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

La storia e la tecnologia di “yes”, comando Unix che semplicemente mette una “y” in stdout e poi un invio: lettura veloce anche per chi non è eccessivamente tecnico (non fatevi spaventare dalle parti con del codice, il senso si capisce lo stesso più che bene).

Money quote:

Here's the very first version of the program, released with Version 7 Unix and famously authored by Ken Thompson on Jan 10, 1979:

main(argc, argv)
char **argv;
{
for (;;)
printf("%s\n", argc>1? argv[1]: "y");
}
No magic here.

Compare that to the 128-line-version from the GNU coreutils, which is mirrored on Github. After 25 years, it is still under active development! The last code change happened around a year ago. That's quite fast:

https://matthias-endler.de/2017/yes/

Una visita alla fabbrica Tesla delle Model S diventa l'occasione per una riflessione su come si producono le automobili (e non solo) con qualche considerazione sulla vita di Tesla e le strategie imprenditoriali di Elon Musk

Money quote: "My first serious doubts about Tesla didn’t stem from missed schedules, I’ve been guilty of too many of these, they’re part of tech life. What seriously worried me was a July 2016 visit to Tesla’s manufacturing plant in Fremont, California. In taking delivery of my wife’s Model S, we were treated to a group tour of the site. Everyone marveled at the robot porn, at the activity on the assembly line, at the endless stores of spare parts piled to the ceiling.

Everyone but yours truly."

https://mondaynote.com/teslas-new-car-smell-315c72c955d3

Casi di forte dipendenza da graffette sul pianeta Terra nel gioco Paperclips - il mio articolo per Macity

https://www.macitynet.it/casi-forte-dipendenza-graffette-sul-pianeta-terra-nel-gioco-paperclips/

Pi-Top, il portatile modulare basato su Raspberry - il mio articolo per Macity
https://www.macitynet.it/pi-top-portatile-modulare-basato-raspberry/

L’invasione dei droidi volanti, arriva AirDroid per iOS - il mio articolo per Macity

https://www.macitynet.it/linvasione-dei-droidi-volanti-arriva-airdroid-per-ios/

Chiacchiere da bar per chi deve manipolare grandi quantità di numeri e tirarne fuori un po’ di senso. Quali linguaggi di programmazione sono particolarmente utili per un data scientist?

Money quote: “I use R, Python and SQL on a regular basis, as my current role largely focuses on developing existing data pipeline and ETL processes. These languages give the right balance of generality and productivity to do the job, with the option of using R’s more advanced statistics packages when needed.
However — you may already have some experience with Java. Or you may want to use Scala for big data. Or, perhaps you’re keen to get involved with the Julia project.”

https://medium.freecodecamp.org/which-languages-should-you-learn-for-data-science-e806ba55a81f

Richard Thaler, il vincitore del Nobel per l’economia - Nobel di serie b per cosi dire - è stato a lungo osteggiato dai colleghi sostanzialmente per aver riportato buona parte della riflessione economica nel binario delle scienze soft, psicologiche e sociali, togliendo aria all’idea che l’economia sia una specie di scienza esatta per via di tutti quei numeri e quei giudizi inappellabili degli esperti.

Qui ci sono cinque idee che non sono male per capire anche come possiamo regolare la nostra vita (che sembrano la prova sperimentale del buon senso della nonna, ma comunque...

Money quote: "In one experiment on retirement savers, Thaler showed that when plans were automated, workers more than tripled the percentage of each paycheck they saved. One of Thaler’s peers estimates that his suggestions about how to structure retirement accounts have added some $29.6 billion to people’s savings"

https://www.mic.com/articles/185104/richard-thaler-books-nobel-prize-5-crucial-money-saving-and-life-wisdoms-from-the-2017-economic-nobel-prize-winner

La verità su USB-C, la porta universale è una giungla - mio articolo per Macity

https://www.macitynet.it/la-usb-c-connessione-definitiva-solo-un-sogno/

Vivere il momento. Cioè non dentro il telefonino. È possibile? Di storie cosi sono piene le pagine web. Vediamone una interessante come riflessione.

Money quote: “After reading my Aeon essay on the topic, a representative from a San Francisco startup called YONDR contacted me. YONDR makes special pouches that keep audiences from using their phones at shows. You silence your phone, slide it into the pouch, and lock it at the top. After the performance, or if access is necessary before then, you can unlock the case in the lobby by touching the lock to a metal base, similar to anti-theft tags on clothing. Performers such as Dave Chappelle and Alicia Keys have used YONDR – whose motto is ‘Be here now’ – to curtail unsanctioned recordings and, when they look into the crowd, they see faces, not phones. The approach seems less draconian than forcing people to part with their tech, as separation anxiety defeats the goal of increased engagement.”

https://aeon.co/ideas/how-our-smartphones-stop-us-from-living-in-the-moment

Le nuove tastiere dei MacBook sono davvero terribili? - mio articolo per Macity

https://www.macitynet.it/le-nuove-tastiere-dei-macbook-davvero-terribili/

Qualche giorno fa avevo segnalato, con una schermata l’aggiornamento della app nello store del mio iPhone, che Delta Air Lines ha eliminato il Check-In. Adesso che ho trovato un approfondimento sul tema, la cosa si fa sempre più interessante perché pone problemi non banali dal lato della compagnia aerea.

Money quote: “On Delta, a customer who does not check-in can be removed from a flight 30 or 45 minutes prior to departure, depending the airport. But if customers check-in, Delta will not take them off the flight until they fail to show up at the gate either 15 minutes or five minutes before departure, depending on the route. That doesn’t give agents much time to fill the seats with standby passengers
”
https://skift.com/2017/10/12/delta-air-lines-scraps-check-in-for-users-of-its-iphone-app/

E adesso che Airbus e Bombardier sono diventanti conviventi (sort of) che cosa succederà all’altra possibile coppia di fatto, Boeing ed Embraer? Se sono rose, fioriranno?

Money quote: “And now, in 2017, the partnerships are transatlantic. Europe and Canada come under a single umbrella with Airbus taking control of the Bombardier's C Series airliner and with an expanding manufacturing footprint in the U.S., Canada and China.”

http://money.cnn.com/2017/10/16/news/companies/boeing-embraer-collaboration/index.html

C’è una frase di Confucio molto sintetica e parecchio puntuale, mi descrive tantissimo. Dice: «tutti noi abbiamo due vite, la seconda comincia quando ci rendiamo davvero conto di averne una sola».

Scoppia la pace tra i grandi browser per uno standard unificato, ma manca Apple - mio articolo per Macity

https://www.macitynet.it/scoppia-la-pace-grandi-browser-uno-standard-unificato-manca-apple/