The Misfits CD Box Set

Last night, I've won an eBay bid for "The Misfits CD Box Set", and now I can't wait to get my package from the US.
I used to listen to the Misfits's ironic, weird, funny horror punk songs at the time of the High School: I had a lot of them in a poorly recorded tape and I couldn't even think to purchase such an expensive box set.
Now I have enough money in my pockets to make irrelevant the amount spent, but I have to admit that there were many (most important) things that I could do at that time and I cannot do anymore.
However, I still like most of the things I used to like, and I'm sure that the Misfits' CDs will be in my CD player for a while.

"I'm gonna live my life to destroy your world
Prime directive, exterminate
The whole fuckin' race"

From "Astro Zombies", The Misfits

Homer the Idealist

“I understand, honey. I used to believe in things when I was a kid.”

This is what Homer Simpson said to his daughter Lisa in response/acceptance to her switch to vegetarianism ("Lisa the Vegetarian" Season 7, Episode 5 of "The Simpsons'").
It is funny and sad in the same time as only real life can be.

Downbound Train

She just said "Joe I gotta go

We had it once, we ain't got it anymore"

She packed her bags, left me behind

She bought a ticket on the Central Line

Nights as I sleep I hear that whistle whining

I feel her kiss in the misty rain

And I feel like I'm a rider

On a downbound train

From "Downbound Train" by Bruce Springsteen

Quattro Stracci

After a very long time I add a new post here... it is not mine actually, it is a lyrics by Francesco Guccini, the great Italian songwriter, and, of course, it is in Italian :(

"Quattro Stracci" by Francesco Guccini

E guardo fuori dalla finestra e vedo quel muro solito che tu sai.
Sigaretta o penna nella mia destra, simboli frivoli che non hai amato mai; 
quello che ho addosso non ti è mai piaciuto, racconto e dico e ti sembro muto, 
fumare e scrivere ti suona strano, meglio le mani di un artigiano 
e cancellarmi è tutto quel che fai; 
ma io sono fiero del mio sognare, di questo eterno mio incespicare 
e rido in faccia a quello che cerchi e che mai avrai!

Non sai che ci vuole scienza, ci vuol costanza, ad invecchiare senza maturità, 
ma maturo o meno io ne ho abbastanza della complessa tua semplicità. 
Ma poi chi ha detto che tu abbia ragione, coi tuoi "also sprach" di maturazione 
o è un' illusione pronta per l'uso da eterna vittima di un sopruso,
abuso d' un mondo chiuso e fatalità; 
ognuno vada dove vuole andare, ognuno invecchi come gli pare, 
ma non raccontare a me che cos'è la libertà!

La libertà delle tue pozioni, di yoga, di erbe, psiche e di omeopatia, 
di manuali contro le frustrazioni, le inibizioni che provavi quì a casa mia, 
la noia data da uno non pratico, che non ha il polso di un matematico, 
che coi motori non ci sa fare e che non sa neanche guidare, 
un tipo perso dietro le nuvole e la poesia, 
ma ora scommetto che vorrai provare quel che con me non volevi fare: 
fare l' amore, tirare tardi o la fantasia!

La fantasia può portare male se non si conosce bene come domarla, 
ma costa poco, val quel che vale, e nessuno ti può più impedire di adoperarla; 
io, se Dio vuole, non son tuo padre, non ho nemmeno le palle quadre, 
tu hai la fantasia delle idee contorte, vai con la mente e le gambe corte, 
poi avrai sempre il momento giusto per sistemarla: 
le vie del mondo ti sono aperte, tanto hai le spalle sempre coperte 
ed avrai sempre le scuse buone per rifiutarla!

Per rifiutare sei stata un genio, sprecando il tempo a rifiutare me,
ma non c'è un alibi, non c'è un rimedio, se guardo bene no, non c'è un perchè; 
nata di marzo, nata balzana, casta che sogna d' esser puttana, 
quando sei dentro vuoi esser fuori cercando sempre i passati amori 
ed hai annullato tutti fuori che te, 
ma io qui ti inchiodo a quei tuoi pensieri, quei quattro stracci in cui hai buttato l'ieri, 
persa a cercar per sempre quello che non c'è, 
io qui ti inchiodo a quei tuoi pensieri, quei quattro stracci in cui hai buttato l'ieri 
persa a cercar per sempre quello che non c'è, 
io qui ti inchiodo a quei tuoi pensieri, quei quattro stracci in cui hai buttato l'ieri 
persa a cercar per sempre quello che non c'è...

