Phrase of the week

April 12, 2014 at 6:30 PMMichele Mottini

I was hoping for a happy ending

My wife, after finishing watching ‘Hamlet’

Posted in: Opinion

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The demise of the newspaper industry

April 5, 2014 at 11:26 AMMichele Mottini

I worked most of my carrier writing software for newspapers’ production. It is an industry that is quickly going to the dumps, at least in the ‘developed’ world.

I just found out that the Fredericksburg, VA ‘Free Lance-Star’ is in Chapter 11. It was the first US newspaper that used the software I worked on, and the very first US customer I visited back in 1997. A family-owned newspaper with a long history, it was a nice business and a good customer. They taught me stuff, and I was even invited at the house of the publisher/owner for lunch.

I understand the reasons why newspaper are gong away, but it is still pretty sad.

Posted in: Opinion

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Repeating the past

April 5, 2014 at 11:11 AMMichele Mottini

I am reading ‘The Sleepwalker: How Europe Went to War in 1914’. It is pretty good, and (ominously?) describe a situation that seems in many ways similar to the current one.

Some choice quotes – page 145:

British policymakers proceeded from the assumption that whereas British imperial interest were ‘vital’ and ‘essential’, German ones were a mere ‘luxury’

Page 163, describing the content of a British Foreign Office report:

But whereas British hegemony was welcomed an enjoyed by all and envied and feared by none….German hegemony would amount to a ‘political dictatorship’ that would be ‘the wreckage of the liberties of Europe’

..view the wars, protectorate, occupations and annexations of imperial Britain as the natural and desirable state of affairs, and the comparatively ineffectual maneuvers  of the Germans as gratuitous and outrageous breaches of the peace.

Page 165:

…during the years 1860-1913, the German share of the world industrial production increased fourfold…. In Britain, the words ‘Made in Germany’ came to carry strong connotation of threat…

Replace ‘Britain’ with ‘USA’ and ‘Germany’ with ‘China’ (or Russia in some cases) and it all sounds pretty familiar.

Posted in: Opinion

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Phrase of the week

April 5, 2014 at 10:51 AMMichele Mottini

Being in love is easy, being married is not

Ma Yili, wife of Chinese actor Wen Zhang,  quoted by The Economist

Posted in: Opinion

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History trumps democracy

March 29, 2014 at 3:14 PMMichele Mottini

Excellent Economist’s article about Northern Ireland, and its lessons for the wider world:

The main reason for the West’s failures to reshape societies in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere was all along apparent in this corner of the United Kingdom: history and culture, orphans of neoconservative policymaking, almost invariably trump its darlings, democracy and prosperity.

Posted in: Opinion

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Phrase of the week

March 29, 2014 at 11:04 AMMichele Mottini

. . . Dr Abdullah Abdullah . . . who got his second name only because newspaper sub-editors in the West could not contend with his lack of a surname.

The Economist in ‘Runners and riders’

Posted in: Opinion

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Slow Surface Pro 2 WiFi connection

March 16, 2014 at 3:10 PMMichele Mottini

Recently I switched from a Dell Latitude to a Surface 2 Pro. The Dell always reported excellent WiFi signal strength (all bars) whereas the Surface reported only good connection (2/3 bars). Testing the network speed I was getting 8+ Mbps download with the Dell and around 5 Mbps with the Surface.

I have a Linksys E2500 dual-band router. Apparently the Dell laptop uses the 5 GHz band, whereas the Surface uses the slower 2.4 GHz one. I solved the problem changing the router configuration so that it publishes two different network – one for each frequency, and then connected explicitly the Surface to the 5 GHz network.

In this way the download speed went up and it is now similar to the Dell laptop one.

I am still getting a reported poorer signal from the Surface than from the Dell, and I am not 100% sure that the network speed is actually the same.

Posted in: Programming

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Phrase of the week

March 9, 2014 at 11:00 AMMichele Mottini

It is a matter insufficiently appreciated that there are very few high-wire acts without a safety net

Brad DeLong in his blog

Posted in: Opinion

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Phrase of the week

February 23, 2014 at 5:05 PMMichele Mottini

In Brazil even the past is unpredictable

Pedro Malan, former Brazilian finance minister, quoted by The Economist in ‘The past is epilogue’

Posted in: Opinion

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Phrase of the week

February 16, 2014 at 5:00 PMMichele Mottini

We love our lawyers

Bob Dudley, BP CEO, quoted by The Economist in ‘A shrunken giant’

Posted in: Opinion

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