Elementi condivisi di Andrea Lazzarotto

Che barba, che noia, che noia, che barba

2011-11-02T23:12:44Z

Bhè si, non saprei come definirla altrimenti questa vicenda che vede un gruppo ladri di galline procedere nello loro truffe con la stessa metodica da almeno due anni. Ci sarebbe da buttarsi a terra a piangere o da far un altro raccontino su Bananaland. Le indagini siano difficili da accorpare perché quando l’attacco è rivolto ad istituti [...]

"Chi l'ha visto?": E' di un italiano il Dna su Yara, individuato un parente

2011-11-03T08:56:13Z

Roma, 2/11/2011 - Gli inquirenti hanno individuato il Dna di un ceppo familiare maschile corrispondente al profilo genetico estratto dalle tracce sui leggins e sugli slip di Yara Gambirasio. Non si tratterebbe di un operaio del cantiere di Mapello ma, secondo indiscrezioni riferite nel corso della puntata di "Chi l'ha visto?", si tratterebbe di un italiano. Il confronto è stato effettuato sulle migliaia di profili genetici acquisiti nel corso delle indagini.

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What Can You Do with 1,818 Pounds of Pumpkin?

2011-10-28T21:07:37Z

With Halloween around the corner, everyone’s thinking about costumes, trick-or-treating, and jack-o’-lantern carving and figuring out what to do with a 1,818 pound pumpkin. While the latter might only be true for the owners of this year’s largest pumpkin, Wolfram|Alpha has something for everyone this Halloween. The nearly one-ton squash belongs to a farmer from Quebec, Canada. Besides carving it into a giant jack-o’-lantern, the next best thing to do with that much pumpkin is make enough pumpkin pie for a small town. A common recipe for a pumpkin pie calls for two cups of pumpkin. Using Wolfram|Alpha, we find that 1,818 pounds of pumpkin will allow us to make 3,550 pumpkin pies.

Hopefully you are in a giving mood, so you can cut each pie into eight slices to come up with just enough to share with the entire town of Allen Park, Michigan. With 28,210 people in Allen Park and 28,400 slices of pie, you’re still left with 190 slices to put in the freezer for later.

What if we combined all of those pies into one big pumpkin pie and covered it in whipped cream?

Note that those numbers are shown in kilograms and not the typical grams.

We’ve blogged in the past about comparing fun-size candy bars to the full-size treats. Query “1 fun size Snickers bar versus 1 Snickers bar” to compare different sizes of the same candy. You can also compare multiple fun-size candies to one full-size candy:

After a weekend full of candy adventures, it’s time to assess the damages. On your next trip to the dentist, be sure to use Wolfram|Alpha to help you better understand what the heck your dentist is talking about when he says your kid has a cavity in her “primary left mandibular second molar”. Wolfram|Alpha has handy information on things you always wanted to know about teeth. For example, you can query a particular tooth in the universal, US, or FDI two-digit system, such as “tooth 5” or “tooth 18”. In each case, the “Designations” pod immediately presents the corresponding notations in other standard systems. In case you’ve always wondered why you had that particular tooth, the “basic function” attribute immediately elucidates each tooth’s role in the consumption of your favorite foods. Also quite handy is a quick summary of the lifetime of the tooth, which is presented as major “Developmental milestones”. You can even be very specific about such information. Just ask “when does tooth ML^3 erupt?” or, more colloquially, “when do primary canines erupt?”.

So the next time you are at the dentist with your young kids and want to quickly visually identify your child’s teeth, just type in “primary teeth”, and this will return a list of all the teeth in your child’s mouth. Or you can simply query about a specific tooth you’re interested in, such as “primary second molar”. As always, we hope that our work on Wolfram|Alpha makes understanding your bodies and your surroundings a little easier.

In keeping with the Halloween theme, you can also explore the history of Halloween-themed words. Using Wolfram|Alpha, you’ll find that “Halloween” first showed up in the English language in the mid-1700s and has picked up popularity in the last 30 years:

Take a look at the word frequency history for “zombie” and “mummy”, too.

Happy Halloween from the Wolfram|Alpha team!

Linux Day 2011 - FOSS per la Digital Forensics

2011-10-24T20:22:44Z

Sabato 22 ottobre 2011 su tutto il territorio nazionale si è svolto il LinuxDay 2011, la manifestazione dedicata a Linux e al software libero che ogni anno interessa moltissime città italiane. Per quest'anno, purtroppo, non è stata organizzata nessuna iniziativa a Pavia, ma a Vigevano la manifestazione è stata ospitata dall'ITIS "G. Caramuel".

Come ormai tradizione, sono stato nuovamente invitato a parlare dell'utilizzo di strumenti open source in ambito di computer forensics e indagini digitali.

