Un breve video con 11 trucchi per iOS 11

Money quote: “Get ready… Those incessant reminders to upgrade your iPhone or iPad operating system are about to begin.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/ios-11-is-here-try-these-hidden-tricks-for-your-iphone-1505844802

E c'è chi crede e scommette che stia per tornare il velluto a coste. Ma fini o grandi? (Mia nonna fino all'ultimo non aveva mai perso la fede)

Money quote: ““There are lots of brands that have done their take on corduroy but there has never been a brand that has completely dedicated themselves to it,” Söderlindh said. “I am convinced that people are looking for a lasting alternative to denim. We want people all over the world to rediscover their love for corduroy.””

http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/history-of-corduroy

iPhone 8 e iOS 11 è un matrimonio d’amore - il mio articolo per Macity

https://www.macitynet.it/iphone-8-ios-11-e-un-matrimonio-damore/

Sullo sport di scalare le montagne. Interessante, ci sono vari aspetti dei quali riparleremo in altro modo.

Money quote: "But what kind of activity is climbing Everest, or indeed mountaineering in general? According to the philosopher Bernard Suits, it is a kind of game. In his book The Grasshopper: Games, Life and Utopia (1978), Suits defined a game as ‘a voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles’. As he points out, if someone had offered Hillary a trip to the top via a free helicopter ride, he would certainly have declined and stuck to his goal of climbing Everest. For mountaineers, simply getting to the top can’t be the goal, in and of itself. Getting to the top via particular means – and thereby overcoming ‘unnecessary obstacles’ – is what counts. Hence, mountaineering is a game."

https://aeon.co/essays/why-do-mountaineers-choose-the-hardest-routes-to-the-top

Al di là delle stupidaggini evolutive e pure in malafede scritte dall'ex dipendente di Google sulla presunta inferiorità delle donne un po' di tempo fa, l'occasione presta il fianco a un ragionamento storico. Il ruolo delle donne nella computer science.

Money quote: "A history lesson on computer science, not often taught in Computer Science classes: women were the first software engineers, until men actively pushed them out."

https://hackernoon.com/a-brief-history-of-women-in-computing-e7253ac24306

La cura del dettaglio di Apple è la ricetta segreta del suo successo - il mio articolo per Macity

https://www.macitynet.it/la-cura-del-dettaglio-apple-la-ricetta-segreta-del-suo-successo/

Perché guardiamo i documentari, andiamo nei parchi pubblici cittadini e facciamo videogiochi “verdi”? La spiegazione è genetica: biofilia. Siamo legati dai nostri cromosomi a farci piacere e interagire con l’ambiente naturale. La cosa ci fa stare bene, ci fa sentire meglio: abbassa stress, depressione, ansia. Adesso però stiamo costruendo dei surrogati tecnologici utilizzando la televisione (i documentari naturalistici)e i videogiochi. Il successo di alcuni giochi è infatti direttamente collegato alla loro ambientazione “rurale”, che ci fa sentire meglio

Money quote: “In order to feel good, humans require interaction with nature. We have a genetically based affiliation with the natural world—a primal desire for the outdoors known as biophilia. This phenomenon describes our urge to connect with other life forms and manifests itself in our love of gardening and camping to owning pets, gifting flowers, and even selecting waterfall wallpapers for our smartphone backgrounds.
The link between the environment and the health of the human mind is a growing subfield of psychology, and research shows clear evidence linking the physical world to the health of our mental world. For example, studies have found that exposure to nature helps reduce our stress levels, restores energy and mental focus, prevents depression, and aids healing of physical ailments, while too little exposure fosters anxiety, despair, numbness, and abstract grief.”

https://qz.com/1039074/planet-earth-ii-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-and-horizon-zero-dawn-all-represent-the-trend-toward-technological-nature-but-can-it-replace-the-real-thing/

Dovremmo studiare le Filippine e soprattutto Manila, città globale dove tre quarti della popolazione lavora nell’economia sommersa (informal economy, suona meglio) e che cresce praticamente senza controllo forte di una cinghia di trasmissione fenomenale: i filippini sono gli uber-emigranti, coinvolti in tutte le attività (da baby sitter a badante, fino a persone delle pulizie e personale di bordo delle navi da crociera, e capaci di generare un flusso di rimesse straordinario.

Una storia tutta da leggere.

