Day 67 -Ciao Ciao Microsoft?

I was reading some stats about my blog. I found extremely interesting this charts on the side.

Some points that really got my attention:

1. Internet explorer is the 3rd browser with a 16% usage ONLY! 16%??? Yeah. I was expecting a >50%.
Ok many of my friends might be geeks, so they left explorer a while ago, but a lot of readers are not geeks at all, so a 16% is extremely low!

2. Chrome wins over Firefox. Wow. Considering that Chrome was launched much later than Firefox, that's a really good result!

3. Operating system. Here windows wins, but that was expected. THough, a 61% is quite low again. This is followed by a 22% of mac and of a sum of other systems, especially from mobile (Adroid wins!!!), iphone, blackberry and so on.

I know that my blog might not be inline with the normal trends, but I was really amazed by this stats. Something is really changing out there and some big companies should really be aware of the shift....

I'm really looking forward to see what's gonna go on in the coming years :)

Do you think the data are completely out of reality?
Do you think that Microsoft has to really worry here?

Share your thoughts!

Day 66 - Being Geek and The "Girls Geek Dinner"

I never defined myself as a geek, but I actually have to admit I am a geek :)
Well, I guess it's important to define what is a geek. See the Wikipedia definitions. As you can see, there are many. The one I see myself in is the following:

"A person who is interested in technology, especially computing and new media".

Yeah, that's me :). And as a good geek, I'm in twitter, facebook and a lot of social media. Yesterday, while I was reading some tweets I discovered the Girls Geek Dinners.

I was curious and read a bit about this in the net and found it really interesting.

So, what is it? It is a dinner for girls who like to listen and to discuss about technology and to network. That's basically it, as simple as it seems.

It did start in the UK in 2005 from Sarah Blow and rapidly spread all over the world. Many cities have local dinners with tech lovers, that are sometimes sponsored.

I just saw there's one in Milan the 1st of July, I might actually try it out!

For more info (global):

http://girlgeekdinners.com/

https://twitter.com/#!/ggdworldwide

You can easily find your local GGD in twitter, Facebook and Google.

Have you ever been to a dinner? What's your opinion on it?

Day 65 - YouTube Next Up, an opportunity not to be missed!

My YouTube past always comes back. Good experiences keep a special place in the back of my mind :).

So, I'm sharing with all my readers this great initiative by YouTube: YouTube Next Up (for Europe)

Growing YouTube Partners can take part to this contest in which creativity will make the difference. By shooting a video with their ideas of content to be created, they can win 20K and take part at the creator camp. This would be a great opportunity to learn, to meet other YouTubers and share ideas. Yeah, share ideas, because YouTube is mainly about cooperation and ideas sharing.

Time is running, the deadline is the 28th of June, hurry up (and read carefully the rules and FAQ). More info are at the YouTube Next Up Channel

See the winner of the US YouTube Next Up: http://www.youtube.com/creators

This is the YouTube Next Up videocall for applicants:

Good luck!

Day 64 - Digital Divide & Ideas

Today I woke up thinking about digital divite. Don't ask me why. I really don't know, but you can't stop ideas, can you?

I remembered a conversation with a few people about the topic and decided I'll do a few posts about it, trying to add some ideas, if any :).

So, Just to get started with the definition from wikipedia:

"The digital divide refers to the gap between individuals, households, businesses and geographic areas at different socio-economic levels with regard both to their opportunities to access information and communications technologies (ICTs) and to their use of the Internet for a wide variety of activities.^[1] It includes the imbalance both in physical access to technology and the resources and skills needed to effectively participate as a digital citizen. Knowledge divide reflects the access of various social groupings to information and knowledge, typically gender, income, race, and by location.^[2] The term global digital divide refers to differences in access between countries in regards to the internet and its means of information flow."

From this starting point, I'll add some empiric evidence from my own experience, and will try to learn a lesson :)

Have you ever felt the digital divide on its negative side?

Follow the coming posts!

Day 63 - F&H (Food&Happiness) Octopus Salad Recipe

This is an easy, lovely, tasty, healthy recipe from Italy: Octopus Salad.

This is a typical summer dish that you might enjoy as it is shown here or together with boiled potatoes as well.

Enjoy it.

Day 62 - O rap 'i Tano

If you've seen Tano da Morire from Roberta Torre you might have this music stuck in your mind as well. The movie review will come soon :)

O Rap i Tano.....

Day 61 - Videos For Real Men: EpicMealTime

I love cooking and I love good ideas.

Well, the guys of EpicMealTime have both.

