Research, standards and thoughts for the digital world

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MPAI MPEG ISO

Standards for the present and the future

It is hard to talk sensibly to the general public about standards. It is a pity because standards are important as they ensure e.g. that nuts match with bolts, paper sheets feed into printers, music files play on handsets and a lot more. One reason is that standards are one of the most ethereal things on Earth as they concern interfaces between systems.  Another reason is that the many industries created by human endeavour have developed their own customs: what…

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Personal devices and persons

USA President Obana is reported saying (NYT 2016/03/12): "If, technologically, it is possible to make an impenetrable device or system, where the encryption is so strong that there is no key, there is no door at all, then how do we apprehend the child pornographer? How do we disrupt a terrorist plot?" Anwer with another question: "How do we make a child pornographer or a terrorist talk if he does not want to?"

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Egg and chicken – tax and expenses

After decades of funding the most fancy and unproductives aspects of the welfare state by raising taxes, politicians have discovered that too much is too much. So cutting taxes has become the mantra of right- and left-wing politicians alike. There is one problem, though. Citizens have become unresponsive (i.e. they don't believe anymore to "tax cuts" promises). One suggestion to politicians in need of recovering citizens' confidence: instead of saying "I will cut this tax", say "I will cut this…

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Getting out of the mess

The Christian religion explains the mess of the world we live in with the Original Sin that has destroyed the good nature that would otherwise be in us. The Original Sin cannot be undone but Baptism and adherence to the Religion's precepts promise to make us reborn people. How can this help sorting out the European mess experienced of these days? Here, too, we have an original sin: greedy Greek politicians bent on lighting new debts from greedier bankers bent…

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Leonardo’s views on European Parliament’s “Google’s vote”

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It is hard to legislate when the matter at hand is constantly changing. This is the case of the recent recommendation of the European Parliament  (EP) to introduce regulation of internet search and break up Google. It is not the first time public authorities break up companies: they did it in 1911 with Standard Oil Co. Inc. But that decision was more than a century ago and was about a company that was controlling too many “atoms” (actually molecules) that…

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