What exactly is conformism or anticonformism?
For me following progress always means to be anticonformist.
Otherwise, conforming to the actual reality, would mean to be always the same, as it was before, as it is now.
When I faced life as a young woman (but even before, as an unconforming child) I had to fight with a certain phantom.
And that phantom was nothing else than the woman I should have been, following the wishes of the two closest women of my world: my mother and my grandmother.
That woman was to be good, lovely, charming, utterly unselfish.
She had to be the one to sacrifice herself in daily life.
Always a step behind the men in her family.
First her father, then her brother, then her husband.
She never had a mind or a wish of her own, but preferred to sympathize always with the minds and wishes of others.
She was honest, she was brave, she was pure, she was the scapegoat of her family.
She washed the dishes, she cooked, she cleaned, always with the best smile on her face.
She was never tired, never bored, never worn out.
"You are a woman. You have to behave as one.
Be sympathetic, be unselfish, be servile, flatter and deceive if necessary, in a few words, use all the arts of your sex."
But I was not willing to to depend on charm for living.
I felt I had the same rights as every other human being.
I fel angry, I felt frustrated, I felt rebellious.
I turned upon her and shot her.
My excuse, if I were to be had up in a court of law, would be that I had acted in self defence.
Had I not killed her, she would have killed me.
It is far harder to kill a phantom than a reality.
Killing the woman you should have been was part of the occupation of the women of my generation.
To be able to create a new phantom that the next generation would have to kill.
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Monday, February 27, 2006
The politicising of sex
The politicising of sex is the making of women.
I fully and unequivocally accept the idea of equal rights for women.
Not their literal equality,-we have all heard the remark:" vive la difference" only too often-, but their equal rights.
I have known too many brilliant women and too many stupid men to have any doubt at this point.
On the other hand, I have also known a great many stupid women and a great many brilliant men.
And this complicates matters more than somewhat.
The Feminist Movement resembles the Trade Union movement in one important respect.
The trade Unions used to fight against real injustice, greed and exploitation, and every right-thinking man supported their struggle.
Then things started changing. While employers' greed and desire to exploit workers are not entirely matters of a distant past, the Unions have been gaining the upper hand.
In spite of this, some go on fighting old and pointless battles, shouting the battle cries of a bygone age.
Most of them are unable to adjust to fast changing conditions, rethink their posistions and see their still very important role in new lights.
Others go much further.
The once oppressed victims try to become the new oppressors and exploiters.
The extreme feminist sects are no better.
When you suggest that things have improved, they call you a bloody reactionary and a fool.
Many of them have a fanatical dislike of men.
" We have been oppressed long enough" they say, "It's high time to hit back".
Fanaticism of this kind has condemned many revolutions to failure.
If formerly oppressed classes try to become the new oppressor ( which they too often do) then the result, obviously, is not a reasonable and just society, but a reversal of roles between oppressors and oppressed.
This may seem fair at the moment of victory, but clearly it carries in itself the seeds of a new revolution.
The desire to settle old accounts, to punish old oppressors ( and MEN have been oppressors) is understandable, but understanding DOES NOT make it right.
And WHAT about those women who try to remain women in the old fashioned sense of the word?
They have to be educated and converted.
Converted YES, but abused NO.
And what about those MEN who insist on their rights to remain WOMEN in the old fashioned sense of the word?
A more liberal society has been eager to declare: What consenting adults do in private is their own business.
The trouble is that they don't think it so.
The consenting adults have become a vociferous and assiduous minority.
Perhaps their excitement is just reaction to the first breath of fresh air.
Very well, but we have reached the era of the second breath.
They should calm down.
Their problem is not the most important, let alone the only, problem of this world.
Homosexuals, whether men or women, should stop fighting to rule our future.
Their majority role would exclude the very possibility of a future, so, please, tolerate us poor, inartistic, squat, low and unoriginal heteros.
It is just a little tolerance I am begging for. We can't help it either.