They are real guys cooking fatty food for real men. This is genius. Most of the guys who like fat food would not admit it or watch healthy recipes on the web.

This channel is putting together the fat food that everybody likes (but that sometimes we would not admit ;) with real guys "chefs" with the kinda communication the real guys would use (when among them, no fiancees around ;). Genius.

Enjoy a video from them. You might wanna do it in the weekend heheheh

Happy cooking!

Day 60 - Second Month Gone: Ideas Ideas Ideas...

2 months have gone by.

Wow. It seems another era already. Now I can say I started relaxing and thinking. Oh yeah. Thinking.

Ideas keep coming and I can't stop them at all. I keep talking with many people, just wondering about things, reading on the net, books, twitter, whatever I come across. The effect of it?

I need to keep my mind calm, otherwise, if I do all I'm thinking about, I'll need 135181765 lives ;).

So, the main learning of the second month of my gap year is: keep talking and listening to the people. Don't expect anything. Keep the flow. Share positive energy.
The result? You'll be surprised of how many things will come to your mind.

Looking forward to the learning of the 3rd month of gap year...

and you?

Day 59 - Working on my next Movie Days ;)

I just got a new delivery from amazon.it and here are my new DVDs.

Let's list them (in English :)

12 Angry Men - by Sydney Lumet

Tano da Morire - by Roberta Torre (I already watched it, but it's so nice I wanna watch it again!)

The Fugitive Kind - by Sydney Lumet with Marlon Brando and Anna Magnani

Saturday Night Fever - by John Badham. I've never watched it, can you believe it?

The Godfather trilogy - by Francis Ford Coppola with Marlon Brando, Al Pacino an Robert Duvall. I watched the first one only... I need to watch it! :)

Fitzcarraldo: by Werner Herzog. I've never seen his movies and apparently it is a must!

Where eagles dare: with Clint Eastwood

The Young Lions: with Marlon Brando

The outlaw Josey Wales: by and with Clint Eastwood

Day 58 - MD (MovieDay): Habemus Papam "We Have Pope"

I know, I said I was not going to talk about recent movies in this column. But I feel like talking about "Habemus Papam" directed by Nanni Moretti (English title "We have Pope")

Here are my thoughts on the movie:

The Man that become Pope: The main character is absolutely wonderful. It shows the fragility of man, of all of us and especially on the Pope. His humanity was brilliant.

Michael Piccoli: he totally deserved the Cannes Award for best actor. He was amazing. He's worthy the movie.

Nanni Moretti: I actually like Nanni Moretti, but sometimes I wonder how big is his ego and if he plays the role of the egocentric or really is. I didn't like his character in the movie, I think it was too much. I didn't like the scene in which they were playing volleyball, it wasn't that necessary, was it?

Todo Cambia by Mercedes Sosa: wonderful, just a great addition to the movie.

Have you watched it? What did you like/dislike?

Here comes the trailer:

Day 57 - FH (Food&Happiness) Fried Stuffed Zucchini Flowers

If you see my post of yesterday, you noticed the row Zucchini Flowers. Well, I had to cook them, obviously, and I want to share with you this easy and lovely recipe. This recipe is so tasty that every year I wait the summer just for having this delicious food!!!

Ingredients

Fresh Zucchini flowers

Fontina cheese (or any other tasty and melting cheese)

sparkling water

white flour

corn flour

salt

oil

- cut away the pistil of the flower

- wash the flowers with water (be gentle!)

- cut some small slices of fontina cheese and fill the flowers with some of it (not too stuffed, just to add some taste)

- prepare a bowl with a cup of sparkling water and half cup of white flour and another half of corn flour. Mix it well

- dip the stuffed flower in the liquid you just prepared, make sure they are all covered by this everywhere in the outside, no need in the inside

- put the flower to fry in hot oil for a few minutes (make sure the oil is really hot!). Make sure you turn it once, to fry it on both sides. Wait a few minutes until they become stiff and crunchy

- put them on a dish covered by some paper to absorb the excess of oil

- put some salt

ENJOY!

Day 56 - Would You Eat Flowers?

Would you eat this?

Do you know what it is?

Day 55 - Apple next big thing?

After many years as a PC user I moved to mac around 1 year ago. I actually like mac, though I'm not a Mac fanatic. I try to be objective and see the good and the bad in the market.

