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Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Choices - The Real Thing

From Choices - The Real Thing
Answering a question: "Love or fear - which do we choose?"


Do we really have choices?
I would say we don't.
I would say you forget hate.
I would say the choice is not loving or hating.
The choice should be living or not.
But we cannot choose.
We are bound to live.
My grandfather in the last days of his life told me: I would like to die, I do not want to live, but I cannot just die.
Every cell of my body wants to live, to go on.
That is what we are.
Beings condemned to live, either we like our life or we don't.
If we like it, we are more willing to love, to share our optimism, our joy of living with others.
If we do not like our life, if we are obliged to live a life we hate, we are more willing to hate the others.
Love exists because hate exists.
If we all loved, then it would be a common feeling.
Fear exists, because we know we'll die.
We do not want to think about it, we do not like to talk about it, and when we are young we fear less, because we see death as something far away.
That is why when you are twenty you under evaluate danger.
You go fast, you do not care about health and so on.
But when the time comes closer (the time to die) then you over evaluate danger.
You do not like speed, you are careful about your health and so on.
Free will doesn't exist.
Free will is choosing among red or black.
We are here, and here to stay.
Either we love it or fear it.

An Answer

Yesterday I had a question in my mail and slowly I came to the answer.
"What’s stopping that great blog post, killer landing page, compelling white paper or even bestselling book from pouring out of your mind and onto virtual paper?"

( it is from Copyblogger, sorry somebody accused me of copying, I thought it was clear I didn't ask the question, and it didn't look important who it was, but actually it is from CopyBlogger.)

First and most important is the fact I feel like having nothing to write.
Of course I do not aim to the "killing landing page". At least I would never admit I do, you ALWAYS need to be humble...
But I usually aim to write something I like, something I THINK it is good and so on.

First rule (for me) before writing you have to read.
And to read a lot.
As much as before teaching you have to learn.
Otherwise tell me: what do you have to teach?

So, I usually look around, see what other people have to say and write when I disagree.
I hate to say: I agree 100%.
Do I need it?
If somebody else already wrote it, why should I just say yes?

The interesting part is actually in saying I disagree.
Because then you have to say why and how and how much and you begin with a few words and they usually get an answer (sometimes something like: don't you see how stupid you are and it is not worth reading what you say and so on...)
And that is the appealing of it.
Because you have something to write back and they have something to write back and so on...
Unless they just write: Your comment is awaiting moderation. And they just delete it because "you write things it is not worth reading".

Well, as I always say, there are people who think as themselves as GOD, and there is no cure for it...

Freedom of speech

"Your comment is awaiting moderation."

That is to say:

You can say whatever you like, as long as it is something I LIKE to read...

That is what Freedom of speech means...

I am sorry I am Italian. I would express my thoughts much better in my language, but I wouldn't be understood, so why taking the pain?

About cheap and expensive and marketing

I am kind of surprised to read how much consternation my comment produced.
I had the gut to say I would prefer a cheap job to an expensive one.
First: the fact it is cheap doesn't necessarily mean it is shabby or lousy.
Sometimes , I would say very often lately, price is not synonymous of value.
Very often the successful product IS NOT the best, but yes it is the BEST ADVERTIZED product.
And that happens because people know the price and do not always know the value...

And in this I agree, from a marketing point of view, a CHEAP product very seldom is a look after product...


My blog is what it is, nobody is actually obliged to read or to comment.
I write what I like and what I feel like.
If you carefully read is : Voip, myself, life.
And I think I am up to ALL what I promise.
I am not a good writer and I am Italian. I always lived in Italy and I think my English is absolutely great, for somebody who is Italian.
I invite Whoever has something to say to write a blog in Italian.

Monday, July 30, 2007

The "superficial, close to imperfection" lover.

"Today we have a simple question that will likely draw many different answers from different people.

What prevents you from sitting down and writing?

What’s stopping that great blog post, killer landing page, compelling white paper or even bestselling book from pouring out of your mind and onto virtual paper?"

I guess the first answer could be something like: I have nothing to say.
Or better: I have nothing to say that could eventually be interesting for somebody to read.
I could write about the heat or the lack of rain or the global warming or what I think of the possible solutions to it.
But would somebody be willing to read it?
I do not think so.
I looked around, searching for new subjects.
But everybody is just repeating the same things, in a nice way, in a different way, but nothing really new and interesting to comment and write about.
So the only possible subject looks " What is stopping me to write?"

"Still, when it comes to writing, exercise offers many benefits that might no seem so obvious.
The first benefit is basic stress relief. "

Strange. I feel something similar, not that snobbish though.
I have my best ideas for my best posts when I do my house works, especially when I wash the floor.
Being my house a 500 square meters house, I have a long time for thinking and mentally writing my posts.
Sometimes I even stop and go to my computer (which is always on, of course) sit and write, just in case I forget something.
I do not have plans or schemes or whatever.
I think and write.
I read and think and write.
I read and think and write and read again.
Sometimes I like it and sometimes I just delete all and go away and think of something else.

Going around I found something to comment.
Even when I stop for gas, I sometimes find a marketing lesson.

"A couple of days ago, I saw this piece of fantastic marketing stopped a few gas pumps away:
We do it all hardly for nothing at all.
Why ? Why is your marketing mantra -” We’re the cheapest and least profitable people out there, so don’t expect much from us. ”

Why ? Why would you even bother, if this is all you got ?

Would you hire the blatantly cheapest service provider out there ?

Do you want the cheapest eye doctor ? The cheapest surgeon ? The cheapest oncologist ?

I don’t. I want the best, not the cheapest."
I couldn't agree less.
Never heard of special offers? Or pay two and get three?
I talk as a customer. And I think the price is absolutely important for me.
So important that I buy things I was not supposed, I didn’t intend to buy, I do not need, I actually do not even like too much, but I cannot resist a good bargain.
Why not painting your house from top to bottom, giving it a fresh new look if the price is absolutely so inviting as to be "almost close to nothing".
And if the job is not perfectly done...who really cares?
A freshly painted room is much better than a dirty looking one.
And if you cannot afford a perfect job, a far from perfect is ALWAYS better than nothing...

Patrizia
The "superficial, close to imperfection" lover.
I personally hate perfection, and love to be as I am, just human...

A New Opportunity

If you are looking for a part time or full time successful job, why not trying to open a virtual shop on the Internet? ( or a virtual shop among your friends and relatives)
And if you have no idea about what to sell, why not thinking of Wholesale Reading Glasses?
This is something which is really not difficult to sell, since the number of possible customers is huge.
What you need is a reliable and good supplier.
Where you can find good merchandize at the best price without having to invest a fortune in the beginning.
What about being able to sell reputed brands glasses at a discount price?
Everybody wants to look nice and smart, and if they can also actually save a lot on their glasses you can be sure that not only you'll be able to sell a lot, but also in a little time you'll have a good number of customers...
That is called "word of mouth".
So, do not missWholesale Readers and compare prices and quality.
I am sure you won't have any doubt where to begin...

