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Thursday, February 26, 2009

The lands of the rising spam

Port 25 blocking is increasingly being used by ISPs around the world to combat the problem of spam.
Too bad it is a little bit too late.
We have a saying in Italy "closing the door when the cows are gone..."
Senders of unsolicited commercial e-mail are resorting to outright criminality in their efforts to conceal the source of their ill-sent missives, using Trojan horses to turn the computers of innocent netizens into secret spam zombies.
Trojan horses generally rely on their wielder's ability to trick innocent people into executing them.
"As a general rule it's legal to send someone an e-mail even if they don't want it, but once you break into their computer and get their computer to send e-mail to someone else, then you're violating federal and state computer crime laws."
Everybody agrees with this, but is somebody going to do something about it?

German course

I thought that Italians were particularly good in making chaos out of normality, I believed so till I went to a German course in Germany.
Well, as my husbands likes to point it out "in East Germany".
I do not know the west, I am inclined to think sometimes that Germany is one only state, but I prefer not to say anything about it.
Let’s pretend there are still two Germanys...
Coming back to the language course.
I finally decided it was time to learn this wonderful language and, after many do it yourself trials I decided it was time to invest some money to do it once and for all.
Of course the money invested was not toooo much, following Mrs Broghammer´s style...why spend if you can save?
Every Thursday I spend one and a half hour with other five people of five different nationalities and one teacher, the only one of course German (east German)in the local School and we talk German, or better, we are supposed to talk German.
I wouldn’t say it is boring, I do not see much the results, but, as the teacher says the results will come...
I thought my German was non existent, till I met the Chinese who knows even less than me and I was elected immediately teacher, since I can communicate with her better than the teacher...
The big problem is that we are five different people with five different levels and five different mother tongue.
We have two books, the level one and the level two, but we do not follow any book, we jump from one page to the 120th, then back to number first, and so on.
We jump from present to past tense, from verbs to adjectives and so on.
This looks to me a very peculiar course and I see it as a little bit chaotic, but if enjoying is learning, well, we won’t miss to learn German...

How many would have paid for a fast DSL if there was nothing to download?

"It’s Day 8 of The Pirate Bay trial and several entertainment industry CEOs take the stand. IFPI’s CEO John Kennedy said that TPB was an extremely damaging force on the global music industry and what the site offers is just too tempting for people to resist. He also admitted to not understanding how TPB or even uTorrent works."

"Kennedy noted the transition to digital music was a great threat to them, and although more music is currently being consumed than ever before, “less is being paid for than ever before.” If music is available for free, says Kennedy, many people find that temptation too much to resist and new business models can’t flourish."

What nobody says is that free music meant a very alluring content for the mass of Internet users and meant also a bust of high speed Internet.
How many would have paid for a fast DSL if there was nothing to download?

Sex please, we are Americans...

The need is the mother of intelligence.
That is valid especially in bad times, when customers are getting fewer and fewer and the bills bigger and bigger.
So, a small coffee shop in Maine raised the ire of many residents, but found the way to survive and quite well as it looks.
What better than Sex to refresh a stagnating business?
It is just for "over 18" and doesn´t allow cameras or touching, but offers the view and the services of three beautiful topless waitresses (and a bare chested waiter, just in case...)

How to save and still see well...

If you need a new pair of eyeglasses you should read The New York Times.
Well, do not misunderstand me.
It is not that reading an online newspaper can magically restore your vision.
What it can do is suggesting how to have a good pair of new glasses without spending a fortune and still improve your eyesight...
They smartly point it out how easy is to spend a fortune for a pair of glasses when you can have the same for much less.
Look at the following image:


glasses


Those are the glasses I choose.
They are very light and comfortable.
Some time ago I made the mistake to choose a frame which looked very fashionable, but they proved to be quite uncomfortable.
With another supplier I would have had to stick to that model, for financial reasons, but with Zenni Optical I can afford to have two pairs, one for showing, when I like to look very "in" and one for using everyday.
Well, how much do you think they were?
I know you won’t believe it, but that nice, light frame was just $8!
And I have another advantage...when I lose one I always have a spare in my bag, so that I do not get crazy looking for glasses all over the house!

The weak? He will have to conform...