Si tratta come di consueto della versione riaggiornata della mia relazione dal titolo "Il pinguino investigatore. Analisi forense con strumenti open source". Come ogni volta, ho cominciato spiegando cosa sia la computer forensics e quale importanza rivesta nelle indagini e nei procedimenti giudiziari, per poi passare alle argomentazioni circa l'oppotunità di utilizzare software liberi in questo ambito, facendo una panoramica sui principali sistemi e applicativi FOSS disponibili a riguardo.

Le slide aggiornate sono allegate a questo post.

Free Educational Software for Students & Educators – SlideRocket EDU Launches on Google Apps

2011-10-18T12:00:16Z

Today we’re thrilled to launch our new, free SlideRocket EDU offering available exclusively through Google Apps! SlideRocket and Google Apps have always been a huge hit with K-12 schools, colleges and universities, and the introduction of SlideRocket EDU free educational software helps students to be creative, work together, communicate and embrace the digitally rich technologies they encounter every day.

To get started, educators with Google Apps accounts can provision SlideRocket free educational software for their class, or entire school, with a single click from the SlideRocket EDU page in the Google Apps Marketplace.

“SlideRocket EDU provides educators and students with a unique opportunity to use online presentations to launch new, imaginative ideas in a way that is fun, creative, collaborative, and accessible by literally millions of students.”

- Chuck Dietrich, SlideRocket CEO

SlideRocket Free Presentation Software

Our students’ educational experience now extends beyond the rote memorization, lectures and linear lesson progression that many of us remember. And technology has become a critical component of learning, allowing easy access to a wealth of educational resources and tools. SlideRocket and Google are proud to be major contributors in helping millions of students explore these new learning opportunities.

“With the new SlideRocket EDU, groups of teachers can build a library of interactive web-based presentations together in lesson planning, and students can easily collaborate on class projects. Better yet, teachers can watch and engage throughout the creation process, which can be more important than the end result.”

- John Kuglin, Sr. Educational Consultant, Retired Assoc. Dean, U. of Montana.

SlideRocket is helping students on their learning journey by nurturing the collaborative, participatory, and digitally rich learning experience that often extends beyond the walls of the classroom to wherever students, teachers, parents and educational resources are located. Here are examples of how educators and students are creating and sharing SlideRocket presentations:

Unlocking Collaboration, Creativity, and Fun for Students

The introduction of computers and the Internet into the classroom changed forever the manner in which students learn. SlideRocket opens a new horizon to increase the level at which students can work together on projects, share ideas, be creative and have fun doing it. With SlideRocket free educational software, students and educators can:

Collaborate on projects and presentations inside or outside the classroom
Interact with educators via instant feedback and sharing of resources
Explore and combine creative mediums including photography, video, text, music, and voice
Share projects with educators, researchers and other students via Twitter and Facebook
Make projects available for teachers and parents to monitor progress on projects

SlideRocket, Google and Education – A Natural Fit

Both SlideRocket and Google have for years been supporters of educators and students. In fact, Google boasts over 13 million educational institutions in the Google Apps marketplace, and over ⅓ of SlideRocket users are educators and students.

SlideRocket is thrilled to have the opportunity to grow significantly our involvement in education. Our recent acquisition by VMware enables SlideRocket to expand our free educational software offerings, and make available this new offering to educators and students.

How to Get Your Free SlideRocket EDU Account

Getting started with SlideRocket EDU is simple for educators and students, just click here. All you need is a Google Apps for Education account, and you can provision your SlideRocket account for your entire school district, school or class. SlideRocket EDU is available for all K-12 schools and universities in the United States. Don’t yet have a Google Apps for Education account? Get started here.

Ti sei perso il Linux Day?

2011-10-24T15:07:09Z

Ti sei perso il Linux Day? Non c'è problema!!! Stiamo aggiornando la pagina del nostro sito con foto e video della manifestazione, così potrai vedere con calma tutti i talk che abbiamo fatto.

Quindi non ti resta che metterti comodo ed andare a vedere qui.

Se vuoi approfondire gli argomenti puoi venirci a trovare al Centro Giovanile, tutte le info le trovi invece qua.

Do try this at home.

2011-10-21T08:41:31Z

Share and Enjoy:

Jet Fuel

2011-10-19T04:00:00Z

Steve Jobs: A Few Memories

2011-10-06T09:39:01Z

I’m so sad this evening—as millions are—to hear of Steve Jobs’s death. Scattered over the last quarter century, I learned much from Steve Jobs, and was proud to consider him a friend. And indeed, he contributed in various ways to all three of my major life projects so far: Mathematica, A New Kind of Science and Wolfram|Alpha.