Friday, July 27, 2007

Furniture website

If you are a furniture's lover, just like me, I bet you like to surf among furniture's website.
I mostly do because I get nice tips of how to show my furniture.
You can have the best furniture of this world, but what makes it really stunning is what is around, the color of carpets and curtains, even the position it has in the room.
One od the websites I liked is the Furniture from Home, where Furniture is showed as a part of the room.
You can find the best suggestions and of course, if you want to copy it exactly as it is, you can also buy the furniture at a very good price.
The one I liked best was the Bedroom Furniture.
It is in solid, massive wood and old style looking.
I would choose the King side Bed ( I love to sleep comfortable) with dresser and chest.
But what I relly love is the Armoire, a real 18th century copy.
May be it wouldn't be enough for all my clothes, but it would look amazing in my house!
And what about the Dark Brown Leather Living Room Furniture Sofa Set?
Imagine that over one-thousand antiqued nail heads were used to create the classic look of that quality set. They use only soft black Italian leather. The set includes a spacious sofa, a romantic love seat and a grand chair.
What I also like, because unusual, it is the big selection of Bar Stool and contemporary bar stool.
They could give a special touch to a tall table against the wall, in a small and narrow room.
Or they could find their place as stools of a contemporary "Bar".
You can also find interesting and useful tips.
"Tip # 345 Keep your bedroom fresh and smelling like a French Chateau! Purchase Lavender Water and sprinkle it onto sheets before ironing. Do the same for dining room table cloths. Your guests will rave about how inviting your home smells."
Or you can find Lifestyle Suggestions.
Well, wheter you want to buy new furniture, or just having good ideas, it really pays to look at!

This is a sponsored post, please read disclosure policy.




The spotless home

My mother's house was , for the strictest standards, what you could define spotless.
Many fanatic people oblige you to change your shoes when you go and come from the garden.
My mother did more.
She built a shower.
You not only had to change shoes, you also had to wash and change before entering.
My dog was not welcome in the house.
He was intelligent enough to understand it.
He tried to enter and after being scolded and shouted a few times he went to the door and touched it asking to go out.
For that day he had enough.
The books in the bookshelf had to be covered with paper of the same color.
To easily find them you had to glue a little withe label with a number.
The number was registered on a book with the title of it.
You had to check this book in order to find what you were looking for.
But in most cases that was useless.
If you had a visual memory for its size, you could easily find it: all books were ordered by their size, from the bigger to the smaller.
And beware to move them!
The bathtub and even the top of the water close were shining because covered by a layer of wax, which, as my mother said, added that touch of perfection to the lowest tools of the house...
You would think that a house like that was hell.
I assure you of the contrary.
Live in Paradise for a while and you'll miss it the rest of your life...

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Would you put aluminum cabinets in your kitchen?

Would you put aluminum cabinets in your kitchen?

Yes, I definitely would.
And in a very bright yellow.
I would build a white kitchen, with white small, glossy, square tiles, and a yellow border matching the yellow of the aluminum furniture.
I would make an old looking ceiling with dark wood and beams, like in an old country kitchen.
I would use an old looking ceramic light, a rectangular dark wood table and similar chair.
I would give the finishing touch with "cretonne" yellow flowers curtains and similar pillows on the chairs.
I would add a nice Italian "Espresso Coffee Machine" and would enjoy sitting there sipping my coffee.
May be also inviting friends for a "pasta" or a "pizza".
Well the joy of life can also be aluminum cabinets in your kitchen...

This is a sponsored post, please read disclosure policy.

About commenting...

My grandfather used to say: If they threw you in a well and your body was fully covered by water, you would still stretch your arms and move your fingers' tips to say something.
It was because they hadn't invented the Internet yet.
But I was a great commenter since the times commenting wasn't invented yet.
I just cannot resist.
I have to say what I think, how I feel, where I am, what I do.
A born commenter, that is.

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Latin singles

Why should I write aboutlatin singles ?
First because I am Latin and second because I too, was once a single.
And in spite of all what they say, I do not think that "single is beautiful".
On the contrary, I am convinced that everything is much nicer if you have the right person to share it.
And the Internet really is the best way to meet a lot of people.
And among a lot it is much easier to find "Mr. Right".
Well, you can also not find him, but believe me, if you don't, I would really begin to think that it is more a question of you than of how...
So, if you are still single, and you do not like to be a single, you just have to look (and looking is fun) or if you are too lazy to look, just leave your name and picture and a short description of how you are and what you are looking for and...just wait.
You will certainly soon have a message or more than one...that is usually how it works.
Good luck!



Haiku error messages

In Japan, they have replaced the impersonal and unhelpful Microsoft error messages with their own Japanese haiku poetry, each only 17 syllables, 5 syllables in the first line, 7 in the second, and 5 in the third.

Oh, a file that big?
It might be very useful.
But now it is gone.

The Web site you seek
Cannot be located but
Countless more exist.

Chaos reigns within.
Reflect, repent, and reboot.
Order shall return.

Aborted effort:
Close all that you have worked on.
You ask far too much.

Windows NT crashed.
I am the Blue Screen of Death.
No one hears your screams.

Yesterday it worked.
Today it is not working.
Windows is like that.

First snow, then silence.
This thousand dollar screen dies
So beautifully.

With searching comes loss
And the presence of absence:
Your novel? not found.

The Tao that is seen
Is not the true Tao until
You bring fresh toner.

Stay the patient course.
Of little worth is your ire.
The network is down.

A crash reduces
Your expensive computer
To a simple stone.

Three things are certain:
Death, taxes, and lost data.
Guess which has occurred.


You step in the stream,
But the water has moved on.
This page is not here.

Out of memory.
We wish to hold the whole sky,
But we never will.

Having been erased,
The document you're seeking
Must now be retyped.

Serious error.
All shortcuts have disappeared.
Screen. Mind. Both are blank.


John Shoch Alloy Ventures

Monday, July 23, 2007

Hot Tub Covers

What is a Spa Cover for?
First to cover your hot tub, and keep away snow, ice and sun for as long as you need, when you want to bath outside also in a place with a harsh winter climate.
Imagine the fun to splash in a hot water tub, outside, in full winter with the snow around!!!
And imagine your tub water keeping nice and in perfect conditions for a long time.
Imagine it doesn't cost a fortune and you can actually afford it, imagine you do not need to look for it, shopping and comparing.
Imagine you just have to sit in front of your computer and with a few clicks you can choose the one that fits you best.
Imagine it will be delivered with fast delivery and you just have to wait a few days and you'll have it.
Could you imagine something easier?
And this is not all.
The CoverGuy sells the best quality at the best price.
Its covers are made with tough, durable woven polyethylene, so that they keep debris out of your hot tub, they come in popular 7 & 8 sizes, with an elastic hem and are easy to put on and remove.
They come with 12" or 38" skirts and protect your spa from winter damage.
That means that they last longer, perform better than any other covers available. That is because the quality of their materials and workmanship are second to none.
They also have a lot of all kinds of accessories for your hot tub.
LED Spa lights, all maintenance equipment, Spa pillows, thermal and solar covers...
How to find the best fitting Cover?
With the Hot Tub Cover building software. Of course they have planed everything to make your purchase easy, fast and just perfect.
And why should you buy it in July? Because they have a July Special: the free shipping!





This is a sponsored post, please read disclosure policy.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

About chatting

As much as I love commenting, I hate chatting.
That idle, stupid way of wasting time at the end of which you still think you are right and the others are wrong.
I like phrases which aim to have an echo, sentences which move people, words that have a meaning.
In the beginning I wanted what they called a "viral" blog.
Then I would have been happy with a "bacterial" one.
Something like the "Staphilococcus aureus" which is both positive and negative gram resistant.
Right now I have a much less powerful one, but I do not lack hopes and dreams.
In principle, dreaming costs nothing...

