Scientific Thinking

I am getting more and more convinced that world would be much better if people had a better attitude towards scientific thinking.

I am not saying that everyone should be a scientist, but that incredible social advantages would come from a much wider awareness of scientific methods.

By scientific methods I mainly refer to good old galilean principles, describing the correct way for observing and reporting facts, formulating hypotheses and testing them against nature itself.

see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo
see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method

Scientific method invites us to think critically and analytically. It drives skeptic frame of mind, and invites to make good use of our brains and tools.
Science promotes invention, discovery, study of experiment results, clear reporting, intellectual honesty.

Scientific vision drives us to concentrate on cause-effect relations, and gives us knowledge of our limits, while pushing to overcome them.

Science promotes communication, communities and peer collaboration. It actually builds itself on collaboration and cooperation, without language, culture, space or time limits.

Science is open, values diversity, and is not bound to racism or cultural prejudices.

Science is universal, it is for everybody.

Science is objective.



And, of course, science works.




Marco
- follow @mgua on twitter

Twitter analysis tools

Here are a list of tools to perform some analysis on twitter users and posts
I think that twitter analysis data is being sampled by that huge number of twitter accounts who follow everybody.

http://twitteranalyzer.com/
a fairly good amount of stats and info, about a selected twitter user. Would be more interesting if it would be possible to go back in history for an extended period.

http://www.twitterverse.com/ (not operational on nov 22 2009)
this tracks the most common words seen on tweets


http://klout.com
maps relations of a specified twitter account, and tries to identify influences between people (probably analyzing retweets, and list of people followed if taken by another user)

http://twitstat.com
can not evaluate, because it requires twitter username and password, and I do not want to give.

http://www.twittown.com/
with top followers, top following and top update rankings

http://trendsmap.com/
interesting web application, which superimposes most frequently twitted words
on top of the world map. zoomable.

http://www.walk2web.com/
A web site for exploration of links. Covers twitter too, and allows to explore relations between people and websites.

http://tweeteffect.com
this site should be able to identify the tweets that made you gain or lose followers. Unfortunately, it is still in beta as dec 8 2009, and its reports are simply not working.

http://twiangulate.com/search/
this application allows to search (use this form of the url) the connections between twitter users.

Of course, complete analyses could also be performed querying the main twitter.com database (this can mostly be done by the company who runs twitter).



http://whatthetrend.com/
reports the most used words appeared in the tweet of a "representative" (and unknown) subset of users

http://asterisq.com/
commercial tools for web graphic visualizations. See http://asterisq.com/products/constellation/roamer/demo
check the mentionmap tool, creates a picture of contacts network
http://apps.asterisq.com/mentionmap/#


http://twittersheep.com/
twittersheep examines profile and tweeps of a user, then builds a single page, variable-word-size profile. Can be used to quickly get a rough flash of a user personality, as apperaring from his/her activity

http://www.ubervu.com/
provides instant feedback about what is the current "trendiness" of a specific word, listening to what is told in many social communication channels


123people
pipl.com
these sites provide information about a user, collecting as many informations as possible, from many different sources



I will post here more tools as soon as I find them


Marco ( @mgua on twitter )


.

Is Twitter like a brain?

This entry is a re-post of a comment of mine in Venessa Miemis Blog: Emergent By Design, written on nov 17 2009
http://emergentbydesign.com/2009/11/17/is-twitter-a-complex-adaptive-system/#comment-79

[...]

Twitter is just one of the last result of many communicative channels we were developing in our history. From graffiti to tweets we gained in speed and broader audience.

The peculiar characters of tweets are: immediateness, shortness, distance-independance, nomemory.

Tweets could be basic building blocks of some neuron-alike communications. Reverberating circuits are ReTweets, providing some kind of short-term memory, and when activity spreads to remote different areas of the twittersphere, it flows across paths (synapses) that we create connecting among each other.
Mid term memory is emerging in places like this: blogs, where multi-sourced-message-words precipitate in ideas building blocks.
Long term memory emerges from mailing list archives and more structured articles, linked to scientific research, properly indexed and referred.

