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And after Dante’s Inferno… Renzo & Lucia
Not content to have delighted gamers worldwide and above all those of Italian origin with Dante’s Inferno, smart asses at Visceral Games/EA are ready to take the video games market by storm with their new announced “masterpiece”: Renzo&Lucia. Inspired by the historical novel I promessi sposi by Alessando Manzoni, Renzo&Lucia makes use of the most modern gaming technologies to bring back to life the dull novel we all forcedly read at the school times. And frankly speaking by looking at the following fake (author unknown) I don’t know if I have to laugh or cry. Anyway I hope EA won’t really pick up the idea, ’cause they have already proved to be capable of doing everything…
Videogames highlights - September-December 2009
Welcome to a new installment in the Videogames Highlights series. It is, considering the long period of time passed since the August one, a “remedial” post covering no less than the last four months of year 2009. These were intense months, from a video gaming standpoint, still the following contents collection is personal and variously assorted as usual. And seeing that there is so much to talk about I cut short with the intro and just report, after Stardock’s CEO opinion of the last time, the statements from UK accountable people for the three main gaming consoles (Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo) regarding the misleading theory according to which digital downloads should replace optical disks during the upcoming years.
Fun with Winamp
While I am busy installing new processors (wetting my pants because afterward the PC doesn’t work anymore), getting utility software I didn’t suspect the existence about and wasting time with really funny little games, some sort of computer epiphany happened below my unbelieving eyes. In very poor words I’ve downloaded and adopted the last version of Winamp, once again choosing it as the predefined player for running everything is music and discovering that now MilkDrop profits by the graphic card shaders for a visual experience that’s difficult to replicate otherwise.
More people than water
The news isn’t that fresh, and the topic doesn’t get attention in this period of holidays, presents and thoughtless spending by whom can still afford them (with debts). Nevertheless it’s a problem that everybody, sooner or later, will have to deal with in the upcoming future. Fresh water supplies are, already today, inadequate to satisfy the demand, and in future it will be worse and worse considering the growing needs of those real demographic atomic bombs generally listed under the “developing countries” definition.
Snapshots #3: high definition, high emulation
While I’m still in the throes of digesting a four days Christmas food stuffing, waiting for the will to (re)start to write something meaningful on these pages I yield to the last dessert made up by variously assorted snapshots. In particular they cover PlayStation 2 emulation with PCSX2 and high definitions rips, two of the many things that where forcedly precluded to me before my new laptop fortuitous purchase due to the lack of adequate hardware equipment.
Naruto: Shippūden episode 141 - Truth
Hi there everybody, long time no see huh? 
I’m not dead, the blog is not dead nor is the will to post, let’s just say that I’ve taken a little, forced break because of the lack of serenity in my life and the resulting difficulty to focus on amusing and yet demanding activities like writing some text on these pages. On the other hand Christmas is here, the most shitty period of the year full of hypocrisy and chocolate crap to sweeten the most sensitive palates. So better enjoying the last episode of Naruto Shippuuden’s sixth season, where the secrets unfold and Madara reveals the truth about Itachi’s past and the real motivations that drove him on his cursed pathway. Provided this version is the “real” truth, anyway… AnimeCrazy.net (alternative hosting); Episodes list on Wikipedia; Naruto on Sir Arthur’s Den.
Marco Travaglio - Il più amato dagli italiani (The most beloved by Italians)
Taken from the Voglio Scendere blog as usual. Now more than ever, even though I don’t always agree with the opinions he expresses, I completely support Marco Travaglio’s work. Many rejoiced when they saw Silvio Berlusconi’s face covered in blood on YouTube, I cheered much less than I had expected by myself. Then berluscones managed to make me dismiss the desire for human mercy for a wretch considering himself as a god, while then he pays prostitutes to spend a night in company and takes iron sculptures in his face. It’s sad, more than disgusting.
A.D. 2012, The Art of Video Games exhibit in Washington D.C.
If the world won’t end before with a huge and yet wee galactic fart, in 2012 there is a date to pin down on the agenda for who will be lucky enough to be around Washington D.C. In the United States capital city, and more exactly at the prestigious Smithsonian American Art Museum, the exhibit The Art of Video Games will be held between March 16 and September 9, 2012, a systematic, interactive and visually rich journey centered on the history of the first 40 years of the videogaming medium.
My new Western Digital 1 Terabyte external HD
Here is my latest e-commerce purchase: a Western Digital branded external hard disk (USB 2.0 compatible) with 1 Terabyte of nominal storage space. The recent mourning still burns and to be sure this time I’ve spent almost 120 Euros (HD + basic case + shipping costs) to buy a no-frills HD doing the only thing I’m interested to, that is keeping my data (partitions images first of all) and keeping them well, as just one of the few storage brands I trust can do.
Snapshots #2: calm & havoc
Someone will find it unlikely, but I’m still dealing with the system restore a month after (and waiting to upgrade to Windows 7): to have to download the newest version of any program every time (maybe waiting for hours on eMule) makes you tired hence I’m going forward with the work only within snippets of time and sometimes during weekend. Conversely, after the old crap of the last time, I’m currently falling prey of the almost uncontrollable desire to get and play to whatever taste like “contemporary”.