10 things I love about cats

• cats like staying home
• cats hate to get their legs wet
• cats sleep a lot
• the way cats bend their legs under their head when they are having a nap
• when cats want to go thru a closed door they look at the door and not at you
• cats make you understand very well when they are deliberately ignoring you
• cats are shy with people they don't know
• cats don't like children
• cats don't learn anything from humans (stupid tricks etc...)
• cats think humans are stupid (I'm pretty sure about this)

Breakfast in NYC

Here I am.
My first week of work in Manhattan is gone and I'm having my Saturday morning's breakfast at my apartment: a tall hot black coffee (really good) and a cake from the nearby Starbucks coffee shop.


Unfortunately, during this first busy week here I had no time to visit New York, even if I did some nice walks around this amazing city and I really enjoyed staying here: a great thank to the people of the AI crew (the company for which I'm working for, on an OFBiz based project), that did their best to make me feel like I was home.
I'm going to stay in Manhattan for other two weeks and I'll soon add new posts about NY in the next few days.
Now I go for a walk northward in the 5th Avenue :-)

A Weekend in the Dolomites

Hmmm... I've been really very busy and had no time to add new posts here (but I'll come back soon!).
However, in September Silvia and I spent a long week-end in the Dolomites, the beutiful mountains in Trentino (Italy).
A few days in the Dolomites are the best way to get some rest and in fact Silvia and I have really enjoied our time off; here are some pictures we have taken.

Shine On, Syd

Syd Barret has died.
This news hit me yesterday, while I was driving, for work, from Padova to Brescia.
I'd like to remember him, with the lyrics of the last song he wrote before leaving the Pink Floyd. It was published in 1968 and it is a sad farewell piece by Syd Barret who, at that time, was already shrinking into a delirious state of mind.

JUGBAND BLUES

It's awfully considerate of you to think of me here
And I'm most obliged to you for making it clear
That I'm not here.
And I never knew the moon could be so big
And I never knew the moon could be so blue
And I'm grateful that you threw away my old shoes
And brought me here instead dressed in red
And I'm wondering who could be writing this song.

I don't care if the sun don't shine
And I don't care if nothing is mine
And I don't care if I'm nervous with you
I'll do my loving in the winter.

And the sea isn't green
And I love the Queen
And what exactly is a dream
And what exactly is a joke.

Meeting around the Olympic Torch

Recently I had a meeting with a new customer, interested in adopting OFBiz for a subsidiary company abroad.
When I entered in the conference room, I was surpised to see, standing in the center of the table, the Olympic Torch of Turin’s 2006 Olympic Winter games:

It was there to remember that the Company implemented the special technology needed to light the torch with an inexhaustible fire.
However they told me that the technology was not enough when the anarchists, protesting against the Olympics, stole the torch (for a few seconds, and not this item) in Trento.

Implementing ERP systems and end user docs

As one of the core developers of the Open For Business Project (OFBiz), an open source Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software, it often happens to me to read emails from users disappointed by the lack of the 'right' documentation they need in order to easily implement the system in their company.

Even if it's true that OFBiz's documentation can be improved, there is a lot of it already available (for free): quick start guides, reference manuals, videos, wiki based documents, the mailing list archieves etc...

However very often none of the above seems to meet the expectations of these guys, mainly IT managers that are in the process of evaluating the software, because they have problems to map their company's internal processes to what is available in OFBiz.

Nowadays, you can set up a web server even if you are not a system administrator; this is not true for setting up an ERP system for your company because this requires both technical and business level skills.

SAP, Oracle, Intentia and many other big ERP vendors ship their softwares with a lot of end-user documentation (well, some of them, not so much as you could imagine...) but I've never heard of a company that even tried to deploy these systems without the support of a consulting company.

In short, the underlying and real need is for free consulting, not for free documentation.

Deploying an ERP system only reading its documentation is much like translating a book, written in an unknown language, with the only help of a dictionary.