sabato 28 febbraio 2009

Sul ruolo dei media e dei giornalisti / Il discorso di Murrow del 1958

Per chi non avesse visto l'eccellente (a mio avviso, ovviamente) film Good Night and Good Luck di George Clooney (2005), riporto qui il video con le due parti, iniziale e finale, che nel film riprendono il discorso di Murrow del 1958 all'RTDA convention, che ho appena ritrovato. Un'interessante punto di vista sul ruolo e la responsabilita' dell'informazione e dei media. (in calce al video la trascrizione in italiano (ripresa da qui) e quella del discorso originale, trovata qui)



Trascrizione in italiano

“Quello che sto per dire a molti non piacerà. Quando il discorso sarà terminato alcune persone potranno accusare questo reporter di sputare nel piatto in cui mangia. E la vostra organizzazione potrà essere accusata di aver dato ospitalità a delle idee eretiche e addirittura pericolose. Ma la struttura articolata di network, agenzie di pubblicità e sponsor non subirà scossoni, né sarà alterata.

E’ mio desiderio e mio dovere parlare a tutti voi apertamente di ciò che sta accadendo alla radio e alla televisione, e se quello che dico è irresponsabile, allora io solo sono da ritenere responsabile.

La nostra storia sarà quella che noi vogliamo che sia. E se fra cinquanta, o cento anni degli storici vedranno le registrazioni settimanali di tutti e tre i nostri network, si ritroveranno di fronte a immagini in bianco e nero o a colori, prova della decadenza, della vacuità e dell’isolamento dalla realtà del mondo in cui viviamo.

Al momento attuale siamo tutti grassi, benestanti, compiaciuti e compiacenti. C’è un’allergia insita in noi alle notizie spiacevoli o disturbanti, e i nostri massmedia riflettono questa tendenza. Ma se non decidiamo di scrollarci di dosso l’abbondanza e non riconosciamo che la televisione soprattutto viene utilizzata per distrarci, ingannarci, divertirci, isolarci, chi la finanzia, chi la guarda e chi ci lavora si renderà conto di questa realtà quando ormai sarà troppo tardi per rimediare.

Ho iniziato dicendo che la storia la facciamo noi. Se continueremo così la storia prima o poi si vendicherà e il castigo non impiegherà molto ad arrivare.

Una volta tanto elogiamo l’importanza delle idee e dell’informazione.
Sogniamo anche che una qualche domenica sera lo spazio occupato normalmente da Ed Sullivan sia occupato da un attento sondaggio sullo stato dell’istruzione in America. E che una o due settimane dopo lo spazio occupato normalmente da Steve Allen sia dedicato ad uno studio approfondito della politica americana in medio-oriente.

Forse l’immagine dei rispettivi sponsor ne risulterebbe danneggiata? Forse i loro azionisti si lamenterebbero e infurierebbero? Che cosa potrebbe succedere oltre al fatto che qualche milione di persone sarebbe più informato su argomenti che possono determinare il futuro di questo paese e di conseguenza anche il futuro di queste aziende.

A coloro che dicono: la gente non starebbe a guardare, non sarebbe interessata, è troppo compiaciuta, indifferente e isolata, io posso solo rispondere: ci sono, secondo la mia opinione, delle prove inconfutabili contro questa tesi. Ma anche se avessero ragione che cosa avrebbero da perdere? Perché se avessero ragione e questo strumento non servisse a nulla se non ad intrattenere, divertire e isolare, i suoi effetti positivi si starebbero dissolvendo e presto la nostra battaglia sarebbe perduta.

Questo strumento può insegnare, può illuminare, sì, può anche essere fonte di ispirazione, ma può farlo solo ed esclusivamente se l’essere umano deciderà di utilizzarlo per questi scopi.
Altrimenti non è che un ammasso di fili elettrici e valvole in una scatola.
Buona notte e buona fortuna.”

Trascrizione del discorso originale


EDWARD R. MURROW

RTNDA Convention
Chicago
October 15, 1958

This just might do nobody any good. At the end of this discourse a few people may accuse this reporter of fouling his own comfortable nest, and your organization may be accused of having given hospitality to heretical and even dangerous thoughts. But the elaborate structure of networks, advertising agencies and sponsors will not be shaken or altered. It is my desire, if not my duty, to try to talk to you journeymen with some candor about what is happening to radio and television.

I have no technical advice or counsel to offer those of you who labor in this vineyard that produces words and pictures. You will forgive me for not telling you that instruments with which you work are miraculous, that your responsibility is unprecedented or that your aspirations are frequently frustrated. It is not necessary to remind you that the fact that your voice is amplified to the degree where it reaches from one end of the country to the other does not confer upon you greater wisdom or understanding than you possessed when your voice reached only from one end of the bar to the other. All of these things you know.

