Dedicato al mio amico Roberto e a tutti quelli con un super cervello perennemente fuori giri.

Money quote: “For Pinker, the root cause of so much bad writing is what he calls "the Curse of Knowledge", which he defines as "a difficulty in imagining what it is like for someone else not to know something that you know. The curse of knowledge is the single best explanation I know of why good people write bad prose."”

https://www.inc.com/glenn-leibowitz/the-single-reason-why-people-cant-write-according-.html

Ps: in realtà da noi si scrive male anche per eccessiva ignoranza: il “tardo burocratico” degli uffici postali o delle caserme dell’Arma è un classico. Però...

Una bomba. Quando parliamo di trasformazione digitale pensiamo soprattutto al mondo degli affari ma è il mutamento dei processi m sociali quello realmente coinvolto. La rivista del MIT, la Technology Review, prende il toro per le corna della famiglia e spiega che probabilmente la trasformazione a cui stiamo assistendo con sempre crescente consapevolezza è molto più profonda e significativa di quel che pensavamo. Cambia la famiglia e la stessa idea di relazione affettiva. Altro che legami forti e deboli: questo sono legami nuovi.

Money quote: "Online dating has changed that. Today, online dating is the second most common way for heterosexual couples to meet. For homosexual couples, it is far and away the most popular.

That has significant implications. “People who meet online tend to be complete strangers,” say Ortega and Hergovich. And when people meet in this way, it sets up social links that were previously nonexistent."

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/609091/first-evidence-that-online-dating-is-changing-the-nature-of-society/

Tim Cook a Firenze, al via l’evento - il primo dei miei articoli per Macity

https://www.macitynet.it/tim-cook-firenze-al-via-levento/

Tim Cook e l'eredità di Steve Jobs “Non abbiate paura di fallire, perché passerà” - il secondo dei miei articoli per Macity

https://www.macitynet.it/tim-cook-leredita-steve-jobs-non-abbiate-paura-fallire-perche-passera/

Tim Cook a Firenze: “Abbiate il coraggio del fallimento, passerà" - il terzo articolo per Macity (e altri ancora seguiranno...)

https://www.macitynet.it/tim-cook-firenze-abbiate-coraggio-del-fallimento-passera/

Tim Cook: «La tecnologia? È una questione di umanità» - quarto articolo per Macity

https://www.macitynet.it/tim-cook-la-tecnologia-questione-umanita/

Tim Cook a Firenze: il mondo sarà meraviglioso grazie alla realtà aumentata - quinto e penultimo articolo per Macity

https://www.macitynet.it/tim-cook-firenze-mondo-sara-meraviglioso-grazie-alla-realta-aumentata/

Il pensiero di Tim Cook agli studenti italia: le tasse, il prezzo dell'iPhone, la sicurezza, la vita - l’ultimo articolo della serie - il sesto - per Macity

https://www.macitynet.it/pensiero-tim-cook-agli-studenti-italia-le-tasse-prezzo-delliphone-la-sicurezza-la-vita/

Dopo una serata di lavoro assatanato, una buona notizia: abbiamo trovato la metà mancante dell’universo.

Money quote: “Two separate teams found the missing matter – made of particles called baryons rather than dark matter – linking galaxies together through filaments of hot, diffuse gas.”

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2149742-half-the-universes-missing-matter-has-just-been-finally-found/

Una strana e spaventosa storia di agenti dell’FBI e maiali torturato e massacrati. Non la leggerete da molte altre parti, temo. È il back office oscuro della nostra società moderna.

Money quote: “This single Smithfield Foods farm breeds and then slaughters more than 1 million pigs each year. One of the odd aspects of animal mistreatment in the U.S. is that species regarded as more intelligent and emotionally complex — dogs, dolphins, cats, primates — generally receive more public concern and more legal protection. Yet pigs – among the planet’s most intelligent, social, and emotionally complicated species, capable of great joy, play, love, connection, suffering and pain, at least on a par with dogs — receive almost no protections, and are subject to savage systematic abuse by U.S. factory farms”

https://theintercept.com/2017/10/05/factory-farms-fbi-missing-piglets-animal-rights-glenn-greenwald/

Al prossimo boom degli smartphone manca l’elettricità - il mio articolo per Macity

https://www.macitynet.it/al-prossimo-miliardo-utenti-smartphone-manca-cosa-sola-lelettricita/

Sviluppatore software indipendente che lavora dall’esterno dell’azienda. È il telelavoro, lo puoi fare dove vuoi. E allora perché non da un camper, in giro per l’Europa? Ecco un po’ di considerazioni dopo 150 giorni a spasso per il sud del continente.

