7 And if you really have too much time on your hands, try helping me out on some of
11 * http://dev.laptop.org/query?status=new&status=assigned&status=reopened&status=closed&owner=bernie&order=priority
14 ==== Weekly OLPC Reports ====
16 If you're interested in our progess at the OLPC lab, we
17 publish weekly executive summaries here:
19 http://laptop.media.mit.edu/laptopnews.nsf/latest/news
21 This is the report that mentions me volunteering for
24 http://laptop.media.mit.edu/laptopnews.nsf/2e76a5a80bc36cbf85256cd700545fa5/6709ac0696003ee3852572e00083567f?OpenDocument
31 In this episode of the popular American show SixtyMinutes,
32 our founder NicholasNegroponte reveals a lot of details
33 about the humanitarian role of the OneLaptopPerChild project:
35 http://bender.codewiz.org/wikidata/60_minutes_2007-05-20.avi
37 The part about us starts approximately at 1/3 of the show.
39 You may also find the last part interesting as it specifically
40 addresses the controversial problem of private medical centers
41 trying to save on assistance to homeless people. Marco, you
45 ==== GreenishBitmaps ====
47 '''Warning''': This article is rated PG0xF00F, parents discretion *not* advised.
49 I've been struggling for the last few days on a the damn X server.
51 In the RedHat builds, we're still using a pre-release of 1.2,
52 labelled 1.1.99. Now, we need to leverage some upstream work
53 for input rotation that is landing on the Xorg tree right now.
55 Backporting is not an option, and we want to stay up to date
56 anyway. We'll soon be moving to Fedora 7 anyway. But even
57 the just-released 1.3 that will be in Fedora 7 is not enough,
58 because it has been branched some time ago, we must work
59 from the tip of the git tree, which of course has become
60 very unstable recently.
62 I've been fighting all the week against all sort of bugs
63 and build problems and, believe me, it's a very energy
66 The funniest thing I'm still trying to track are
67 these GreenishBitmaps that nobody else except me
70 It's probably a miscompilation of some kind, but I've
71 long ago ran out of obvious and less obvious ideas to try
72 and I'm now far in the land of impossible things.
74 All this time I've been in contact with a few X
75 hackers on IRC, including the author of the AMD
76 driver, but even them couldn't come up with a
84 '''Bernie''': Hello Easy!!! It's good to be chatting here in the blog!
86 I saw this two photo some row below...
88 But all those OLPC at the roof, what doing?? Only for furnishing or for specific utility?? :)
90 '''Bernie''': Hehe... they're part of the WirelessMesh, for testing
91 purposes. An hispanic guy called Miguel (not the same of De Icaza)
92 sometimes fiddles with them. He's lucky because he's very tall.
95 The office is very beautiful and the Apple Cinema Display is really very big...
97 '''Bernie''': Yeah, that's the personal screen of my boss/team-leader ChrisBall.
98 It's 30". One day or another I'll bring here my 24" wide-screen from home.
100 Do you have some new news about your new work??
102 '''Bernie''': Sorry for not updating the blog... I've been *extremely*
103 busy. I will do it shortly... Promised.
107 ==== Trip to work ====
109 I still couldn't solve the problem of getting to work
110 quickly. I can't afford to waste over 2 hours every
113 By now, I've tried any possible solution:
115 * Car: the office doesn't have a parking lot and there's
116 no way to park within one mile from KendalSquare for less
117 than $18/day. Monthly fees start from $250.
119 * Bus: I need to commute in Dudley and take line no. 1 to
120 MassachusettsAvenue, then walk 15 minutes to KendalSquare.
122 * Bus + subway combo: The red line would get me directly
123 to KendalSquare, and there are several routes to get there,
124 but all of them require commuting at least twice. The
125 monthly link pass costs $75.
127 * Car + subway combo: there are some cheap parkings next
128 to the terminal subway stations where you can leave your
129 car for $5/day. Unfortunately, to get there I must
130 travel in the opposite direction. And the whole thing
131 will cost $75 + $5*30, about the same of the monthly
134 * Taxi: Costs $11-$14 * 2 every day, which makes the
135 monthly parking cheap in comparison.
137 And even worse, the red line stops running at midnight
138 and bus no 1 at 1AM. Which forces me to leave from
139 the office very early (for my standards).