Once it was that the strongest of the species who were the ones to survive; in principle now it is exactly the same, the only difference being that the strongest are the most intelligent, because they are the most responsive to change.
Yes we can.
We can because we have to.
At least the strongest will.
Oil is getting a thing of the past.
It began being the thing of the past since the 70s.
We have tried in every way to keep it alive, telling lies and believing in miracles.
Because the idea of something working and producing in our place, when we are idly enjoying life is something that always had some sort of attraction in the collective imagination.
Progress in the eyes of the many means working less and enjoying more.
May be doing exactly the same: working, but as a hobby, not as a duty.
Progress is concentrating in what we like to do.
Being able to earn a good living without any hassle, and physical work.
Let the computer and the other machines work for you, while you just count money.
That is a nice sport, too bad it is just "virtual" and it gets more and more "virtual".
The change means exactly that: leaving the virtual where it belongs and coming into reality.
The strongest will be able to do it, because they already understood.
The weak?
He will have to conform...

When it is worth to pay for...

Is it worth paying for something you can get for free?
In the case of web hosting it is, when you have something to host which is worth to pay for.
It is worth to pay for something which is demonstrably better than its free competitors.
For example justhost.com charges $4.95 a month.
It has a lot of free competitors who offer Unlimited GB´s of Space,Unlimited GB's of Transfer, Unlimited Domain Hosting, Unlimited E-Mail Accounts.
But they do not offer MySQL databases or free site builder or free domain for life or free instant set up.
Besides, when something is given for free, it usually asks something back.
You do not pay with money, but you pay in other ways...
The important is to be able to have the rightweb hosting choice.
And that is what Web Hosting Choice offers.
It is a well written, well explained guide about web hosting, done with the purpose to help users to choose the right service.
Either you have a small or a big site and you need few or more features, you can find all you are looking for and have detailed information’s about any of the host sites.
They are rated in base of affordability, reliability, uptime and tech support.
So, not only it pays off to pay a small sum of money to have a lot more, but also it pays off to carefully choose the company you want to work with.

Monday, February 16, 2009

Buy Local, Sell Global

When I read this title on Tom Evlin´s blog I thought he was writing the most idiotic post and didn’t understand what was happening.
With a pleasant surprise I realized he was totally against it.
I too think it is upmost stupid a behavior like this.
Thirst immigrants (most of them) come to work and ARE willing to work, sometimes harder than the local people.
As he says, when you work in a place you also need to sleep and eat there and that is how the economy grows.
You build a factory somewhere and you hire 4000 people.
First: you have 4000 families living there and those people eat, sleep, try to have good time, that means they spend.
Hire people and you will be able to make the economy growing.
But wasn’t it what they did? Why didn’t it work?
When you subtract from the salary most part of it as direct or indirect taxes, people do not have money to spend and the economy doesn’t grow.
As simple as that.
These taxes have even a worst effect on the economy.
They upgrade the cost of producing, so that the gap among the so called civilized countries and the emerging ones is so wide that it is not convenient any more to produce in the first.
That means the ones who invest to create new factories invest in the emerging countries and create jobs there.
And here we consume as long as we have money or credit and then... we are not able to consume anymore.
We do not go skiing, to the beach, to the cinema, we do not buy new cars, new clothes...
But the solution is certainly NOT obliging people to consume locally.
The solution is making the LOCAL as cheap as the produced elsewhere.
The solution is to create a global market where everybody produces and everybody consumes.
It would mean the the richer get poorer and the poorer get richer.

If you study history you will be able to see how the actual situation looks like the pre second war situation.
People got poorer, there were no jobs, and it was easy for certain people to preach a new Nationalism.
In Italy Mussolini was talking about "Autarchy" which was exactly like "consume what it is produced in Italy".

Local is not good, just as protectionism is not good, just as nationalism is not good.
We are in 2009, it is time we begin to see ourselves as "citizens of the world".

It´s Spring (almost)

Spring is the season I love best.
You appreciate it especially if you live in place like the one where I live.
In a place where Winters are long and cold.
When Spring comes I feel like I have to renew everything and certainly Spring is the right excuse to throw away old stuff and buy new one.
And in a recession time I am particularly fond of special offers, coupons, special prices, all what helps to save something (that something you invest in buying something else...)
The more you save, the more you can buy, and the more you can buy, the happier I get...
I admit, I am a consumistic society’s victim number one.
I love shopping and I am not even ashamed of it...
What am I going to change?
Well, our computers are a little outdated and something new would help to bid faster on eBay...and bidding faster means buying more.
Why not taking advantage of the saving coupons on Dell discount code for XPS M2010 system.
You can save up to $230 and build your own computer.
Building means that you select the parts and virtually build it...
The only thing you have actually to do is deciding what you like and, of course, pay...and with the $230 I saved I can shop for many things.
Why not a PNY - Mini Attaché 2GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive - Blue?
It is just $5.99 (instead of 14.99).
That gives me the chance to still have $224.
Well, that means I can afford a 6-Cube Rolling Storage- Espresso for just $159.99.
And I get even a 15% off bonus.
So, 159.99 minus $9.6 bonus, makes $144.99 which is what I spend.
I still have $79.
What would I like to buy?
I do not say what do I need, because in that case I should just switch off the computer and forget...
So, with $79 I could eventually buy 18k Gold Overlay Cubic Zirconia Hoop Earrings for me.
They look like diamonds and cost just $ 17.99.
That leaves me $61.
I saw a Sterling Silver Baguette Cubic Zirconia Ring that perfectly matches the earrings.
It is $40.49 and looks like $4000.
Well I am still on the saving side because I still have $20.52.
With what I saved on one computer I bought a lot of other discounted items and still save more than $20!
I guess that the coupons website is a great idea...

