7 In this episode of the popular American show SixtyMinutes,
8 our founder NicholasNegroponte reveals a lot of details
9 about the humanitarian role of the OneLaptopPerChild project:
11 http://bender.codewiz.org/wikidata/60_minutes_2007-05-20.avi
13 The part about us starts approximately at 1/3 of the show.
15 You may also find the last part interesting as it specifically
16 addresses the controversial problem of private medical centers
17 trying to save on assistance to homeless people. Marco, you
21 ==== GreenishBitmaps ====
23 '''Warning''': This article is rated PG0xF00F, parents discretion *not* advised.
25 I've been struggling for the last few days on a the damn X server.
27 In the RedHat builds, we're still using a pre-release of 1.2,
28 labelled 1.1.99. Now, we need to leverage some upstream work
29 for input rotation that is landing on the Xorg tree right now.
31 Backporting is not an option, and we want to stay up to date
32 anyway. We'll soon be moving to Fedora 7 anyway. But even
33 the just-released 1.3 that will be in Fedora 7 is not enough,
34 because it has been branched some time ago, we must work
35 from the tip of the git tree, which of course has become
36 very unstable recently.
38 I've been fighting all the week against all sort of bugs
39 and build problems and, believe me, it's a very energy
42 The funniest thing I'm still trying to track are
43 these GreenishBitmaps that nobody else except me
46 It's probably a miscompilation of some kind, but I've
47 long ago ran out of obvious and less obvious ideas to try
48 and I'm now far in the land of impossible things.
50 All this time I've been in contact with a few X
51 hackers on IRC, including the author of the AMD
52 driver, but even them couldn't come up with a
60 '''Bernie''': Hello Easy!!! It's good to be chatting here in the blog!
62 I saw this two photo some row below...
64 But all those OLPC at the roof, what doing?? Only for furnishing or for specific utility?? :)
66 '''Bernie''': Hehe... they're part of the WirelessMesh, for testing
67 purposes. An hispanic guy called Miguel (not the same of De Icaza)
68 sometimes fiddles with them. He's lucky because he's very tall.
71 The office is very beautiful and the Apple Cinema Display is really very big...
73 '''Bernie''': Yeah, that's the personal screen of my boss/team-leader ChrisBall.
74 It's 30". One day or another I'll bring here my 24" wide-screen from home.
76 Do you have some new news about your new work??
78 '''Bernie''': Sorry for not updating the blog... I've been *extremely*
79 busy. I will do it shortly... Promised.
83 ==== Trip to work ====
85 I still couldn't solve the problem of getting to work
86 quickly. I can't afford to waste over 2 hours every
89 By now, I've tried any possible solution:
91 * Car: the office doesn't have a parking lot and there's
92 no way to park within one mile from KendalSquare for less
93 than $18/day. Monthly fees start from $250.
95 * Bus: I need to commute in Dudley and take line no. 1 to
96 MassachusettsAvenue, then walk 15 minutes to KendalSquare.
98 * Bus + subway combo: The red line would get me directly
99 to KendalSquare, and there are several routes to get there,
100 but all of them require commuting at least twice. The
101 monthly link pass costs $75.
103 * Car + subway combo: there are some cheap parkings next
104 to the terminal subway stations where you can leave your
105 car for $5/day. Unfortunately, to get there I must
106 travel in the opposite direction. And the whole thing
107 will cost $75 + $5*30, about the same of the monthly
110 * Taxi: Costs $11-$14 * 2 every day, which makes the
111 monthly parking cheap in comparison.
113 And even worse, the red line stops running at midnight
114 and bus no 1 at 1AM. Which forces me to leave from
115 the office very early (for my standards).
117 If you want to play with the possibilities, I just
118 discovered that the transportation company has a very cool
119 web service that would have saved me a lot of time:
122 http://www.mbta.com/rider_tools/trip_planner/default.asp
123 From: 66 Maywood st., Roxbury MA
124 To: Kendall/mit Station, Cambridge
127 At the end of the day, the ultimate solution is moving
128 closer to the office or at least close to the red line.