You should also know at the outset that, in the manner of witnesses before Congressional committees, I appear here voluntarily-by invitation-that I am an employee of the Columbia Broadcasting System, that I am neither an officer nor a director of that corporation and that these remarks are of a "do-it-yourself" nature. If what I have to say is responsible, then I alone am responsible for the saying of it. Seeking neither approbation from my employers, nor new sponsors, nor acclaim from the critics of radio and television, I cannot well be disappointed. Believing that potentially the commercial system of broadcasting as practiced in this country is the best and freest yet devised, I have decided to express my concern about what I believe to be happening to radio and television. These instruments have been good to me beyond my due. There exists in mind no reasonable grounds for personal complaint. I have no feud, either with my employers, any sponsors, or with the professional critics of radio and television. But I am seized with an abiding fear regarding what these two instruments are doing to our society, our culture and our heritage.

Our history will be what we make it. And if there are any historians about fifty or a hundred years from now, and there should be preserved the kinescopes for one week of all three networks, they will there find recorded in black and white, or color, evidence of decadence, escapism and insulation from the realities of the world in which we live. I invite your attention to the television schedules of all networks between the hours of 8 and 11 p.m., Eastern Time. Here you will find only fleeting and spasmodic reference to the fact that this nation is in mortal danger. There are, it is true, occasional informative programs presented in that intellectual ghetto on Sunday afternoons. But during the daily peak viewing periods, television in the main insulates us from the realities of the world in which we live. If this state of affairs continues, we may alter an advertising slogan to read: LOOK NOW, PAY LATER.

For surely we shall pay for using this most powerful instrument of communication to insulate the citizenry from the hard and demanding realities which must be faced if we are to survive. I mean the word survive literally. If there were to be a competition in indifference, or perhaps in insulation from reality, then Nero and his fiddle, Chamberlain and his umbrella, could not find a place on an early afternoon sustaining show. If Hollywood were to run out of Indians, the program schedules would be mangled beyond all recognition. Then some courageous soul with a small budget might be able to do a documentary telling what, in fact, we have done--and are still doing--to the Indians in this country. But that would be unpleasant. And we must at all costs shield the sensitive citizens from anything that is unpleasant.

I am entirely persuaded that the American public is more reasonable, restrained and more mature than most of our industry's program planners believe. Their fear of controversy is not warranted by the evidence. I have reason to know, as do many of you, that when the evidence on a controversial subject is fairly and calmly presented, the public recognizes it for what it is--an effort to illuminate rather than to agitate.

Several years ago, when we undertook to do a program on Egypt and Israel, well-meaning, experienced and intelligent friends shook their heads and said, "This you cannot do--you will be handed your head. It is an emotion-packed controversy, and there is no room for reason in it." We did the program. Zionists, anti-Zionists, the friends of the Middle East, Egyptian and Israeli officials said, with a faint tone of surprise, "It was a fair count. The information was there. We have no complaints."

Our experience was similar with two half-hour programs dealing with cigarette smoking and lung cancer. Both the medical profession and the tobacco industry cooperated in a rather wary fashion. But in the end of the day they were both reasonably content. The subject of radioactive fall-out and the banning of nuclear tests was, and is, highly controversial. But according to what little evidence there is, viewers were prepared to listen to both sides with reason and restraint. This is not said to claim any special or unusual competence in the presentation of controversial subjects, but rather to indicate that timidity in these areas is not warranted by the evidence.

Recently, network spokesmen have been disposed to complain that the professional critics of television have been "rather beastly." There have been hints that somehow competition for the advertising dollar has caused the critics of print to gang up on television and radio. This reporter has no desire to defend the critics. They have space in which to do that on their own behalf. But it remains a fact that the newspapers and magazines are the only instruments of mass communication which remain free from sustained and regular critical comment. If the network spokesmen are so anguished about what appears in print, let them come forth and engage in a little sustained and regular comment regarding newspapers and magazines. It is an ancient and sad fact that most people in network television, and radio, have an exaggerated regard for what appears in print. And there have been cases where executives have refused to make even private comment or on a program for which they were responsible until they heard'd the reviews in print. This is hardly an exhibition confidence.

The oldest excuse of the networks for their timidity is their youth. Their spokesmen say, "We are young; we have not developed the traditions nor acquired the experience of the older media." If they but knew it, they are building those traditions, creating those precedents everyday. Each time they yield to a voice from Washington or any political pressure, each time they eliminate something that might offend some section of the community, they are creating their own body of precedent and tradition. They are, in fact, not content to be "half safe."

Nowhere is this better illustrated than by the fact that the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission publicly prods broadcasters to engage in their legal right to editorialize. Of course, to undertake an editorial policy, overt and clearly labeled, and obviously unsponsored, requires a station or a network to be responsible. Most stations today probably do not have the manpower to assume this responsibility, but the manpower could be recruited. Editorials would not be profitable; if they had a cutting edge, they might even offend. It is much easier, much less troublesome, to use the money-making machine of television and radio merely as a conduit through which to channel anything that is not libelous, obscene or defamatory. In that way one has the illusion of power without responsibility.

