5 ==== Weekly OLPC Reports ====
7 If you're interested in our progess at the OLPC lab, we
8 publish weekly executive summaries here:
10 http://laptop.media.mit.edu/laptopnews.nsf/latest/news
12 This is the report that mentions me volunteering for
15 http://laptop.media.mit.edu/laptopnews.nsf/2e76a5a80bc36cbf85256cd700545fa5/6709ac0696003ee3852572e00083567f?OpenDocument
22 In this episode of the popular American show SixtyMinutes,
23 our founder NicholasNegroponte reveals a lot of details
24 about the humanitarian role of the OneLaptopPerChild project:
26 http://bender.codewiz.org/wikidata/60_minutes_2007-05-20.avi
28 The part about us starts approximately at 1/3 of the show.
30 You may also find the last part interesting as it specifically
31 addresses the controversial problem of private medical centers
32 trying to save on assistance to homeless people. Marco, you
36 ==== GreenishBitmaps ====
38 '''Warning''': This article is rated PG0xF00F, parents discretion *not* advised.
40 I've been struggling for the last few days on a the damn X server.
42 In the RedHat builds, we're still using a pre-release of 1.2,
43 labelled 1.1.99. Now, we need to leverage some upstream work
44 for input rotation that is landing on the Xorg tree right now.
46 Backporting is not an option, and we want to stay up to date
47 anyway. We'll soon be moving to Fedora 7 anyway. But even
48 the just-released 1.3 that will be in Fedora 7 is not enough,
49 because it has been branched some time ago, we must work
50 from the tip of the git tree, which of course has become
51 very unstable recently.
53 I've been fighting all the week against all sort of bugs
54 and build problems and, believe me, it's a very energy
57 The funniest thing I'm still trying to track are
58 these GreenishBitmaps that nobody else except me
61 It's probably a miscompilation of some kind, but I've
62 long ago ran out of obvious and less obvious ideas to try
63 and I'm now far in the land of impossible things.
65 All this time I've been in contact with a few X
66 hackers on IRC, including the author of the AMD
67 driver, but even them couldn't come up with a
75 '''Bernie''': Hello Easy!!! It's good to be chatting here in the blog!
77 I saw this two photo some row below...
79 But all those OLPC at the roof, what doing?? Only for furnishing or for specific utility?? :)
81 '''Bernie''': Hehe... they're part of the WirelessMesh, for testing
82 purposes. An hispanic guy called Miguel (not the same of De Icaza)
83 sometimes fiddles with them. He's lucky because he's very tall.
86 The office is very beautiful and the Apple Cinema Display is really very big...
88 '''Bernie''': Yeah, that's the personal screen of my boss/team-leader ChrisBall.
89 It's 30". One day or another I'll bring here my 24" wide-screen from home.
91 Do you have some new news about your new work??
93 '''Bernie''': Sorry for not updating the blog... I've been *extremely*
94 busy. I will do it shortly... Promised.
98 ==== Trip to work ====
100 I still couldn't solve the problem of getting to work
101 quickly. I can't afford to waste over 2 hours every
104 By now, I've tried any possible solution:
106 * Car: the office doesn't have a parking lot and there's
107 no way to park within one mile from KendalSquare for less
108 than $18/day. Monthly fees start from $250.
110 * Bus: I need to commute in Dudley and take line no. 1 to
111 MassachusettsAvenue, then walk 15 minutes to KendalSquare.
113 * Bus + subway combo: The red line would get me directly
114 to KendalSquare, and there are several routes to get there,
115 but all of them require commuting at least twice. The
116 monthly link pass costs $75.
118 * Car + subway combo: there are some cheap parkings next
119 to the terminal subway stations where you can leave your
120 car for $5/day. Unfortunately, to get there I must
121 travel in the opposite direction. And the whole thing
122 will cost $75 + $5*30, about the same of the monthly
125 * Taxi: Costs $11-$14 * 2 every day, which makes the
126 monthly parking cheap in comparison.
128 And even worse, the red line stops running at midnight
129 and bus no 1 at 1AM. Which forces me to leave from
130 the office very early (for my standards).
132 If you want to play with the possibilities, I just
133 discovered that the transportation company has a very cool
134 web service that would have saved me a lot of time:
137 http://www.mbta.com/rider_tools/trip_planner/default.asp
138 From: 66 Maywood st., Roxbury MA
139 To: Kendall/mit Station, Cambridge
142 At the end of the day, the ultimate solution is moving
143 closer to the office or at least close to the red line.
