Logbook of Captain Emiliano Bruni

I had a chance these days to try an Asus Eee Box, a miniPC size but contained very respectable performance, with features that make it so ideal as office automation workstation very little cumbersome. The prodottino, despite the minimum size (178 × 223x16mm for a weight of 1.1 kg) shows an overall hardware of all respect. The engine is a classic and reliable processor Intel Atom N270 1.6 GHz flanked 1 GByte of RAM expandable, which never hurts, to 2 Gbytes. A large HD and graphics card 160Gbyte of INTEL 945GSE mean that the product's performance are optimal with operating systems that require graphics and speed as the windows manager Compiz Linux or how the effects Aero Windows 7. Obviously they could not miss the network interfaces of both 10/100/1000 Ethernet and wireless technology in 802.11n for optimal access and fast local network and Internet. Complete the endowment a 5.1 sound card inside and a card reader. The product tested was equipped with operating system software or rather was equipped with only Splashtop, renamed Linux distribution from Asus Express Gate, which allows you to take advantage of browser, email, skype in less than 10 seconds from power on the PC. Since obviously interested in this feature I proceeded immediately to remove it even for those two / three seconds less when the boot. So, first thing, I proceeded to install on Windows XP Home via an external USB CD ROM. The installation was successful and the subsequent installation of the drivers in the Support CD that came with the Eee Box has allowed the immediate recognition and enjoyment of all the devices of the product. The speed in the 'installation and use of office automation software, browser, antivirus and email programs have confirmed the capabilities of this product to be successful where they are necessary features of network access, word processing, spreadsheets and graphs. We were unable to perform the tests as to push the graphics but the confirmation of operation of components such as Compiz or Aero bodes well for the use of this product even with something as fun. The photo above shows the product placed on a metal base, which puts him upright on the desk, but what is even better to maximize the opportunities for work and his position behind the monitor. The Asus Eee Box provides for support to be positioned behind the monitor according to the standard VESA 75 and 100. In fact, if you make the case on the back of your LCD monitor you'll find four holes arranged at the vertices of a square of side respectively 75 or 100mm depending on the adhesion to the first or second standard. These holes are usually in place the monitor on brackets or wall. The Eee Box uses these holes as the attachment point for the attachment of the product on the back of the monitor. Despite netting the lowest quality of the monitor, a 15''dated, the Eee BOX is definitely the best of itself, would not it?

Rolltop is born from the idea of a futuristic laptop Orkin Design that has created a laptop that is rolled on a cylinder then used as power supply of the laptop itself and which contains the USB ports and more.

But now it does not run to your local electronics store. Rolltop is only a proof of concept presented as a thesis for a degree and then have many steps to go before we see the light.

In the video we see how the handset is rolled and unrolled on the central cylinder and how it can be used both in the classic mode laptop fully open as a tablet.

A Primavista looks like a geek but who knows if prodottino really see the light or remain only in the head of its creator.

Thanks to Maury for introducing me to this video.

With this prelude, on the cover, begins the nightmare that puts players in Chester's Mill, anonymous town in Maine who is about to be cut off from the rest of the world by an invisible and mysterious as impenetrable dome.

E 'with this banal as it is clever literary device, Stephen King, famous author of horror novels, manages to teleport a small town in the United States into a new universe in which social rules are distorted, where, what, in normal circumstances would be a simple depression, delusions of grandeur is simply exaggerated to the nth power by pulling out the worst of human nature. All this without physically moving a meter the town.

The book promises a good buy right from the beautiful cover that, once you read the book, sums up exactly the catastrophe that befalls Chester's Mill.

Obviously all the expectations of the cover is completely repaid. The book is definitely one of the best novels of Stephen King that I, personally, in the latest releases had lost much of its early verve and had recovered only slightly with his last novel "Duma Key".

With "The Dome", King again reaches its climax and does so with a novel that, despite appearances, does not contain within it the supernatural monsters but human monsters that become significant simply because the neuroses, foibles and worst defects inherent in man himself are brought exasperation from the dome.

The dome itself, and I say no it can be a spoiler, is obviously created by an alien civilization, but even then the alien presence is truly marginal and, on a book of over a thousand pages, is bound to a dozen pages. The book in fact is not why and how the dome is there but what is the isolation of a citizen of the United States produces its tenuous social fabric that falls apart within a few days until you come to a city under control and oppression of the police force that, over time, is to be formed only by the dregs of the citadel and youth led by a corrupt politician, a maker of drugs and crazy to the core.

