The moon has a strange aura tonight

The moon has a strange aura tonight
Originally uploaded by ★skandy-pictures★

I went out for a pleasant walk under the moonlight and I couldn’t help noticing this phenomenon: the moon was surrounded by a strange round circle, like an aura, and with all my physics education I couldn’t come up with a plausible explanation.

Qualcuno ha idea della natura dell’alone? Non è stato facile scattare questa foto: ho dovuto fare molti tentativi perché con una lunga esposizione la luminosissima luna tendeva ad oscurare l’alone. Alla fine ho usato ISO100 e 8 secondi di esposizione; poi ho trattato l’immagine con tecnica HDR (che oramai padroneggio), fliltro NeatImage (per il rumore), conversione in bianco e nero (dando risalto ai colori gialli) e ricolorizzazione dell’immagine con un colore ciano che fa molto cielo notturno, tutto per esaltare al massimo l’alone.
Se qualcuno avesse idea di come fare a risaltare ulteriormente questo alone mi faccia un fischio

Snow has come

06/01/2008
Originally uploaded by ★skandy-pictures★

Finally: I’ve been waiting far too long to see it, but the snow has come to Lund!

I’m in Sweden!

28/12/2007
Originally uploaded by ★skandy-pictures★

It’s about time I update this blog. You see: the reason I wanted a blog of my own was to share with others my Scandinavian life but things never run as smooth as they are supposed to.
First of all I am Italian and before moving to Sweden I needed to complete my education at university which I did the 14th of December 2007. Now I am a mechanic engineer with a degree almost as good as a PhD, which means I can finally move to Sweden and apply for a job.
No more than a week after my graduation I took a flight to Sweden and now here I am, writing my first impressions from my laptop. Actually this is not at all my first impression on Sweden because I have been living in this country for a whole year as exchange student (Linköpings Universitetet) and also because my girlfriend is Swedish and I came visiting her plenty of times in the last 2 years.
My girlfriend, Martina, lives in Lund in Skåne, south of Sweden. The city is not very big for Italian standards (I reckon the population is below a hundred thousand) but it’s a university city (like Pisa) because here is located one of the oldest universities of the country. Swedish universities last 11 months with long holidays at Christmas and Easter, and the city population is usually a lot larger than usual (even though there are not that many residents). It also means that the population is a lot younger than the average, there are a lot more young girls around and, sadly, the city is almost empty during holidays. I’ve had a first hand insight of that during one of my visits in Lund.
Even without students the city is far from uninteresting. Malmö is 10 minutes away by train and Copenhagen just 50 minutes more. In Copenhagen there is also a well connected airport (Kastrup) with flights to Malpensa and Ciampino, and in March Sterling.dk is going to open a new route from Florence to Malmö’s airport which I trust will come really real handy for my trips home.
But where and what is home? Some time ago I read that home is the place where they’ll always accept you, whatever the circumstances. I find this a rather poetic explanation of what home is.
I cannot honestly say I feel at home in Sweden right now. I’m living at my girlfriends in a tiny 60 meters square apartment, just one bathroom and no broadband connection, but I’m going to change it real soon.
As a start I bought a broadband connection which is due to work by the 10th of January, so it won’t be long before I’m back online; secondly I can use my fantastic Nokia N95 8GB as a modem with a flat connection which gives me about 50MB/day (it’s enough to download mail and call home with Fring, but that’s pretty much it); last but not least it seems like all the families in Sweden own a router and there are places in Lund where I can find 10 broadcasting wifi signals, some of them open. This is fantastic news for a ninja possessor, and I intend to take good advantage of it! My broadband connection is also going to become a FON spot.
Even without internet, a loss that hurts something fierce, I still have a life here with some friends I made during my previous visits
I’ve been in Sweden since the 21st of December and naturally I’ve spent Christmas with my girlfriend’s parents which live 300km north from here in another county named Småland. Christmas there was fantastic. I believe I’ve never eaten that much meat in my life and all the rest tasted so good that I have difficulties recalling. The only sad thing was that Sweden is affected by the same environment issues, just as much as the rest of the World. It’s nearly January and there isn’t any snow!!! The weather channel says that snow will come real soon and I really hope it will because we have had a foul weather for the last 2 weeks: the last time I saw the sun was in Italy!!!
When I signed up for this life I knew what I was doing, so this doesn’t come as a big surprise, but still I’m starting to feel a little disappointed because no sun and snow is ok, but no sun and cloudy without even rain ain’t that good! Let’s hope the weather will change soon.
I’m going to go into details of what I’ve had for Christmas with my next post because at the moment I cannot upload pictures.
Now I gotta go shopping.
See ya!

