Mens Et Opera - Reloaded

Resquiescat in pace ‏. We had a chance to comment on this great scientist here

My wife Florinda gave birth on Sunday to our first child, Francis Maria Arpaia. Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury,pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

I confess I am not a fan. Notwithstanding, I consult Wikipedia for "indisputable" material like maths, geography, dates of birth, movies release...you got the flavour, right? That's fine and practical. Things get hotter when there’s a general agreement and when there’s widespread disagreement on values or facts, as with, say, the origins of communism; you get both sides. Not optimum, though, because both sides are forced to make their point by emphasizing the contrast with the other side. As a result, it is not a reliable source. Instead,  buy a good book, read a good article or just follow a great blog. The trouble comes when one side is right and the other side is wrong and neither are aware of it. The Shakespeare authorship page and the Shroud of Turin page or Global Warming vs. Sckeptics are scenes of constant conflict and are packed with unreliable or inaccurate information. Arguably, this can be seen as democracy at work. I personally think this is pure and intra...

Here is the first in an intermittent series of posts on some recommended reading for those interested in the social impact of IT and other related issues. I will not attempt to be exhaustive, but will focus on works which are in some way particularly noteworthy or useful. From time to time, I will post reading recommendations vis-à-vis specific subject areas like cloud computing, project management, business intelligence, etc. Let's start with a classic: Being digital, Nicholas Negroponte I recently re-read it and I found some interesting intuitions that I didn't spot in the first reading. Over the years, the author has developed a techno-utopian tendency that makes the whole lot uninteresting. The book is worth reading, though. On the other side of the spectrum, the works of Nicholas Carr put a great emphasis on the shift in computing. The main idea is that computing is becoming a commodity. Buy and read the following: Does IT matter? The big switch - Rewiring the...

It was a pleasure for me to have met father Roberto Busa S.J ., back in 2000. He is the kind of man who silently introduces new trigger-off ideas that bring about change in our daily life. His “hobbyhorse” was a systematic analysis of Saint Thomas Aquinas’ language structure – lemmatization - which he delivered in 56 volumes, now available in CDROM, DVD and on the net . Crucially, he met with Thomas Watson Sr . in 1949 and persuaded him to sponsor the project. Apparently, this may seem a very elitist and academic achievement. Far from that. With no exaggeration, he is considered the pioneer of linguistic and literary analysis. The most mundane version of linguistic analysis is the hypertext that allows multi-dimensional navigation through texts and images. We just take for granted the usefulness of the Internet but often we are forgetful of those who contributed – though unwittingly – to its realization. Hats off to this humble and nonagenarian priest who deserves our attention a...

Imposing an unfair no-frills cigarette packets is a typical Comminist measure to threaten your freedom and weaken the economy. Rudd and his acolytes have learnt nothing from history. I trust Australia, I do believe this nanny government will be thrown out of the window in November.

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That's hilarious and dramatic at the same time. Europe is covered by a thick and heavy snow and the scaremongers keep annoying us about the inevitable temperature rise of the planet. Science should depend on accurate and complete data. What is being perpetrated into the climate debate is a load of nonsense. And when facts contradict theory, too bad for reality.  A first hand example from an email between Professor Phil Jones and Michael E. Mann (apparently two gurus in the climate field) :" I've just completed Mike's Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) and from 1961 for Keith's to hide the decline  [in temperature]. " As any ideology, "greenology" is a real stinker and its stench is mistaken for fresh air.

There is a discontinuity point in almost everything we do. Anytime we make a choice we are choosing a different path because we believe that the current course of events would lead us towards a dead-end. A "quit point", however, is more than just a mere decision point. When you quit, you are saying (and betting): "things are going well now but that won't last long because bla bla..." Bla bla is what substantiates your bet. Conversely, you also are saying (and betting):"this way is gonna land us bla bla but we are going to slog away for awhile". Simple question: "why don't you quit when bad things are impending?". Easy answer: "you, your product, your service, your 'whatever you are in' will be off the market by then". You are not the smartest guy in the room. Second (hard) question: "what do you properly mean by 'quit'?". In order to quit you have to abandon a piece of something to gain a piece of som...

One of the most remarkable concepts about creating a business, is its underlying idea and the process to translate it into reality. The idea comes from a sharp observation of reality in all its factors, this is called attitude: the most valuable asset of any successful entrepreneur.  Then, the capacity to cut through reality to surface what is truly important to realize and what not (the latter being very tricky, indeed). Subsequently, the process is made of  strategy and tactics. Deal with the material you face and shape the idea accordingly. Many companies fail because of this lack of realism: great idea, deep observation and an illogical optimism: "It will work!". The majority, however, fail because of a slapdash work on the idea. A business model is just that: a model. It is not reality. An old cliche proves to be true: "the map is not the territory". Your model must emerge from a strong observation (the extent of demand or the potential to induce it) and be ali...