Engineering

I am trying to understand which type of patents should deserve the “crown” for the most useless: design patents or software patents? Well, the latter are more difficult to understand (hence the uselessness), but the registered designs are sometimes so… innovative. See this new design for a digital camera, for example.

I shall better conclude with a picture of my own, of an invention found in the streets of Durham.

If an HP printer has to display “sleep mode on” to mean that it is “sleeping”, then there is something wrong with the ergonomy.

“Lavoro, non ho tempo per dedicarmi alla fotografia” è, più o meno, la scusa di chiunque abbia una professione (che non sia quella del fotografo).

Questa è la foto del retro di un relè elettromeccanico: praticamente ciò con cui ho a che fare durante le ore d’ufficio.

Ovviamente, posso pubblicarla solo oggi, a settimane di distanza dallo scatto: non ho avuto tempo, ho dovuto lavorare…

Che spettacolo!

What nicer reading opportunity than in the library of the University of Durham? I love this place: head down, book, journal or magazine; head up, the Cathedral.

It reminds me of another wonderful reading situation: 4th floor of the library of the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa, with a book by Leopardi coming from the Italian Literature shelves: head up, Via della Faggiola through the window, where the poet himself lived.

Sorry, I had no camera cellphone back then, in Pisa!