Money quote: “Tokyo, London, New York, Paris, Manila. Few would think of Manila atop a list of the 21st century’s premiere cities. Nor would most think of the Philippine capital as a critical node in the global economy. Yet Manila is indisputably at the centre of some of the most important urban trends of the past half-century: it is the world’s most densely populated city, and continues to grow at an exponential pace. It serves as the headquarters to one of the fastest growing economies in the world (10th in 2017, according to the World Bank). Filipinos, especially residents of Manila, travel all over the world as nurses, nannies, construction workers and sailors. They provide the mass labour fuelling the global service economy”

https://aeon.co/ideas/this-striking-feature-of-manila-makes-it-an-emblematic-global-city

Un vecchio ma fondamentale articolo per cominciare a capire meglio come funziona il doppio standard Thunderbolt 3, USB-C e la giungla dei cavetti

Money quote: “USB-C and DisplayPort exist both as a physical specification for connectors and cables, and also as a logical protocol that defines how data moves across a data bus. The USB-C data bus has a number of channels (called “lanes”) that can be assigned and configured to different protocols, depending on the USB-C controller hardware in the host computer or other device, including USB, DisplayPort, PCI Express, and Thunderbolt. DisplayPort can either use its own connector type or be encapsulated and carried by other standards, which include USB-C, whether or not the controller hardware supports Thunderbolt. This capability of DisplayPort made it possible for Thunderbolt to use the Mini DisplayPort connector type and be backward compatible with existing DisplayPort devices”

http://tidbits.com/article/16870

Ci siamo. È di nuovo stagione di recensioni dei nuovi iPhone. In particolare, gli iPhone 8 e 8 Plus, come quello sul quale sto scrivendo adesso.

Seppure esteticamente invariati dall’iphone 6, hanno una fotocamera straordinaria, soprattutto l’iPhone 8 Plus. Perché adesso non è più l’obiettivo o il sensore a fare la differenza ma soprattutto il processore. E l’A11 Bionic è fenomenale.

Ma è soggettiva la valutazione di molto degli elementi. Non a caso, con grande coerenza, John Gruber ribadisce anche quest’anno - che vede iPhone al vertice - che le classifiche come quella di DXO sono stupidaggini. Perché in effetti lo sono.

Money quote: “Particularly with their “overall” score, DXO is pretending to assign an objective scientific-looking measurement to something that is inherently subjective. It’s horseshit, but everyone in the media falls for it. I said it was horseshit last year when they named a Pixel their “highest rated ever”, and I say it’s bullshit now when they said that about an iPhone.”

https://daringfireball.net/linked/2017/09/22/dxo-ratings-are-horseshit

Ops. I did it again.

Delta Air Lines continua a stupire. Il carrier americano con il network più sviluppato in Africa e America Latina sta continuando a sfidare gli uragani e a volare verso aeroporti che vengono considerati "chiusi" e travolti dagli elementi, sfruttando momenti di pausa, occhi della tempesta e tutto il resto. Una storia che dovremo raccontare, un giorno o l'altro.

Money quote: "Update: Somehow we underestimated Delta. Earlier, it looked like Delta flight #2571 would be the last Delta flight into San Juan (SJU) before Hurricane Maria’s arrival. Instead, Delta flight #549 from Atlanta (ATL) to SJU will take the prize of being the last Delta flight to operate to the island before the Category 5 hurricane arrives. The story below has been updated to reflect this new flight."

https://thepointsguy.com/2017/09/delta-flies-into-hurricane-maria/

A Madrid c’è il gigante dell’Estremadura. Fico.

Money quote: “Around that time, the National Museum of Anthropology was being established in Madrid. The museum was headed by Dr. Pedro González Velasco. When the professor noticed of the existence of the giant, he contacted him, and both men came to an agreement. The professor would buy Luengo’s corpse in exchange for a daily income of 2.50 pesetas while he lived. The remains would be part of Dr. Velasco’s collection and would be displayed forever in his museum”

http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-giant-of-extremadura

Letture domenicali. Alberto Saibene racconta sulla rivista il Mulino la Milano di via Paolo Sarpi, cioè Chinatown, dove entrambi viviamo più o meno dallo stesso tempo. Un ottimo articolo.

Money quote: “Anche se resta, al di là delle leggende, difficile contarli, oggi sono registrati circa 27.000 cittadini cinesi in città. Nel numero non sono però compresi i cinesi milanesi da tre generazioni e che si sono aggregati attorno a via Paolo Sarpi (una strada che incrocia via Canonica), la Chinatown milanese, luogo identitario di una presenza che si è diffusa poi in molte altre zone ed è facilmente avvertibile per le strade della città perché tanti sono gli esercizi commerciali di proprietà cinese (ristoranti, bar, lavasecco, negozi di chincaglieria, riparazioni di tecnologia domestica ecc.).”

https://www.rivistailmulino.it/news/newsitem/index/Item/News:NEWS_ITEM:4004

calendar.vim è quello che dice il nome: un calendario dentro vim. Se vivere nella riga di comando, è una soluzione. Se non avete capito di cosa sto parlando, non vi serve.

