In Innsbruck old town (Altstadt) there are some nice wrought iron signs. I took a picture of a couple of them, with the golden roof in the background.

A bit more than one month ago I started logging my runs and walks, with the help of the GPS on my mobile phone and of Google Maps (the idea came from a friend who does the same). I thought it could be a good idea mostly for running (well, the word "running" is probably an exaggeration when applied to my case...), but I included also walking. Now that we are at the end of the month, I see that in February I did about 210 kilometres, including about 70 km running. Considering that I did not do anything special during this period, this is honestly much more than I could have imagined. Which is not bad, of course.

Brilliant...

(from xkcd)

It is a lovely autumn here in Innsbruck, with beautiful sunny days and temperatures that reach 15 degrees in November... Since the weather was so pleasant, last Saturday I went with Srdjan and Federico to Neuschwanstein Castle, near Füssen, in Germany (one hour and a half by car from here).

It is the famous fake medieval castle built at the end of the 19th century by king Ludwig II of Bavaria, which also served as inspiration for Disneyland castle. I had already been inside the castle, and I think once it is worth visiting... at least to see how crazy was that man, with the throne room in Byzantine style, the fake grotto, and so on (well, Berlusconi has a fake volcano in the garden, which is probably a not so different thing...). This time however we preferred nature, so we had a nice walk in the surroundings, also enjoying a striking view of the castle from above. It is a very famous place, stormed by tourists (luckily not so many in November), but nice.

(Other pictures are available here, thanks to Federico and Srdjan)

No, unfortunately I haven't been at the Oktoberfest, even if it's now and Munich is not far from here... and I know this song is silly (and the video too), but I liked it. :-)

(from xkcd)

Unfortunately, people sometimes do not seriously think about which is really the weakest link in a security system. And there is also a more subtle issue: strengthening a link may cause the attacker to change his strategy, with undesirable consequences. I remember a story about some car anti-theft devices being "too" secure in making hot-wiring difficult, so that they actually caused an increase in carjackings. It is probably better (as well as much safer) to discover that one's car has been stolen when returning to the car park...

(comic from xkcd)

People lacking imagination, scepticism, and a sense of humour should not work in the security field.

– Anonymous

When we woke up this morning in Lodi there were about fifteen centimetres of snow on the ground, fallen during the night. I took the opportunity to go for a walk in the countryside, and to take some pictures.

(from xkcd)