144 Maybe I could afford to spend $600 for a room, but I
145 don't feel like moving right now. I already have enough
148 ''Have you considered to put a bicycle in your combo? You may replace a 10 km walk with it and open up new combinations (and ways to get wet...) -- PiroPiro''
150 ==== Awful Weather ====
152 Today it's raining lightly. Yesterday I took an extra shower
155 The WikiPedia was definitely right: weather in Boston can
156 change very rapidly. Must remember to buy a raincoat like
157 RichardStallman's and keep it in my backpack.
163 1. Get employed at OLPC
168 Just joking, but the truth is that I still need
169 to face a lot of new challenges now.
171 My next problem will be improving my communication skills.
172 After one month of full immersion, I can still barely
173 understand people talking quickly to each and I clearly
174 express myself using an inadequately poor vocabulary and
175 too slowly in some cases.
177 These things will improve over time, while my strong
178 Italian inflection is likely to remain forever. If
179 only I could find one, I'd attend to a course to
180 correct my diction now. Actors do them.
182 Another crucial problem I need to solve quickly is
183 getting a visa that allows me to work here permanently.
184 There are many possibilities, but none guaranteed to
185 succeed. For now, I'm not thinking about it: my
186 employer knows better than me and will help as much
189 Last but not least, my job is not easy and requires a
190 good amount of commitment. All my colleagues are extremely
191 smart and more experienced than I am. So I need to work
192 twice as hard to keep up with them.
194 A very nice workplace and very interesting assignments helps.
195 And, most importantly, I know that what we're doing here is
196 going to have a huge impact on the world.
198 '''Andrea Grandi''': Your words give me no hopes for my future :(
200 '''Bernie''': Are you planning to come here? Cool! :D
202 > All my colleagues are extremely smart and more experienced than I am
204 More than you? It's not a place for me then :D
206 '''Bernie''': It's worth trying even if you currently think you're
207 not up to the job. It's a very valuable experience even if you
208 end up returning to your home country for some reason.
210 '''Rasky''': But can you get a perm visa even without an university
211 degree? I thought that was absolutely out of question... I knew that
212 people without a degree could just get some 1-year temp visa.
219 Here are some more pics of MyOlpcDesk.
223 ==== Office Space =====
225 Here are a few pictures of the OlpcOffice!
227 ==== Hack Hack Hack ====
229 I've been assigned a problem with an invalid serial port baud
230 rate after resume from software suspend.
232 I started investigating the hard way, until ChrisBall pointed
233 me on IRC to talk with the KernelHacker DavidWoodhouse, who
234 obviously had a solution in a few seconds. Unfortunately,
235 it didn't work as we expected and MitchBradley of OpenFirmware
236 joined the conversation to help.
238 Having all the subsystem gurus available to fix your bugs makes
239 things a lot easier... Hehe, I think I like it ;-)
241 And so tomorrow I'll get back to work on a MandelBug with the Xorg's
242 driver for the AMD chipset. When XVIDEO is enabled and you
243 rotate the display with XRANDR, sometimes the X server crashes,
244 sometimes it just hangs and sometimes it survives with a corrupted
245 display. And the bad news is that gdb also hangs.
247 How will I fix this? Easy: I'll go looking for the driver authors
248 first thing tomorrow and beg them to send me a fix :-)
250 By the way, lately I've been hanging regularly in #olpc on FreeNode.
251 My nick is _bernie. Come over to see what's going on!
256 ==== All Night Long ====
258 At 9PM, I'm still here and plan to stay as long as I can :-)
260 <please link to the song "All Night Long" here>
263 ==== Buried In Work Already ====
265 '''WARNING''': Technical AbraCadabra ahead!
267 Today I met most of the team members and bothered a few of them,
268 starting from DanWilliams who helped me debug a problem with a
269 simple mesh networking scenario involving three laptops.
271 Today I've also been assigned some work from ChrisBall, who also
272 helped me out with many small things such as a dead battery,
273 accessing the serial console, etc. I'm currently adding a
274 KernelDebugger command to display the ModelSpecificRegister's
277 But it seems like I will also refer to RedHat's ChrisBlizzard
278 to be assigned more work. We talked about optimizing the
279 video driver for the AmdGeodeCpu, getting the resistive
280 tablet to work and maybe adding "tapping" support to the
283 As you know, I like it even more when I'm allowed to ramble
284 through a zillion different things like this!