When unhealthy food makes your life healthy

When I didn't feel like doing anything in my house we had a pizza.
We had from three to six pizzas a week.
Those were the days my children loved.
Not for the pizza, but for the freedom.
Those were the days in which they were allowed to come with dirty feet and dirty hands and dirty clothes.
Who bothered?
I was not going to clean so there was no need to keep it clean.
Of course there were the days in which I was under the "cleaning spree".
Those were the times which made you realize how nice life could be.
"Please just sit down and read".
Reading was what they were allowed to.
Sometimes watching TV.
And missing the Pizza.

Chat among housewives

How would you define a clean house?
The one in which you can walk barefoot and still keep your feet clean.
And a spotless one?
The one in which you can walk berefoot and your feet from dirty get cleaner.

This, of course, is the women's standard.
For a man a clean house is the one where he can find clean dishes and cook in a clean microwave oven.
And the spotless is the one he hates to live in, because living is strictly forbidden.

My house IS mostly clean for men and women standard.
I would love a spotless house, but that is too much for my willingness to clean.
You have to find compromises in life, don't you?

They say one writes a lot about sex when he has little of it.
That doesn't apply to houseworks.
I love to plan, to write about them.
But I mostly hate to do them.

Why do women hate war and disasters?
Besides the human side of it which they share with men, they also hate all the fuss and dirt and work involved in cleaning the scene.
A woman WOULD NEVER provoke a disaster.
It is so far away from her inner nature!!!

Internet: the land of opportunities

Does the Internet make you popular?
No.
It gives you the opportunity to GET popular.
You get popular if you are good, if you write well, if you write the things people want to read, or alternatively, if you write the things people DO NOT want to read, but in a way that people LIKE to read them.

Every time somebody begins to write a blog he hopes his blog will be popular.
He hopes he will find a lot of readers, he will find a lot of links, he will be AMONG them.
Don't believe the ones who say: I write for myself.
What's the purpose of writing if nobody reads?
It's like talking to the wall.
Yes, there is what they call blogorrea, but it doesn't last.
If you do not blog to get your lunch you can go on writing without visitors.
If you blog for eating and you do not find readers, you'd better find a new way to express yourself.

Regarding me.
There are days in which I would go on writing forever, and others in which the only sight of the keyboard gives me the nausea.
But I write for fun and I just do not switch on the computer in those days.
And of course I am desperately looking for readers and commenter’s.
I do not like a monologue, honestly, I hate it.
I write and talk to have an answer, otherwise, why bothering?
I am and always was on the opinion that a nice, good, invigorating discussion is the best way to begin your day.
A colorful argument even more so.
If talking is the food of life, discussing is certainly the spicy part of it.
It is where you heart goes, it is where you forget everything else (almost) it is where you are 100% temperament and 0,0000 self control.
But that is the fun, isn't it?

What is humor?

Humor is an ART.
It begins where a huge pessimism ends.
If you are an optimist you can be fun, you can be entertaining, you can be a joy, but you can never have humor.
Humor is smiling with humid eyes.
Humor is seeing the limit of the bottom.

This post was inspired by James Kunstler who inspired so many of my posts.
He is, as he says: " I have gotten s0 many complaints about the trolls, morons, and losers who have infested the comment zone of this blog, that I am going to suspend posting".
I probably was one among them.
I just couldn't resist commenting. But a comment IS NOT responsible for the person or the post who provokes it.

I am going to miss that kind of humor and will HAVE TO find a new MUSE.
I will put a new link on my favorites and stop there to get inspiration.
The show must go on...mustn't it?

PS I will let the old link there and go back once in a while, in the hope you change your mind, MR. Kunstler.

Measuring the value

Steve Rubel declares dead the idea that blog links as a measure of authority.

There is a very easy and fast way to measure the influence and importance of a blog: the possibility to comment.

If you are invited to do so and you can do it the easiest way, then it is a low frequented blog.

Even more if the owner personally writes back thanking and commenting your comment.

If you have to register before commenting, that means they have a lot of comments and consider them bothering, so making it more difficult is a way of politely discouraging it.

There are even places where they openly declare annoying to receive comments and, since they were too many, they decided to stop it.

THOSE are the BLOGS.

Too bad they are no fun anymore. Talking is one of the few funs of life, inferior only to discussing.

For me the valuable blogs are the provocative ones, the ones you cannot resist to comment, the ones that invite you to.

For me THOSE are the BLOGS.

Links or no links. I read and comment for fun, not for links.

I blog for fun and NOT as a job.

I pity the ones who have the JOB to BLOG.

Is quantity real value?

Steve Rubel declares dead the idea that blog links as a measure of authority...


People tend to associate quantity with value.
Which in one sense is true.
If value is revenue, then quantity is value.
And in this mainly superficial society in which 90% of readers are the ones who hear without listening, who want to be amused more than being interested, who understand life as an entertaining trip more than a hard walk, yes, value is price.
And it is right, it is worth monitoring and reading the high number visitors' blog. And quality links are worth as long as they provide quantity.(of readers)

Monday, July 16, 2007

If there is still somebody who doesn't know how...

Here's an idea (for which I will give credit to Al Chang) if you want to use your choice of phone, including hot new phones not offered by your carrier of choice, and still get the fat subsidy they offer on their official phones.

In brief:

a) Buy the phone you want, no-contract, either unlocked or locked to your chosen carrier. For example a Nokia E61i.

b) Go to your carrier, and buy the most subsidized phone they have which can use the same calling/data plan you want for your phone in (a).

c) Take the SIM out of the subsidized phone (B) and insert into slot A.

d) Go to eBay and sell your subsidized phone (B) for no-contract price.
Pocket the difference as a subsidy on phone A.

Alternate plan:

e) Buy heavily subsidized phone from AT&T, ie. Treo 750. Unlock it.

f) Walk back into AT&T, tell them you want to switch to iPhone (which turns out to be unsubsidized.) I am told you can do this. Your contract switches to your iPhone.

g) Sell phone E on eBay as no-contract for full price. iPhone for $400 net!

Explained in more detail at:

http://ideas.4brad.com/how-get-subsidy-any-phone-even-iphone


Brad Templeton

They call it "Second life", but looks like and smells like "First Life"

SECOND LIFE — a three-dimensional online society where publicity is cheap and the demographic is edgy and certainly computer-savvy — should be a marketer's paradise.

But it turns out that plugging products is as problematic in the virtual world as it is anywhere else.

At http://www.secondlife.com — where the cost is $6 a month for premium citizenship — shopping, at least for real-world products, isn't a main activity. Four years after Second Life debuted, some marketers are second-guessing the money and time they've put into it.

"There's not a compelling reason to stay," said Brian McGuinness, vice president of Aloft, a brand of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. that is closing its Second Life shop and donating its virtual land to the nonprofit social-networking group TakingITGlobal.

Linden Lab, the San Francisco firm that created Second Life, sells companies and people pieces of the landscape where they can build stores, conference halls and gardens. Individuals create avatars, or virtual representations of themselves, that travel around this online society, exploring and schmoozing with other avatars. Land developed by users, rather than real-world companies, is among the most popular places in Second Life.

