A little blog experiment

RSS Feed Homepage

Articles: 1, 2

XNA Books: Best introductory book yet
2008-04-13 10:41:00
Struggling(?) my way to learn the XNA framework, I came across this book from Microsoft Press entitled “Learn Programming Now”. Rob Miles, the writer, is also an actual computer science university teacher in the UK. If you are a first timer or haven’t developed for quite a while this book is for you (and me). Starting with basic exercises such as loading images and writing text you go on to create more complex (and sometimes very silly) games that teach you how to add sounds, handle input, manage game states, etc. There are only two points of attention that you would need to consider before buying it. The first one is that 3D is not explored. If you want to learn more about managing your 3D meshes, viewing frustum culling, or creating shaders this book is not for you. The second one is that collision management, even in 2D, is not covered. My personal opinion is that this book is very good at preparing you on the more complex tasks that attend the creation of y...
More About: Books , Book

What’s done is done… or is it?
2008-03-29 18:28:00
Yesterday I was able to complete and send my dissertation to Warwick Business School just before the deadline (31st March). Now it’s time to wait and see if I can participate to the graduation ceremony scheduled for the 18th of July.

A month of DHL Alumni
2008-03-04 14:30:00
Last month, I started this LinkedIn group for former and current DHL employees and it is amazing to see the overwhelming response by fellow “linkediners“. Almost 140 members in a month and now growing steadily at 8 requests a day.
More About: Month

RFIDisappoinment…
2008-02-11 17:45:00
Last week I was invited to the “Trackability” event in Fiera Milano City. I had really high hopes for the RFID sessions and I attended two of them to gather additional information for my project. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a lot of substance in what was presented. A lot of good intentions, some sales pitches, little info on pilots, no info on actual deployments nor value delivered in Italy… The only interesting stuff I saw was presented on the StoLPan project introducing some business applications on an NFC-enabled mobile device (Alice Moroni, RFIDlab - Università Sapienza di Roma). Think of acquiring information, accessing services and paying in real time through your cellphone. I took a walk in the various booths to find that only one vendor was actually showcasing some  RFID hardware… Better luck next time.  

DHL Alumni group in LinkedIn
2008-02-04 21:29:00
 I created my first group in LinkedIn called DHL Alumni and designed the logo. It is dedicated to all past and current DHL executives, managers and employees, regardless of the specific corporate divisions. Its main objective is to use Linkedin as an instrument to network with each other and exchange ideas, thoughts and opportunities.
More About: Group

Challenging AdSense miths
2008-02-03 23:28:00
Everyone has seen dot com splash screens created just to get Google’s AdSense money. I asked myself, why not just try build one and see what happens? So I just bought a domain called searchengineoptimizationupdates.com and look forward to visitors searching for these keywords . Since I do not want the page to be completely static, nor have time to update it often, I created a mash-up of RSS feeds from various site focused on SEO. I am still working on it, and I guess results will need patience.
More About: Adsense

RFID times
2008-01-08 11:10:00
Now that holidays are over, it is time to focus on the 15k(!!) words I have to write for my final dissertation titled: Competitive advantage through RFID technology. Benefits and risks for express delivery companies.
More About: Times

It’s done!
2007-12-16 10:08:00
Exams are over and Christmas is at our doorsteps. Now that the pressure is over and only the dissertation is left I am trying to get more time for my passions. I installed the new XNA Game Studio 2.0 and tried few tutorials, but what I am really looking forward is to go snowboarding for a few days!!

Two 2 go!!!
2007-12-04 00:17:00
Yes, I am taking this week off to prepare for my Marketing Strategy and Strategy as Practice exams. On the 12th and 14th of December respectively. These are (hopefully) my last two exams for the MBA and I can focus on the final dissertation.

Dynamic ads on your PDFs?
2007-11-29 11:06:00
A new advertising channel is coming to town with Yahoo and Adobe teaming up to provide dynamically generated (and, hopefully, relevant) ads on PDFs (Portable Document Format) either via the Internet or email. I think this news is welcome if you are into producing documents and looking for new ways to monetize your efforts (pay-per-click model). My concern for Adobe is that, given the current size and speed of Reader, people would opt for more agile readers such as Foxit which would eventually catch up. Source: PCWorld
More About: Dynamic , Nami