I first met Steve Jobs in 1987, when he was quietly building his first NeXT computer, and I was quietly building the first version of Mathematica. A mutual friend had made the introduction, and Steve Jobs wasted no time in saying that he was planning to make the definitive computer for higher education, and he wanted Mathematica to be part of it. I don’t now remember the details of our first meeting, but at the end of it, Steve gave me his business card, which tonight I found duly still sitting in my files:

Over the months after our first meeting, I had all sorts of interactions with Steve about Mathematica. Actually, it wasn’t yet called Mathematica then, and one of the big topics of discussion was what it should be called. At first it had been Omega (yes, like Alpha) and later PolyMath. Steve thought those were lousy names. I gave him lists of names I’d considered, and pressed him for his suggestions. For a while he wouldn’t suggest anything. But then one day he said to me: “You should call it Mathematica”.

I’d actually considered that name, but rejected it. I asked Steve why he thought it was good, and he told me his theory for a name was to start from the generic term for something, then romanticize it. His favorite example at the time was Sony’s Trinitron. Well, it went back and forth for a while. But in the end I agreed that, yes, Mathematica was a good name. And so it has been now for nearly 24 years.

As Mathematica was being developed, we showed it to Steve Jobs quite often. He always claimed he didn’t understand the math of it (though I later learned from a good friend of mine who had known Steve in high school that Steve had definitely taken at least one calculus course). But he made all sorts of “make it simpler” suggestions about the interface and the documentation. With one slight exception, perhaps of at least curiosity interest to Mathematica aficionados: he suggested that cells in Mathematica notebook documents (now CDFs) should be indicated not by simple vertical lines—but instead by brackets with little serifs at their ends. And as it happens, that idea opened the way to thinking of hierarchies of cells, and ultimately to many features of symbolic documents.

In June 1988 we were ready to release Mathematica. But NeXT had not yet released its computer, Steve Jobs was rarely seen in public, and speculation about what NeXT was up to had become quite intense. So when Steve Jobs agreed that he would appear at our product announcement, it was a huge thing for us.

He gave a lovely talk, discussing how he expected more and more fields to become computational, and to need the services of algorithms and of Mathematica. It was a very clean statement of a vision which has indeed worked out as he predicted. (And now it’s nice when I hear through the grapevine that there are all sorts of algorithms central to the iPhone that were developed with the help of Mathematica.)

A while later, the NeXT was duly released, and a copy of Mathematica was bundled with every computer. Although the NeXT was not in its own right a commercial success, Steve’s decision to bundle Mathematica turned out to be a really good idea, and was often quoted as the #1 reason people had bought NeXTs.

And as a curious footnote to history (which I learned years later), one batch of NeXTs bought for the purpose of running Mathematica went to CERN in Geneva, Switzerland—where they ended up having no less distinction than being the computers on which the web was first developed.

I used to see Steve Jobs with some regularity in those days. One time I went to see him in NeXT’s swank new offices in Redwood City. I particularly wanted to talk to him about Mathematica as a computer language. He always preferred user interfaces to languages, but he was trying to be helpful. The conversation was going on, but he said he couldn’t go to dinner, and actually he was quite distracted, because he was going out on a date that evening—and he hadn’t been on a date for a long time. He explained that he’d just met the woman he was seeing a few days earlier, and was very nervous about his date. The Steve Jobs—so confident as a businessman and technologist—had melted away, and he was asking me—hardly a noted known authority on such things—about his date.

As it turned out, the date apparently worked out—and within 18 months the woman he met became his wife, and remained so until the end.

My direct interactions with Steve Jobs decreased during the decade that I was for all practical purposes a hermit working on A New Kind of Science. For most of that time, though, I used a NeXT computer in almost every waking hour—and in fact my main discoveries were made on it. And when the book was finished, Steve asked for a pre-release copy, which I duly sent.

At the time, all sorts of people were telling me that I needed to put quotes on the back cover of the book. So I asked Steve Jobs if he’d give me one. Various questions came back. But eventually Steve said, “Isaac Newton didn’t have back-cover quotes; why do you want them?” And that’s how, at the last minute, the back cover of A New Kind of Science ended up with just a simple and elegant array of pictures. Another contribution from Steve Jobs, that I notice every time I look at my big book.

In my life, I have had the good fortune to interact with all sorts of talented people. To me, Steve Jobs stands out most for his clarity of thought. Over and over again he took complex situations, understood their essence, and used that understanding to make a bold definitive move, often in a completely unexpected direction.

I myself have spent much of my life—in science and in technology—trying to work in somewhat similar ways. And trying to build the very best possible things I can.

Yet looking at the practical world of technology and business there are certainly times when it has not been obvious that any of this is a good strategy. Indeed, sometimes it looks as if all that clarity, understanding, quality and new ideas aren’t really the point—and that the winners are those with quite different interests.