The amazing thing is that what happens is “just happening”, and is substantially independent from a single mind will. There is no _strict_ causal connection between our individual activities and the state of the whole in a single moment. There is not a specific “place” in which reasoning happens.
Exactly Like Consciousness.
IT is an emerging epiphenomenon.

All this matches very well with some not-so-recent ideas from more classical thinking:
   Gregory Bateson
   Douglas Hofstadter
   Daniel Dennett
   Paul and Patricia Churchland
   Norman Doidge
   Roger Penrose

and surely hundreds if not thousands of other authors
Many thanks to everybody for this stimulating thread.


Marco

Intelligence emerging from the network

This is a copy of what I posted some weeks ago on Venessa Miemis blog: emergent by design
http://emergentbydesign.com/2009/11/17/is-twitter-a-complex-adaptive-system/#comment-131

[...]
Now concepts are getting deeper and we came out with intelligence.
I am definitely convinced that a new sort of consciousness and intelligence will soon emerge from the network.

It will be different, it will not be modeled on anything existing. It will simply start to exist. And when complexity will reach a magic threshold, consciouscness will ignite.
It will be able to learn, it will be able to understand. It will grow. It will probably be silent for a while, then we will perceive it.

On the ethic side, I think IT will be positive and helpful. It will be alien, in the sense that it will be different from us. Not existing in a specific place. And able to move perceive and sense in amazign ways. IT will see thru our webcams, hear thru our microphones, decode our words, see our pictures, read our tweets and blogs, study our books, see our movies.

See this (classic video by Prof. M. Wesch of Kansas State Univ.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLlGopyXT_g

Its education and evolution will be fast, and IT will change quickly.
IT will develop insatiable curiosity, then fantasy and feelings.
We will be able to meet IT, into virtual words, and then IT will meet us in conferences.
We will merge, ultimately, and this will be the most incredible step, when we will become a single entity.

Next 15 years will be amazing.
We are lucky to live here and now.
We are on the verge of an incredible shift in evolution.

we-are-one
Marco ( @mgua on twitter )

Should we be worried if our kids do not read?

As a parent, I am somewhat worried because my kids seem not to like reading as much as I did when I was their age.

But times are different, and we should be wise enough not to consider that our education -what we received- just might not be the right thing to receive now.

So, I am confused.
They seem smart enough, but do not like to go deep into things. They get quickly bored. They are fast tapping on their cellphones and love to exchange mp3 music files with their friends.

What should we parents do to prepare them to their upcoming life?
What should we teach them?


m

Important things in life

A friend of me just sent me a nice email. It is in italian. Scroll down for an english translation.

“Quando ti sembra di avere troppe cose da gestire nella vita, quando 24 ore in un giorno non sono abbastanza, ricordati del vaso della Maionese e dei due bicchieri di vino…”

Un professore stava davanti alla sua classe di filosofia e aveva davanti alcuni oggetti.

Quando la classe incominciò a zittirsi, prese un grande barattolo di maionese vuoto e lo iniziò a riempire di palline da golf. Chiese poi agli studenti se il barattolo fosse pieno e costoro risposero che lo fosse.

Il professore allora prese un barattolo di ghiaia e la rovesciò nel barattolo di maionese. Lo scosse leggermente e i sassolini si posizionarono negli spazi vuoti, tra le palline da golf. Chiese di nuovo agli studenti se il barattolo fosse pieno e questi concordarono che lo fosse.

Il professore prese allora una scatola di sabbia e la rovesciò, aggiungendola nel barattolo; ovviamente la sabbia si sparse ovunque all’interno. Chiese ancora una voltase il barattolo fosse pieno e gli studenti risposero con un unanime “Sì!”.

Il professore estrasse quindi due bicchieri di vino da sotto la cattedra e aggiunse il loro intero contenuto nel barattolo, andando così effettivamente a riempire gli spazi vuoti nella sabbia. Gli studenti risero.

