Democracy: the god that failed by Hans-Hermann Hoppe

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When I started reading this book I was a bit shocked.
I was raised, as most people of my age in the western world, with a few clear ideas including that democracy is the best form of government.
For this reason i thought that the title of the book was intriguing, but I was not prepared to the full, systematic demolition of democracy that the author has carried over.
The first few chapters I was having a sort of cognitive dissonance because the reasoning was sound but clashing with my education about government forms.

Reading Tocqueville in the past has provided me with a good perceptions of the risks of democracy but only to the point of getting me to believe that much care was necessary to avoid them while keeping democracy in place.
Hoppe instead attacks democracy from the foundation: for him it’s not a problem of deviations from the right implementation that make democratic experiences bad, it’s the very nature of democracy that leads to the actual implementation problems that it’s easy to spot in most (if not all) countries of the western world.

While progressing with the reading I got more and more convinced by the reasoning.
There it is a major weakness that I perceive (and it’s not unique to this author’s reasoning): assuming people to be part of the “homo economicus” specie and hence to take rational decisions.
Behavioral finance was born because most people is unable to be rational even when dealing with money and numbers: I doubt that more rationality can be expected when other elements with no defined market value are added to the mix.

Overall it is a book worth reading and I recommend it.

Plague Inc. on android

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I while ago I had some time to kill and decided to give a try at a few trial and free game on the Nexus 7.
One that catched my interest was Plague Inc.
Nothing innovative or special from the point of view of the basic gaming mechanics but the specific twist (develop a plague) was new to me.
I had a couple of unsuccessful attempts but finally I got my first success.

This was also my last execution of the game.
Once I reached the goal of Plague Inc. I fully appreciated how sick the purpose of the game is.
Evicting humanity from earth, even doing it virtually, is really too much for my taste and I think that it is way worse than killing hundreds of enemies in photo realistic pc games and this game should be labeled accordingly

Leap Motion @home: first impression

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Today I’ve picked up my leap motion controller and started testing it.
My experience is far from stellar so far: tracking is fairly bad, at least in my environment.

The software logged a message about compensating for an external IR source ([15:24:44] [Warning] The device has entered ‘Robust Mode’ to compensate for external sources of infrared light.) but there it is no indication of where this IR source might be.
Calibrating didn’t worked well: the matte surface of the screen is not what the device would like to use. Too bad that matte screens are way better for work use.

The device runs fairly warm to the touch and the associated software gets the Dell 6430u temperature up and the fan to run at high-speed.

I hope that the software will get better with time.
People that has not preordered it would be better holding back at the moment as far as the windows platform is concerned.

Dell 6430u updated to bios A05: no joy with the fan noise yet

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I’m using dell’s 6430u for a few months now and went through 4 bios updates, but the excessive fan noise issue is still present even with release A05.

The dell tool (system utility application) suggested in a support thread didn’t helped either.

Dell has now publicly acknowledged that there was a manufacturing issue with the fan of the 6430u: the next time that I’ll be not traveling for a while I’ll open a call to get the fan fixed/replaced: fingers crossed.

Honda Civic 1600 i-DTEC: first contact

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Yesterday I picked up the new car and I made a hundred kilometers inside Milan and on the streets of the Brianza area.
Not many, but enough for a first impression.

The engine is very “electric” in the power output, no excitement (unlike my former 170cv Alfa Romeo 147), but in fact is present when is needed.
It provides a clearly superior performance compared to the 1500dci in my 2008 Renault Laguna: today it has 100,000 km, but I don’t recall it being different when new.
All of the stories that Honda told to the car magazines on the reduction of internal engine friction must be true: the engine brake is almost non-existent even in comparison to the 1500dci.
Fuel economy, even with the brand-new engine, seems very interesting (5.6 liters per 100km at the moment)
The start & stop is not intrusive: kicks-in if you are in neutral with the clutch disengaged and not moving. You do not need your foot on the brake as, for example, on the Mercedes class A (tried yesterday the 200CDI)

The visibility in the rear mirror is almost nonexistent for the maneuvers, but adequate for the march.
Parking sensors are installed and welcome (even if I need to turn them off to enter my garage or they will drive me insane) and the rear camera appears quite accurate.
Also convenient is the repetition of the directions from the sensors in the camera screen.
At the moment I find it difficult to take measurements of the front: the car is almost all behind the driver and the bonnet (hood) is very short. The uncommon shape of the dashboard also requires a bit of practice to figure out where the car ends.

The driver seat seems comfortable, but with the standard velvet upholstery is too hot even with the air conditioner on.
At least in the Italian summer (outside temperature during the test was 34 celsius)
Seat comfort to be verified in a long trip.

Suspensions are fairly soft and absorb well the harshness of the road.
The combination with wide tires (225mm, the main source of noise ) leads to a dynamic behavior that inspires me little confidence at the moment: the car body moves quite a bit for a european car.
The steering wheel is very light and uncommunicative (again for a european car).
For now, on the whole, the Laguna with Dunlop SportBluRespose and shocks 100.000km-old has a better dynamic.
On the dynamics the former 147 with sportpack and oversize rims is clearly unmatched, but this is true also about the high level of discomfort when driving provided by that Alfaromeo.