So for me—and our company—it has been immensely inspiring to watch Steve Jobs’s—and Apple’s—amazing success in recent years. It validates so many of the principles that I have long believed in. And encourages me to pursue them with even greater vigor.

I think that over the years Steve Jobs appreciated the approach I’ve tried to take with our company. He was certainly always a great supporter. (Just tonight, for example, I was reminded of a terrific video that he sent us for the 10th anniversary Mathematica user conference.) And he was always keen for us to work first with NeXT, and later with Apple.

I think Mathematica may hold the distinction of having been the only major software system available at launch on every single computer that Steve Jobs created since 1988. Of course, that’s often led to highly secretive emergency Mathematica porting projects—culminating a couple of times in Theo Gray demoing the results in Steve Jobs’s keynote speeches.

When Apple started producing the iPod and iPhone I wasn’t sure how they would relate to anything we did. But after Wolfram|Alpha came out, we started realizing just how powerful it was to have computational knowledge on this new platform that Steve Jobs had created. And when the iPad was coming out, Theo Gray—at Steve Jobs’s urging—insisted that we had to do something significant for it.

The result was the formation last year of Touch Press, the publication of Theo’s Elements iPad ebook, and now a string of other iPad ebooks. A whole new direction made possible by Steve Jobs’s creation of the iPad.

It’s hard to remember tonight all the ways Steve Jobs has supported and encouraged us over the years. Big things and small things. Looking at my archive I realize I’d forgotten just how many detailed problems he jumped in to solve. From the glitches in versions of NEXTSTEP, to the personal phone call not long ago to assure us that if we ported Mathematica and CDF to iOS they wouldn’t be banned.

There is much that I am grateful to Steve Jobs for. But tragically, his greatest contribution to my latest life project—Wolfram|Alpha—happened just yesterday: the announcement that Wolfram|Alpha will be used in Siri on the iPhone 4S.

It is somehow a quintessential Steve Jobs move. To realize that people just want direct access to knowledge and actions on their phones. Without all the extra steps that people would usually assume have to be there.

I’m proud that we are in a position to provide an important component for that vision with Wolfram|Alpha. What’s coming out now is just a beginning, and I look forward to what we will do with Apple in this direction in the future. I’m just sad that Steve Jobs will now not be part of it.

When I first met Steve Jobs nearly 25 years ago I was struck by him explaining to me that NeXT was what he “wanted to do with his thirties”. At the time, I thought it was a bold thing to plan one’s life in decades like that. And—particularly for those of us who spend their lives doing large projects—it’s incredibly inspiring to see what Steve Jobs was able to achieve in his small number of decades, so tragically cut short today.

Thank you, Steve, for everything.

Offre pasti caldi e contrasta lo spreco di cibo

2011-10-10T15:48:48Z

Steve Wilson (nella foto), giovane chef inglese, ha ideato un progetto di ristorazione solidale che prende “due piccioni con una fava”: offre pasti caldi gratuiti e utilizza alimenti ancora commestibili e sicuri dal punto di vista nutrizionale, ma che – per legge – non possono più essere venduti da negozi e supermercati, poiché hanno raggiunto la data di scadenza. Con la sua iniziativa, Steve cerca di sensibilizzare l’opinione pubblica sul problema degli scarti alimentari nella nostra società: secondo la FAO, ogni anno un terzo degli alimenti prodotti nel mondo va perso o sprecato. Si tratta di uno scandalo alimentare a livello globale, poiché si calcola che quasi un miliardo di persone potrebbero essere nutrite con un quarto del cibo che viene gettato negli Stati Uniti e in Europa.

A partire dall’ottobre 2010, Steve ha cominciato a rivolgersi agli esercizi commerciali di sua conoscenza chiedendo loro di poter recuperare gli alimenti invenduti e destinati alla discarica. Essendo chef professionista, ha cominciato a selezionare e preparare menù in base agli alimenti raccolti e ad offrire cene agli amici, grazie al “Passing Clouds” – locale di artisti e musicisti ubicato del quartiere di Dalston, a Londra – che gli ha messo a disposizione la cucina per poter sperimentare il suo progetto. Le esperienze di ristorazione solidale e recupero dei cibi scaduti sono numerose e variegate, ma l’idea di coniugare ristorazione solidale e lotta allo spreco di cibo ha riscosso molto successo presso …..

Continua a leggere questa storia su Shinynote.com in collaborazione con BuoneNotizie.it*

Omaggio a Steve Jobs

2011-10-06T08:13:01Z

Abbiate fiducia nel futuro. Cercate quello che amate. Siate affamati, siate folli. Le tre storie vincenti di Steve Jobs per non arrendersi mai davanti alle difficoltà. Steve Jobs – ceo di Apple fino a poche settimane fa - ha incontrato il 12 giugno del 2005 gli studenti dell’Università di Stanford in occasione della consegna delle lauree pronunciando uno dei discorsi più famosi e toccanti sulla storia della sua vita.

