February 2009
Thursday, 26. February 2009, 10:59:01
life
To understand better how things work in today's real world, here are interesting news:
The italian anti-trust authority has just given a fine of 12 million euros to almost all (26) the companies that produce and sell pasta in Italy, united in the UNIPI organization, because while controlling more than 90% of the market, they made a sort of agreement (then a trust) for rising the prices together and to keep the prices artificially high while blaming the rise of worldwide food prices. It seems that it worked with rises of 30% while the price of wheat was decreasing of about 50%.
Just few days ago other fines were given to the major TLC companies for more or less the same reasons and for unfair behaviors with customers, like changing contracts with worse ones, making difficult to change provider, charging for unrequested services and so on.
In my opinions this is almost useless since the fine is much lower than the income the corporations are making with those tactics (the 12 millions are spread over the 26 firms), so they aren't deterred. On the other side, it is good to know you are constantly being cheated.
Wednesday, 25. February 2009, 21:14:46
Opera, software, explorer, windows
Even the non-technical people here should have heard about the EU examining Microsoft behavior around the Internet browser market. In short, Microsoft is accused by several "competitors", including Opera, of being blocking "healthy competition" abusing of its dominant position, shipping Internet Explorer as component of the Windows operating system.
My opinion: since today any operating system MUST have a browser by default, among other tools, there is only ONE point where you can make a positive change, forbidding (with a regulation or a law) the hardware vendors to sell computers with an pre-installed operating system(s). This way the computer become "neutral" regarding the software market and the customer must chose and buy the software as a separate product or assembly of products. It seems obvious to me that the root of all the problems in the software business is the OEM Windows licensing.
Edit: to confirm my opinion, I've found this article:
http://i.gizmodo.com/5160169/ballmer-confirms-skinny-version-of-windows-7-for-netbooksIn short, MS in its usual "seek and destroy" procedure, is moving to occupy the only niche where vendors have been shipping some non-windows computers: the Netbooks.
Friday, 13. February 2009, 12:20:18
life
Yesterday I got a phone call and a woman said a company was hiring and if I was interested in having an interview. When I asked what positions they were offering she told me there were different positions and I could be informed at the interview. So I thought to go. In short it is a no-name firm (A.M. is the name) that is looking for salesmen to place a "new product" from another firm named Kirby (which should be a company selling vacuum cleaners but I can't find much information on the Web). I couldn't see the product but I was told it is a small device that among other 100 things it can scratch paint from walls and make massages (no kidding). If I was interested I should have attended a course including several sessions and then being payed 1000 euros a month plus bonuses depending on the results. But I am not interested.
Thursday, 12. February 2009, 17:31:26
life
Wednesday, 11. February 2009, 19:17:27
software
I grabbed the OEM version of Nero Suite from my brother. It came with the same CD/DVD drive I also stole from him before
. After installing Nero 6 (the current version should be Nero 9) I reminded of it like an example of "how to not make software". The most confused, bloated, absurd, useless "suite" ever. It looks like a crew of rabid monkeys put together any sort of software and tools vaguely related to CDs and packaged them with several completely inconsistent but partially overlapping interfaces. I wonder if it is only me and most "users" find this craziness comfortable and efficient or if people who make this thing spend their days under the effect of some psychedelic acid.
Wednesday, 11. February 2009, 15:50:34
life
Since I am not in the right mood I am not blogging much but I thought to write this update. I have done these things:
a. payed the year tax for the scooter (45 euro)
b. took the scooter to the place where they review vehicles for the 2 year test - passed (56 euro)
c. finally bought a new pair of glasses, these ones are about 15 years old. I do not like today's small rectangular frames but there aren't many other options. I've spent some money in a titanium frame and no-reflex lens. (250 euro).
Wednesday, 4. February 2009, 13:38:59
life
I don't like to go shopping. It gets ridiculous at times, like me going around with clothes that are 20 or more years old, till they are completely destroyed. But this morning I had a moment of sudden activity and so I went to a store nearby to buy a pair of trousers, given that the usual jeans have holes on the back. Since I was there I thought to take the most out of the event and buy more stuff so at the end I bought:
a. 1 winter jacket (black short parka)
b. 2 trousers (dark blue and brown)
c. 1 bathrobe (yellow)
d. 3 "pile" shirts (red, black, blue)
All this for 112 euro which is a good price in my opinion.
Edit: interesting information that explains something about today's world: despite the italian brand, the winter jacket and the bathrobe are made in China, the trousers are made in Indonesia, the "pile" shirts are made in Bangladesh.
Monday, 2. February 2009, 19:57:14
html, css
Another round of HTML and CSS.
One of the mayor annoyances when developing pages with the box model is the fact that each "box" flows in the page on its own, contrary the old table cells that were dimensioned by the table itself. For example you make a page with three columns, you can set the width but then you can't get the columns the same height.
I've found this interesting tutorial:
http://matthewjamestaylor.com/blog/equal-height-columns-cross-browser-css-no-hacksSince I was reading it, I've made my own version that is slightly different. I've added a wrapper to set the page width and center it and I've used a nested div to pass the padding to the content in a more convenient way.
My example here:
http://files.myopera.com/LorenzoCelsi/files/demo/test-colonne-uguali.html
Monday, 2. February 2009, 10:17:44
life
View from my back window - still snowing.
This happens when cold winds from east Europe meet the humid air coming from the south.
Sunday, 1. February 2009, 17:57:22
Martina
WIDGETIZE