Apartments in Madison

Ok – I’ve done some looking on internet – it seems that to be downtown I’ll be spending about 550 -600 American dollars each month. CAN ANYONE TELL ME IF THAT IS A GOOD PRICE???? In Italy it is much less, but the rooms seem much bigger in the United States. Also, I can’t understand if that includes the electricity and heating or not. What are the normal prices for these things? It’s strange to calculate everything in square feet too. I guess I’m going to have to un-learn the metric system! Actually, I remember this in Canada – although they use kilometres and millimetres, they also use inches and ounces. It’s very funny. I suppose the British weigh themselves in “stone” – which I simply can’t understand. It sounds like everyone should be competing in a strongman competition! Heh heh. Anyway – if anyone can help me getting oriented in Madison – I would really appreciate it.

My questions are: which are the best areas of town for young people to live?

which areas are cheapest?

are there any dangerous areas?

is public transportation good, if I have to live a bit further from the centre?

how expensive are heating and electricity? I understand that it is very cold in winter!

I probably have many other questions that I can’t think of. Is anyone there interested in coming to Italy? I would be happy to help with information if I can!!!!!!

Help! Place to STAY!!!

Well, I’m getting a bit nervous. Until this morning I was really happy and excited about going – with no other real thought to the practical side of things. I got my ticket this morning, which means I NEED TO FIND A PLACE TO STAY!!!! How does it work in the US? In Italy, most students can find rooms or beds by reading the announcements posted around the university. When I googled Madison appartment find, I also got reference to all on-line services. This is new to me. Mostly it was about selling houses, but some also offered rentals. What a strange service! I can’t imagine renting something without seeing it first. Here, the other way to find a flat to rent is though the property agencies, you pay a little more, but you get guarantees for the contracts, etc. How is it in the US? I need a place befoe the eind of August. What to do? Can anybody help me!!!???!!! Again, I need to be a bit near the centre of town, but as long as the place is safe, I’ll be alright. Do landlords include utilities in the price? What kind of contract to I need to sign? Anyway – I would really appreciate it if someone could comment on this problem. I also asked on Dane101, but haven’t got a reply yet. I don’t have tonnes of money, so modest is fine.

Thanks guys!

Madison

Well, I’m getting ready to leave to go to the US soon. It’s really exciting! I googled Madison and it looks like quite a nice place. I also found a blogsite – news exchange site called Dane101 – where I’ve asked for any information – tips, etc. that people could give me about life in Madison. I hope I get some response! That’d be really cool. It looks like they’ve got a good night life. The band Wilco is playing there at a place (pub? concert hall?) called the Overture. I met a guy from Texas once who played bass guitar for them – at least he said he did. I don’t know. Anyway – he told me that their category of music was “y’all-ternative”. That was pretty funny. I’m really looking forward to the immersion in American culture. Cheeseburgers! A friend of mine told me that people go ice-fishing! Sounds fun (and less demanding than baseball! – heh heh.) Mum keeps telling me that Wisconsin and Minnesota are the nicest areas of the US – most like Canada – but she’s biased. I have to do an online search for a place to stay when I get there. Anybody from Madison got any ideas? I need access to the centre of town. Anyway – slowly slowly.

(Micro)WaveCamp

Finally I found where the torrid summer was waiting for me: in Sesto Fiorentino last week at the WaveCamp!

As soon as the organizers realized that the temperature inside the MediaCenter tent was well above 40 C, and that nobody was around in the morning, the schedule was dramatically changed and the WaveCamp was renamed MicrowaveCamp, being much more affected by the sun than by the sound.

Nevertheless, the barcamp was interesting and the Saturday afternoon session was great, with at least 3 worthwile speeches:

1. the analysis of network infrastructures made by Stefano Quintarelli;
2. the announcement of the cooperation between FON and the University of Urbino, made by Alessandro Bogliolo (see the picture below…) and Stefano Vitta;
3. the discussion with Manlio Mallia, a SIAE representative, about copyrights and new media.