I fully and unequivocally accept the idea of equal rights for women.
Not their literal equality,-we have all heard the remark:" vive la difference" only too often-, but their equal rights.
I have known too many brilliant women and too many stupid men to have any doubt at this point.
On the other hand, I have also known a great many stupid women and a great many brilliant men.
And this complicates matters more than somewhat.
The Feminist Movement resembles the Trade Union movement in one important respect.
The trade Unions used to fight against real injustice, greed and exploitation, and every right-thinking man supported their struggle.
Then things started changing. While employers' greed and desire to exploit workers are not entirely matters of a distant past, the Unions have been gaining the upper hand.
In spite of this, some go on fighting old and pointless battles, shouting the battle cries of a bygone age.
Most of them are unable to adjust to fast changing conditions, rethink their posistions and see their still very important role in new lights.
Others go much further.
The once oppressed victims try to become the new oppressors and exploiters.
The extreme feminist sects are no better.
When you suggest that things have improved, they call you a bloody reactionary and a fool.
Many of them have a fanatical dislike of men.
" We have been oppressed long enough" they say, "It's high time to hit back".
Fanaticism of this kind has condemned many revolutions to failure.
If formerly oppressed classes try to become the new oppressor ( which they too often do) then the result, obviously, is not a reasonable and just society, but a reversal of roles between oppressors and oppressed.
This may seem fair at the moment of victory, but clearly it carries in itself the seeds of a new revolution.
The desire to settle old accounts, to punish old oppressors ( and MEN have been oppressors) is understandable, but understanding DOES NOT make it right.
And WHAT about those women who try to remain women in the old fashioned sense of the word?
They have to be educated and converted.
Converted YES, but abused NO.
And what about those MEN who insist on their rights to remain WOMEN in the old fashioned sense of the word?
A more liberal society has been eager to declare: What consenting adults do in private is their own business.
The trouble is that they don't think it so.
The consenting adults have become a vociferous and assiduous minority.
Perhaps their excitement is just reaction to the first breath of fresh air.
Very well, but we have reached the era of the second breath.
They should calm down.
Their problem is not the most important, let alone the only, problem of this world.
Homosexuals, whether men or women, should stop fighting to rule our future.
Their majority role would exclude the very possibility of a future, so, please, tolerate us poor, inartistic, squat, low and unoriginal heteros.
It is just a little tolerance I am begging for. We can't help it either.
Friday, February 24, 2006
What the Internet really is
The first aim of the Internet, even though unknown at that time, was to teach the existing world a lesson.
How to be succesful and widespread without being a Monopolist.
The society before the Internet Revolution can be compared to the French society pre revolution.
Few families ruling the whole econnomic world.
Instead of families we can consider few multinational companies that aim to play every role in the whole actual world.( which of course is much bigger than the world of that time.)
The end to end Networked proved to be more efficient and more succesful than any centralized and monopolized company.
The customers' owned network and customers' made content have many more customers and users than any existing monopoly.
The actual projects of any IPTV or Movie on demand could be seen as rough tries to restore the old market players and the old economic model.
It is a bad copy of the existing business model.
TV broadcasted on the Net instead of via air.
The few advantages would be the possibility of downloading "on demand" and the bigger footprint.
But the huge disvantages would be the need of consuming costly bandwidth, where the existing broadcasting "on air" practically costs the customer the mere price of an antenna on the roof.
But in the True spirit of the Internet, the end to end network, means much more than that, and it is going to revolutionize the old existing way of broadcasting.
Customers' owned network means customers' done broadcasting.
Everybody can become his own broadcaster, providing he knows how to do.
Instead of websites we will have videos, instead of HTML we will use more and more sophisticated compressions and software to produce movies people like to look at.
People learned that it is not amusing any more to be told what to wear, what to think, what to listen, what to look at.
People will want to make theis own content, to forge their entertainments.
And the Internet Revolution will mean exactly that.
