I’m looking for a quote for my thesis. Here’s a list of candidates:

• “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.” - Gandalf
• “There were 11 of them. I only managed to do eight of them, I couldn’t manage any more.” - Silvio Berlusconi, about the chapters of his thesis
• “The Finns don’t even know what prosciutto is. I cannot accept this.” - Silvio Berlusconi
• “For every complex problem, there is a solution that is clear, simple, and wrong.” - H. L. Mencken
• “Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” - Winston Churchill
• “Write a paper promising salvation, make it a ‘structured’ something or a ‘virtual’ something, or ‘abstract’, ‘distributed’ or ‘higher-order’ or ‘applicative’ and you can almost be certain of having started a new cult.” - Edsger W. Dijkstra
• “Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it.” - Donald Knuth
• “Talk is cheap. Show me the code.” - Linus Torvalds
• “Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down.” -  Rick Astley
• “Guys, I have a new spell.” - Anonymous

I think Steve Jobs has affected our lives a lot and not just as a result of the success of his companies. For those that followed him more closely he was an inspiration for his determination and style. 

A few days before I was born, in 1984, Steve changed the world with the launch the first Mac, the first real personal computer.

Two cool boys, early nineties I guess.

Some of his patents.

Presenting the iPhone

And this is after his last keynote, with his wife. Looking back, I’m sure he knew he didn’t have much to live.

Today in Covent Garden

Sorry but this post is in Italian, about one of my favourite topics, Italian politics. Not because I’m a particularly socially and politically active citizen, but because it’s hilarious. 

Quando non ho nulla da fare mi capita di seguire eventi politici, così il 23 Dicembre 2010 mi collegai online alla diretta della conferenza stampa di fine anno del governo. Oggi ho trovato questo video in cui Luca Telese, giornalista de Il Fatto Quotidiano, racconta di uno dei momenti più belli della conferenza (sicuramente meglio di quanto potrei fare io)

http://youtu.be/Tm4nfGBAOgQ?t=10m40s

La cosa strana è che a parte qualche spezzone di bassa qualità su specifiche domande, non si trova su Youtube il video integrale della conferenza, che secondo me sarebbe da mostrare ad ogni cittadino italiano per capire in che stato sia la nostra rappresentanza politica.

Consiglio di guardarlo anche perché è istruttivo, un esempio eccellente di come non rispondere a domande o fare presentazioni: risposte vaghe, auto-elogi, nessuna fonte per ciò che viene detto viene menzionata, alcune domande (come a scuola, quelle su cui si è preparati) hanno risposte lunghissime e tolgono spazio ad altre, troppe valutazioni soggettive, fatti irrilevanti e ripetizioni.

Dopo un po’ di ricerche sono riuscito a trovarlo qui:

http://www.radioradicale.it/scheda/317978/tradizionale-conferenza-stampa-di-fine-anno-del-presidente-del-consiglio-silvio-berlusconi

Le parti salienti sono a 02:08:00 (la domanda di Telese) e a 49:50 (la domanda sulla politica estera - da notare che all’inizio della conferenza parla già di politica estera dicendo le stesse cose e chiede che qualcuno gli faccia una domanda a riguardo).

I just finished watching an extremely interesting documentary about the mission that led to the death of Osama Bin Laden:

(trailer)

http://vimeo.com/28420405

(full documentary)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DH7QESRZbc

Highlights:

• the Americans had a pilotless drone taking videos of everything happening around the compound for months,
• built new helicopters based on the requirements of the mission, 
• replicated Bin Laden’s compound in Nevada, 
• sent a dog equipped with helmet and armour, 
• attacked on a night without moonlight,
• completed the mission in only 40 minutes.

Also, at the White House, they ordered pizzas from different places on the night of the raid not to raise suspects about the mission and to keep it secret.

Well done Obama and Americans, that was impressive.  

I just want the world to know. The editor of one of the main Italian newspapers wrote that after all it’s their fault if those people died in Norway because they didn’t fight back with their bare hands. (first page, second page)

A quick translation:

“…since the slaughter lasted 30 minutes, we wonder why the killer wasn’t faced at a all by the party of people bound to death. Let’s reason about it. Five, six, seven, ten, fifteen people, all of them disarmed, they wouldn’t be able to defeat the enemy, even if he is alone, if he holds a weapon. But if 50, - and there were ten times as much on the island -, threw themselves at him, some of them will be killed, but only some. And those that are still alive can finish him with their bare hands. …”

Currently my favourite music videos: