5 ==== GreenishBitmaps ====
7 '''Warning''': This article is rated PG0xF00F, parents discretion *not* advised.
9 I've been struggling for the last few days on a the damn X server.
11 In the RedHat builds, we're still using a pre-release of 1.2,
12 labelled 1.1.99. Now, we need to leverage some upstream work
13 for input rotation that is landing on the Xorg tree right now.
15 Backporting is not an option, and we want to stay up to date
16 anyway. We'll soon be moving to Fedora 7 anyway. But even
17 the just-released 1.3 that will be in Fedora 7 is not enough,
18 because it has been branched some time ago, we must work
19 from the tip of the git tree, which of course has become
20 very unstable recently.
22 I've been fighting all the week against all sort of bugs
23 and build problems and, believe me, it's a very energy
26 The funniest thing I'm still trying to track are
27 these GreenishBitmaps that nobody else except me
30 It's probably a miscompilation of some kind, but I've
31 long ago ran out of obvious and less obvious ideas to try
32 and I'm now far in the land of impossible things.
34 All this time I've been in contact with a few X
35 hackers on IRC, including the author of the AMD
36 driver, but even them couldn't come up with a
44 '''Bernie''': Hello Easy!!! It's good to be chatting here in the blog!
46 I saw this two photo some row below...
48 But all those OLPC at the roof, what doing?? Only for furnishing or for specific utility?? :)
50 '''Bernie''': Hehe... they're part of the WirelessMesh, for testing
51 purposes. An hispanic guy called Miguel (not the same of De Icaza)
52 sometimes fiddles with them. He's lucky because he's very tall.
55 The office is very beautiful and the Apple Cinema Display is really very big...
57 '''Bernie''': Yeah, that's the personal screen of my boss/team-leader ChrisBall.
58 It's 30". One day or another I'll bring here my 24" wide-screen from home.
60 Do you have some new news about your new work??
62 '''Bernie''': Sorry for not updating the blog... I've been *extremely*
63 busy. I will do it shortly... Promised.
67 ==== Trip to work ====
69 I still couldn't solve the problem of getting to work
70 quickly. I can't afford to waste over 2 hours every
73 By now, I've tried any possible solution:
75 * Car: the office doesn't have a parking lot and there's
76 no way to park within one mile from KendalSquare for less
77 than $18/day. Monthly fees start from $250.
79 * Bus: I need to commute in Dudley and take line no. 1 to
80 MassachusettsAvenue, then walk 15 minutes to KendalSquare.
82 * Bus + subway combo: The red line would get me directly
83 to KendalSquare, and there are several routes to get there,
84 but all of them require commuting at least twice. The
85 monthly link pass costs $75.
87 * Car + subway combo: there are some cheap parkings next
88 to the terminal subway stations where you can leave your
89 car for $5/day. Unfortunately, to get there I must
90 travel in the opposite direction. And the whole thing
91 will cost $75 + $5*30, about the same of the monthly
94 * Taxi: Costs $11-$14 * 2 every day, which makes the
95 monthly parking cheap in comparison.
97 And even worse, the red line stops running at midnight
98 and bus no 1 at 1AM. Which forces me to leave from
99 the office very early (for my standards).
101 If you want to play with the possibilities, I just
102 discovered that the transportation company has a very cool
103 web service that would have saved me a lot of time:
106 http://www.mbta.com/rider_tools/trip_planner/default.asp
107 From: 66 Maywood st., Roxbury MA
108 To: Kendall/mit Station, Cambridge
111 At the end of the day, the ultimate solution is moving
112 closer to the office or at least close to the red line.
113 Maybe I could afford to spend $600 for a room, but I
114 don't feel like moving right now. I already have enough
117 ''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''
119 ==== Awful Weather ====
121 Today it's raining lightly. Yesterday I took an extra shower
124 The WikiPedia was definitely right: weather in Boston can
125 change very rapidly. Must remember to buy a raincoat like
126 RichardStallman's and keep it in my backpack.
132 1. Get employed at OLPC
137 Just joking, but the truth is that I still need
138 to face a lot of new challenges now.
