When I was 11 I had my first programming training.
At the time computers were still a fairly esoteric subject in Italy, but my school had the opportunity to get a few Olivetti M10 when they were introduced and offered the opportunity to the students, on a voluntary basis, to be trained to use the systems.
30 years later I’ve decided to buy a piece of my computing history and now it’s part of my collection of old hardware.
Welcome home M10
After living for quite some time with the wi-fi built into the ADSL modems (I have two lines at home) I’ve decided that the signal needed some improvement to work reliably with the Nexus 7.
For this reason, after reading a lot of reviews online I’ve selected this small device: it’s not the cheapest device for the purpose but I trust Smallnetbuilder
The design is unconventional and the size was surprisingly small when I got it.
The installation manual is relatively fat but it’s only because it covers a dozen different languages: the actual content is quite skinny; this fortunately is not an issue as the setup, once connected to the web interface, is really easy to do.
Signal improved significantly on the Nexus 7: from 1-2 tabs with some occasional complete disconnection to 4 bars (out of 4) with few drops to 3 bars.
Also the Nokia Lumia 800 and E7 both have shown a significant improvement in signal quality.
The Acer 3810T was already working fine with the older solution: this is likely due to the larger radio antenna and greater available power.
The device can be used also as a wi-fi to ethernet bridge to connect a single device implementing in an easy way what I did using OpenWRT and to extend the wi-fi range, but I’ve not used it in this way.
Overall I had a very positive experience and would suggest this device to anyone having a need like mine.
This week I’ve made a few experiments with the video streaming capabilities of my DS411Slim NAS with two mobile platforms: a Nexus 7 (Android) and the Lumia 800 (WP 7.5).
In order to proceed I had to install the beta version on the NAS as a first step, then I was able to connect with the app downloaded from the stores of the two devices.
I only had a handful of old AVI movies to test and it turned out that the native player of both the Lumia and the Nexus 7 were unable to play the format.
On the Nexus 7 it was possible to install VLC and then play the video.
The same possibility is not available on the Lumia making it an unsuitable platform for further experiments.
The app on the Nexus is not able to resume the play from the point where the tablet was suspended and apparently doesn’t support the manual seek.
I’ve downloaded locally the file and VLC seek worked without any issue.
Overall the experience was fairly negative: DSVideo is not yet a mature solution.
Last week I’ve spent 5 days in this hotel.
While the bed linen were showing some indication of excessive use the experience overall was positive:
1) fairly comfortable bed
2) fairly large room with no carpet (uncommon, but great to keep under control dust mites and related allergy)
3) fairly good food in the restaurant buffet
In several occasions the wi-fi bandwidth was insufficient for a voice-only Skype call, but a huge conference was ongoing hence is understandable even if it was unpleasant nonetheless.
The hotel is far from the city center (about 45 minutes by public transportation, 7€ round trip to plaza del Sol) and has a free shuttle bus to the airport every 30 minutes. Cab is about 20€ to the airport.
Given the price paid (90€/day with breakfast) it was a good deal.
In Italy WWII history was written by the winners, as it’s usually the case everywhere in the world when a war is over.
At school I was taught that the good guys (US+GB) saved my country from the bad guys (the Germans and the fascist government of the time).
In the study books it looked like it was a nice and peaceful process for the population and that only minor civilian casualties happened in Italy.
After over 60 years a few voices can be heard that describe what happened in a less manichean way.
Piero Buscaroli is one of those voices: you may feel a strong sense of discomfort when reading this book as it could shatter the a comfortable system of believes that was built over time.
Like other books that go against years of propaganda (Solzhenitsyn‘s Archipelagos Gulag comes to my mind as the most relevant example) this is a must read to develop a better understanding of human and political dynamics and of history.
A couple of weeks of travel and one week of vacation helped in making december a fairly rich month from the point of view of reading.
I’ve read the following books:
Nessuno genera se non e’ generato by Fraternita’ San Carlo
It’s a small booklet that collects a few thoughts around the role of the father with the support of excerpts from classical books:
Homer’s Iliad: Achilles meets Priam asking for Hector’s body
Homer’s Odyssey: Ulisses meets Telemachus
Dante Alighieri’s Divina Commedia: the relation of Dante and Virgilio
J.R.R. Tolkien’s The lord of the ring: the relation of Gandalf with the hobbits
Alone together by Sherry Turkle
I’ve made two posts about this book so far here and here.
