== May 2007 ==
-'''Tip:''' as always, start from the bottom and proceed bottom up to keep time flowing in one direction.
+=== Thu, 31th ===
+
+==== News Feed ====
+
+Today Rasky suggested that we could use an RSS feed to notify
+about new articles in the blog.
+
+I wanted to fulfill the same purpose, but with a totally
+different approach: use git-send-email to notify a mailing-list
+and tell people: "hey, just subscribe to the list!".
+
+My version is surely too complicated because it employs
+a chain of 4 different programs (pikiwiki -> git -> git-mail -> mailman).
+But I like that it can be done without even touching the wiki
+engine.
+
+A middle-ground solution could be using gitweb's own
+RSS feed:
+
+ http://bender.codewiz.org/wikigit/wiki.git?a=rss
+
+But as Rasky notes, this would send notifications
+also for minor edits: real blog apps would only
+bother you for new articles.
+
+So, maybe we should filter only changesets that
+contain a new level 3 header... Hmmm... This
+can't be done with gitweb, I'm afraid.
+
+We live in an era where we can make very cool
+things with very little effort. I could hack
+this versioned wiki engine in just 2-3 days
+because I could pick the existing PikiPiki and
+combine it with the existing Git versioning
+system.
+
+This brings me to the point: the really hard thing
+in software design is choosing the right ingredients
+for your sausage. Because there are many ways to
+bake a pizza, but only a few of them have the
+quality of being tasty, healty, dietetic, cheap
+or whatever. And usually, even a good design...
+err... receipe requires you to choose a few of
+these qualities you care more.
+
+'''Q''': What do you think is the most elegant way to
+obtain useful notification from this blog?
+
+You can choose whatever technology to deliver some
+kind of "notification". You can also use any
+sensible definition of the words "useful" and "elegant".
+
+
+==== Hop hop! ====
+
+Today I typed ##cvs up -dP## to update Gnash from CVS.
+And I got the prompt back in less than 1s.
+
+"Something must be broken!", I thought! In fact, it's
+blazingly fast because we're just 2ms away from Savannah:
+
+{{{
+PING cvs.savannah.gnu.org (199.232.41.69) 56(84) bytes of data.
+64 bytes from cvs.savannah.gnu.org (199.232.41.69): icmp_seq=1 ttl=58 time=2.31 ms
+64 bytes from cvs.savannah.gnu.org (199.232.41.69): icmp_seq=2 ttl=58 time=2.21 ms
+64 bytes from cvs.savannah.gnu.org (199.232.41.69): icmp_seq=3 ttl=58 time=2.00 ms
+}}}
+
+And it's not even in MIT:
+
+{{{
+traceroute to cvs.savannah.gnu.org (199.232.41.69), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets
+ 1 passport-9-16.media.mit.edu (18.85.46.1) 1.756 ms 1.695 ms 1.845 ms
+ 2 amtgw.media.mit.edu (18.85.0.1) 2.230 ms 1.248 ms 1.150 ms
+ 3 EXTERNAL-RTR-1-BACKBONE.MIT.EDU (18.168.0.18) 1.409 ms 1.435 ms 1.374 ms
+ 4 EXTERNAL-RTR-2-BACKBONE.MIT.EDU (18.168.0.27) 1.391 ms 1.389 ms 1.426 ms
+ 5 207.210.143.109 (207.210.143.109) 1.428 ms 1.505 ms 1.414 ms
+ 6 207.210.143.138 (207.210.143.138) 12.756 ms 2.162 ms 1.998 ms
+ 7 ge-2-1-0-000.ar1.qcy1.ma.gnaps.NET (199.232.44.142) 4.879 ms 2.592 ms 2.485 ms
+ 8 cvs.savannah.gnu.org (199.232.41.69) 2.713 ms 7.476 ms 13.328 ms
+}}}
+
+Boston sure has a very fast WAN backbone!
+
+
+=== Wed, 30th ===
+
+ Ciao Berni!!! Te tu sei un grande, qui dalla OTE ti si saluta con affetto!!!