So far as radio--that most satisfying and rewarding instrument--is concerned, the diagnosis of its difficulties is rather easy. And obviously I speak only of news and information. In order to progress, it need only go backward. To the time when singing commercials were not allowed on news reports, when there was no middle commercial in a 15-minute news report, when radio was rather proud, alert and fast. I recently asked a network official, "Why this great rash of five-minute news reports (including three commercials) on weekends?" He replied, "Because that seems to be the only thing we can sell."

In this kind of complex and confusing world, you can't tell very much about the why of the news in broadcasts where only three minutes is available for news. The only man who could do that was Elmer Davis, and his kind aren't about any more. If radio news is to be regarded as a commodity, only acceptable when saleable, then I don't care what you call it--I say it isn't news.

My memory also goes back to the time when the fear of a slight reduction in business did not result in an immediate cutback in bodies in the news and public affairs department, at a time when network profits had just reached an all-time high. We would all agree, I think, that whether on a station or a network, the stapling machine is a poor substitute for a newsroom typewriter.

One of the minor tragedies of television news and information is that the networks will not even defend their vital interests. When my employer, CBS, through a combination of enterprise and good luck, did an interview with Nikita Khrushchev, the President uttered a few ill-chosen, uninformed words on the subject, and the network practically apologized. This produced a rarity. Many newspapers defended the CBS right to produce the program and commended it for initiative. But the other networks remained silent.

Likewise, when John Foster Dulles, by personal decree, banned American journalists from going to Communist China, and subsequently offered contradictory explanations, for his fiat the networks entered only a mild protest. Then they apparently forgot the unpleasantness. Can it be that this national industry is content to serve the public interest only with the trickle of news that comes out of Hong Kong, to leave its viewers in ignorance of the cataclysmic changes that are occurring in a nation of six hundred million people? I have no illusions about the difficulties reporting from a dictatorship, but our British and French allies have been better served--in their public interest--with some very useful information from their reporters in Communist China.

One of the basic troubles with radio and television news is that both instruments have grown up as an incompatible combination of show business, advertising and news. Each of the three is a rather bizarre and demanding profession. And when you get all three under one roof, the dust never settles. The top management of the networks with a few notable exceptions, has been trained in advertising, research, sales or show business. But by the nature of the coporate structure, they also make the final and crucial decisions having to do with news and public affairs. Frequently they have neither the time nor the competence to do this. It is not easy for the same small group of men to decide whether to buy a new station for millions of dollars, build a new building, alter the rate card, buy a new Western, sell a soap opera, decide what defensive line to take in connection with the latest Congressional inquiry, how much money to spend on promoting a new program, what additions or deletions should be made in the existing covey or clutch of vice-presidents, and at the same time-- frequently on the same long day--to give mature, thoughtful consideration to the manifold problems that confront those who are charged with the responsibility for news and public affairs.

Sometimes there is a clash between the public interest and the corporate interest. A telephone call or a letter from the proper quarter in Washington is treated rather more seriously than a communication from an irate but not politically potent viewer. It is tempting enough to give away a little air time for frequently irresponsible and unwarranted utterances in an effort to temper the wind of criticism.

Upon occasion, economics and editorial judgment are in conflict. And there is no law which says that dollars will be defeated by duty. Not so long ago the President of the United States delivered a television address to the nation. He was discoursing on the possibility or probability of war between this nation and the Soviet Union and Communist China--a reasonably compelling subject. Two networks CBS and NBC, delayed that broadcast for an hour and fifteen minutes. If this decision was dictated by anything other than financial reasons, the networks didn't deign to explain those reasons. That hour-and-fifteen-minute delay, by the way, is about twice the time required for an ICBM to travel from the Soviet Union to major targets in the United States. It is difficult to believe that this decision was made by men who love, respect and understand news.

So far, I have been dealing largely with the deficit side of the ledger, and the items could be expanded. But I have said, and I believe, that potentially we have in this country a free enterprise system of radio and television which is superior to any other. But to achieve its promise, it must be both free and enterprising. There is no suggestion here that networks or individual stations should operate as philanthropies. But I can find nothing in the Bill of Rights or the Communications Act which says that they must increase their net profits each year, lest the Republic collapse. I do not suggest that news and information should be subsidized by foundations or private subscriptions. I am aware that the networks have expended, and are expending, very considerable sums of money on public affairs programs from which they cannot hope to receive any financial reward. I have had the privilege at CBS of presiding over a considerable number of such programs. I testify, and am able to stand here and say, that I have never had a program turned down by my superiors because of the money it would cost.