The book made me remember that I have followed a course at university and was called "Catastrophe Teory. The course basically defined the mathematical structure in which certain situations that seem chaotic non-linear and is found to be poised on a critical point and that, due to an infinitesimal change, turn into a catastrophic situation. Chester's Mills is located at the critical point and the dome will transform forever the face of this village.

Be found even if a mild negative note is that the book contains a bit 'too many characters. On the other hand is unavoidable as in Chester's Mills all and all are contributing cause of the disaster and is therefore final and binding just follow each other in their entirety. Stephen King takes us then to follow the story of over 60 primary and secondary characters and I must say that, because of that, more often when switching from one scene to another with new characters, besides the main one gets currently struggling to understand who is speaking and what he did before but still low enough to get a reference that links the character to the bed earlier.

After all this you are ready to go to Chester's Mills before he descends the dome? I advise you not. Statevene comfortably seated in a chair outside the dome and see what happens inside the dome with the eyes of our king of horror.

I just cracked my Wii. Maybe not exactly be proud of, but after two years of games purchased and hassle to carry around and change the game disc every time I think I just about have all my games running on an external USB HD.

Look at how beautiful it 's USB Loader GX with the cover in 3D automatically loaded from the network.

Furthermore most satisfaction comes from having cracckato the latest firmware 4.2E because, naively, the first thing I did after the Wii turned on again by months of inactivity was precisely the task of updating the latest firmware available.

Serious error that meant that I succeeded in the operation after two days of sweat and thanks to this guide only and only here.

With regard to whether it is lawful or not what I did, first of all there is to say that all games are all original and that put paid. Regarding the awareness of having bypassed the protection software, what I'm doing is just to maximize the hardware, as shown by the crack, allows to run the original games by an external HD instead of having to carry around all DVDs.

If the limitations do not allow software to maximize the number for which I paid, I feel qualified to bypass the limitations, to take advantage of my money. A little 'as the jailbreak of the iPhone.

Now all that remains is the work of Carthusian do backups on hard disks of all my records, write a document to be published on this blog about the procedure I followed and order a nice Micso Wii Party

For those who like to play on the computer, especially with RPG games, and do not have a Logitech G-series, then he just can not refrain from buying this G13 keyboard that can not be defined because it has all the keys and the letters of a keyboard normal, as a gameboard.

The G13 offers a perfect comfort as the ergonomic shape fits perfectly to the position of the hand and wrist.

Though the G13 can be used as the sole means of play thanks to the joystick to the right in an ideal position for use by the left thumb, it is also true that every player who respects your right hand will not leave unused but will use it to challenge a mouse high-level management perspective of the player. Because of this, the joystick is still often delegated to the simple function of executing commands.

The G13 comes in a pack simple and functional, as always we have used the manufacturer of that product.

Software intuitive at best, not only recognizes immediately the games installed on your computer but automatically load a different profile for each game, appropriately remapping the function keys.

The G13 has a large configurable display of 160 × 43 pixels which may look different information including, by default, are loaded a nice watch, a check of the RAM and CPU of the machine, a multimedia player, an RSS reader and so on .

The display itself and all keys are backlit and you can configure the color of the backlight within a wide range of colors, controlled by software, in an instant as shown by the following video.

Furthermore, for each profile you can associate a color backlight to become immediately aware of the type of profile loaded at the time.

Of course, like other keyboards of the family G, supported the creation of macros to associate pressing multiple buttons or perform different actions to a single element.

The use is straightforward and functional, thanks to the layout of keys which, although compact, closely follows that of the keyboard, unable to be operational soon and playing at full speed after a short time.

I noticed a slight slowdown in some games but it disappeared once I deactivated the views useless (RSS reader, clock, etc ...) on the display, leaving the essentials (CPU, game statistics).

Ultimately a tool that has convinced me immediately as evidenced by the video below, made after a few minutes using the G13 with America's Army 3 from which one sees in three matches, I can stretch 12 "bastards." We give credit to handle 20% to 60% of ass and at least a 20% Give her the new Logitech G13.

E 'useless. Despite the medical thriller genre is one of my favorite genres, all the writings of

Kathy Reichs did not take me for nothing.

Pardon the euphemism but Reichs writes with her cunt instead of the brain.

But let's order. Kathy Reichs is one of two authors who normally reads (the other is Clive Cussler) he does in real life, a job similar to the one who then do the literary alter ego.