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Scary because true

LiveLeak has caught a scary moment of previously undisclosed insight by Paul Kanjorski where he reveals some facts that have not been captured by the media previously. At 2 minutes and 20 seconds in the video below, Democratic Representative Kanjorski explains how the Federal Reserve told Congress members about a "tremendous draw-down of money market accounts in the United States, to the tune of $550 billion dollars." According to Kanjorski, this electronic transfer occurred over the period of an hour or two. And it gets worse. Kanjorski paraphrases the following disclosure by Bernanke and Paulson:

On Thursday (Sept 18), at 11am the Federal Reserve noticed a tremendous draw-down of money market accounts in the U.S., to the tune of $550 billion was being drawn out in the matter of an hour or two. The Treasury opened up its window to help and pumped a $105 billion in the system and quickly realized that they could not stem the tide. We were having an electronic run on the banks. They decided to close the operation, close down the money accounts and announce a guarantee of $250,000 per account so there wouldn't be further panic out there.

If they had not done that, their estimation is that by 2pm that afternoon, $5.5 trillion would have been drawn out of the money market system of the U.S., would have collapsed the entire economy of the U.S., and within 24 hours the world economy would have collapsed. It would have been the end of our economic system and our political system as we know it.

We are no better off today than we were 3 months ago because we have a decrease in the equity positions of banks because other assets are going sour by the moment.

Interestingly, Kanjorski, and likely more and more Democrats, are starting to shift to the camp that more time is needed to make a correct decision this time (which may explain Geithner's decision to postpone the "bank-rescue" announcement by one day to Tuesday), instead of rushing into another half-baked plan. Very scary stuff.

Zero Hedge

Monday, February 09, 2009

How much America has to change?

"All the old mechanisms that enabled our way of life are broken, especially endless revolving credit, at every level, from household to business to the banks to the US Treasury."JHK

The problem is not the easy credit, the problem is the stupid spending.
When you borrow money to begin a business, something that sooner or later will produce revenues and jobs, the credit is essential.
How many entrepreneurs had the chance to develop great ideas thanks to credit?
But life evolves and things change.
What was good and profitable yesterday may not be tomorrow.
That is why Banks and Financial Institutions should be ruled by intelligent people, people who can see what the future will be, where the good money goes and not only looking at what percentage will be the ir own revenue.
It is not the system that has to change, it is the people.
We wasted a lot of time developing a society based on never-ending supply of cheap energy.
The never-ending proved to be fast ending and the society has to change in base of this.
That doesn’t mean that we go back 100 years.
It means that we have to fill in a few years the gap that we ourselves created in the illusion that oil could work for us.
The easy jobs are a thing of the past, as it is something of the past the thought that somebody can create a fortune just moving money.

What Hackers do not miss is creativity

How can they drive you to their website in the most innocent and convincing way?
"In North Dakota, oddly enough, hackers have hit on a new way to infect innocent computers: fake parking tickets that direct car owners to a site where they are instructed to download malicious software."
They are invited to download a special toolbar that will allow them to "see" the crime they committed.
Of course this is a disguised trojan horse virus.

If you are a terrorist and you are English, you are even more dangerous

"Barack Obama has been warned by the CIA that British Islamist extremists are the greatest threat to US homeland security. "
They are Pakistani, but have a British passport and can enter USA.

"Around 40 per cent of CIA activity on homeland threats is now in the UK. This is quite unprecedented."
"Since September 11 the philosophy on both sides has been to err on the side of telling each other more rather than less. It is in everyone's interests that that continues."

The smart shopper

Or the many ways you should avoid making a purchase they push you to do.
Marketing has never been so psychological.
These are the ways they brainwash you:

1)Return a favor.
That is the trick they use in Tupperware-party .
You are among friends and you "feel" obliged to buy...

2)Buy now.
I love Flea Markets. And they are great because you can make wonderful deals.
On one condition: that you buy what you do not need.
I always bring with me a list of what I have to buy and come home with something else.
But that something else what such a good bargain I couldn’t resist.
The end of the story: I have the house full of precious things I do not need and I do not use.
I am sure one day or another they will finish on a Flea Market, where they came from...