287 ==== Sneaky Preview ====
289 I'm writing this from within the OLPC headquarters. I came today for
290 a second interview and to get a few tasks assigned to me :-)
292 I have no time to be more specific. Will tell you the details a little later.
297 '''TODO''': will tell you later
301 '''TODO''': will tell you later
304 >MUM< creepy mummy virus it's taking control here.... :-) WRITE SOON OR IT/SHE WILL DESTROY EVERYTHING!
305 ==== Quite a Trip ====
307 Today I'm leaving the safe and familiar BostonCity to boldly go where I've
310 The current plan is to drive south to ProvidenceCity, BrdigeportCity, NewYorkCity,
311 PhiladelphiaCity, BaltimoreCity and, finally, WashingtonCity. Maybe I'll even
312 push myself down in FloridaState to go see the SpaceShuttle!
314 I could use a GPS. I've seen a few TomTom's, but $299 seems way too
315 much to me for a talking map. Maybe I'll buy a traditional map for
318 Ah, and I will sleep frugally, of course. Hostels and motels when I find
319 them. So, over the next few days I'll be lucky if I have intermittent
320 Internet access and, consequently, I won't probably be able to sync the
326 '''Babbo''': Ma fino ad oggi con quali danari hai vissuto dato che sei partito con 10€ liquidi?
328 '''Bernie''': Ho prelevato i soldi dall'ATM... con il bancomat delle poste! E vedo dai movimenti
329 sul conto che hanno applicato un buon cambio e nessuna penale strana.
333 Today I finally rent a car. It's a SaturnIon, a brand and model I never heard
336 http://www.edmunds.com/media/seo/500/2006.saturn.ion.jpg
338 I felt very comfortable driving all over Europe: Italy, Swiss, Spain, France,
339 Germany, Belgium, and even Greece... But, for some reason, I was quite afraid
340 of driving a car here in the States.
342 Maybe it's because the road signs are somewhat different and there are a few
343 subtly different rules, such as turning right on red, not parking in front
344 of hydrants, etc. Most probably, it's because I've seen way too many movies
345 where people get stopped by police and thrown in jail quite easily!
347 Well, so far everything went very well. I mean, except for parking. Parking
348 in downtown is easy if you're willing to pay $10-12 for a few hours.
349 It's a big pain in the ass otherwise... The best way I've found so far
350 is to park near a minor T station and then get the T to downtown :-(
352 And, of course, the car has AutomaticTransmission, which I managed to learn
353 quickly: the trouble comes when you switch the other way around ;-)
355 Ok, today I've driven all around Boston just to get used to it. Tomorrow
356 I'll probably dare getting on the highway to see around.
359 ==== Business Visa? ====
361 Today I've re-read detailed information on the
362 available US visa options:
364 http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/types/types_1262.html
366 Looks like a ''B-1'' Business Visa would do. To get one,
367 I should go to a US ambassy, and ambassys are usually
368 located abroad. Instead of returning to Italy, maybe
369 I could get an appointment in MontrealCity, which is
370 near to the border and also an interesting place to see.
377 Yesterday I applied for this great service: http://www.zipcar.com/ .
378 Isn't it a good idea? Costs less than renting a car and is almost
381 <rasky> http://www.carsharingfirenze.it/ :)
383 Today I walked to their offices to give them my documents
384 and get the magnetic card. They said they will enable it
385 first thing tomorrow *if* the "insurance risk declaration"
386 I got from Italy suffices.
389 ==== Simple shopping ====
391 Consumers must be very simple minded here. First, most
392 shop names are simply dumb: '''Pay Less''', '''Save-A-Lot''',
393 '''Big Deal''', and so on.
395 ''Sounds very '''meno tasse per tutti''' to me... -- PiroPiro''
397 Second, they try to subtle deceptions such as: "take 2 for $24.xx",
398 and, next to it: "take 3 for $21.xx", Which of course is
399 impossible. It's a trap! The little figures placed
400 exactly where you would expect to see the cents, are
401 indeed a small notice: ''EACH''.
403 Today I bought a dozen of razor blades ($1.50), a
404 bottle of shampoo ($1.50) and shower gel ($1.50).
405 But I spent $12 for adjusting the two pair of
406 trousers I had bought a few days ago in the mall!
407 $12 ''EACH'', I mean.
410 ==== Bad Neighborhood ====
412 Walking home alone in the night, I may encounter some ''bad'' guys:
414 http://bender.codewiz.org/wikidata/text/FunWithWeapons.jpg
416 Better be careful :-)
421 ==== Veni, Vidi, ???? ====
423 This morning I shown up at OneLaptopPerChild's headquarters. It's again next to KendallSquare,
424 in OneCambridgeCenter.