“Avere fiducia nel futuro, nel futuro i puntini della vita si potranno unire”. Nella prima parte del suo intervento, Steve Jobs racconta l’abbandono del college, le difficoltà incontrate per vivere, il primo Mac e il successo di Apple. “Certamente all’epoca in cui ero all’università era impossibile unire i puntini guardando il futuro. Ma è diventato molto, molto chiaro dieci anni dopo, quando ho potuto guardare all’indietro. Di nuovo, non è possibile unire i puntini guardando avanti; potete farlo solo guardandovi all’indietro. Così dovete avere fiducia che in qualche modo, nel futuro i puntini si potranno unire. Dovete credere in qualcosa — il vostro intuito, il destino, la vita, il Karma, qualsiasi cosa. Questo tipo di approccio non mi ha mai lasciato a piedi e ha sempre fatto la differenza nella mia vita”.

“Dovete trovare quel che amate. E questo vale sia per il vostro lavoro che per i vostri affetti”. Jobs racconta la nascita di Apple nel garage dei genitori, il licenziamento dall’azienda che lui stesso ha fondato (definito da lui stesso la medicina amara e necessaria), il ritorno alla Apple. “Qualche volta la vita ci colpisce come un mattone in testa. Non perdete la fede, però. Sono convinto che l’unica cosa che mi ha trattenuto dal mollare tutto sia stato l’amore per quello che ho fatto. Dovete trovare quel che amate. E questo vale sia per il vostro lavoro che per i vostri affetti. Il vostro lavoro riempirà una buona parte della della vostra vita, e l’unico modo per essere realmente soddisfatti è fare quello che riterrete un buon lavoro. E l’unico modo per fare un buon lavoro è amare quello che fate. Se ancora non l’avete trovato, continuate a cercare. Non accontentatevi. Con tutto il cuore, sono sicuro che capirete quando lo troverete. E, come tutte le grandi storie, diventerà sempre migliore mano a mano che gli anni passano. Perciò, continuate a cercare e non vi accontentate”.

“Siate affamati, siate folli”. Infine, il suo rapporto con la morte e la lotta contro un tumore al pancreas. “Quando avevo 17 anni lessi una citazione che suonava così: “Se vivrai ogni giorno come se fosse l’ultimo, sicuramente prima o poi avrai ragione”. Mi colpi molto e da allora, per gli ultimi 33 anni, mi sono guardato allo specchio chiedendomi: “Se oggi fosse l’ultimo giorno della mia vita, vorrei fare quello che sto per fare oggi?”. E ogni qualvolta la risposta è “No” per troppi giorni di fila, capisco che c’è qualcosa che deve essere cambiato. [...] Il vostro tempo è limitato, per cui non lo sprecate vivendo la vita di qualcun’altro. Non fatevi intrappolare dai dogmi che vuol dire vivere seguendo i risultati del pensiero di altre persone. Non lasciate che il rumore delle opinioni altrui offuschi la vostra voce interiore. E, la cosa più importante di tutte, abbiate il coraggio di seguire il vostro cuore e la vostra intuizione. In qualche modo loro sanno cosa volete realmente diventare. [...] Siate affamati, siate folli. Io l’ho augurato a me stesso. E adesso che vi laureate per cominciare una nuova vita, io auguro a tutti voi: Siate affamati, siate folli”.

Eternal Flame

2011-10-06T04:00:00Z

The new Ubuntu App Developer website

2011-09-27T07:30:06Z

We’re happy to unveil the brand new Ubuntu App Developer website today, a place where developers who want to create Ubuntu applications can find all the information they need and get in touch with the Ubuntu app developer community to share ideas, ask questions and get all the news and events.

Ubuntu App Developer’s website new homepage

The brief

The goal of this project was to create a website that would centralise the best resources on developing Ubuntu applications; a place where developers could find not only all the tools and information necessary to get started on Ubuntu app development, but also a place where they can be a part of an engaged community of other developers who are equally eager to learn and happy to share their knowledge.

Our timeframe was very limited: just under 10 weeks to plan, research, design and build the site. This, of course, had an impact on what could be created. We spent quite a lot of time scoping down the project, making sure the essential information was included and the site was built in a way that it could grow organically, over time.