But we all know that you cannot reach the potential maximum audience in marginal time with a sustaining program. This is so because so many stations on the network--any network--will decline to carry it. Every licensee who applies for a grant to operate in the public interest, convenience and necessity makes certain promises as to what he will do in terms of program content. Many recipients of licenses have, in blunt language, welshed on those promises. The money-making machine somehow blunts their memories. The only remedy for this is closer inspection and punitive action by the F.C.C. But in the view of many this would come perilously close to supervision of program content by a federal agency.

So it seems that we cannot rely on philanthropic support or foundation subsidies; we cannot follow the "sustaining route"--the networks cannot pay all the freight--and the F.C.C. cannot or will not discipline those who abuse the facilities that belong to the public. What, then, is the answer? Do we merely stay in our comfortable nests, concluding that the obligation of these instruments has been discharged when we work at the job of informing the public for a minimum of time? Or do we believe that the preservation of the Republic is a seven-day-a-week job, demanding more awareness, better skills and more perseverance than we have yet contemplated.

I am frightened by the imbalance, the constant striving to reach the largest possible audience for everything; by the absence of a sustained study of the state of the nation. Heywood Broun once said, "No body politic is healthy until it begins to itch." I would like television to produce some itching pills rather than this endless outpouring of tranquilizers. It can be done. Maybe it won't be, but it could. Let us not shoot the wrong piano player. Do not be deluded into believing that the titular heads of the networks control what appears on their networks. They all have better taste. All are responsible to stockholders, and in my experience all are honorable men. But they must schedule what they can sell in the public market.

And this brings us to the nub of the question. In one sense it rather revolves around the phrase heard frequently along Madison Avenue: The Corporate Image. I am not precisely sure what this phrase means, but I would imagine that it reflects a desire on the part of the corporations who pay the advertising bills to have the public image, or believe that they are not merely bodies with no souls, panting in pursuit of elusive dollars. They would like us to believe that they can distinguish between the public good and the private or corporate gain. So the question is this: Are the big corporations who pay the freight for radio and television programs wise to use that time exclusively for the sale of goods and services? Is it in their own interest and that of the stockholders so to do? The sponsor of an hour's television program is not buying merely the six minutes devoted to commercial message. He is determining, within broad limits, the sum total of the impact of the entire hour. If he always, invariably, reaches for the largest possible audience, then this process of insulation, of escape from reality, will continue to be massively financed, and its apologist will continue to make winsome speeches about giving the public what it wants, or "letting the public decide."

I refuse to believe that the presidents and chairmen of the boards of these big corporations want their corporate image to consist exclusively of a solemn voice in an echo chamber, or a pretty girl opening the door of a refrigerator, or a horse that talks. They want something better, and on occasion some of them have demonstrated it. But most of the men whose legal and moral responsibility it is to spend the stockholders' money for advertising are removed from the realities of the mass media by five, six, or a dozen contraceptive layers of vice-presidents, public relations counsel and advertising agencies. Their business is to sell goods, and the competition is pretty tough.

But this nation is now in competition with malignant forces of evil who are using every instrument at their command to empty the minds of their subjects and fill those minds with slogans, determination and faith in the future. If we go on as we are, we are protecting the mind of the American public from any real contact with the menacing world that squeezes in upon us. We are engaged in a great experiment to discover whether a free public opinion can devise and direct methods of managing the affairs of the nation. We may fail. But we are handicapping ourselves needlessly.

Let us have a little competition. Not only in selling soap, cigarettes and automobiles, but in informing a troubled, apprehensive but receptive public. Why should not each of the 20 or 30 big corporations which dominate radio and television decide that they will give up one or two of their regularly scheduled programs each year, turn the time over to the networks and say in effect: "This is a tiny tithe, just a little bit of our profits. On this particular night we aren't going to try to sell cigarettes or automobiles; this is merely a gesture to indicate our belief in the importance of ideas." The networks should, and I think would, pay for the cost of producing the program. The advertiser, the sponsor, would get name credit but would have nothing to do with the content of the program. Would this blemish the corporate image? Would the stockholders object? I think not. For if the premise upon which our pluralistic society rests, which as I understand it is that if the people are given sufficient undiluted information, they will then somehow, even after long, sober second thoughts, reach the right decision--if that premise is wrong, then not only the corporate image but the corporations are done for.

There used to be an old phrase in this country, employed when someone talked too much. It was: "Go hire a hall." Under this proposal the sponsor would have hired the hall; he has bought the time; the local station operator, no matter how indifferent, is going to carry the program-he has to. Then it's up to the networks to fill the hall. I am not here talking about editorializing but about straightaway exposition as direct, unadorned and impartial as falliable human beings can make it. Just once in a while let us exalt the importance of ideas and information. Let us dream to the extent of saying that on a given Sunday night the time normally occupied by Ed Sullivan is given over to a clinical survey of the state of American education, and a week or two later the time normally used by Steve Allen is devoted to a thoroughgoing study of American policy in the Middle East. Would the corporate image of their respective sponsors be damaged? Would the stockholders rise up in their wrath and complain? Would anything happen other than that a few million people would have received a little illumination on subjects that may well determine the future of this country, and therefore the future of the corporations? This method would also provide real competition between the networks as to which could outdo the others in the palatable presentation of information. It would provide an outlet for the young men of skill, and there are some even of dedication, who would like to do something other than devise methods of insulating while selling.

There may be other and simpler methods of utilizing these instruments of radio and television in the interests of a free society. But I know of none that could be so easily accomplished inside the framework of the existing commercial system. I don't know how you would measure the success or failure of a given program. And it would be hard to prove the magnitude of the benefit accruing to the corporation which gave up one night of a variety or quiz show in order that the network might marshal its skills to do a thorough-going job on the present status of NATO, or plans for controlling nuclear tests. But I would reckon that the president, and indeed the majority of shareholders of the corporation who sponsored such a venture, would feel just a little bit better about the corporation and the country.

It may be that the present system, with no modifications and no experiments, can survive. Perhaps the money-making machine has some kind of built-in perpetual motion, but I do not think so. To a very considerable extent the media of mass communications in a given country reflect the political, economic and social climate in which they flourish. That is the reason ours differ from the British and French, or the Russian and Chinese. We are currently wealthy, fat, comfortable and complacent. We have currently a built-in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information. Our mass media reflect this. But unless we get up off our fat surpluses and recognize that television in the main is being used to distract, delude, amuse and insulate us, then television and those who finance it, those who look at it and those who work at it, may see a totally different picture too late.

I do not advocate that we turn television into a 27-inch wailing wall, where longhairs constantly moan about the state of our culture and our defense. But I would just like to see it reflect occasionally the hard, unyielding realities of the world in which we live. I would like to see it done inside the existing framework, and I would like to see the doing of it redound to the credit of those who finance and program it. Measure the results by Nielsen, Trendex or Silex-it doesn't matter. The main thing is to try. The responsibility can be easily placed, in spite of all the mouthings about giving the public what it wants. It rests on big business, and on big television, and it rests at the top. Responsibility is not something that can be assigned or delegated. And it promises its own reward: good business and good television.

Perhaps no one will do anything about it. I have ventured to outline it against a background of criticism that may have been too harsh only because I could think of nothing better. Someone once said--I think it was Max Eastman--that "that publisher serves his advertiser best who best serves his readers." I cannot believe that radio and television, or the corporation that finance the programs, are serving well or truly their viewers or listeners, or themselves.

I began by saying that our history will be what we make it. If we go on as we are, then history will take its revenge, and retribution will not limp in catching up with us.

We are to a large extent an imitative society. If one or two or three corporations would undertake to devote just a small traction of their advertising appropriation along the lines that I have suggested, the procedure would grow by contagion; the economic burden would be bearable, and there might ensue a most exciting adventure--exposure to ideas and the bringing of reality into the homes of the nation.

To those who say people wouldn't look; they wouldn't be interested; they're too complacent, indifferent and insulated, I can only reply: There is, in one reporter's opinion, considerable evidence against that contention. But even if they are right, what have they got to lose? Because if they are right, and this instrument is good for nothing but to entertain, amuse and insulate, then the tube is flickering now and we will soon see that the whole struggle is lost.

This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires and lights in a box. There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance and indifference. This weapon of television could be useful.

Stonewall Jackson, who knew something about the use of weapons, is reported to have said, "When war comes, you must draw the sword and throw away the scabbard." The trouble with television is that it is rusting in the scabbard during a battle for survival.



*post modificato in seguito aggiungendo la versione in italiano


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giovedì 26 febbraio 2009

il telefonino secondo me

In questi giorni ho fatto una full immertion sull'argomento "smarthphone", che di mio non avevo mai coccolato piu' di tanto. Posto che e' stata durissima, devo dire che un ringraziamento pubblico lo devo a telefonino.net, un sito di videorecensioni fatte come si deve e con filmati con una qualita' tale che si riesce anche a vedere l'oggetto filmato e non solo a immaginarlo.
Per complicare le cose, la settimana scorsa si e' concluso il Mobile World Congress 2009 a Barcellona, dove sono state presentati i nuovi modelli (quindi forse e' proprio il momento di curiosare sull'argomento...). Intanto per quel che ho capito di strada da fare ce n'e' ancora parecchia e scegliere un telefonino oggi vuol dire capire prima cosa ci si vuol fare, perche' il tutto-in-uno non esiste.
O lo prendi per telefonare, o per navigare, o per il business, o per essere alla moda. Tutti e quattro insieme li puoi trovare ma il top su tutto non esiste. Ovviamente restringo i commenti al settore smartphone.
Escludo dai commenti l'iphone, chi lo sceglie non si pone il problema della scelta, vuole l'iphone e il resto non conta, per cui tanto vale non paragonarlo.
Per me, per esempio, e' importante navigare in internet con facilita' e magari in hspda (il che vuol dire scartare un bel po' di palmari e smartphone - il solo gprs e' da rifuggire come la peste bubbonica se vuoi navigare con il cellulare!), la sincronizzazione con il PC (agenda, appunti, rubrica), telefonare con una buona qualita' di ricezione e un'estetica moderna ed ergonomica. Resta comunque l'imbarazzo della scelta: i modelli di punta dell'HTC (da quel che ho visto sui filmati del MWC, riassumono bene il punto a cui tendono tutti), samsung, i blackberry sempre-validi e i nuovi modelli in arrivo della Nokia, che con la tastiera a scorrimento e la solita estetica ehm nordica sono un chiaro tentativo di aggrapparsi ad un mercato in fuga... E poi ci sono gli innumerevoli cloni cinesi, identici ma a 50-100 euro in meno.
Cosa si deve valutare (o cosa valuterei io):
- presenza o meno di hsdpa/hsupa, o almeno umts, imprenscindibile se si naviga. La differenza tra umts e gps e' immensa, cosi' come tra umts e hsdpa (ho fatto proprio una prova stasera, si parla di decine di secondi...)
- il wi-fi, per connettersi alle reti senza fili a casa, in albergo, negli aeroporti...
- se si sceglie un modello touchscreen, verificare la velocita' di risposta (soddisfacente, anche se raramente eccelsa, a mio avviso per tutti i modelli piu' noti). Peraltro ho perso tutta la mia resistenza verso questi sistemi, funzionano ormai molto bene e la tastiera non si rimpiange troppo (anche se potendoselo permettere il top resta lo schermo touch e la tastiera qwerty sliding...).
- la presenza di accelerometro (cioe' il sistema per cui se giro il telefonino gira anche l'immagine). in questo caso, puo' essere interessante verificare che l'accelerometro agisca anche sulla tastiera virtuale, che in orizzontale potrebbe essere decisamente piu' comoda perche' piu' larga  (non tutti lo fanno)
- possibilita' di espandere la memoria fissa (si fa presto a scoprire che non basta)
- presenza del gps (un modello di punta deve averlo!)
- durata della batteria (nota dolente un po' per tutti)
- facilita' di sincronizzazione con il computer, a tal proposito il blootooth e' da prendere seriamente in considerazione, per evitare l'ennesimo cavo di connessione. il cavo e' piu' veloce, ma e' una gran rottura...
- sistema operativo: le differenze sono enormi tra Windows Mobile, Symbian, Blackberry e Android. Che cosa hai equivale a cosa puoi fare
- popolarita': meglio non prendere telefoni di nicchia, onde evitare di ritrovarsi da soli ad avere un problema. Meglio avere sempre qualcuno con cui confrontarsi
- fotocamera: alcuni modelli hanno fotocamere notevoli con sistemi di editing di foto e video incorporati, per l'uso quotidiano potrebbe voler dire risparmiare i soldi per la fotocamera digitale da borsetta. Ne esistono da 1 a 8 megapixel. Attenzione che alcuni cellulari hanno la fotocamera ma non sono abilitati alla ripresa video (incredibile ma e' cosi').
- presenza di eventuali servizi aggiuntivi se ritenuti importanti: memoria online per il backup, software per il navigatore satellitare, abbonamenti flat per la musica...
- risoluzione dello schermo, ormai ci sono cellulari con 800x480 pixel, pero' a mio avviso per navigare senza accecarsi puo' bastare una risoluzione 320x240
- spinotti universali: li hanno in pochi, e' uno scandalo. ho letto pero' con soddisfazione che a livello europeo ci si sta muovendo per rendere obbligatorio uno standard entro il 2012, meglio tardi che mai
- dimensioni: ovviamente un cellulare e' bene che sia grande quanto serve, ma una "cabina telefonica' non e' pratica...
- vivavoce: facilita' di attivazione, volume e sensibilita' del microfono, su questo punto cascano anche i vip spesso, per cui il compromesso puo' rendersi necessario
- possibilita' di mandare mms e di fare videochiamate
- lettore multimediale: qui son tutti abbastanza scarsini quelli che ho provato (e' l'unico caso in cui mi sento di dire che l'iphone fa eccezione in positivo, dando diversi punti). tutti permettono di sentire musica, di organizzarla, di guardare video, spesso in piu' formati, ma generalmente l'output non e' di grande qualita'. Viceversa molti hanno preinstallati sistemi per il podcast, per i feedrss e un sintonizzatore radio (ma non sono punti determinanti, la quantita' di software gratuito facilmente installabile su questi temi e' enorme)
- a me non interessa ma ovviamente poi c'e' anche la questione tv sul telefonino
- estetica: il cellulare te lo porti sempre dietro, non si puo' trascurare questo aspetto, a parte l'essere di moda che trova il tempo che trova, devi gradirlo, non puoi pensare "che brutto" tutte le volte che lo usi...
- il prezzo: nei cellulari non sempre il prezzo ha una reale proporzione con le prestazioni, anzi, prestarci molta attenzione e' fondamentale.

