Does this blog need a title?

Blog moved

2005-12-09T14:02:00.000+01:00

I've moved the blog elsewhere, at http://blog.blogzero.org, since I got my own domain name and installed WordPress as blogging application.

Anyway, a big THANKS is due to Blogger for introducing me to the blogging side of the web.

Go! Team. Do not stop!

2005-12-04T14:02:00.000+01:00

If sometimes it's difficult to say which genre of music a band plays, with `The Go! Team' it's even harder. That's why the best answer I can give is ``get the album and listen yourself, you'll like it''. I love their `Thunder, Lighting, Strike' actually, but now I know that they cannot record on a CD what they can give you in a live performance. I saw them on friday 2nd, at Covo in Bologna.

When the six members of the band got onto the stage, their energy started spreading all over the place and I immediately felt it in my veins. As the guys were playing, dancing and singing so my body was moving, and my mind was dreaming... like it's doing right now, whilst `Everyone's a VIP to someone' is playing in my stereo.

I liked very much `The ice storm' and `Everyone's a VIP to someone'. But the very best IMHO was `Hold yr terror close', sung by Chi, the drummer, who also said a nice phrase in italian (which I don't remember actually, but it was something like ``I hope you're having a good time and you'll like this song''). She was so cute in front of the microphone all alone and her voice was so sweet.

`Ladyflash' was definitely the best way to end their show (``we came here to rock the microphone''.., they did actually). After that I took a picture with two of them and my friend Abba. Here we go! I'm looking forward to watch them again!

All Hell can't stop us now!

2005-11-29T22:36:00.000+01:00

This is what Zack de la Rocha of R.A.T.M. was singing in `Guerrilla Radio'. I just put the CD in my stereo, raising the volume as much as possible till I don't get kicked outside by my parents. I've been a Rage Against The Machine fan since 1996, when I listened for the first time in my life their S/T album (1992), and I realized that I had lost 4 years without that energy in my ears! Then I got `Evil Empire' (1996), `The battle of Los Angeles' (1999) and a couple of singles (`The ghost of Tom Joad' single+video 1997, `Guerrilla Radio' 1999). Hail to all of them!! I would have given ANYTHING to see them live... and finally I did!!

18 february 2000, The Battle Of Milan, this is what they called their show. The building was crowded with more than 10'000 people, the four guys from L.A. on the stage while the people were screaming and singing with them. I managed to get in the first line in front of the band and I could see Zack singing with the same powerful voice I heard in the CD, and Morello playing the guitar like only he can do!

So they were singing `All hell can't stop us now'. I don't know what, but something actually stopped them. 2000 was the last year for R.A.T.M., when Zack de la Rocha decided to leave the band for some `disagreements' with the rest of the band. They got Chris Cornell from Soundgarden and founded Audioslave. But this is another story... I don't know actually why I started writing all these bullshits... I just wanted to say `do NOT let you RATM CDs get dusty' ;)

Guilty parties:
Zack de la Rocha (vocals)
Tom Morello (guitars)
Brad Wilk (drums)
Tim Commerford (bass)

Links:
R.A.T.M. official web site
R.A.T.M. lyrics

The Optimus keyboard

2005-11-21T19:25:00.000+01:00

Whilst surfing the web today I ran across this pretty smart product: the Optimus keyboard. It's just a keyboard to plug into a computer... but with additional features. It is made with organic light-emitting diodes (OLED) on every key. This makes possible to actually draw any symbol on the keys, allowing to have different layouts with the same physical peripheral:

Are you a Quake player? You can set up the Quake layout too:

The keyboard is also equipped with additional keys which can be mapped to be shortcuts to produce any sequence (either write a string or execute a command in the system). The cool thing is that the keyboard will be OS-independent and open source, sold along with the SDK to program the interface. It should be launched in summer 2006 and cost ``less than a good mobile phone'' (as said by the producer).

Is MS Windows ready for the desktop?

2005-11-13T12:09:00.000+01:00

Read this article and try to guess the answer. So true!

It's quite long, but it's worth to be read :)

Skipass italian freestyle meeting

2005-11-02T22:44:00.000+01:00

For four days a year Modena is the center of the italian snow crew, since here takes place a fair called Skipass, with contests, exhibitions, shops and stuff about winter sports.. but not only! Lately this event has focused a lot on *freestyle* sports, such as snowboard, skateboard, inline skating, bmx, and motocross freestyle, with contests and amazing exhibitions on high ramps and artificial snow too!!

This year the meeting was from oct 29th to nov 1st, and I went there every day but the last. As representative of freestyler.it I had a press pass to get in and also to get closer into contest areas.

A few pics.. last two taken from www.skipass.it

SMAU 2k5

2005-10-23T21:50:00.000+02:00

If I had to pay to get in it wouldn't have been worth it. This is my comment about SMAU 2005, a ``hi-tech'' fair, well, at least this is what it pretends to be. Actually it's just an event where industries presents themselves to the people, introducing their products, no matter whether they're new or not.

As I explained in my previous post, I was invited there, so I didn't have to pay to get in and I could have gon to the convention celebrating 20 years of (pfui) Microsoft Italy, with Bill Gates as invited speaker. What did they say? Just a ridiculous self-celebration, rewarding their partners (bank institutes, communication companies...) with the ``Microsoft innovation award for Italy'', while Microsoft Italy guys were presenting their new products, like the new Xbox 360 (the graphics is really good, I don't have anything to say about this, since I don't own consoles), Windows Media Center, a system to use as universal multimedia player for the house and... here we go with the set piece: their *new* ``Virtual Earth''... hey, one second!! This sounds like something I already know... mmmmh, what is it?? Aaaah!! Yes, it's ``Google Earth''!! Yeah, but, what does this new software do?? Basically THE VERY SAME THINGS that Google Earth does!! So what's the innovation in this?? What's the new idea from Microsoft?? Have they ever invented anything?? Everybody knows the answer.

Finally the big wheel came and he started talking again about all these bullshits! Saying where we were, where we are and where we'll be, saying that when he began working with computers he had just 4kbytes RAM, very soon most PCs will have 4 gigs, so 1 million times more... bla bla bla. Just words to impress people, as you might have noticed this didn't impress me too much, and still I don't like him and his sw house. I would have paid to see an error blue screen during some presentation, that would have been great!!! Aware of what happened during windows 98 demo (this article on the CNN website reports it all and a video as well... ghghgh) I was ready to stand up and clap all those assholes, and my camera would have gotten burnt taking tons of pictures!!