141 If you want to play with the possibilities, I just
142 discovered that the transportation company has a very cool
143 web service that would have saved me a lot of time:
146 http://www.mbta.com/rider_tools/trip_planner/default.asp
147 From: 66 Maywood st., Roxbury MA
148 To: Kendall/mit Station, Cambridge
151 At the end of the day, the ultimate solution is moving
152 closer to the office or at least close to the red line.
153 Maybe I could afford to spend $600 for a room, but I
154 don't feel like moving right now. I already have enough
157 ''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''
159 ==== Awful Weather ====
161 Today it's raining lightly. Yesterday I took an extra shower
164 The WikiPedia was definitely right: weather in Boston can
165 change very rapidly. Must remember to buy a raincoat like
166 RichardStallman's and keep it in my backpack.
172 1. Get employed at OLPC
177 Just joking, but the truth is that I still need
178 to face a lot of new challenges now.
180 My next problem will be improving my communication skills.
181 After one month of full immersion, I can still barely
182 understand people talking quickly to each and I clearly
183 express myself using an inadequately poor vocabulary and
184 too slowly in some cases.
186 These things will improve over time, while my strong
187 Italian inflection is likely to remain forever. If
188 only I could find one, I'd attend to a course to
189 correct my diction now. Actors do them.
191 Another crucial problem I need to solve quickly is
192 getting a visa that allows me to work here permanently.
193 There are many possibilities, but none guaranteed to
194 succeed. For now, I'm not thinking about it: my
195 employer knows better than me and will help as much
198 Last but not least, my job is not easy and requires a
199 good amount of commitment. All my colleagues are extremely
200 smart and more experienced than I am. So I need to work
201 twice as hard to keep up with them.
203 A very nice workplace and very interesting assignments helps.
204 And, most importantly, I know that what we're doing here is
205 going to have a huge impact on the world.
207 '''Andrea Grandi''': Your words give me no hopes for my future :(
209 '''Bernie''': Are you planning to come here? Cool! :D
211 > All my colleagues are extremely smart and more experienced than I am
213 More than you? It's not a place for me then :D
215 '''Bernie''': It's worth trying even if you currently think you're
216 not up to the job. It's a very valuable experience even if you
217 end up returning to your home country for some reason.
219 '''Rasky''': But can you get a perm visa even without an university
220 degree? I thought that was absolutely out of question... I knew that
221 people without a degree could just get some 1-year temp visa.
228 Here are some more pics of MyOlpcDesk.
232 ==== Office Space =====
234 Here are a few pictures of the OlpcOffice!
236 ==== Hack Hack Hack ====
238 I've been assigned a problem with an invalid serial port baud
239 rate after resume from software suspend.
241 I started investigating the hard way, until ChrisBall pointed
242 me on IRC to talk with the KernelHacker DavidWoodhouse, who
243 obviously had a solution in a few seconds. Unfortunately,
244 it didn't work as we expected and MitchBradley of OpenFirmware
245 joined the conversation to help.
247 Having all the subsystem gurus available to fix your bugs makes
248 things a lot easier... Hehe, I think I like it ;-)
250 And so tomorrow I'll get back to work on a MandelBug with the Xorg's
251 driver for the AMD chipset. When XVIDEO is enabled and you
252 rotate the display with XRANDR, sometimes the X server crashes,
253 sometimes it just hangs and sometimes it survives with a corrupted
254 display. And the bad news is that gdb also hangs.
256 How will I fix this? Easy: I'll go looking for the driver authors
257 first thing tomorrow and beg them to send me a fix :-)
259 By the way, lately I've been hanging regularly in #olpc on FreeNode.
260 My nick is _bernie. Come over to see what's going on!
265 ==== All Night Long ====
267 At 9PM, I'm still here and plan to stay as long as I can :-)
269 <please link to the song "All Night Long" here>
272 ==== Buried In Work Already ====
274 '''WARNING''': Technical AbraCadabra ahead!
276 Today I met most of the team members and bothered a few of them,
277 starting from DanWilliams who helped me debug a problem with a
278 simple mesh networking scenario involving three laptops.