VCs of the world, have this in mind when you choose where to invest your money...
How to be succesful and widespread without being a Monopolist.
The society before the Internet Revolution can be compared to the French society pre revolution.
Few families ruling the whole econnomic world.
Instead of families we can consider few multinational companies that aim to play every role in the whole actual world.( which of course is much bigger than the world of that time.)
The end to end Networked proved to be more efficient and more succesful than any centralized and monopolized company.
The customers' owned network and customers' made content have many more customers and users than any existing monopoly.
The actual projects of any IPTV or Movie on demand could be seen as rough tries to restore the old market players and the old economic model.
It is a bad copy of the existing business model.
TV broadcasted on the Net instead of via air.
The few advantages would be the possibility of downloading "on demand" and the bigger footprint.
But the huge disvantages would be the need of consuming costly bandwidth, where the existing broadcasting "on air" practically costs the customer the mere price of an antenna on the roof.
But in the True spirit of the Internet, the end to end network, means much more than that, and it is going to revolutionize the old existing way of broadcasting.
Customers' owned network means customers' done broadcasting.
Everybody can become his own broadcaster, providing he knows how to do.
Instead of websites we will have videos, instead of HTML we will use more and more sophisticated compressions and software to produce movies people like to look at.
People learned that it is not amusing any more to be told what to wear, what to think, what to listen, what to look at.
People will want to make theis own content, to forge their entertainments.
And the Internet Revolution will mean exactly that.
VCs of the world, have this in mind when you choose where to invest your money...
Sunday, February 19, 2006
To be a real Italian you need to be able to compromise
Wise compromise is one of the basic principles and virtues of the Italians.
It is famous the publisher who from a French political book "The Popular Front" made an exciting, pornographic book called the "The Popular Behind".
And all for Revenues' sake.
The genius for compromise has another aspect too.
It has a tendency to give everything its chance.
It is all right to have windows, and in the North of Europe for example they invented the double windows.
In Italy you must not have double windows, because double windows would indeed stop the wind from blowing right into the room, and, after all, you must be fair and give the wind a chance.
It is all right to have central heating in an Italian home, except the bathroom, because that is the only place where you are naked AND wet at the same time, and you must give Italian germs a fair chance.
The open fire is an accepted, indeed a traditional, institution.
You sit in front of it and your face is hot, whilst your back is cold.
It is a fair compromise between two extremes and settles the problem how to burn and catch cold at the same time.
Italian political life is a huge and non compromising fight between compromising Conservatives and compromising Socialists.
It is famous the publisher who from a French political book "The Popular Front" made an exciting, pornographic book called the "The Popular Behind".
And all for Revenues' sake.
The genius for compromise has another aspect too.
It has a tendency to give everything its chance.
It is all right to have windows, and in the North of Europe for example they invented the double windows.
In Italy you must not have double windows, because double windows would indeed stop the wind from blowing right into the room, and, after all, you must be fair and give the wind a chance.
It is all right to have central heating in an Italian home, except the bathroom, because that is the only place where you are naked AND wet at the same time, and you must give Italian germs a fair chance.
The open fire is an accepted, indeed a traditional, institution.
You sit in front of it and your face is hot, whilst your back is cold.
It is a fair compromise between two extremes and settles the problem how to burn and catch cold at the same time.
Italian political life is a huge and non compromising fight between compromising Conservatives and compromising Socialists.
Italy
In Italy most things look different then in the rest of Europe.
They look different, because they ARE different.
In Europe they have good table manners, in Italy we have good food.
In Europe thay have public transportations that work, in Italy we have TrenItalia and AlItalia.
Both are Italians in every small detail.
In Europe the population consists of a small percentage of criminals, a small percentage of honest people and the rest are a vague transistion between the two; in Italy you find a good percentage of criminals and the rest are non honest people.
On the other hand people in the rest of Europe either tell you the truth or lie, in Italy they hardly ever lie, but they would not dream of telling you the truth.
