Archive for June, 2009

Il mai sufficientemente rimpianto Gaber… uno degli ultimi veri liberi pensatori italiani!!!

Io G. G. sono nato e vivo a Milano.
Io non mi sento italiano
ma per fortuna o purtroppo lo sono.

Mi scusi Presidente
non è per colpa mia
ma questa nostra Patria
non so che cosa sia.
Può darsi che mi sbagli
che sia una bella idea
ma temo che diventi
una brutta poesia.
Mi scusi Presidente
non sento un gran bisogno
dell’inno nazionale
di cui un po’ mi vergogno.
In quanto ai calciatori
non voglio giudicare
i nostri non lo sanno
o hanno più pudore.

Io non mi sento italiano
ma per fortuna o purtroppo lo sono.

Mi scusi Presidente
se arrivo all’impudenza
di dire che non sento
alcuna appartenenza.
E tranne Garibaldi
e altri eroi gloriosi
non vedo alcun motivo
per essere orgogliosi.
Mi scusi Presidente
ma ho in mente il fanatismo
delle camicie nere
al tempo del fascismo.
Da cui un bel giorno nacque
questa democrazia
che a farle i complimenti
ci vuole fantasia.

Io non mi sento italiano
ma per fortuna o purtroppo lo sono.

Questo bel Paese
pieno di poesia
ha tante pretese
ma nel nostro mondo occidentale
è la periferia.

Mi scusi Presidente
ma questo nostro Stato
che voi rappresentate
mi sembra un po’ sfasciato.
E’ anche troppo chiaro
agli occhi della gente
che tutto è calcolato
e non funziona niente.
Sarà che gli italiani
per lunga tradizione
son troppo appassionati
di ogni discussione.
Persino in parlamento
c’è un’aria incandescente
si scannano su tutto
e poi non cambia niente.

Io non mi sento italiano
ma per fortuna o purtroppo lo sono.

Mi scusi Presidente
dovete convenire
che i limiti che abbiamo
ce li dobbiamo dire.
Ma a parte il disfattismo
noi siamo quel che siamo
e abbiamo anche un passato
che non dimentichiamo.
Mi scusi Presidente
ma forse noi italiani
per gli altri siamo solo
spaghetti e mandolini.
Allora qui mi incazzo
son fiero e me ne vanto
gli sbatto sulla faccia
cos’è il Rinascimento.

Io non mi sento italiano
ma per fortuna o purtroppo lo sono.

Questo bel Paese
forse è poco saggio
ha le idee confuse
ma se fossi nato in altri luoghi
poteva andarmi peggio.

Mi scusi Presidente
ormai ne ho dette tante
c’è un’altra osservazione
che credo sia importante.
Rispetto agli stranieri
noi ci crediamo meno
ma forse abbiam capito
che il mondo è un teatrino.
Mi scusi Presidente
lo so che non gioite
se il grido “Italia, Italia”
c’è solo alle partite.
Ma un po’ per non morire
o forse un po’ per celia
abbiam fatto l’Europa
facciamo anche l’Italia.

Io non mi sento italiano
ma per fortuna o purtroppo lo sono.

Io non mi sento italiano
ma per fortuna o purtroppo
per fortuna o purtroppo
per fortuna
per fortuna lo sono.
Io non mi sento italiano, Giorgio Gaber

A trip into the Flow.

Previous ones.
Read the rest of this entry »

I’ll soon add some of my friends most interesting photos and artworks in this new Catergory.

They are the ones that appear listed in Explore which is the Flickr’s gallery about the most interesting stuff uploaded on their portal.

Hope you’ll like them and maybe you’ll even find some inspiration as much as I received during the last years by all of them.

Explore description by Flickr
Flickr labs have been hard at work creating a way to show you some of the most awesome content on Flickr.

We like to call it interestingness.

There are lots of elements that make something ‘interesting’ (or not) on Flickr. Where the clickthroughs are coming from; who comments on it and when; who marks it as a favorite; its tags and many more things which are constantly changing. Interestingness changes over time, as more and more fantastic content and stories are added to Flickr.

We’ve added some pages (and changed some existing ones) to help you explore Flickr’s most interesting content. Before you start though, you might want to take your phone off the hook, send your boss to an executive training session and block off some time on your schedule, because we don’t think you’re going to be walking away from your screen any time soon. Beautiful, amazing, moving, striking – explore and discover some of Flickr’s Finest.

Just an old-fashion symmetrical design.

It’s pointless if we live or die; it’s life!

What you see is what you get
And what you get may well be worth seeing
But just be careful when you walk
On those old broken stones
Because they are my feelings

If I smile
Do not be swayed
I simply serve the public image
The Public Image, Morrissey

A new release is available here: RenderFlam3

I’ve been back to the script during the last days and found that before adding more new features I’ll better use the 1.3.8.x releases to add some more maintenance stuff.
There was some more coding left outside during the last releases due to the lack of spare time.