Like his alter ego Tempe Brennan, also an anthropologist Kathy Reichs is forensic. So why will work with the dead, and in particular with the skeletons, but Kathy Reichs is cold as an icicle.

What emotion you feel when you read his books. Nothing. Zero. Nisba. As an example, the beginning of the fatal journey in which our describing his alter ego that walks on a field where it has just been a plane crash. Death, pain, fire, flames, the description should bring goose bumps to every reader the Reichs and instead turns it into a cold description of the place. It seems like in those stories of people who undergo surgery, tell of being released from his body and had watched the scene of its operation with a cool detachment. Here, reading a book of Reichs is not.

Adding insult to injury? There are whole pages of descriptions and explanations about things that will not have the slightest bearing on the story. For example, in Duecentosei bones, there is a dinner with the relatives of the former husband of Tempe. And so, two pages to tell the story of the exodus of her former husband's family from Poland to the United States.

Continue? The constant presence of ambivalence between Francophone and Anglophone culture that pervades the writings of Reichs. I understand that the environment, Quebec, lends itself to this context but the rest of the world, cares nothing for questioning all'indiziato ask yourself if you prefer to do it in French or English, do not care nothing about the fact that the Temple I can not understand the French-speaking region is a particular character from his speech, did not give a damn that Anglophones imprechino indicating male body parts while speaking using words related to the church.

In short, do not like me ... if you can, avoid it.

For those who do not know, Google Chrome is the new browser, which is the new program to navigate, the big G.

Google Chrome is posed in a market segment really difficult because they are already sufficiently saturated by the various Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari and Opera browsers, just to name a few.

Yet here, too, Google has been able to say his managing to carve out a niche for now little one, thanks for your browser to certain attributes peculiar to the interface very clean and minimalist, its excellent speed at the show so much that the pages seem to have done an upgrade of bandwidth just to mention a couple of "features" of this browser.

In my humble opinion, for now, to weigh the scales on the side of Mozilla Firefox is the only lack of extension, really useful in Firefox, and lack of support for other operating systems besides Windows, even if something seems to move in this side.

Update of 08 June 2009: Computer Point, announced versions for Mac, Linux support for extensions for Google Chrome.

Course around its browser, Google has stitched mother a series of targeted advertising campaigns, including a series of "short" really nice.

There propose here some.

First, a beautiful animation, created with the technique of stop-motion, to show the logo of Chrome that, like the game Breakout, bumping into obstacles at the end playing the browser interface.

With the same technique, using only A4 sheets, you create a wall several animations and banners reading and shows the simplicity of Google Chrome

and finally a video showing the peculiarities of the browser in a visually appealing

All other related videos you can find them in the YouTube channel dedicated to this browser.

E 'is the message that awaits you if you try to import the settings of Mozilla Firefox on the new Google Chrome 2.0

Actually, the problem seems to be present only in the import of search engines loaded in Firefox it just choose not to import this single configuration

to avoid crash Google's new browser mother. A bug surely be resolved as soon as impact, immediately, the way in which a user may arise in respect of this new tool.

E 'over a week since I installed on my computer at home and the office's new operating system for home Redmont driven by curiosity, by the news that circulated online about the proper functioning of this Release Candidate Build 7100, and the fact that it is freely downloadable and usable in the Ultimate version and then in the most complete version of what will be then that future packaging of this product.

The downloaded version will expire on first giugno 2010 but, from the first March 2010, in order to push the purchase of a commercial version, the computer will begin to stop every two hours.

But until that date, no time to enjoy a full new product and decide whether to make the big leap or not.

Obviously, in a week of use are so many things that I noticed that I liked and now I am going to bring back with one key caveat: being jumped directly from Windows XP to Windows 7 and Vista are not having completely missed a very practical about functionality present in previous Microsoft OS I do not know if some new feature for me has been introduced in Windows 7 or was already present in Vista. If you find anything about it please notify me.

The first thing that jumps off the screen during the installation of Windows 7 is its simplicity and efficiency. few questions, well placed and a few choices without any problems, inaccuracies or possible misunderstanding.

The installation goes down smoothly and is able to have a car running in a very short time. The second thing that surprises is the list of compatible drivers already present in this operating system. On two computers that included RAID cards, video cards of last generation, dual and quad core, dual monitors, and more, Windows 7 has automatically recognized all the hardware without asking absolutely no external driver.