Xbox 360 opens to social networking
2007-11-27 15:40:00
Microsoft has announced that with the upcoming Dashboard update (December, 4th), a new features called “Friends of friends” will be added. Basically you will be able to see the list of friends of your Xbox Live contacts (without leaving the Dashboard). As you can see from my snapshot you may choose to maintain your privacy by changing this settings at www.xbox.com/fof. Three options are available: - everyone (only available to members who are 18 years of age and above) - friends only (available to members who are 13 years and above) - blocked (available to all members, and automatic for anyone under the age of 13) Will this go further than adding people to play together and show off your achievements into some sort of LinkedIn for gamers? Let’s see in the coming weeks.
More About: Social , Social Networking , Networking , Xbox 360

Google feels lucky
2007-11-24 11:30:00
Just read that Google is estimated to lose approximately $110 million of revenue each year due to searches done through the “I’m Feeling Lucky ” button and bypassing all the ads. In other words, around 1 percent of visitors expect Google to place the actual best result on top of others and are willing to go there directly without any browsing. Despite being a huge fan of Google, I personally never use that button and prefer to go through the results myself. You may ask why the button is still there? Because, after all, Google was born from a couple of grad students sharing a dream and doesn’t want to look too much like the corporate (and sometimes scary) giant it has become.

No Google Android challenge for Italy
2007-11-15 22:28:00
Italy has not been allowed to participate in the Google Android Developer Challenge due to “local restrictions“. I found many Italian blogs rightfully complaining  about this and wonder if anyone in our government is going to take action… ehm, ok I know nothing is gonna happen… Another good occasion for Italy to show the rest of the world its incapacity in the high technology business environment.
More About: Italy , Google Android

Skate (EA) VS Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground (Activision)
2007-11-11 22:06:00
Gametrailers has posted a video comparing the two skateboarding games and a poll to let viewers decide which one is best. I must say that I have tried Skate for the last two weeks and as a former skater (and a broken wrist as of backside boardslide…) it is truly the most realistic experience to ever grace my XBOX 360. Having completed Tony Hawk’s Project 8 I must say Skate is in a different league even if it is a little bit more difficult to master.
More About: Ground , Activision , Proving Ground

New projects: Gaminous
2007-11-05 22:46:00
I started working on a portal dedicated to casual gaming: players, developers, publishers, technologies. This will be propedeutic for a new project in 2008.
More About: Projects

Wordpress upgraded, Joomla considered!
2007-10-29 22:25:00
Yes, 2.3.1 is out but I am considering Joomla for a new portal I have been thinking about during these last weeks… Stay tuned.
More About: Wordpress , Consider , Graded

Still stuck!
2007-10-25 23:22:00
I am still writing the paper… it’s been busy at work and I had to reinstall evertything on my PC at home:-( Deadline is Monday so I guess it’s going to be a long weekend…

Management of Change assignment
2007-10-15 20:37:00
I am currently (supposed to be) writing my final assignment for the Management of Chan g e course and I am not sure I will be able to post this week. If I pass this one, I am going to have two exams left and the final dissertation…    

Seth Godin’s suggestions on creating a great website
2007-10-12 17:17:00
I was looking for some insights on creating effective websites that I could use. I found this list from marketing guru Seth Godin : Here are principles I think you can’t avoid: 1. Fire the committee. No great website in history has been conceived of by more than three people. Not one. This is a dealbreaker. 2. Change the interaction. What makes great websites great is that they are simultaneously effortless and new at the same time. That means that the site teaches you a new thing or new interaction or new connection, but you know how to use it right away. (Hey, if doing this were easy, everyone would do it.) 3. Less. Fewer words, fewer pages, less fine print. 4. What works, works. Theory is irrelevant. 5. Patience. Some sites test great and work great from the start. (Great if you can find one). Others need people to use them and adjust to them. At some point, your gut tells you to launch. Then stick with it, despite the critics, as you gain traction. 6. Measure. If you’re not i...
More About: Website , Creating

Interconnected value systems
2007-10-09 19:41:00
The evolution and revolution in information and communication technology over the past twenty years has driven and enabled a paradigm shift in the way, the scope and the speed at which companies interact with each other and do business. The business environment has never been so dynamic and interconnected as companies go beyond their organizational boundaries to make partnerships with allies and even competitors in order to gather the capabilities needed to be innovative and adaptive enough to prosper in the marketplace. Relationships have become key resources for competitive success and thus a capital in itself. Very similarly to biological systems striving to survive in their dynamic environment, companies must show characteristics such as coordination, robustness, requisite variety and adaptability in order to leverage it. Michael Porter’s idea of value chain need to be revisited from a higher perspective as activities are taken out of companies by gathering selected capabiliti...
More About: Systems , Connected , Stem

