Archive for category Software
i-muse Featured on EspansioneTV
20 minutes on TV really flew away! đ
We’ve been interviewed on ZeroTreUno, the daily feature of the local broadcaster EspansioneTV, to present the project weâre working on, i-muse, the PDA guide for museums and art exhibitions.
Elda De Mattei, the presenter, made us feel at ease and allowed us to illustrate the project in its various aspects, from the technology to the graphics and the contents, an argument for each one of us.
Although we would have loved to tell more weâve been very satisfied of the final result. đ
For me it wasnât the first time on TV, since I attended NetcafĂ© on Telelombardia in 2003 after I won an award for Ecpc, a software for Euro coins collectors, but this time I wasnât alone.
So the message has been delivered: we have a winning product, ready for the market in a short time. đ
I Want You For i-muse
This is the crazy leaflet Luca made to attract the attention on our stage offer, while this is the serious version with a detailed description of the offer and requirements.
Itâs actually a search for an extraordinary person! đ
Joel Spolsky in his book Joel on Software, recommends searching for brilliant and results-producing people, qualities rarely coexisting in the same person.
Experience in this case isnât relevant, we know we canât pretend too much from a student, but itâs clear weâre going to invest in this person so that he or she could take an active role in the entrepreneurial project and watch i-muse grow together with us.
Considering the kind of job, a woman would have a great advantage, but this wonât be a discriminating factor.
A fine presence will, though, and this is not a joke!
Letâs say it: being fine-looking is pretty easy nowadays, it shows respect for yourself and for the people you have to relate to, while being smart is not at all. đ
As marketing guru Seth Godin wrote: your references are your curriculum, so if youâd like to send it to us write them down before anything else and then write why youâd like to get involved in the project.
Just a few words will be ok, the essential making all the difference!
In Mantua for the Saturn Project
Taking advantage of a couple of spring-like days to say the least, last week I went to Mantua on my Vespa where Iâm attending a course by Regione Lombardia, the Saturn Project – support for the enterprise planet, aimed to support new entrepreneurial activities.
The course is intensive and well organized by the Centro Studi Castelliâs consultants. Iâm appreciating the practical setting and the direct application of the concepts to the entrepreneurial ideas of the twelve people attending it.
A really useful course for the administrative management of the i-muse project. đ
Since I had two contiguous days for the course I decided to sleep at the Ostello del Mincio, a pleasant place and with the best website among those of the Hostels where I slept this summer during the Vespatour.
i-muse Featured on La Provincia
It really was a satisfaction being able to tell for the first time how the entrepreneurial idea which led me, Guido and Luca to create i-muse was born and evolved.
Sara Della Torre, the journalist author of the article about our project published on wednesday on the newspaper La Provincia, translated perfectly into words the whole story. đ
During the interview I noticed that she was amazed by the numerous positive coincidences which happened during the evolution of the project, such as how I managed to involve Luca and Guido or how we created the logo. đ
We still have a lot to demonstrate, we know this very well, but probably what isnât too evident from the outside yet, or itâs a bit underestimated, is how much work we did until now to come to this point.
Weâre now searching for a fourth extraordinary person. Finding him wonât be easy at all, so we start doing this early.
Thanks to the office at the Polytechnic things are moving fast now!
Meanwhile we enjoy the compliments the article on La Provincia granted us. đ
Passwords at Safe with eWallet 5.0
Tell me the truth.. where are you storing passwords to access sites, read email or log on to your PC?
In a simple text file or even on a paper note? đ
Well, in that case itâs useless hoping nothing bad will ever happen because it will happen!
Itâs not good news but itâs statistic data: identity theft is a growing threat and the source of never ending hassles even before we could even notice it. đ„
I did this sort of inattention too, then I understood and I began using a software to safely store my passwords and other personal data. It was fundamental for me that such software run on both the desktop and PDA and I choose eWallet by Iliumsoft since it seemed the best solution.
It actually changed everything. Now my data is always safe and at hand when I travel with my PDA: itâs all a matter of habits!