Anyway, in the end I left a few Slackware promo flyers in the room! Nice girls at Microsoft stands though :)

Hey big man, how're you doing???

Waiting for the big man

2005-10-21T21:38:00.000+02:00

In a past I regret I used to use Microsoft technology (ASP pages and Access databases... bleah) for a web portal, and I joined a big italian ASP community, writing lots of posts on its forum, and helping people who had troubles with this technology. Since I was one of the most active people there, a Microsoft MVP entered me in his list of ``M$ friends''. Last week this guy sent me an invitation to a convention held in a tech fair, with Bill Gates as special guest . The convention is on sunday 23rd. I had an appointment already scheduled with my friends, so I asked another friend of mine if he wanted to go for me. He accepted. So yesterday I called the call center to book his seat.

Call center girl: ``Hello, this is Micro$oft reservation center, how can I help you?''
I: ``Good morning, my name's ****** *****, I got this invitation for the convention on sunday...''
C: ``Yeeeeeeeeessssss??''
I: ``... but unfortunately I have already another business to manage, so I thought I could send my colleague.. is it possible?''
C: ``Sure, of course, please give me his name, phone number and email address''
I: ``Yeah, he's ****** *******, his phone number and mail address are ********* and **********''
C: ``Ok, what society are you working for?''
I: ``Well... actually we're trying to start our own business.. but I got this invitation from ********** ******''
C: ``Ok, perfect, he will receive a mail for confirmation.''
I: ``Ok, thank you. Bye.''
C: ``Bye''

I would have liked to go, at least to listen to this *big man* talking about his bullshits and the future he's planning for us. So I decided to ask my friends to move our meeting to another day, so i could have gone to the convention. Then today I called the call center again.

Call center girl: ``Hello, this is Micro$oft reservation center, how can I help you?''
I: ``Good morning, I received an invitation for the convention on sunday...''
C: ``Yyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeessssssssss??''
I: (thinking) ``Gee, do they all answer the same way???''
I: ``Well, I called yesterday to say I could not go and asking if a colleague of mine could have gone because I had other businesses scheduled... but I managed to move them so I was wondering if I may still go to the convention with my colleague...''
C: ``Yes, sure, what's your name?''
I: ``I'm ****** *****, I got the invitation from ********** ******''
C: ``Yes, what society are you working for?''
I: ``Hum... I belong to the ********* community, at the moment I'm starting an activity with this friend of mine''
C: ``Ok, what's your colleague's name?''
I: ``He's ****** *******''
C: (looking at the list) ``Oh yeah, here he is. I'll send you a mail by today with the confirmation''
I: ``Good! Thank you very much!''
C: ``Thank you. Bye''
I: ``Bye''

Both I and my friend received the confirmation, so we'll be going to this convention to listen to this *big smart guy*. I'm really curious to hear him.

//TODO: print some GNU/Linux promo flyers to deliver at the convention :)

Ssssh.. the baby's sleeping!!

2005-10-16T14:40:00.000+02:00

``I introduce myself: I'm Mr. Evil Nine and I'll make you dance like you've never done before!''

This would have been a good introduction for Tom Beaufoy, one of the two men known under the name of Evil Nine, who played last night in Maffia, a club in Reggio Emilia.

The gig started at about 1.15, slowly and quietly, with just a few people on the dance floor. But as the sound raised so did the number of people dancing, while Tom was pushing the crowd to dance and put hands up. Amazing!!
In the beginning I was not sure he was THE guy, since I hadn't seen any pictures of them. But then he played ``Pearl shot'', and later on ``Crooked'' well mixed with good electronic music, switching also to songs by Chemical Brothers and ``Smack my bitch up'' by Prodigy, giving to all the people an incredible energy and a reason not to stop moving their hands and butts till almost 4am!
Maffia DJs went back to the console, playing for half an hour more. When I got home, at 6am, I was hungry and exhausted, but happy! That was definitely one of the best DJ sets I've ever been! I'd suggest to everybody to go watching those thick-eyebrow guys!!

Do not say that name!

2005-10-07T21:04:00.000+02:00

My desktop computer needs a new hard drive and some fixes. So yesterday I bought a 200 gigs PATA hd (since my mother board doesn't support SATAs) to use as storage device, while using the 80 GB hd already mounted on the machine to install the operating systems.

The Micro$oft win2k ``operating system'' that's currently installed has a few problems.. of course, a M$ system cannot last for more than a few months without slowing down or introducing some errors. I already know, I'm used to it. Why would I need windoz?? Oh, right, just because of some videogames and because my sister doesn't want to use Linux.

I'm ready to reinstall the system. Data saved on the 200GB hd, (50 gigs for 2 NTFS partitions and the rest in ext3), 80GB hard drive repartitioned (1 NTFS partition, 1 FAT32 and 6 ext3, ready for Gentoo). I'm going through win2k installation, and I'm getting really pissed off! Now the system is up, but it's empty, the graphics sucks and the mother board is not fully recognized. Ok, one step at a time:

install service pack 4

reboot required

install blaster patch

reboot required

install mother board drivers (nForce)

reboot required

reboot required... WHAT??? YET ANOTHER ONE???? Oh my God, this is just insane!!!

download and install Mozilla Firefox in order to have a REAL web browser

download and install ATI catalyst drivers, to have a decent resolution and rendering

reboot required... NO MORE WORDS

Please retain from saying ``Microsoft'' when talking to me...

Home sweet home

2005-10-07T02:53:00.000+02:00

Back home, my family and friends welcomed me very warmly, anxious to know what I did during these months, asking me if I'm happy to be back. I am, even though it's yet another big change in my life style. Now I live again with my parents, despite the fact I have a bigger and nicer house, I have to deal with them. I don't have the freedom I had before. I mean, I'm not in prison, of course not, but when I was living alone I had my times and my space. I could get home whenever I wanted, have dinner also at 11pm without having to let anybody know about it.