140 My next problem will be improving my communication skills.
141 After one month of full immersion, I can still barely
142 understand people talking quickly to each and I clearly
143 express myself using an inadequately poor vocabulary and
144 too slowly in some cases.
146 These things will improve over time, while my strong
147 Italian inflection is likely to remain forever. If
148 only I could find one, I'd attend to a course to
149 correct my diction now. Actors do them.
151 Another crucial problem I need to solve quickly is
152 getting a visa that allows me to work here permanently.
153 There are many possibilities, but none guaranteed to
154 succeed. For now, I'm not thinking about it: my
155 employer knows better than me and will help as much
158 Last but not least, my job is not easy and requires a
159 good amount of commitment. All my colleagues are extremely
160 smart and more experienced than I am. So I need to work
161 twice as hard to keep up with them.
163 A very nice workplace and very interesting assignments helps.
164 And, most importantly, I know that what we're doing here is
165 going to have a huge impact on the world.
167 '''Andrea Grandi''': Your words give me no hopes for my future :(
169 '''Bernie''': Are you planning to come here? Cool! :D
171 > All my colleagues are extremely smart and more experienced than I am
173 More than you? It's not a place for me then :D
175 '''Bernie''': It's worth trying even if you currently think you're
176 not up to the job. It's a very valuable experience even if you
177 end up returning to your home country for some reason.
179 '''Rasky''': But can you get a perm visa even without an university
180 degree? I thought that was absolutely out of question... I knew that
181 people without a degree could just get some 1-year temp visa.
188 Here are some more pics of MyOlpcDesk.
192 ==== Office Space =====
194 Here are a few pictures of the OlpcOffice!
196 ==== Hack Hack Hack ====
198 I've been assigned a problem with an invalid serial port baud
199 rate after resume from software suspend.
201 I started investigating the hard way, until ChrisBall pointed
202 me on IRC to talk with the KernelHacker DavidWoodhouse, who
203 obviously had a solution in a few seconds. Unfortunately,
204 it didn't work as we expected and MitchBradley of OpenFirmware
205 joined the conversation to help.
207 Having all the subsystem gurus available to fix your bugs makes
208 things a lot easier... Hehe, I think I like it ;-)
210 And so tomorrow I'll get back to work on a MandelBug with the Xorg's
211 driver for the AMD chipset. When XVIDEO is enabled and you
212 rotate the display with XRANDR, sometimes the X server crashes,
213 sometimes it just hangs and sometimes it survives with a corrupted
214 display. And the bad news is that gdb also hangs.
216 How will I fix this? Easy: I'll go looking for the driver authors
217 first thing tomorrow and beg them to send me a fix :-)
219 By the way, lately I've been hanging regularly in #olpc on FreeNode.
220 My nick is _bernie. Come over to see what's going on!
225 ==== All Night Long ====
227 At 9PM, I'm still here and plan to stay as long as I can :-)
229 <please link to the song "All Night Long" here>
232 ==== Buried In Work Already ====
234 '''WARNING''': Technical AbraCadabra ahead!
236 Today I met most of the team members and bothered a few of them,
237 starting from DanWilliams who helped me debug a problem with a
238 simple mesh networking scenario involving three laptops.
240 Today I've also been assigned some work from ChrisBall, who also
241 helped me out with many small things such as a dead battery,
242 accessing the serial console, etc. I'm currently adding a
243 KernelDebugger command to display the ModelSpecificRegister's
246 But it seems like I will also refer to RedHat's ChrisBlizzard
247 to be assigned more work. We talked about optimizing the
248 video driver for the AmdGeodeCpu, getting the resistive
249 tablet to work and maybe adding "tapping" support to the
252 As you know, I like it even more when I'm allowed to ramble
253 through a zillion different things like this!
256 ==== Sneaky Preview ====
258 I'm writing this from within the OLPC headquarters. I came today for
259 a second interview and to get a few tasks assigned to me :-)
261 I have no time to be more specific. Will tell you the details a little later.
266 '''TODO''': will tell you later
270 '''TODO''': will tell you later
273 >MUM< creepy mummy virus it's taking control here.... :-) WRITE SOON OR IT/SHE WILL DESTROY EVERYTHING!
