Roberto Saviano on his next book
The second clip from Roberto Saviano’s recent appearance at an investigative journalism conference in Geneva.
In this one, the Italian author of Gomorrah, a best selling book on Naples’ Camorra crime syndicate, tells reporters that his next book will focus on the links between organized crime groups around the world, from Russia to Italy to Mexico.
Roberto Saviano on leaving Mondadori
Last week Italian author Roberto Saviano, who wrote the book ‘Gomorrah’ about Naples’ Camorra crime syndicate, spoke at a journalism conference in Geneva.
Over the next few days I’m going to post some clips of a press conference he gave to local reporters. Here he speaks about the possibility of leaving his publishing house Mondadori over comments made by its owner, Silvio Berlusconi – who just happens to be Italy’s prime minister.
You build it and the spam will come
About two months after moving this blog to WordPress the spam comments have started. On Friday morning I found 150 e-mails in my inbox, telling me that 150 comments were awaiting approval. By Friday evening I’d installed Akismet spam plug-in. The steady trickle of spam comments continues, but now they go straight into the spam folder. Thanks Akismet.
Mr. Sandman drops private plane plan
Here’s a snippet that never made it into yesterday’s private jet story:
“Best-selling comic book and science fiction writer Neil Gaiman canceled plans to fly New York to London by private jet after airports around the British capital reopened Wednesday and he was able to use tickets reserved for a regular flight, said his assistant Lorraine Garland.”
Top 10 free iPhone games
There are plenty of good games for the iPhone but many of them are expensive. Here are seven fabulous ones that won’t cost you a penny (provided you don’t make any in-game purchases):
_ Eliminate + : An immensely fast-paced first-person shooter that pits you against others via a massive online network hosted by NGMoco. About a dozen different maps, tons of weapons, armor and upgrades, as well as a recently-added co-operative mode that allows you to join other human players in defending a facility against attack droids. Extra credits can be purchased to allow you to play more than three games in a row.
_ Low Grav 2: Truly challenging racing game with amazing graphics and realistic gameplay. Hugely addictive.
_ CanonGame: Classic tank vs. tank game. No human opponents.
_ Skies of Glory: WWI fighter simulator with several challenging missions and an excellent multiplayer mode in which you play against human or AI opponents.
_ Dropship: Steer a spaceship through a series of tricky levels, shooting enemies along the way, to pick up stranded astronauts. Very entertaining, though a little short-lived.
_ iBomber: Amazing graphics and an unusual perspective: fly a WWII bomber across about a dozen levels to take out enemy sites, ships and places. Get power-ups along the way.
_ F.A.S.T.: Fighter jet simulator. Play missions against the computer (they get rather same-y after a while) or fly against human opponents for a real challenge. Pay to get better planes.
_ Tap Sudoku: Classic mind puzzle that never grows tired.
_ Chess Free: The powerful artificial intelligence will keep you playing for a long time.
_ Tap Defense: Defend heaven against approaching demons. Decent number of levels and towers.
Why the iPad will fail
The iPad will have to change or it will fail in the long term. Here’s why:
_ the iPad is based on a closed principle: try sharing music, videos or even pictures between devices and you’ll notice how many obstacles Apple has built in precisely to make it harder than it should be. If another device resolves that (and one rival has already emerged), Apple will have to follow suit or lose the tablet war.
_ iTunes is a designed to give Apple a monopoly and effectively works as a bottleneck. Why should consumers have to buy all their software, music and videos for the iPad through iTunes? Why should publishers have to pay Apple an extortionate 30 percent of everything they sell? What’s going to happen when consumers see they can get the same media for 29 percent less if they buy it using another device from an ‘open’ store? How long do you think it’s going to take the EC to crack down on Apple the way it did on Microsoft when the iPad really takes off and competitor start filing monopoly complaints?
_ the iPad is by all accounts a great product that sets the bar high; other companies will struggle to have quite the same impact, but once word gets round that there’s a viable alternative I don’t think Apple will find its brand has quite the hold on ocnsumers on consumer consciousness it thinks it has. From being an upstart with nothing to lose when it launched the iPhone, Apple is now the market leader in next-gen tablet PCs with everything to lose. Consumers are fickle and will follow innovation.
Cory Doctorow on Little Atoms
Imagine my delight at discovering that one of my favorite authors was interviewed on one of my favorite radio shows the other day: Cory Doctorow does Little Atoms (or is it the other way around?).
In a previous job I once had the pleasure of interviewing Cory _ best known to some as one of the names behind the BoingBoing blog _ for a feature about the future copyright. Obviously the future has come and gone but the issues surrounding ownership of information in the digital age haven’t all been resolved.
I highly recommend this interview (MP3 file), conducted by Neil Denny and Rebecca Watson, if you want to find out more about an issue that isn’t going away soon.
Still Life
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About
Musings of a wire reporter in Geneva. Feel free to contact me with your questions about journalism, Switzerland, or anything else I write about on this blog.