I didn't have to use the car, since everything was very close: I could get to the office in 3 minutes walk and be in city centre in 15. That was good! No deals with parking spaces, no deals with gas stations and no deals with police officers for a couple of beers more. Well, I've never had such a problem in Italy either.

I'm going out every night, to meet friends I didn't see for long time, to talk about everything, no matter what, just to stay together and have fun like it was before I left. Interrupted speechs resumed, good old laughs, what makes us friends! That's what we do.
Tonight I went out with three friends of mine, snowboard maniacs. I remember when I was like them a few years ago, now it seems like I lost interest in it.

``We'll get you the passion again!''

Is it just because I don't even remember the color of the snow? Yeah, it's been long time ago last time I went snowboarding, and probably I cannot enjoy it too much since I broke my left thumb two years ago. I was in Stubai, Austria, for a 3-days snowboard camp with the guys from the website I was working for (www.freestyler.it). Second day, in the morning I got a Nitro Shogun to test, quite a tough board, not too flexible. I wanted to try it. I went downhill, I was going probably too fast, I was taking a turn and hit a bump.I fell down. I don't know what happened, I just know I felt a sharp pain in my left hand. Removed the glove, and the hand was very swollen and was swelling more and more. I immediately put snow on it, wrapping it with my bandana.

Wow!! That was big!! My girlfriend thought it was broken, and we should have gone immediately to the emergency room. I'm always reluctant in going to doctors, but that time I acknowledged it was better going! Luckily, Abba gave me his car, so my girlfriend drove me to Innsbruck, to the ER. X-rays and then the doctor said

``It's a bad fracture!''

Oh shit!! What a nice way to screw up a snowboarding camp, I was waiting for it for ages!
They tried to set the thumb as best as possible, then put a cast on it. Once back in Modena I got an operation to fix it. After a couple of months it was ok... well, almost.

The next winter I went snowboarding again, but it was not like before: I was always afraid to fall down and to break it again. I still haven't overcome it, that's probably the reason why I'm not really looking forward for the winter. Well, actually some time ago I was watching POP, an Absinthe snowboard video, and I was basically drooling in front of my computer! I wanted to be there!! My passion is still there, I just need a trigger to reactivate it!!

The day the world went away

2005-10-04T00:37:00.000+02:00

On my way to the airport, apathetic, very sad. Looking out of the window I can see only grey shapes and still life. Sometimes memories from last night and this morning come up in my mind, and they hurt, they empty my throat and my eyes get flooded.
I knew it would have been painful to say goodbye to my friends, but I wouldn't have ever thought it would have been like this. Perhaps I should have gone to the office yesterday, get my laptop and not saying goodbye?

``Take this!''
``Why??''
``Because we know you will cry, man!''

Humans cry, only machines don't... When I was alone I did! I had to use those tissues.

``It was cool to have you here!''

Yeah, it was really cool for me as well to be there with all you guys.
This was THE experience of my life. I will never forget it! NEVER!!

Gone... one more

2005-09-28T11:45:00.000+02:00

A bunch of events, a stack of moments... in life things just happen, whether we want them or not. So good things do: they just happen, no matter if you were looking for them, they just come unexpected.
Some of them don't last forever, and you realize how important they are only when they're over. Then you really feel sad and empty, like somebody has stolen a part of your life.
Last night tears were dripping down my face and I just could not stop them... I said goodbye to Juan. He's been like a brother for me during these six months, I could have told him everything about me, for every problem he always would have had a nice word for me. That's actually what happened during this period. And I could not stand there, looking at that shape walking the opposite direction, being aware that I could also not see him anymore.

``Man, this was not a goodbye! Wake me up tomorrow before you leave!!''
``That is my friend! Be ready I will pick u up!''

So I went with him to the bus, we had the last coffee together, and last laughs.

``Bye man, take care!! See you soon!!''

Big hug, almost tears, and that's it. Juan is gone.

Shoulder allright... almost

2005-09-19T18:53:00.000+02:00

Three weeks ago I dislocated my left shoulder while I was playing ultimate. I got it fixed at the emergency room at the hospital here in Galway, and was sent to Merlin Park hospital the next day to the physiotherapy unit where the doctor gave me a sling to wear till next check, in three weeks time. He also said don't move it, but actually how could I cook, wash, work... whatever, with only one hand? And also how could I keep myself away from the disc? No way, after having been to one of our usual ultimate matches as a spectator, I decided I couldn't not play: so I did! I started playing next thursday with the sling on, and actually I was still able to perform good throws and catches, even though I could not jump as high or run as fast as I could with two arms free. But yesterday I felt brave, and I played without the sling, managing to jump higher and run faster (I remember an awesome catch jumping over Alan, he and Aidan could not believe it ^_^), but still using only my right hand to catch the disc, and trying not to move too much my left arm.

Today I went to the hospital for checking the shoulder. The doctor didn't even touch it nor take x-rays of it. He was wondering where my sling was, I just told him I wore it for three weeks then I took it off. I didn't tell him about my ultimate matches still going on. He taught me how to move my arm, in order to avoid the shoulder to get stiff, swinging it like a pendulum. I think I can do better, for example keep on playing ultimate for my last two weeks here. I might need a physiotherapist in Italy, I know one, don't know if he's good ;)

Buckie friday

2005-09-18T03:09:00.000+02:00

Ed, where's my todo list? Since I'll leave Ireland and DERI in slightly more than 2 weeks, Ed made a list of things I have to do before I go. One of the entries was: drink an entire bottle of Buckfast. So I did. Last night I bought one bottle and went outside at the Spanish Arch to drink with the lads (as an irish would say): Ed, Aidan, Owen, Fergal, Gearóid, Alice, James, Brahmananda, Alan, Dave, Paul and maybe somebody else. Mission accomplished! I drank the entire bottle, but that's it, it was my first and last bottle of Buckfast, too sweet for me. I told Aidan ``Buckfast is shit'' but he said ``but it's good, it's good shit''! It's anyway definitely too sweet for me, and my stomach also didn't like it too much.

While we were drinking, Garda came asking if we were drinking (notice: it's not allowed to drink on the streets in Ireland, don't ask me why, it seems like you can be drunk, make noise and be annoying on the streets but you cannot drink...). We hid the full bottles and showed them only the empty ones, then we moved farther, in an area unaccessible for their car, and also too far away to walk to for lazy cops.