Now that they released version 5.0 they added a lot of improvements both to the graphics and the synchronization capabilities between the PC and the PDA, so itâs very easy to use.
Send Murphyâs Law to the hell and trash the paper notes with the passwords!
Itâs a weak system for your security, much more than not keeping updated the antivirus or the operative system.
Before trashing them be sure to add the data to your favorite electronic wallet! đ
The Coming of i-muse
Do you know what a purple cow is?
Itâs a marketing concept invented by Seth Godin to represent a remarkable product.
Remarkable in the sense that itâs so attractive in its market sector to become a commercial success. We think we have a purple cow, and now that we registered the trademark we can reveal what itâs all about: i-muse is not only a PDA guide for museums and art exhibitions, an innovative tool for the visitor well beyond traditional audioguides, but most of all is the entrepreneurial project by three young guys from Como who believed to be able to create something important starting from scratch! đ
The logo is self-explanatory, born from a flash of genius by Luca and generated by Guidoâs hint, the people to whom at the beginning of 2006 I proposed working on what was then an idea without a true form.
I got the idea while I was using an audioguide during my visit to the Joan MirĂČâs exhibition in 2004 in Como. Back then I was developing software for PDAs, I knew their potentialities, and then I asked myself: why not making a guide running on PDA? đĄ
In 2005, thanks to the voucher for technology innovation issued by Regione Lombardia, I committed a due diligence study to the Centro Volta, which is actually located in Villa Olmo where MirĂČâs exhibition took place. From that point it took me some time to realize how I had to go on: I had to find the right people, people with the skills I was missing.
I talked to Guido, a marketing expert, an old friend I didnât see for a long time, and to Luca, a great graphics artist with an experience in the videogames industry.
Thanks to them since the beginning of 2006 things went on at the right pace. We explored different paths, analyzed all the components of the project and finalized the application design. Slow but well since we were doing something else for a living.
After the award at the Startcup 2006 there has been the acceleration: the cash prize ( itâs better starting with a little, but a minimum is absolutely necessary đ ) and most of all the office inside the incubator at the Politecnico.
We also reached the finals of the ObiettivoICT contest, whose benefits will come the next year.
2007 is the year of the pig as the Chinese friends of Ciren told me.
Does that mean it will bring abundance even for us, in every sense? 
We hope so, in the meantime in the category i-muse you can find all the posts related to the project, a category Iâll keep alive and well while the work on the project continues.
Weâve Been Incubated!
Ok, itâs a bad expression which can give cause for never ending witty remarks, but for the three of us, me, Luca and Guido, recently awarded at the Startcup 2006, the regional contest for startup creation, the meaning is pretty clear: other than the cash prize by the Chamber of Commerce of Como, our real target was the incubation! đ
Weâre now hosted (incubated!) in the startup accelerator of the Polo Regionale di Como of the Politecnico di Milano.
We finally have an office, at the third floor of the building in Piazzale Gerbetto, where we can continue working on the project we started powered only by enthusiasm and hard work, aiming since the beginning to a result of excellence.
The office is fully operative by now from a technical point of view, while we still have a lot to do for what concerns furnishings, especially after weâve seen how the girls of Ciren and Urbano Creativo, neo-incubated at the second floor, set up their office.
We really need a female touch for that!
Professor Negrini, who gave us the award at the Startcup, told us this was his office before he moved to the Politecnicoâs building in Via Anzani. Really a privilege considering how much I think highly of him.
During the introductory meeting of the new startups he used a very motivating expression: âNow youâre entrepreneurs!â he told us.
Personally I do rely a lot on the network of competences that can be established among the ten startups now incubated in Como and itâs actually a pleasure being able to discuss and relate with other companies operating in the same sector. From these relations new interesting opportunities can be generated.