Marco Travaglio - Minchiate (Bullshit)
Taken from: Minchiate - Passaparola - Voglio Scendere. Enjoy.
Dolphin emulates New Super Mario Bros. Wii at 1080p
I had already talked about Dolphin’s remarkable qualities in a previous post, being it the only emulator currently capable of replicating a Nintendo Wii console on PC and running some commercial games. Another, impressive confirmation of the emulator capabilities comes from this YouTube video (via Joystick Division), that in a single shot shows off what the recently added Full HD video clips viewing (1080p, or 1920×1080 pixels) is really useful for while it demonstrates the growing Dolphin compatibility with the latest games published for the Nintendo console.
“Solo” the Pentagon cracker very close to extradition to USA
Gary McKinnon lost another battle in his long legal war against the extradition to United States when, some days ago, Home Secretary of United Kingdom refused to examine the new medical evidence submitted by the defendant. In a letter dated November 26 and directed to lawyer Karen Todner, Secretary Alan Johnson expressed his “firm view that McKinnon’s extradition would not be incompatible with his human rights“, therefore “his extradition to the United States must proceed forthwith“.
Marco Travaglio - La mafia non esiste, Berlusconi e Dell’Utri invece si (Mafia does not exist, Berlusconi and Dell’Utri do instead)
I’m starting to be tired of the logical accuracy of Travaglio’s reasoning, because by following his chronicles you end up being afore two possibilities: either you get a machine gun and make a trip to Palazzo Chigi (where the government is) to give Berlusconi some of that “civil war” he babbles about in front of the cameras, or you stay behind the screen by sending out a silent scream of wrath against these pieces of shit. Luckily tomorrow TV will switch to the DTT system in Campania, maybe RAI won’t be accessible anymore and I will return to intensely think about my two obsessions, ie computers and pretty chicks. Because there will be many other occasions in the future to get angry about that Berlusconi mafioso…
Naruto: Shippūden episode 137 - Amaterasu!
Just a few words to introduce the episode because I still have to eat the cake, play to Braid and try the just downloaded Serious Sam HD: Sasuke and Itachi go into the heart of battle, unleash their secret weapons and more generally they beat the hell out of each other. Good show, anyway, even though the drawings quality doesn’t impress me that much. And now excuse me while I have better things to do AnimeCrazy.net (alternative hosting); Episodes list on Wikipedia; Naruto on Sir Arthur’s Den.
New proactive test by AV-Comparatives: are false positives really that important?
The AV-Comparatives Austrian labs have just released their antivirus test for November. Following the usual practice of alternating (during the year) the analysis of the known malware detection rates and that on the antivirus software proactive capabilities, report n.24 follows the previous one related to the malware test-bed collected between January and August 2009 but, contrariwise to this last one, compares the same products to more than 23,000 new samples gathered within the week following the antivirus signatures update.
Marco Travaglio - Il primo Capo di Stato che parla ha fatto l’uovo
Maybe I’m not that old to remember of many former Presidents of Republic, but it hardly seems to me to have memories about a useless notary like Giorgio Napolitano. A president which guarantees only the caste of privileged villains he belongs to, ie politicians and mafiosos that, as nasty moths, plague the Parliament by wearing its seats down with their fat asses tired for the too much nothingness they do from the morning till the evening. Napolitano has no televisions and (maybe) doesn’t frequent either whores or transsexuals, but he isn’t so much better than Silvio Berlusconi when it comes to damage the rule of law in Italy.
Naruto: Shippūden episodes 135 & 136 - The Longest Moment & The Light & Dark of the Mangekyo Sharingan
For who hadn’t seen this week’s Naruto Shippuuden episodes yet, here is the usual reminder with streaming clips: the two Uchiha brothers meet and clash once again, while Itachi gives Sasuke a history lesson revealing the bloody secret of their clan. Having no knowledge of the manga apart from some rare glimpse, I dare to hope the series’ plot level will mantain the same rhythm afterward too. And now excuse me while I return to play the freshly installed Street Fighter IV 
For more information: AnimeCrazy.net (alternative hosting); Episodes list on Wikipedia; Naruto on Sir Arthur’s Den.
When Punto Informatico loses its pillars…
This clearly is a shock period for me, because after the bad, bad event of the dead hard disk I also have to deal with the leaving (already of public domain since) of De Andreis brothers from the lead of Punto Informatico, that is the news site I daily write some nonsense for and what’s more being paid for the service The site has changed ownership since October 2008 going from De Andreis Editore to Edizioni Master, but at least for a while things have been the same as usual - ie every day there was a mail from Paolo (De Andreis) to wait for me with the indication of things to do inside.
Snapshots: knights, princes and warriors
System restore after the hard disk death is proceeding slowly as expected, currently I am at around 45% (…) but luckily I’m starting to see a less vague profile within the installed applications and everything. What are the basic components to make you feel at home on any Windows system? Anyone has his own, personally I’m fond of (among the others) the three things depicted by the following screenshots.
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