< geekmode >

i just got and installed a new soundcard : Terratec EWX 24/96 the main idea was to be able to handle digital/optical audio in for some higher audio quality, the good thing was that i installed in a quite old pc crowded with various isa and pci cards (scsi,modem,network, another sounblaster awe64) and apparently installation went smooth, no IRQ or other conflicts, too bad that many other steps will be needed before i can fully exploit the digital input in my music chain : at least buying a MD deck with digital out and well before that just to make a complete solution : some new mics and maybe a MDLP portable MD recorder… phew boosting hi-tech expenses

< /geekmode >

as an italian i feel really ashamed and embarassed for what our prime minister, mr. berlusconi said last day in Berlin making a foolish declaration saying that western civilisation is superior to Islam because of our achievements in terms of wealth and human rights. Not only the affirmation of a “superior” civilisation is racist per se, whatever the position is; sure there are differences between cultures and people, but this is not the point, and then that specific remark is quite baseless. Let’s have a look back at the past century and we’ll see orrible things in our wonderful western world. It’s true that the economic achievements were great, well, so what ?
I won’t even try to comment on another part of his assertion when he draws a parallel between terrorism and anti-globalisation, this is just such a proof of ignorance that’s enough. What we’d really try to do is know better other cultures and civilisation : Islam and arabs are between us, in our cities or anyway or not so far, so trying to know better what are their ideas, they values is important and could just lead to better understanding and knowledge and maybe cooperation and peace.

already seen : comes autumn and with it also the season sickness, so i got this cold that is making me increase revenue of Kleenex, Scottex or other companies that make paper handkerchiefs, going this way i guess they’ll even offer me some stock option too 😉

Althought it was a rainy and grey day i won my lazyness and went to Milan for the EICMA, an international motorcycle exhibition, and it was interesting to see some new bikes and all that comes along with the exhibition (read nice girls). I didn’t spot many or radical new models, well i’m interested in the cruiser/custom bike segment so i don’t care much for sportsy stuff. To remember there were this new Bulldog by Yamaha that’s something with a modern style but with something that could make it a classic, such as the old VMax.
And there was also the brand new Harley, the V Rod, so i sit down on both to have a taste. Well the HD is a very long bike and i feel they’re not so easy to ride, at least when i first jumped on my own Suzuki Intruder 1400 with a custom advanced commands i didn’t feel much at ease, so i got’em removed and got back to to the original. At the Ducati booth there was also this big steel monster created with parts of bike, intriguing. Are you scared ? you should not, so to let you  with some nice and peaceful view have a look at this father and son on two minibikes.
When you say that some things are handed  down from generation to generation….

just watched “l’ultimo bacio” , an italian movie that had a good success in the last months. I found it very nice and with a good rendition of feelings and fears of the characters: some 30something facing the fear to really “grow old” with all the choices (family,marriage,work) that need to be made and the struggle for that feeling young again with all the consequences. I can’t say that i do relate closely but nevertheless, being in that age range, there’s food for thought

it’s been a very busy week, working at full speed, client visits, meetings, dozens and dozens of e-mails to read. At least i enjoyed one long lunch break in the center of Milan with the chance of wandering around and visiting some music shops where i did buy the latest from Bob Dylan : Love and Theft (that i’m really enjoying) and some bookstores too like Hoepli. It’s amazing their array of books and i like to look around for inspiration in between so many different books, there’s especially the section about art and design that offer many hints and althought i’m not directly into that i do believe that inspiration is something that may come across different environments.

back to school time now, what does this mean for a worker and commuter like me ? well that on the train i use to take at 7 AM or 8 AM in the morning it’s becoming harder to find seats available, it’s the same story , year after year, and it’s not exactly good to start a work day after 40 minutes standing in a crowded train (and that’s just a part of a typical 1.40 hrs daily commuting (one way only, not the round trip)

During the last few days so many times we stopped thinking about the recent tragedy in the USA, talking with friends, colleagues, reading on newspapers or watching tv. Also the various shows, competitions and public event are affected , some have been cancelled some delayed. In many countries last friday people stopped for 3 minutes to remember. Should we stop everything ? I guess it’s hard to say in this time, something like ok, life goes on etc. it sounds like a little superficial but it must go on. One aim of terrorism would be really to paralyze everything and replace with fear and terror. So it’s right in my opinion that soccer match are on today and as well as F1 grand prix in Monza, Italy. Surely with some sign that remember all of us what happened as in the Ferrari car, all without sponsors marks and with the black on as in the picture on the left i took  on the pit lane walkabout in Monza on Friday.
So with more modest aim is this site where i did paint the home page black as well as the top bar on all the pages (i wanted to make all pages black but i discovered that a partial usage of stylesheet on my site made it quite hard). So we remember, of course, but we go on, even in between uncertanties.

We all are Americans

that’s was the title on an article on Il Corriere della Sera, a major italian newspaper, and i share that view, we’re not there, maybe some of ours had friends or relatives there in the World Trade Center towers (we discovered we’ve 300 colleagues of us working there) but nevertheless we shared one of the worst day in history. I just felt damn sad and with that feeling from my stomach up to my throat of a disease and sorrow that’s surely faint compared to what people there may have experienced. Trying to imagine what people there in the offices felt imagined when a plane is crashing in, or even worse the people on the planes themselves, knowing they’re going to die and calling home. the people who were waiting for their relatives or wives or husbands or friends coming back and knowing they will not. it’s a thought that is so heavy and as i said even for us, here, safe (?) is a distubing thought something that make things different from before. I only hope this is not a beginning of something even worse that we don’t even want to imagine.

I’ve been there, i mean in the World Trade Center tower, and it was not much time ago, on december 2000 , it was so huge and impressive you’d not even take a photo of it from the base and when on top the view was magnificent. of course it’s a symbol of NYC and the US but even wider, but that’s not the point: a symbol is made of steel and glass and could be rebuilt, not the same thing for the lives of people who were there.