3) Special offers.
It´s kind of similar to flea market.
You buy a product at a special price, you like it and if you want to buy it again it is much more expensive.
Or you buy something just because it is so cheap you cannot miss the bargain...

4) The more you buy, the less it costs.
But then, either you finish eating too much or throwing away the surplus...

Well, I think it is almost useless to write this.
I myself will go on with special offers and flea market, nothing will deprive the joy of thinking I was so "smart" to do such a "great bargain".
This satisfaction is worth more than what any money could pay...

Being a great writer

"So you've got an idea for a novel. Big deal, right? Thousands of those are published every year and most collect dust on the shelves. How can you call attention to yours?

Hey, why not claim all the stuff in the book actually happened to you? Instead of a ridiculous product of your deranged imagination, it's an inspiring true story!"

I always thought that being a great writer meant being able to write about your life, making it interesting in spite of...When you are good, the story you tell is not important at all, it is the way you tell it that makes the difference...

When movie story is better than reality

"Rubina Ali and Azharuddin Ismail, two of the child actors in "Slumdog Millionaire," are still living in the slums of Mumbai, despite the film's $14 million budget and worldwide success. Ali earned 500 British pounds ($710) for one year's work and Ismail earned 1700 pounds ($2414), "less than many Indian domestic servants"

If they had lived in reality the story, it would have been much better...

All what you like is usually bad for you

That is what I always thought, but it looks like it is not true in certain cases.

"The active ingredient in marijuana cuts tumor growth in common lung cancer in half and significantly reduces the ability of the cancer to spread, say researchers at Harvard University who tested the chemical in both lab and mouse studies."

That is a good news indeed.
I just lost my mother for a lung cancer and I think marijuana would have helped a lot, at least in healing the huge pains she had to suffer, and who knows? May be also making her living longer...

Saturday, February 07, 2009

Success is good for the Soul

“The true standard of measurement for extraordinary outcomes
is that which brings extraordinary benefit and fulfillment
to me and to the lives of others. That’s success!“
- Steven K Scott

Yes, I experienced it, I really did; the intense feeling of true happiness and success. Not just temporarily, but extensively for an uninterrupted period of several months. This was simply the most significant ‘achievement’ of mine: finding clarity, peace and happiness in a hectic and high-demanding life. This phase took the entire first half of 2008 and I came out the other end with much insight and understanding about myself and my purpose.

I have never felt so complete and content as I did during this period. With the most rewarding being the absolute stillness I felt within myself and the understanding that we can be truly and absolutely happy with living a simple life with very little material possession. No, I am not a hippy, nor am I religious. I am just a girl, going through life, seeking that which we are all seeking: happiness.

What could you do to show you are the developer of the future?

If you are a student,or if you are not a student, if your computer screen is more important to you than anything else in the world and the opposite sex still remains a complete mystery to you (although many non-programmers don't know how to program and can't make much sense of women either), if your main love and attraction is XML and you think you are able to shape the XML of the future this IDUG contest is for you.
What is it all about?
There are five different contests, designed for students and professionals.
Every contests offers prizes and approvals.
First you have to pass a simple test, in order to show your basic skills.
It doesn’t require database experience and you have to pass the quiz just in the beginning (once).
Begin registering to one of the contests.

They are:

1) Video contest.
You are requested to create a video in which you prove your creativity in XML, XQuery or DB2, recording yourself while you do it.

2)Gadget contest.
You have to create a gadget using DB2.

3)Query contest.
You have to invent question that you will answer using XQuery.

4)Ported App Contest.
You are required to develop a new application for DB2.

5) XML2 Contest.
You should be able to create a new, useful, user-friendly XML application.

The one who is so good to have the maximum of points for all contests will get a special prize (the XML Grand Master).

Any intelligent fool can make bigger, more complex, and more complicated applications in XML. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction: creating good, simple but great applications.
They are looking for that genius: do you think you can be up to?
If so, the only thing you have to do is starting, right now.

Post?slot_id=31898&url=http%3a%2f%2fsocialspark

Rewriting the way of looking at colors

There are many reasons why we don’t always get what we want. One of these reasons is because we focus on the opposite of what we want. Sometimes, we just can’t help it. But, if we are conscious of our thoughts, we can intercept these thoughts and shift our frame of mind towards our desired goals.

Have you ever been particularly annoyed by a person or situation? The more we complain about it, the more we notice it. The more we notice it, the worse it becomes. The next time we interact with that person or situation, we almost expect to be annoyed and thus subconsciously look for those small triggers that’ll make us annoyed.