129 Maybe I could afford to spend $600 for a room, but I
130 don't feel like moving right now. I already have enough
133 ''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''
135 ==== Awful Weather ====
137 Today it's raining lightly. Yesterday I took an extra shower
140 The WikiPedia was definitely right: weather in Boston can
141 change very rapidly. Must remember to buy a raincoat like
142 RichardStallman's and keep it in my backpack.
148 1. Get employed at OLPC
153 Just joking, but the truth is that I still need
154 to face a lot of new challenges now.
156 My next problem will be improving my communication skills.
157 After one month of full immersion, I can still barely
158 understand people talking quickly to each and I clearly
159 express myself using an inadequately poor vocabulary and
160 too slowly in some cases.
162 These things will improve over time, while my strong
163 Italian inflection is likely to remain forever. If
164 only I could find one, I'd attend to a course to
165 correct my diction now. Actors do them.
167 Another crucial problem I need to solve quickly is
168 getting a visa that allows me to work here permanently.
169 There are many possibilities, but none guaranteed to
170 succeed. For now, I'm not thinking about it: my
171 employer knows better than me and will help as much
174 Last but not least, my job is not easy and requires a
175 good amount of commitment. All my colleagues are extremely
176 smart and more experienced than I am. So I need to work
177 twice as hard to keep up with them.
179 A very nice workplace and very interesting assignments helps.
180 And, most importantly, I know that what we're doing here is
181 going to have a huge impact on the world.
183 '''Andrea Grandi''': Your words give me no hopes for my future :(
185 '''Bernie''': Are you planning to come here? Cool! :D
187 > All my colleagues are extremely smart and more experienced than I am
189 More than you? It's not a place for me then :D
191 '''Bernie''': It's worth trying even if you currently think you're
192 not up to the job. It's a very valuable experience even if you
193 end up returning to your home country for some reason.
195 '''Rasky''': But can you get a perm visa even without an university
196 degree? I thought that was absolutely out of question... I knew that
197 people without a degree could just get some 1-year temp visa.
204 Here are some more pics of MyOlpcDesk.
208 ==== Office Space =====
210 Here are a few pictures of the OlpcOffice!
212 ==== Hack Hack Hack ====
214 I've been assigned a problem with an invalid serial port baud
215 rate after resume from software suspend.
217 I started investigating the hard way, until ChrisBall pointed
218 me on IRC to talk with the KernelHacker DavidWoodhouse, who
219 obviously had a solution in a few seconds. Unfortunately,
220 it didn't work as we expected and MitchBradley of OpenFirmware
221 joined the conversation to help.
223 Having all the subsystem gurus available to fix your bugs makes
224 things a lot easier... Hehe, I think I like it ;-)
226 And so tomorrow I'll get back to work on a MandelBug with the Xorg's
227 driver for the AMD chipset. When XVIDEO is enabled and you
228 rotate the display with XRANDR, sometimes the X server crashes,
229 sometimes it just hangs and sometimes it survives with a corrupted
230 display. And the bad news is that gdb also hangs.
232 How will I fix this? Easy: I'll go looking for the driver authors
233 first thing tomorrow and beg them to send me a fix :-)
235 By the way, lately I've been hanging regularly in #olpc on FreeNode.
236 My nick is _bernie. Come over to see what's going on!
241 ==== All Night Long ====
243 At 9PM, I'm still here and plan to stay as long as I can :-)
245 <please link to the song "All Night Long" here>
248 ==== Buried In Work Already ====
250 '''WARNING''': Technical AbraCadabra ahead!
252 Today I met most of the team members and bothered a few of them,
253 starting from DanWilliams who helped me debug a problem with a
254 simple mesh networking scenario involving three laptops.
256 Today I've also been assigned some work from ChrisBall, who also
257 helped me out with many small things such as a dead battery,
258 accessing the serial console, etc. I'm currently adding a
259 KernelDebugger command to display the ModelSpecificRegister's
262 But it seems like I will also refer to RedHat's ChrisBlizzard
263 to be assigned more work. We talked about optimizing the
264 video driver for the AmdGeodeCpu, getting the resistive
265 tablet to work and maybe adding "tapping" support to the
268 As you know, I like it even more when I'm allowed to ramble
269 through a zillion different things like this!