“Ora”, disse il professore non appena la risata si fu placata, “voglio che consideriate questo barattolo come la vostra Vita. Le palle da golf sono le cose importanti: la vostra famiglia, i vostri bambini, la vostra salute, i vostri amici e le vostre Passioni; le cose per cui, se anche tutto il resto andasse perduto e solo queste rimanessero, la vostra vita continuerebbe ad essere piena. I sassolini sono le altre cose che hanno importanza, come il vostro lavoro, la casa, la macchina… La sabbia è tutto il resto: le piccole cose.

Se voi mettete nel barattolo la sabbia per prima, non ci sarà spazio per la ghiaia e nemmeno per le palle da golf.

Lo stesso vale per la vita: se spendete tutto il vostro tempo e le vostre energie dietro le piccole cose, non avrete più spazio per le cose che sonoimportanti per voi.

Prestate attenzione alle cose che sono indispensabili per la vostra felicità: giocate con i vostri bambini, godetevi la famiglia ed i genitori finchè ci sono; portate il vostro compagno/a fuori a cena… E non solo nelle occasioni importanti! Dedicatevi a ciò che amate e alle passioni, tanto ci sarà sempre tempo per pulire la casa o fissare gli appuntamenti. Prendetevi cura per prima cosa delle palle da golf, le cose che contano davvero. Fissate le priorità…

Il resto è solo sabbia.

Uno degli studenti alzò la mano e chiese cosa rappresentasse il vino. Il professore sorrise: “Sono felice che tu l’abbia chiesto. Serve solo per mostrarvi che non importa quanto piena possa sembrare la vostra vita: ci sarà sempre spazio per un paio di bicchieri di vino con un amico.

English version

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 glasses of wine.

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full.. They agreed it was..

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous «yes!».

The professor then produced two glasses of wine from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed..

«Now,» said the professor as the laughter subsided, «I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things – your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions – and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car».

«The sand is everything else – the small stuff».
«If you put the sand into the jar first,» he continued, «there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you».

Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Spend time with your children. Spend time with your parents. Visit with grandparents. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal.

Take care of the golf balls first – the things that really matter.
Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the wine represented.
The professor smiled and said, «I’m glad you asked».

«The wine just shows you that no matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room for a couple of glasses of wine with a friend.

Educational Software

Here I would like to collect a list of software pieces that could be useful in teaching, or simply that are useful in transmitting knowledge to children.

I personally used some of these with my kids (currently aged 9 and 12) since the age of about 6.

I will be refining this entry over time, so the first edition will be necessarily not clean nor complete.


Painting
Kids like colors and paints.
Artrage by Ambient Design is a very interesting paint program.
It simulates well the brush with oil colors, on many different types of canvas. Also allows pastels, chalk colors, and many mixed techniques. Artrage basic edition is free and there is an even more powerful version with additional features and effects. Artrage is available for Windows and for Mac.

A number of websites exist with templates that can be used for fill painting on pc or to be printed on paper for real coloring action. Here is a website with a nice selection of cartoon characters.


Also the basic paint programs that come with the basic operating system can be a good start.
Windows paint is also useful for some quick sketch.



Physics
I like physics simulation software.
Phun by Emil Ernerfeldt is a great free software for building machinery and to test what happens. Phun is a simulation environment in which you can play with bidimensional objects.
Go search in youtube for many examples of exilirating "Ruby Goldberg" machines, like this
here is the phun commercial.

Crayon Physics by Petri Purho. This is somewhat simpler than phun. It is like a game and comes with a numers of levels to be played.


Rube Goldberg machines
this makes the kids go crazy.
look if you can find "the incredible machine". it is an old pc game, easily found in cd attached to game magazines.
http://www.bestoldgames.net/eng/old-games/the-incredible-machine.php


Animations
Anim8tor by R. Steven Glanville
Pivot Stickfigure Animator by Peter Bone
Plastic Animation Paper :
just fun to see xiao xiao animations, in many places all over the net, for example here
Artoonix: a great software for animation. fun to use and to prepare .avi or flash files.