But the sites of many of the companies remaining in Second Life are empty. During a recent in-world visit, Best Buy Co.'s Geek Squad Island was devoid of visitors and the virtual staff that was supposed to be online.

The schedule of events on Sun Microsystems Inc.'s site was blank, and the green landscape of Dell Island was deserted. Signs posted on the window of the empty American Apparel store said it had closed up shop.

McGuinness said Starwood's venture into Second Life did accomplish something. Feedback from denizens gave Aloft ideas for its physical hotels.

The suggestions included putting radios in showers and painting the lobbies in earth tones rather than primary colors. But now that the design initiative is over, he said, it's difficult to attract people to the virtual hotel to help build the real-world brand.

For some advertisers, the problem is that Second Life is a fantasyland, and the representations of the people who play in it don't have human needs. Food and drink aren't necessary, teleporting is the easiest way to get around and clothing is optional. In fact, the human form itself is optional.

Avatars can play games, build beach huts, dress up like furry animals, flirt with strangers — sometimes all at once.

Their interests seem to tend toward the risque. Ian Schafer, chief executive of online marketing firm Deep Focus, which advises clients about entering virtual worlds, said he recently toured Second Life.
He started at the Aloft hotel and found it empty. He moved on to casinos, brothels and strip clubs, and they were packed. Schafer said he found in his research that "one of the most frequently purchased items in Second Life is genitalia."

Another problem for some is that Second Life doesn't have enough active residents.

On its website, Second Life says the number of total residents is more than 8 million. But that counts people who signed in once and never returned, as well as multiple avatars for individual residents.
Even at peak times, only about 30,000 to 40,000 users are logged on, said Brian Haven, an analyst with Forrester Research.

"You're talking about a much smaller audience than advertisers are used to reaching," Haven said.

Some in the audience don't want to be reached. After marketers began entering Second Life, an avatar named Urizenus Sklar — in the real world, University of Toronto philosophy professor Peter Ludlow — wrote in the public-relations blog Strumpette that the community was "being invaded by an army of old world meat-space corporations."

He and other residents accused companies of lacking creativity by setting up traditional-looking stores that didn't fit in. His column was reproduced in the Second Life Herald.

Nissan Motor Co., a subject of such protests, has since transformed its presence in Second Life from a car vending machine to an "automotive amusement park," where avatars can test gravity-defying vehicles and ride hamster balls. Sun Micro has made its participation more interactive and fanciful, Chief Gaming Officer Chris Melissinos said.

Ludlow isn't impressed. He said most firms were more interested in the publicity they received from their ties with Second Life than in the digital world itself. "It was a way to brand themselves as being leading-edge," he said.

Alana Semuels

Sunday, July 15, 2007

About eBay

Bidding on eBay is a sport that is getting too expensive for me.
And is not because of what I buy, it is just because of what they charge.
You buy a book and they charge you pure, 100% Gold.
I just won an used book and thought I did a terrific bargain.
The book cost 1 Euro, but with shipment and expenses it was 36 Euro.
And it didn't even come from far away...

The only good thing is that I still have to pay for it and of course, as we say, I was not born yesterday.
The thing is that a great idea of selling and buying used stuff online will prove to be unsuccessful for the greediness and crookedness of people.
This is one more of those cases in which it was so nice some years ago...

Friday, July 13, 2007

Technologies are not responsible for the people who invent them

"In other words, a piece of technology will not spontaneously or independently start delivering value, generating benefits, and doing precisely what its deployers want it to do. Technologies have to be managed in order to do any of these things; they're not magic bullets or miracle cures."


No invention alone changed the world unless there was somebody who understood how to use it and how to use it for the best.
I guess the disruptive power of fire was recognized long before somebody thought how to use it.
And very often you plan a technology for a certain use and most likely it will be succesful for another one.
An idea is not responsible for what people do with it, but exchanging of ideas create new ideas and new ideas make the progress.
If progress is a good thing or not it doesn't matter, what matters is that man is on this earth to do something, to discover something, to live and not only to survive.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Let's sing all together...

Live Earth is a 24-hour, 7-continent concert series taking place on 7/7/07 that will bring together more than 100 music artists and 2 billion people to trigger a global movement to solve the climate crisis.
-- The Live Earth Web site


That is usually how it works.
On one side the REALITY, that sad and pitiful story, where most people strruggle to survive and the ones who do not struggle create an unlivable enviroment, so that they can struggle to breath.
Remember? The World must be a valley of tears, happiness something unreachable so that the Vatican and the Other Churches can make a good living promising a better World after death.
And of course to pay the ticket to it you need money and the money can be made polluting and the more you pollute the more likely you make money.
But who cares?
The REAL world will come...

In the meantime let's sing all together, to forget for a few hours that thing which they call reality, but may be is not the real reality.
And if for singing we pollute, who cares?
Tomorrow is another day, may be a less polluting one, or may be a more polluting one...

All about Poker online

If you are somebody who is fond of Poker and you do not have somebody to play with, thanks to the Internet you have the chance to play whenever you feel like.
All you need is your computer and a broadband connection.
But where and how?
Do you want a website's address you can trust and has a reputation?
You can go to Mac Poker Online , Poker for Macs.
They have organized a list of what are the best online poker sites to play poker for Mac. You can play for free or for real at all of these, and each has established an excellent reputation.
The most recomended is PacificPoker.com .
They are operated by one of the largest online gambling networks in the world, 888.com. In addition to that, they own Casino on Net. Both their Mac poker and Mac casino software utilize Java and there is no download required, which is important, because it means no infectious spyware.

You can even get a bonus of $50 if you enter bonus code 50MP or alternatively you can enter bonus code 200MP and you'll get 120% up to $200 free when you deposit at Party Poker.com
You shouldn't miss PokerRoom.com .
They have a Java-run platform that has the same features as their regular poker software, including 3D graphics and avatars.
Anyway, before playing, you can read the review online and then decide.

On the website you can also read reviews about the more famous Poker players and some good Las Vegas tips ... some informations that could be really useful in your next visit to the world's most famous gambling town.
So, if you are fond of playing and like to do it online, I guess it pays to have a visit in this website....

This is a sponsored post, please read disclosure policy.

What is what

If you know what is what, you can do your job better.
In other words, fuck that hypocrisy and say what it is.

"Local is people. Our job is not to deliver content or a product. Our job is to help them make connections with information and each other."

A job is something which is done to make a profit, so the job of a journalist is to say something people (many possibly) want to read.
Writing what happens or what we think or what must be said, that is a hobby, and hobbies do not pay your lunch.

"Newspapers gave us news that mattered to us and would be trivial to anyone else. Newspapers were small and local and served their communities — and their advertisers — better."
Small is nice, small is in a way easier, small pays a small lunch.

"This is very close to the real mission of a newspaper, a mission we have lost as they got bigger and more egotistical and more powerful, as they become one-size-fits-all monopolies."

Well, that happens when you want to make more money.
Local is good, but doesn't pay as National.
National collects more interested people and more fees.
A bigger income, more commercial (or better paid)a bigger salary.