Firmware update per il Nokia N95 8GB

momento topico dell’aggiornamento del telefono
Originally uploaded by ★skandy-pictures★

Nice one Nokia: the phone browser is much quicker and me much happier.
I can finally use Skype XSeries…
Now I just wish I had Swedish language on my phone…

HP7 is mine!

Got it: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is mine. I think I’ve got the very last copy left in La Spezia and that’s something, isn’t it?
Most of the book stores received no more then 16 copies and I got the 16th of the last one I visited.

This morning I’ve got another nasty surprise, coming this time from Repubblica.it, the most important online news in Italy for number of clicks.
In the next picture you’ll have proof of the spoiler they’ve made. I’ve just deleted the site from my bookmarks list: arrivederci jerks!

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*update**update**update**update**update*
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Not satisfied with that I decided to write a letter to the paper director: nasty work! The results of the first attempt were quite… impolite at best and scary at worst. Second and 3th were little more then acceptable and so on. In the end I’ve sent the 8th edition of the letter, spoiled of the core insults but readable.
Here it is:

Desidero ringraziare l’intera redazione di repubblica, nonché l’egregio direttore, per avermi comunicato il finale della saga di Harry Potter che stavo per andare a comprare in libreria questa mattina. Grazie di cuore. Era da anni in effetti che trepidavo per conoscere il finale della saga. Erano anni che favoleggiavo il momento in cui sarei uscito dalla libreria con una copia inglese tutta mia. Era anche da giorni che schivavo attentamente la televisione ed internet, perché sapevo che qualche giornalista, o pseudo tale, mi avrebbe fatto lo scherzo. Mai e poi mai però mi sarei sognato di trovare il finale scritto bello e chiaro su repubblica.it, in prima pagina in alto a destra dove l’occhio non può non cascare, e senza neanche un minimo di disclaimer (come invece ha fatto il Corriere).

Complimenti. Avrete ottenuto qualche click in più sul vostro giornale: bravi! Al contempo però avete perso per sempre la fiducia di un affezionato lettore.

Avrei preferito vedere le solite scene di nudo che sembra siano sempre più importanti per la vostra testata.

Vi lascio per sempre con una sola parola: vergognatevi!

(lettera firmata)

Età: 28 anni

I know: I didn’t translate the letter. Suffice you to know that is starts with Congrats (in the object) and ends with “shame on you!”

Sandisk microSD 2GB and Crumpler bags

I finally got the card. This still needs some testing, but I got the clear impression that the camera doubled shooting speed. I’ll test further with continuous shooting.

Finalmente mi è arrivata la scheda di memoria. C’è ancora qualche test da fare ma ho la chiara sensazione che la camera scatti foto in metà tempo. La testerò ancora con le foto in sequenza.

—————————

I already ordered the next item: a camera bug. I didn’t want one screaming: “hello, I’m a camera bag“, stereotypically black and boxy. With a quick internet search – something I’m really good at – I came up with an interesting site: Crumpler products. In the end I bought the Crumpler PB 380 XS (30€ plus delivery). Please never ask what PB stands for…

Ho già completato l’acquisto successivo: una brosa per la camera. Non ne volevo una che sapesse troppo di custodia per macchina fotografica che tende ad essere nera e scatolosa. Con un rapida ricerca su internet sono giunto a questo interessante sito: Crumpler products. Alla fine ho comprato la Vrumpler PB 380 XS (30€+ss). E non chiedetemi mai cosa significhi PB…

I also discovered an interesting site with plenty of cool, funky, or unique camera bags. Give it a try if you are looking for a birthday tips: link

Ho anche scoperto un sito interessante con un sacco di fichissime borse porta camera. Da tenere a mente se volete fare un regalo di compleanno: link

change address

I’m sorry. I really tried to configure this blog as I wanted but couldn’t do it.

I decided to host my blog on google Blogger.