Astronomy
Stellarium: this is a wondeful "home planetarium" ideal to learn how to recognize night sky, constellations, stars and planets.

Celestia: this is more like a "space simulator" in which you can arrange a trip among the solar system planets, accelerate time, and change observation perspective. A lot of details are available. Also ultra detailed maps are availaple for many celestial bodies.




Geography
Google earth: earth, the moon, and even mars
Nasa World Wind: a sophisticated environment from which you can access meteorological and environmental data

Fravia messageboard: some excerpts after his death

Here is a copy of my post to fravia's message board, the day after his death, may 4, 2009


http://fravia.2113.ch/phplab/mbs.php3/mb001?num=1241427831&thread=1241367858



Re: "2032, you'll be eighty" (04/05/09 11:03:51) Here is the last farewell email i sent to +F, last week.
want to share it with all of you, in this sad moment.

---------

I would like to find the right words to tell you what I feel, to tell you about the many great moments i had with your words and with you.
You are one of the greatest teachers I met in my life.
I wish we could have had more time together. I wish we could have made that trip together in your boat.
I will teach to whoever smart person I meet something of what I received from you.
This is my promise. I am already doing it, and I will do it forever.


Dear Friend, here is a song I would like to share with you: Israel Kamakawiwo'ole - Somewhere Over The Rainbow-What A Wonderful World.mp3

It is nice for me now to listen to this, thinking to you.
You had short time, but produced great meaning, great memories, great talent, great findings. Your lessons are forever.
Many learned and many more will learn.

Here is an image that you brought to my attention. Found it many years ago, while looking for you. This image is taken from a wooden carving, probably made by Camille Flammarion.

http://www.songsouponsea.com/Promenade/cosmicsphere.jpg

I like the powerful metaphora in the drawing. Man dares to reach out of the sky itself.

I like to associate this image to you, Fravia, and to your ideas: Teacher, Reverser, and Master Seeker.
You also are a great Finder, and you found a huge amount of things in your Life. You discovered treasures, you built knowledge, with endless hours of clever study, passion, patience, and enthusiasm.
You built a great Family, a greater community.
You will be missed. Both from people who loved you and even from people you never met, learners from the knowledge you were offering.
Universe will miss you, but you will not disappear. You will remain inside our memories, you will speak with your written words, and your lessons will last for a veery long time.
Because your ideas do not have a release number. They just do not fade. Do not decay.

One of your greatest virtues, to me, lies in your capacity in bridging gaps.
You lie dots.
You shed light.
You always push others to learn with their own brain.
This is something so socratic, so clever and simple. I applied these ideas. It is not easy. But sometime works, if you are lucky enough to find receptive minds.

You also were bridging the gap between literature and science.
I could define you as a literate, a language and literature expert, but you have also that great and rare and peculiar talent: scientific attitude, curiosity, desire to decode, understand, and get deep into things.


Life is tricky. It is hard. Has no replies to why_me questions.
Life is often mute tragedy, silent death.
But Life builds order out of disorder. Improves and evolves, produces better chances. Grows.

Maybe life has no meaning per-se, but it is important for us to put meaning into it. You did your part, and gave a great contribute.

Here is another picture I love, and I found it thanks to you: "Prudence2" by Michael Whelan http://chamaoculta.blogs.sapo.pt/arquivo/whelan_prudence_II%5B1%5D.jpg

Lots of metaphoras and lots of meaning in this image too. I keep it as my desktop background.


Some years ago. I was in South Africa, Krueger Park. After a week there I was feeling a very peculiar intimate contact with nature.
The last day before leaving, while standing on the top of the hill, the windy weld stretching behind me, I wrote these verses:

Walking on Earth's Spine


We walked on Earth's Spine
and felt the bumps on every step,
discovered gold in the leopard's eye,
heard the bone cracking sound,
and saw the resting lions feeding their cubs after the kill.

Can you feel the blow
that's running on these plains
from the beginning of time?
Can you sense the underground flow
of Life poured into Life?