"We need to help people do it themselves. Yes, themselves."
It's like saying you need to help Iraq people to help themselves.
Usually people who like to write, who write as a hobby do not need the help of journalists.
I try to translate it in words out of Hypocrisy.
Since people like to write and other people like to read what those people write, where can we make some money out of it, to save the job that could be lost otherwise?
If the role of a journalist is to comment the news, to report the news, where is his place once others do it as a hobby and thanks to computers and the space on the Net can do it for free?
What to do when the competition gets hard and you want to save yourself a little space in this jungle which is today's news?

"I now believe that he who figures out how to help people organize themselves — letting them connect with each other and with what they all know — will end up with news, listings, reviews, data, gossip, and more as byproducts."

I guess a journalist is the wrong person to do that.
Google and many others give space and bandwidth and software to do it.
And many people found out they like to do it, and they also found out there is a way to get money out of it.
Not a salary, but new ways to earn, just like the newspapers of the past.
Space for advertising, space for services, space for comments, your comments in exchange of your interest.
The terrible thing is that a fifty years old journalist will have to compete with a fifteen years old guy who is writing news for a teens' audience.
And the drama is that he will very likely loose...

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

I do not want your advice, thanks...

What do I usually do when I am out of ideas and want to write a post?
I generally read what the others write and suddenly my mind gets crowded with new ideas and a dialogue begins with the writer.
Sometimes I write a comment, sometimes i write a post, sometimes I just think and talk in my mind, but I ALWAYS find something to say.
They call it communication, I just think it is a need, at least for me.
And of course the more stimulating and provocative is the article I read, the more I like it.
In this website of personalized news I found a well written and provocative article of Gene Weingarten "If You Want My Advice . . ." which is what somebody in his fifties would suggest to somebody in his twenties.
Well, I am 55 and happen to have a son who is 22, and I feel a little bit involved in it.
About music: yes, you are terribly right. One is locked to the music of his youth.
How nice and agreeable is "Our" music and how terribly closer to noise than to music looks the one my son loves! But my son doesn't need to get a job as jackhammer operator, his music is what he calls "industrial noise" and includes the sound of it...
About being sedentary.
That is something that comes in life, either we want it or not.
Call it job or call it laziness or just a slowing down.
As much as you are active when you are twenty, you get lazy when you reach fifty.
Unless you oblige yourself in the name of eternal youth, or eternal show of youth or pretence that years do not pass and you are always the same. Which is NEVER the case...
Regarding male physical pleasure I am not an expert, I cannot teach and give suggestions.
But I would tell my son that the idea that women are mainly interested in the size of the male organ is quite wrong.
Usually is the case of the size of the wallet, but if one is lucky he can meet somebody who is interested in sharing the search for happiness.
That is what I find lacking in the list.
The universal truth that happiness doesn't exist, but that everybody looks for it and the main difference between a fifty years old person and a twenty is that the young one has still many years to dream about it and the full hope to reach it, while reaching fifty is understanding that the years that are left are not enough and may be also if they were many more they would never be enough.

But, yes, this is something I'd better keep for myself.
When you are twenty you do not need to live as somebody who is fifty.
You have the right to do your own mistakes. That is the good of life. That you can have the best suggestions, but you still do what you like to...





People know the Price, not the Value

I and many of my peer group have little use for Apple. I was a huge fan of Apple until the Lisa project (Apple III & miserable failure, shortly followed by the Mac). I promptly dumped them at that point.

I think that Apple is a good example of a company who started as an innovator and then as they aged they became just one more large corporate parasite. The iPod revealed them to have pirated others intellectual property and I am willing to bet that the iPhone has also been built on unauthorized use of others intellectual property.

Could this be why Apple is a card carrying member to the Coalition for Patent fairness & PIRACY?

Today Apple is another example of a company who uses massive advertising and hype as a substitute for their inability to produce any significant inventions. When coupled with their egos and their "we can take what we want mindset" I think it is inevitable that they stagnate. If a company cannot invent anything significant themselves and they have alienated those who do, they are doomed to stagnate.

In my opinion, this is why Apple has become so innovative at hype and their hallmark is creating cult like cultures which persuade people to pay far more for their products than they are worth. It is a shame, because Apple could have been so much more.


Ronald J. Riley,

Creating a succesful mass market product requires:

1) Making something 99% of the population understands, can use and IS WILLING to use.
2) Marketing it in a way that 99% of the population understands, can be reached and brainwashed to use.
3) Giving it a "halo" of a "status symbol".
4) Giving it a price ALMOST unreachable, but still reachable.

What really doesn't matter is that it is an innovation, (but it needs to look like an innovation)that it is useful, that it is good.
What matters is what it looks like.
People, as usual, know the price, not the value

Design your card and win an Apple MacBook

I think the best thing a parent can teach to his children is how to be responsible.
Especially when it comes to money.
That is why a card, designed to teach teens how to manage money, is not a bad idea.
And if it is also something that teaches to be creative like giving the option of uploading images and designing their own card is even better.
That is exactly what PAYjr Visa Buxx offers.
Of course it is a special credit card that is under parental control, that means parents can put a limit to the amount that can be spent.
But it is much better than cash, because it is safer and because parents can control where and how the money is spent( and decide to recharge it or not...)
Since it doesn't give gredit it also doesn't allow to make debits (which is the main concern).
Besides it also gives the opportunity to compete to win an Apple MacBook.
Teens just need to enter their card design and the best wins!
The second will get an Apple Video iPod.
There is even a prize for the third: an iPod Nano.



This is a sponsored post, please read disclosure policy.

Let's pretend it is the year 2014...

The year is 2014. the press as we know it no longer exists. Traditional reporting has collapsed. News is churned out by the media giant Googlezon.
(Google has taken over many companies and joined forces with Amazon.)
The news consists of blogs, attitudes, discoveries, preferences, claims, and random thoughts, gathered and shaped by computers and a few human editors, then fed back to ordinary people who produce the continuing conversation.
The New York Times is off the Internet. It still publishes, but the newspaper has become a newsletter read only by the elite and the elderly.

This is the finding of a clever, eight-minute mock documentary, EPIC 2014, produced by the fictional Museum of Media History (in reality, journalists Matt Thompson of the Fresno Bee and Robin Sloan of Current, a new cable news channel in San Francisco). Thompson and Sloan recently added a short section taking the history up to 2015. The mockumentary is starting to reach a mass audience at a time of unusually high anxiety for the news industry.
The news business has been hobbled by a string of scandals and credibility problems.
Skirmishes between reporters and bloggers seem like the beginning of a long war between old media and new. Newspaper publishers are nervous--some would say paralyzed with fright--over polls showing that young adults are not reading papers. Their audience is dying off. A lot of young people say they get their news from a brief look at headline news or from late-night comedians. ...

Peter Jones

Monday, July 09, 2007

May be your happiness is just a few emails away...

Why should you fall in love for somebody who is overweight?
Because you have "more" to love, "more" to cuddle, "more" to share.
Or just because you think that look is not all and what counts is the inside and the feelings and very often a few sizes more mean a happier and gayer woman, somebody who can look into the future with more optimism, in a few words, somebody you can enjoy being with.
Where can you find the woman of your future?
You can have a look at bbw personals and may be you have good chances to be lucky, they have so many nice and interesting people!
You can easily search by location, hobbies, interests, likes and dislikes.
Or you can just put your profile and let the others choose.
Among thousands of people is really difficult not finding what you're looking for.
And when you do?
You can begin sending a message and waiting.
May be your happiness is just a few emails away...