After the pizza-dinner with Luca and Guido to celebrate our first meeting in the office, as you can see in the pic, and the usual tea break at 17 ĂČ clock with MetalCâs staff at the third floor, we can say that being incubated is not a bad thing at all! đ
The Virtual Taylor in Cernobbio on Rai Due
Posted by Albegor in Como, Net-Tailor, Software on November 23, 2006
Here is the video of the interview recorded for the Non Solo Soldi (Not only money) TG2âs feature which sees The Virtual Taylor in Cernobbio as protagonist, this almost mythological hero lost inside the fog of Lake of ComoâŠ
Even I am used to call him like the press did until now, although at the taylor shop they prefer the exact reference to Sartoria Orefice for marketing reasons.
Maybe itâs better as it is, people remember more easily the fable of the virtual taylor taking measurements using a camera over the Internet.
The TV interview made everyone in the taylor shop excited and in the video, other than the staff at work while Cleto Orefice is describing how the system works, you can spot me in the recording running on the left monitor.
We recorded that while I was trying the suit they made ( sculpted is the most appropriate metaphor đ ) to measure for me.
Really a marketing hit for the taylor shop and the people involved in the project.
Enjoy!
The Future is the Taylor in Cernobbio
Posted by Albegor in Como, Net-Tailor, Software on November 18, 2006
This title, chosen an interview to Raffaello Vignali, president of the Compagnia delle Opere, published in the November issue of the magazine Business People, is emblematic and it means only one thing: the innovation project related to the taylor shop Sartoria Orefice in Cernobbio I took care of from the beginning to the end, with the coordination of the Centro Volta, has become a success case! đ
An example to follow for italian small businesses which are hearing a lot of talk about innovation, would like to start these kind of projects, but they donât know which way to turn.
I canât spare a criticism for the sentence: âHere Hewlett and Packard or Bill Gates couldnât have existed, since in Italy if someone starts a company inside a garage the Asl (the local sanitary inspection service) comes and forces them to closeâ⊠a clichĂ© often used to hide the real problems of the new ICT startups.
Vignaliâs interview is actually centered on the issues italian business class has to face to follow the difficult path of innovation, in order to be able to maintain the competitivity of the Made in Italy product in a globalized market, and also on the benefits generated when an innovation project comes to a good conclusion, using the âTaylor in Cernobbioâ as example, although in the interview the project is described generically with some mistakes about the systemâs working.
A working that has been well explained on thursday morning by Cleto Orefice when a Rai troupe, headed by journalist Sandra Cecchi, went to the taylor shop to record an interview for the Non Solo Soldi (Not only money) TG2âs feature, broadcast from monday to friday at 10:30 on Rai Due.
The TV interview will last only a few minutes, but it will be the first time the system will be shown in public. Really a must see to understand how a taylor working in the same way for 5 generations learnt to use a PC and Internet, not only to simplify his work, but also to make his business grow with perspectives which are probably still beyond estimation.
Although Iâm more at ease with textures rather than fabrics ;), by now I could almost say Iâm a “taylor” too if you consider the analogy with artigianal work I already blogged about, so it will be a real pleasure following the evolution of the Sartoria Orefice.
Ecpc Finalist in the Best Software Awards 2006
Posted by Albegor in Euro Coins Pocket Collector, Mobile, Software on November 4, 2006
I didnât expect it at all since I have to admit in the last months I neglected a bit Euro Coins Pocket Collector, the software I made for Euro coins fans. I actually chose to honor the priorities of my work as consultant and custom software developer.
So I was pleased to know that even this year the judges of the Best Software Awards 2006, the competition organized by the american Smartphone and Pocket PC Magazine, confirmed the value of the software and it was included among the finalists in the category Miscellaneous Utilities, just as they did last year.
It isnât easy at all categorizing a specialized software such as this, but I think that instead of creating a new category like Collecting they could add one like Lifestyle for example, to include all the Windows Mobile applications built to manage the digital lifestyle, as they call the modern life with all the technological tools that should simplify our life. Managing a collection of Euro coins with a PDA could be correctly included into this concept, couldnât it? đ
Anyway, itâs a pleasure that an atypical software, made from work and passion, reachead the final selection of a contest that gathered only the 20% of the best software existing for the Windows Mobile platform.
The winner of the Miscellaneous Utilities was StyleTap, an emulator useful to run applications written for the PalmOS on Windows Mobile devices.