In a similar example of an opposite scenario: Have you ever shopped for a particular kind of car which you’ve never noticed before? For example, a black SmartCar or a silver Toyota Prius. And suddenly, you see them everywhere? Similarly, have you shopped for a particular piece of clothing, let’s say a blazer style jacket for the spring, and suddenly you notice them everywhere?

Whether we focus on things we want or do not want, the truth is that What we focus on expands.

From my experience, dreams do come true, for the sole reason that the more you focus on something, the more of it you’ll notice and you’ll be particularly sensitive to opportunities that’ll come your way which will allow your dreams to become your reality.

Try It For Yourself! A Simple Exercise
Not convinced of what I’m saying? That’s cool. I still like you. :) But before you throw your hands up, try this simple yet powerful exercise. It’s so simple, you could do it anywhere.

1. Next time you are walking or driving somewhere, or sitting on the bus or a car. Remember to do this.

2. Pick a color and focus on it. Look for that color in your field of vision as you’re moving about. For example, focus on the color red.

3. Do this for several minutes. Do you notice this color in so many places?

4. Pick another color and focus on it. Forget about the first color, just focus on the second. For example, try the color green.

5. Continue for several minutes. Scan your surroundings. Do you suddenly notice your second color popping up everywhere?

6. Repeat several times using different colors each time.

Pretty cool huh? As simple or as silly this may sound, it’s a powerful exercise that I like to play around with. Each time we shift our focus on a new color, it feels like a shift in vision, or putting on special glasses that only filters this color.

I first learned about this cute technique from my mother. We were in the car and I was particularly annoyed about something and I started acting like an unreasonable child. She used this exercise to remind me that focusing on thoughts of frustration will only makes our frustrations stronger. I was deeply touched by the experience. I learned that we can proactively shift our thoughts by shifting our focus. A shift in our thoughts will shift our emotions, almost instantly.

Think Simple Now

Friday, February 06, 2009

The Broghammers go to the "Grundbuchamt"

After one full morning and a few kilometers walk around Quedlinburg, Mr. Broghammer could walk home embracing a thick bundle of documents regarding our new home.
Now we know in details how many millimeters is our court wide and, more than anything, we know what to tell our neighbors.
They will come to put brand new and very visible sticks on the border of our property and close to them there will be big signs "No Trespassing" obviously in German, which I still do not know.
No German soul that doesn’t belong to Schmale Strasse 13 will be allowed to put a foot on the up mentioned land, not even dogs, especially not dogs.
And Mr. Broghammer will take care of that...
No more broken bottles or empty firecrackers cartoons, no cigarette, nothing.
That for the sake of the German Broghammer´s land.

It can be quite difficult to understand to a novice, but I will try to write when and where all this began.
Mr. Broghammer, when living in Italy, had the chance to point out how much different Germany was from Italy.
No disposal of bottles and rest of cigarettes on the road, no trespassing of borders from neighbors, everything looked so spiky and span in his country.
When the Broghammers decided to move to Germany "You will see the difference".
The fact was that Mrs Broghammer didn´t see that much difference in Schmale Strasse.
On the contrary, coming soon after the beginning of the year, Schmale Strasse 13 and the garden looked very unkempt and very dirty.
Broken bottles, every kind of garbage on the road, and...the neighbors car in our court!

I didn’t complain too much, I even enjoyed having the visit of some friendly dogs in our land, but for Mr. Broghammer that is really too much.
Finishing to teach lessons to the Italians, he has to begin with his own home land.

Our future is green

"On Dec. 15, the same week that General Motors Corp. and Chrysler begged $17.4 billion from taxpayers to stave off collapse, Hemlock announced a $3-billion expansion that could create hundreds of jobs."
General Motors is the past and Hemlock is our future.
"President-elect Barack Obama wants to spend $150 billion over the next decade to promote energy from the sun, wind and other renewable sources as well as energy conservation"
Is he going in the right direction?
This will certainly create new jobs, free America from oil addiction, help the environment.
"Obama's proposal to weatherize homes would pay for itself through energy savings while putting legions of unemployed construction workers back on the job. A $100-billion investment in a green recovery could create 2 million jobs within two years."
Well, one thing is sure, the world has to change because there is no way out going on with the actual situation.

Find a friend sharing your biking experience

If you like to go on a bike, may be you like to share your experiences in a Biker Chat, with people who have the same interests.
You can share the knowledge of the landscapes you just found and love, the best way to spend your weekend biking and why not? Talking about your bike and how to improve it and so on.
I do not think you need any tip about subjects to talk about.
Chatting is the way to make new friends and chatting with people with your same interests should make it even easier.
At least you know what they like to talk about!