Many Europeans think life is a game, Italians think life is a soccer game.
They look different, because they ARE different.
In Europe they have good table manners, in Italy we have good food.
In Europe thay have public transportations that work, in Italy we have TrenItalia and AlItalia.
Both are Italians in every small detail.
In Europe the population consists of a small percentage of criminals, a small percentage of honest people and the rest are a vague transistion between the two; in Italy you find a good percentage of criminals and the rest are non honest people.
On the other hand people in the rest of Europe either tell you the truth or lie, in Italy they hardly ever lie, but they would not dream of telling you the truth.
Many Europeans think life is a game, Italians think life is a soccer game.
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Freedom
We are told that a picture is a Rembrandt, so we admire it.
We are told that a kind of wine is very expensive, so we genuinely enjoy it.
We are told what to wear, what to eat, what to drink, what to think, so we wear, eat, drink and think those things.
Voluntary slavery is more repulsive than enforced slavery.
Man does not want to be free. Half of humanity is stupid and has nothing to say.
Very well, to be stupid is a basic human right.
But nearly everybody wishes to be a slave of conformism and the right to be a slave is also one of fundamental human rights.
We are told that a kind of wine is very expensive, so we genuinely enjoy it.
We are told what to wear, what to eat, what to drink, what to think, so we wear, eat, drink and think those things.
Voluntary slavery is more repulsive than enforced slavery.
Man does not want to be free. Half of humanity is stupid and has nothing to say.
Very well, to be stupid is a basic human right.
But nearly everybody wishes to be a slave of conformism and the right to be a slave is also one of fundamental human rights.
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Happy Valentine
The young people of today have no soul, they have the understatement instead.
Once if a youth wanted to declare his love to a girl, he knelt down, told her that she was the sweetest, the most charming and ravishing person in the world, that she had something in her, something peculiar and individual which only a few hundred thousand other women had and that he wouldn't have been able to live one more minute without her.
Often, to give a little more emphasis to the statement, he shoot himself on the spot.
This used to be a normal, week-day declaration of love in the more temperamental countries.
Now a day the boy pats his adored one in the back and says softly:
" I do not object to you, you know."
If he is quite mad with passion, he may add:
" I rather fancy you, in fact."
Id he wants to marry a girl he says:
" I say...would you?..."
If he wants to make an indecent proposal:
"I say...what about..."
Once if a youth wanted to declare his love to a girl, he knelt down, told her that she was the sweetest, the most charming and ravishing person in the world, that she had something in her, something peculiar and individual which only a few hundred thousand other women had and that he wouldn't have been able to live one more minute without her.
Often, to give a little more emphasis to the statement, he shoot himself on the spot.
This used to be a normal, week-day declaration of love in the more temperamental countries.
Now a day the boy pats his adored one in the back and says softly:
" I do not object to you, you know."
If he is quite mad with passion, he may add:
" I rather fancy you, in fact."
Id he wants to marry a girl he says:
" I say...would you?..."
If he wants to make an indecent proposal:
"I say...what about..."
Thursday, February 09, 2006
More on Internet Neutrality
OPINION://Neutrality, schmootrality: a heretic speaks.
Network neutrality rules, apart from being a fuzzy undefined concept, throw out the best of price discrimination and entrench the false “natural duopoly” for access...
Martin Geddes
"From the History of Science, we know that big ideas never spring from just one source (story line). All of the "internet progenitors"
that actually contributed substantial "DNA" to Today's Internet all fostered an environment where the creativity was at the *edge* of the network, not *inside* the network, per se."
"This trait remains the central driving force in The Internet - the "sustainable rate of innovation" - and that is maximized, generally speaking, by not requiring "permission" to attempt innovation."
There is no need of permission if there is no authority.
Every ring in the chain is a part of it, a contribution to the global innovation.