Planning the App Developer website

Research

Research is one of the most important parts of creating sites (or, to that matter, anything that people will use). As experienced designers, we can make informed guesses on what people will want to see on a given page, but sometimes people’s expectations can be quite different from our initial thoughts. With this in mind, we knew that even though we spent a few intense weeks sketching, brainstorming, covering the Millbank walls with post-its and wireframes, having day-long workshops and listening to what all the key people in this project had to say, ultimately, we had to put our thoughts in front of the developers we were making this site for. And so we did.

One of the many sketches that were done

John Oxton, the Web Team’s UX architect, as someone more qualified to go through this phase, will write a more detailed follow-up post that will focus mainly on the research phase of the App Developer site, the tools used, the main findings, the solutions, etc.

The brand, from a developer’s perspective

The Ubuntu App Developer website is part of the main Ubuntu family of websites. With this in mind, we had to make sure it adhered very closely to the Ubuntu brand guidelines. But we also wanted it to have a life of its own, so that it wouldn’t just be a copy of ubuntu.com.

One of the key assets of the Ubuntu brand guidelines are the Voice, Audience and Developer sliders, which are a tool in understanding what the design direction of any product should be, whether it is a banner, a brochure, a cd cover, a site, etc.

One of the detailed pages on the sliders in the Ubuntu brand guidelines

Here’s a quick overview of the sliders:

The Voice slider determines whether a piece is representative of the Ubuntu community or if it’s representative of Canonical. This doesn’t reflect the position of the person creating the work, but of the work itself.
The Audience slider determines the type of user you are talking to. The work can be consumer- or enterprise-oriented.
The Developer slider determines whether the work is targeted towards end-users or developers. In this case, an advanced user would still not be a developer.

If you’re creating design assets for Ubuntu, you should be familiar with these: have a read of the guidelines as they go into a lot more detail, and do get in touch if you have any questions!

After talking to the stakeholders of this project, we were able to position the sliders as follows:

Voice: Community
Audience: Consumer
Developer: Developer

This was the first time we created a website that was so directly targeted at developers. A brand is something that evolves over time, and this was a great opportunity to evolve the Ubuntu brand in this direction and to explore a new area of the guidelines that hadn’t been looked at in depth before.

Some quick notes and sketches exploring the design direction for the site

We wanted to create something that conveyed the idea of blueprints. This led to a design that makes use of outlines, widely spaced dots and that is clean and direct.

The App Developer’s site navigation follows closely the one of the main Ubuntu sites, with its own flavour

Detail of one of the reusable components of the App Developer’s site

Second round of testing

Trying to get as much feedback from our target users as possible, we showed a more finalised site to a few more developers. Again, John will write about the research side of this project in more detail soon, here on the blog.

The road ahead

This project was a highly rewarding and highly intense team effort. Everyone worked incredibly hard, but we had a lot of fun. Too many great ideas for the site had to be put aside for the future, as our time was so constrained, but rest assured all these were captured in a very exciting roadmap.

The website is now in the hands of the fantastic Ubuntu App Developer community and the Canonical Community Team, and we hope to see it grow with lots of content created by anyone who would like to contribute. Have a look at the site and tell all your friends about it! We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Meredith Kercher: assolti Amanda Knox e Raffaele Sollecito

2011-10-04T09:06:16Z

Roma, 3/10/2011 - Amanda Knox e Raffaele Sollecito sono stati assolti dall'accusa di aver ucciso Meredith Kercher con formula piena, in base all'articolo 530, primo comma, del codice di procedura penale. La Corte d'assise d'appello di Perugia, in “parziale riforma” della sentenza di primo grado, ha dichiarato Amanda Knox colpevole del reato di calunnia ai danni di Patrick Lumumba, condannandola tre anni di reclusione ed ha assolve entrambi gli imputati dai reati contestati di omicidio, porto di coltello, violenza sessuale e furto per non aver commesso il fatto, e dal reato di simulazione di reato perché il fatto non sussiste, ordinandone l'immediata liberazione se non detenuti per altra causa.

How to Make a Presentation – For the Artistically Challenged

2011-10-01T08:21:07Z

Shared by Lazza
A dire la verità, la presentazione non è proprio bellissima dal punto di vista estetico, ma i consigli sono comunque molto buoni. :)

Have you ever been in the middle of a presentation, looked out over the audience and realize that you’ve completely lost your audience? It starts with the shifting in their seats and disintegrates to texting, doodling or even nodding off. You hurry up, skip points, talk faster and faster. Watch this presentation from @EFinkelstein for great tips and examples on how to make a presentation, even if you are artistically challenged.

Perhaps your presentation materials are interesting or maybe they’re not – but any way you look at it, unless you know how to make a presentation interesting, it will be boring.