272 ==== Sneaky Preview ====
274 I'm writing this from within the OLPC headquarters. I came today for
275 a second interview and to get a few tasks assigned to me :-)
277 I have no time to be more specific. Will tell you the details a little later.
282 '''TODO''': will tell you later
286 '''TODO''': will tell you later
289 >MUM< creepy mummy virus it's taking control here.... :-) WRITE SOON OR IT/SHE WILL DESTROY EVERYTHING!
290 ==== Quite a Trip ====
292 Today I'm leaving the safe and familiar BostonCity to boldly go where I've
295 The current plan is to drive south to ProvidenceCity, BrdigeportCity, NewYorkCity,
296 PhiladelphiaCity, BaltimoreCity and, finally, WashingtonCity. Maybe I'll even
297 push myself down in FloridaState to go see the SpaceShuttle!
299 I could use a GPS. I've seen a few TomTom's, but $299 seems way too
300 much to me for a talking map. Maybe I'll buy a traditional map for
303 Ah, and I will sleep frugally, of course. Hostels and motels when I find
304 them. So, over the next few days I'll be lucky if I have intermittent
305 Internet access and, consequently, I won't probably be able to sync the
311 '''Babbo''': Ma fino ad oggi con quali danari hai vissuto dato che sei partito con 10€ liquidi?
313 '''Bernie''': Ho prelevato i soldi dall'ATM... con il bancomat delle poste! E vedo dai movimenti
314 sul conto che hanno applicato un buon cambio e nessuna penale strana.
318 Today I finally rent a car. It's a SaturnIon, a brand and model I never heard
321 http://www.edmunds.com/media/seo/500/2006.saturn.ion.jpg
323 I felt very comfortable driving all over Europe: Italy, Swiss, Spain, France,
324 Germany, Belgium, and even Greece... But, for some reason, I was quite afraid
325 of driving a car here in the States.
327 Maybe it's because the road signs are somewhat different and there are a few
328 subtly different rules, such as turning right on red, not parking in front
329 of hydrants, etc. Most probably, it's because I've seen way too many movies
330 where people get stopped by police and thrown in jail quite easily!
332 Well, so far everything went very well. I mean, except for parking. Parking
333 in downtown is easy if you're willing to pay $10-12 for a few hours.
334 It's a big pain in the ass otherwise... The best way I've found so far
335 is to park near a minor T station and then get the T to downtown :-(
337 And, of course, the car has AutomaticTransmission, which I managed to learn
338 quickly: the trouble comes when you switch the other way around ;-)
340 Ok, today I've driven all around Boston just to get used to it. Tomorrow
341 I'll probably dare getting on the highway to see around.
344 ==== Business Visa? ====
346 Today I've re-read detailed information on the
347 available US visa options:
349 http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/types/types_1262.html
351 Looks like a ''B-1'' Business Visa would do. To get one,
352 I should go to a US ambassy, and ambassys are usually
353 located abroad. Instead of returning to Italy, maybe
354 I could get an appointment in MontrealCity, which is
355 near to the border and also an interesting place to see.
362 Yesterday I applied for this great service: http://www.zipcar.com/ .
363 Isn't it a good idea? Costs less than renting a car and is almost
366 <rasky> http://www.carsharingfirenze.it/ :)
368 Today I walked to their offices to give them my documents
369 and get the magnetic card. They said they will enable it
370 first thing tomorrow *if* the "insurance risk declaration"
371 I got from Italy suffices.
374 ==== Simple shopping ====
376 Consumers must be very simple minded here. First, most
377 shop names are simply dumb: '''Pay Less''', '''Save-A-Lot''',
378 '''Big Deal''', and so on.
380 ''Sounds very '''meno tasse per tutti''' to me... -- PiroPiro''
382 Second, they try to subtle deceptions such as: "take 2 for $24.xx",
383 and, next to it: "take 3 for $21.xx", Which of course is
384 impossible. It's a trap! The little figures placed
385 exactly where you would expect to see the cents, are
386 indeed a small notice: ''EACH''.
388 Today I bought a dozen of razor blades ($1.50), a
389 bottle of shampoo ($1.50) and shower gel ($1.50).
