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Author: Daniele Nicolucci

An Italian goes back to London…

LOOKING FOR THE PICTURES? If you’re looking for the photo albums from my trip to London, you can find them here: London album on Facebook London album on Flickr Note that each photo has a short caption explaining what it is about. INTRODUCTION If you’re looking for the photos, you can find them on Flickr or Facebook. They’re not really “works of art”, rather a visual collection of memories. This post, too, is very long for the same reason: I wrote it for myself more than anyone else, so I saw no reason to hold back. If you do want to give this a read… good luck! FOREWORD And so, after three years, I went back to London. Three years of craving and pining and looking for someone to share a room, and an adventure, with. Lots of things happened in the meantime, as may be inferred by my lack of…

Two Italians go to London…

LOOKING FOR THE PICTURES? If you’re looking for the photo albums from my trip to London, you can find them here: London album on Facebook Highgate Cemetery album on Facebook London album on Flickr Highgate Cemetery album on Flickr Complete London collection on Flickr Note that each photo has a short caption explaining what it is about. FOREWORD I am not a traveler, in fact this was effectively my first trip as an adult. I come from a pretty small town of barely fifty thousand souls in central Italy. London always held a great significance to me, for personal reasons which I’m not going to discuss here. Suffice it to say that I visited it when I was a teenager during the summers of 1998 and 1999: we stayed in Egham (Surrey) but we were taken to London and other places nearby several times. My view of London is overly biased,…

ABS Podcast – Episode 5: Planned Obsolescence

Did you think I wasn’t going to publish the podcast anymore? WRONG! I’m back, and with a mammoth episode for good measure: a whopping 57 minutes that will guide you through the intricacies and nuances of how everything man-made gets old, and how we can learn to avoid the frustration caused by being unable to update a phone we bought just a few years before. I focus mostly on technological devices, but I also compare them with cars, fridges, and even a Boeing 787 aircraft just because I love planes and I actively look for any random excuse to talk about them. Don’t forget to “like” the new Facebook page for Avian Bone Syndrome! Links of interest mentioned in the episode: Moore’s Law The timeline of Microsoft Windows releases The timeline of Apple Mac OS X releases The specifications of the 2006 iMac How plane crashes are getting weirder, and why The Phoebus Cartel

Voxer: free walkie talkie app for smartphones

(For those of you addicted to the podcast, don’t worry! It’s not over yet. I haven’t had a chance to make any more episodes lately but I will resume shortly.) I often talk to people about Voxer, a free app for smartphones that I find incredibly useful. I am going to describe it in a little more detail, because the official website can be slightly confusing. The short version: Voxer is a free walkie-talkie app. But that’s just part of the story. Whereas a traditional walkie-talkie, by definition, requires that all parties involved are ‘tuned in’ at the same time, Voxer doesn’t have that requirement, and mixes live broadcasting with traditional audio messaging. This sets it apart from any other app that supports voice messages, such as Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram and whatnot. With those, a 3-minute message requires a 6-minute turnaround time, minimum: 3 minutes for the sender to record it and…

ABS Podcast – Episode 4: Patch For Episodes 1–3

Welcome to a brand new episode of Avian Bone Syndrome Podcast! This is a “patch” episode, tying up a few loose ends from episodes 1–3. In particular, this episode covers lunar eclipses, daguerrotypes, and the filter bubble around you on the Internet. Don’t forget to “like” the new Facebook page for Avian Bone Syndrome! Links of interest mentioned in the episode: My photos of both lunar and solar eclipses Large format photography Ansel Adams’ zone systems Eli Pariser’s TED talk about the filter bubble The Filter Bubble book: Amazon.com – Amazon.co.uk – Amazon.it

ABS Podcast – Episode 3: Privacy Today

Episode 3 of Avian Bone Syndrome Podcast deals with a very complex topic: privacy. In this time and age of always-on network access, the concept of privacy is quite different. Join me on a journey that starts at an Italian supermarket and leads you to learn about the not-so-obvious ways that big corporations are tracking you online.

ABS Podcast – Episode 2: Photography And Ethics

Here is episode 2 of Avian Bone Syndrome Podcast! Thank you so much to everyone who listened to episode 1 and provided feedback, suggestions and ideas. This is very much a work-in-progress for me from many points of view, but it’s something I’m enjoying quite a bit. This episode is about photography and ethics: what is the line between photo editing and fraud? There are no links mentioned in the episode, however you may find these interesting: My portfolio on Flickr My Facebook page dedicated to my photography Prints of my photos for sale

ABS Podcast – Episode 1: Eclipses

And so a new podcast is born! I have no idea where I’ll go with this, nor how often or for how long I will be making it; but for now, enjoy episode 1, all about eclipses! External links mentioned in the article: My photos of the solar eclipse of March 20, 2015 The image of Earth from Saturn

Reflections of a translator

As many of you know, I am slightly obsessed about languages. About a year ago, I began turning such passion into a job, and started working for several translation agencies; I passed exams and interviews, and my work is regularly reviewed for accuracy. Despite what some people think and claim, it’s not just a matter of reading in one language and writing in another: especially when dealing with legal or technical documents, even a short text can require a substantial amount of research. Of course, over time it becomes easier, as one learns where to look for reliable information, and simply stockpiles commonly used turns of phrases to look up in a pinch. I have worked on projects big enough, sometimes for huge companies whose products you most likely use or have used—I cannot be any more specific due to non-disclosure agreements I have signed—to realize, first-hand, that translation is way more than…

Photography: a time capsule everyone can contribute to

On this fine Sunday morning, I discovered a website that I’ve immediately fallen in love with. It’s called Vintage Everyday, and its tagline reads “bring back nostalgia and memories”. And it does, oh if it does, although technically it’s not even nostalgia: most of us simply don’t remember those times because we just never lived in them. Still, it’s an unbelievable collection that will keep you browsing for hours. It contains photos of times past: people dressed in the style of their time, billboards with traditional advertising, cities shaped in ways now alien. It’s mesmerizing, and in a different way from sites collecting pictures of actors and actresses from the Golden Age of Hollywood, such as the appropriately named Old Hollywood. Vintage Everyday is different because it collects images of everyday people and everyday places, not famous movie stars, and in a sense it shows the human side of history. A similar feeling can be had by browsing one’s…