Yesterday I watched the keynote from the WWDC 10 event. First thing, I was happy to see Steve Job's back. That's already a good thing! But, talking about the big things they presented, I was having many open questions, I would have asked. Here I'm listing them :)

1. why are they lowering prices? Apple always had a high prices policy because their products where excellent and different. Now, giving mobileme for free when people where buying it for 99$...or Lion for 29$. Well, good for me and other customers, but from a strategic point of view, I'd like to understand the reason

2. iCloud: calendar, documents and so on. Isn't it really similar to iGoogle (Calendar, docs and spreadsheet)?

3. Mobile system operator usage: ios 44%, far more than android. Right, but with historical data. I'd like to see the updated data about 2010 or the first quarter of 2011. The game is much more open...

Besides these doubts I had I was thinking: ok, cool presentation, some good stuffs, but...where's the Apple next big thing?

What did you think?

Well, if you like to see the whole presentation, find here the link:

http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/11piubpwiqubf06/event/

Day 54 - No electricity no life?

Yesterday I woke up and there was no electricity. Suddenly I realized how many things I couldn't do without it. I had to rethink the whole morning. After 1h I actually realized it's good from time to time not to have something we're so used to. We just rediscover our time, how to rethink what we're doing and how we're doing it.

Well...today there's electricity, and I felt good as well hehe :)

Day 53 - FH (Food&Happiness) Bretzel Time!

Yesterday I had a lovely fresh bretzel. I obviously looked up for the recipe as soon as I was outside the bar :)
It actually seem really really simple and tasty! And it's also great for a picnic outside with friends and family!
I'll be trying ro cook them really soon, in the meanwhile let me know if you tried as well or if you have any other recipe for it!

Credits for the recipe goes to HungryNation, a really cool YouTube channel!

Day 52 - Crativity Keeps You Alive

If you think that everything was already invented, thought, created and so on, you are damn wrong!
If it would have been that way, it would mean that life is boring. But if it's boring it's our own fault because we're not using our creativity and innovation skills. We all are innovative and creative, but some of us recognize it, some other just forget about it. There are thousands of examples, but this came to my mind when I saw this video. This is really creative and I really liked it!
What do you think?

Day 51 - TT (TravelTips) Valsesia: Ski, Water Sports and great wines

You might not have heard of Valsesia before. But if you love skiing you might have heard of Monterosa (literally Pink Mountain). Well the Valsesia might be a great discovery for you, in both winter or summer.

It's a valley not too far from the Malpensa Airport (Milan Airport), more or less 1h and you could find something to do in every season. In winter you might enjoy Skiing in Alagna. In the summer you can go to do water sports (Canoying, rafting, kayak, hydrospeed).

There also a lovely town called Varallo Sesia where there's the Sacro Monte, 45 Chapels on the top of a mountain, with a lovely walk in between them. So nice that is now a World Heritage by Unesco. Varallo Sesia itself is also really nice for a walk.

Then you can go to Gattinara and by lovely wine: Gattinara (yeah, same name of the city :). My favourite one is produced by Travaglini.

Well...enjoy!

Day 50 - Twitter & Me

One year ago I opened a Twitter Account and tried it out. I read on a newspaper that 20% of the users who open an account actually use it, I was wondering if I was in the 20% or in the 80%.

Obviously I was in the 80% :). I didn't get how to use it, I initially understood it was kinda Facebook, but later I got that has nothing to do with it :).

After a year, now that I've lovely free time in my Gap Year, I decided I wanted to understand how it works properly. I actually got amazed. It's not easy to get at first, but it's really interesting as a source of timely information and to get the trends. It's a pity that it's not used so much in all the countries (i.e. Italy...)

Anyway, I did some research and there are also cool news about it I wanna share.

The first one is about what you shouldn't tweet, otherwise you get fired :). It's from the Huffington Post and the title of the article is Fired over tweet: 13 tweets that got people canned. Please read it, you see how people might use it thinking they are in their own sitting room with a few friends, but you're in the internet....Lol

The second one is wondering if Twitter is a waste of time. This one is from problogger.net. This second article is about who uses twitter, how it is used and how to use it properly. Really interesting!
Well....I'd be happy to know if you use Twitter and what you think about it !

Day 49 - Where You Come From Is Where You Go?

Here I come with another open question. Is where you come from (not literally but culturally) strongly impacting where you go?

Does this mean that your future is kinda written and depends on what you were before, and your family and your first environment?
When I was at high school I was reading a book that was kinda talking about it "I malavoglia" (Verga) and I hated it. It felt to me that my life was written and basically I couldn't change it.

Then I grew up, changed my life many times and it has nothing to do with what was written.

But still, I'm asking myself if this is true or not.

What do you think?