About Piracy

"Media companies say that piracy — some prefer to call it “digital theft” to emphasize the criminal nature of the act — is an increasingly mainstream pursuit."

“Young people, in particular, conclude that if it’s so easy, it can’t be wrong,”
I do not think this is what they think.
If in real life Paul rents or buys a DVD and then lets his friend John look at it and eventually John has some friends with him and all together watch "in John’s Home" the same movie, well that is normal and allowed.
If Paul’s friend John lives in California, while Paul is in NY, the movie travels on the Internet "physically" instead of travelling "physically" in Paul’s pocket and the result is the same.

I am talking about result, not way.
Law usually punishes the results, not the intention of.
If I kill somebody physically or I pay somebody to do the job, for the law I am guilty the same.
So, if I am innocent lending the physical DVD to John, I am innocent the same lending him a "virtual copy" because the result is the same: Hollywood is paid for one DVD, just like in the murder case the result is the same: the man is dead.

This is a complicated thought, but what the mind can do to justify what we like to do!

Almost 40000 places that could host humans like us

And may be more evolute, because some of them are even older than earth so you could expect more advanced civilisations than ours.
We will be able to meet them in 300, 400 years.
So sorry I won´t be here at that time.
Well, we will have at last REAL "star wars"!

Things I Didn't Want to Know About You

2894 diggs for an article written on the things people unusually write of themselves on Facebook.
That is, things they think could be interesting reading about them.
Some want to look peculiar, some strange, some unusual.
What nobody wants to look is what he is: normal.
But there is much more originality in admitting to be just "another human being" than being somebody who eats tacos with a fork...
When you lack personality you have to find something to make you "somebody with personality" and you wrongly think that doing something very different from what the others do, makes you special.
The problem is that when you arrive to think that so millions of people do, and it is not "special" anymore, it is the "new normality".
It is like wasting a lot of money for big boobs or inflated lips.
You become just one of the "many" while the one that is still "normally sized" becomes automatically "special".

"When people talk to us about others they are usually dull. When they talk to us about themselves they are nearly always interesting, and if one could shut them up, when they become wearisome, as easily as one can shut up a book of which one has grown wearied, they would be perfect absolutely."

Well, one of the first rule of marketing is "Make people talk about themselves, their problems and listen, you will be the King of the situation."
In a world that loves to speak the effective communication is JUST listening.

Thursday, February 05, 2009

Will people begin to like e-books?

That is going to happen in the forecast of Amazon who is expected to launch the new Kindle 2.0 reader.
Analysts think it will be a $1 billion dollar business for the online retailer by next year.

It will generate revenues (4%) to Amazon by 2010, assuming its adoption will follow in the footsteps of the Apple iPod, doing for e-books what the iPod did for digital music.
The new Kindle will be longer and thinner than Kindle 1.0, with a more user-friendly keypad and device side-buttons that are less prone to accidental hits/accidental page turns.
The new device won´t have touch-screen capability, nor a color screen, but faster page-turning functionality.
Unofficial sources also talked about an educational model for students as textbook.(not in the current year)

The less you eat the less you burn

"IF YOU stopped eating today, you wouldn't survive more than two months. A crocodile, on the other hand, might live for a year or more. Why the difference? You waste most of the food you eat generating heat.

The evolution of warm-bloodedness, or endothermy, is one of life's great mysteries. Sure, there are some advantages - staying active in the cold, keeping young cosy and warm, and avoiding having to go out into the open to soak up heat from the sun.

The thing is, you could get much the same advantages by turning up the heat only when and where in the body it is needed, as many animals do. So why do most birds and mammals keep the furnaces burning 24/7? Staying warm - which for birds means 40 °C on average - comes at a price. Some warm-blooded animals have to eat as much in one day as similarly sized reptiles do in a month, a dangerous and time-consuming strategy."

That is also why any diet is efficient till a certain point.
The body gradually lowers the metabolism and the internal temperature falls to 36 in order to be abe to live with less food.
Our body is a perfect machine.
The more you eat the more you burn, the less you eat the less you burn...

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

One third of broadband users is an "illegal downloader"

"One third of all broadband Internet subscribers worldwide admits to having downloaded movies or TV-shows illegally."
What they do not say is that the fast connection is very sought of mainly for that purpose.
"Most people do not download copyrighted videos on a regular basis though. The survey found that only 4% of the total sample admitted doing so. "
Well one always wonders that there are so many stupid’s who risk just on the sake of truth.
Luckily the higher percentage belongs to the ones who know how to shut their mouth...
“You wouldn’t steal…” campaign is a prime example of a failed campaign.
Why should you be ashamed to do in a very small scale what most do at a larger scale?
And I am talking of Bankers, Managers, Politicians.
One steals as he can... with his small or big chances...
"The rise of illegal downloading is clearly a signal that customers want something that is unavailable through other channels."
And especially something that comes for free...
In a marketing world where what mostly sells is the "special offer" "pay one and grab two", the "pay nothing and grab as much as you like" sounds beautifully.