So how can you avoid being dealt the kiss of presentation death? Well here are a few hints to keep your presentation interesting:

Avoid Bullet Points

When you create slides with bullet points, the temptation is to read the slide resulting in a stilted speaking style. You also lose the audience’s interest – after all, they all can read and will probably prefer reading the bullet points you’ve written instead of listening to you reading to them. Remember, you’re no longer in elementary school – so people can read on their own.

What should you do instead?

Create Talking Points

What’s the difference between talking points and bullet points? Talking points will help keep you on track, but your speech patterns will come out differently. You’ll come across as knowledgeable and interesting rather than sounding like an actor reading the prompter at an awards ceremony.

Talking points make a statement, but then you’ll spend one or two minutes explaining it, instead of reading it off the slide.

Use Graphics As Illustrations

As you’re learning how to make a presentation, keep in mind that your listeners need something to keep their interest. By creating a slide with a single talking point and punctuating it with a graphic that illustrates your point, your listeners will focus their attention on the graphic and will (hopefully) concentrate on your presentation instead of texting or doodling.

Here are three additional things that will show you how to make a presentation more enjoyable:

Colors Can Help or Hurt. Use a dark font on a lighter background.
The font should be large enough for the back of the room to read.
Don’t cram too much on one page. Use the KISS method. Keep it simple.

Hopefully these ideas will show you how to make a presentation that’s fun and interesting for you and your audience.

Make the people you lead feel important

2011-09-26T19:47:13Z

Who doesn’t like being told they are doing a good job. If you want to motivate people then you have to appreciate them–sincerely appreciate them. Don’t just tell them what they want to hear, people know when you are being false and they will resent you for it, but if you as a leader sincerely appreciate them, then it will motivate them even more. Send out thank you notes, encouraging messages to the team, point out the efforts of those who are making a difference. It doesn’t matter how large or small the contribution to the team is make sure you let people know they are important and they matter!

Amber Graner, What is a Leader? What Motivates People?, 26 settembre 2011.

Traduzione italiana.
«Fa’ sentire importanti le persone che tu guidi. A chi non piace sentirsi dire di star facendo un buon lavoro? Se volete motivare le persone, allora dovete apprezzarle: apprezzatele, davvero. Non dite loro soltanto quello che vogliono sentirsi dire: le persone capiscono quando non siete sinceri e non vi sopportano per questo; se, al contrario, con sincerità voi mostrate loro il vostro apprezzamento, ciò darà loro una spinta più forte. Inviate al gruppo qualche nota di ringraziamento, messaggi di incoraggiamento, mettete in evidenza gli sforzi di coloro che fanno la differenza. Non importa quanto grande o piccolo sia il contributo dato al gruppo: assicuratevi di far sapere alle persone che esse sono importanti e che rappresentano un valore!»

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Tag: Citazioni, Comunità, Graner, Planet

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L'articolo "Make the people you lead feel important" è apparso originariamente su Ubuntu block notes il 26 settembre 2011. Rispettane le condizioni di licenza.

Catalogna, ultima corrida: dal 2012 sarà proibita

2011-09-26T11:55:08Z

Shared by Lazza
Evviva! :D

E’ stata l’ultima corrida quella di ieri a Barcellona, tra animalisti festosi e toreri in lutto. 180 mila persone avevano firmato la petizione che è stata presentata al Parlamento regionale e votata nel giugno del 2010. La Catalogna non è la prima regione spagnola a dire no ai combattimenti con i tori. Le isole Canarie vararono il divieto nell’ormai lontano 1991.

Per approfondire…

Hopen – l’avventura ha inizio

2011-09-22T22:33:42Z

È iniziato tutto tempo fa: Simone mi telefona, e mi dice: “Lo sai, stavo pensando a una cosa, in Italia non esiste alcun punto di riferimento per quello che riguarda l’open culture“. Effettivamente lo pensavo anch’io da un po’ di tempo, così pensa che ti ripensa abbiamo deciso di mettere su un bell’ambaradan che, più che generare riverbero all’interno della cricca di soliti noti che nel panorama italiano si occupano di questo, li riunisca sotto un solo tetto per poi generare una eco che pervade il paese su questi temi che, d’importanza cruciale e chiacchierati in tutto il mondo, da noi sono sempre più spesso sottostimati e accantonati in favore di politiche di stampo muffito, vecchie sin nel midollo.

Hopen quindi, l’incrocio delle parole hope e open, è il nome di questa nostra iniziativa (ambiziosa senz’altro ma non impossibile) che si prepone il fine didascalico di sensibilizzare chiunque voglia porgere orecchio sui temi verso cui sta virando il mondo intero: sostenibilità, open design, open data, consumo collaborativo e ovviamente ultimo, ma non per importanza, l’open source, che è poi un po’ il motore immobile di ciò che abbiamo in mente; se è vero infatti che ormai l’approccio “aperto” viene adottato in una moltitudine di campi assolutamente tra i più disparati, comunque ciò che ha dato il via a tutto, ciò che ha mostrato come un nuovo mondo fatto di cooperazione e rapporti tra le persone fosse possibile, è stato proprio il movimento open source, a cui tutti dobbiamo molto.