Answering Tim Bryce: THE ADVERSE EFFECTS OF TECHNOLOGY

Today, our society is driven by technology...

as it always was and always will be.
Today's technology is a computer, yesterday's technology was the wheel or a steam machine, or whatever else...


Consequently, we tend to under utilize or abuse the technology...

Some great inventions failed to look great till somebody knew how to use them.
No great invention is great unless you understand how and where to use it.


Perhaps the biggest difference between the 20th century and the 21st is how technology has changed the pace of our lives. We now expect to communicate with anyone on the planet in seconds, not days...

Because WE CAN. And you are right, it is not a body language anymore, because we communicate more and more with the brain and less and less with the body.
Physically we cannot be everywhere, virtually we can.
We are not 100% used to it.
We are still the sons of the physical generation, when we communicated with the eyes (and I am Italian, we still communicate a lot with the hands).
There was the story of the Italian waiter asked where the bathroom was. "sorry, I cannot tell you, my hands are full of dishes..."


Personally, we tend to live for today, as opposed to planning for tomorrow. This mindset concerns me greatly.


I personally live mostly for tomorrow. Dreams are everything in my life.
Without a tomorrow life would be too dull and boring.
But, as before, there are people who are happy with much less, like the latest model of portable phone or a new video game.
They can live for the present, because the present offers them what they are looking for.
But those are not technologically driven people, they are just brainwashed maket driven people.
Technology needs them, who otherwise would pay for technology?
If you enjoy more in creating than in using, where do you find the money to create?



What if someone pulled the plug on our technology?

Nobody will.
They will find something else in the place of oil to produce enough electricity to produce all the useless stuff the useless people need.
We need to pay for the future of technology, don't we?


Because of the domination of technology, people have allowed their socialization skills to slip. Small things, such as common courtesy, appearance, and our ability to network with others, have all deteriorated in the workplace.

But people are wonderful in socializing with the virtual world for example of video games.
When the world goes virtual, thanks to technology, people have to adapt, again, people have to consume, so that we find the money so that technology can go on.
At the needed speed of course.

We need to create sick people in order to have a healthy economy, don't we?

Storing made easy

One of the nicest feature in any electronic device is certainly the speed and easiness in using it.
Scanning used to be a boring and difficult task, first you had to center the picture to be scanned, then you had to preview and define the size of the scan, then finally scanning.
Once you scanned you had to store the picture and decide the format depending on the size and weight.
Well, it took some time.
Sometimes too much, so that it was an easier decision to postpone and never do it.
Save regretting it the moment you needed a copy of any document.
Now a day with medicscan everything is much easier and faster.
Because it automates the scanning and archiving process.
Besides being easy to set up and use it stores clear and sharp images, and saves both the image and the data into a file.
And this is not all. The image of the card can be interactive (with MedicScan OCR, optical character recognition, Real Parse), you can select specific fields for additional extraction.
You can also save the image and the text in a database.
Medicscan Pro OCR can store the rext information from both sides of a an insurance card and allows you to export the data into any application of your choice, for example email, FTP and the web.
The result is that you do not waste anymore time, increase productivity, avoid errors and can enter any patient information into your management software.
You can scan any kind of cards: Business cards, ID cards, Checks, any document, Passport.
You can scan the image only, you can use the OCR to extract data and store them in a file or a database and of course you can easily find any kind of data in your database.
Easy, fast, precise, automated.
Can you imagine something better?
This is a sponsored post, please read disclosure policy.

Saturday, July 07, 2007

Bandwidth costs in the future

Bellsouth provided some estimates of bandwidth costs in the future as video on demand and high-definition video becomes more common on the network. "Internet" traffic is a very small part of the future bandwidth requirements. Voice/VOIP is completely lost in the noise.

This is a bit of a mental exercise because it assumes everything will be unicast across the backbone. In reality, no one is designing their networks that way (not cable, ilec, clec, wireless, etc).

Todays average residential broadband user consumes about 2 gigbytes of data per month, Kafka estimated, which costs the service provider about $1. As downloading feature films becomes more popular, they might consume an average of 9 gigabytes per month, costing carriers $4.50.

The average IPTV user will likely consume about 224 gigabytes per month, he added, at a monthly cost to carriers of $112, a giant leap from the less than $5 attributed to Internet use. If that content were high-definition video, the average user would be consuming more than 1 terabyte per month at a cost to carriers of $560 per month.

Sean Donelan

Telco's IPTV

The technology may be different, but how the product gets to the customer really isn't that different. And the actual video service delivered to the customer isn't any different.

Unfortunately, for the telco guys, their video service is - at the moment - pretty much like cable service. It's offering linear video channels, video-on-demand and other items such as an IPG and interactive TV. Telco video is even bundled with
broadband and voice, much like cable's triple-play.

Telcos may attempt to compete on price, but is that enough?

This brings us to the second point. How do telcos think they're going to compete with cable - or even satellite TV - when they're delivering a "me-to" offering?

In addition to selling the usual television fare, how about offering more niche and/or ethnic programming than what's currently available from pay-TV incumbents? How about taking a stab at a la carte options? Or expanding family tiers?

Telco video services need to think ahead like satellite TV did more than a decade ago when it launched services. Dish platforms are delivering programming not available via cable (DirecTV's NFL Sunday Ticket), the latest technology (DVRs
coming from DirecTV and DISH Network), ethnic channels (again, cable and both DBS players and GlobeCast offer these channels), or family-oriented content (again, some cable, the DBS guys and the Sky Angel DBS service).

Telco video cannot compete with a service that looks like - and smells like - cable.

Weblog

Friday, July 06, 2007

Global warming and G8




The G8 nations represent 65% of the world economy. It’s possibly to calmly say that they are responsible, at least in part, for global warming, for the death of Africa, for economic inequalities, for an imprecise number of wars and warriors and for the interference in the affairs of other States. Let it be really clear: everything (nearly always) in an indirect way, using economic measures, diplomatic pressures and the media. Clean, whiter than white.

In the palace of Konstatinovskij, the Tsar’s summer palace in Saint Petersburg, they were eating Beluga caviar, smoked lobster, and strawberries with black pepper. Meanwhile they were amiably talking about energy, climate, poverty and famine in the world in a peaceful and serene atmosphere. The city is under the control of 200,000 soldiers. A group of demonstrators against the G8 has been provided for by Putin in the Kirov stadium, outside the city, in an area that is surrounded by ancient woodland and military police.

Tramps and homeless people have disappeared from Saint Petersburg and have been sent to Siberia in sealed trains just for the occasion. Bush hasn’t missed the opportunity to say his bit by citing Iraq as an example of the freedom of the press and religious liberty. Putin has responded with another gaff by saying that in Russia they don’t want the type of democracy that exists in Iraq. He prefers his democracy modelled in Chechen style.

All the Heads of State are there with their consorts, apart form the only true man present, Angela Merkel, wearing the skin of Bruno the bear, donated to her by the city of Munich. The G8 are always risking democratic participation. People wound up in the enthusiasm want to have their say. That’s why the future looks bleak for future meetings.

