Yahoo!! I'm going to listen to some classical music tonight! I'm very excited about it!
Well, the event I'm going to is this one:
http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/music/productions/the-night-shift-38443
It seems actually a nice and easy-going environment, very cheap (£4, even my friend Zuppa would come!), and the pieces of music, although short, are very promising, being famous and definitely beautiful (and, I would add, easy to appreciate for a non-expert ear like mine).
There will be the Coriolan, overture of the Beethoven's op. 62:
Then two movements from the Mozart's piano concerto No.21 in C, K.467, which is among the most well-known ones:
and
Let's see!
Tuesday, 19 February 2008
Saturday, 16 February 2008
Cycling London!
Done. Bought a bike. Again.
Well, my initial idea was to buy a cheap used one, but in the last weeks I realised that last time I've been quite lucky. I still remember that day. At first, I went to a shop, where a crappy 2nd handed bike was £60. I was almost resigned, but I decided to try Brick Lane market, a place in which people try to sell their rubbish to other people, basically a real life (RL) ebay. I found a bike seller... the prices were better than the shop, even though still quite high for me. Suddenly, a guy showed up, claiming that one of the bikes on sale was its own, that he'd had stolen few days before. Understandably enough, I wasn't quite in the mood to buy from that guy anymore. Everything appeared to be lost, when, in a dark corner of the street, I saw a est-european seller with a bike of the 50s. Acceptable. He could barely speak English... £35! I have £30! OK, £30! Taken. My subconscious tried to let me think about the "dubious" origin of that bike, but I was new in London too, I wasn't supposed to know. So I bought an acceptable bike at a good price, last time (I had it stolen a couple of months after... fair enough).
Anyway, now I'm not new in London anymore, I can't say "oh, in Brick Lane people sell
stolen bikes? Oh boy, I didn't know, I swear!"... so my consciousness told me "go to a shop". And again, normal bikes for 250 quid and for "merely" £60 a little choice of crappy rusty skeletons. I was resigned, but, then.. "Don't shop for it! Argos it!" Good deal, £90 (+5 delivery, +2 to have it delivered on Saturday...). So, today, at 9.30, it comes! It's half unmounted, the quality of the nuts is crap, I can't unscrew most of them... not to mention the spanners... I was swearing a lot, while mounting, and a lot more afterwards! It's a crap!! Not professional at all, heavy, slow.. an abortion. After a while, I went for a second test-ride and I 
I reconsidered the matter: for a leasure ride from time to time it's OK, people won't steal it (not as a 250 one!), and if they take it I won't cry for a long time. The deal has been not good, but certainly fair. Ah, btw, in the second photo it's how it looks like in the RL (it's photogenic, it seems actually better than what it is...).
Anyway, today I couldn't ride it for a long time. Too cold. Let's see tomorrow.
Well, my initial idea was to buy a cheap used one, but in the last weeks I realised that last time I've been quite lucky. I still remember that day. At first, I went to a shop, where a crappy 2nd handed bike was £60. I was almost resigned, but I decided to try Brick Lane market, a place in which people try to sell their rubbish to other people, basically a real life (RL) ebay. I found a bike seller... the prices were better than the shop, even though still quite high for me. Suddenly, a guy showed up, claiming that one of the bikes on sale was its own, that he'd had stolen few days before. Understandably enough, I wasn't quite in the mood to buy from that guy anymore. Everything appeared to be lost, when, in a dark corner of the street, I saw a est-european seller with a bike of the 50s. Acceptable. He could barely speak English... £35! I have £30! OK, £30! Taken. My subconscious tried to let me think about the "dubious" origin of that bike, but I was new in London too, I wasn't supposed to know. So I bought an acceptable bike at a good price, last time (I had it stolen a couple of months after... fair enough).