280 Today I've also been assigned some work from ChrisBall, who also
281 helped me out with many small things such as a dead battery,
282 accessing the serial console, etc. I'm currently adding a
283 KernelDebugger command to display the ModelSpecificRegister's
286 But it seems like I will also refer to RedHat's ChrisBlizzard
287 to be assigned more work. We talked about optimizing the
288 video driver for the AmdGeodeCpu, getting the resistive
289 tablet to work and maybe adding "tapping" support to the
292 As you know, I like it even more when I'm allowed to ramble
293 through a zillion different things like this!
296 ==== Sneaky Preview ====
298 I'm writing this from within the OLPC headquarters. I came today for
299 a second interview and to get a few tasks assigned to me :-)
301 I have no time to be more specific. Will tell you the details a little later.
306 '''TODO''': will tell you later
310 '''TODO''': will tell you later
313 >MUM< creepy mummy virus it's taking control here.... :-) WRITE SOON OR IT/SHE WILL DESTROY EVERYTHING!
314 ==== Quite a Trip ====
316 Today I'm leaving the safe and familiar BostonCity to boldly go where I've
319 The current plan is to drive south to ProvidenceCity, BrdigeportCity, NewYorkCity,
320 PhiladelphiaCity, BaltimoreCity and, finally, WashingtonCity. Maybe I'll even
321 push myself down in FloridaState to go see the SpaceShuttle!
323 I could use a GPS. I've seen a few TomTom's, but $299 seems way too
324 much to me for a talking map. Maybe I'll buy a traditional map for
327 Ah, and I will sleep frugally, of course. Hostels and motels when I find
328 them. So, over the next few days I'll be lucky if I have intermittent
329 Internet access and, consequently, I won't probably be able to sync the
335 '''Babbo''': Ma fino ad oggi con quali danari hai vissuto dato che sei partito con 10€ liquidi?
337 '''Bernie''': Ho prelevato i soldi dall'ATM... con il bancomat delle poste! E vedo dai movimenti
338 sul conto che hanno applicato un buon cambio e nessuna penale strana.
342 Today I finally rent a car. It's a SaturnIon, a brand and model I never heard
345 http://www.edmunds.com/media/seo/500/2006.saturn.ion.jpg
347 I felt very comfortable driving all over Europe: Italy, Swiss, Spain, France,
348 Germany, Belgium, and even Greece... But, for some reason, I was quite afraid
349 of driving a car here in the States.
351 Maybe it's because the road signs are somewhat different and there are a few
352 subtly different rules, such as turning right on red, not parking in front
353 of hydrants, etc. Most probably, it's because I've seen way too many movies
354 where people get stopped by police and thrown in jail quite easily!
356 Well, so far everything went very well. I mean, except for parking. Parking
357 in downtown is easy if you're willing to pay $10-12 for a few hours.
358 It's a big pain in the ass otherwise... The best way I've found so far
359 is to park near a minor T station and then get the T to downtown :-(
361 And, of course, the car has AutomaticTransmission, which I managed to learn
362 quickly: the trouble comes when you switch the other way around ;-)
364 Ok, today I've driven all around Boston just to get used to it. Tomorrow
365 I'll probably dare getting on the highway to see around.
368 ==== Business Visa? ====
370 Today I've re-read detailed information on the
371 available US visa options:
373 http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/types/types_1262.html
375 Looks like a ''B-1'' Business Visa would do. To get one,
376 I should go to a US ambassy, and ambassys are usually
377 located abroad. Instead of returning to Italy, maybe
378 I could get an appointment in MontrealCity, which is
379 near to the border and also an interesting place to see.
386 Yesterday I applied for this great service: http://www.zipcar.com/ .
387 Isn't it a good idea? Costs less than renting a car and is almost
390 <rasky> http://www.carsharingfirenze.it/ :)
392 Today I walked to their offices to give them my documents
393 and get the magnetic card. They said they will enable it
394 first thing tomorrow *if* the "insurance risk declaration"
395 I got from Italy suffices.
398 ==== Simple shopping ====
400 Consumers must be very simple minded here. First, most
401 shop names are simply dumb: '''Pay Less''', '''Save-A-Lot''',
402 '''Big Deal''', and so on.
404 ''Sounds very '''meno tasse per tutti''' to me... -- PiroPiro''
406 Second, they try to subtle deceptions such as: "take 2 for $24.xx",
407 and, next to it: "take 3 for $21.xx", Which of course is
408 impossible. It's a trap! The little figures placed
409 exactly where you would expect to see the cents, are
410 indeed a small notice: ''EACH''.