It’s not every time that there’ll be the availability of Putin, the Holy Mother Russia, and the post-soviet army ready to take control of the streets. The summits could take place in the Mariana Trench in a massive submarine, in the Gobi desert dressed up as camel handlers, or on the top of the Himalayas in oxygen tents. In places that are reserved for people who have private discussions about the problems of the world. Without outside influences. In private.

Beppe Grillo

Dogs

"Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring--it was peace."


- Milan Kundera

Thursday, July 05, 2007

"iPod's Unreplaceable Battery Lasts Only 18 Months."

There is something both wonderfully renegade and depressing about "iPod's Dirty Secret." It provokes an ambivalent despair in iPod owners, many of whom had not yet considered the mortality of their new little electronic friend.
Ownership of an iPod -- a credit-card-size, white-and-metallic digital music player -- has grown a bit culty, especially when people talk about how it has completely changed their inner musical lives. This sounds like crazy talk, until you get one, and then you understand, because now you, too, are having an everlasting love affair with something very tiny.
Neistat bought his iPod in early 2002, not long after Apple introduced it.
He would usually listen to it on his daily bike ride to TriBeCa, where he and his brother, Van, 28, have a small studio and work together on films and other art projects, professionally calling themselves the Neistat Brothers.

In late October -- after about 18 months of use -- the rechargeable lithium-ion battery in Casey Neistat's iPod would no longer work.

So he went to Apple's enormous and terribly chic megastore on Prince Street in SoHo and asked to purchase a new battery. He was calm about it, and so were the clerks who dashed his hopes.

"I explained that it wasn't charging up anymore," Neistat recalls, "and they said, 'We don't offer a new battery. You should just buy a new iPod.'


The Neistat Brothers, who swear by Apple products (the movie ends with a credit to Apple's iMovie software and the Macintosh computers on which the brothers work), say they feel a little cheated by the company in which they'd placed so much faith.
With the rap group NWA's song "Express Yourself" as a soundtrack, they make a large poster-board stencil that reads: "iPod's Unreplaceable Battery Lasts Only 18 Months."

The Neistats' funky but wrathful movie www.ipodsdirtysecret.com shows Casey
merry-pranksterly strolling around Manhattan, spray-painting dozens of Apple's pretty pastel iPod posters with his warning, which the brothers consider "a public service announcement" to counteract Apple's current iPod advertising campaign.

(According to Apple, which recently shipped more than 300,000 iPods in time for holiday shopping sprees, there are about 1.4 million iPods in current use worldwide.)

Within days, thousands of iPod owners had downloaded the movie and, somewhat horrified at the news, forwarded it around the world.
Non-Fix Culture


Days after the movie made the rounds, Apple announced expanded warranties for new iPod owners to purchase for $59, and also introduced a new $99 battery-replacement mail-in service for others.

Casey says he got a phone call in response to a letter of discontent he'd written to Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO, from still another minion, still advising him to just buy a new one. Days later, another Apple employee called, this time to make sure the brothers knew about the new battery-replacement price. "Are you calling because of our movie?" Casey said he asked. "And the person said he could neither confirm or deny that he'd seen it."

Apple officially denies that the brothers' movie had anything to do with the new battery price. In fact, says Natalie Sequeira, an Apple spokeswoman, the longer warranty and replacement price have been in the works for a few months.

"And I can't believe we're still getting questions about it," Sequeira says from the company's headquarters in Cupertino, Calif. She advises calm, and ably tries to deflect the idea that Apple would like to sell iPods as a disposable, pricey item that music lovers who get a taste of the iPod Kool-Aid will just have to keep replacing.

What the Neistat Brothers have done to Apple, however, is almost sacrilege to the Mac congregation.

"We got close to 1,000 e-mails the first couple of days," Casey reports. "A lot of people were in my exact position and had to buy the new iPod. Eighty percent of our mail was positive, people saying that they liked the sardonically irreverent way we did it. But there were die-hard Mac fans who were mad at us, who were panicking because they feel like we might cause somebody to not buy a Macintosh." (It is commonly known that Mac fans are always waiting for the sky to fall.)

Apple generally enjoys positive PR in print media and perky goodwill in the marketplace, especially from younger, hipper demographics trained from birth to shun expensive labels or corporate identity, and who view the Apple as both superior product and finger gesture toward the prevailing Microsoft/PC worldview.
Anyone who wears disposable contact lenses knows how these things evolve: At first, having lived through the days of crawling on hands and knees in shag carpeting looking for a lost contact lens, you cannot immediately adapt to a future in which we now blissfully wash month-old contact lenses down the drain. After a while it doesn't seem like such a costly tragedy.
People now spend a few hundred dollars every other year or so on disposable lenses, but it took a slight mental shift to get there.

Same with electronics: Cell phone owners can replace their lithium batteries with relative ease, since phones are designed for batteries that snap on and off, but many consumers opt instead to get a newer, cooler, smaller phone at that point.
Some of the e-mail the Neistat Brothers received from "iPod's Dirty Secret" came from people who were quick to tell them "that we're [bleep]ing imbeciles, [because] you can buy a battery online and do it yourself," Casey says.

The brothers already tried that.

They Googled around and ordered the battery from a different vendor that came with complicated instructions and "these two plastic gigantic toothpicks," Casey says. It took a while to pry the back cover off the iPod's impenetrable design. Beneath that was "a gummy adhesive" which covered the mini hard drive, "and there were these two very tiny connectors with three prongs," in a work space "about the diameter of a needle."

He felt as if he was performing amateur neurosurgery.

The patient died on the table.
And soon enough, Casey Neistat went back to the Apple boutique and bought a new iPod for $400, which, he says, "is totally unfair." He took it back to the office and showed it to his brother, and they vowed to find a way, Casey says, "to get back at them." But the beat went on, and that's what counts most in a world gone iPod.


Libelrally taken from Hank Stuever Washington Post Staff Writer

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Thuggo and Sluggo

"The fashion and body language of male youth in 2007 comes from three sources: prison, the nursery, and the pimpmobile. It's an old story now that many conventions of gangster fashion come out of the jail experience, where they take away your belt and shoelaces so you won't hang yourself. Apparently, at some point in US history, they stopped giving the belts and shoelaces back on release, and it became stylish to wear your trousers falling down below the top of your underpants (or butt crack as the case may be). Jail being a kind of accreditation device these days, the message may be: I passed the entrance exam."

James Kunstler



"please remember the insanely stupid clothes worn by many of us young males during "flower power" and disco days. I cringe with embarrassment when I recall."
And the hair? And the beards?
Every generation has something peculiar to be proud of.
So nice when you are stupid enough to wear the things just a stupid could and still be proud of it!
I honestly miss it, I hate being aware that fashion is but a silly part of life, that wearing a pair of stiletto shoes with a long point is more a pain than a pleasure to show, I hate forgetting that a a pair of pants can be so tight that you need to lay on a bed to close the zipper.
Those were our times and they are gone.
Lucky the ones who can still believe that a tattoo can make them looking more glamorous or that a pair of inflated lips can make them looking more sexy.
Being old is also that: realizing that life is so short to be nothing.

Life without addiction: YOU CAN...