+
+Grazie ragazzi! Il sentimento e' reciproco! Uno di questi giorni
+dovete proprio venire a bere una birra qua a Boston!
+
+==== More Graphics Headaches ====
+
+Hehe, more graphics problems keep sprinkling: XorgGraphicsCorruption.
+CosmicPenguin was kind enough to offload me of the graphics related bugs.
+
+
+=== Tue, 29th ===
+
+==== Tracking ====
+
+And if you really have too much time on your hands, try helping me out on some of
+these tasks:
+
+ * XorgOlpcTasks
+ * http://dev.laptop.org/query?status=new&status=assigned&status=reopened&status=closed&owner=bernie&order=priority
+
+
+==== Weekly OLPC Reports ====
+
+If you're interested in our progess at the OLPC lab, we
+publish weekly executive summaries here:
+
+ http://laptop.media.mit.edu/laptopnews.nsf/latest/news
+
+This is the report that mentions me volunteering for
+the project:
+
+ http://laptop.media.mit.edu/laptopnews.nsf/2e76a5a80bc36cbf85256cd700545fa5/6709ac0696003ee3852572e00083567f?OpenDocument
+
+
+=== Fri, 25th ===
+
+==== 60 Minutes ====
+
+In this episode of the popular American show SixtyMinutes,
+our founder NicholasNegroponte reveals a lot of details
+about the humanitarian role of the OneLaptopPerChild project:
+
+ http://bender.codewiz.org/wikidata/60_minutes_2007-05-20.avi
+
+The part about us starts approximately at 1/3 of the show.
+
+You may also find the last part interesting as it specifically
+addresses the controversial problem of private medical centers
+trying to save on assistance to homeless people. Marco, you
+should see it!
+
+
+==== GreenishBitmaps ====
+
+'''Warning''': This article is rated PG0xF00F, parents discretion *not* advised.
+
+I've been struggling for the last few days on a the damn X server.
+
+In the RedHat builds, we're still using a pre-release of 1.2,
+labelled 1.1.99. Now, we need to leverage some upstream work
+for input rotation that is landing on the Xorg tree right now.
+
+Backporting is not an option, and we want to stay up to date
+anyway. We'll soon be moving to Fedora 7 anyway. But even
+the just-released 1.3 that will be in Fedora 7 is not enough,
+because it has been branched some time ago, we must work
+from the tip of the git tree, which of course has become
+very unstable recently.
+
+I've been fighting all the week against all sort of bugs
+and build problems and, believe me, it's a very energy
+consuming exercise.
+
+The funniest thing I'm still trying to track are
+these GreenishBitmaps that nobody else except me
+is seeing.
+
+It's probably a miscompilation of some kind, but I've
+long ago ran out of obvious and less obvious ideas to try
+and I'm now far in the land of impossible things.
+
+All this time I've been in contact with a few X
+hackers on IRC, including the author of the AMD
+driver, but even them couldn't come up with a
+magical solution.
+
+
+==== Chat Line ====
+
+ Bernie, I'm Easy...
+
+'''Bernie''': Hello Easy!!! It's good to be chatting here in the blog!
+
+I saw this two photo some row below...
+
+ But all those OLPC at the roof, what doing?? Only for furnishing or for specific utility?? :)
+
+'''Bernie''': Hehe... they're part of the WirelessMesh, for testing
+purposes. An hispanic guy called Miguel (not the same of De Icaza)
+sometimes fiddles with them. He's lucky because he's very tall.
+I'd need a ladder :-)
+
+ The office is very beautiful and the Apple Cinema Display is really very big...
+
+'''Bernie''': Yeah, that's the personal screen of my boss/team-leader ChrisBall.
+It's 30". One day or another I'll bring here my 24" wide-screen from home.
+
+ Do you have some new news about your new work??
+
+'''Bernie''': Sorry for not updating the blog... I've been *extremely*
+busy. I will do it shortly... Promised.
