How to find your lost Android mobile phone (if turned on)

First of all, you must be lucky to have your mobile turned on and with some battery.

I used this method that saved me hours of research. I always have a good excuse that my child moved it somewhere. Actually it’s because of me that I’m frequently distracted by email, istant message, skype call, etc, and it happens frequently.

So, let’s start logging in to Google play with your Android mobile username at this application link. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.alienmanfc6.wheresmyandroid&hl=it

You click on install and select your phone (if you have only one just click on install).

Wheres My Android automatically will be installed on the phone you own.

Then get another phone and prepare for sending some text message to activate special functions.

Here is the application website where you can check all the features related to the basic and pro version http://wheresmydroid.com/download.html

In my case I just sent the message “wmd ring” and this feature makes the phone ring on max volume, even if the volume was set to silent/vibrate mode.

I found it in seconds ’cause the phone was lost at home.

While if your mobile has been stolen or lost you can use many other features that could be useful for you such as localization (“wmd gps”) or stealth mode.

I hope this post may help you as this app helped me.

 

Static page with dynamic contents managed by WordPress

If you have had my same problem to have a nice enough template to be accepted by your client and your site is mainly a static site but with the necessity of your client to modify and update contents by himself this is the right place.

Short Story
I bought a html template well designed and with all the features I need. My client approved that template and, in the future he would like to edit or correct some part of the contents that are mainly static pages. His tech skills are very low and he already used wordpress for a personal website and he founds a very smart interface and he want it. Definitely.

And now?
I thought about it for some days and I decided to keep my original html template adding some special features that allow some part of contents’ modification.

In which way?

Using a WP CMS to edit contents and printing that contents inside the old html template.

Theoretically easy.

Pratically easy too. You just need to know some bases.

Let’s go doing it.

 

1. Create a wp installation in a directory of your choice. In my case I installed in root/wp/

2. Rename the index.html in index.php giving the dynamic to the page  (skip this point if you already have a php homepage)

3. copy this code in the very top of your page (in this way you get all the potentiality of wordpress inside your site):

<?php
require(‘yourdirectory/wp-blog-header.php’);
?>

4. now, inside the template put some other code to get the post’s content (or also page if you prefer)

if you want to get the WP contents inside your site, let’s call it e.g. using this method (I get contents from the post n. “1”, change the number to get your specific post):

<?php
$post_id = 1
;
$queried_post = get_post($post_id);
$title = $queried_post->post_title;
echo $title;?>
<br>
<?php
echo $queried_post->post_content;
?>

If you need the title text you can call it through this method (also in this case the number “1” is related to the post ID number):

<?php echo get_the_title(1); ?>

How to know your post ID?

5. That’s it. Enjoy 😉 Now you can use your wp admin section to modify the text inside your old static html page.

cheers

S.

Five Reasons Samsung Galaxy Tab won’t be a success

Samsung Galaxy Tab

Last week on the high speed train dedicated to the Social Media Week Rome I was speaking with @fraintesa @daniele_ferrari about the Galaxy Tab. And both we agree Galaxy Tab won’t be a success.

These are the reasons:

  1. Too Small to be an ipad: for reading easily and interactively newspapers, journals, books
  2. Too Big to be a phone: it’s bulky & awkward if you wanna make a phone call with built-in speakers, broadcasting the call with all the world; and if you use headsets, in many cases people got issues.
  3. Slower than an eeePc to produce contents: larger screen and keyboard make eeePCs ideal to produce contents
  4. Hand ache on writing hard: in general tablets have no keyboard and if you write a lot the pressure of the finger on the screen is harder than on keyboard’s keys and you could frequently suffer of hand ache
  5. Too expensive! Not everybody want to spend that price for an half tablet.

Coolhandle hosting problem. Ep.1

At the moment my ticket support system has got an issue and is unavailable since 3 weeks, i haven’t got any answer from tech guys.

For communications they suggested to use the email support@coolhandle.com where they never reply me.

The Live chat is mostly off and when someone is there he can’t do anything, he can’t solve problems and he can’t open issue because my account has got the problem on the ticket support system.

I think it has one of the worst support system I never experienced.

On their Twitter accountthey say: “We achieve 100% satisfaction”, with me you achieved 10% so far. I hope you will better your service.

After 720 hours coolhandle solved the problem.

PhD Dissertation: Got it!

Today I got my Phd on Digital Cities. All the professors were really impressed about User Generated Online Cities. They kept 40mins hearing my dissertation and they agreed for a ‘Very good’ promotion.
After that, they asked me if I’m interested to publish the work. Of course!
Great day.

<edited on 22nd Oct 2015>
Here the pubblication (only ITA): https://goo.gl/92rxVe

 

Phd Dissertation

After 3 years of work, I have finally finished my dissertation. I would like to invite you to my doctoral defense about Digital Cities next Wednesday, the 31st March 2010, at 11am in the Aula del Consiglio of the University of Parma. Let me give special thanks to my thesis director prof. Michele Zazzi and all of you who supported this project over the past years.  Those of you who can not come, I look forward to seeing you some other time (phisically or virtually).</ENG>

Second Life invades San Francisco

SL islands pop up from the Pacific Ocean.

Online Worlds are consolidating and emerging in the real world, many and many layers of 3d online cities are popping up everywhere. Today, using google map I discovered that online territories are big enough to compete with the San Francisco Bay, and I hypothesized that the whole Second Life world could start to rise up in the Pacific Ocean.