Find it here: http://skandymicky.blogspot.com/

Slideshow of my best pics

Ain’t that gourgeous? I don’t know why but it looks even better on IE7, while Firefox and Safari show the images cropped…

Applications list for Symbian 3rd edition UIQ

Preinstalled apps
you’ll find’em here: link

Full Screen Caller/Call managers/MSG managers
Advanced Call Manager – Link
SMS Spam Manager – Link
Magic Message Manager Pro – Link
Auto HangUp – Link
Best MessageStorer – Link
AnyCallFilter (freeware) – Link

Antivirus
AVG Mobile Security – Link

File, Task & Memory Managers
Swiss Manager Pro – Link
MyFile Manager – Link
BootMan – Link
X-plore – Link
BootMan – Link
ProcessInfo – Link

Calendar&Sincronizzazioni
Aqua Calendar – link
Papyrus – Link
DueDate – Link
Project – Link

Ebooks readers
MobiPocket Reader (freeware) – Link
QReader
Best eBible – Link
Bible Reader (freeware) – Link

Camera
Mobiola Webcam – link
Shozu (uppare su Flickr) – Link

Graphics
Animated Stereograms (freeware) – Link
Pixy – Link
GView (freeware) – Link

Music,Sound&Multimedia
mp3Tagger (freeware) – Link
LCG Jukebox – Link
Mobiola Studio – link
Alon Audio Recorder – link
Virtual Radio – Link
Audible – Link
mp3Tagger (freeware) - Link
Muzee – Link
Smartmovie – Link
Divx player (by ringhiox) – Link
VirtualRadio – Link

PIM
HandyDay – Link
SMS Diary (donationware) – Link
Hijri calendar – Link
DreamConnect 3 (contact manager) – link
Message Reminder – Link
SMS Spam Manager – Link
Magic Message Manager – Link
Ericsson Mobile Organizer – Link
Easy Checklist – Link
MessageApp – Link
StarContacts – Link

Internet/Messaging
AgileMessenger – Link
Profimail – Link
Mig33
Mobizine (shareware) – Link
VisioTV
IM+ – Link
Mobile FTP – Link
Newscopier (lettore RSS) – Link

Traver&Meteo
WorldMate 2006 – Link
Tube 2 – Link
FactBook – Link
Handy Weather – Link
Handy Converter – Link
AccuWeather – Link
Holidays – Link

Geographics
TomTom 6 – Link
Mobile GMaps
SmartCom GPS Navigator – Link
Nav4All (free) – Link
Tube2 – Link
Car Monitor – Link

Notes
StickIt (freeware) – Link
Best Notes – Link

Security&Keylocks
HandySafe – Link
McAfee Virus Scan
McAfee Mobile Firewall
Advanced Device Lock – Link
Best Crypto – link

Time&Screensavers
Time Blob (freeware) – Link
Clock ScreenSaver (freeware) – Link
HandyClock – Link
UpTimer (freeware) – link

Emulators
PuTTY (PuTTY Secure Shell terminal) – Link
PicodriveN (play your favorite SID tunes (Commodore 64), AY files (Amstrad and ZX Spectrum) and MOD/XM/S3M/MTM modules (Amiga)) (freeware) - link

Calculators
BestCalc – Link
BestConverter – Link
My Calcul – Link
Nice Calc2 – Link
Abakus – Link

Shopping
JabpLite (freeware) – Link
HandyExpense – Link
JABP – Link
Finanz – Link
Wallet Manager – Link
Mobile4Shopping – Link

Sport
Weight Log – Link

Varies&Utilities
Rotateme (beta) (freeware unsigned) – Link
Tweak Peaks – Link
SonyEricsson DVD Studio – Link
Blackberry Connect
T.A.B.U. (The Anti-Boredom Union) (freeware) – Link
RainyPhone (freeware) – Link
Realty Manager
FoxyTag
GL Benchmark – Link
Handy Tools – Link
Bluetooth Messenger
The World Fact Book (History) – Link
Avatars – Link
Image expo – Link
VNC+ – Link

Languages
MSDict Dictionary (presenti molte lingue) – Link
Advanced English Dictionary – Link
SlovoEd – Link
Scanning dictionary – Link
Speereo Voice Translator – Link
Tutor ES,DE,FR,IT,UK – Link

Sound
Syntrax – Link

Screenshot
Capture Screen (freeware) – Link
TheOpenScreenCapture (freeware) – Link
AutoCAM – Link

Documents
JZip (freeware) – Link
MobileRar (freeware) - Link
Documents To Go – Link
JText (freeware) – Link
Mobile Office – Link
Pdf+ – Link
Mobile Office – Link
Lowyer Log – Link

Free Themes
http://www.se-uiq.com/themes-p990-eng.htm
http://gallery.mobile9.com/c/sony-ericsson…p990i-themes/1/