+
+=== Sat, 19th ===
+
+==== Trip to work ====
+
+I still couldn't solve the problem of getting to work
+quickly. I can't afford to waste over 2 hours every
+day like this.
+
+By now, I've tried any possible solution:
+
+ * Car: the office doesn't have a parking lot and there's
+ no way to park within one mile from KendalSquare for less
+ than $18/day. Monthly fees start from $250.
+
+ * Bus: I need to commute in Dudley and take line no. 1 to
+ MassachusettsAvenue, then walk 15 minutes to KendalSquare.
+
+ * Bus + subway combo: The red line would get me directly
+ to KendalSquare, and there are several routes to get there,
+ but all of them require commuting at least twice. The
+ monthly link pass costs $75.
+
+ * Car + subway combo: there are some cheap parkings next
+ to the terminal subway stations where you can leave your
+ car for $5/day. Unfortunately, to get there I must
+ travel in the opposite direction. And the whole thing
+ will cost $75 + $5*30, about the same of the monthly
+ parking fee.
+
+ * Taxi: Costs $11-$14 * 2 every day, which makes the
+ monthly parking cheap in comparison.
+
+And even worse, the red line stops running at midnight
+and bus no 1 at 1AM. Which forces me to leave from
+the office very early (for my standards).
+
+If you want to play with the possibilities, I just
+discovered that the transportation company has a very cool
+web service that would have saved me a lot of time:
+
+{{{
+ http://www.mbta.com/rider_tools/trip_planner/default.asp
+ From: 66 Maywood st., Roxbury MA
+ To: Kendall/mit Station, Cambridge
+}}}
+
+At the end of the day, the ultimate solution is moving
+closer to the office or at least close to the red line.
+Maybe I could afford to spend $600 for a room, but I
+don't feel like moving right now. I already have enough
+things on my hands.
+
+''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''
+
+==== Awful Weather ====
+
+Today it's raining lightly. Yesterday I took an extra shower
+in the evening :-(
+
+The WikiPedia was definitely right: weather in Boston can
+change very rapidly. Must remember to buy a raincoat like
+RichardStallman's and keep it in my backpack.
+
+
+==== What Next? ====
+
+{{{
+1. Get employed at OLPC
+2. ???
+3. World domination!
+}}}
+
+Just joking, but the truth is that I still need
+to face a lot of new challenges now.
+
+My next problem will be improving my communication skills.
+After one month of full immersion, I can still barely
+understand people talking quickly to each and I clearly
+express myself using an inadequately poor vocabulary and
+too slowly in some cases.
+
+These things will improve over time, while my strong
+Italian inflection is likely to remain forever. If
+only I could find one, I'd attend to a course to
+correct my diction now. Actors do them.
+
+Another crucial problem I need to solve quickly is
+getting a visa that allows me to work here permanently.
+There are many possibilities, but none guaranteed to
+succeed. For now, I'm not thinking about it: my
+employer knows better than me and will help as much
+as possible.
+
+Last but not least, my job is not easy and requires a
+good amount of commitment. All my colleagues are extremely
+smart and more experienced than I am. So I need to work
+twice as hard to keep up with them.
+
+A very nice workplace and very interesting assignments helps.
+And, most importantly, I know that what we're doing here is
+going to have a huge impact on the world.
+
+'''Andrea Grandi''': Your words give me no hopes for my future :(
+
+'''Bernie''': Are you planning to come here? Cool! :D
+
+> All my colleagues are extremely smart and more experienced than I am
+
+More than you? It's not a place for me then :D
+
+'''Bernie''': It's worth trying even if you currently think you're
+not up to the job. It's a very valuable experience even if you
+end up returning to your home country for some reason.
+
+'''Rasky''': But can you get a perm visa even without an university
+degree? I thought that was absolutely out of question... I knew that
+people without a degree could just get some 1-year temp visa.
+
+
+=== Thu, 17th ===
+
+==== More Pics ====
+
+Here are some more pics of MyOlpcDesk.