Second Life has now reached 1800 sq.km: this means that is greater than the city area of Los Angeles (1,290 sq.km.).

You can imagine bridges, which connect the Bay with the extended archipelago of Second Life, allowing you to reach the main islands.

The online worlds grow and evolve, transform what they touch and begin to occupy wider and wider extensions, (hypothetically) unlimited, entering into competition with the physical limited spaces of our planet.

When will the amount of the extensions of these online territories overcome the earth ones?

Scaling method
I started from the Gmap and I put the Ruler to 10Km (or 5 mi). We know that the base of an SL island is 256 meters. Four Islands are around 1 Km. I scaled down the SL map using this references.
😉

Inspired by this articles:
http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2009/01/second-life-larger-than-world-of-warcraft-there-oahu-combined.html
http://virtualunderworld.net/wordpress/?p=534

Thanks to:
@slhamlet @bluescurissimo @dedaluke ArianeB GoogleMap MappaNovus Hublog

Frontiers of Interaction IV

photo by tom corsanFrontiers of Interaction IV è
stata una giornata carica di entusiasmo verso le nuove tecnologie e allo stesso tempo di
concretezza sulla realtà sociale e politica italiana e
globale. Consapevoli dei fenomeni che stanno interessando
considerevolmente la salute dell’intero pianeta terra.

Riporto qui in forma non completa
alcuni degli spunti emersi da questo incontro. Per le informazioni
complete e ufficiali consiglio di mantenersi aggiornati tramite il
sito ufficiale di Frontiers .

All’interno dell’intervento di David
Orban riguardante “OpenSpime , the internet of things”
ho risposto brevemente a due domande che David mi ha correttamente
posto.

photo by Francesco Federico
Perchè gli Spime in Secondlife sono interessanti?

Second Life è un ambiente
molto adatto per gli Spime perchè al suo interno si può
sperimentare con gli oggetti, che hanno tutti una loro posizione di
per se.

Quali sono i dati che per esempio possono essere raccolti in Secondlife?

Gli oggetti in second life possono raccogliere una moltitudine di informazioni e a loro volta possono scambiare queste informazioni tra loro in un rapporto “Machine to Machine”. Alcuni di questi dati registrabili potrebbero essere il numero di avatar in un raggio di 50 metri durante l’arco del giorno, oppure la quantità di caratteri digitati in chat, etc etc.

photo by Francesco FedericoL’importante presenza di Bruce
Sterling , ha contribuito a mantenere molto alto il livello di questo
quarto incontro di Frontiers of Interaction. In un intervento senza
slide (volutamente), ha tenuto incollata l’attenzione di tutti,
regalando importanti riflessioni e punti di vista.

photo by tom corsanL’intervento di Adam Greenfield è

iniziato con riferimenti ai suoi maestri, come Jane Jackobs,
Christopher Alexander e Bernard Rudowsky. Tramite le loro teorie
architettoniche e urbanistiche ha mostrato come ognuno di noi
potrebbe contribuire con pochi sforzi a rendere migliori le nostri
città. Lo slogan portato anche attraverso ad uno sticker
incollato sul proprio Laptop dice infatti: “Tu sei la città”
(You are the city).

Si è parlato molto di città.
Città come frutto del design o città come una parte del
tutto (il pianeta terra). Mi piace notare come in questo particolare
periodo storico, il tema della città sia un tema di grande
interesse.

photo by Leeander

Alcune risorse:

Vulcano is hope



Vulcano is a Land/Community born from an idea of total openness. Openness to the management of resources, to Avatars, to political beliefs, to religions.

Vulcano has been a kind of hope, an hope that something different is still possible.

Over time Vulcano has changed, prominent figures led it directly or indirectly, have been defined lines of conduct, first projects have strong characterized the image and the idea of Vulcano. Such as Elwe Elwing’s mega-tree and Bru Yang’s ship are the DNA of Vulcano.

We should start from this, the DNA. I think the questions suggested by OpenSource Obscure have reached not by chance.

What would I save and what would I cancell in Vulcano?

First of all I would start from initial ideas, saving highest concepts:
Vulcano belongs to everyone, without discrimination.
Vulcano is for freedom, equality, fraternity.
Vulcano pursuing collective interests.
Vulcano belongs to Vulcano’s people as much as all the not Vulcano’s people. Vulcano is a testing ground, is a laboratory of ideas, is a community driven by curiosity, is a land of freedom and hope.

Maybe Vulcano deserves to be rethought in terms of its social structure, what kind of community is Vulcano?
A free government, based on the points written above, might be sufficient for a community?
Or, Vulcano needs a governance structure more precise?

Unfortunately I have no answer to these questions.

About Objects on Vulcano, I think they should respond to collective needs, or be appreciated by the community as the important parts of the history of Vulcano (such as the Bru Yang’s ship, the Elwe Elwing’s tree ELWE and Platform Open).

Therefore I would avoid objects made for purely personal needs, or which are not regarded positively by the community (if they exceeding a certain number of Prims? Or all of those?). A feedback will be collected with this Opensource Obscure’s poll and it will be a first indicator of a right way to get.

Thanks to Open for this good idea: P

Simone Riccardi aka turboy Runo

PS thanks also to David Orban for the most great idea: Vulcano itself.