Alessandro Bogliolo talked about the role of open wireless access networks in the diffusion of web communities, and conducted a comparative analysis of FON and UWiC. FON is creating a worldwide community of users who share their own internet connections. UWiC is creating a regional dense community of users who can access free wireless services without even going to the internet. The objective of the cooperation between UWiC and FON, which has been announced at the WaveCamp, is twofold:

1. creating a worldwide dense community by offering open access to free services worldwide
2. developing a worldwide wireless campus offering wireless connectivity worldwide to university students.

I hope both goals will be met very soon!

From Manlio Mallia I’ve learned that SIAE fees are not too high for a non-commercial web radio. That’s good news for URC@!

The entire session was streamed by robingood.tv in real time, but I’m not sure that the videos are still available on the web.

My camera didn’t work (probably because of the temperature, since it is working properly today) but I found great pictures of the event on flickr, like this one

which is highly representative of the status of the campers, this one

where miss wavecamp wears very well a nice UWiC top, and many others.

WaveCamp

Tomorrow the 3-day WaveCamp hosted by the Italia Wave Love Festival starts in Sesto Fiorentino.

Sesto Fiorentino is not too far from Gualdo and I expect the WaveCamp to be present alot of ideas and learning opportunities in the field of web radio. So I decided to go for the weekend.

I knew that people from the UWiC lab would have been there as well, but only a few hours ago, when the preliminary program has been published, I learned that Alessandro Bogliolo (UWiC) and Stefano Vitta (FON) will announce a cooperation agreement between the University of Urbino and FON (the largest wireless community worldwide) to study the relationships between open wireless access networks and Web 2.0. That’s great!

The presentation by Bogliolo and Vitta is scheduled for Saturday morning. I’ll take notes and prepare a post for the blog!

Total minutes vs Uniques

Nielsen NetRatings has introduced “Total Minutes” as a new statistical tool for measuring the total engagement of people in a web site. According to the new tool, Google is no longer the top ranking web site. Moreover, while Google is the first web site in terms of unique access in each country, the ranking in terms of Total Minutes changes from country to country.

I’m not sure that the time spent on a web site is a good measure, since it depends on the service provided by the web site. For a search engine like Google, the less time I need to find what I’m looking for, the better.

Offline with friends and books

I’ve been offline for almost 2 weeks!

I took 10 days to do nothing in a house in the countryside near Monterchi  (mountains behind Arezzo).  Aaaah! No internet, no TV, and no newspapers.  We shopped for groceries only twice, avoiding town like the plague.  I ate more vegetables in those 10 days than in the rest of the year. Vegetables – heh heh. When I got back – it was mixed grill night with my family!!! If anyone comes to Umbria – we like meat and mushrooms and red wine! 

The weather was great!!!!!  Cool evenings and absolutely NOT the torrid summer that the meteorologists said. 

I read everything I could find to read in the twon – including two best sellers by Dan Brown: Deception Point (Le verità del ghiaccio) and Digital Fortress (Crypto).

I was surprised by the richness of the technological details and the astute observations of some of his findings, but the second book was a delusion – some really banal technological explainations and other really absurd ones.

I wonder if my different opinions of these books is tied to my different level of familiarity with these two disciplines (glaciology, paleontology, and weaponry on one hand, cryptography on the other) or Mr. Brown’s different level of competence in them.

If I’d read them in the reverse order, I would never have read the second one…

Anyway – the trip was fantastic.  I love being up in the higher Appenines.  Not too far from home we have Monte Cucco – which, for sporty types, offers hang gliding and delta wing championships.  I go in the early spring for mushrooms with my family. The mountaineering club has a website that shows the area pretty well: www.caigualdotadino.it.

Anyway – I ask myself – are there mountains in Wisconsin? I’ve heard from an American teacher in Urbino that there are alot of lakes – but he’s from Minnessota (sp?). On the map it looks like it should be flat. I can’t wait to see!