Anyway, now I'm not new in London anymore, I can't say "oh, in Brick Lane people sell
stolen bikes? Oh boy, I didn't know, I swear!"... so my consciousness told me "go to a shop". And again, normal bikes for 250 quid and for "merely" £60 a little choice of crappy rusty skeletons. I was resigned, but, then.. "Don't shop for it! Argos it!" Good deal, £90 (+5 delivery, +2 to have it delivered on Saturday...). So, today, at 9.30, it comes! It's half unmounted, the quality of the nuts is crap, I can't unscrew most of them... not to mention the spanners... I was swearing a lot, while mounting, and a lot more afterwards! It's a crap!! Not professional at all, heavy, slow.. an abortion. After a while, I went for a second test-ride and I 
I reconsidered the matter: for a leasure ride from time to time it's OK, people won't steal it (not as a 250 one!), and if they take it I won't cry for a long time. The deal has been not good, but certainly fair. Ah, btw, in the second photo it's how it looks like in the RL (it's photogenic, it seems actually better than what it is...).Anyway, today I couldn't ride it for a long time. Too cold. Let's see tomorrow.
Tuesday, 15 January 2008
Wagamama cookbook! Banzai!
Yep. I've been curious about Japanese cuisine for a while, and finally I put my hands on the wagamama cookbook, that hopefully will give me the opportunity to try some ramen, yakisoba, okonomiyaki and all the other cool things that we use to see in Ranma 1/2 and other similar animes.
The first hurdle, though, will be to gather the ingredients. I don't know if Sainsbury's and Morrisons will provide me with the necessary stuff. I'll try to manage.
BTW, during the weekend I uploaded the pictures of my trip in Umbria with my family. I shall add a short captions to the photos to comment them.
Friday, 26 October 2007
Handling the ignorance
I'm astonished in observing, day after day, how the people is unable of handling their own ignorance. Note, I'm not disturbed by the ignorance itself - people are not walking versions of Wikipedia - but there are many different ways to deal with it, and the first one is admitting to be ignorant in respect to something. There is nothing wrong in that, and it often is a very wise and clever achievement. In my work the ignorance is everything: when there is no ignorance, the information engineer/computer scientist is hardly useful at all. A good engineer differs from a bad one in what he's able to identify the ignorance scope, and to selectively and promptly counter-act to reduce it. Once there is no more ignorance left, or the amount is completely under control and can be handled by somebody less skilled than you, our job has ended.
Some time ago, a consultant hired by the company in which I used to work introduced me and some others to the theory of the five orders of ignorance (P.G. Armour, The five orders of ignorance, CAMC, Oct 2000):
When we fall in the 0th, there is no problem. The 1th is easy to handle: go to wikipedia, borrow/buy a book, ask an expert. The 2th is tricky: but if you know that in the future it's likely that new ignorance will show up, you can try to plan something to make this new ignorance to show up as soon as possible. This action is not possible if you fall in the 3th, but if you're aware that you're in the 3th, you can still plan something to counteract the ignorance when it will show up. Socrates would have placed in a good position in this scale, being on the level 1 of ignorance. For many of us is normal to fall in the 2nd level of ignorance even in our area of expertise - I think it's not a good signal if you fall in the 3th in your work - it may mean that you are quite a beginner.
Unfortunately, many and many people, from all the professions, fall into the 4th: they don't know absolutely anything, and they are absolutely convinced of their knowledge, that it's not possible that some ignorance will show up later on in the processes, and that there is the possibility that they are not aware of something. I think that no professional working in any skilled job should fall in the 4th: what if a doctor is so convinced of a treatment not to be opened to the slightest doubt? There'd come the troubles... and often it is: people rely on professionals that are supposedly "experts" in their field.
Some time ago, a consultant hired by the company in which I used to work introduced me and some others to the theory of the five orders of ignorance (P.G. Armour, The five orders of ignorance, CAMC, Oct 2000):
- 0th: Lack of Ignorance (I know something and can demonstrably prove it)
- 1st: Lack of Knowledge (I don't know something, but I know that I don't know it)
- 2nd: Lack of Awareness (I don't know something, and I don't know that I don't know it)
- 3rd: Lack of process (I don't know something, I don't know that I don't know it, and I don't know how to find out that I don't know it)
- 4th: Meta Ignorance (I don't know that there are these levels of ignorance)
When we fall in the 0th, there is no problem. The 1th is easy to handle: go to wikipedia, borrow/buy a book, ask an expert. The 2th is tricky: but if you know that in the future it's likely that new ignorance will show up, you can try to plan something to make this new ignorance to show up as soon as possible. This action is not possible if you fall in the 3th, but if you're aware that you're in the 3th, you can still plan something to counteract the ignorance when it will show up. Socrates would have placed in a good position in this scale, being on the level 1 of ignorance. For many of us is normal to fall in the 2nd level of ignorance even in our area of expertise - I think it's not a good signal if you fall in the 3th in your work - it may mean that you are quite a beginner.