274 ==== Quite a Trip ====
276 Today I'm leaving the safe and familiar BostonCity to boldly go where I've
279 The current plan is to drive south to ProvidenceCity, BrdigeportCity, NewYorkCity,
280 PhiladelphiaCity, BaltimoreCity and, finally, WashingtonCity. Maybe I'll even
281 push myself down in FloridaState to go see the SpaceShuttle!
283 I could use a GPS. I've seen a few TomTom's, but $299 seems way too
284 much to me for a talking map. Maybe I'll buy a traditional map for
287 Ah, and I will sleep frugally, of course. Hostels and motels when I find
288 them. So, over the next few days I'll be lucky if I have intermittent
289 Internet access and, consequently, I won't probably be able to sync the
295 '''Babbo''': Ma fino ad oggi con quali danari hai vissuto dato che sei partito con 10€ liquidi?
297 '''Bernie''': Ho prelevato i soldi dall'ATM... con il bancomat delle poste! E vedo dai movimenti
298 sul conto che hanno applicato un buon cambio e nessuna penale strana.
302 Today I finally rent a car. It's a SaturnIon, a brand and model I never heard
305 http://www.edmunds.com/media/seo/500/2006.saturn.ion.jpg
307 I felt very comfortable driving all over Europe: Italy, Swiss, Spain, France,
308 Germany, Belgium, and even Greece... But, for some reason, I was quite afraid
309 of driving a car here in the States.
311 Maybe it's because the road signs are somewhat different and there are a few
312 subtly different rules, such as turning right on red, not parking in front
313 of hydrants, etc. Most probably, it's because I've seen way too many movies
314 where people get stopped by police and thrown in jail quite easily!
316 Well, so far everything went very well. I mean, except for parking. Parking
317 in downtown is easy if you're willing to pay $10-12 for a few hours.
318 It's a big pain in the ass otherwise... The best way I've found so far
319 is to park near a minor T station and then get the T to downtown :-(
321 And, of course, the car has AutomaticTransmission, which I managed to learn
322 quickly: the trouble comes when you switch the other way around ;-)
324 Ok, today I've driven all around Boston just to get used to it. Tomorrow
325 I'll probably dare getting on the highway to see around.
328 ==== Business Visa? ====
330 Today I've re-read detailed information on the
331 available US visa options:
333 http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/types/types_1262.html
335 Looks like a ''B-1'' Business Visa would do. To get one,
336 I should go to a US ambassy, and ambassys are usually
337 located abroad. Instead of returning to Italy, maybe
338 I could get an appointment in MontrealCity, which is
339 near to the border and also an interesting place to see.
346 Yesterday I applied for this great service: http://www.zipcar.com/ .
347 Isn't it a good idea? Costs less than renting a car and is almost
350 <rasky> http://www.carsharingfirenze.it/ :)
352 Today I walked to their offices to give them my documents
353 and get the magnetic card. They said they will enable it
354 first thing tomorrow *if* the "insurance risk declaration"
355 I got from Italy suffices.
358 ==== Simple shopping ====
360 Consumers must be very simple minded here. First, most
361 shop names are simply dumb: '''Pay Less''', '''Save-A-Lot''',
362 '''Big Deal''', and so on.
364 ''Sounds very '''meno tasse per tutti''' to me... -- PiroPiro''
366 Second, they try to subtle deceptions such as: "take 2 for $24.xx",
367 and, next to it: "take 3 for $21.xx", Which of course is
368 impossible. It's a trap! The little figures placed
369 exactly where you would expect to see the cents, are
370 indeed a small notice: ''EACH''.
372 Today I bought a dozen of razor blades ($1.50), a
373 bottle of shampoo ($1.50) and shower gel ($1.50).
374 But I spent $12 for adjusting the two pair of
375 trousers I had bought a few days ago in the mall!
376 $12 ''EACH'', I mean.