Money quote: In order to view and edit calendars on Google Calendar, or task on Google Task, add the following configurations to your vimrc file.

let g:calendar_google_calendar = 1
let g:calendar_google_task = 1

https://github.com/itchyny/calendar.vim/blob/master/README.md

Moby Dick è uscito nel 1851 ed è stato subito recensito dalla stampa dell'epoca con visuali alquanto diverse (non tutti gli hanno voluto bene, diciamo). Ecco una antologia delle recensioni.

Money quote: “To convey an adequate idea of a book of such various merits as that which the author of Typee and Omoo has here placed before the reading public, is impossible in the scope of a review. High philosophy, liberal feeling, abstruse metaphysics popularly phrased, soaring speculation, a style as many-coloured as the theme, yet always good, and often admirable; fertile fancy, ingenious construction, playful learning, and an unusual power of enchaining the interest, and rising to the verge of the sublime, without overpassing that narrow boundary which plunges the ambitious penman into the ridiculous; all these are possessed by Herman Melville, and exemplified in these volumes.”

–London Morning Advertiser, October 24 1851

http://lithub.com/the-original-1851-reviews-of-moby-dick/

Padroni e schiavi del tempo: l'orologio e l'uomo moderno.

Un documentario che è un po' "rieducational" però interessante

http://www.openculture.com/2015/02/how-clocks-forever-changed-humanity-in-1657.html

Una volta, anni fa, ero rimasto incantato da una storia del New Yorker sui manutentori di ascensori a Manhattan, a città dei grattacieli. Poi, anni dopo, ne ho letta un’altra meno potente ma sempre molto interessante sui progettisti di campi da golf. Adesso siamo agli skateparks, i posti tipo Venice Beach dove si va su e giù con lo skateboard (e ho molta invidia perché vorrei ricominciare, fin quando le giunture mi reggono). La storia per motivi stilistici e strutturali non è indimenticabile, ma comunque l’idea c’è e poi bisogna tenere sempre aperti i cancelli della propria mente, no?

Money quote: “A signature element to their design is an appreciation for aesthetics. Although the most important piece is the skateable functionality, they strive to have their parks be pleasing to the eye and incorporate the natural elements and surroundings.”

https://artistwaves.com/the-art-of-building-skateparks-c26c98974e83

La strategia del side project gratuito. Può funzionare

Money quote:
You build a side project, separate from your main/core business. The side project needs to be something that is 100% free, easy to build and provides massive massive value to your target audience. I'm not talking about an ebook (though you can do that), but a high value tool. It might even look like a full fledged stand alone startup company.

Then, instead of promoting your agency, you promote that side project. Why? Because it's something that (hopefully) provides instant value for free. People are more likely to share an awesome free and simple tool vs the website of your agency. So marketing the side project, simply by posting it on relevant forums, sharing it with bloggers, sending it to journalists to potentially write about, will make it a lot easier to drive traffic to those side projects.

On the side project, there's a link to your core business/service. A percentage of the traffic, will visit your core business and... if what you offer is relevant to that audience, convert to a customer."

https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/6ztybx/how_i_attract_high_paying_clients_to_my_design/

Adolescenti che non fumano, non prendono la patente, non fanno sesso (e neanche si fidanzano). Negli Usa c'è chi si chiede cosa stia succedendo alle nuove generazioni. Alcuni azzardano delle risposte.

Money quote: ""In a culture that says, 'Okay, you're going to go to high school, go to college, go to graduate school, and then get an internship, and you're not going to really be responsible till your late 20s,' well then the brain will respond accordingly," he said."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/parenting/ct-teens-not-drinking-20170919-story.html

Una rivista fatta da donne per le donne. Nel Giappone degli anni Dieci (per intenderci: Yukio Mishima doveva ancora nascere). Uno scandalo assicurato. Eppure, con coraggio e testardaggine, loro sono andate avanti un bel po'.

Money quote: "The young women who had created the magazine less than a year before had known it would be controversial. It was created by women, to feature women’s writing to a female audience. In Japan in 1911, it was daring for a woman to put her name in print on anything besides a very pretty poem. The magazine’s name, Seitō, translated to “Bluestockings,” a nod to an unorthodox group of 18th-century English women who gathered to discuss politics and art, which was an extraordinary activity for their time."

http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/bluestockings-feminist-magazine-japan-sassy