http://blog.alessiosignorini.com Tech, ideas, and cool stuff that go through my head every day... Wed, 18 Jan 2012 15:52:24 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://blog.alessiosignorini.com/2012/01/easily-stop-internet-piracy-making-people-pay-for-bandwidth/ http://blog.alessiosignorini.com/2012/01/easily-stop-internet-piracy-making-people-pay-for-bandwidth/#comments Wed, 18 Jan 2012 15:52:24 +0000 Alessio Signorini http://blog.alessiosignorini.com/?p=722 In the last days there have been so many debates and threads about the PIPA/SOPA legislation. Sites went black (even Wikipedia), people added “STOP SOPA” banner on their avatars, and the technology news is overwhelmed with those messages. There are tons of people who say that this legislation will destroy the web, freedom of speech, and innovation. While I do not have a particular position on the topic, I do think that there could be a much easier way for the government to stop Internet piracy, which does not require any form of censorship: obligate service provider to make people pay for bandwidth instead of a monthly flat rate…, pretty much like they are already doing with cellphone data.]]> http://blog.alessiosignorini.com/2012/01/easily-stop-internet-piracy-making-people-pay-for-bandwidth/feed/ 0 http://blog.alessiosignorini.com/2012/01/peer-to-peer-online-jukebox-with-songs-from-each-user/ http://blog.alessiosignorini.com/2012/01/peer-to-peer-online-jukebox-with-songs-from-each-user/#comments Mon, 09 Jan 2012 00:53:55 +0000 Alessio Signorini http://blog.alessiosignorini.com/?p=720 Today we have Pandora, Spotify, GrooveShark, and a dozen other sites to listen to music online. Each has its own caveats, does not really let you hear the music you want, has ADs or a subscription model, … I often wonder why nobody created an online peer-to-peer Jukebox… where each user contributes with some songs. The songs will be played/streamed directly from the each other’s computers, so if only one user has a particular song, who wants to listen to it will have to wait its turn in a queue.]]> http://blog.alessiosignorini.com/2012/01/peer-to-peer-online-jukebox-with-songs-from-each-user/feed/ 0 http://blog.alessiosignorini.com/2012/01/car-sharing-done-right/ http://blog.alessiosignorini.com/2012/01/car-sharing-done-right/#comments Tue, 03 Jan 2012 07:25:01 +0000 Alessio Signorini http://blog.alessiosignorini.com/?p=717 I often dream about creating a system that allows real car sharing…. There will be a set of similar cars shared among all the users, and each will pay a quote of the global expenses every month. Nobody will own a car but will be allowed to (respectfully) use one from the pool. When you need a car, you will just pull out your phone and say where you need to go.]]> http://blog.alessiosignorini.com/2012/01/car-sharing-done-right/feed/ 0 http://blog.alessiosignorini.com/2012/01/password-fatigue-touch-points-in-pictures-to-unlock-your-device/ http://blog.alessiosignorini.com/2012/01/password-fatigue-touch-points-in-pictures-to-unlock-your-device/#comments Sun, 01 Jan 2012 14:29:34 +0000 Alessio Signorini http://blog.alessiosignorini.com/?p=714 In the last weeks I have read of a million new ways that people are thinking about to let us unlock our devices. A few months ago somebody published a list of the most common iPhone passwords. It was funny to see 1234, 0000, 6666, GOD, LOVE and SEX on that list. Microsoft claims that we suffer of “password fatigue” and to help out it seems they are going to let you draw some geometric figures on top of your pictures in their next version of Windows Mobile.…]]> http://blog.alessiosignorini.com/2012/01/password-fatigue-touch-points-in-pictures-to-unlock-your-device/feed/ 0 http://blog.alessiosignorini.com/2011/10/photos-in-the-cloud-geolocation-auto-tagging-virtual-albums/ http://blog.alessiosignorini.com/2011/10/photos-in-the-cloud-geolocation-auto-tagging-virtual-albums/#comments Sun, 02 Oct 2011 16:48:51 +0000 Alessio Signorini http://blog.alessiosignorini.com/?p=696 Yesterday I was thinking to my next photocamera…. I want it small but with some buttons (no clumsy touchscreen), capable of taking pictures at night, waterproof, with integrated GPS, and capable of backing up the pictures automatically when I get home. Unfortunately, I do not think that it exists yet. Then I started thinking about how I would like the computer to help me organize my photo collection.]]