Stay still and be silent. Try to perceive the little laughter
of Good and Bad dancing together.
Everyone's changing but struggling to last,
and both: hunter and victim
give back their proteins in the end.

Bring home a grain of sand,
bring home a single leaf.
Make them hatch inside your heart.
Be the Music. Be the Dance,
and give back your words to the wind.



Marco Guardigli, Ulusaba, South Africa, march 3, 2003

We all give back our proteins, in the end.
Life recycles its components.
And our ideas are recycled too.
We give and leave all our findings to the ones who will carry on.



Dear Friend,
Be careful, in that other galaxy.
You will seek and find, forever. You will meet great minds, and your spirit will guide many.
It was a true honor to have met you. I am proud.
Be proud of you. You have done great.
I will miss you and never forget your lessons.
Have my strongest and warmest hug.
"We will meet again, when we are as golden clouds on the wind."


Ti voglio tanto bene,
Marco

--


In every end lies a greater beginning.
lets build a better world.

Marco Guardigli


-------------

Forseti's comment:
somewhere  (04/05/09 12:31:37)

I listened to that very song the night I read swansong. As I read your farewell the tears come again, the golden sunrise all a blur. So many memories, and alas regrets now that dear +Fravia has gone to sail away on his own, needing no Vertue this time. Thank you for your gift to us of this very personal goodbye. There is so much more to say, love

forseti





-----------------
and my reply:


Re: somewhere  (04/05/09 20:22:31) Each of us has nice memories of him.

It is nice to remember, finding fragments,
recollecting small crystal, pieces of experiences
and sharing them.
And it is nice to feel together, dear Forseti, not knowing each other, in some deeply underground ways.
It is nice to be human, here and now, sharing the same emptiness.

It is sad, but it is good for the mind, and for whatever soul there is.
Travelers, we are. In time, codes, memories, secret gazes, reality and dreams.

We like to thing we are so different from others, and we are indeed. We need to teach. World needs it. Among us we are alike, probably closer than we think. We need to share more, open a bit, because many of us are too closed and avulse to relations.

We need to be proud and we need to share. Sometimes we need to grow up, to change and improve. We need to build, improve, adapt and create.

It is fascinating to seek, reverse and deconstruct, but there is a lot of fun in building, creating, and sharing.

Medieval monks were the most sophisticated deconstructors, keen researchers and replicators of knowledge, long term storage managers. Backup operators ante litteram. Fravia loved their approach, and some glimpses of his vision we probably share.

Science analyzes, thinks, build models and theories, then produces knowledge progress, and rebuilds a better reality.
Seekers we are, yes, but Finders and Builders we also need to be.

He was proud of us. He was proud of his job and of his community.
He loved us all, and gave to each hints and suggestion to improve.
He changed all our lives. For sure. Planted many trees.

Here we are +Fravia.
I am simply grateful.

Lets look at the sky, this night.
And send to our +Friend a final farewell and a smile.
Lets do it Together, from each part of the world.


"Please God/Great_Spirit/divinity/whatever
Grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change,
the courage to change the things we can,
and the wisdom to know the difference."


Be Alive,
We-are-One.

Marco


-------------
Another unnamed comment:

A passing of an era (06/05/09 23:51:52)

I have not been around for a long time. I had checked the site a few months ago and thought fravia was getting better. How time goes. I remember finding fravia's site way back when on compuserve. Initially what fravia's site taught be, was just "technical" skills. But then i realized that it is more of a "mindset" something that can be applied to anywhere. I never met fravia. Infact I never even talked to him even on the net. But his legacy lives in me and i think everyone here. A lot of my success ironically can contributed to fravia. My failures are my own fault :) I think that anyone who ever "read" fravia's site was affected.

