Just another day in paradise

Sometimes you escape from the daily life, and stop and watch around and nature is giving plenty of silent explanations.

There is still hope in Italy

A good friend from Princeland posted this beautiful story elsewhere, and I find it so moving that I asked for permission to reproduce it here. I thank her a lot for allowing me to post this. So here you have it, demonstrating that against all bad expectations, there is still hope in Italy:

This is something I'm very proud of and something that sort of gives me a good mood every time I think about it.

On Feb 13th there was a big demonstration in Rome together with sibling-demonstrations all over Italy and around the world (London, Paris, Berlin, Maputo, Tokyo, New York.... just to mention a few places....) called "If not now when?" (it's the title of a Primo Levi book). The main concept that people demonstrating wanted to make clear is that there is a part of Italy who doesn't accept a kind of macho-system that leads another part of the country dragging the figure of woman back to decades and decades in the past.... It obviously turned partly in a more openly against-B demonstration, yet the main idea was : to say "I don't like what it's becoming and I want to show it".

So, a side-initiave taken during the demonstration by some 300 people was a 'musical' one and I'll turn into a personal narration now. 

A couple of days before the demonstration my father (who is a musician) received a digital leaflet promoting a sort of musical flash-mob, the protmoter was one of his former students: the idea was to summon as many volunteer-musicians as possible (any kind of instrumentalist or singer or whatever...) to perform all together an almost off-the-cut "Dies Irae" by Mozart urging for B to quit. Everyone knew the message would not reach the main addressee, still - as I said - some 300 people gathered - each with his own score and/or istrument etc... - and, after a few rehearsals there on the spot, two performances took place under the eyes and ears of demonstrators who were in that part of Piazza del Popolo.

As I said, my father got the leaflet via email and he immediately was ready for it: he was very excited and willing to do it. So, we got there on time "to rehearse" and to say hi to a few people (btw, the conductor is also a former student of my father) and then everything started. 

I link here the video we edited from the shots I did during rehersal and performance:it is now posted on a blog on father's site.

I so much loved what happened that I wanted to share it with you (or those of you who might be interested). It has a few details on my father because the idea behind the video is "I was there, too!" 

http://www.giovannipiazza.it/cosanepenso/file_vari/Dies.Irae_HQ.mov

It's a little heavy because I'm linking you what we consider to be the HQ version of it. 

The Human Planet

Nothing else to add:

The day the movies died

Extremely interesting (further: essential read), although quite saddening to realize the miserable state of affairs that exists currently in Hollywood: Mark Harris, writing for GQ:

The day the movies died

Fortunately there are still excellent writers, directors and actors to make good cinema. But shockingly, most of them are doing their work not for big screen cinema, but for good tv series, as the many excellent ones manufactured by the HBO network (The Sopranos, The Wire, Mad Men, etc etc).

Rave reviews of Prince's show yesterday in Oakland

It seems the general public did appreciate a lot Prince's performance yesterday in Oakland. Here you have a couple of links with the first reviews I found, followed by some quotes:


KTVU

Concert promoter Live Nation told KTVU the tickets for this week's concerts only went on sale last Friday because even the promoter didn't know Prince was coming to Oakland until last week. 

"His shows are really incredible, which is a testament to why he can sell out two arenas on a week's notice," said Live Nation President Rick Mueller.

Today's Player

But everyone did leave trying to figure out how to get tickets and get their butts back to the Oracle Arena later on this week. One Prince show just isn't enough. Which means, of course, that it's everything an arena concert should be.

Mercury News

What carried this show through spots of odd pacing, weak song selection and other foolishness was Prince’s gigantic stage presence. This guy has charisma to spare, whether he’s just dancing under the spotlight or throwing down some mean licks on his electric guitar, and everything about him screams star.

Celebrating the 30th anniversary of 23-F infamy

On February 23th, 1981, a group of civil guardians entered the Spanish Congress in order to attempt a punch, to force the nascent Spanish democracy to avoid some changes that they considered "dangerous".
So next Wednesday we will celebrate the 30th anniversary of this infamy, which for different reasons has been almost a personal obsession of mine, leading me to read pretty much any published book about it.

This is not a place for detailed analysis, but suffice to say that the actual events were way more complicated than the official version made us believe; as in so many other big political occasions, may I say.

Here I am posting the video of this infamy, such as it was broadcasted in the public television station, TVE:

More than 200 deads in Libya to prevent revolution

More than 200 deads have been announced by media in Libya, and the more recent news state that the government is utilizing the army to attack the manifestations from the air.

And all we in Europe have to say, officially, is that they should reach an agreement to solve issues.

What a shame of foreign policy from the European Union.