The shift stick (is a manual car) requires a little of attention to get the gear in.
A short lever in a forward position invites more to a relaxed driving than to the search of fast shift performance.
The Laguna’s shift command was perfect from new and is better than the civic even after the relatively long use.
Judgment in this area is suspended pending the completion of the run-in.

The satnav: at the moment I’m not in love with it and I prefer the tomtom with IQroutes, but perhaps with the use I’ll change my mind.
Is good to have the GPS antenna on the roof because it provides good reception.
The navigator is integrated with the radio and the screen is shared with the rear camera and with the video input.
The repetition of turn directions (pictograms without map) on the screen of the trip computer inside the normal driving viewing area (without taking his eyes off the road) is a nice addition.

Vodafone procedures are unbeliveably slow but I finally have hope of getting back the original line quality

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I’ve posted twice (here and here) about my problems after upgrading Vodafone’s ADSL to high-speed (nominal 20mbit, actual 15mbit) several months ago, on 17th september 2012.

On June 26th 2013, after 9 months of invoices including the extra cost of the service, Vodafone confirmed that the process was completed.
I hope that now I’ll be able to go back to the original speed and, with this downgrade, the original reliability.

Round trip to San Diego on Delta Airlines: nice seats

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I was recently in the USA for business and due to the past experience with BA’s delays (3 trips to San Diego in 2012), lack of comfort on the economy cabin of the 777 from London and significantly better price I’ve changed habit and went for Delta with connection in ATL when going to the US and in JFK when coming back.

Web checking was problematic in both direction: it wasn’t possible to book the seat for the domestic flight and I had to check-in at the airport and get the actual seat at the gate.
This was nicely compensated by the fact that both times I was assigned a seat in the comfort economy and I was able to sleep fairly well.

The in-flight entertainment was a bit problematic in both intercontinental flights: audio was missing in my seat row (not only my seat) on the flight to ATL (overhead monitors) while in the flight from JFK the system had to be hard reset to deal with major problems in playback (individual screens, system running on RedHat Linux dating from the 2002-2003 period) and the resistive touch control on the screen was not working in the lower left part.

I think that in the future cabin refreshes all that will be needed from the entertainment point of view is power outlets (CA and USB) and a simple retain system for the tablets that are becoming more and more ubiquitous.
If differentiation is desired an app (android and iOS) to stream content from the USB link should complete the needed package.

The quality of the seats, or to be more precise the fit of the seats to my body, were more than compensating the issue with the entertainment system.
The overall balance was good: Delta will be high in my preference list for future trips to SAN.

The Servile Mind: How Democracy Erodes the Moral Life by Kenneth Minogue

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In the recent past I’ve read an old book from the same author titled “the liberal mind” with great satisfaction so I had a strong incentive in reading the most recent one.

It’s a great reading that makes me feel frankly sad because I feel like there it is no escape from the negative impact that democracy is generating.
Parents with a strong ethic face a major challenge in educating the childrens.
While in the past the society used to help them face the natural rebellion of teenagers now all the external pressure (TV, peers, legislation) goes against a their attempt at raising responsible adults.
And a number of parents don’t even attempt at raising new responsible adults as a recent book edited in Italy testifies.

The more and more frequent request for “self motivated” people in the job postings is a strong indicator that Minogue is right when he describes the evolution of our society.
In the not so distant past most workers were characterized by the pride they felt in doing their job (even the most humble) well and there was really no need to express this as a desired tract of the candidate.
The standard now is that most of the workers, even in good positions and with nice jobs in most of the cases are focusing on what they are (or aren’t) getting instead of being dedicated to their duties.

The book is not really offering a procedural solution, but is providing the needed awareness to help the reader immunize himself and then his friends and relatives from the bad ethics generated by our society.

Comply tips: there’s no rose without a thorn

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I’ve recently posted my extremely pleasant experience with the Comply tips in my Ultimate Ears 700 and is really sad that I have to add a downside.

The Comply tips seems to be very fragile and don’t last long.
The first pair is already showing a major indication of wear: you can see that is tearing apart in the picture below.

comply

At 19.99$ for a set of 3 pairs the tips could quickly become a greater cost than the earphones themselves.
Hopefully it’s only bad luck with one of the tips.

Contro i papa’ by Antonio Polito

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The book is focused on the subject of how the modern fathers relate to their children and how this is impacting the development of the kids.
The author describes the situation as the parent behaving like the union of the kids.

Instead of providing a strong and structured reasoning about the problem the author decided to provide to the readers a set of facts from the news that demonstrate the relevance of the phenomenon and the consequences.
Given the fact the Antonio Polito is a journalist and not a philosopher this approach makes sense.

It is possible to considered the book as a vertical case study of the wider problem that authors like Kenneth Minogue, Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Roger Scruton (and others) raise about the modern approach to life and the consequences in the long-term.

The book can be appreciated in any case even without a theoretical background but this is not a guarantee that the message will be accepted by the reader ad I’ve learned after lending it.