Later on I, Brahmananda, James and Alice went to the Bazaar, a pub just in front of the Spanish Arch, waiting for the others. Actually everybody came but Aidan: three of them were necessary to carry him to a taxi after he drank 2 bottles of Buckfast!!! Greedy!! :P

At that point in time I thought I was quite drunk also for another task in my list: ``pull an ugly irish girl''. So we moved to Cuba, a club in Eyre Square. I was so far away from the truth: I was not even drunk enough to look at those girls, unfortunately the most of them were really ugly (I would have rather preferred replacing the ``ugly'' in the list with ``nice'').

Went to bed at 4 o'clock and woke up at 10 this morning, my head was still spinning. Hungover today, I'd better rest, and go to bed early... oh shit, it's already 2 o'clock! Have to go!!!

TechieTalk

2005-09-15T12:53:00.000+02:00

TechieTalk is finally growing. It's a collaborative blog Ina, Juan and I decided to start a few days ago, talking about our IT interests (for me primarily GNU/Linux and OSS). Have a look at it, maybe you want to collaborate as well.

Living Room party

2005-09-11T14:55:00.000+02:00

I wanted to blog today about last night, but actually my mind is a bit obfuscated by the pints of Guinness I drank :)
Some people (James, Alice and Thomas) have come over from Innsbruck, so we went to the Living Room to have some pints together. Good fun, with Ed and Mick singing basically all the songs that were being played.
I'm very happy to meet James again, we had a lot of fun when we went to Crete and also when he came to Italy for my birthday. I'm also happy to meet Alice, I didn't talk too much with her in Crete, but yesterdayt I did talk to her and she seems a girl who likes partying, good stuff! :)
*Unfortunately* I'm staying here only three more weeks, too bad when I'll have to leave... I mean, I want to go home, but also it will be very painful when I'll have to leave and say goodbye to lots of nice people I met here and who I won't probably meet again. No tears... for now!

Goodbyes...

2005-09-03T04:01:00.000+02:00

Sometimes my mind is too fast and my thoughts too complicated to be written down. I cannot express what I'm feeling now, I feel sad and empty.
One of my best friends here in Galway has left tonight, and when he'll come back, in two months, I'll be gone. As Juan said, this is indeed the end of something, hopefully not of our friendship. But still it's the end of something. It's the end of the days I can go to the office and tell him ``man, you don't know what happened to me'', it's the end of the days we go playing pitch'n'putt together, it's the end of the days we go out for pints talking about girls. This is actually the end of something, and it's really a pity because we were almost on the same wave length. Yeah, Armin, you will be missed. But this is NOT the end of our frienship! We'll meet again soon, and it will be great!
I give you a big hug, take care!

Dislocated shoulder!

2005-08-30T15:47:00.000+02:00

I've never felt so much pain like yesterday, while playing frisbee (yet another frisbee injury) I fell on my left shoulder and dislocated it! Went to the hospital, waited 2 hours fighting with pain (losing the battle the most of the time). Then a bit of N₂O made me drunk while the doctor was fixing my shoulder. Now I have to keep a bendage for 3 weeks, so frisbee in Galway is over for me! Anyway I want to thank all frisbee guys for all the fun we had (it was a good game though), Eyal for having taken me to the emergency room and a big thank and hug to Armin, who waited with me all the time and today drove me again at the hospital! How would I do without you, guys? :)

Simply THE Genius!

2005-08-20T16:29:00.000+02:00

Fake-eBay fraud

2005-08-16T13:16:00.000+02:00

The e-mail is one of the most useful services the Internet provides, but sometimes it can be really dangerous, either because it allows viruses and trojans to spread quickly or even for frauds. A basic rule would be to read ``carefully'' all the content of the mail, including the headers if the mail contains or requests sensitive data as reply. People who are not familiar with Internet technologies are the best target for cheaters, that's why people need to be deeply aware about these pretty new technologies.
I've just received a mail with ``service@ebay.com'' as sender. The mail informs me that recently several attempts to log into my eBay account have been made, and, for my own security, they request me to change my password logging into a web link provided in the mail. Here's the text:

Dear eBay User,

To protect the security of your account, eBay © employs some of the most advanced security systems in the world and our anti-fraud teams regularly screen the eBay system for unusual activity.

We recently have determined that different computers have logged onto your eBay account, and multiple password failures were present. We now need you to re-confirm your account information to us. If this is not completed we will be forced to suspend your account , as it may have been used for fraudulent purposes. We thank you for your cooperation in this manner.
If the account information is not updated to current information within 5 days then, your access to bid or buy on eBay will be restricted.
go to this link below:

https://www.ebay.com/acounts/memb/avncenter/?dll87443%2213

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. Please understand that this is a security measure meant to help protect you and your account.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

If you choose to ignore our request, you leave us no choise but to temporaly suspend your account.

Thank you ,
eBay © Accounts Managent

As outlined in our User Agreement, eBay will periodically send you information about site changes and enhancements. Visit our Privacy Policy and User Agreement if you have any questions.

The mail is not in plain text, it's in html. This language allows you to write fancy, colored emails, but also allows you to ``hide'' something. For example, you can redirect somebody to a web page creating a link whose label can be different from the actual page you're redirected. This is the case of this email. The link is apparently a web page on ebay.com but actually it sends you on a just alike page hosted on a different server, controlled by non-ebay people. If somebody trusts this email and gives them his/her password, then these guys can obtain his actual ebay password but also they can request him/her to reconfirm his/her credit card number, becoming able to get money.
The mail I received wanted to send me on a page on the machine at the IP address 202.150.101.22. A quick lookup of this address reveals