Interview with Fuji representatives posted at DSLR Magazine

As in previous occasions, the Spanish website DSLR Magazine is posting very interesting information (often more in depth, and with more meat, than bigger sites in English). This time they published an interview with two representatives of Fuji, focused on their brand new, critically acclaimed Fuji X100, a digital model of fixed focal lens designed with three goals in mind: image quality, image quality and image quality.

As usual the interview is in Spanish, but well worth to digg in, even if you need a translator to get it.

5 new MacBook Pro models to be introduced tomorrow, with 5 other unknown products as well

Multiple hints suggest that Apple will introduce tomorrow 10 new products: a new range of five MacBook Pro computers (utilizing Intel's Sandy Bridge processors) and five other unknown products. Although I have no evidence whatsoever, I wonder if the mystery products might be updates of the MacBook Air range. The last information has been posted by Macbidouille.com, including specific prices for each new MacBook Pro:

• 13" MC700LL/A à 1199€

• 13" MC724LL/A à 1499€ 

• 15" MC721LL/A à 1799€

• 15" MC723LL/A à 2199€

• 17" MC725LL/A à 2499€

On a side topic, there are also many hints suggesting that the forthcoming iPad 2 is close to release as well. But what is more shocking, there are already plenty of rumours concerning the next version, the iPad 3, which seemingly won't be too different from the iPad 2... and yes, we don't even know for sure the final specs of the iPad!!

These are crazy days in the world of Apple rumours.

The sudden discovery of dictatorships in North Africa

I am watching during the last weeks an amazing spectacle in media:

After years and years of tranquility in a number of countries in North Africa: first Tunisia, then Egypt, more recently in Argelia, Morocco..., where there were supposedly respectable governments (some of them were even accepted in international politics organizations, like the International Socialist), we have seen a series of huge protests, possibly caused by the huge unemployment and the severe poverty affecting increasing parts of these countries.

And HOP, all of a sudden, we are surprised by media which discover that, in fact, and much to our surprise, the ancient leaders of these countries were, actually, dictators, who had been thieves, getting multimillionaires upon the money from their respective countries. And therefore the Western World suddenly supports the rebelion from masses, backing their very justified fight for freedom, democracy and equality.

Is it possible to imagine a bigger hypocrisy than our own one, we, happy citizens of the rich world, utilizing dictators in our own benefit, then proudly claiming that we back the people's requests?

I have seldom seen a more shameful spectacle in the politics of Europe & the USA.

DSLR Magazine: Interview with Pentax representatives, hints at mirrorless plans

DSLR Magazine published an interview, made at the CP+ fair in Japan, with a representative from Pentax, Mr. Iraku Kawauchi. It is in Spanish of course, and it contains a few interesting parts.
Besides some news regarding a forthcoming new lens for the Pentax 645D, of intermediate -but still uncertain: either 80 or 100 mm- focal length, that will complete a trio of lenses specific for this digital model, there is a paragraph devoted to the hypothetical plans of Pentax for a mirrorless camera. This is the answer:

 the mirrorless concept is very attracting to us, full of potential, but taking into account the philosophy of our brand, if we decide to make someting on that field, it has to be different, and it is not easy, in the current context, to make something that is different and good...

We are working on it.

I infer that they have certainly plans to enter that market; but according to some comments of Valentín Sama, posted in this article, it seems that Pentax is waiting to see what Nikon will introduce (apparently very soon) in the mirrorless arena. Then they will decide where to go.

New WebOS devices from HP: Veer, Pre 3 and TouchPad

The Palm brand seems to be disappeared, but in my opinion the HP guys are doing a very good job with WebOS. Today they announced two new phones, the Veer and the Pre 3, and a brand new tablet, the TouchPad; full coverage of the announcement, with plenty of pictures, here.

Maybe I'm wrong, but from what I've read, this seems to me the most serious, credible competitor platform in front of Apple and their iOS devices (iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad). Now we will see if the consumer buys these devices, once they are marketed by a strong firm as HP. Thus far, I think Android is too fragmented, while Windows 7 is still catching up (and quite unsure if they will take off definitely).

Motorola Xoom

Great ads. I have no idea whether this device will become a hit or a miss, but the company making the Xoom ads is doing a terrific job, addressing all the core topics.

Ultratiny mirrorless Pentax camera to be introduced in May with two lenses, new mount

I really don't know if this is a reliable rumour, as my guts say that this strategy does not fit with the classic Pentax philosophy; but anyway:

The Mirrorless Rumors guys announced that Pentax will introduce a new mirrorless camera with a new mount, using an ultratiny sensor, and two new lenses: 50 and 28-80 equivalents. They even provide the supposed specs of the lenses, besides the size of the new sensor. Apparently, the new camera can record video in H.264 format, and the sensor will have 14 Mpixels. Besides, it seems this camera will be smaller than the NEX Sony models, which were the record in small size for this kind of cameras thus far.