1. User defined JPEG quality and 16bit PNG support let users to fully customize the generated files both in terms of Format and Quality.
2. Flames checking is now selectable: this feature is very important cos the preliminary Flames checking could require various minutes on big Flames files. Users can use this feature to skip it. It’s should be used on Flames you’ve already checked for Flam3 compatibility.
3. Progress display for preliminary Flames checking and Better progress display for Flames saving let users in having a better and more complete feedback of the operations done by the working script.
4. BAT file header reports Flam3 and RenderFlam3 used version and BAT file header reports Generation parameters give users some information about the environment used to generate the Flame-sequence and the BAT file generated parameters.
5. BAT file is better commented give users more explanatory comments into the generated BAT file; it’d be more easy to optimize the whole rendering process now.

The interesting thing about this script is that, taking a look to the Site’s statistics, I’ve found there’s still some quite good interest in it; it’s actually often browsed and downloaded but I rarely have back some comments or usage tracks: I’m quite mature to know that the general Internet rule is “grab what you can“.

Well, I’ve spent some time tracing the users old requests and working to better code them, as far as possible,  instead of adding a new bunch of stuff.
Most of the things are now implemented and some more will be added during the next maintenance releases.

Download here (right click / Save As): RenderFlam3.zip

Released under GPL License – http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
Credits or donations are not mandatory but very appreciated especially when using “RenderFlam3″ in commercial production.

Complete Render Flam3 posts archive: Search about Render Flam3

Low-quality preview of the Global Camera Rotation feature

RenderFlam3 main purpose is rendering a sequence of Flames using Flam3 to create animations.
It’s an Apophysis script which cycles through the flames in the Title Window,
sets their time field,
sets their advanced animation tags,
saves them all off to a single flame file,
and then creates a bat file (to the same output path).
Executing the bat file will launch flam3-animate and render the animation’s frames; Flam3 will interpolate all the flames.
RenderFlam3 can create Morph, Sheep or Edge animations.

Flam3 supported Variations:
linear, sinusoidal, spherical, swirl, horseshoe, polar, handkerchief, heart, disc, spiral, hyperbolic, diamond, ex, julia, bent, waves, fisheye, popcorn, exponential, power, cosine, rings, fan, blob, pdj, fan2, rings2, eyefish, bubble, cylinder, perspective, noise, julian, juliascope, blur, gaussian_blur, radial_blur, pie, ngon, curl, rectangles, arch, tangent, square, rays, blade, secant2, twintrian, cross, disc2, super_shape, flower, conic, parabola, split and move.

Preliminary Docs are included in the new archive.
Read the Docs or below for new features.

Changelog
v 1.3.8.5 – 18 June 2009
User defined JPEG quality added
16bit PNG support added
Flames checking is now selectable
Progress display for preliminary Flames checking
Better progress display for Flames saving
BAT file header reports Flam3 and RenderFlam3 used version
BAT file header reports Generation parameters
BAT file is better commented
Read the rest of this entry »

Render Flam3 low-quality preview of the new Global Camera Rotation feature

The Disable Revisions and Autosave plugins are WordPress 2.8 compatible.

disable-autosave.zip – Disable Autosave function
disable-revisions.zip – Disable Revisions function
disable-revisions-and-autosave.zip – Disable Revisions and Autosave at the same time.

I’ve tested them during the last days and they work flawlessly as expected.

Read the full post here:  Disable Revisions and Autosave plugins

Last Flam3 updates!

Download here: Flam3 2.7.18

Release as 2.7.18 – 03/17/09
Added fuzz testing with zzuf to the regression tests.
‘Strip’ mode and genomes with the zoom parameter used now break into pieces properly.
Insert_palette fixed (broken a few versions ago.)
Fixed twintrian variation when small weights are used.
Various rare segfaults and memory leaks fixed.
‘palette_mode’ attribute added to flame element for smoother palette interpolation in slow animations; possible values are ’step’ and ‘linear’ (’step’ mode is default and matches previous behaviour.)

Release as 2.7.17 – 11/11/08
Add error checking on the numbers in the input genome.
Do not exit on read errors, fail gracefully.
Changed sin/cos = tan in the tangent variation.
Added polar to list of variations that use the inverted linear identity.
Bugfix: temporal_filter_exp was not set properly in template.
Apply interpolation attribute in templates.
Add/publish datarootdir with pkg-config so the palette file is easy to find (for qosmic).
Copyright by Spotworks LLC instead of Spot and Erik.
Add fuzz checks to the regression suite.
Include LNX/OSX/WIN in the version string.
In flam3-genome animate command, added one to last flame time, so the end time is inclusive.

A lot of interesting development was done during the last month.

Home:  http://sourceforge.net/projects/flam4/
Direct Download: Version 0.66

Changelog
v.0.66
-Major performance improvements for multi-GPU systems
–These also will likely speed up single-GPU systems a bit
-Important:
–This version contians a partial loader for *.flam4 files, but these WILL NOT RENDER at this time.
–Make sure you set *.flame (apophysis flame files) in the load menu, as *.flam4 WILL NOT WORK AT THIS TIME.

v.0.64
-Interpolation is now rotational
-Fixed problem interpolating between flames with differing numbers of xforms

v.0.63
-Added interpolation for rendering sheep edges.
-Changed palette to floating point – you can now do some wild things, like negative colors and full HDR.

v.0.61
-Multi-GPU now performs as fast as it should. Threads now yield the CPU when the next dispatch isn’t ready, or when the worker threads are busy, rather than spinning. This makes for a very big performance increase.
-Added hue correction for overbright areas. Bright places no longer distort color.
Read the rest of this entry »

Nature is based on recursion!