$ whois 202.150.101.22
inetnum:      202.150.96.0 - 202.150.127.255
netname:      CONCEPTNET
descr:        Internet Service Provider
descr:        Auckland New Zealand
country:      NZ
admin-c:      CS20-AP
tech-c:       CS20-AP
status:       ALLOCATED PORTABLE
mnt-by:       APNIC-HM
mnt-lower:    MAINT-NZ-CONCEPTNET
remarks:      -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-++-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
remarks:      This object can only be updated by APNIC hostmasters.
remarks:      To update this object, please contact APNIC
remarks:      hostmasters and include your organisation's account
remarks:      name in the subject line.
remarks:      -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-++-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
changed:      hm-changed@apnic.net 20040623
changed:      hm-changed@apnic.net 20050318
source:       APNIC

person:       CRAIG SPIERS
nic-hdl:      CS20-AP
e-mail:       craig@concept.net.nz
address:      PO Box 302288
address:      NorthHarbour, 1330
address:      Auckland
address:      New Zealand
phone:        +64-9414-4297
fax-no:       +64-9915-2559
country:      NZ
changed:      craig@concept.net.nz 20031203
mnt-by:       MAINT-NEW
source:       APNIC

while eBay.com has address

$ host ebay.com
ebay.com has address 66.135.192.87

and a lookup on this address says

$ whois 66.135.192.87
OrgName:    eBay, Inc 
OrgID:      EBAY
Address:    2145 Hamilton Ave
City:       San Jose
StateProv:  CA
PostalCode: 95008
Country:    US

NetRange:   66.135.192.0 - 66.135.223.255 
CIDR:       66.135.192.0/19 
NetName:    EBAY-1
NetHandle:  NET-66-135-192-0-1
Parent:     NET-66-0-0-0-0
NetType:    Direct Assignment
NameServer: SJC-DNS1.EBAYDNS.COM
NameServer: SJC-DNS2.EBAYDNS.COM
NameServer: SMF-DNS1.EBAYDNS.COM
Comment:    
RegDate:    2001-07-13
Updated:    2003-02-20

OrgTechHandle: EBAYN-ARIN
OrgTechName:   eBay Network 
OrgTechPhone:  +1-408-376-7400
OrgTechEmail:  network@ebay.com

This fraud can be very dangerous, and it can be made not only faking ebay, but bank institutes as well, that could be even more dangerous.
Read carefully every single email you receive before doing anything about it.

Angels

2005-08-12T18:50:00.000+02:00

There's somebody loving me up there. And loving Rebecca too. Rebecca is a girl I met at a party we had in some spanish girls' house. The party was good, but it was even better when I met her.
She's american, from Indiana. She's a quite strange girl, very spontaneous, I found her at the party painting her legs with a green marker, we talked and then she started painting my arm, drawing strange but nice shapes. We've liked each other. A lot.
We left the party at 7 in the morning and walked around Galway, ending up at a bridge on the river. Perhaps because of the alcohol or because of the air we were breathing that morning, we decided to go over the parapet and go down on the pathway below the bridge, just next to the river. I went first and then helped her to come down. I caught her, but then, I don't know why and how, we lost our balance and we fell down on the side of the pathway, opposite to the river... I was falling down on my back, in those moments I was only thinking ``I'm going to fuck up my life!'' and I really didn't know what was expecting me. Luckily we both fell in the canal, in the water, and also it was not deep. My only injury is a small wound in a hand, Rebecca got a little scratch on her leg. We both couldn't believe how lucky we were, and thanked God for this. We fell down from a 4 meters height, if only we fell on rocks instead of water we could have died... or even worse!
Angels... before I didn't believe very much in them... now I changed my mind!

Back again

2005-08-11T18:31:00.000+02:00

Yes, I'm in Ireland once again. I flew with Ryan Air from Forlì to London Stansteed and then to Shannon. The trip was long and boring but nothing compared with the trip by bus from Shannon Airport to Galway: I do think roads should be improved in Ireland.
In Galway there were four friends of mine (Enrico, Marco, Letizia, Giulia) waiting for me; they arrived in Ireland on august 1st, rented a car and drove around, saving Galway for the last days to stay with me. Unfortunately on saturday they will leave again to Dublin, where they will fly from on monday to go back home. However, I'm very happy to meet them here, even though only for a few days.

Preparing to get back

2005-08-08T15:24:00.000+02:00

Here I am, ready to leave again on wednesday to the rainy country. I really needed these two weeks, I've had a very good time, met relatives, met friends, enjoyed sun, and also met my ex-girlfriend... I was happy to meet her again till I knew that she has already replaced me with somebody else. Perhaps it ain't worth to have another chance after 8 years we stayed together?! Fair enough, you've chosen your way, I'll choose mine! Goodbye!

La Duna degli Orsi

2005-08-01T11:52:00.000+02:00

In Ireland I missed too much the warmth and the sun of the italian summer, and now I am finally enjoying it every moment. On saturday I went to the beach with my friends and also James, a maltese friend working in DERI Innsbruck. We caught some sun (not too much though, we arrived quite late) and then the party started!!
In this place in Marina di Ravenna there are bars on the beach playing music and serving drinks during the night.. too bad at midnight or so they have to stop the music and drinks! The most famous bar among them is called "La Duna degli Orsi" (The bears' dune) but all of them are very good! And also there are always lots of very beautiful girls!!
It was good fun, here we go with some pictures!

Myself and James, windy beach, maybe I should cut my hair?! :PPP

The sunset means... the party can begin!!

Two classmates of mine from the liceo: Silvia and Lorena

Myself with Abba, a crazy friend of mine

The party's over... little talk and then sleep!

Indeed I do have very good friends!

2005-07-29T00:55:00.000+02:00

Tonight I went out with my friends, it was very nice because I was back from Ireland after 4 months and also it was my birthday. I was so happy to see them all (well, almost, because somebody couldn't make it for tonight), both the group of friends I usually go out with and the group of friends from the university.
They gave me a 2-people tent as present, so I'll have a place to sleep after the party on the beach on saturday :)
I'm looking forward for saturday night, I hope it'll be amazing like I remember it was last year. And James will be here as well, tomorrow I'll go to pick him up at the station!!
Gotta go to bed now, I need to sleep!

Very HOT!!

2005-07-28T19:25:00.000+02:00

Here I am, finally I can update my blog from Italy. Here it's very hot, the temperature is about 34 degrees, completely different from Galway and its cold wind.
I arrived home 2 days ago at about 8.30 and I had a big and very nice surprise: all my friends were hiding in my house and then they came out when I was in front of it and they wetted me with tons of water :)
It was really unexpected and I appreciated it very much! Then we had dinner together talking and joking a lot, after 4 months I didn't see them.
Last night I went to Griffin pub in Modena, to have a pint of Guinness and compare it to the original one... no way!! ``Irish'' Guinness is millions times better!

