( ? , qUeStIoNMaRk )

These seems to be great news for the music distrubution market:
“Amazon mp3 BETA - Play Anywhere, DRM-Free Downloads”

(via All Things Distributed: Amazon MP3 by Amazon CTO Werner Vogels)

The store is well integrated in the Amazon look and feel and very easy to use, search, get recommandations, pre-listen(, buy, and download). As icing on the cake, album purchases are “really” album purchases and you get a substantial discount by buying the album as a whole; for example you spend 9.49 $ and save 13.28 $ on the purchase of Beautiful Maladies: The Island Years.
Sound quality is good (256 Kbps avarage bitrate) and no DRM make it a really appealing service.

The (not so) bad news are: the album purchase requires the installation of the “Amazon MP3 Downloader” only available on Windows and Mac, not that bad because a Linux client is in development.

The REALLY bad news are: I wasn’t able to fulfill my purchase because Territorial Restrictions make the purchase available available only customers located in the United States (DOH! - no forseeable bug fixes).

5. Territorial Restrictions

As required by our Digital Content providers, Digital Content will, unless otherwise designated, be available only to customers located in the United States.

Bottom line: I can buy a physical book and have it delivered across the ocean, but I am not able to have digital content delivered through the Internet. Really Really Disappointed.

What did any (in)sane and proven geek have been thinking when he first saw Wii(mote) in action? Try to guess, it shouldn’t be that difficult…

So good news for all the geeks out there: The Wiimote As Yoda Intended - A Lightsaber.

[…] “LucasArts announced today that Krome Studios is developing a version of the game for the Nintendo console, and players will finally get to use the Wiimote for its intended purpose — as a lightsaber. ‘The sword-swinging action will be exclusive to the Wii version, and even then, it will only be available in an exclusive “duel mode.” The description in the release says that this duel mode will be a multiplayer affair.’”

As I was chatting about this with a friends of mine (feeling the hurge to text the sound of a lightsaber in action) I came to wonder on a deep and compelling question: what are the best onamatopeias for a lightsaber?

I thought something like: “twwwoooaaammm” but I’m not greatly satisfied. Clearly there are (part of) forum threads discussing this topic on slashdot: MacSaber Turns Your Macbook into a Lightsaber and on xkcd: Bihhhzzouwwwh.

Any suggestion is welcome, what are in your opinion the best onomatopoeias for a lighsaber (turning on/off, crashing against another lightsaber/a wall… et cetera)? (feel free to express yourself in comments)

On reddit there’s a an ongoing discussion thread on an option in Gimp new image template selection: “The GIMP - has this option ever been used? (pic)”

As you can see from the image the option is present in any standard Gimp installation:

Between the many suggestions, the most funny is: “It’s used to print stock option certificates.”

How would you use such an image template?

There have been lots of words (and bits) on the new products by Apple (new iPod nano/touch anyone?) lately, but the release of the first “fully interoperable and compatible” product has gone really quiet… the iDrink! (via Giavasan - iDrink)

The photo shows the iDrink working perfectly with a second class brand beer.

The air is quite fresh here at BocaBarranca…

People starting gathering…

POST-ITs…

ready for the “main-event” day of RomagnaCamp!

Italian versions of the infamous motivational posters…

Solo uno Stupido non verrebbe al RomagnaCamp!!

Adoro i BarCamp ben riusciti!

Here we are!

(actually the photo was taken EARLY in the beginning)

On September 7th, 8th, 9th I will be at RomagnaCamp (a wonderful initiative allowing many people to talk, discuss and exchange ideas, opinions face to face about internet, social networks, blogs, open source…). I am expecially interested in the talks on “Free Software WiFi Hotspot” by Luca Sartoni and “e-learning 2.0″ by Emanuela Zimbordi.

In futtilitatis impetu (In a worthless impetus) I produced two “motivational” posters:

I love it when a RomagnaCamp comes together!

I Pity the fool who does’nt come to RomagnaCamp!!

Original photos are by Luca Sartoni.

Everyone is free to improve upon my questionable work (GIMP needed): ateam_romagnacamp.xcf.