Dandandin.net

Even if one year ago I wrote that the new menu in Windows 8 sucks, now I am getting used to it. I like the live tiles, to see the latest updates without opening the full application.

So, today I turn on the computer and I get this news: "Pistorius killed his girlfriend"!

What??? On Valentine's day??

I always saw him as a role model, then this??

Reading the article, a local south african radio said it's an accident: she was mistaken for a burglar, but it's too early to know what really happened.

This weekend there was a bug on the Japanese website of the Italian airline company Alitalia. They intended to give a 25000 yen discount on Japan=>Italy flights, but, for an error, the promo code could be redeemed on every flight, using an additional 25% discount. So, for example you could get a free ticket from Europe to Abu Dhabi or Caracas.

I'm reading comments left on a forum: there is someone, maliciously, went on the japanese website, redeemed a code for japanese flights and bought stole SEVEN tickets from Milan to Caracas.

There is no good faith in this: people deliberately used this trick to get stuff for free.

And it's ridiculous to read on the official Facebook pages comments like "It's unfair that my four free tickets for Abu Dhabi have been canceled!"

Of course, I'd also love to go for free at Timbuktu with a stopover in Sydney, but here is not a "price tag" error, the tickets have been booked in bad faith, and I really hope that all of them will be canceled.

UPDATE:

Alitalia decided to honor all tickets that had a credit card transaction! Oh my god, who used this promotion is so lucky, I envy them a lot, hahaha.

A British company will spend 300 million dollars to lay a new cable under the Atlantic, linking London to New York.

The track has been carefully calculated to be slightly shorter and thus have a shorter transmission time: 6 milliseconds faster.
Pay 300 million dollars to save just 6 milliseconds?? Is it worth it?

Apparently, yes. Using the line will cost 100 times more than a normal line: it is reserved for financial brokers who trade thousands of shares per day. An advantage of 6 milliseconds would result in an annual gain of 100 million dollars.

In fact, in my experiments, a few seconds cost me 5 euros...

When I found preinstalled on my server Microsoft Exchange, I did not search for a better one, maybe because I'm lazy, maybe because it's the most trusted and used mail server in the world; for example Microsoft is using a fork of that for manage its hotmail, with 1.3 billions mail accounts, 3 billions of daily mail, 155 petabyte of storage (that's 155 million gigabytes!); and even Facebook uses Exchange (link in Italian - I could not find an English link) for its internal mail, even if the Facebook guys are for linux/opensource solutions.

So, I chose to use Exchange. And then I immediately regret my decision: the configuration it's a mess, and the user manual that it's a free download from Microsoft it's over 500 pages, and the default settings are less than ideal (It's so cool to be an open relay for spam, right?)

And what about options and functionality? It offers less than basic functions, unless you pay $$$ for third-party plugins. And its webmail works correctly only with Internet Explorer 6, etc...

So, yesterday I tried to disable it and replace with the most used opensource mail server:

Wow! Less memory usage with more functionality!

Bye bye Exchange, I won't miss you!

Update: wow, after a few reboots and the complete uninstall, the memory usage has reduced in half!

As you can see, I recently changed the skin on Dandandin.net, what do you think about?

I made a full size screenshot of the old screen, for a comparison: link

It's totally different, and I'm still tweaking it

I switched to IntenseDebate for managing the comments in this website. Thanks to the perfect mojoPortal integration, it was a snap to do it

Comments to the already commented blog posts will still use the "old" system, only the new ones will have it.

Using IntenseDebate will enable everyone to "follow" the discussion by notification emails, and will let me to publish the hottest topics, the latest comments, and the most active users on the sidebar (But I won't do it now, because it will show a desert - I will do it later)

With IntenseDebate you can also up or downvote other comments, and also you have useless functions like the RSS of the comments.

And it's AJAX, so a new comment will not cause the page to reload! What about editing a comment? Now you can!

The only drawback is that it cannot be integrated with the existing user database, but the added functionality will rock...

There is another drawback that will concern to SEO freaks: no more "do follow" links on the comments. Previously i like the idea to "give back" to the good commenters with a "do follow" link on his username, but now it is no more possible, sorry... ...but IntenseDebate will offer you a new opportunity: your comments will be universal on all websites that supports them, and people can follow you if you are a good commenter. So, you will still have a reason to comment

You might have noticed it, right? The old subdomain en.dandandin.it redirects now to dandandin.net, targeting the rest of the world

Ok, maybe there is less content in the .net website than in the .it counterpart, but I am only one person, and I am doing the translation with the brain, not with Google translator, as too many (bad) webmasters are doing out there (/me is modest)

Other many amazing announcements will come in the near future, follow us!

Look at this interesting comparison between various Disney animation movies:

That's impressing, the dancing scenes are practically identical between the movies. This is because of the usage of the Rotoscope to create  realistic animation. If nowadays, for making realistic movements in 3d animations, are used real actors that are wearing hundreds of sensors, at that age, the actors were filmed, and then every frame would be drawn by hand. Disney's Snow White is one of the first movies to use this technique.

Another example of rotoscoping is A-ha's Take on Me music video:

What happens if the revolutionary (but expensive) Segway does an alliance with General Motors?

Segway, a company that have some economic problems for its (ex)revolutionary vehicle that had to revolute the urban traffic, but failed except for a sporadic use from governments.

A strange hybrid is born:

Wow, it looks useful and practical, expecially in the cities. It can reach 35 mph, with a 35 miles of autonomy. Fully electric, it should cost around a third of a standard car...

...it depends what General Motors is meaning with "standard car"... If a standard car is $15000, that means $5000, it is an interesting price point . But, since a "standard" segway it costs $10000, it is a bit impossible that the P.U.M.A. (Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility project) will have a competitive price...

Let's hope that it will not be just a concept like the motorbike The Uno

Update: here is a video:

The new President of the USA, is very "technofile". it isn't?

He was the first president to have a dedicated channel on YouTube (now closed for "national security reasons")
The first president to get an official shot by a digital camera
The first president PDA-dependent

When he met the UK prime ministry, he gave a DVD movie set box as a gift. Unfortunately, it was not possible to play them due to "regional locks"

When he met her majesty the Queen Elizabeth II, he gave her an iPod.

Wow, a big change with the past! He kept his promise of "change"