2013.02.24 01:00 - Profiles and gardens and politics, oh my

Wol Euler was guardian for this session.

Wol Euler: good morning, qt
Qt Core: Hi Wol
Wol Euler: how's Italy this morning?
Qt Core: cold and wet, just one inch of melting snow.... and voting for the next parliament
Wol Euler: ah!
Wol Euler: good morning, hana
Qt Core: hi hana
Hana Furlough: hello wol and qt
Wol Euler: have you two met? Qt is from Italy, same timezone as me, Hana is in Kyoto
Qt Core: i think i saw her a few times
Hana Furlough: i feel like i've run into qt before, it's a pleasure to meet you again
Wol Euler: good :)
Qt Core: :)
Wol Euler: it's a bit funny somehow making introductions to people with nametags and profiles
Wol Euler: but it felt like the right thing to do
Hana Furlough: haha yes
Hana Furlough: much appreciated
Wol Euler smiles.
Wol Euler: I've often thought how handy it would be if RL had clickable profiles too
Hana Furlough: oh yes, that would be great
Qt Core: sometimes people ignore profiles... or they become outdated
Wol Euler nods.
Wol Euler: many newbies don't know about their profile, or don't bother to fill it out
Hana Furlough: guilty
Wol Euler grins.
Wol Euler: no time like the present!
Qt Core: maybe augmented reality (like google glasses) will bring us rl profiles
Hana Furlough: hehe indeed
Wol Euler: yes, qt, facial recognition software is already here, it would be simple to link that to image collections like facebook
Qt Core: luckily i'm not there ;-)
Wol Euler: oh you might be surprised, how often you are tagged in the background of somebody's photo of a party you were both at
Hana Furlough: for sure
Hana Furlough: by random people
Wol Euler nods.
Wol Euler: if you are a member of facebook you are given the option of rejecting that tag, so you can have yourself un-identified from that photo
Wol Euler: but if you aren't, then there is no such option and the tagging remains
Qt Core: i'm more interested on a continuos access to, let say wikipedia, how many times you wonder about something while not able to gogle/wikipedia it and then forgot to do it at home ?
Wol Euler: oh, absolutely
Qt Core: beside not going to parties, like in my case ;-)
Wol Euler: and live identifying of what you are looking at, by following the direction of your eyes
Hana Furlough: isn't this a party?
Wol Euler smiles.

--BELL--

Qt Core: interesting hat, hana

Hana was still wearing the pigeon.

Wol Euler smiles.
Hana Furlough: why thank you
Qt Core: i just noticed that it moves too
Hana Furlough: it's almost a full moon
Wol Euler: is that related to the "hat"?
Qt Core: will it become a werebird ? :-)
Wol Euler grins.
Hana Furlough: oh no, i was just looking out the window
Hana Furlough: haha
Wol Euler: ah, of course
Wol Euler: it's already night there
Hana Furlough: yeah
Hana Furlough: if you get a chance, have a look tonight
Hana Furlough: it's quite pretty
Wol Euler: will do :)
Wol Euler: it's overcast and lightly snowing at the moment, but perhaps it will clear
Hana Furlough: we had the same weather all day
Wol Euler: crazy weather, it keeps going back and forth between Spring and winter
Hana Furlough: but now it's cleared
Qt Core: a couble weeks ago there was a lovely shiny little new moon in a very clear and dark night, it was very nice
Wol Euler: +5 one week, -10 the next, and back again
Hana Furlough: very nice indeed
Hana Furlough: wow, that's cold, wol!
Qt Core: almost the same jumps here, but +10 -2
Hana Furlough: we've been around +5 to +9, but the cold is bone-chilling
Wol Euler nods.
Hana Furlough: the plum blossoms are blooming, though
Wol Euler: yay :)
Hana Furlough: are there any famous winter blooms in your parts of the world?
Wol Euler: crocus are the first
Wol Euler: tiny white bell.shaped flowers
Hana Furlough: oh interesting
Hana Furlough: i just googled. they look nice
Wol Euler: they aren't up yet, but they are due. I guess as soon as the cold stops
Hana Furlough: hopefully soon
Wol Euler nods.
Wol Euler: I enjoy posting photos of them as soon as they arrive, to people in Canada who are still knee-deep in snow :)
Hana Furlough: haha nice
Wol Euler smiles.
Qt Core: in theory there sould be some snowdrop around here but i haven't seen any
Qt Core: if i stare too much to plants they usually die...
Wol Euler: awwwwww :)
Hana Furlough: oh no
Wol Euler: not a gardener, then?
Hana Furlough: me neither actually
Qt Core: no, never really been even if i like them
Hana Furlough: i'm very bad with houseplants even