The "telco" technologies were created specifically to provide for central planning and control of innovation (aka "new services").
the power of that control can be seen in how successfully ISDN was crushed in the US. In that world, "new services" (not necessarily
innovative) are doled out by the network operators, in concert with their handmaiden equipment providers, on geologic time scales.
It is the unrivalled "sustainable rate of innovation" which makes The Internet what it is.
Moreover, any alternative "Mark 2" notion of "The Internet" which does not maintain and leverage this force will be unable to compete with another model which is in league with it.
At large scale, Biological Diversity beats Centralized Planning.
The rise of The Internet as innovation platform was the transition of communications and comm infrastructure from the world of Centralized Planning to a world where Biological Diversity drives the sustainable rate of innovation."
Discussion and exchange of ideas. Ideas generate new ideas and new ideas make a new world.
Yes, when it comes to it, I really do not want any "telco"to regulate in any way the Internet.
In a world where there is too much authority and mostly misplaced, there is the need of a real democratic world, also if only "virtual" also if it means "Caos".
Network neutrality rules, apart from being a fuzzy undefined concept, throw out the best of price discrimination and entrench the false “natural duopoly” for access...
Martin Geddes
"From the History of Science, we know that big ideas never spring from just one source (story line). All of the "internet progenitors"
that actually contributed substantial "DNA" to Today's Internet all fostered an environment where the creativity was at the *edge* of the network, not *inside* the network, per se."
"This trait remains the central driving force in The Internet - the "sustainable rate of innovation" - and that is maximized, generally speaking, by not requiring "permission" to attempt innovation."
There is no need of permission if there is no authority.
Every ring in the chain is a part of it, a contribution to the global innovation.
The "telco" technologies were created specifically to provide for central planning and control of innovation (aka "new services").
the power of that control can be seen in how successfully ISDN was crushed in the US. In that world, "new services" (not necessarily
innovative) are doled out by the network operators, in concert with their handmaiden equipment providers, on geologic time scales.
It is the unrivalled "sustainable rate of innovation" which makes The Internet what it is.
Moreover, any alternative "Mark 2" notion of "The Internet" which does not maintain and leverage this force will be unable to compete with another model which is in league with it.
At large scale, Biological Diversity beats Centralized Planning.
The rise of The Internet as innovation platform was the transition of communications and comm infrastructure from the world of Centralized Planning to a world where Biological Diversity drives the sustainable rate of innovation."
Discussion and exchange of ideas. Ideas generate new ideas and new ideas make a new world.
Yes, when it comes to it, I really do not want any "telco"to regulate in any way the Internet.
In a world where there is too much authority and mostly misplaced, there is the need of a real democratic world, also if only "virtual" also if it means "Caos".
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Looking for Trends
Everyone wants to know about trends. Where we're headed, why and how they'll affect us personally and professionally. In the IP space, looking for trends can be dicey. Nevertheless, a gaggle of top executives from a cross-section of IP-related industries gathered recently at the IP Trend Summit in San Francisco, put on by IMS Research, to discuss what's on the IP horizon. Here's what they came up with, according to Ian Weightman of IMS.
Careful consideration of architectural strategy prior to deployment is essential to ensuring adequate capacity and QoS for future IPTV deployments. Translation: better have an architectural clue.
The unlimited footprint of the Internet is its biggest advantage, and will allow for continued experimentation with new services.
Compression will be the key for IPTV providers competing with cable, with MPEG-4 viewed as an enabler for multiple video streams, with at least one being HD.
The Internet is likely to have a a much larger impact on TV than TV will have on Internet backbones.
There is vastly more storage than transmission capacity, and this is likely to continue.
Together with the the requirements of mobility, and the need to satisfy human desires for convenience and instant gratification, this is likely to induce a migration towards a store-and-replay model, away from the current real-time streaming model of the broadcast world.
Further,HDTV may finally get a chance to come into widespread use.
Video is likely to play an increasing role, taking over as a major driver of traffic growth from music (which got a large boost from
Napster).