Today, unpacking my stuff from my backpack I found out that I have carried on the plane... this

What a security!!

Ciao Italia!!

2005-07-25T20:33:00.000+02:00

Tomorrow I'll fly to Italy for a 2-weeks holiday, after almost 4 months I'll meet again my family and my friends, I'll taste my food, I'll drive on my side of the road, I'll find my weather.
Bye Ireland!

Red Bull Air Race - Rock of Cashel

2005-07-24T22:23:00.000+02:00

Armin and I went to Cashel today to watch this event. It took us 3h30m to get there (we also got a speed fine!) and 3h to come back (less traffic luckily). It rained before, so there was mud everywhere, but the people didn't care too much, many of them were prepared, wearing high boots and raincoats.
The show was quite good actually, but definitely too short: only 7 pilots took part at the competition and they had only one round (8 planes were foreseen, each racing in 2 rounds). So basically the competition lasted for something like 10 minutes!!! :shock:
Here we go with some pictures:

The life!

2005-07-14T15:37:00.000+02:00

The arts festival is calling lots of tourists in Galway, foreigners and also a lot of italians among them. I went walking in town these days, I loved breathing this *new* air, in the sun along the streets flooded of people, in an atmosphere I haven't seen before here, almost surrealistic. And also last night, musicians along the streets, people dancing and laughing, I really liked it.

Today the sky is cloudy again, probably Ireland doesn't deserve more sun than one or two weeks a year ;)
Anyway, tonight I'll go for pints again, it will be good fun! For sure!

Finally the summer!

2005-07-11T00:08:00.000+02:00

Lovely days yesterday and today! Warm sun flooding Galway, usually miles far away from this weather. With such beautiful days we went to the Spanish Arch to catch some sun... my skin is becoming too white! ;)

Some pictures:

Ultimate frisbee

2005-07-08T18:34:00.000+02:00

Now I want to talk about this very funny sport called ultimate frisbee I started playing just 3 weeks ago. Doug introduced some of us (me, Armin, Andreas, Eyal and Francois) to this game. Rules are simple:


* Continuous action team game on field with side-lines
  and goal line.
  +  A regulation field is 70 yards by 40 yards, with
     end zones 25 yards deep, but we play on a smaller field.
* Score is made if disc is caught in end zone
* Disc is moved only by throwing it.
  + throw can be in any direction
  + noone runs with the disc
  + catcher should stop ASAP, but within three steps
  + once person with disc has stopped, one foot stays planted
  + if caught before end zone, but catcher steps into endzone
    when stopping, disc (and catcher) goes back to point of first
    contact with ground after catch.
* When a pass in not completed (e.g. out of bounds, drop, block,
  interception), the defense immediately takes possession of the
  disc and becomes the offense.
  + throw is from where disc stops if on the field
  + throw is from spot under where it crossed out of bounds
  + if in/past end zone, throw is from spot it crossed goal line.
* Non-contact sport
  + person with disc is not touched
  + disc in someone's hand is not touched
  + no intentional contact with members of other team
  + player may not be blocked from jumping for disc by placing
    hand on/above her/him.
  + people may accidentally collide when jumping for disc
  + A foul occurs when contact is made.
* When a player initiates contact on another player a foul occurs.
  + When a foul disrupts possession, the play resumes as if the
    possession was retained.
  + If the player committing the foul disagrees with the foul call,
    the play is redone.
* Only one person can guard/block person with disc
  + must remain arms-length away
* Play starts with disc throw from goal line to opposing team
  + whole throwing team stays back until disc thrown
  + if disc goes out of bounds, receivers may choose rethrow or
    to play from where disc left field
  + throwing team may not catch/interfere with catch of such a
    throw-off
  + throw-off restarts the action after a goal, with time given
    for both teams to reach their positions.  The direction of
    play (who has what goal) changes at this time.
* A regulation game has 7 players per team

We usually meet on thursdays at 18.30 in front of the Quad in the NUIG campus. The group is growing, yesterday we were 13 people, we played ``US vs Rest of the World'' (and the ROTW won ^_^). The names I remember: Mike, Andaria, Alan, Chris (2 of them), Dave, Sven and girlfriend (sorry, don't remember your name), another american girl (I don't remember the name) plus DERI guys (me, Armin, Francois and Doug).
Unfortunately an accident occurred between me and Doug while jumping to get the disc. I got it, but the result... is shown in the picture below

Doug's head hurt my eye, but probably I was the lucky one, because my knee hurt Doug's nuts :)
Anyway, this didn't stop me from continue playing: I just needed to go home, put some frozen stuff on the eye for a while and then back to the field.
Wonderful! I'm looking forward to play again!

Software patents? NO thanks!

2005-07-06T15:19:00.000+02:00

Finally a good new from EU parliament: software patents in Europe rejected with 648 votes out of 680!

http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/press-release/2005q3/000109.html

The beginning of the end?

2005-06-29T16:50:00.000+02:00

From http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/en/m/intro/index.html

Under the influence of the patent system and big industry lobbyists, the European Union is on the verge of making a huge mistake: to pass a law that would legalize software patents.

If that happens, you will pay dearly. Europe's software industry will fall victim to unscrupulous extortioners. A cartel of large corporations will crush smaller competitors. Consequently, we will all pay more money for less good and less secure software. You personally, your household, your company, your government, all of us.

You'll know when you get the bill. When someone breaks into your computer, reads your E-mails, and steals the password of your bank account. When your computer crashes every day. When spam doesn't stop. When prices go up and companies shut down. When people lose their jobs.

read more

Weak and powerless

2005-06-29T02:12:00.000+02:00

Tilling my own grave to keep me level
Jam another dragon down the hole
Digging to the rhythm and the echo of a solitary siren
One that pushes me along and leaves me so

Desperate and Ravenous
I'm so weak and powerless over you

Someone feed the monkey while I dig in search of China
White as Dracula as I approach the bottom

Desperate and Ravenous
I'm so weak and powerless over you

Little angel go away
Come again some other day
Devil has my ear today
I'll never hear a word you say
He Promised I would find a little solace
And some piece of mind
Whatever just as long as I don't feel so

Desperate and Ravenous
I'm so weak and powerless
Desperate and Ravenous
I'm so weak and powerless
over you
over you

New template

2005-06-27T19:25:00.000+02:00

I designed a brand new template for my blog. It's heavier than the previous one (since it uses background images) but it looks much nicer!
Three styles provided with different backgrounds. Which one is better?