Quindi, per concludere, invito tutti a leggere il guest post di Simone sul blog di Estrogeni, che illustra l’iniziativa meglio di me: il 7 Ottobre ci si vedrà per un primo meeting che metta a fuoco la situazione, una tavola rotonda senza assolutamente nessuna pretesa, per ora. Chi volesse partecipare, trova qui molti dettagli ed un modulo per segnalare la propria presenza.

It’s time to rock this stage.

Dimenticavo, l’hashtag ufficiale è #hopen11. Stay tuned.

Lavoro: i profili e i titoli di studio più richiesti

2011-09-24T07:00:19Z

Shared by Lazza
Spero che possa essere utile a qualcuno!

Farmacisti, fisioterapisti, addetti alla consulenza fiscale: non sono solo le figure artigiane ad essere considerate ormai introvabili dalle aziende, ma anche le professioni ad alto livello di specializzazione. Ecco, quindi, una panoramica dei profili che, secondo i recenti dati Unioncamere e Ministero del Lavoro, saranno più ricercati dalle aziende, in questo ultimo trimestre del 2011.

Sono quasi 117mila le assunzioni previste nei prossimi tre mesi e considerate di difficile reperimento dalle aziende: tra le ricerche più ardue, quelle di idraulici, per cui le imprese artigiane aspettano mediamente oltre un anno. Ma altre figure specializzate, di cui il mercato del lavoro ha costantemente bisogno, sono quelle dei carpentieri, dei tornitori e degli autisti di pullman.

Tra i profili intermedi, ad essere ricercatissimi sono gli addetti alla reception e gli operatori di mensa, oltre ai “classici” estetisti e parrucchieri. Nelle professioni “high skill”, a farla da padrone sono i farmacisti, gli sviluppatori di software, i progettisti meccanici, seguiti dagli infermieri, dagli addetti alla consulenza fiscale, dagli educatori professionali.

Indicazioni importanti, quelle riscontrabili in questi dati, soprattutto nel momento di crisi in cui il Paese si trova, perché di fronte ad un pesante stallo dell’economia, è giusto sottolineare anche il lavoro che c’è: “la delicatezza del contesto economico” ha ribadito il presidente di Unioncamere, Ferruccio Dardanello, “mette ulteriormente in luce il difficile incontro tra domanda e offerta di lavoro: il lavoro viene offerto dalle imprese ma queste ultime hanno talvolta, e soprattutto per alcune professioni, grandissima difficoltà a trovare il candidato con i requisiti giusti”.

Unioncamere ha anche evidenziato quali saranno i titoli di studio più richiesti per le 595mila assunzioni non stagionali che Industria e Servizi intendono effettuare nei prossimi mesi. A livello universitario, dove le assunzioni prevista sono di oltre 74mila persone, i più richiesti sono i laureati nell’indirizzo economico, in quello di ingegneria elettronica e dell’informazione, nell’ambito sanitario e paramedico e in quello dell’insegnamento e formazione. Tra i diplomi più richiesti, saranno quasi 245mila i giovani diplomati assunti, le migliori prospettive riguardano chi possiede un titolo di studio nel settore amministrativo e commerciale e in quello meccanico, seguiti dall’indirizzo turistico-alberghiero. Le qualifiche professionali più richieste sono quelle in ambito meccanico, socio-sanitario, edile e turistico-alberghiero.

Per approfondire:

Come trovare lavoro in Italia nonostante la crisi

GSoC2011 is over

2011-09-17T22:25:29Z

Google Summer of Code 2011 is over, and all of our students have successfully finished their respective projects. All of the code is available in Git repositories, but not all of it is going to be part of the next released versions of GEGL and GIMP. Here is why.

Both new tools, Seamless Clone and Warp Transform, as well as new size entry widget are too late to become part of 2.8. We are planning to make them part of 2.10, when they are better tested for reliability and usability. The OpenCL project needs more work to become part of GEGL's main development branch. However the project to port more GIMP filters to GEGL operations is already part of master branch in GEGL and will be available in the next version of GEGL.

Some of our students are taking a well deserved break from GSoC or are back to study, while others continue hacking on their projects. Michael Muré recently implemented undo/redo support in the Warp Transform tool and works now on extending GEGL's capabilities regarding transformations. Barak Itkin continues working on his Seamless Paste tool and intends to make it usable with larger images as well as fix some bugs and make it more flexible. Victor Oliveira keep working on his OpenCL/GEGL project as well.