426 JimGettys was very kind: he took me to LegalSeaFood for lunch, repaired my ExOh's keyboard (two
427 keys were dead) and introduced me to the team members.
429 They left me with the usual Hollywood formula: "don't call us, we'll call you".
430 But in this particular case, I felt they were sincere :-)
432 I hope to be soon a member of the OLPC core team!
437 ==== Alea Iacta Est ====
439 As promised... Yes, indeed. Everybody please cross their fingers.
441 Babbo:Pregherò perchè tu possa ottenere quello che cerchi.
443 Camy: Mannaggia a voi due ( Bernie e Alberto ) siete cosi..."teneri". Come ho già detto tante volte a Bernie, è fortunato ad avere un babbo cosi! Lo so, lo so che non c'entra nulla con lo stile di questo blog, ma io sono cosi, impulsiva e Bernie lo sa e mi perdonerà.
444 A dire il vero anch'io sto in ansia per lui :-) speriamo bene...
446 Bernie: Via, non fatemi venire il magone voi due :-)
450 ==== International Dinner ====
452 FedericoLucifredi and his wife Irena were so kind to invite me at their place for a
453 fine dinner with appetizers, SirloinSteak (see pic below), several side
454 dishes and... Even a PinotNoir!
456 http://www.fairburysteaks.com/images/bci-sirloin-round-bone.gif
458 There were also Mauro -- Federico's colleague at Ximian -- and Irena's
459 friend who's a physics professor from Providence and could speak perfect
460 French and, surprisingly, even Italian!
462 What can I say? I think I got a pound or two that night, but it was
470 There's a cinema in building 26 @ EmAiTee, and it's cheap.
475 If you're curious, my room rent is $500 per month. Utilities,
476 forniture and DSL Internet access are included.
478 It's not cheap, but it's also not too expensive for Boston.
479 They told me that only Manhattan is more expensive here on
482 ==== CurriculumVitae ====
484 ...is almost ready. A friend told me that I'd better have
485 also a synthetic resume of 1-2 pages for the impatient.
488 Well, I said I'd be finished by last Monday, but then I
489 managed to slip past my own deadline visiting NewYorkCity,
490 moving in my current room and in other frivolous ways.
492 Now I have no excuses: the time has come. Next Monday I
493 ''will'' write my proposal. Seriously.
497 ==== Exchange Rates ====
499 Looks like I'd better convert all my money to dollars *now*:
501 http://www.x-rates.com/d/USD/EUR/graph30.html
503 What do you think about it?
505 Babbo:penso che $ continuerà a svalutare. Perderai soldi.
507 ==== StataCenter ====
509 I forgot to tell you about the kewlest building in EmAiTee:
511 http://www.eecs.mit.edu/images/big-stata12.jpg
513 See also: http://www.eecs.mit.edu/stata-link.html
517 After a long time, I finally get to (ab)use MIT's wi-fi and
518 barf my short-term brain buffer into my BrainDump.
520 Tonight we went to an Irish pub next to Kendall, where I got
521 to know a few more Ximian employees. I got rumors that
522 the famous kernel hacker RobertLove would be there, so after
523 a while I turned to the guy next to me and asked: "Is
524 RobertLove really going to come?". And he replied: "Speaking."
526 Another guy told me: "Hi, I'm BAHB". "Pardon?". "BAHB!".
527 "What???". Federico promptly helped me out: "Ha detto che si
530 The beer was good. I discovered that a BlueMoon is the
531 nearest approximation of a WeisseBeer I can find here,
532 and I'm not at all displeased by its taste.
536 My landlord has recently switched DSL provider and Internet
537 doesn't work any more: the sync light on the modem flashes.
538 It seems that crappy ISPs are a common disease in the States
541 Yesterday, he called for service and, finally, they told him
542 they would send a tech today from 8AM to 18PM. They refused
543 to be more specific. And so I've agreed to wait here to let
544 the guy in... I care about it for myself too!
548 By the way, today I'm exactly 150 pounds (use GoogleCalculator
549 to get it to SI units).
551 150 pounds = 68.0388555 kilograms
557 They told me Roxbury is quite an infamous suburb of Boston.
558 And my first impression confirms that: shops are uglier,
559 parks and streets are somewhat dirtier (but not as much as
560 in NewYorkCity!) and, most importantly, some of the neighbors
561 look creepy. Especially in the night, streets are crowded by
562 people with criminal faces and many homeless.
