Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts
Friday, February 06, 2009
Rubrica del Lunedì special edition: da Appunti Digitali
http://www.appuntidigitali.it/3213/ma-lenergia-pulita-e-veramente-pulita/
Commenti e critiche ben graditi
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Waterschapsverkiezingen 2008
It's been already two and a half years since when I became part of the (second) Italian diaspora.
And since a while I started to think if it was morally right for me to start being interested in Dutch politics rather than keep voting at my homeland elections.
The pragmatic me suggests that Italy needs more help than Holland, by looking how things were going on during the last 14 years; the idealistic me (which I tend to follow most of the times) claims instead that it's unfair to leave a Country in search of better opportunities abroad, but still wishing to interfere with its politics.
Moreover the pain-in-the-ass me states that technically I'm due to be represented here in The Netherlands since I'm paying taxes for this Country since a while.
So the metamorphosis started.
And the opportunity came by post.
We in fact just received an envelop with the ballots and the list of candidates to partecipate at the elections for the Waterschap.
The waterschappen (Dutch for water boards) are regional governament bodies in the Low Countries.
They are charged with defending The Netherlands from water by maintaining the integrity of the water defenses around the polders, managing water barriers (dunes, dikes, quays and levees), waterways, water levels and the water quality in their regions.
Having to do with water, you can easily feel the importance of these institutions (25% of the Country is below sea level, and three main rivers cut the land in many wet slices). In fact they are among the oldest forms of local government in the Netherlands, some of them having been founded in the 13th century.
Waterschappen hold separate elections, levy taxes and function independently from other government bodies.
There are 27 waterschappen in The Netherlands covering the whole territory. The Hoogheemraadschap Amstel, Gooi en Vecht is the waterschap governing Amsterdam region and it's this the one we're going to vote for.
The general structure of these institutions consist in a general administrative body (elected by people), an executive board (elected by the administrative body) and a chairperson (appointed by the government), also called dijkgraaf, the Count of the dikes (cool, isn't it?).
Actually, asking around to some friends of mine it turned out that among common people nobody really cares about these elections and that it's just "another political charge".
Nevertheless I'll try to find out the differences between the candidates and start being interested in dutch politics.
Maybe also here there is someone that believes that Obama is tanned.
Monday, November 03, 2008
Vouwfietsen
This week I gain one more point on my Dutchness score.
After the aardappelstamper (a potato masher ment to be used to prepare the stamppot), the eiersnijder (an egg slicer) and the legendary kaasschaaf (a cheese slicer), now I'm proud to announce that I'm finally in possession of an awesome Vouwfiets!
Which is, as the picture shows, a foldable bike (I've got it as a birthday present: thanks!).
Here in Holland this kind of bike is often used by commuters like me: people that live in one city (Amsterdam) and has to go to work to another city (Utrecht).
So instead of having a bike in each city and leave them in the train station to wait (which is what I was doing before: home -> Amsterdam train station by bike, Amsterdam -> Utrecht by train, Utrecht train station -> University by a second bike) now I can easily fold up my bike and put in on the train.
Cool, isn't it?
The bike works amazingly!
Despite the fact that the wheels are small, the gear system is smartly done and pushing on the pedals is very easy and definitely not hard.
And the bike itself is not heavier than 11 kg, so it's handy to bring it around in a folded configuration.
A last thing I discovered googling around.
The word commuting ("fare il pendolare" in Italian) is translated as "forensisme" in Dutch. Which originates from the Latin word forenses (= of the forum, the Latin market) and apparently was used to refer peasant coming to the city market from Germany to sell their goods. Then it was taken over to name in general people from the countryside that use to work in Amsterdam.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
The Little or the Big Planet?
How will you make the planet if you could do it? Maybe with a lot of sackboys and sackgirls hanging around. Well, if you have a PS3, now you can do it. Well, not really now, but in a couple of weeks. Not now because Sony decided to postpone the launch on the market of its new game, Little Big Planet, because of some text contained in the soudtrack. This game is a real revolution and it is supposed to be the killer app for the PS3 console, revolutioning the game experience and expecially the share and multiplayer gaming. The plot is very simple. You are a small sackboy that goes around the world, not differently then Mario used to do. But, you are not alone. Other sackboys and sackgirs are going around with you, and you have to cohoperate in order to succeed the level (video. Also, and this is the big news, you can build your own world. Not with an editor, but during the game (video). After, you can share your world with others, online, and let them play it, while you are playing theirs. Check on youtube what people managed to do, it's really impressive. The point is that one betatester noticed that in one song there are some quotes from the Coran, and he pointed it out in the sony forum. Immediately, Sony decided to stop the release of the game, already printed in blue ray and delivered to many stores, recall all the beta copies and postpone the release date with a patched version that will not contain the song. Many discussions about this event has grown in the web, and many hypothesis about why this really happened popped out. Some people think that muslim reaction was exagerated, as at the end it's only a game and there were only few sentences. Some people think that Sony didn't stop the production because of the Coran itself but because of the meaning of these sentences :"Every soul shall have the taste of death" and "All that is on earth will perish" that may have affected the "family" sticker on the game (with consequences on the number of sold copies...). Some people think that it only a fast way to get some advertisement (I wouldn't say cheap, anyway). The composer of the music is a muslim musician, and he claimed that: "It's quite normal to play music and be inspired by the words of the Prophet Mohammed. It's my way to attract and inspire people towards Islam", which I think make sense. Nevertheless he got a fast reply from the islamic community: "Muslims believe the Qur'an to be the actual word of god and give it utmost respect. Therefore if it were to be used with the accompaniment of music or if it were to be used in a game or a commercial - that would upset and cause offense and hurt to many, many Muslims." . This, applied to christians, will end with forbidding most of Chrismas songs and cartoons... Is it the belief of the most or just of the few who like to speak and to be center of the attention? I agree that respect must be given to all belief and traditions, but all this mess for a game and not even the game itself, but only a very tiny part of a song? By the way, here you can listen to the song that creates this hype... What do you think?
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Scripta Manent
After a very long silent, mainly due to lazyness, here a new post about something I already treated several time here: the language in the web. Although I am interested to it, it is not such a useless subject, infact many groups are thinking and studying it. For example google. Google just released a new web application you can use in your gmail account that forbids you to send mail that you will regret after few seconds (tipically, in the very moment you press "send"). This application, available on the google labs, is called Mail Goggles, and obliges you to solve some small mathemathical problems, in a short time, before you can actually send the message. If you don't succeed solving these problems, than the mail is archived and is not sent. Many people don't think much before talking and, as the web provides a very fast way to communicate, almost as fast as speaking, people tend not to think before sending stuff in the web. But, unfortunately, sending stuff on the web is not at all the same as speaking. If you send a mail or post a video or a entry in your blog or whatever, it stays there. And even if you delete it later, it is probably going to be too late. This google service should help the impulsive employee not to lose his job sending a angry mail to his boss. Or it can save love stories and friendship. It is indeed very useful. The only thing that it does it to give you some extra time to think about what you are doing. It is surprising that in a service like the email you need that, because normally you should have all the time in the world. But facts reveals that people act before thinking, so what google offers ir a real precious service. Talking of this, just in conclusion, I just throw a stone about a similar subject.... wouldn't it be better to add a similar test, maybe on general culture, before allowing people to vote? Make a test and then weight the votes depending on the results?
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