( ? , qUeStIoNMaRk )

I’ve been toying around the idea of using a more agile publishing platform; i.e. a (digital) place without all the bells and whistles and the “sense of ceremony” of this blog thing. Well, the sense of ceremony is supposed to belong to a distant universe very far from the blogosphere but, you know, that draft-feature in WordPress has a terrible effects on my procrastinating-self.

So I started an alternative brain dump somewhere else, the place is http://mrfabbri.posterous.com.

As consolidated tradition Happy Π Day.

By the way, it looks like for the non-americans 22th July (22/7 = 3.1428571428571428) would be a more appropriate date to celebrate, as we don’t turn around day and month in formatting dates (e.g. 3/14/2009).

One of my first sources of music (and inspiration for new artists) on the internet has been Radio Paradise. During the years Radio Paradise kept on impressing me with an outstanding soundtrack for studying/working/training hours, and the magic keeps on rolling every day.

Just for your information this has been the playlist so far this morning:

• The Cure - The Love Cats
  
• Quetzal - Planta De Los Pies
  
• Dave Brubeck Quartet - Take Five
  
• Talking Heads - Burning Down The House
  
• U2 - Magnificent
  
• The Caesars - Jerk It Out
  
• Ray Barretto - A Deeper Shade of Soul
  
• My Morning Jacket - Touch Me
  
• Led Zeppelin - Immigrant Song
  
• Madness - One Step Beyond
  
• Gogol Bordello - Tribal Connection
  
• Paco De Lucia - A Pesar De Todo
  
• Charlie Musselwhite - Que Te Parece, Cholita
  
• Rolling Stones - Miss You
  
• John Butler Trio - Zebra

You have just to love it. Thanks Radio Paradise, for keeping on rocking (any given day)!

Did I mention it is commercial free and it’s fully listener supported? If you like it be sure to support Radio Paradise.

I’m a habitual listener of Jamie “jwz” Zawinski’s DNA Lounge podcast, actually it provides a soundtrack for my running (and coding) sessions, in recent news I discovered that:

The California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control is trying to put DNA Lounge permanently out of business. They are accusing us of “running a disorderly house injurious to the public welfare and morals”, and are trying to permanently revoke our liquor license.

So this morning I did a small donation, good deed of the day FTW. (plus if I will ever go to San Francisco I’d like to visit one of the best underground clubs on earth)

Support DNA Lounge: Legal Defense Fund.

Improving on last year’s version…

…and for the coding-inclined here comes the source

#!/bin/bash

#lights_off
#
#          *==<
#           /\
#          /  \
#         / @  \
#        /      \
#       / @    @ \
#           ||
#
#       NERDY CHRISTMAS
#       AND
#       GEEKY NEW YEAR!
#

#lights_on
#
#          *==<
#           /\
#          / *\
#         / @  \
#        / *  * \
#       / @  * @ \
#           ||
#
#       NERDY CHRISTMAS
#       AND
#       GEEKY NEW YEAR!
#

	
frows=14;
stime=1;
which tput >/dev/null || alias tput=“clear”;
	
display(){
    tput cup 0 0;
    grep -A$frows \#”$1″ “$0″ | tail -n$frows | sed ’s/#/\ /’;
}
	
animation(){
     display lights_off && sleep $stime;
     display lights_on && sleep $stime
}
	
clear;
yes | while read i;
do animation;
done;

In other news…

Microsoft releases its first iPhone app: “the application allows users to browse high-resolution images, according to information provided by Microsoft. The application is optimized for use over 3G and Wi-Fi networks“. (Which in other words means it is not optimized for any low bandwidth connection)

I am holding an iPhone in my hands.

UPDATE: I also mistook the past tense of freeze, which by no means is freezed, brrr…

Money isn’t always the best motivator, if you leave a fifty dollars check after a dinner with friends you don’t increase the probability to be invited back, and if dinner isn’t entirely obvious, think of sex.

from Yochai Benkler’s TED Talk on “the new open-source economics“.

Thanks to Francesco for pointing to the video in an interesting reflection upon enabling and leveraging “unconscious” collaboration.

Notwithstanding Google Reader subscriptions getting fatter and fatter and Facebook Live Feed reaching flood level, I had to try, I couldn’t help myself but to begin twittering.

If you can read this, thank your sysadmin

Today is System Administrator Appreciation Day. From (the wikipedia entry on sysadmin Dasy) :

System Administrator Appreciation Day, also known as Sysadmin Day, SysAdminDay or SAAD, was created by Ted Kekatos, a system administrator in Chicago. Kekatos was inspired to create the special day by a Hewlett-Packard magazine advertisement in which a system administrator is presented with flowers and fruit-baskets by grateful co-workers as thanks for installing new printers.[1] The holiday exists to show appreciation for the work of sysadmins and other IT workers. It is celebrated on the last Friday in July. The first System Administrator Appreciation Day was celebrated on July 28, 2000.

As a side note I may suggest you take a while to read this beautiful and involving novel by Cory Doctorow “When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth”.

Happy Sysadmin Day!