390 But I spent $12 for adjusting the two pair of
391 trousers I had bought a few days ago in the mall!
392 $12 ''EACH'', I mean.
395 ==== Bad Neighborhood ====
397 Walking home alone in the night, I may encounter some ''bad'' guys:
399 http://bender.codewiz.org/wikidata/text/FunWithWeapons.jpg
401 Better be careful :-)
406 ==== Veni, Vidi, ???? ====
408 This morning I shown up at OneLaptopPerChild's headquarters. It's again next to KendallSquare,
409 in OneCambridgeCenter.
411 JimGettys was very kind: he took me to LegalSeaFood for lunch, repaired my ExOh's keyboard (two
412 keys were dead) and introduced me to the team members.
414 They left me with the usual Hollywood formula: "don't call us, we'll call you".
415 But in this particular case, I felt they were sincere :-)
417 I hope to be soon a member of the OLPC core team!
422 ==== Alea Iacta Est ====
424 As promised... Yes, indeed. Everybody please cross their fingers.
426 Babbo:Pregherò perchè tu possa ottenere quello che cerchi.
428 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.
429 A dire il vero anch'io sto in ansia per lui :-) speriamo bene...
431 Bernie: Via, non fatemi venire il magone voi due :-)
435 ==== International Dinner ====
437 FedericoLucifredi and his wife Irena were so kind to invite me at their place for a
438 fine dinner with appetizers, SirloinSteak (see pic below), several side
439 dishes and... Even a PinotNoir!
441 http://www.fairburysteaks.com/images/bci-sirloin-round-bone.gif
443 There were also Mauro -- Federico's colleague at Ximian -- and Irena's
444 friend who's a physics professor from Providence and could speak perfect
445 French and, surprisingly, even Italian!
447 What can I say? I think I got a pound or two that night, but it was
455 There's a cinema in building 26 @ EmAiTee, and it's cheap.
460 If you're curious, my room rent is $500 per month. Utilities,
461 forniture and DSL Internet access are included.
463 It's not cheap, but it's also not too expensive for Boston.
464 They told me that only Manhattan is more expensive here on
467 ==== CurriculumVitae ====
469 ...is almost ready. A friend told me that I'd better have
470 also a synthetic resume of 1-2 pages for the impatient.
473 Well, I said I'd be finished by last Monday, but then I
474 managed to slip past my own deadline visiting NewYorkCity,
475 moving in my current room and in other frivolous ways.
477 Now I have no excuses: the time has come. Next Monday I
478 ''will'' write my proposal. Seriously.
482 ==== Exchange Rates ====
484 Looks like I'd better convert all my money to dollars *now*:
486 http://www.x-rates.com/d/USD/EUR/graph30.html
488 What do you think about it?
490 Babbo:penso che $ continuerà a svalutare. Perderai soldi.
492 ==== StataCenter ====
494 I forgot to tell you about the kewlest building in EmAiTee:
496 http://www.eecs.mit.edu/images/big-stata12.jpg
498 See also: http://www.eecs.mit.edu/stata-link.html
502 After a long time, I finally get to (ab)use MIT's wi-fi and
503 barf my short-term brain buffer into my BrainDump.
505 Tonight we went to an Irish pub next to Kendall, where I got
506 to know a few more Ximian employees. I got rumors that
507 the famous kernel hacker RobertLove would be there, so after
508 a while I turned to the guy next to me and asked: "Is
509 RobertLove really going to come?". And he replied: "Speaking."
511 Another guy told me: "Hi, I'm BAHB". "Pardon?". "BAHB!".
512 "What???". Federico promptly helped me out: "Ha detto che si
515 The beer was good. I discovered that a BlueMoon is the
516 nearest approximation of a WeisseBeer I can find here,
517 and I'm not at all displeased by its taste.
521 My landlord has recently switched DSL provider and Internet
522 doesn't work any more: the sync light on the modem flashes.
523 It seems that crappy ISPs are a common disease in the States
526 Yesterday, he called for service and, finally, they told him
527 they would send a tech today from 8AM to 18PM. They refused
528 to be more specific. And so I've agreed to wait here to let
529 the guy in... I care about it for myself too!