564 You know I'm not the type who's easily scared off by a bunch
565 of zombies, but I'll feel much better when I'll drive a car.
569 I've finally settled in my room. There's no need to describe the house
570 in detail, as it's the most typical colonial design: two floors plus
571 basement, front and back yards, sliding windows, wooden floors
572 everywhere. You've come to know them very well from the movies.
574 Today I went to the mall to gather the essentials: a blankets,
575 a pillow case and some bath towels. The bed is comfortable and
576 I was quite tired already, therefore I fell asleep early in the
577 evening and kept on until 8 AM.
579 '''WARNING: TIME WARP OCCURRED'''
583 '''WARNING: TIME WARP IMMINENT'''
587 Alberto: Attento a convertire € in $ perchè € si sta apprezzando,e quindi $ svalutando rispetto a €.
589 Belle le foto scovate da Massimo. Have a good stay in Btn.
591 Massimo: Bernie, you taught me: http://www.google.com/search?q=100+USD+in+EUR
594 Massimo: Since Bernie could not give us any picture, I had to use flickr: here they are!
596 http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=bernardo+innocenti
598 Piro: what in the heaven is RMS doing dressed like a camp tent? :D
602 ==== BankOfAmerica ====
604 I went to BankOfAmerica and opened a bank account. I went there wearing a yellow T-shirt
605 and a weary pair of jeans. In the beginning, they referred me to a young guy who quickly
606 tried to offer me a student's saving account. When I queried for interest rates, credit
607 cards, and dollar/euro conversion rates, they finally realized that I was going to move
610 When I've shown them my balance, they immediately switched me to a very polite girl who
611 took all the time to explain me everything in detail until after their closing time and
612 recommended me to open *3* different accounts to get a rate of 4.80% with no fees!
613 I totally hate when people judge you by your wealth, dressing, or other stupid status
614 symbols, but maybe a bank is the only exception where it makes sense to do so.
616 Banking appears to be far, far simpler here. I already feel like I know
617 everything while in Italy I still can't read most of the paperwork I get from
620 Batt: Or maybe american bankers are so skilled that you are happy while, in truth, they have stolen your money forever :-P
622 Massimo: Yahr yahr! He didn't realize they already got 4.80% of his balance from his pocket with a magician move! Yahr yahr! Anyway... 4-5% rate is not absurd in the US. It has always been almost like this as far as I can remember (maybe sometimes it was even 6-7%). It's useful for someone (like bernie), but tragic for someone who does not have any money and to buy a house with those mortgages it's almost impossible. Still, the US has got a very low rate in comparison with other extra-european countries.
626 ==== Good News, Everyone! ====
628 '''After a long struggling, I've finally found a room!'''
630 And I'll be moving in *today*! But I'm writing on Thursday the 3rd, actually (aren't you thinking fourth-dimentionally yet?).
632 The room is nice and comes with some forniture, including a desk. It's on the second floor
633 of a house where the landlord lives with her wife and a very friendly puppy.I like it
634 that way: all those houses shared by students I've seen so far tend to become unmaintained
635 and dirty quite quickly, while this one is a real house with a fully operational kitchen,
636 bathroom and even a clean back garden!
638 My landlord is Armenian, but have been living here in Boston for a long time. My first
639 impression is he's a very nice person, honest and easy going. I haven't met his wife yet --
640 she'll be back on Sunday.
642 I'm afraid the house is a bit far away from MIT, in southern Boston. But that won't
643 be a problem as soon as I buy a car. There may even be a chance to rent or buy the
644 car readily from my landlord's son.
646 I don't know the address yet. I should, but I forgot the sheet on the table when I went there. And I can't call my landlord either because I've stolen his cell phone by mistake also. Yeah, I reckon I mustn't a good impression, actually :-)
649 '''Camy''': the landlord lives with '''his''' wife
651 ==== Do You Speak English? ====
653 Some of you will be pissed off by this change, but I'm starting to make
654 some international friends here and none of them could read Italian.
656 Writing in English is also what I need to improve my writing skills.
657 For the few of you who barely know English, some more reading surely won't hurt!
659 [[http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fbender.codewiz.org%2Fwiki%2FMayBlog&langpair=en%7Cit=en Google Translator]]
662 As always, I'd very much appreciate being told about any mistake I make.
664 ''Massimo: ok, let's start with those horrible contractions my poor eyes had to read: '''Won't''' and '''I'd'''. Hey Bernie! You already went back home from NYC. Ain't gonna play with ya 'nymore!''