> http://blog.alessiosignorini.com/2011/10/photos-in-the-cloud-geolocation-auto-tagging-virtual-albums/feed/ 0 http://blog.alessiosignorini.com/2011/09/gyms-cheaper-to-switch-cloth-towels-to-wipe-off-equipment/ http://blog.alessiosignorini.com/2011/09/gyms-cheaper-to-switch-cloth-towels-to-wipe-off-equipment/#comments Mon, 12 Sep 2011 17:00:59 +0000 Alessio Signorini http://blog.alessiosignorini.com/?p=685 My gym provides plenty of disinfectant and paper towels to wipe off equipment before/after each use. I have seen this in other gyms here in the US and it is a nice thing, especially during the fall and winter months when more people are sick. On the other hand thought, it is a bit sad to see all that paper get wasted every day, which probably can not even be recycled due to the disinfectant used.…]]> http://blog.alessiosignorini.com/2011/09/gyms-cheaper-to-switch-cloth-towels-to-wipe-off-equipment/feed/ 2 http://blog.alessiosignorini.com/2011/07/facebook-should-show-users-what-is-tagged-before-publishing-it/ http://blog.alessiosignorini.com/2011/07/facebook-should-show-users-what-is-tagged-before-publishing-it/#comments Fri, 29 Jul 2011 12:49:54 +0000 Alessio Signorini http://blog.alessiosignorini.com/?p=679 I think it is time for Facebook to get privacy right. The thing is that I do not think it is that difficult. A simple change could make almost everyone happy because they will be in control of what is published about them. When a user is tagged in a video, picture or post, Facebook should not publish the tag immediately but send the user a notification. At that point the user should have the option to: (1) make the tag public, (2) make the tag private or (3) remove the tag.…]]> http://blog.alessiosignorini.com/2011/07/facebook-should-show-users-what-is-tagged-before-publishing-it/feed/ 1 http://blog.alessiosignorini.com/2011/07/replacing-household-power-outlets-with-powered-ethernet-plugs/ http://blog.alessiosignorini.com/2011/07/replacing-household-power-outlets-with-powered-ethernet-plugs/#comments Fri, 15 Jul 2011 13:40:17 +0000 Alessio Signorini http://blog.alessiosignorini.com/?p=671 Between TV, cable box, surround stereo, game console and DVD Player I am sure I can find this mess of cables behind most of the TV sets all over the world. At home I just had to move my satellite box from one room to the other and realized I had 4 wires (power, normal antenna, satellite antenna, and SCART) to disconnect and reconnect.…]]> http://blog.alessiosignorini.com/2011/07/replacing-household-power-outlets-with-powered-ethernet-plugs/feed/ 1 http://blog.alessiosignorini.com/2011/07/app-help-what-to-watch-on-tv-right-now/ http://blog.alessiosignorini.com/2011/07/app-help-what-to-watch-on-tv-right-now/#comments Thu, 07 Jul 2011 21:57:44 +0000 Alessio Signorini http://blog.alessiosignorini.com/?p=637 Going through the hundreds of channels available on the on-screen guide of modern cable boxes looking for something to watch right now is a crazy experience. Sometimes you have just a few minutes to spare and spend most of them scrolling through dozens of cooking shows, reality TVs, old episodes of Seinfeld, and tons of how-to-get-skinny programming. It’s insane, yet we all do this every day.…]]> http://blog.alessiosignorini.com/2011/07/app-help-what-to-watch-on-tv-right-now/feed/ 1 http://blog.alessiosignorini.com/2011/07/forget-the-filter-bubble-personalization-done-right-will-just-hide-what-you-really-dont-like/ http://blog.alessiosignorini.com/2011/07/forget-the-filter-bubble-personalization-done-right-will-just-hide-what-you-really-dont-like/#comments Sat, 02 Jul 2011 17:04:32 +0000 Alessio Signorini http://blog.alessiosignorini.com/?p=636 In the last month more and more of my friends are talking about the negative effects of personalization for news websites and search results. Eli Pariser even wrote a book about it and sold lots of copies. The points made in “The Filter Bubble: What The Internet Is Hiding From You” are correct but certainly not new. Most of the personalization systems today are based on collaborative filtering, a technique made famous in 2007 thanks to a paper by Google.…]]> http://blog.alessiosignorini.com/2011/07/forget-the-filter-bubble-personalization-done-right-will-just-hide-what-you-really-dont-like/feed/ 0