Tuesday, 27 November 2007

DHL delivers WORLDWIDE

We are used to ads showing DHL vans, airplanes, motorbikes, etc. but this picture shows they REALLY deliver everywhere. So, if you are in Venice, how do you think they deliver? Some other company has made a whole movie about how great they are, that they deliver a parcel even several years after, but this is really amazing (mind you, I liked Castaway) but the blatant advertising took all the magic out of it)

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Monday, 26 November 2007

Another reader for my Blackberry comment

It seems my original post about the Blackberry is quite popular. Besides the post I have already mentioned, I have found another post about it. If you can't read German, the brief translation is "the deep and insightful blogger delights us with some wonderful perspectives about technology" (hey, don't blame me if you can't understand German, it is not that difficult :-) )

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Mirror, Mirror in Dublin Airport

Usually arriving in the Dublin Airport is a bit chaotic. It goes as follows:
-You arrive to the gates in the A14 area, where Ryanair passengers are crowding so the can run to get a good seat.
-You go through passport control in a breeze. Irish citizens just show their passports from 1 meter away; any other EU citizens have to wait for a full 5 seconds while the guard controls that the passport is not a blatant forgery.
-You wait for ten hours until they start dispatching the luggage.
-You go outside and you wait for 20 minutes for a taxi.

Today, after some well-deserved holidays -hey, it is tiresome to eat all that food and to walk your dog- the airport was just the opposite (except for the taxi part): the terminal was absolutely empty; the guards, feeling very bored checked every single passport for 10 seconds, and then, when I went to pick my luggage, it was already there!

PS: Bonus Geek points if you knew what the title meant without checking the wikipedia
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Thursday, 15 November 2007

Some assorted news and reflections

Today I am again on the healthy side of 90. So cheers for that (without food, otherwise I'll cross that threshold again).
By the way, have you realized that in my previous articles I have become a bit fond of the number 90? However, my favorite is still 42 for well known reasons. One interesting fact about Google is that everybody knows arcane references to H2G2. Nobody will feel insulted if I call them smarter than mice, and I will start a Krikkit War by saying "your code is worse than Vogon poetry!"
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Thursday, 8 November 2007

My own three words

Since today I helped my friend writing her three English words, I think it is a great opportunity for a shameless act of self-promotion. So, you can check what I've written here.

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Wednesday, 7 November 2007

Tuesday, 6 November 2007

Javascript Constructors are factories

No reader told me that Javascript Constructors are actually factories; shame on you! In Javascript constructors can actually return an object of a different type. They are closer to factories than to traditional Java constructors.
While researching this post I came across a very interesting article that considers constructors harmful. I agree about the troubling concept of constructor, one of most basic parts of an Object, not being object oriented. I really recommend to read the article, since it explains the problem much better than me.


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Monday, 5 November 2007

I will not confirm or deny these perks

There are some secret perks stated here. Per policy, I cannot confirm or deny them. In particular, this non-acknowledgment shouldn't be perceived as a confirmation of perk #25.
By the way, the picture in perk #1 looks very similar to a Dalek. And in perk #18, goto statements are grounds for immediate dismissal (this is not an official statement from Google or me confirming such perk). Finally, some statisticians in Google (we have a few of them here... Google Field's medalists are counted with exponential numbers) show a high correlation between people about to leave the company and people who "disappear" in the next months; amazingly, this correlation approaches 1.0 since perk #4 was (or was not) instituted.



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Sunday, 4 November 2007

I am hooked on English TV and movies

I have to say that these days I am completely hooked on English TV and movies. Besides Dr. Who, which is one of the most amazing "recent" (or old, since the first version is from 1963) Sci-Fi shows, along with The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, I have recently seen Hot Fuzz, an amazing mix between a customary movie AND a police action film. Of course, you have other wonderful classic pieces like the Fawlty Towers, Black Adder, The Benny Hill Show and Monthy Python. So, for make benefits Glorious Broadcasters of Amerikaskhstan, write one hundred times in the blackboard: I will not make clones of every single successful show. To be fair, BBC also copies some awful stuff, but I'd say a bit less than other broadcasters.

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Counting in Spanish

In my entry "Counting in French" I have explained the strange way of saying 90 in French. In this video you can see some strange way of saying 55 in Spanish.

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