View on Black

Absolute masterpiece!

I dug up a diamond
Rare and fine
I dug up a diamond
In a deep dark mine
If only I could cling to
my beautiful find
I dug up a diamond
In a deep dark mine

My gem is special
Beyond all worth
As strong as any metal
Or stone in the earth
Sharp as any razor
Or blade you can buy
Bright as any laser
Or any star in the sky

Maybe once in a lifetime
You’ll hold one in your hand
Once in a lifetime
In this land
Where the journey ends
In a worthless claim
Time and again
In the mining game

I dug up a diamond
Rare and fine
I dug up a diamond
In a deep dark mine
Down in the darkness
In the dirt and the grime
I dug up a diamond
In a deep dark mine

I Dug up a Diamond, Mark Knopfler & Emmylou Harris

To my beloved wife Federica. Happy Birthday!!!

Mostra “COSCIENZA COLLETTIVA”

Giovedì 4 giugno alle ore 20:00 inaugura la mostra fotografica sul degrado ambientale e sul paesaggio post-industriale dell’area jonico-salentina presso le Officine Culturali ERGOT in p.tta Falconieri s.c. a Lecce (Italia).

Da più di dieci anni dati incontrovertibili documentano l’aumentata incidenza di malattie anche tumorali di origine ambientale e lavorativa nelle città capoluogo di Brindisi e Taranto, città inserite in aree definite ad alto rischio di crisi ambientale.

Più di recente, anche per la provincia di Lecce sono stati riscontrati dati di mortalità in eccesso rispetto a quanto atteso a livello regionale. Tale dato completa, per tutto il Salento, un quadro di eccesso di mortalità attribuibile all’inquinamento ambientale di prevalente origine industriale.

Di fronte a queste evidenze non si può più rinviare l’assunzione di decisioni che sono essenzialmente di politica economica. I controlli e le misure di contenimento ambientali, sanitari, epidemiologici sono necessari ma non risolvono il problema. È tempo ormai di intervenire su ciò che si produce e non solo su come si produce. Se si vuole che Brindisi e Taranto conservino il primato nel settore energetico, questo deve svilupparsi nella direzione delle energie rinnovabili e delle tecnologie per il riuso dei materiali.

Attraverso queste immagini si intende generare una riflessione sulla situazione ambientale per far crescere la consapevolezza della necessità di percorsi alternativi.

Foto di Nicolò Barile, Nicolò Santangelo, Gabriele Spedicato, Arianna D’Accico, Ida Santoro.
A seguire dj set a cura di Marco Skacco.

An absolute masterpiece!!!

(Talking)
Once upon a time at the foot of a great mountain, there was a town where the people known as Happyfolk lived. (Chorus in background humming) Their very existence a mystery to the rest of the world, obscured as it was by great clouds. Here they played out their peaceful lives, innocent of the litany of excess and violence that was growing in the world below. To live in harmony with the spirit of the mountain called Monkey was enough. (Chorus stops humming) Then one day Strangefolk arrived in the town. They came in camouflaged, hidden behind dark glasses, and no one noticed them; they only saw shadows. You see, without the truth of the eyes, the Happyfolk were blind.

(Singing)
Falling out of aeroplanes and hiding out in holes
Waiting for the sunset to come, people going home
Jump out from behind them, and shoot them in the head
Now everybody dancing the dance of the dead
The dance of the dead
The dance of the dead.

(Talking)
(Chorus humming in background) In time, the Strangefolk found their way into the higher reaches of the mountain, and it was there that they found the caves of unimaginable sincerity and beauty. By chance, they stumbled upon the place where all good souls come to rest. (Chorus stops humming) The Strangefolk, they coveted the jewels in these caves above all things, and soon they began to mine the mountain, it’s rich seam fueling the chaos of their own world. Meanwhile, down in the town, the Happyfolk slept restlessly, their dreams invaded by shadowy figures digging away at their souls. Every day, people would wake and stare at the mountain. Why was it bringing darkness into their lives? (Chorus humming in background) And as the Strangefolk mined deeper and deeper into the mountain, holes began to appear, bringing with them a cold and bitter wind that chilled the very soul of the Monkey. For the first time, the Happyfolk felt fearful for, they knew that soon the Monkey would stir from its deep sleep. (Chorus stops humming) Then there came a sound. Distant first, it grew into castrophany so immense it could be heard far away in space (echoes). There were no screams. There was no talk. The mountain called Monkey had spoken. There was only fire. And then, nothing.

(Singing)
Oh, little town in U.S.A
The time has come to see
All the things you think you are
But where were you when it all came down on me
Did you call me now?
Fire Coming Out Of The Monkeys Head (Live visuals) – Gorillaz