited invitations, if not, first come first served.
I’ll blog about Joost in the future, so as always…
…Stay tuned, more to come.
[TOOL] Package management system for windows (sort of): win-get
Posted by Michael on 01 Aug 2007 | Tagged as: tools, windows, software, stumblings
Have you ever used “apt”, or “rpm” under some flavor of Linux? O a portage system?
In case you didn’t, I’ll explain briefly what’s the purpose of a Package Management System.
A package management system is a solution that allows the automatic search, location, download (or retrieval from other media) and installation (or upgrade) of software.
Often, a PMS goes in pair with a Dependency Resolution solution, that allows to detect packages that are necessary to run the desired program and download and install them accordingly.
Believe me, once you get used to the idea, it’s hard to go back to regular “installations”, if not for special purposes.
Now, it’d be great if such a tool existed for Windows, as we all have to deal with that pain in the ass operating system every now and then.
win-get (http://windows-get.sourceforge.net/index.php) gets at least *part* of the job done
say you want the latest version of firefox: you just fire up your “run” dialog, or command prompt and command:
win-get install firefox
No, it won’t check for upgrades, see if you need other dependencies, or aid in the removal of the application, but it does download the installer of the latest version and fire it up for you to install, saving you the hassle of opening the browser, look for the program page, and dowload the installer.
It has in catalog most of the free (at least as in “free beer”, but also many free programs, free as in “free speech”) programs you might need, firefox, tunderbird, alchool…you name it, it’s probably there.
Go get your free win-get copy (and the wget utility it uses to download the programs) at the link above and slam them in your c:\windows for easy running from the run dialog.
I’m not encouraging anyone to keep using windows if frustrated by it lacks of feature, but as many of us must stick with it, let’s try to minimize the hassle!
Got any other trick to survive Windows mediocrity? Let me know in the comments!
Stay tuned, more to come.
Nuclear in Italy
Posted by Michael on 31 Jul 2007 | Tagged as: italy, stumblings
Well, I was unsure whether to post this picture (click on the link for fullsize, so you can read the legend)…
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/Nuclear_power_stations.png
… or a scan of my last electricity bill, with the due fee highlited.
Then I’d figured that depicting my country as that red spot in the middle of the map was more dramatic, and less scary then a big number.
VIRGIN RADIO ITALY
Posted by Michael on 25 Jul 2007 | Tagged as: stumblings
Seriously, is there anything better than sunbathing, relaxing with some music after a semester of hard work?
And what if the music is *the sweetest radio station EVER*???
I used to listen (in streaming) the UK version of Virgin Radio and I liked it (Liked. Not loved. Let’s just say that their concept of “musical rotation” has a pretty short radius sometimes. You can (could. Can’t say for now) hear the same song twice in an hour, and chosen among 15-20 songs…it gest boring after a while).
Virgin Radio Italia is, so far, the best thing on air since the 3y0 expedition to the St. Peters Island back in 2005.
Rock music from today to the seventies, classics and new stuff.
In two words, their slogan “STYLE ROCK”. Check out their website (link above) for the frequency in your area and the internet streaming feed (if it’s working. I think they’re still experimenting)
Thanks to my buddy Zazza for the heads-up on this!
Stay tuned (quite literally), more to come.
How Geek Are You?
Posted by Michael on 18 Jul 2007 | Tagged as: stumblings, Michael
Well…That’s more than I expected. I’m unsure whether to feel honored or scared of myself.
I know this is boring, but it’s freaking 37° Celsius outside, 34 in the room where I’m writing (comments bragging about your ass being cooled by Air Conditioning will be moderated, be aware.) - I can’t do REAL work.
Leave a comment with your score. Oh, I’m aware that the comments render AWFULLY in firefox, I’ll work out a solution as soon as the temperature drops below my “no work” threshold.
Stay tuned, more to come.
…nope, I’m back.
HAD to edit this. I’ve been challenged by my roomate, and alas, for a single point, I lost.
I bow before the 99-ish nerd Ale :)
Stay tuned, more to come.
Kids say e-mail is, like, soooo dead
Posted by Michael on 18 Jul 2007 | Tagged as: stumblings
Back home, somewhat disappointed, from the ICWE Conference in Como, I went through my daily RSS reading routine, that I had skipped this morning because I had to leave early.
Well, apparently, the email is SOOOOO dead, I mean, like, you know….OLD, soooo dead.
Turns out that a number of teens, interviewed, had funny ideas about the role and…you know…”coolness” of the communication media called “email”. Do kids still say “cool”?
I feel kind of old as well when I read stuff like this, as I never got really caught up in the whole social networking thing…I find it stupid, but then again, I’m probably just old fashioned…I keep telling myself that the white hair on my head is the result of stress but…duuuude, I’m sooooo, like, old!!!
Do you want to feel old as well? Follow the link! And if you feel old, leave a comment. Or you can…you know…email me.
Kids say e-mail is, like, soooo dead | CNET News.com
Stay tuned, more to come.
Raid Madness
Posted by Michael on 16 Jul 2007 | Tagged as: stumblings
While waiting for the correction of the exam that I took last week, which was in part focused on this kind of stuff…I ran across these 2 pages.
And when I found myself giggling and whispering “amazing” I *knew* I couldn’t rate any higher on the geek scale.
http://cs.joensuu.fi/%7Emmeri/usbraid/
http://ohlssonvox.8k.com/fdd_raid.htm
A RAID (RAID 0, I suppose) with an array of USB storage keys and floppy disks…
I…I mean, I can’t decide which is cooler! The first being somewhat useful (resonably fast storage, alas limited in size. I wonder how it’d perform with USB magnetic hard drives) or the second (I mean…IT’S COOL…as only stupid an pointless things can be!)
We’re hitting hard on the geek-o-meter here, so..
Stay tuned, more to come.
