Category Archives: Technology

No Way! Google changed its name!

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Unbelievable…
It seems people at Google completely lost their mind. They just changed the name of the company in Topeka.

topeka photo 02 No Way! Google changed its name!

Google goes Topeka

Why such thing? Well, they launched a fiber optics experiment, and Topeka changed its name in March as “Google, Kansas, the capital city of fiber optics“.

So, it seems they did a surprise to us, but I guess that people there they have their reason. Maybe, there are also some hidden reason here what it the day today?, but who knows what will happen in the future.
As the time goes by, we will see if Google Topeka will be right!
Let’s go Topeka then!

and the winner is….

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… 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.

medopen finals 300x199 and the winner is....

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!

Google Wave giveaway

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google wave 300x253 Google Wave giveaway

Ohohoh! Santa Wave is coming!

Dear folks,

apparently Google people are extremely generous to me.

Early last month, they sent me a full invitation (the one with 8-more invite to send). Now, I discovered 8 more invitation in my googlewave account. If that wasn’t enough they sent me another regular invitation to a second account I own.

Thus, here I am wishing you Merry XMas and giving away my invitation!

What you have to do

Send me a mail (yes a snail-mail or better a postcard, I love them) to this address:

Luca Marchetti
via Ariosto 25
00185 Roma
Italy

and send me your XMas greetings! icon biggrin Google Wave giveaway

The first eight people will receive a google wave invitation as soon as I receive their postcard.
Leave a comment as soon as you sent the postcard, with your email, so I can reserve an invite for you!

A little remark

google xmas card 300x216 Google Wave giveaway

Greetings From Google!

Try to be polite with the subject of your request, and choose a great theme for the postcard. The best of all would be one of these from Google, but unfortunately I do not live in US icon sad Google Wave giveaway (but if you are and would like to be at the first rank…)

Google Wave giveaway

Look ma, a swirl!

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google swirl Look ma, a swirl!

Have you ever used Google Image Search trying to find that-funny-thing-you-cannot-remember-the-name?
Have you felt the sense of frustration trying to remember a clue or something else related to that thing, but not having idea about what to write in the box search?
Well, this happen to me very often, and one of the most exciting practical application of Artificial Intelligence is the ability to retrieve the information not by a word match, but by connected topic.
Applied to the WWW it becomes the (in)-famous Semantic Web.

This post is not about what the Semantic Web is, or what it can be useful (a very well-known cousin of Semantic Web is the Semantic Desktop, and one of the most promising technology related is NEPOMUK).
What this is all about is that a piece of real Semantic Web just landed few days ago.
And of course it comes from Mountain View: let’s give a cheer to Google Image Swirl.

Continue reading →

Wave-ing…

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Update 15/11/09: it occurred to me that the invitation was anonymous just because it came directly from Google. I requested an invitation early in August, but I never thought I would received it! That’s absolutely great! So, thanks Google! (and no, I’m sorry but I do not have any left invite anymore…

I was bored to go to work today, but a cool surprise was waiting me: I just got a Google Wave invitation!

google wave logo Wave ing...

There was a lot of excited comments about this new piece of Google-ware.
I’m excited too, but I keep my mind on the ground: the technology is really cool and offers a lot of potential new use, but the real usefulness need to be proved yet.

Nevertheless, I would not to work today… (looking forward to come back home to try it!)

Thanks, you anonymous guy who Google that sent me the invitation!!!

Wave ing...

To Believe or Not To Believe

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Date: 11 May 2009
Time: 11:00 – 11:50
Location: DIS
Town/City: Rome, Italy

Can you believe what is around you?
How we can establish we are not in a “social neural simulation“?
reliability detector To Believe or Not To Believe
The role of Reliability Detector is to answer your question: detect if your friend is lying about that day you gave him 100€ and now he swear he already gave back to you, or figure out where the hell your girlfriend is hiding her lover, or distinguish cheaters gamers from n00b so you can cheat them!
The usefulness and effectiveness of our proposal will be demonstrated by a long list of experiments we run (aka several living life experiences).

After our presentation you will not trust anyone without our “Reliability Detector”!!!

(coming soon on Amazon.com)

M'illumino di meno

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milluminodimeno M'illumino di meno

M’illumino di meno, la campagna lanciata da Caterpillar, programma di Radio2, vi ricorda che oggi è la giornata del risparmio energetico.

Un’occasione preziosa per riflettere su un uso consapevole delle risorse, ancor più in questo periodo di crisi.

Ok basta con il comunicato ufficiale (leggetevelo qui).
Ricordatevi di spegnere luce, gas, riscaldamenti, stufetta scalda-gambe, scalda tazza usb (lo so che ce l’avete), scalda tazza (aka tavoletta del cesso), e un po’ anche il cellulare.

Se poi volete essere un po’ più coerenti, non fatelo solo oggi, ma ogni giorno ricordatevi di spegnere la luce icon smile M'illumino di meno

Infine, per quelli che si sentono più geek, scaricatevi il font ecologico, Ecofont, anche detto “il formaggio font coi buchi” e “i buchi con la menta l’inchiostro intorno” (cit)! (thanks Flavia per la segnalazione)