"So, should sharing copyrighted material be legalized?"

Where would the fun be? And the profits of the high speed internet providers?
Some may object that content IS NOT KING, but in this case is at least "Queen".

You should never spit in the soup you eat

And especially in the one that comes for free...
Well I really do not understand idiocy.
A little bit of it is quite normal (who hasn’t done idiocies at least once in his life?), but persisting, that is what we say "diabolic"...
I come to the point.
American car companies have done for years the stupidest mistake and that was building very powerful engines and then pulling them down electronically.
The automakers have been fighting California and other states in court for several years. Last week, they pledged to continue that fight - despite the president's instructions and, to a larger extent, his consistent and unequivocal insistence on a “green” auto industry.
“The irony here is the auto companies want a bailout, in many ways because they weren’t building the kind of cars that were compatible with today’s energy market – and at the same time, they want to keep going with their lawsuits, which have already cost millions and millions of dollars.”

I fail to understand the profit of doing so, I mean, if you want to sell (and selling is the only way to have a profitable business) you have to deliver what people want...
Gone are the days when the industry could deny climate change and break promises to voluntarily cut emissions.
But, as usual, Gods do not see that something can change.
When you are used to rule, you do not understand that the World is not the same anymore.

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Habemus shower

Yes, after three weeks and Euro 1075 we have a new shower.
It is something so ugly that I think, with all my efforts, I wouldn´t have been able to make a worse one.
Yesterday evening I was on the verge of divorcing my husband.
I was swearing against Germany and all the Germans and their way to work.
In Italy it would have taken one week and Euro 300 for having a nice looking, nice working normal shower.
Which in principle should be a place where you go to wash yourself and stay a few minutes.
It doesn´t really matter if a few drops of water can eventually reach the walls or the floor.
It doesn´t matter to an Italian or to anybody from anywhere from the world.
But IT MATTERS to a German.
Not one only drop should NEVER reach anywhere outside where it should be.
In order to do so, you (the Germans) have to build an artificial wall around it and glue any possible tiny hole.
It took exactly 7 hours to do so and the rest of my life to get used to it.
I got a big lesson yesterday.
First you should never dream.
Dreams are there to be deluded and the dreamer too.
Second, you should always hire somebody you can talk to and more than anything somebody you can understand.
Never presume.
Especially when you are in Germany.
Germans are different and not always predictable.
We had the biggest lesson not so long ago and we should never undervaluate.
You are likely to be the same in BAD and in GOOD...

Monday, February 02, 2009

What will change in 2009?

Nothing that has not already begun changing in the previous years.
The actual crisis will, in one way, accelerate what is going on.
The Internet will go on playing a major role in our life.
All governments around the world are finally understanding the importance of being connected and of being connected at a decent speed.
When you have countries with a downloading speed of more than 6 Mbits, you also have websites and applications that run at that speed.
Having low speed is like being cut out from most interesting and technologically advanced countries.
People will spend more time online, the online business, whatever it is, will have more customers, so that the natural consequence will be either you are ON (line) or you are OUT.
Including commercials.
The other century has seen a wide spreading of entertainment tools like TV, that ought their success to the fact that people had more free time than the century before and also more money to spend.
This time is more or less the same, in some cases even less and TV has to share it more and more with the Internet.
And the trend is going on in favor of the last.
When the over certain age, TV addicted will have pass to better life, the new generation will spend less and less time in front of the TV screen and more on the Computer monitor.
The computer monitor has become the TV, and people are looking more and more for an "active" role in front of the screen.
IPTV will mean a TV transmission in which the user will be able to "interact".
Audiences like communicating, in whatever possible way and the first who will allow that will have a big share of the market.
TV is getting boring compared to all the activity the Internet can allow, being it looking at a much wider choice of videos or being able to comment.
Choosing or commenting and in the future producing and making a business out of it.
All this will be possible, may be not in 2009, but close to.
This is for videos, but what about newspapers?
Will the paper die?
Very slowly. Paper is still attractive as more useful to read and concentrate wherever.
For example you cannot have a computer monitor in the toilet or in the kitchen while you have your meals.
As soon as there will be an e-reader, that will allow something very close to a real paper that will be the end of it.
For now the fight is: how much faster, how much cheaper, how much more reachable an e-newspaper is?
Its qualities are so evident that the answer is immediate.
For a certain amount of users (a huge amount) this is the NEW, Inexpensive way to know what is going on.
At real time.
The real, good journalists will go on writing and being paid on the paper news, but commercials will leave the few and reach the mass.
Marketing goes where people are.
And people are more and more online.
The problem of commercials online is that they HAVE to be different to be effective.
Not a banner or a fastidious pop up.
May be a review or a subtle suggestion or an advice or something similar to it...
The pay off will be in proportion to the views (so easy to count).
Pay per revenue will be the future sponsor.
Regarding magazines, that in my opinion would be the motive sine qua non for the existence of an online reader.
Cheap paper and black ink made it possible to print cheap newspapers and books.
But what people like is mostly big and colorful pictures.
Good paper and color ink are still outrageously expensive.
E-magazines and e-books can provide beautiful images at no more cost and may be some kind of music and reading, besides of course the interactivity.
This kind of content will boost e-readers sales and people’s interest.