Issues are still floating with IE 6.0
2007-10-08 19:22:00
The battle is still ongoing. I have identified the issue between AnotherFlicker plugin and my Nobus theme, but with my limited knowledge of CSS I have been unable to solve it up to now. Tomorrow I will call Daniele Centamore to the rescue! Meanwhile I have uploded several photos to Flickr and tried two interesting cross-browser testing services: - Browsershots: as the name says, it captures a snapshot of several browsers running on different operating systems. Free, useful but limited, for example if your page takes too long to load then and you might just get an incomplete snapshot… - Browserpool: this is a more advanced tool based on a remote desktop solution. It has a monthly fee of €29.99 but you can actually browse your websites on different platforms and browsers connecting to one of the PCs available. There are some free test accounts.
More About: Issues , Floating , Issue

“Floating” issues with Internet Explorer 6.0
2007-10-01 00:07:00
It seems there are some visualization problems with my CSS and IE6.0. I had to remove one Flickr photo as a quick fix. I will try to find a solution in the next few days.
More About: Internet , Internet Explorer , Issues , Explorer , Issue

Simplicity and PowerPoint
2007-09-28 12:00:00
Following my post on the 10/20/30 rule I would like add some tips on how to simplify PowerPoint presentations. I am sure most of us as seen slides crowded of unreadable fonts, silly little cartoonish characters flying around the screen and the sound of a typewriter for each letter popping up… I am following the philosophy that a slide can only be effective if it has few well-defined simple elements. When we prepare a presentation we should ask ourselves, what can I remove to make the message in my slide more effective? It’s all about effectiveness and added value. It’s then up to the presenter to tell the story behind the slide to the audience. Additional notes can be written along the slide printout given to the audience. For some guidelines on this: Garr Reynolds: Presentation tips Cliff Atkinson and Richard E. Mayer: 5 Ways to reduce PowerPoint overload
More About: Simplicity , Powerpoint

Stop abuse: online gaming
2007-09-27 00:52:00
My contribution to the BlogCatalog call is to ask internet gamers to stop playing this afternoon, open the door, go outside for a walk, just see what’s around them, breath in deeply and enjoy the best MMORPG… The World…
More About: Gaming , Abuse , Online , Stop

WordPress upgraded to 2.3
2007-09-26 06:16:00
Just finished the update and all seems working fine. I was a bit scared, but I must say the process was really simple and smooth. A more serious note from BlogCatalog: Thousands of bloggers from around the world are joining together this Thursday, September 27th ith a single message: Stop Abuse! Click below for further info.
More About: Wordpress , Graded

Effectiveness of presentations and sales pitches
2007-09-25 10:55:00
I have grown tired of boring-neverending-supposed-to-be salespitch presentations that someone in front of me simply reads out loud. Yes, one of those with 60 slides condensed of the latest acronyms where you try to be smart and don’t admit you have never heard of… just write them down to google them later or maybe wikipedia will come to the rescue…. I bought the idea from Guy Kawasaki, managing director di Garage Technology Ventures, a columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine, that we all should follow the 10/20/30 rule: A PowerPoint presentation should have ten slides, last no more than twenty minutes, and contain no font smaller than thirty points. Watch his reasons below…
More About: Sales , Presentations , Resent , Sales Pitch

Leaving Coventry in deep water!
2007-09-22 21:21:00
Tomorrow I am flying back home after nine days in “sunny” Coven try. This last night I am staying at a Village Hotel in the Coventry Business Centre. Be careful if you are doing business in this area as it may all get into deep water. Check the sign below photographed with my mobile…
More About: Water , Deep , Oven , Leaving

SEO (Part 3): Free SEO tools.
2007-09-19 16:11:00
Brian Gilley of Seoposition.com has posted a very useful list of “The Top 15 Free SEO Tools ”. If you are into search engine optimization, which you should if you have a website, this is a list worth checking (you can find also some more useful or different tools suggested in the comments).
More About: Part , Part 3

Want to get away?
2007-09-19 02:10:00
Hilarious spot of Southwest Airlines making fun of Nintendo Wii.

Optimizing web site performance with online services.
2007-09-17 16:07:00
I have a couple of days off from the seminar and looking for websites that can automatically check  others for code errors or give hints for improving performances. My favorites so far: Dr. Watson: it allows you to analyze HTML syntax, verify regular and image links, generate word counts, spell-check non-HTML text, compute estimated download speeds, check search engine compatibility and site link popularity. The analysis is quite exhaustive although some alerts are not entirely useful and maybe hard to manage as you may receive a very long list for all the checks mentioned above. Web Page Analyzer: this utility maybe less comprehensive but has a much clearer report and interesting “analysis and recommendations” summary that visually show issues related to images, scripts, objects, CSS and their sizes.
More About: Services , Performance , Site , Online , Web site