Feedbacks and opinions are more than welcome to improve it.

P.S. sorry for IE users, but it's not my fault if that browser has its own non-standard CSS interpretation. Suggestion: switch to Mozilla Firefox.

NIN + alcohol... bad combination

2005-06-24T21:12:00.000+02:00

now listening: NIN - Beside you in time

Lots of thoughts and memories coming up now, just for the sake to hurt me.
I shouldn't think to what it could have been, I need to forget. It's not easy though, I don't know how long it will take me to forget the slap I received.
Sometimes I would like to quit everything and run away, don't know where. But I know I can't do that, it's not worth and it wouldn't solve anything.
The show must go on...

FUCK YOU K!!

The truth.. (?)

2005-06-23T10:00:00.000+02:00

she spread herself wide open to let the insects in

she leaves a trail of honey to show me where she's been

she has the blood of reptile just underneath her skin

seeds from a thousand others drip down from within

oh my beautiful liar

oh my precious whore

my disease my infection

I am so impure

devils speak of the ways in which she'll manifest

angels bleed from the tainted touch of my caress

need to contaminate to alleviate this loneliness

I now know the depths I reach are limitless

oh my beautiful liar

oh my precious whore

my disease my infection

I am so impure

Yes, call me a complainer...please!

2005-06-19T13:33:00.000+02:00

Now I fully understand that I could never fit into irish culture, way of life and people. This was one of the shittiest (if not THE shittiest) nights in Galway since we entered this club called G.P.O. (I have to learn what those letters stand for, maybe Great Piece Of shit).
Paid 10 euros to get into at 1.30 and to get kicked off at 2.30! The music was horrible, they could mix house music, dance music, rock music, whatever, without any decency. They even managed to mix Nirvana and Eminem all together to get the crappiest song ever! But the funny thing was: irish people were happy, they were having fun with this shit!
Other topic: the girls! They were... I don't have any different adjective than ``horrible'' (sorry for my poor english lexicon) to define them. ``Yet Another Belly'' was the motto inside, in fact I couldn't see a girl without at least 20 kgs extra. And, furthermore, they were drunk, and they were behaving like "sukkel" (thanks Eyal for having taught me this dutch word).
The guys were disgusting: didn't mom teach you to WASH YOUR HANDS after you take a pee?? And, if you were lucky like I was, walking among the people sometimes you could even smell some ``fresh air'' from some ``lord''!!
"Man, it's 2.15, I'm looking forward for lights to be turned on", I don't know if I was saying this to Armin or he was saying it to me, but anyway we were both pissed off by all this stuff!
2.30, lights on, let's go outside!
Guys peeing in a corner and standing in their own piss, girls sitting on the dirty street and drinking their last beer, assholes driving fast cars when they were not even able to drive a bycicle.
To be finished, dense rain wetting us while walking to the car.
Yes, call me a complainer if you want to, but this is the fucking truth of what happened in this fucking night!

Before this we were at Andreas's place to celebrate his birthday, and it was very good actually: good drinks, good music and good company. The rest was not like this.

Now the question is: why do italian people like Ireland so much? I do think that as long as you come here on vacation for 3-4 weeks and you travel, everything seems wonderful: a different country, different culture, different people. But if you live here for long time (I've been living here for almost 3 months, I know what I am talking about) you really see the BIG difference between Italy and this country!
I'm counting the days now, -37 and a plane will take me back to Italy for 2 weeks.
I have chosen the red pill, but it's only for 6 months. After this time I will be like Cypher, going back to the ``fake'' world!

Dreaming...

2005-06-17T01:23:00.000+02:00

Hasta pronto, muchacho!

2005-06-11T11:20:00.000+02:00

Have a nice and safe trip to China, man! We'll have a pint of good Guinness when you'll come back!

Little creatures grow...

2005-06-09T00:10:00.000+02:00

It's 11pm and I'm still in the office working at my laptop. However, I'm not alone, Carlos, Armin and Andreas are here and at least I have a good company.
My p2p network is growing, now peers can find each other and they can join and leave networks. Here's a screenshot of what I have achieved so far

The 4 xterms on the foreground are connected to swsesrv0[1-4].deri.ie and they're running the p2p application. With another xterm I can connect to one of them via telnet and can monitor it. The last xterm is used to scp updated files to the servers.

Before coming back to the office after a luxurius (and quick) dinner (bacon and tomatoes... wow! ^_^) I took a picture to two of my house mates, two nice german girls: Gesche and Nicola.

Will they ever read my blog?

Dublin

2005-06-05T13:30:00.000+02:00

Grafton Street crowded as usual, music stores in it selling CDs as they were made of gold...

Hey man, we don't need a bike!

Something cultural... celtic stuff in Tara.

Is this the irish summer?? I miss italian weather so much...

No Juan, you won't be the next king of Tara

The megalithic complex of Newgrange, dated 3200 B.C.

Headin' to Dublin

2005-06-01T21:10:00.000+02:00

Tomorrow I'm going to Dublin with Juan, we need to go there for different reasons: he needs a visa to go to China, I need to leave behind all the wonderful moments, places and people I had, went and met in Crete, which now I really miss.
It's very hard to come back to the rainy Galway after a week spent partying all day and night in such a warm place as Crete is and with such nice guys! I'm looking forward to meet them all again, but I really don't know when and, above all, IF I'll meet them again.

Offsite 2005 - Crete

2005-05-29T14:37:00.000+02:00

I would be a liar if I'd say this was not the most wonderful vacation (ops... business trip) of my life. The whole week was simply great!
Resume: once a year, DERI Galway and DERI Innsbruck meet in Crete to talk about the current projects but, above all, to have fun together. So it was. I met the guys from Innsbruck and we had a very good time, every day and every night till morning. Here's a picture of some of us (Armin, where are you???)

From left to right: Daniel, Knud, Juan (middle), Ioan (top), me (bottom), Kathrine, Jan (top), James (middle), Francois (bottom), Katharina, Michael.