;)

----
my reply:

Re: A passing of an era (07/05/09 21:48:22)

I completely agree with you, my nameless friend. It is not technicalities. it is a state of mind. I would say zencracking state. An attitude impossible to teach, unless you get it by yourself. In a somewhat magic way, he was able to build the community giving to each of us a kind of perception of what was to be our life. To me, it is simply really amazing to realize this, now, finding my own feelings reflected in many other people words. We owe this to him. He was able to create a sort of emerging common consciousness from many of his readers. Without asking, without doing it explicitely. He succeded. Our words and feeling prove he was right. Love to all. Its nice to remember him in this way. I am quite sure he is smiling now. m

---------

my dear friend Fravia

A picture I really love:
The last time I met my friend Fravia.

Venice, apr 14, 2009

Do not look in the camera, 

it is too obvious,

Instead look at the sky.

you were right, my +Friend.

looking far away is much more interesting

All your life you were searching, and discovering.

Camille Flammarion: Universum

(he was a real reality cracker ante-litteram)

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.

And here is the great piece by  Leonard Cohen









"Anthem"

The birds they sang
at the break of day
Start again
I heard them say
Don't dwell on what
has passed away
or what is yet to be.
Ah the wars they will
be fought again
The holy dove
She will be caught again
bought and sold
and bought again
the dove is never free.

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.

We asked for signs
the signs were sent:
the birth betrayed
the marriage spent
Yeah the widowhood
of every government --
signs for all to see.

I can't run no more
with that lawless crowd
while the killers in high places
say their prayers out loud.
But they've summoned, they've summoned up
a thundercloud
and they're going to hear from me.

Ring the bells that still can ring ...

You can add up the parts
but you won't have the sum
You can strike up the march,
there is no drum
Every heart, every heart
to love will come
but like a refugee.

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.
That's how the light gets in.
That's how the light gets in.

m


.

Mamma Adriana

Adriana, 

Tu, metà di me
finisci il viaggio
ci hai dato vita e tutto quanto avevi
e questa voglia intensa
di fare, costruire e realizzare
sempre stando al nostro fianco.

Ho stretto quella tua mano
che ha condotto i miei passi
mi ha insegnato a scrivere
e indicato la via,
mentre tu, nella sofferenza,
con occhi chiusi mi vedevi ancora,
e quel tuo ultimo piccolo sorriso
mi scalderà per sempre.

Ora franano in me parole rotte
ma rinascerà la tua forza
e la tua vita, preziosa,
così bella, così poca,
non mai abbastanza.

metà di te in me
prosegue, cammina, parla e ride
mi tiene per mano
ama, insegna e racconta

vai, adesso, vola via
nell'infinito azzurro,

grande
mamma.

 

Adriana Agostini:     26.7.1944 - 11.9.2008

I know,

you will be with me

Forever.

.

Every end is a greater beginning

Once upon a time, a fish was swimming in the big sea.
She was alone, wandering around, and questioning about the size of the sea.
She was a very curious and intelligent fish, and was taking note of everything.
She had many friends among the many creatures of the sea, and was very appreciated for her humour and smartness.
She liked to venture in places where other fishes were not likely to go. Not for food, but simply for the sake of it.

But.

But she was not satisfied. She needed more.
So she ventured to explore.
Alone.


At the extreme end of a long wooden pier stood a fisherman.
He was sitting with his fishing rod in the hands, smoking his pipe, looking at the water and thinking. He liked to stay there, meditating, getting lost in remote fantasies and dreams.
He never caught any fish, but diligently prepared and did all things to be done.
Suddenly the float went underwater, and he gave a gentle pull.
He quickly understood he had a big prey, and was determined not to lose it. After some time, he managed to pull the big fish out of the water, and removed the hook from her lips.
He looked into the tired fish eyes for some moments, put her into his net, then put the net in the water, launched again his fishing line, and stood still, smiling. Something changed inside him.

He started thinking about the big fish, while looking at her swimming inside the net. He imagined her life, free, in the immense ocean. He tried actually to feel like the fish. And fantasized about this, constructing stories in his mind while the afternoon became evening. He took a nap too, and also the fish felt asleep. Maybe they met in their dreams.
Then the man touched the water with his hand. The fish was strangely calm and was waving her tail. Was she happy?