Cable operators will not stand still as IPTV grows, and will eventually get into IPTV themselves if the telcos start using interactivity as a differentiator. Few telcos understand the TV business, and that will hold them back.
Some believe the set-top box is the natural candidate to become the whole home video server. But no initiative has been taken to make all the bits needed to make the STB-as-media-gateway concept work together.
However, this video is likely to be in the form of file transfers, not streaming real time traffic.
The basic argument is that video will follow the example of Napster (or MP3, to be more precise), which is
delivered primarily as files for local storage and replay, and not in streaming form.
This local storage has several advantages.
It can be deployed easily (no need to wait for the whole Internet to be upgraded to provide high quality transmission). It also allows for
faster than real time transmission when networks acquire sufficient bandwidth.
(This will allow for sampling and for easy transfer to portable storage units.)
VOD usage is growing at the expense of traditional television, and on-demand content is a strong potential differentiator and churn-reducer. With the IP VOD industry offering DVDs, gaming, and local content on demand, traditional TV usage will continue to erode.
The broadcast model, in which people have to adjust their schedules to fit those set by network executives was an
unnatural one, forced by the limitations of the available technology.
The popularity of video tape rentals showed that people preferred flexibility.
Similarly, when cable TV operators chose to offer more channels as opposed to higher resolution channels, they were
presumably responding to what they saw as their customers' desires for variety.
The Internet will offer even more flexibility.
No real jaw-dropping surprises, but the trend towards IPTV and on-demand services is unmistakable. This will get real interesting.
Careful consideration of architectural strategy prior to deployment is essential to ensuring adequate capacity and QoS for future IPTV deployments. Translation: better have an architectural clue.
The unlimited footprint of the Internet is its biggest advantage, and will allow for continued experimentation with new services.
Compression will be the key for IPTV providers competing with cable, with MPEG-4 viewed as an enabler for multiple video streams, with at least one being HD.
The Internet is likely to have a a much larger impact on TV than TV will have on Internet backbones.
There is vastly more storage than transmission capacity, and this is likely to continue.
Together with the the requirements of mobility, and the need to satisfy human desires for convenience and instant gratification, this is likely to induce a migration towards a store-and-replay model, away from the current real-time streaming model of the broadcast world.
Further,HDTV may finally get a chance to come into widespread use.
Video is likely to play an increasing role, taking over as a major driver of traffic growth from music (which got a large boost from
Napster).
Cable operators will not stand still as IPTV grows, and will eventually get into IPTV themselves if the telcos start using interactivity as a differentiator. Few telcos understand the TV business, and that will hold them back.
Some believe the set-top box is the natural candidate to become the whole home video server. But no initiative has been taken to make all the bits needed to make the STB-as-media-gateway concept work together.
However, this video is likely to be in the form of file transfers, not streaming real time traffic.
The basic argument is that video will follow the example of Napster (or MP3, to be more precise), which is
delivered primarily as files for local storage and replay, and not in streaming form.
This local storage has several advantages.
It can be deployed easily (no need to wait for the whole Internet to be upgraded to provide high quality transmission). It also allows for
faster than real time transmission when networks acquire sufficient bandwidth.
(This will allow for sampling and for easy transfer to portable storage units.)
VOD usage is growing at the expense of traditional television, and on-demand content is a strong potential differentiator and churn-reducer. With the IP VOD industry offering DVDs, gaming, and local content on demand, traditional TV usage will continue to erode.
The broadcast model, in which people have to adjust their schedules to fit those set by network executives was an
unnatural one, forced by the limitations of the available technology.
The popularity of video tape rentals showed that people preferred flexibility.
Similarly, when cable TV operators chose to offer more channels as opposed to higher resolution channels, they were
presumably responding to what they saw as their customers' desires for variety.
The Internet will offer even more flexibility.
No real jaw-dropping surprises, but the trend towards IPTV and on-demand services is unmistakable. This will get real interesting.
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