What I like in Amplify

— Posted inamplify, social networks, startups, web2.0 — 1 min read
After just a couple of days,  it seems reasons are forming in my mind  why I think that Amplify is not “just” another social network, but it seems to show a good appealing (at least, to me)…

Here is my first thought…

  • the possibility of web site clipping & posting is great. Better than Buzz or Friendfeed
  • I like the “recommend” button. Easy and fast way to show appreciation of a post
  • I like the threaded replies (much better than “flat” replies as in FriendFeed or Qaiku). Identi.ca has also threaded replies but the strong limit in the length can heavily hamper the conversations
  • I like the fact that blog & microblog are kept together, the user can choose the right format for each post
  • I also appreciate than micropost are not limited to the too much abused 140 chars max. 500 is far better, IMHO; I’m tired of very short post 😉
  • Connection to other services is also a good thing. Just hope Amplify staff can add Identi.ca in a near future …

(more to come…)
See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/7sby

Why I’m using gmail #0

— Posted ingmail, google, web2.0 — 2 min read
With this post, I want to begin to put down on paper (so to say…) a short list of reason that lead me to slowly lean to Google mail (the now really famous Gmail service) as the preferred choice for my email communication, slowly but constantly abandoning other viable alternatives, many of which I adopted for long time.

I was somewhat pushed into this, from personal “ruminations” after a diffused dibate that took place in my Observatory  in several occasion, where my position (with an interestingly wide spread of different approaches) is  now shared among a good number of other researchers.

Since its first apparence, Gmail was rightly considered as “innovative” for a good number of reasons, ranging from the more technical aspects (for example, the interface carachterized by a judicious use of AIAX and other emerging technologies) to end on the more social aspects (the pecuiliar conversational model, etc…). As a consequence, the choice of talking about Gmail, far from being reductive and restricted to a particular brand or service, can easily became  (in my humble opinion) an occasion to talk about the “modern web” in a variety of its more aspects.

These posts came as an (imperfect) traslation of a series of little messages I am writing in italian in another blog. Instead of making a long post here (with a long series of grammatical errors… since English is not my first language!) I have choosen a different approach, i.e., to breack up the list of reason in a series of little “pills” to be hosted (also) on my compainion blog signal2noise (s2n). This also with the aim to explore a little bit a  form of expression expecially suitable for Posterous platform (yes, I’m addicted to web techology and services, no doubt!)

Well, at this point, I’d say that the scenario is well defined. Next post will deal with a first “motivation” for my adoption of Gmail. In passing, if you like the idea and want to add your two cents, just drop a message to [email protected] 🙂

Stellarium, the sky inside your computer

— Posted inastronomy, Software, stellarium — 2 min read


Two new versions in just a few days: I’m talking about the popular software named Stellarium , which lets you explore the heavens, taking advantage of a large database that includes more than 600,000 stars (with extra catalogs of more than 120 million items!), with the representation of the constellations, images of nebulae (full Messier catalog), realistic representation of the Milky Way, planets and satellites. Stellarium also includes realistic effects of sunrise and sunset, zoom controls telescope, and much more … 


…  Briefly, there are so many interesting features that even those vaguely fond of astronomy can be convinced to try it!





ce of the planets above ESO headquarters, nearThe dance of the planets above ESO headquarters, nea
The dance of theplanets above ESO headquarters, near Munich.
The dance of the planets above ESO headquarter, near Munich
 Credits: Stellarium website



Version 0.10.3 has been released on 29 of January, with new features like plugins that allow to predict the position of artificial satellites, and a database with constellation for twelve different cultures.. and many other thinks that you’ll be glad to discover by yourself 😉


Version 0.10.5 has been released just some days ago; it features the correction of a lot of bugs, a reduced loading time and other improvements.
Stellarium is available for all the major operating systems (Windows, Linux and Mac OS X), it’s free and open source. Binary packages for Ubuntu 10.04 are now also available from their website. Could you ask for more…?

Stellarium website is www.stellarium.org

Ubuntu 10.04, my two cents…

— Posted inGnome, gwibber, linux, Rhytmbox, Ubuntu, web2.0 — 3 min read


Originally uploaded by mcastellani

Some days ago, I upgraded my linux box to Ubuntu 10.04. I am pleased to say that the upgrade took place without worries and virtually no intervention on my side (aside a couple of request from the upgrade script in order to ask permission to overwrite some system files).
Now, detailed descriptions of the new release may be easily found in the network (you just need to google a bit to find plenty of them), so here I note only some impressions of use. Say, what strikes me without “scratching” too much under the surface, in the first approach. 
    Let’s see …

  • for a “sick” of social networks like myself, Ubuntu 10.04 comes with a really interesting aspect: it is eminently social. It comes with the client gwibber (now at release 2.30.0.1) that supports Twitter, StatusNet, Facebook, Identi.ca, Digg, FriendFeed, and also Qaiku (a microblog service with an exciting support for languages; I like it a lot and, as a matter of fact, I have realized most of the interface translation in Italian). To tell the truth, not only it’s included, but it result deeply integrated in the “social” concept of Ubuntu, for which we can now express our “online presence” directly from the top status bar of Gnome. I am very curious (and so are the developers) to understand whether the inclusion of native Qaiku in Ubuntu will bring more users to put their noses in this interesting but still little known platform.
  • There was much discussion on Ubuntu related sites, concerning the new network online music store that comes integrated into Rhytmbox, the “software and music playback for GNOME”, which is now reached its version 0.12.8 (but what to say about this habit of going forward with the zero point something ?). I just spent a bit of time in it, and I found that the prices of a number of albums are very interesting and – at least in some cases – significantly lower than their  iTunes counterparts .
  • The GNOME desktop backgrounds have my appreciation, for the aesthetic work that I think has given excellent results. Overall, it seems quite clear that Mac OS X has been well taken into account by the Ubuntu developers (up to small details as the discussed choice of putting the icons on the left side of windows) … but that’s OK, no problem;)
  • Even the ‘Ubuntu Software Center’ (again, the not-too-hidden reference not is to the online software repository of Mac OS X) has made significant progress. Browsing through categories to choose the software to install it ‘s now easier, and it is a truly enjoyable experience … and it’s free, too!

Overhall, I like Ubuntu 10.04. Surely there are things to improve and fix (for example, during the first days of use I stumbled upon some oddity of gwibber, which kept to give me authentication error in Qaiku, despite having already added the correct API at least a couple of times …), anyway I think we came to a really respectable version. One of the most important representations – perhaps the most important at present – of an open source operating system. 
… what do you think, I’m exaggerating?

Twitter Blog: Hello World

— Posted inUncategorized — 1 min read

We hope you’ll share in our enthusiasm as today we unveil a simple service we’re calling Promoted Tweets. It’s non-traditional, it’s easy, and it makes a ton of sense for Twitter.

via blog.twitter.com

Twitter makes its first moves toward advertising. Personally, I do appreciate the honesty and transparency that comes out from the blog post. Anyway, I wonder what will be the response of the community…

Posted via web from Signal 2 Noise