Mr Media and the Professor

March 15, 2006 · Filed Under Italian politics · Comment

I caught a short part of the TV pre-election duel between Mr B and Mr P(rodi) last night (My son was demanding to hear 'music' on my PC). Today, I heard that around 16 million Italians tuned into last night's shootout - more out of curiosity than anything else, I suspect.

In short, Mr Media gave a polished performance, and one cannot deny that the man is a suave communicator. Whereas, the Professor, rather lived up to his nickname, and came across as being as about as exciting as a dull Sunday afternoon in autumn. Still, showmanship is one thing and competence is another and overall many Italians seemed to think, well this is my impression, that the staid Mr P came across as being more professional than the rather too slick and sticky Mr B.

The elections will shortly be upon us, so we shall see whether the populous here will give prudent Prodi a chance or whether it will decide to retain Mr Entertainment.

No new faces though……

Share:

Tags: Italian

E-book experience - part 2

March 15, 2006 · Filed Under Technology and Gadgets · Comment

I've been reading my e-book today and I have to say that it is not such a bad experience after all. I'd prefer to have a larger screen so I can get more text on it, but this is just a psychological problem of mine - I can't help comparing these e-books with the old paper variety. I find I want new technology to resemble something I'm used to, but only when the technology is attempting to replace some commonly used everyday item, such as a book. The diary program on my pocket pc (A very nice program called Agenda Fusion) both mimics traditional diaries and improves on them, which is just what technology should do, I reckon. Of course, I am rather old, so I do have experience with old technology which interferes with my usage of new tech items. I don't suppose my son will think too much about these things, though.

As for gadgets to read e-books on, I'd like to see a fold out device, which would be about half the size of a standard paperback book when closed. Such a gizmo would display one complete page of text and would have a slot for a memory card. If it could also do all the things my pocket pc does, then I would be very happy. I'm not too sure I'd want it to be a phone too, because I would worry about losing one gadget which has everything on it. I can just about handle the idea of losing either my pocket pc, or one of my mobiles, but the idea of mislaying one single multi-function object sort of scares me - and these things are not exactly cheap either.

In summary, let me just say that for me, so far so good and I may well be investing in a few more e-books as time goes by.

Share: