Checktheapps.com is a phishing scam.

I got this email from someone I know:

Dear Impact Analysis,

You have been invited by your friend Gorgeous X. George to participate in a research program. Currently there are companies that are looking for individuals who are interested in reviewing and testing the new Apple iPad applications and games. After the review the participants may keep the iPad.

For more details or to register to our program, follow the link below:

http://www.checktheapps.com

Best Regards,
Gorgeous X. George and BTest Team.
___
This message was intended for impact-analysis@some_mail.com, and was sent on behalf of Gorgeous X. George (gorgeous.x.george@some_org.org)

Obviously I've changed some of the names. I checked with Mr. George and he never sent this to me, so we can conclude from the situation and from the content that it is a scam email. I didn't even bother to go to the website. You'll probably catch some sort of browser infection if you do.

Android phones, part 1.

I'm checking out various options for Android handsets and plans. First up is the T-Mobile G1. As of today, it looks something like this:

• $399.99 - G1 handset with Android 1.5
• $59.99 - Monthly plan, no contract, 500 mins, unlimited text and data
• $35 - one-time activation fee

So, a little over $500, out-the-door, and $60 a month.

Some articles are claiming that over 100 Android handsets are set to enter the market this year. If that is true, I would expect steep cuts in the phone prices.

Back in San Diego

Our European adventure is over. I'm back at work in San Diego. Photos of our time in Italy and France are on Flickr and Picasa.

Early Trento, Italy photos: Flickr: Trento Set

Trentino, Venice, and SW France photos: Picasa Sets

l'Aveyron.

Spending the month of August in southwestern France. We are housesitting for some friends.

Feel like testing your legs?

Vineyard road in Faedo, Italy.

Gothic High-Tech and Favela Chic

A video worth watching. Bruce Sterling's closing talk at the Reboot Conference in Copenhagen: http://video.reboot.dk/video/486788/bruce-sterling-reboot-11

I think he has the structure of the next 10 years pretty close to right. We're not going to get shiny new environmentally constructed buildings. We're going to be repurposing the abandoned hulks of the 20th century.

As for his views on stuff (basically, get rid of it), Kathy and I are already a long way down that path. Everything we own fits in a few suitcases. We left nothing in the US when we moved here to Italy. It is also easily argued the the most important real estate in my life is virtual.

Cyber-stalking Bruce Sterling, continued.

Searching for reviews of his latest book, Caryatids, I came across another fascinating interview on Futurismic. A couple quotes:

It feels like you’ve wrapped up the Viridian Newsletters with a tentative sense of “Mission Accomplished” on climate change awareness. Would that be a fair comment?

No. I wrapped it up more in the position of a guy who was doing some spy work on the ground and who split before the heavy bombers arrived.

...

On the flipside, what about underrated good stuff: what makes you feel positive about the potential of the next few decades?

I don’t even do “positive” and “negative” potential. I sincerely think that attitude makes people actively stupid about the future.

Always interesting, Bruce Sterling.

Futurist art in Rovereto.

Yesterday we took a trip to Rovereto, a town about 25km south of Trento, to go to the MART (Museo di arte moderna e contemporanea di Trento). Well worth the trip. Their permanent collection was unavailable due to a large exhibit on Cold War Art and Design, which turned out to be pretty interesting. We plan to go back in a couple weeks and see the permanent collection after it is reopened.

We also took the time to go to the Museum of the Futurist painter and designer Fortunato Depero. Also, well worth the trip.

Best MySpace suggestion ever.

From Bruce Sterling:

Let Sweden buy MySpace and hire PirateBay to run it as a public utility.

Makes total sense.

Nearest Neighbors

Here is an abstract painting my wife did several days ago. I appropriated it and named it Nearest Neighbors. Should be cover art for a scifi book. I like it a lot.

Not abandoned.

If you use your blog to link to a story about abandoned blogs, that means your blog is not abandoned. Right?

Since the postdoc ended I've just been laying around Trento riding my bike, watching bike racing online, and watching my wife paint. In August we will stay in France for a month and then back to San Diego. It's a good life.

Touring in Trentino.

Took a short bike ride south of Trento today, through Villazano, Valsorda, almost to Vigolo. From the south of Trento to Vigolo is all up hill -- about a 5 mile long grade. Not really bad, but not too easy. Perfect training. Here are some photos.



Mt. Bondone, across the Adige valley. This if from a little ways up the climb, just past Castello.



We stopped to eat a little and look around. Then we started the real climb.



This is looking back down the hill on SS349. Next photo is from the same spot.



Looking uphill. It's steep.



At the top of this grade you reach a kind of a high valley. There are two passes out of this valley, but we had our training in and turned around for the downhill home.

Yet another change of plans.

Trentino is a wonderful place. It's historic, beautiful, and filled with amazing people, great wine, and grappa. But, the work has not gone well. The best fix for the time-being is for me to leave LiquidPub and move back to the US. So, I'll be winding down this week, and then wife and I will be taking awhile to explore the Dolomites before we return. Disappointing, would be an understatement.

I wouldn't want to be a member of any club that would have me.

With apologies to Groucho. But, here's a cult I need to join. The Cult of Done.

A little clarification from Bruce Sterling

Bruce Sterling must surely be one of the most clear-sighted individuals in our world at the moment.

I've never seen so much panic around me, but panic is the last thing on my mind. My mood is eager impatience. I want to see our best, most creative, best-intentioned people in world society directly attacking our worst problems. I'm bored with the deceit. I'm tired of obscurantism and cover-ups. I'm disgusted with cynical spin and the culture war for profit. I'm up to here with phony baloney market fundamentalism. I despise a prostituted society where we put a dollar sign in front of our eyes so we could run straight into the ditch.