Dopo aver messo insieme questi fattori e stilato un punteggio per i vari cellulari (ammesso che uno voglia procedere in modo scientifico...) verra' un gran mal di testa, perche' il mix regna sovrano...
Comunque nell'ottimo telefonino.net c'e' un simpatico tool per chi non sa da dove partire: il trovafonino. puo' essere un'idea...

Alcuni link puramente rappresentativi per farsi un'idea  (solo modelli di punta presentati al WMC):
- htc touch pro2
- nokia n97
- samsung (vari)
- htc magic g2 (touchscreen con android, versione beta)
- palm pre
per gli altri vedere qui

(detto cio' resta valido, caso mai a qualcuno venisse il dubbio, che se uno il telefono lo usa solo per telefonare, ci sono ottimi modelli a prezzi molto economici...)



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ICT - post su Information on Computer and Tea

Oggi sono in vena di esterofilia (strano ma cosi' e' / ho i miei buon motivi di questi tempi...). In tutto il mediterraneo e in tutta l'europa il te' e' una bevanda estremamente diffusa. Ma non in Italia. Io adoro il te' e vivo in Italia. E vabbe'.

Meno male che c'e' la rete. Ho raccolto un po' di siti web per chi come me ogni tanto ha piacere di bersi un te' degno di tale nome (senza pagarlo 30 euro all'etto possibilmente) e qualche amenita' generale.

INFORMAZIONI GENERALI
TeaLinkz: socialweb dedicato al te'
Multiple Infusion: raccolta di recensioni su te' e dintorni
Tea Guy Speaks: raccolta di link a blogger che parlano di te'

UTILITY, GADGET e TEIERE
Tea Timer: software da desktop che permette di attivare un timer, differenziale a seconda del te' in infusione, che avvisa, possibilmente con il fischio del bollitore, quando e' ora di togliere l'infusione e iniziare a degustare
Teabag: bustine del te' cosi' non le avevo mai viste...
Terrorist tea pot: no comment
Sharky: altro no comment per questo filtro "per temerari"
Galleggiante con infusore: ad ognuno il suo
Suck: tazze con colorimetro che indica la correttezza dell'infusione
Tea Stick: contenitori per te' in Tritano (?!?), garantiti per l'assenza di contaminanti chimici, di modo che si possa esser certi di infondere solo te' (dal che mi e' sorto un pensiero che secondo me e' venuto in mente anche a qualcuno dei lettori di questo blog: ma le provette per RT-PCR sarebbero adeguate allo stesso scopo?). Siamo ovviamente al limite della mania.
Tea Pottery: teiere di tutte le fogge, ideali per un regalo ad un amico antipatico
Steepware automatic teapot:qui si entra nel complicato
Sorapot: teiere di designe, moderne ed eleganti
Teaware:v. teapottery, ma con un po' piu' di decenza e grazia
Teaposy: varie teiere in vetro, che al giorno d'oggi fanno tanto shic
Blue Teapot: tazze da te' di vario tipo (e te')

RICETTE CON IL TE'
Tea Recipes on Enjoyng Tea
Blask cherry iced tea on Appetite For China
Cinnamon tea on Souvlaki For China
Recipes Tea on Cat Tea Corner
Recipes on Culinary Teas

LETTERATURA ETC
Citazioni sul te'
La scienza del te'
Cosi' scrisse Orwell...
Teaosophy

NEGOZI ONLINE DI TE'
Adagio
Art of Tea
The tea table
Dragon Water
Match and more
Design tea
Whittard
Harney

per ora mi pare sufficien..te'.

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wired - one week post. Li leggevo su carta, li percepivo come in TV