Banks, banking, greed, arrogance with a little bit of corruption

"We need to look at replacing rather than just repairing these broken institutions. Entrepreneurs and educators do that."

I do not think you need to be an expert to understand that most Banks are driven by crooks, for not saying criminals, but how come that they are STILL there and STILL doing what they always did IN SPITE OF?

What I never understood was:
If an engineer builds a bridge and that bridge falls he pays, when a banker invests your money and you loose it YOU pay twice, first for his advice and then for your loss...

Greed always was, always is, always will be.

America counted 2.6 million jobs disappearing, and many more are on stake.
In the same time Wall Street counted the highest bonuses in history.
Even the President was outraged about it.
The gap between the wealthiest 5 percent of citizens and the poorest 5 percent has never been wider, and Americans in the middle are not much better than those just below them.
The rich got richer and the poor poorer.
That is how life goes, and greediness is something you cannot cancel.
Because it is a part of being human.
What you can do is not letting that happen, fight against it, but how?
Certainly not with higher taxes.
What history teaches is that Education, similar opportunities, fight against corruption and nepotism are good ways to let the Middle Class to reach a higher standard of living.
Which is definitely the way to produce a healthy economy.
When richness is shared, besides creating a better society, you also create a much higher number of consumers which creates a higher request of goods which gives a spring to the economy.
If you want to rescue the economy, upgrade the living standard and that will automatically create new jobs and a new future. (not in a few months of course, but it will certainly do)

Lampedusa

Lampedusa is a picturesque Italian island near Sicily.
It used to be a sought of touristic place, but not anymore.
Now there are more than 1800 "clandestini" from North Africa in a building that could at maximum host 500.
The good thing is that everyday around 500 manage to escape.
The bad thing is that everyday another 500 arrive from Libya.

Nobody wants them.
The Italian left party tried to make them useful proposing to give them the right to vote.
If they are not worth as humans, at least could be worth as numbers.
But the right party didn’t agree (they would have increased the number of the left voters)
The Vatican doesn’t want them, first because they are Muslims and besides, even if they converted to Catholicism, they would be so poor that would count as loss more than revenue.
The Italian people do not want them, because they steal their jobs.
They are willing to work "in black" and for much less than the average Italian worker would.
The only ones who welcome them are the Mafia and the top criminals.
They are willing to break the law for a ridiculous amount of money, they have no paper and, more than anything, they have no choice.
That is the fastest way to build a strong army of criminals at a very low cost.

Some good tips on how to, on the woman´s point of view

If certain coward guys would know how much girls want to meet them, they wouldn´t be so coward...
Here are some tips:

1) Don´t be too scared.
If one says no, go on asking someone else.
Statistic say that sooner or later one will say yes.
Sometimes it is a matter of the right moment and the right time. The more you try, the better chances you have.
And, besides, practise can make you a lot better...

2) Try to show your best.
Marketing works, especially among humans (and especially among girls)

3) Believe in what you do and what you are.
If you believe in yourself, you have good chances the others will believe in you.

4) Are you looking for a special type of girl? Ask yourself where it is most likely to find her, to meet her and begin to be in the right place and at the right time.
You will enormously increase your chance...

5) Are you shy? It is enough to smile and show you are willing to begin a conversation.
Give her the chance...most women like to believe they choose...

6) Do not ask directly her number, but enough to guess it and find her again.
Let it be destiny or chance to meet her a second time.
Girls like to think it is in their destiny to meet and have a relationship with that guy.

7) And if all your troubles were for nothing, there is always another chance...may be a better one.
Remember: life is always unpredictable.
 
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