--BELL--

Hana Furlough: wol do your designs include gardens?
Qt Core: brb
Wol Euler: not really, not beyond basic earthmoving
Wol Euler: if landscaping is part of the project we have a landscaper with whom we usually work
Wol Euler: he advises us on competitions
Wol Euler: though his advice is so consistent that we can do it for ourselves now :)
Hana Furlough: interesting
Hana Furlough: : )
Wol Euler: stones - water - grid of trees - long lines on the ground - shared space marked by surface changes
Hana Furlough: sounds nice
Wol Euler: it works :)
Wol Euler: after a few decades at their trade, most professionals have a "toolbox" that they draw from
Wol Euler: I could say the same kind of thing about our buildings, our standard tricks
Hana Furlough: i see
Wol Euler: stone-water-lines-grid is like setting out the chessmen on the board
Wol Euler: what comes next is where the design happens
Hana Furlough: fascinating
Wol Euler smiles.
Wol Euler: to come back to your question, landscaping is the foster child of the building process
Wol Euler: it gets the least attention and the least money, and is the first thing to get cut when the budget's tight
Hana Furlough: oh really?
Hana Furlough: that seems a shame
Wol Euler nods.
Wol Euler: well, most people who go to architects want buildings :)
Wol Euler: the garden around it is an extra
Wol Euler: people who actually do want gardens, don't go to architects (if they have any sense)
Hana Furlough: interesting
Hana Furlough: i see
Wol Euler: if you asked me for a four-bedroom house, and I replied "we built you three bedrooms but look how nice the garden is" you might be annoyed
Hana Furlough: haha true
Wol Euler smiles.

--BELL--

Qt Core: back, look at today italian doodle:http://www.google.it/logos/2013/ital...1223006-hp.jpg
Wol Euler: cool
Hana Furlough: very cute
Hana Furlough: is it election day?
Wol Euler: I didn't know they were specific to countries. Nice.
Qt Core: yes, they become very specific in last years
Wol Euler: at least you don't have Berlusconi around any more
Qt Core: ehm ehm... maybe in the opposition but it will be there
Qt Core: we may end up having a party founded by an ex-comedian as first party
Wol Euler: was he at least a good comedian?
Hana Furlough: lol
Qt Core: yes, i loved him as a comedian but don't like him at all as a politician
Wol Euler: hmmmm
Qt Core: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beppe_Grillo
Wol Euler: wikipedia: "Grillo projected the names of two dozen Italian politicians who had been convicted of crimes ranging from corruption and tax evasion to abetting a murder. More than 2 million Italians participated in this rally.[4] Grillo also used this rally to urge Italians to sign a petition calling for the introduction of a Bill of Popular Initiative to remove members of the Italian Parliament who have criminal convictions of any kind from their office." that sounds pretty good to me :)
Wol Euler: but there is something funny about people running for government office on an anti-government platform
Hana Furlough: yeah that may not end well
Wol Euler nods.
Qt Core: :) some of his program point are good, nobody (almost nobody) is always wrong
Wol Euler smiles.
Qt Core: his party has almost no structure and almost everything is done in the net... in an apparently totally democratic way... but then when a few weeks ago a few member dared ask for some discussion about something they were just thrown out
Wol Euler nods.
Wol Euler: they may implode, as the German Pirate party is doing
Qt Core: wol, tell me if i'm becoming too political for pab (and pab logs) standards ;-)
Wol Euler: it's fine to want to be totally without heirarchy, totally democratic, internal vote about everything
Wol Euler: but that will not make a party that people will vote for.
Wol Euler: there has to be somebody on top, and the pirates expelled everyone who was good enough to become top
Wol Euler: no, it's fine :)
Qt Core: it seems it will take at leas 15% and some even speak about 25% or more

--BELL--

Qt Core: strangely enough Grillo's blog (one of the most read in the world it seems) is avaiable in italian (oviously), english (not common for italian blogs) and... japanese (almost unheard of for italian blogs)
Wol Euler: wow
Hana Furlough: wow
Hana Furlough: that is very strange
Hana Furlough: i wonder why
Wol Euler: my dears, I encourage you to remain and plumb the depths of this mystery, but I must leave to get ready for work
Qt Core: well, if you can... have fun wol
Hana Furlough: i need to get back to work as well
Hana Furlough: a good day to you both
Qt Core: and i have some chicken to roast
Hana Furlough: bye for now~
Qt Core: bye all
Wol Euler: bye hana, bye qt
Wol Euler: enjoy the day