Money quote: “Since I’ve lived in my van I’ve never felt the need for a vacation or a change. Instead of following a fixed plan, I get inspired by random ideas: When the waves are great, I go surfing. When it’s chill and fresh, I work. When it’s hot, I go for a swim. When I’m tired, I sleep. When I like a place, I stay. When I meet someone cool, I join them for a while. When my van breaks, I try to get it fixed”

https://ruby-on-wheels.github.io/blog/the-first-150-days-of-van-life/

Rosario, un lettore di Mostly, I Write, mi suggerisce un sito italiano sul nomadismo digitale. Ottimo e interessante, lo segnalo qui.

http://www.nomadidigitali.it

Aggiungo anche che un po’ di tempo fa mi ero occupato dell’argomento per la rivista Link, con un articolo intitolato “Nomadi digitali”

Money quote: “Però il fenomeno esiste, e percola sempre più nelle statistiche demografiche dei Paesi occidentali. Perché? Una risposta semplice, deterministica, è “perché si può”, cioè perché la tecnologia e i mercati del lavoro lo consentono. Ma non è sufficiente. Forse un pizzico di realtà è contenuto in un’altra frase di Steve Roberts: “Il punto è che, se si vive lo stesso anno per 75 volte, questa non possiamo chiamarla vita”. La storia non dice cosa faccia Roberts oggi, o anche solo se sia ancora vivo. Però stupisce come il desiderio di libertà resta potentissimo e universale anche nella società di oggi.”

http://www.linkideeperlatv.it/nomadi-digitali/

È la lettura definitiva per la domenica: Origini e storia di Unix, dal 1969 al 1995. Io mi ci sono perso dentro. Caricatelo su Pocket, sincronizzatelo sul Kindle, andate al parco, sdraiatevi e leggetelo sotto l’ultimo sole della coda dell’estate. E buona domenica anche a voi!

Money quote: “Ritchie observes: “What we wanted to preserve was not just a good environment in which to do programming, but a system around which a fellowship could form. We knew from experience that the essence of communal computing, as supplied by remote-access, time-shared machines, is not just to type programs into a terminal instead of a keypunch, but to encourage close communication”. The theme of computers being viewed not merely as logic devices but as the nuclei of communities was in the air; 1969 was also the year the ARPANET (the direct ancestor of today's Internet) was invented. The theme of “fellowship” would resonate all through Unix's subsequent history”

http://www.catb.org/esr/writings/taoup/html/ch02s01.html

Le supernotes sono banconote da 100 dollari false. Le fanno in Corea del Nord, un paese che ha ridefinito il suo obiettivo strategico nazionale trasformandosi in una specie di Castello di Cagliostro

Money quote: “Government agents first discovered Supernotes in 1990. A very experienced overseas cash handler identified one as a forgery by the feel of the paper, even thought it was printed on an intaglio press. The fake was as good as any the Secret Service had ever seen—it even contained the right proportion of embedded red and blue fibers that the Treasury Department uses as a security feature. The first Supernote became known as Parent Note (PN) 14342. The term "Supernote"—also occasionally seen as "Superdollar" or "Superbill"—originated outside of the Secret Service. It refers to all high-quality counterfeits that can be linked back to PN-14342 with forensic evidence. (The Secret Service won't reveal how they link modern-day counterfeits to PN-14342.)”

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2005/08/what_are_supernotes.html

Il manifesto di Medium scritto da Ev Williams, il suo creatore

Money quote: “What’s even more apparent than it was five years ago, is this: The dominant media ecosystem — in other words, how we get the words (and images) we consume — is no longer serving the needs of people. There’s more “content” than ever. But it’s also harder than ever to find signal amongst the noise and facts amongst the fiction — let alone inspiring ideas and high-level discourse, which is what the internet was meant to be.”

https://blog.medium.com/words-still-matter-6e9163216052

Sempre più scoglionato, il noto programmatore Marco Arment se la prende con la Usb-c

Money quote: “If you bought a USB-C cable, it might support Thunderbolt, or it might not. There’s no way to tell by looking at it. There’s usually no way to tell whether a given USB-C device requires Thunderbolt, either — you just need to plug it in and see if it works”

https://marco.org/2017/10/14/impossible-dream-of-usb-c

È arrivato il momento di cambiare portatile? Perché non prendere in considerazione uno basato sul Raspberry Pi? No, scherzo, non fatelo. Anche se...

Money quote: "The updated Pi-Top is easier to assemble than the first model, and features a clever adjustable keyboard, which slides forward to reveal the Pi itself, along with what the company calls the “Modular Rail,” where users can attach new components and Pi-Top accessories. The new Pi-Top comes with one compatible accessory out of the box; an “Inventor’s Kit” that consists of a breadboard and some basic components for building small projects, like LEDs; a microphone; and a motion sensor. Like the original, it runs a custom operating system called “pi-topOS: Polaris,” which looks to be a little more user friendly than the standard Raspian OS."

https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/10/16/16481566/pi-top-raspberry-coding-diy-modular-laptop

Tim Cook «Siate pronti a cambiare idea. Lo faceva anche Steve Jobs» - Un mio articolo per Macitynet della serie Tim Cook a Firenze che si era perso per strada ma a quanto pare è finalmente uscito oggi

https://www.macitynet.it/tim-cook-siate-pronti-cambiare-idea/

Il monologo del comico di origine pakistana Kumail Nanjiani al Saturday Night Live show.

Money quote: "If someone yells at me, 'go back to India', I'd be like, 'that guy's an idiot'. But if someone was like, 'go back to Pakistan, which was part of India until 1947 and is now home to the world's oldest salt mine,' I would be like 'that guy seems to know what he's talking about. I'll pack my bags. ... Just because you're racist, doesn't mean you have to be ignorant. An informed racist is a better racist."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=z2X0TaXknVE