379 ==== Bad Neighborhood ====
381 Walking home alone in the night, I may encounter some ''bad'' guys:
383 http://bender.codewiz.org/wikidata/text/FunWithWeapons.jpg
385 Better be careful :-)
390 ==== Veni, Vidi, ???? ====
392 This morning I shown up at OneLaptopPerChild's headquarters. It's again next to KendallSquare,
393 in OneCambridgeCenter.
395 JimGettys was very kind: he took me to LegalSeaFood for lunch, repaired my ExOh's keyboard (two
396 keys were dead) and introduced me to the team members.
398 They left me with the usual Hollywood formula: "don't call us, we'll call you".
399 But in this particular case, I felt they were sincere :-)
401 I hope to be soon a member of the OLPC core team!
406 ==== Alea Iacta Est ====
408 As promised... Yes, indeed. Everybody please cross their fingers.
410 Babbo:Pregherò perchè tu possa ottenere quello che cerchi.
412 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.
413 A dire il vero anch'io sto in ansia per lui :-) speriamo bene...
415 Bernie: Via, non fatemi venire il magone voi due :-)
419 ==== International Dinner ====
421 FedericoLucifredi and his wife Irena were so kind to invite me at their place for a
422 fine dinner with appetizers, SirloinSteak (see pic below), several side
423 dishes and... Even a PinotNoir!
425 http://www.fairburysteaks.com/images/bci-sirloin-round-bone.gif
427 There were also Mauro -- Federico's colleague at Ximian -- and Irena's
428 friend who's a physics professor from Providence and could speak perfect
429 French and, surprisingly, even Italian!
431 What can I say? I think I got a pound or two that night, but it was
439 There's a cinema in building 26 @ EmAiTee, and it's cheap.
444 If you're curious, my room rent is $500 per month. Utilities,
445 forniture and DSL Internet access are included.
447 It's not cheap, but it's also not too expensive for Boston.
448 They told me that only Manhattan is more expensive here on
451 ==== CurriculumVitae ====
453 ...is almost ready. A friend told me that I'd better have
454 also a synthetic resume of 1-2 pages for the impatient.
457 Well, I said I'd be finished by last Monday, but then I
458 managed to slip past my own deadline visiting NewYorkCity,
459 moving in my current room and in other frivolous ways.
461 Now I have no excuses: the time has come. Next Monday I
462 ''will'' write my proposal. Seriously.
466 ==== Exchange Rates ====
468 Looks like I'd better convert all my money to dollars *now*:
470 http://www.x-rates.com/d/USD/EUR/graph30.html
472 What do you think about it?
474 Babbo:penso che $ continuerà a svalutare. Perderai soldi.
476 ==== StataCenter ====
478 I forgot to tell you about the kewlest building in EmAiTee:
480 http://www.eecs.mit.edu/images/big-stata12.jpg
482 See also: http://www.eecs.mit.edu/stata-link.html
486 After a long time, I finally get to (ab)use MIT's wi-fi and
487 barf my short-term brain buffer into my BrainDump.
489 Tonight we went to an Irish pub next to Kendall, where I got
490 to know a few more Ximian employees. I got rumors that
491 the famous kernel hacker RobertLove would be there, so after
492 a while I turned to the guy next to me and asked: "Is
493 RobertLove really going to come?". And he replied: "Speaking."
495 Another guy told me: "Hi, I'm BAHB". "Pardon?". "BAHB!".
496 "What???". Federico promptly helped me out: "Ha detto che si
499 The beer was good. I discovered that a BlueMoon is the
500 nearest approximation of a WeisseBeer I can find here,
501 and I'm not at all displeased by its taste.
505 My landlord has recently switched DSL provider and Internet
506 doesn't work any more: the sync light on the modem flashes.
507 It seems that crappy ISPs are a common disease in the States
510 Yesterday, he called for service and, finally, they told him
511 they would send a tech today from 8AM to 18PM. They refused
512 to be more specific. And so I've agreed to wait here to let
513 the guy in... I care about it for myself too!
517 By the way, today I'm exactly 150 pounds (use GoogleCalculator
518 to get it to SI units).