412 Today I bought a dozen of razor blades ($1.50), a
413 bottle of shampoo ($1.50) and shower gel ($1.50).
414 But I spent $12 for adjusting the two pair of
415 trousers I had bought a few days ago in the mall!
416 $12 ''EACH'', I mean.
419 ==== Bad Neighborhood ====
421 Walking home alone in the night, I may encounter some ''bad'' guys:
423 http://bender.codewiz.org/wikidata/text/FunWithWeapons.jpg
425 Better be careful :-)
430 ==== Veni, Vidi, ???? ====
432 This morning I shown up at OneLaptopPerChild's headquarters. It's again next to KendallSquare,
433 in OneCambridgeCenter.
435 JimGettys was very kind: he took me to LegalSeaFood for lunch, repaired my ExOh's keyboard (two
436 keys were dead) and introduced me to the team members.
438 They left me with the usual Hollywood formula: "don't call us, we'll call you".
439 But in this particular case, I felt they were sincere :-)
441 I hope to be soon a member of the OLPC core team!
446 ==== Alea Iacta Est ====
448 As promised... Yes, indeed. Everybody please cross their fingers.
450 Babbo:Pregherò perchè tu possa ottenere quello che cerchi.
452 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.
453 A dire il vero anch'io sto in ansia per lui :-) speriamo bene...
455 Bernie: Via, non fatemi venire il magone voi due :-)
459 ==== International Dinner ====
461 FedericoLucifredi and his wife Irena were so kind to invite me at their place for a
462 fine dinner with appetizers, SirloinSteak (see pic below), several side
463 dishes and... Even a PinotNoir!
465 http://www.fairburysteaks.com/images/bci-sirloin-round-bone.gif
467 There were also Mauro -- Federico's colleague at Ximian -- and Irena's
468 friend who's a physics professor from Providence and could speak perfect
469 French and, surprisingly, even Italian!
471 What can I say? I think I got a pound or two that night, but it was
479 There's a cinema in building 26 @ EmAiTee, and it's cheap.
484 If you're curious, my room rent is $500 per month. Utilities,
485 forniture and DSL Internet access are included.
487 It's not cheap, but it's also not too expensive for Boston.
488 They told me that only Manhattan is more expensive here on
491 ==== CurriculumVitae ====
493 ...is almost ready. A friend told me that I'd better have
494 also a synthetic resume of 1-2 pages for the impatient.
497 Well, I said I'd be finished by last Monday, but then I
498 managed to slip past my own deadline visiting NewYorkCity,
499 moving in my current room and in other frivolous ways.
501 Now I have no excuses: the time has come. Next Monday I
502 ''will'' write my proposal. Seriously.
506 ==== Exchange Rates ====
508 Looks like I'd better convert all my money to dollars *now*:
510 http://www.x-rates.com/d/USD/EUR/graph30.html
512 What do you think about it?
514 Babbo:penso che $ continuerà a svalutare. Perderai soldi.
516 ==== StataCenter ====
518 I forgot to tell you about the kewlest building in EmAiTee:
520 http://www.eecs.mit.edu/images/big-stata12.jpg
522 See also: http://www.eecs.mit.edu/stata-link.html
526 After a long time, I finally get to (ab)use MIT's wi-fi and
527 barf my short-term brain buffer into my BrainDump.
529 Tonight we went to an Irish pub next to Kendall, where I got
530 to know a few more Ximian employees. I got rumors that
531 the famous kernel hacker RobertLove would be there, so after
532 a while I turned to the guy next to me and asked: "Is
533 RobertLove really going to come?". And he replied: "Speaking."
535 Another guy told me: "Hi, I'm BAHB". "Pardon?". "BAHB!".
536 "What???". Federico promptly helped me out: "Ha detto che si
539 The beer was good. I discovered that a BlueMoon is the
540 nearest approximation of a WeisseBeer I can find here,
541 and I'm not at all displeased by its taste.
545 My landlord has recently switched DSL provider and Internet
546 doesn't work any more: the sync light on the modem flashes.
547 It seems that crappy ISPs are a common disease in the States
550 Yesterday, he called for service and, finally, they told him
551 they would send a tech today from 8AM to 18PM. They refused
552 to be more specific. And so I've agreed to wait here to let
553 the guy in... I care about it for myself too!