That night (thursday, May 26th) was absolutely the best night ever in Crete, pity some guys had to go back to Innsbruck after that.
I spent a lot of time talking to one of the most lovely girls I've ever met, finding in the end that we like each other. And now, writing from my desk in Galway and thinking at her so far away, a pinch of sadness comes up... Kathrine, I want to meet you again asap.

Soundtrack update

2005-05-02T21:04:00.000+02:00

See you around, Hannes

2005-04-30T01:44:00.000+02:00

Hannes has left today, he's gone back home to Switzerland. Last night we said him goodbye with a couple of pints in Busker Brownes. I just have known him for a month or so, but I've seen in him a very smart guy!
Hope to see you soon :)

Soundtrack

2005-04-25T22:15:00.000+02:00

The German Party

2005-04-24T03:16:00.000+02:00

These are definitely the most insane people I've ever met since I'm here in Ireland. We had a really good party last night, for Gesche's birthday. The topic was Germany, so everybody was supposed to dress like a german (I didn't, but they told me that wearing adidas shoes was german enough :P) and drink german beer.
Pictures can describe the party much better than every word (hold the mouse on pictures to see the description).

Very funny party! After 5 beers (0.5 l each!) I got to bed at 4.30... now I'm falling asleep...

Update needed!

2005-04-23T05:10:00.000+02:00

I couldn't update my blog till now. First because I had lots of things to do; second because I'm lazy :P
Lots of things happened in 13 days, but I won't talk about them all.
I moved to a new house: now I live with irish, german and finnish people, and they are all really nice. We can call it an international house :)
I watched my first rugby match on Sunday 10th, I couldn't understand the most of the rules but it was nice :)

The same night I went out for dinner with a girl from the office (no bad thoughts, nobody else wanted to come out ^_^), we went to the Lemongrass. We ate some asian-food-I-don't-remember-what-it-was-but-it-was-good. We talked a lot and I had a very good time. We talked about her life, my life, what she wants to do, what I want to do and stuff like this. Then we went to have a pint of Guinness in a pub (rough barman, we won't come back).
On wednesday two friends of mine finally arrived, and I was really really happy to meet them! We had a good time since the first night, in a pub with traditional irish music and good Guinness as well.
I spent 5 days with them, going to the Cliffs of Moher on saturday

and to Dublin on sunday and monday

then I had to leave them to come back to Galway to work. So... what am I doing now? I'm not working :)

Loneliness is a bad enemy

2005-04-10T01:05:00.000+02:00

Yes, I'm feeling really lonely in these days. Now I've come back to the lab, at least here I can always find someone to talk with, I can connect to the Internet to contact my family and my friends. I can't win a war against depression in the complete loneliness.
Incubus in my headphones now, but they can't help since I listen to "The warmth", "Drive" or "I miss you". I fear the moment I'll have to come back in that empty house. I'm looking forward for my house mates to come back, to have someone to talk with.
A friend of mine has been abroad to work on his thesis as well, he told me the first period is definitely the worse, I have to fight with the loneliness due to the hard separation from relatives and friends. Only God knows how hard I'm trying.

I'm here

2005-04-04T22:07:00.000+02:00

Yes, I arrived four days ago, I'm in Galway, I'll be here for the next 6 months to work on my master thesis.
I knew some people in the lab, they're really nice, took me out with them, and I'm having a good time with them.
Now I'm in my place in the lab, reading some RDF-related stuff, listening Ben Harper while outside it's heavily raining (just one minute ago it was sunny).
I miss my home, my relatives and friends, especially when I'm alone. Perhaps it's just the first period, I need a few days more to get used to this place and this life.
Ok, I'll come back to my papers...

Adrenaline!

2005-03-28T01:09:00.000+02:00

Snapshot of an Easter day: me in my room, preparing all the stuff for my trip, listening to music. First, the whole "The fat of the land" made me dance like no one, and now "Make yourself" by Incubus, one of the albums I like most. And I'm dreaming, about the past and the future. Lots of memories coming out of my wardrobe, while I'm taking out clothes. And from the music, too.
Damn, I love this music, I love my memories, I love my friends. Yes, I will really miss them! And I would like them to know it, because I couldn't even imagine my life without them. They've been very close to me in this hard moment of my life and I won't never be enough thankful for this. These are which I call Friends!

Goodbye Cristina...

2005-03-25T09:44:00.000+01:00

Never forget how much I've been loving you!

I feel like shit

2005-03-20T18:52:00.000+01:00

Oh God, I really feel bad today! Last night I went out with my ex-girlfriend, she's been my girlfriend for more than 8 years, and now the knowledge to be no more special for her has left me an emptiness I cannot fill with anything else.
So, last night we went out, we talked, she told me now I'm nothing more than a friend for her. In the end, when I took her back home, she touched my hand and kissed me, and I wanted that moment to never end, I was feeling in paradise, and when she got out of the car I fell in hell.
I don't know how many tears dropped down, I just know I ran home because I was feeling lost. Still now, while I'm writing these word, tears are signing my face. I can't find a reason for the situation I'm living. Why were we both crying while hugging? Why do we have to live such a way? Why do I still love her even if she's broken my heart?
Ok, ok. I have to live with this shit, so I'll try to. Now it's march 20th, 11 days left and I'll leave to Ireland, I really need to change lifestyle for a while. I hope to meet new friends, to do a good work there, and furthermore I hope to forget her, because now this is the best thing I can do for myself...

Damn, human being is strange... there's nothing like love: it can take you on top of the world but it's dangerous, because the higher you get, the lower you can fall. And if you fall down from a very high peak... it hurts a lot! But this means I am alive, if I couldn't feel these emotions I wouldn't be alive either.
Now I have to concentrate only on myself, it will be hard, but I have to do it!

28 days to go

2005-03-03T23:45:00.000+01:00

Lots of thoughts run into my mind, lots of questions, doubts and just a few answers.
What will the future bring to me? In 4 weeks I'll be in a different land, with different people, alone. I can't wait anymore! Nevertheless I would not leave without solving my doubts first, because I know I'm doing the right thing for me, but I'm not sure I'm doing the right thing for all the people I care.
Well, I'll see... I hope future will clear this mess.