Unfortunately, many and many people, from all the professions, fall into the 4th: they don't know absolutely anything, and they are absolutely convinced of their knowledge, that it's not possible that some ignorance will show up later on in the processes, and that there is the possibility that they are not aware of something. I think that no professional working in any skilled job should fall in the 4th: what if a doctor is so convinced of a treatment not to be opened to the slightest doubt? There'd come the troubles... and often it is: people rely on professionals that are supposedly "experts" in their field.
Wednesday, 3 October 2007
Who's Jakie Chun?
It has been a long time since the last post. Now I don't really have time to write something complex (but 2+3i, haha), I'm about to go to sleep, so, I promise that my next post will be more juicy, but for now I invoke the afroninja martial arts power to protect me!
Monday, 24 September 2007
and for my fans joy...
a serious post!! It has to be short though, I don't want to push that too far.
http://videolectures.net/
This is a website with some interesting lectures, whose overall quality is definitely good, as I could see (I've seen just a couple of them, actually).
The main topic is computer science, so either you are interested in computer science, or it's unlikely that you will find anything worth seeing.
http://videolectures.net/
This is a website with some interesting lectures, whose overall quality is definitely good, as I could see (I've seen just a couple of them, actually).
The main topic is computer science, so either you are interested in computer science, or it's unlikely that you will find anything worth seeing.
Sunday, 23 September 2007
Dream psychology and table manners
The title of this post tells you all. Where "all" stands for "this post is rubbish". 
But now, I have to be coherent with the title of the post and write down the rubbish, otherwise I'll contradict myself. And I have to do that quickly, because then I have to go to argos (don't shop for it, argos it) to return my wonderful Braun 3710, that broke down. For the second time. In 8 months. Now, this is the cheapest razor ever, but it's also the one that shaves me better (which is just an incidental property that was highlighted only after the minimisation of the "cost" function, where cost is not to be intended in broad sense), and I would be veeery pissed if they wouldn't change it for me for free, because it's the one that shaves me the best. Nonetheless, I can't afford a new electric razor every four months.
Whatever. I've discovered that this blog provokes dreams in which people find hidden messages below toilet paper rolls, messages that discover how the image I sometimes give when I express my personal opinion tend to be much harsher than I expect. I felt sorry for that, but on the same time I was delighted to appear in somebody else's dream. Damned egotism!
And, what about table manners? My parents struggled to teach me some of these, and, for their satisfaction, I have to say they managed. I'm not too rigid, but I started thinking that a little bit of control when we eat can help to trace the line between us and the animals, and to show respect for the people you are eating with. That's why I bought a set of four napkins yesterday. Now, the bet is open: how long will we use them? (less-than-a-week is 10:1).
But now, I have to be coherent with the title of the post and write down the rubbish, otherwise I'll contradict myself. And I have to do that quickly, because then I have to go to argos (don't shop for it, argos it) to return my wonderful Braun 3710, that broke down. For the second time. In 8 months. Now, this is the cheapest razor ever, but it's also the one that shaves me better (which is just an incidental property that was highlighted only after the minimisation of the "cost" function, where cost is not to be intended in broad sense), and I would be veeery pissed if they wouldn't change it for me for free, because it's the one that shaves me the best. Nonetheless, I can't afford a new electric razor every four months.Whatever. I've discovered that this blog provokes dreams in which people find hidden messages below toilet paper rolls, messages that discover how the image I sometimes give when I express my personal opinion tend to be much harsher than I expect. I felt sorry for that, but on the same time I was delighted to appear in somebody else's dream. Damned egotism!
And, what about table manners? My parents struggled to teach me some of these, and, for their satisfaction, I have to say they managed. I'm not too rigid, but I started thinking that a little bit of control when we eat can help to trace the line between us and the animals, and to show respect for the people you are eating with. That's why I bought a set of four napkins yesterday. Now, the bet is open: how long will we use them? (less-than-a-week is 10:1).
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