557 By the way, today I'm exactly 150 pounds (use GoogleCalculator
558 to get it to SI units).
560 150 pounds = 68.0388555 kilograms
566 They told me Roxbury is quite an infamous suburb of Boston.
567 And my first impression confirms that: shops are uglier,
568 parks and streets are somewhat dirtier (but not as much as
569 in NewYorkCity!) and, most importantly, some of the neighbors
570 look creepy. Especially in the night, streets are crowded by
571 people with criminal faces and many homeless.
573 You know I'm not the type who's easily scared off by a bunch
574 of zombies, but I'll feel much better when I'll drive a car.
578 I've finally settled in my room. There's no need to describe the house
579 in detail, as it's the most typical colonial design: two floors plus
580 basement, front and back yards, sliding windows, wooden floors
581 everywhere. You've come to know them very well from the movies.
583 Today I went to the mall to gather the essentials: a blankets,
584 a pillow case and some bath towels. The bed is comfortable and
585 I was quite tired already, therefore I fell asleep early in the
586 evening and kept on until 8 AM.
588 '''WARNING: TIME WARP OCCURRED'''
592 '''WARNING: TIME WARP IMMINENT'''
596 Alberto: Attento a convertire € in $ perchè € si sta apprezzando,e quindi $ svalutando rispetto a €.
598 Belle le foto scovate da Massimo. Have a good stay in Btn.
600 Massimo: Bernie, you taught me: http://www.google.com/search?q=100+USD+in+EUR
603 Massimo: Since Bernie could not give us any picture, I had to use flickr: here they are!
605 http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=bernardo+innocenti
607 Piro: what in the heaven is RMS doing dressed like a camp tent? :D
611 ==== BankOfAmerica ====
613 I went to BankOfAmerica and opened a bank account. I went there wearing a yellow T-shirt
614 and a weary pair of jeans. In the beginning, they referred me to a young guy who quickly
615 tried to offer me a student's saving account. When I queried for interest rates, credit
616 cards, and dollar/euro conversion rates, they finally realized that I was going to move
619 When I've shown them my balance, they immediately switched me to a very polite girl who
620 took all the time to explain me everything in detail until after their closing time and
621 recommended me to open *3* different accounts to get a rate of 4.80% with no fees!
622 I totally hate when people judge you by your wealth, dressing, or other stupid status
623 symbols, but maybe a bank is the only exception where it makes sense to do so.
625 Banking appears to be far, far simpler here. I already feel like I know
626 everything while in Italy I still can't read most of the paperwork I get from
629 Batt: Or maybe american bankers are so skilled that you are happy while, in truth, they have stolen your money forever :-P
631 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.
635 ==== Good News, Everyone! ====
637 '''After a long struggling, I've finally found a room!'''
639 And I'll be moving in *today*! But I'm writing on Thursday the 3rd, actually (aren't you thinking fourth-dimentionally yet?).
641 The room is nice and comes with some forniture, including a desk. It's on the second floor
642 of a house where the landlord lives with her wife and a very friendly puppy.I like it
643 that way: all those houses shared by students I've seen so far tend to become unmaintained
644 and dirty quite quickly, while this one is a real house with a fully operational kitchen,
645 bathroom and even a clean back garden!
647 My landlord is Armenian, but have been living here in Boston for a long time. My first
648 impression is he's a very nice person, honest and easy going. I haven't met his wife yet --
649 she'll be back on Sunday.
651 I'm afraid the house is a bit far away from MIT, in southern Boston. But that won't
652 be a problem as soon as I buy a car. There may even be a chance to rent or buy the
653 car readily from my landlord's son.
655 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 :-)
658 '''Camy''': the landlord lives with '''his''' wife
660 ==== Do You Speak English? ====
662 Some of you will be pissed off by this change, but I'm starting to make
663 some international friends here and none of them could read Italian.
665 Writing in English is also what I need to improve my writing skills.
666 For the few of you who barely know English, some more reading surely won't hurt!
668 [[http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fbender.codewiz.org%2Fwiki%2FMayBlog&langpair=en%7Cit=en Google Translator]]
671 As always, I'd very much appreciate being told about any mistake I make.
673 ''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!''