Dandandin.net

Last Tuesday Firefox 7 8 has been released, did you already download it?

What has changed?

Here is the (serious) list about what has changed: 

1. At the first start will prompt you to disable extensions
2. There's twitter as a search engine
3. Improvements in the visualization engine
4. The menu "About"

As per tradition, Microsoft has always sent a cake as a gift for each new major version. This time they didn't send anything, stating:

“We didn’t do it since we thought it was getting to be overkill. Every six weeks is a lot of cupcakes”

LinkedIn is a social network for sharing work experiences.

It's great for research firms or job hunters.

It's so useful that, even if their annual revenue is about $3 million, the value in the stock market is near to a billion dollars (Yeah, it's unbelievable, it's a bubble)

What I hate about them is that they bug me if a friend of mine will join their website, sending me an invitation, and many reminders to join their website

Of course, as in all "evil" companies, there is no "remove me" or "opt-out" link in the email or website.

You have to contact them and ask to opt-out, and, after a few hours, their customer service will confirm the deletion

I'm sure that you heard about that today Microsft bought Skype for an hefty price.

My question is: how will they change the name of Skype?

I bet on "Microsoft Windows Live Text Audio and Video Calling United Platform Ultimate Edition 2012 Service Pack 2 with Bing Toolbar"

Here's what would have happened if Microsoft marketed the iPod:

Many developers thinks that a pirated copy of their app means a lost sale.

Actually, it's not like that. People have various reasons for pirating an app, for example trying them just for fun.

In fact, in most cases, a very few people will do a very long search on the net to get a $1 application for free.

In my opinion, if an app has an high piracy/sales ratio, it means that for "honest" customers, the product does not offer the right appeal, and for pirates it's just a trial, that means, they still won't buy your $1 app - it's not a lost sale.

The perfect example it's Walk and Text for Android, an app for texting while walking: it just displays the camera on the screen while walking; nothing exceptional here. To be honest, I won't get such kind of useless app even if it's for free. So, "honest" people won't buy the app because they feel the uselessness; while compulsive pirates will download it just for showing to friends "hey, I can text and walk". If you watch it in another way, the pirate will spread the voice between friends. Every "heavy pirate" that I know, loves to show off the fact their hundreds of useless apps.

This means that, sometimes, piracy sometimes can lead to a sale.

But, if you act recklessly like the developer of Walk and Text for Android, that acts like a virus if cracking it's detected, you generate a lot of bad advertisement: "hey, that app will bill me $$$ if detects a crack, better avoid it like a skunk!

In this case, piracy really means a lost sale.

Everyone is aware about the damages that the tsunami wave in Japan did recently.

To help the Japanese population, the Italian division of become.com put a link to the Italian Red Cross website.

Guess what? They got a C&D letter for using the Red Cross name without prior consent! 

LOL, people is paying hundreds to have a link on a PR5 page, and they call the lawyers to remove it!

Free advertisement becomes bad publicity

Today, in a totally surprising move, I discovered that Facebook removed the "like" and "comment" buttons on links posted by friends

This is the result: (Italian language, but it should be the same in other languages)

???

From years we, users, we are asking for a "dislike", and now you take away also the "like"? DISLIKEEEEE

Commenting friends' link on the end of my day was a funny task....

Let's hope just for a "temporary error"...

Update: It looks only the links inside the Facebook natwork are without "like" and "comment"... anyway, I don't like

Thanks to the NORAD (acronym for North American Aereospace Defence Command) and to Google, from this year you can just take Google Maps for mobile and search for "norad santa", to see where in the world is Santa right now: (shot from my italian mobile)

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Today is valentine's day, it is all about love, so I give you this great thought about respecting others:

The audio is in English, but I provided closed captions, and, here is the transcript:

I believe in respecting others for who they are

My parents taught me how to be a polite person, when I was a little girl. I respected parents, teachers, relatives, friends and others in my life.

There was no doubt: my parents were the first teachers in my life. They told me, when you meet relatives in a party, you have to talk for first. For example, I said, “How are you?” for first instead that relatives said that. Moreover, you could not sit down until relatives sit down. When someone gave me a gift, I have to say, “Thank you”. When I made a mistake, I have to say “sorry”.

I remember once, I quarreled with my mother. My father said, “You can not speak loudly to your mother. Think what’s your mom took care of you for everything”. From then on, when I have troubles, I would like to talk with my parents. It would be an heart to heart talking. In addition, my father told me a famous Chinese story. The story is: “Long long time ago, His father has three children, a little boy is most smart. One day, his father bought one bag of pears to him and his brothers. His father gave him a big pear, The little boy said, “No, no. A big pears should give parents, I pick small one that would be fine”. I remember this story until now.
I respect friends. Over time, I made a friend who told me a secret. I never told her secrets to others, because I respected her and I respected her privacy. We kept relationships for twelve years. Once, I asked her a question. “Why have you told me many secrets?” She said, “I trust you”. She asked me, “Why did you never tell another person about my secrets?” I said, “I respect you”.

I respect old people, children, colleagues and customers. In China, taking a bus is very convenient for students as they go to school. When I saw old people and children in the bus, I would get out of my seat to give it them. I did a part time job in China. I respected my colleagues, when we did a good job in teamwork. In addition, I respected my customers. The manager said, “Customers are god”. I learnt to respect customers. They would feel that my service was good. Then they would buy stuff. We reached a win-win situation on business. Indeed, I respected others, others would respect me too.
I believe in respecting others for who they are.

I just registered a funny domain name, "verb".it (verb is to be replaced with an action verb, like play.it; read.it; watch.it; do.it, and something like that, just i don't want to spam around with my name )

(I'm italian so i did not have problems to sign an italian-only contract and send it by fax with a copy of my italian id card to an italian fax number, and calling 3 times in italian-only to ask why after a week my domain was not activated yet - in italy the NIC thinks we are still in the 80s)

Ok, now, i would like to do that website in english, italian and chinese, and i chose to do it using related websites by folders

so, domain.it is english, domain.it/zh is chinese domain.it/it is italian and i think that it would work

But... as an american user, how do you think this idea?

I mean, do you feel ok that, for example, download.it is in en-us, or you would prefer downloadit.com and leave the .it to the italians?

I just received 16 invites for Google Wave, and I am gonna give them to who is interested.

To get one, just write your email in this comment, I will invite you and the filter your email, for privacy reasons

Google Wave it's a sort of Facebook clone, for now it's a little bit useless, but with more users it will become very interesting. Wanna have a try?

edit January 8, 2010: invites still available!