Vortexmind: free your mind Tu ne cede malis sed contra audentior ito

12Sep/110

Raging Bull – Opening Credits

A good intro for a monday ...

For those who don't know the movie, this is "Raging Bull"'s intro, a Martin Scorsese movie. Music is the symphonic Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana

Print this post Print this post
11Sep/110

Jazz for cows

This video is just so awesome ... a group of jazz players performing in front of an audience of ... cows!

They seem to enjoy it!

Print this post Print this post
7Sep/110

The power of the sea

An image I've took in Crete during my holidays ... the power of the seaside thrusting toward my camera

Sitia waves

Ended up taking a lot of pictures, as I did last year. They can be found here, but I'm still uploading them!

Print this post Print this post
8Aug/110

Well, whoopsy daisies

... I had a feeling yesterday, hadn't I? And now half of the city is rioting. Fortunately, I have a black marble pasta rolling pin in my kitchen, will leave it under my bed for tonight, just in case.

Print this post Print this post
Tagged as: , No Comments
7Aug/110

I’ve got a feeling …

Have to say, my feelings toward my home country are still quit mixed up: from total repulsion, which led me to move in UK as soon as I could, now that time has passed (two and a half already...wow) I feel more like a dad (or at least how I imagine it) looking at his unrestrained child: "Really, are we off the same breed? Did I really generate THAT?" but nonetheless having a sort of innate attachment to it.

At the same time, a dire upcoming financial crisis is looming: many sources (including never forgotten friends of mine), and I feel glad of my choice. It looks like times are going to be tough indeed, and no spot on earth will be safer, but for sure I will have a better chance out here, small or big the improvement will be. It was not an easy choice, of course.

Said this, the great laws of physics and history are converging together, and no one will be in a safe haven: after major world wars in the previous century, which created a void to be filled, a huge boom in economy and population has driven the world forward, but as we know there is no way of creating new energy from the void, and that past leap has long since lost its momentum.

Soviet Union collapsing, .com crash in early 2000, sub prime and mortgages hitting investment banks 4 years ago, and now entire governments in tatters, including the only western superpower left. The trend is alarming.

It's now the time for the tidal wave to inexorably rush back into the sea, and god knows what's gonna happen next to whose who haven't secured to some solid pier.

Print this post Print this post
27Jul/110

Angry cat – remove that hat!

image

I am not sure exactly why, but the more I look at this picture, the harder I laugh. Watch sonera cat getting mad at a kitten for his posh styling choices...

Print this post Print this post
18Jul/110

The Chemical Brothers – Don’t Think

A nice tune from the Chemical Brothers. This one was also featured in the Oscar winning movie "Black Swan" (with Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis).

For more Chemical Brothers music pleasure, you can have a look a this Youtube Playlist.

Print this post Print this post
14Jul/110

Spying on your smartphone over the shoulder…

BlackBerry Storm Smartphone

So, everyone nowadays has a smartphone (iPhone, Android or Blackberry, not to forget all the new shiny tablets) and wherever you are, everyone is busy typing and typing on the touch screen. Have you ever considered how what you type on the screen could be read by someone looking over your shoulder? And have you considered all the CCTV cameras, how confident are you that whoever is behind the screens to oversee those cameras may not be interested in peeking at your phone screen instead? This paper explores the problem and the effectiveness of the methods used to automatically capture what you type.

Print this post Print this post
11Jul/110

Will Google+ beat Facebook?

Google Plus (Google+) Logo

So a week ago I have managed to get hold of a Google+ invite, and I managed to play with it for a while now. I am also a quite "greedy" Facebook user so it was a good occasion to find out if and why I would like to move to the new service:

Thumbs up for Google Plus

Seamlessly integrates with phone: so yes, I own an Android phone (HTC Desire HD) and of course I love the fact that Google+ is working perfectly with my phone, with push updates and all the goodies
Straightforward privacy approach: although the actual functionality is not "revolutionary" (as in, you can pretty much achieve the same level of privacy / re sharing with Facebook), the usability of the Circles interface is far more simple and straightforward than the dungeon of privacy ticks, groups etc... which you can find in Facebook
Interface: apart from the "Circles" feature, the interface in general seems to me less bulky and quite user-friendly. Main reason being probably the opportunity for Google to redesign it from scratch and attempt to get it right from the start, trying to address what are regarded as basic "flaws" in Facebook (such as, for example, the complex settings / privacy flags in it)

Thumbs up for Facebook

It's already there everyone knows it, it's part of mass culture already and even my dog has signed up for it and is showcasing a Facebook profile
More features altough Google Plus is still in beta and you would expect them to integrate quickly a lot of features (for example, they could integrate the Calendar as an "Events" function, which is missing ATM), Facebook takes the lead at the moment with the number of features offered. However, sometimes it could also be a drawback (for instance, do you really need Farmville and all the annoying updates coming from it)

So, in short:

  • Google Plus it's the novelty, it's cool because "it's from Google" and just integrates seamlessly with your Android phone (a strong plus for Android users such as me)
  • Facebook it's the mainstream option, everyone has a profile already and everyone is used to it. Will it be enough to keep the lead?

What do you think? Have you tried Google Plus? Do you hate it already or are you planning to move across to it?

Print this post Print this post
6Jul/110

Judge Dredd – You betrayed the law!

Seriously, whoever filmed this scene in "Judge Dredd" (I guess it was the director but anyway) did not probably realised at the time the comic potential of such a pretentious dialogue. Sometimes in movies they come out with gems like this:

I would love to see the same dialogue interaction between Ilda Boccassini and Silvio Berlusconi when they discuss about Bunga Bunga ...

Print this post Print this post
Creative Commons Licence
This work by Paolo Tagliaferri is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.