Monthly Archives: July 2014

Apologia della cattiveria by Teodoro Klitsche de la Grange

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I could not resist purchasing and reading a book that was attempting to make the point that there it is something good about being bad.

With only 32 pages (plus the notes) it is a pamphlet more than an essay.

The first important point of the author is the split of the behavior as private citizen from the one as a public officer.
The importance of being good in our private live is recognized and then the author moves on explaining why being bad as a public officer sometimes is not only acceptable but badly needed.

Then the book shows several examples of “bad” behaviors from public officers that led to a lesser damage and examples of “good” behavior that led to major public damage.
If the state, and as a consequence the people with public roles, is unwilling to use some degree of violence there it is no point at all in having a state because the individuals that disagree with the government decisions can’t be forced into accepting them.

Bad guys, without quotes, are born every day: a state that can be “bad” is needed.

Samsung S24A300B: firmware update

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3 days ago the monitor that I use in the desktop setup of my office notebook decided to abandon me and started to behave.
It was turning itself off without apparent reason and then refused tu turn itself on.
The apparent trigger was the connection on the DVI port of a second PC that I was configuring.

I had already start to look for a new monitor, using the tiny built-in 14″, when my engineer mindset jumped in and pushed me to give a try at fixing the old one.
Being already out of warranty for a while it was not a big risk.

Once opened I found out that the screen has a strange design, with the electronics floating on the back of the screen, but the solder on the power plug was perfectly good and there was no indication of mechanical wear that could explain my power issues.
To be on the safe side I re-seated all the connections and then closed the plastic shell.
For no apparent reason the screen was working fine again.

During my search on internet for possible fixes I’ve found a few blog posts and videos that mentioned firmware-related issues similar, but not identical, to mine: loss of signal and dark screen.
After prying the monitor open attempting a firmware update was a minor risk and I went for it.

It worked fine and now I have a new on-screen menu (good) and a color balance that even after several attempts does not match the old one (bad); I still miss the option to turn off the power light: it is very bright and annoying when working in the darkness.

Hopefully I will have some more years of useable life in the screen.

2014: eating @ Bar della Crocetta in Milano

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I used to eat at Bar della Crocetta since I was in my highschool days and the place was managed for almost 30 years by the same crew.
It was the best sandwich place of the entire city without any doubt: rich, creative, balanced in the mix of tastes.
Just fantastic.
But two years ago the owners have sold it.

three days ago, as I arrived at the door with my wife, I immediately noticed that something had changed: cleaner place, more light, no more sausages in display, female waiters.
In theory all good changes, but I had a negative gut feeling.

The place was almost empty, but it was the day of the soccer world championship final so it was reasonable.

The list of sandwiches got axed: about 70% less choice than in the past.
Also the list of different types of sausages halved.
I went for a classical sandwich (cipollata) that I had dozens of times in the past with the previous owners while my wife got something new based on Praga ham.

Then we started to wait.
More waiting.
After 30 minutes (with 12 customers in total in the place) we finally got the sandwiches and delusion with them.

The taste of my sandwich was just a pale memory of the original one and using the same name is absolutely inappropriate
Cipollata refers to the fact that it is based on onions (cipolle in Italian) but the quantity was so little and the onions so sweet that their contribution to the overall taste was minor.
The melted cheeses were too hard and not well amalgamated.
The thickness of the sandwich interior was about 60% of the old one while price adjusted with inflation was constant. Ans this was the XL version.
My wife complained tha the ham was sliced so thin that is was almost ethereal in her mouth and about the overall lack of taste. This never happened with the old owner.

To summarize: maybe now it is a healthier place, but it is no longer a place worth visiting.
The Bar della Crocetta si dead and anyone that experienced the place in the past should avoid it to avoid getting the same delusion I had.

Incubo a cinque stelle by Roberto Dal Bosco

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At the last national political elections in Italy a relatively new party got about 30% of the votes.
While it was not uncommon in Italy in the past to have a relevant percentage of “protest” votes it never went to such a high percentage.

The author digs into the details of what is the vision of this party and of the people who lead it.
While the content is interesting the book is too stretched and with many repetitions of the same concepts and quotes.
While each time they are in a different context, appropriate and well documented this still makes the reading at times boring.

I’m fairly sure that the same exact content could be delivered in 30% fewer pages with similar or better overall effect.
For this sole reason I’d not advocate this book: people’s time is precious and authors need to value it when writing.