Personal
Some trivia, in random order.
- There exists an asteroid 7258 Pettarin, apparently named after the amateur astronomer Enrico Pettarin. I have no direct connection with him. I do not have any relationships with Guido Germano Pettarin nor Germano Pettarin either.
- I do not have a Facebook account. So beware about requests for friendship from someone claiming to be me! (And please do not send me the stock invitation to set up an account.) However, I do use LinkedIn and Twitter.
- I was used to play tennis on the beautiful clay courts of my hometown but after a knee accident I switched to amateur road biking. During the 2003 season I covered nearly 10,000 Km.
- I enjoy good food (but I cannot eat seafood), cooking (especially baking cakes and pastry in general), visiting art museums and collections, reading (preferring essays over novels and poetry) and watching spaghetti western movies or Sergio Leone movies.
- During summer I am used to trek in the Dolomites.
- I really enjoy learning about linguistics, typography and human traditions across different cultures, especially drinking some good tea or coffee.
- First computer: an Olivetti PC with an 8088 Intel processor (4.33 MHz), 512 KB RAM, 20 MB HDD, EGA 16 colors graphic card (circa 1990).
- Current PCs: Lenovo ThinkPad X260 and Lenovo ThinkPad X120e. I also have a 2011 Mac Mini, only used for iOS development and software testing.
- A valid English anagram of my name and surname is triptane bloater.
- While in the U.S., for nearly 10 months my housemate was Andy Pavlo, from whom I learnt all I know about baseball and street jargon. Quite surprisingly, I managed to avoid that trip to a shooting range…
- I am a founder member of the eBook Club Italia, a nonprofit organization that promotes Digital Reading in Italy.
- I invented the slogan "Leggere oltre la carta" (lit. "Reading beyond paper") adopted by the eBook Club Italia.
- A list of my projects in electronic publishing is here.