Eccomi qui, a proposito di blog anacronistici. E' una settimana post-uscita del primo numero di Wired Italia, che ho sfogliato e letto con piacere. Alcune piccole riflessioni sull'argomento.
1) essendo lettrice di wired *original* da qualche anno, non potevo non accogliere con entusiasmo la nascita della versione italiana. Da sempre, quando lo leggo, lo amo e lo odio. Ho l'impressione che sara' cosi' anche con la versione italiana. Scrive cose di cui mi interesso, mi fa sorridere e mi fa sobbalzare (i giudizi su cosa e' wired e cosa non lo e', sono spesso taglienti e oggetto di divertenti discussioni...).
2) l'ho aperto con il  pensiero fisso "speriamo che sia identico a quello americano", non e' proprio cosi' ma e' perfettamente in linea (nel bene) con alcuni squarci sull'italia. La personalita' si intravede ma aspetto gli altri numeri! e comunque gli approfondimenti e le belle tavole illustrate ci sono, e son gia' contenta...
3) commento serio: ho aperto la rivista, ho iniziata a leggerla e piano piano ho realizzato una cosa alla quale non avevo mai pensato. Una sensazione strana: avendo sempre letto di certi argomenti in inglese, ho realizzato che automaticamente li collegavo in modo esclusivo alla cultura anglosassone, quindi li leggevo immaginandoli come lontani da me. Come ho scritto ad amici per email, li leggevo su carta ma li percepivo come se li guardassi in TV. Non che di certi argomenti non si legga in Italia, ci sono ottimi blog sull'argomento, alcune trasmissioni radio e alcuni inserti interessanti, come Nova24: ma non e' la stessa cosa, sai di leggere qualcosa che consultano "quelli come te", non di qualcosa che appartiene ad una cultura di massa (non che wired sia proprio di massa, pero' che influenzi le tendenze e' per lo meno senso comune...)
4) commento serio-bis: bisognerebbe suggerire queste (e altre simili) letture agli studenti di oggi, perche' possano realizzare cio' che il nostro sistema scolastico e sociale non gli dice (oggi mi sento anche in veste "la vecchia zia"): non si e' mai troppo giovani per fare sul serio nel costruirsi il futuro. Uno sguardo mirato alle eta' di scienziati, persone che hanno realizzato progetti importanti o che rivestono ruoli chiave. All'estero si e' adulti a vent'anni, in Italia a trenta. Forse. Ossia quando ti sei fumato gia' buona parte dei neuroni. Non va bene.

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perche' un blogger non scrive nel suo blog

Quel che segue e' un post inutile, ma mi avvalgo della facolta' del blogger di far del proprio blog quel che vuole.
E' un mese che non scrivo nel mio blog (persino qualche giorno in piu') e non e' cosa voluta / oltretutto, non mi era mai successo. Semplicemente e' accaduto. Ho fatto un giro qui e la', scoprendo che capita anche ad altri. Si posta regolarmente e poi per un mese, a volte due, tre, un anno niente e poi di nuovo come se niente fosse, tutte le settimane o addirittura tutti i giorni.
Ma perche' accade? Ovviamente non ha importanza, perche' nel scrivere un blog non esiste un dovere, ma ho provato lo stesso a stendere un paio di riflessioni da condividere (cosi' almeno rompo il silenzio...).
- problemi di connessione: traslochi, viaggi all'estero, cambi di piano tariffario, cambio di dispositivi per la connessione. Dura la vita del blogger, sempre con il naso in su' a cercare il wi-fi o l'hspda... Comunque ci vuole veramente poco per ovviare al problema
- blocco dello scrittore: non ci credo
- cambio di interessi: ma allora il blog lo chiudi definitivamente
- problemi personali: non e' raro che il blog diventi lo sfogatoio politico, ideologico, sentimentale, quindi propenderei al contrario semmai. Fatti salvi lutti, malattie e invasioni aliene.
- mancanza di concomitanza tra la voglia di scrivere e la possibilita' di farlo per motivi di tempo o tecnici/ plausibile per i bloggers incasinati e mal organizzati (e ne conosco altri oltre alla sottoscritta) anche se spiega la discontinuita' ma non i buchi di un mese
- declinazione del punto precedente: i post "mentali", quelli che li pensi, ti immagini l'inizio, il proseguio, la fine, li hai praticamente scritti ma solo in testa, ti rigirano per qualche giorno e quando finalmente riesci a scriverli li cancelli perche' ormai anacronistici, anche questo pero' non giustifica i mesi di silenzio
- l'altalenarsi delle priorita' della vita, per cui ogni tanto posti le foto delle vacanze e ogni tanto pensi che bisognerebbe scrivere solo cose serie e utili, dubbi che non durano mai tanto...
- la vita che scorre troppo in fretta,  e il domani assomiglia sempre troppo al dopodomani (pero' anche questo non torna, se vivi in fretta spesso hai anche piu' da dire e non meno da dire)
- twitter che ti ruba parte delle occasioni per postare (ma anche questo non e' tanto convincente, soprattutto quando i twit compaiono anche nel blog)
- facebook non incide di sicuro e neanche gli altri siti di social networking (almeno di sicuro non nel mio caso)
- legge troppo e non scrive mai, non convince, in genere io piu' leggo e piu' scrivo, forse non capita solo a me...
Insomma, non ho trovato nulla di plausibile, forse, tranne un segno freudiano di necessita' di vacanza (...)

comunque, in caso di necessita', qui c'e' un sito di post preconfezionati post di giustificazione delle assenze
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