The only case of "incompatibility" was with my CanoScan D660U, compatibility, however, due generally to all 64bit systems, so that does not apply to this operating system in particular and explicitly stated by Canon. Problem solved by installing the scanner within a Windows XP on a virtual machine.

For the rest, all the programs that I had previously installed worked fine on Windows 7. The only foresight is relative, only in certain cases to different management of the registry under different accounts for which, sometimes, you must give the administrator of the Program. But a stroke of the right mouse button and you're done.

Another positive surprise is obtained at the start of the operating system and is related to the speed of ignition of the PC. The time is very short even after you install a lot 'of applications. I'm talking about time under a minute, since the ignition when you have the ability to launch and use a full program such as Microsoft Word.

If we use the features of Hibernate (and I see no reason not to use it), the time down to under 30 seconds are respectable numbers, if you will.

The "Start" menu now not using it almost more or better is used only for research and application for starting the same

The Quick Launch bar was attached to inteligente taskbar. In the same area now appear, in fact, both applications running, both for the Quick Launch

You see in the image above from left to right, for example, "Explorer" and "IE" present but not running in your taskbar, Firefox and Thunderbird running, other applications have as quick start and the last, the Paint, in performance but that, once closed, it disappears from the taskbar as not included as "application faster." The taskbar is very useful because, for example, you can access a sort of "Favorites" for that application. If, for example, you right click on "Explorer" or "IE" to access a list of recent folders or the last visited websites with the ability to block some of these "Favorites" to have them always on the list .

Gadgets are well made and occupy very little resources

and you can download more from the site on.

Finally, the standard has been integrated into a graphics program, the replacement of the old paint that wash
ra on classic GIF / JPEG / PNG, and also is smart enough to automatically adjust the output format for the type of image that we're going to save by offering, for example, the excellent PNG for images with few colors, and JPEG for photos

and two indispensable utilities that had to be first on the network, one for taking snapshots of parts or all of the monitor, called "Snipping Tool"

and, dare I say finally, the necessary post-it to avoid clutter our desk with all those yellow slips. Now we can clutter up our monitors

There would be many other things to say, but for now I leave you with this brief glimpse sure that, for now, on two PCs, I am fully satisfied with how it is behaving this Windows 7. Maybe you again in 7 days .

Today I raced against myself ... and I won.

This "magic" was able to happen thanks to the Garmin Forerunner 305 and its "virtual opponent" (virtual partner in English).

With this amazing feature is in fact possible to set the "benefits" of a virtual opponent and then run against this "ghost". And 'that is possible to say something like: "I want to run against an opponent who goes to 5min/km" or "against one who goes to 5min/km for the first 5 km and turn 5.30min/Km for the remaining time," and so on.

But the biggest thing is that you can say "I want to race against myself by taking the data from the race than x days ago." In this way, the Garmin follows exactly the progress carried out by my "self" than x days ago and compares this moment to moment with the race that I'm doing.

The incentive to improve yourself, you get the two views that, instant by instant, the Garmin FR305 gives you to show than six meters ahead (or behind) in your tea than x days ago.

In the first you see two "little men", your partner and your virtual "self" and the current visual indication is in meters than you are ahead or behind.

The second, however, shows, nell'altimetria current, where you were in course selection and where you are in the current race.

It 'a truly fantastic race and really allows you to measure themselves against yourself to improve your performance.

For example, today I received confirmation that the race Friday, as I mentioned, was subdued because of the training of spinning on Thursday.

In fact today, at the start I was a bit 'caught off guard by my nemesis that is taken immediately and after a few minutes it was already 40 yards ahead of me. But after the first kilometer, the situation is reduced and the second km I reached and surpassed my old "me" with a benefit that has been increasing by the minute so much so that the turn-over was already in front of Nereto 100 meters and, as I had certainly seen my poor performance on Friday, my advantage is increased too much to return so much so that, without even pushing, I finally beat my opponent by a margin of virtual well 297 meters. Not bad!

And the great thing is the possibility, a posteriori, to compare various parameters of the two races so you can see the differences.

This one, for example, is the comparison of velocities in the two performances where the pink line is the race today and the blue one, the one on Friday

We note indeed, on average, a trend more cheerful. The nice thing is seen in the comparison instead of pulse

where, in the face of the increase in speed noted above, there is instead a more calm and regulate the heart, especially in the last kilometers.

If you want to see my race online today, is the usual site Garmin Connect.

Well, in short, with this type of instrumentation, it is to say on two simple corset, is not it?