I guess one of the big tragedies for a parent is finding out that his son is addicted.
To any kind of drugs, including alcohol.
And there is no real recipe to avoid it, I guess many times it is a matter of luck.
I am a pharmacist and I can talk, because I directly knew many who were good parents and had good children, but for terrible circumstances experienced the tragedy of addiction.
And I can also affirm that there is no way out of it unless the psychological aspect is cared of.
You can spend all your money and time in and out of clinics where they can help you get rid of the physical addiction.
That is hard, but easy to reach.
The hardest part is the psychological addiction.
And that you can cure just in the appropriate Drug Treatment Centers
One of the best is Sunset Malibu which is a fully equipped residential alcohol rehab and drug treatment center located in Malibu with magnificent ocean views just outside the sunny confines of Los Angeles, California.
It is one of the most prestigious drug rehab centers in the country specializing in alcohol detox, substance abuse treatment, painkiller addiction treatment, and the treatment of disorders such as depression and eating disorders.
Their addiction treatment philosophy incorporates a wide variety of traditional and non-traditional methods utilizing the talents of the best practitioners in the world.
And a succesful addiction treatment really can give the life back not only to the addicted, but to his family and friends.
Because they treat the body as well as the mind, and this is the only way out of any kind of addiction.
Drug treatment that really works and lasts is drug treatment that gives you your life back: that saves you from yourself, and frees you from your Need. The discovery that there is a life without addiction and a much better one.

Time to ask -- How many IPers will or will not be buying a iPhone soon?

Time to ask -- How many IPers will or will not be buying a iPhone soon?

As I always say: If you scroll the stupids' tree, something ALWAYS falls down...

Those Bastards of P2P file sharing...

In an odd statement made recently in a hearing with the FCC, NBC Universal tried to win over the hearts and minds of politicians by making the outrageous claim that P2P and file-sharing-related piracy hurts the wallets of poor corn farmers simply trying to make a living.

Their idea is that if more people went to the theaters to watch movies then more people would therefore buy popcorn and put more money in the pockets of farmers who could then "...earn greater profits and buy more farm equipment."

If I was one of them, I couldn't sleep anymore thinking all the damage I do to those poor farmers....

Monday, July 02, 2007

Magic India

What about a jump in the past, in a magic place like India?
Looking for hotels in India this is what you can find: old mansions converted in luxury hotels.
You can still experience the old charm but with all comforts of contemporary living.
What about a castle that offers the opportunity to stay as the guest of a royal family and explore some of the most picturesque tribal areas in all of India?
Isn't it an intriguing and exciting experience?
If you are looking for a special holyday, this could be the one.
The rooms are furnished in period style (something I really love), but with a modern bathroom, with hot and cold showers, English toilets and dressing space.
The castle belongs to the descendants of the original Vaghela Rajput conquerors, who ruled up to independence in 1947/8. The atmosphere is cheerful and friendly, and the feel of staying as a guest of the royal family has been retained.
You can also enjoy the real Indian cooking, with the best of Rajasthani and Gujarati cuisine adapted to individual tastes.
And if you want to learn Indian Cooking, you are a welcome guest in the kitchen!
So, if you are looking for a magic and unforgettable vacation, India is waiting for you!
This is a sponsored post, please read disclosure policy.

The end of clear bubbles with a rainbow of colors in them...

"I get lots of letters from people in various corners of the nation who are hysterically disturbed by the continuing spectacle of suburban development. But instead of joining in their hand-wringing, I reply by stating my serene conviction that we are at the end of the cycle -- and by that I mean the grand meta-cycle of the suburban project as a whole. It's over. Whatever you see out there now is pretty much what we're going to be stuck with. The remaining things under construction are the last twitchings of a dying organism."

James Kunstler

The end of house bubbles comes with the end of cash, ready or borrowed.
When the expectations of economical growth are lowering and the certainty of a stale period is arising.
When the banks are sure they won't get the money back and people are sure they won't be able to keep their job.
Whe we will finally be obliged to open our eyes to see that there is nothing coming if you do not work for it, and there is no such a thing as a good, tasty, free lunch without cooking it...

Termites: mors tua, vita mea...

I am fond of antique furniture, and I collected quite a good amount of nice pieces during my life.
One of them was a 19th century walnut desk on turned and reeded tapered legs and a tooled inset leather top, something you can find at a price ranging from $20.000 on.
You can imagine my despair when one terrible day, moving it, suddenly it fell on one side.
One of the legs' end practically was disintegrated.
Literally eaten by termites, without me having the slightest idea that it could happen.
It cost me some money to repair it and to my dismay, you can see it!
Since then I cautiously look and inspect every piece of furniture, looking for the first sign of termites (which is usually a small and light powder on the floor)and of course taking care that they die before doing any damage.
If you want to know more about termites there is a good website where they discuss and explain about them.
How to kill termites before they kill your furniture (or your house, if you have a wooden one). This is really one of those cases: mors tua vita mea...


This is a sponsored post, please read disclosure policy.

What is what

"Just as the Internet has accelerated most incarnations of what we mean by the word “information,” so it has sped up what we mean when we employ the very term “encyclopedia.” For centuries, an encyclopedia was synonymous with a fixed, archival idea about the retrievability of information from the past. But Wikipedia’s notion of the past has enlarged to include things that haven’t even stopped happening yet. Increasingly, it has become a go-to source not just for reference material but for real-time breaking news — to the point where, following the mass murder at Virginia Tech, one newspaper in Virginia praised Wikipedia as a crucial source of detailed information."
NYTimes

This is another example of how the Internet flattens and mixes the various compartments in which we used to divide life.
Encyclopedia becomes Wikipedia and mixes with News.
News are not just what happened but what is happening and what will happen.
They include world news and local gossip, a terroristic attack in London and the queue for buying an iPhone.
It is no more what's important, what the journalist thought important, it is what people want to see and hear.
It is what happens, not what is relevant to know.
In a few words, it is what makes audience and, of course, what makes cash...

Where are news going?

News: the big brother of life.
Smile: you are on "web cam"!
The world is getting more and more a big village, where you are a part of the gossip.
If you queue to buy a phone, or if you witness a crime, or you just happen to be in that place at that time.
Being it New York or San Francisco or Milano, that doesn't matter.
You have good chances to be on "web cam".

Sunday, July 01, 2007

The Goddess of Beauty

Botticelli_Venus
Who wouldn't like to be like her?
Or just a little bit close to that perfect beauty?
I guess I could hardly find a woman who answers NO.
Since the dawn of humanity women have tried to look more beautiful, more attractive, more sensual.
The Archeological treasures are a good percentage jewels, mirrors, combs.
Those were the tools women used to help them to reach beauty.
But you either were born beautiful or you were condemned to look as you were born (and worse with aging).
Today we can change our look in a very effective and natural way.
Born ugly?
No problem. With the right liposuction treatment you can dramatically change your look.
Without bad surprises or pain and in an affordable way.
If you need it and you live in California, you can easily and unpainfully do it at California liposuction center.
At Beverly Hills liposuction center they have beautiful offices designed to allow the maximum comfort.
Their surgical facilities are built and run at the uppermost standards, to ensure the highest level of safety.
They have as a medical director a fully trained plastic surgeon who graduated from the finest Universities and residencies in the country.
Their anesthesiologists are medical doctors to ensure the highest level of comfort and safety during operations. And best of all, they have very reasonable prices.
“Our surgeons may work on Rodeo Drive. Lucky for you, they don’t shop there!”
That is what they say.
I guess that just dreaming is not enough, if you really want to change your "outside" it pays to make a visit!
 
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