Given the amount of content at least one more post is to come.
Reccomended reading.
The Necromancers by Robert H. Benson
Jesus of Nazareth (vol. 2) by Joseph Ratzinger
Way better commentary on Jesus’ life than I’ve heard in the preaches of many priests. Worth reading.
Favola di Natale by Giovanni Guareschi
As it’s often the case with Guareschi the booklet presents a sad subject (being prisoner in a German lager during the second WW) in a way that doesn’t hide the hard part but yet is with hope and lighthearted.
Recommended.
Moving ahead reading proved that the first impression was correct: the book is a great reading.
When I was getting close to the end of the first part, the one related to robots, I started to feel it hard to continue as reading was giving me a certain degree of discomfort somewhat similar to what I’ve experienced reading “A New Shoah: The Untold Story of Israel’s Victims of Terrorism” by Giulio Meotti.
It took me a while to realize the source of this feeling: the author was dismantling the mental barrier that protects me from the idea of having the robots in the future on the sale level as humans.
Gödel’s incompleteness theorems are the key pillar of my vision about what robots can’t do in the future and this was all I needed to dismiss the rise of the robots as a non-issue.
The challenge is that Sherry Turkle provides a lot of evidence of the fact that people is lowering the bar of what they feel is needed to accept the robots as relational manufacts.
No need to make them smart as humans leads to the ineffectiveness of the mathematical safeguard of Gödel’s incompleteness theorems: by lowering expectations robots will be able to match them in the near future.
You can take a look at Gödel’s incompleteness theorems on wikipedia (not the easiest of the journeys if you don’t have a bit of logic and algebra background) or read Douglas Hofstadter’s Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid as an easier introduction.
The house of my parent’s in law seems to have WiFi gremlins living inside.
Even obtaining a decent signal 8 meters from the router in the past proved to be a challenge.
As a first attempt to connect an old desktop of mine I tried a TP Link WiFi N PCI adapter (TL-WN751ND) with a single antenna (the best that was available in the nearby computer shop): the router signal was detected but connection always failed.
To improve the situation I’ve added a high(er) gain antenna (8db) with an extension cord: signal appeared significantly stronger but connection was still failing most of the time and when successful was lasting only a few minutes.
As a last attempt I decided to convert the 3G router that I already had from the stock firmware to the OpenWRT firmware and use it as a bridge providing ethernet connectivity to the desktop.
Installation was very simple as it worked from the standard firmware update interface of the stock firmware and in about 10 minutes I’ve had the bridge up and running.
Most likely the big challenge is related to signal scattering and the 2×2 MIMO did the needed magic.
Now the connection is fairly stable and I can get the full speed of the ADSL line to the desktop.
A big thank you to the OpenWRT guys.
Often time when I stay in Rancho Bernardo I enjoy the sushi bar of this restaurant.
I usually seat near mr. Hiro-san when I’m dining alone as looking at him preparing the food is a great view and an additional bonus to the food.
The best position to have a good vision is his left hand side and not directly in front of him.
I keep away from the americanized dishes and stick to classical ones (ikura, ika, ama ebi, toro, tamago etc.) asking every time for a suggestion for something that is new for me.
I’m always satisfied with the raw fish quality and the cook is very kind even when sometimes I ask for something that is not supposed to be served at the bar.
I strongly recommend this restaurant to anyone in the area that likes japanese food.
If you can’t afford a relevant bill do like I do: little quantity but great quality.
Your mouth and your body will both thank you.
This year I was on an airplane fairly often:
San Diego (3 times, via Heatrow)
Tel Aviv (via Istanbul, Turkish airlines)
Berlin (3 times, AirBerlin)
Istanbul (7 times, Turkish airlines)
Dublin (2 times, KLM and Aer Lingus)
Prague (EasyJet)
Bruxelles (FlyBe)
Rome (Alitalia)
Munich (Lufthansa)
London (EasyJet)
Copenhagen (SAS)
Düsseldorf (3 times, AirBerlin)
Frankfurt (Lufthansa)
marcoullasci 