533 By the way, today I'm exactly 150 pounds (use GoogleCalculator
534 to get it to SI units).
536 150 pounds = 68.0388555 kilograms
542 They told me Roxbury is quite an infamous suburb of Boston.
543 And my first impression confirms that: shops are uglier,
544 parks and streets are somewhat dirtier (but not as much as
545 in NewYorkCity!) and, most importantly, some of the neighbors
546 look creepy. Especially in the night, streets are crowded by
547 people with criminal faces and many homeless.
549 You know I'm not the type who's easily scared off by a bunch
550 of zombies, but I'll feel much better when I'll drive a car.
554 I've finally settled in my room. There's no need to describe the house
555 in detail, as it's the most typical colonial design: two floors plus
556 basement, front and back yards, sliding windows, wooden floors
557 everywhere. You've come to know them very well from the movies.
559 Today I went to the mall to gather the essentials: a blankets,
560 a pillow case and some bath towels. The bed is comfortable and
561 I was quite tired already, therefore I fell asleep early in the
562 evening and kept on until 8 AM.
564 '''WARNING: TIME WARP OCCURRED'''
568 '''WARNING: TIME WARP IMMINENT'''
572 Alberto: Attento a convertire € in $ perchè € si sta apprezzando,e quindi $ svalutando rispetto a €.
574 Belle le foto scovate da Massimo. Have a good stay in Btn.
576 Massimo: Bernie, you taught me: http://www.google.com/search?q=100+USD+in+EUR
579 Massimo: Since Bernie could not give us any picture, I had to use flickr: here they are!
581 http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=bernardo+innocenti
583 Piro: what in the heaven is RMS doing dressed like a camp tent? :D
587 ==== BankOfAmerica ====
589 I went to BankOfAmerica and opened a bank account. I went there wearing a yellow T-shirt
590 and a weary pair of jeans. In the beginning, they referred me to a young guy who quickly
591 tried to offer me a student's saving account. When I queried for interest rates, credit
592 cards, and dollar/euro conversion rates, they finally realized that I was going to move
595 When I've shown them my balance, they immediately switched me to a very polite girl who
596 took all the time to explain me everything in detail until after their closing time and
597 recommended me to open *3* different accounts to get a rate of 4.80% with no fees!
598 I totally hate when people judge you by your wealth, dressing, or other stupid status
599 symbols, but maybe a bank is the only exception where it makes sense to do so.
601 Banking appears to be far, far simpler here. I already feel like I know
602 everything while in Italy I still can't read most of the paperwork I get from
605 Batt: Or maybe american bankers are so skilled that you are happy while, in truth, they have stolen your money forever :-P
607 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.
611 ==== Good News, Everyone! ====
613 '''After a long struggling, I've finally found a room!'''
615 And I'll be moving in *today*! But I'm writing on Thursday the 3rd, actually (aren't you thinking fourth-dimentionally yet?).
617 The room is nice and comes with some forniture, including a desk. It's on the second floor
618 of a house where the landlord lives with her wife and a very friendly puppy.I like it
619 that way: all those houses shared by students I've seen so far tend to become unmaintained
620 and dirty quite quickly, while this one is a real house with a fully operational kitchen,
621 bathroom and even a clean back garden!
623 My landlord is Armenian, but have been living here in Boston for a long time. My first
624 impression is he's a very nice person, honest and easy going. I haven't met his wife yet --
625 she'll be back on Sunday.
627 I'm afraid the house is a bit far away from MIT, in southern Boston. But that won't
628 be a problem as soon as I buy a car. There may even be a chance to rent or buy the
629 car readily from my landlord's son.
631 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 :-)
634 '''Camy''': the landlord lives with '''his''' wife
636 ==== Do You Speak English? ====
638 Some of you will be pissed off by this change, but I'm starting to make
639 some international friends here and none of them could read Italian.
641 Writing in English is also what I need to improve my writing skills.
642 For the few of you who barely know English, some more reading surely won't hurt!
644 [[http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fbender.codewiz.org%2Fwiki%2FMayBlog&langpair=en%7Cit=en Google Translator]]
647 As always, I'd very much appreciate being told about any mistake I make.
649 ''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!''