The first week is gone, and now is almost time to start… wait, I forgot something: why I am here, in the first place!
Well, let’s start again.
Hi everybody! Here it is you beloved Luca that is writing from Belfast, the main city of Ulster.
Since I am between two jobs (I love this, because it seems that I had a salary before and I will one after. The fact is that I did not see the former one and the latter, who knows…), I accepted the kind proposal of a professor to spend a period at the University of Ulster. So, here we are!
Filed under A week in Belfast, Photography, Real Life by on Aug 8th, 2010. Comment. 
… SPQR!!!
I know, this is what you wanted to be true. But it is not, sorry.
The real winners are Los Hidalgos, a very good Spanish team.
A key moment of the Open finals
What happen to the SPQR team? Well, the first two matches were quite bad, bad colour calibration, bad behaviours and some integration trouble.
The last one was actually quite good. Everything we developed so far was integrated and working. The colour calibration was redone and the overall behaviour was somehow the expected one.
Unfortunately we lost at the penalty kicks: our robot reached the ball, but for a bug in the code never kicked the ball.
Too bad for a team that worked every day trying to do its best. The newcomers were a little bit frustrated by this debacle, but I know that this could be a chance to do a better job.
And there will be a good occasion to prove our value very soon: our team will participate to the 1st RoboCup Tournment in Greece, held on May.
Thus, fellas, let’s back to work and let’s win the prize!
Filed under Real Life, RoboCup, Technology by on Mar 20th, 2010. Comment.
Since the organization seems to be sluggish, here it is the official schedule (the complete round robin combinations are below):
Thursday 18th
- 9:00 – 9:30 Opening ceremony
- 10:00 – 11:00 Practice matches for TV
- 11:00 – 12:00 Practice matches for schools
- 15:00 – 18:00 Round robin
Friday 19th
- 10:00 – 11:30 Round robin
- 12:00 – 14:00 Lunch time
- 14:00 – 15:00 Round robin
Saturday 20th
- to be decided: Semi-finals
- to be decided: Finals
- 12:30 Ending ceremony
The teams were grouped in these pools:
| Pool A | Pool B | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| A1 | Nao Team Humboldt  | B1 | SpiTeam  |
| A2 | MetroSpelBots  | B2 | SPQR (Cheetah)   |
| A3 | Kouretes  | B3 | Les Trois Mousquetaires (L3M)  |
| A4 | Austrian-Kangaroos  | B4 | Los Hidalgos |
Finally, here there are the round robin:
| Date | Cyan | Magenta | Referees |
|---|---|---|---|
| Th. 15:00 | A1 | A2 | B2-B3 |
| Th. 15:30 | B1 | B2 | A1-A2 |
| Th. 16:00 | A3 | A4 | B1-B2 |
| Th. 16:30 | B3 | B4 | A3-A4 |
| Th. 17:00 | A1 | A3 | B3-B4 |
| Th. 17:30 | B1 | B3 | A1-A3 |
| Fr. 10:00 | A2 | A4 | B1-B3 |
| Fr. 10:30 | B2 | B4 | A2-A4 |
| Fr. 11:00 | A4 | A1 | B2-B4 |
| Fr. 11:30 | B4 | B1 | B4-B1 |
| Fr. 14:00 | A2 | A3 | B4-B1 |
| Fr. 14:30 | B2 | B3 | A2-A3 |
I will keep you posted about the results. Hope to see there!
Filed under Real Life, RoboCup, Rome by on Mar 18th, 2010. Comment.
Painting the snow
Originally uploaded by ximilian
Walking towards the Coliseum (or Colosseum, or, frack me, call it as you wish), I was wondering how much snow there should be. Not too much. Therefore, no white Colosseum. Besides the jerks, that were throwing to the people snow balls (thank God there was a policeman), there was a cute blip of colours, too.
Black and white, but whit a touch of colourful rainbow.
And of course the snow at the Coliseum: could you imagine a more beautiful day?
Filed under Photography, Real Life by on Feb 19th, 2010. Comment.
Footprints
Originally uploaded by ximilian
Friday morning (last week), a great snowfall in Rome. Great, well, a little one.
Enough to cover the grass, the holes in the soil, and the dog’s little things.
A man crossed the garden and left a trace behind.
I came, I took a picture.
Filed under Photography, Real Life by on Feb 19th, 2010. Comment.
It seems Google finally discovered the hot water, and taken a new approach to China.
Well done! Yeah, as an activist at Amnesty International, and idealistic person, I’m very happy about this decision.
Of course, who dare to not be happy? But, reading twice this piece of news a question arises.
Where was Google in the past years? With its head under the sand? Maybe they were blind by the shining of waving things…
Human rights are denied all over the world. China is one of the top-most repressive free speech: people are tortured, the justice is unfair, there are arbitrary arrests and detentions.
Suddenly, Google is attacked by Chinese hacker and they discover that, maybe, something is wrong. Because of this accident, they are reconsidering their approach to China. Fine. “Not to be evil”, is your motto, and finally you understand that was bad bow your head for the Chinese money. Now, you have the opportunity to show to the world that the change is possible.
Please, do not stop by just this episode. Keep opening the Internet, everywhere. Keep the free speech, well, FREE!
And then, we will forgive you this late second thoughts…
Filed under Google, Human Rights, Real Life, Thoughts by on Jan 13th, 2010. 1 Comment.
This is a test post from 
, a fancy photo sharing thing.
Filed under Real Life by on Dec 28th, 2009. Comment.
All this started two years ago.
I was back at home after 6 months in Japan, an experience literally changed me.
I was looking for a place where to share my experiences. Hence, the idea of a blog.
in the last two years, I put on ‘cipicchia at WordPress.org my thoughts, my life, some of the important stuff I snooped around the net.
Since then, a lot of water streamed away. Recently, I felt the need of a new place, where I could stretch my leg in freedom. WordPress.org is great, literally, but it is a bit limiting, if you are, like me, kinda obsessed by customization 
Therefore, I’m glad to announce you a brand new ‘cipicchia!
As you may notice, there are still a lot of dust and scraps, but now I set the main stuff: feed by Feedburner, old posts to feel comfortable like old furniture, a cool theme I need to work on and few other things under the hood.
Now I’m a PhD and no more pressure on me than usual, I can really grow up.
This place will be my weblog: a place where I will share my life, my being alive and my desire to communicate.
And if you will like or not what you will find here, then, let me know! 
Filed under Real Life by on Oct 16th, 2009. Comment.