520 150 pounds = 68.0388555 kilograms
526 They told me Roxbury is quite an infamous suburb of Boston.
527 And my first impression confirms that: shops are uglier,
528 parks and streets are somewhat dirtier (but not as much as
529 in NewYorkCity!) and, most importantly, some of the neighbors
530 look creepy. Especially in the night, streets are crowded by
531 people with criminal faces and many homeless.
533 You know I'm not the type who's easily scared off by a bunch
534 of zombies, but I'll feel much better when I'll drive a car.
538 I've finally settled in my room. There's no need to describe the house
539 in detail, as it's the most typical colonial design: two floors plus
540 basement, front and back yards, sliding windows, wooden floors
541 everywhere. You've come to know them very well from the movies.
543 Today I went to the mall to gather the essentials: a blankets,
544 a pillow case and some bath towels. The bed is comfortable and
545 I was quite tired already, therefore I fell asleep early in the
546 evening and kept on until 8 AM.
548 '''WARNING: TIME WARP OCCURRED'''
552 '''WARNING: TIME WARP IMMINENT'''
556 Alberto: Attento a convertire € in $ perchè € si sta apprezzando,e quindi $ svalutando rispetto a €.
558 Belle le foto scovate da Massimo. Have a good stay in Btn.
560 Massimo: Bernie, you taught me: http://www.google.com/search?q=100+USD+in+EUR
563 Massimo: Since Bernie could not give us any picture, I had to use flickr: here they are!
565 http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=bernardo+innocenti
567 Piro: what in the heaven is RMS doing dressed like a camp tent? :D
571 ==== BankOfAmerica ====
573 I went to BankOfAmerica and opened a bank account. I went there wearing a yellow T-shirt
574 and a weary pair of jeans. In the beginning, they referred me to a young guy who quickly
575 tried to offer me a student's saving account. When I queried for interest rates, credit
576 cards, and dollar/euro conversion rates, they finally realized that I was going to move
579 When I've shown them my balance, they immediately switched me to a very polite girl who
580 took all the time to explain me everything in detail until after their closing time and
581 recommended me to open *3* different accounts to get a rate of 4.80% with no fees!
582 I totally hate when people judge you by your wealth, dressing, or other stupid status
583 symbols, but maybe a bank is the only exception where it makes sense to do so.
585 Banking appears to be far, far simpler here. I already feel like I know
586 everything while in Italy I still can't read most of the paperwork I get from
589 Batt: Or maybe american bankers are so skilled that you are happy while, in truth, they have stolen your money forever :-P
591 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.
595 ==== Good News, Everyone! ====
597 '''After a long struggling, I've finally found a room!'''
599 And I'll be moving in *today*! But I'm writing on Thursday the 3rd, actually (aren't you thinking fourth-dimentionally yet?).
601 The room is nice and comes with some forniture, including a desk. It's on the second floor
602 of a house where the landlord lives with her wife and a very friendly puppy.I like it
603 that way: all those houses shared by students I've seen so far tend to become unmaintained
604 and dirty quite quickly, while this one is a real house with a fully operational kitchen,
605 bathroom and even a clean back garden!
607 My landlord is Armenian, but have been living here in Boston for a long time. My first
608 impression is he's a very nice person, honest and easy going. I haven't met his wife yet --
609 she'll be back on Sunday.
611 I'm afraid the house is a bit far away from MIT, in southern Boston. But that won't
612 be a problem as soon as I buy a car. There may even be a chance to rent or buy the
613 car readily from my landlord's son.
615 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 :-)
618 '''Camy''': the landlord lives with '''his''' wife
620 ==== Do You Speak English? ====
622 Some of you will be pissed off by this change, but I'm starting to make
623 some international friends here and none of them could read Italian.
625 Writing in English is also what I need to improve my writing skills.
626 For the few of you who barely know English, some more reading surely won't hurt!
628 [[http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fbender.codewiz.org%2Fwiki%2FMayBlog&langpair=en%7Cit=en Google Translator]]
631 As always, I'd very much appreciate being told about any mistake I make.
633 ''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!''