Pengpod's GNU/Linux tablets are coming. Also in Italy.

I just read the news that Pengpod is going to release a couple of tablets with a GNU/Linux system (not with Android).
I got the news from ANSA, the main italian agency (http://www.ansa.it/web/notizie/rubriche/tecnologia/2012/12/04/gennaio-tablet-Linux-sfida-Android-Apple_7899132.html) and the title of the article is "In January a Linux tablet will challenge Android and Apple".

The news is beautiful for two reasons. First: a new tablet with GNU/Linux, hurray. Second: an italian press agency (the most important, inter alia) mentioned Linux. Ok, I know it's GNU/Linux and not "Linux" but don't demand too much: it's incredible that someone in our press world recognized just the existence of GNU/Linux. In Italy, basically, it's unusual to read about GNU/Linux on a newspaper. At maximum you will hear about "Open Source" the word "free" is not even mentioned. And, "GNU/Linux" and "Linux" are often considered synonyms. The title itself of the the article recognizes GNU/Linux as a character of the mobile challenge.

Talking about the tablets, they seems to be good products, expecially for their price. Personally, I can't wait to see them running Plasma Active.

So it's a good period for Italy in freedom of software: today we hear this news, and some weeks ago our parliament has issued a law that forces public administration to choose Free Open Source Software every time it is possible (and buy proprietary programs only if there is no FOSS alternative). This is the base for a mentality change: if everything goes well, in less than ten years FOSS will not be just "an alternative", but it will be "the normality".

Progetto Archimede: energy for everyone

Computers, obiously, need energy to work. And so do all the other machines: the problem of power sources is becoming bigger every day, since we don't have a renewable energy source that could really replace fossil fuels. Or do we?

Some months ago I wrote an article for BBC Science Italy, about the "Progetto Archimede" (Archimedes Project) built from the ENEA based on an idea of Carlo Rubbia (an italian Nobel prize winner for physics). Because of some troubles in the layout of the magazine, we decided to not publish the article. For this reason I would like to publish at least the interview I did at the italian minister of environment Corrado Clini (and former director of ENEA).

Just for those who don't know what we are talking about, Progetto Archimede is a new kind of power plant based on solar thermodynamic that works both in day and night: according to Rubbia's calculations, a power plant of this type large about 2000 Km² (this is nothing in terms of desertic areas) can give energy to the whole Europe. Forever.

Here's the interview:

Social networks: the new major media

A few days ago, I got an email from Sarah Wenger, with an infographic she developed about the power of online people. There is a line that says "Social media is becoming the new major media". This is basically right, I think we are all aware that Facebook and Twitter (for example) are the main way for the diffusion of news. Is this good or bad? This question, obiously, is stupid. Tecnology is not good and not bad: tecnology is just an instrument. The use people do of tecnology can be positive or negative.

In memoriam

I just read on the italian main press agency that Neil Armstrong, the first man that walked on the moon, died. This blog talks about tecnology, and I thought it's important to remember that the Apollo XI mission is the simbol itself of what the human kind can do using science, tecnology, and all the amazing power of our brain. Basically, in less than a century we came from a situation where flying was just a mere dream, to seeing a man walking out of Earth atmosphere and over the Moon.
Sometimes I ask myself if cavemen would have ever been able to imagine that in the future someone would be able to touch the very surface of Moon.
Fellini, in a movie, talked about some mad people that wanted to take the Moon and bring it here, on the Earth. Armstrong, Aldrin, and all the other men of Apollo program are maybe the people who went as near as possible to this dream.
In conclusion, thank you Neil, since you demonstrated what we are able to do with science (and also a little bit of courage).

KDE on the Raspberry Pi

As you may know, there is no Kubuntu for Raspberry, due to the incompatibility of Kubuntu ARM version with the little computer. I wanted to create an image for raspberry most similar as possible to Kubuntu, so I basically took the original Debian release and add some packages to have the entire Plasma Desktop. The result is quite nice, I think, and the system itself uses about 100-110 MB of the total RAM (there is also some swap on the card image). It's also quite speddy: the only problem could be that when you launch a new program, for some seconds the CPU load is 100%. You just need to wait a little and then eveything returns fine. The image can be downloaded from this link:
http://www.zorbaproject.org/raspberry/debian-raspberry-kde.img
and you can dd it on a 4GB SD card with the command:
dd bs=1M if=~/debian-raspberry-kde.img of=/dev/sdd
if your SD card is /dev/sdd, obiously.

Just a note: the username is "pi" and the password is "raspberry".

Have fun hacking with Raspberry and KDE.

EDIT: Now with screenshots:

I decided to shot photos with a camera, because it shows that there is no "trick" and what you are seeing is really KDE on a RaspberryPi.
If you want to look at other shots, here they are: https://picasaweb.google.com/109718345247929494628/KDEOnRaspberryPi

Raspberry Pis have arrived

Just writing to say that my RaspberryPi from Farnell and the one from RS Component have arrived yesterday.

I'm playing with them a little, doing some experiments, and actually they seems quite good, expecially for the price. The official Debian GN/Linux distro runs fast and without troubles. Actually, I'm trying to prepare a Kubuntu version for the RaspberryPi, but it will take some time, I think, to make it work smoothly.

If you want to give a look at them, you will find all the pictures in my gallery:
https://picasaweb.google.com/109718345247929494628/RaspberryPi

Internet ruining brains?

A reader send me an email, because he wanted to know what I think about an image he prepared. The graphic has an explicit title "Internet ruining your brain" (by the way: the image can be found at the address http://www.forensicpsychology.net/internet-ruining-your-brain/). Now, what to say about this work?
I can agree with the informations (and the graphic is nice), but I absolutely disagree about the opinion expressed:
sure, the internet is reducing our use of memory. But this is not a bad thing.