This is their summary of their information:

- One camera (Pentax NC-1?) and two lenses will be announced in May. 

- 8.5mm f/1.9 (almost 50mm equivalent) and a zoom 5-15mm f/2.8-4.5 (28-80mm equivalent)

- New mount

- 5.6x crop 14 Megapixel sensor (Sensor size around 1/2.33″)

- HD h.264 recording

- smaller than NEX body

- hot shoe

- Three more lenses to be announced later (very likely in September 2011)

We will see. On the one hand, such a small sensor provides a strong advantage in terms of size for the overall bulk of camera and lenses; on the other hand, it remains to be seen whether its very small size can provide pictures which deserve the name of Pentax.


Finally, the possibly relationship of this sensor to the one recently introduced by Kenco is another mystery.

Excellent interview of Ana Pastor with Zapatero

I have not seen this interview yet, but comments from people I trust suggest this is a truly excellent interview made by Spanish journalist Ana Pastor to our president, Zapatero, who is not exactly at his best times.

You can watch it in full here (in Spanish, of course).

Everything is a remix

I found today in Daring Fireball a link to a project, made by Kirby Ferguson, who has released two videos showcasing how important is the inspiration on past movies to make new movies. According to him, these are two videos from a total of four, which will be released in the coming months.

Remixing is a folk art but the techniques involved — collecting material, combining it, transforming it — are the same ones used at any level of creation. You could even say that everything is a remix.

Everything is a Remix from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.



Everything is a Remix Part 2 from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.


I must say I am really impressed, not only by the overwhelming information about references used in different movies, but also by the excellent technical quality of these videos.

Bluetooth issues in iOS 4.2

Recently I got a new car audio system enabled for Bluetooth connectivity (a Sony MEX BT-3800U, shown above), and after using an iPod Touch (2nd generation, running iOS 4.2.1) plugged to our previous car audio, I decided it was a good time to switch to Bluetooh stereo transmission from the iPod Touch. In theory the system was perfect, and we would get rid of wires.

The reality was less rose than expected. The pairing of the Sony car audio to the iPod Touch worked fine, and after a few seconds I was happily listening to my music. Furthermore, I had no problem whatsoever to make such pairing, unlike many other users have reported in the net.

However, I quickly noticed two main issues; I was able to solve one of them, but not the other.

The first issue was related to the audio stream: immediately after leaving the parking of the guy who installed the system, and while driving in the streets of my town, I realized the audio stream was stopped many times, or suffering skips and overall sounding rather bad. Yet, during the next days, I noticed also that the audio stream worked fine if you were driving out of the town.

After digging a bit, I learned that the Bluetooth transmission operates in the same wavelenght spectrum of the wifi networks, and this causes interferences in some cases. So I thought that, maybe, inactivating the wifi connection in the iPod Touch could help to avoid audio issues in town.

Bingo: since I inactivated wifi in the iPod Touch, the Bluetooth audio stream works flawlessly, no matter if you are driving within a city or far from it. The only bad aspect of this solution is that, once you come home and need to use wifi in the iPod Touch, you need to manually activate it again.

Now the second issue: The pairing of the car audio/iPod Touch does work, but when you switch off the system, it does not automatically pair again, as it should.

For instance, you switch on your car, then you manually connect the iPod Touch to your car audio, then start driving. All goes fine. Then, if you stop the car (say, to make a quick shopping) and switch it off, the car audio is unplugged too. Then, if you come back to the car and switch it on again, the audio from your iPhone does not automatically stream again: you need to go to the iPod Touch General menu, select Bluetooth, and then connect again to the car audio. And this happens over and over, after everytime you switch off the car audio.

In theory, the Bluetooth protocol means that the iPod Touch should automatically connect to the car audio, as soon as it is switched on. And in fact, looking at the iPod Touch Bluetooh screen, it seems it is trying to connect. But the fact is that it won't work until you manually press in the Bluetooth device selection menu and choose the car audio device.

This is quite inconvenient and I guess it is a bug in the Bluetooh implementation made in iOS 4.2, which is the software running in my iPod Touch. Furthermore, I've read in different websites that this will be the last iOS update supporting iPod Touch from the second generation (as mine), so it is unsure whether this bug will be ever solved for users of this device.

Hopefully the many user complaints about Bluetooth-related issues related to iOS 4.2 will prompt Apple to spend proper attention and solve these problems.