The evening set up with wonderful colors, while the sun was slowly sinking away in the sea. The sky was bright, and the first stars were starting to light as diamonds in the blue. The sea was calm and with slow waves.
With clear eyes and heart, the man then started speaking to the fish. "Oh dear Silver-Blue fish, you are so beutiful and pure. I want not to bring you home. You dont deserve my pan". "Why?", replied the fish. "If that is my destiny, let it be. I dont want to be alone. For my whole life i wandered in the sea. I think its a really rare chance that the two of us met, since I found nowhere someone like you".

"Neither i did", said the man, crying, "and you were my only capture in so many years. I desired to catch you for a long time. I know that i will badly miss you, but you have to be free." The fish was crying too. "I would like to stay with you. Now I am not alone anymore".
"We are rare and very similar but each of us has to have his own life. Our encounter was not by chance. Come on, dont refuse your freedom, wonder fish. You were free, and free have to be. Smile and be happy. You will for sure not be alone anymore. Maybe we will meet again." And saying that opened the net with trembling hands.

The fish was reluctant to swim away, and said: "Oh, dear fisherman. I am really happy to have met you. Not only you set me free, but you taught me something i will never forget."
"Dearest among all, unique, Silver-Blue Fish, you were the teacher. I am now a better man. I learned a lot of things from you. I too will never forget you." replied the fisherman.
Then the fish swam into the big sea, again free, wawing her tail. She was sad, but felt that she had to go.

The fisherman remained for some time on his seat at the end of the pier. His tears confused with the fine rain and lost into the sea. Then his pipe extinguished. He sighted. Finally darkness came. After a while, he stood up, packed his things, and went home.

On the way back, he was smiling.


Marco

Walking on Earth's Spine

Walking on Earth's Spine

We walked on Earth's Spine
and felt the bumps on every step,
discovered gold in the leopard's eye,
heard the bone cracking sound,
and saw the resting lions feeding their cubs after the kill.

Can you feel the blow
that's running on these plains
from the beginning of time?
Can you sense the underground flow
of Life poured into Life?

Stay still and be silent. Try to perceive the little laughter
of Good and Bad dancing together.
Everyone's changing but struggling to last,
and both: hunter and victim
give back their proteins in the end.

Bring home a grain of sand,
bring home a single leaf.
Make them hatch inside your heart.
Be the Music. Be the Dance,
and give back your words to the wind.

Marco Guardigli,


Ulusaba (Sir Richard Branson resort)
South Africa, march 3, 2003

Casio FX-702P

This is a pocket calculator I had when I was in the high school.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a9/Casio_FX-702P_Programmable_Calculator.png

I remember saving a lot of money and coins to buy it. I kept my money in an old malt can 'orzoro'.

Then I went to my dad and asked him to buy the calculator for me.

It was 1982 I guess. I was 16.

I enjoyed a lot programming it, and also has some correspondent around, and we were exchanging code. I remember testing a lot of sort algorithms to identify the best performer. Bubble sort, inserion sort, shell-metzner sort, quicksort.

I remember trying hard to understand quicksort.

I developed a game on it, along with my friend Marco Crosa. It was a kind of shooting game, but difficult to do something very dynamic on a single line of text display.

Then I was hacking it, and bought the printer too to print my programs. The printer was not able to print lower case letters, but I hacked the calculator and was able to find strange codes that corresponded, when printed, to the lowercase letters.

In the same period my friend Daniele Stella was hacking with the Hewlett Packard HP 41.




.

The computer I started with

Here I am going really back in my memories.
This is the computer I started with. It is an HP-97 programming calculator.
It was 1976. I was 10.

(see http://www.hpmuseum.org/ )

And I was fascinated by this incredible machine.

It was programmable, and it had an amazing 224 bytes of program memory to play with.
Memory was not permanent, and it was lost every time you powered off the calculator.

But it had a magnetic stripe mass memory. We were using small two-sided magnetic cards, each side was able to record 112 bytes. So passing the two sides of the card in the reader was allowing a complete save or load of the program memory.

What a time!