+
+=== Wed, 16th ===
+
+==== Office Space =====
+
+Here are a few pictures of the OlpcOffice!
+
+==== Hack Hack Hack ====
+
+I've been assigned a problem with an invalid serial port baud
+rate after resume from software suspend.
+
+I started investigating the hard way, until ChrisBall pointed
+me on IRC to talk with the KernelHacker DavidWoodhouse, who
+obviously had a solution in a few seconds. Unfortunately,
+it didn't work as we expected and MitchBradley of OpenFirmware
+joined the conversation to help.
+
+Having all the subsystem gurus available to fix your bugs makes
+things a lot easier... Hehe, I think I like it ;-)
+
+And so tomorrow I'll get back to work on a MandelBug with the Xorg's
+driver for the AMD chipset. When XVIDEO is enabled and you
+rotate the display with XRANDR, sometimes the X server crashes,
+sometimes it just hangs and sometimes it survives with a corrupted
+display. And the bad news is that gdb also hangs.
+
+How will I fix this? Easy: I'll go looking for the driver authors
+first thing tomorrow and beg them to send me a fix :-)
+
+By the way, lately I've been hanging regularly in #olpc on FreeNode.
+My nick is _bernie. Come over to see what's going on!
+
+
+=== Mon, 14th ===
+
+==== All Night Long ====
+
+At 9PM, I'm still here and plan to stay as long as I can :-)
+
+<please link to the song "All Night Long" here>
+
+
+==== Buried In Work Already ====
+
+'''WARNING''': Technical AbraCadabra ahead!
+
+Today I met most of the team members and bothered a few of them,
+starting from DanWilliams who helped me debug a problem with a
+simple mesh networking scenario involving three laptops.
+
+Today I've also been assigned some work from ChrisBall, who also
+helped me out with many small things such as a dead battery,
+accessing the serial console, etc. I'm currently adding a
+KernelDebugger command to display the ModelSpecificRegister's
+of the AmdGeodeCpu.
+
+But it seems like I will also refer to RedHat's ChrisBlizzard
+to be assigned more work. We talked about optimizing the
+video driver for the AmdGeodeCpu, getting the resistive
+tablet to work and maybe adding "tapping" support to the
+capacitive touchpad.
+
+As you know, I like it even more when I'm allowed to ramble
+through a zillion different things like this!
+
+
+==== Sneaky Preview ====
+
+I'm writing this from within the OLPC headquarters. I came today for
+a second interview and to get a few tasks assigned to me :-)
+
+I have no time to be more specific. Will tell you the details a little later.
+
+
+=== Sun, 13th ===
+
+ '''TODO''': will tell you later
+
+=== Sat, 12th ===
+
+ '''TODO''': will tell you later
+
+=== Fri, 11th ===
+ >MUM< creepy mummy virus it's taking control here.... :-) WRITE SOON OR IT/SHE WILL DESTROY EVERYTHING!
+==== Quite a Trip ====
+
+Today I'm leaving the safe and familiar BostonCity to boldly go where I've
+never been before.
+
+The current plan is to drive south to ProvidenceCity, BrdigeportCity, NewYorkCity,
+PhiladelphiaCity, BaltimoreCity and, finally, WashingtonCity. Maybe I'll even
+push myself down in FloridaState to go see the SpaceShuttle!
+
+I could use a GPS. I've seen a few TomTom's, but $299 seems way too
+much to me for a talking map. Maybe I'll buy a traditional map for
+$10.
+
+Ah, and I will sleep frugally, of course. Hostels and motels when I find
+them. So, over the next few days I'll be lucky if I have intermittent
+Internet access and, consequently, I won't probably be able to sync the
+BrainDump.
+
+
+=== Thu, 10th ===
+
+ '''Babbo''': Ma fino ad oggi con quali danari hai vissuto dato che sei partito con 10€ liquidi?
+
+ '''Bernie''': Ho prelevato i soldi dall'ATM... con il bancomat delle poste! E vedo dai movimenti
+ sul conto che hanno applicato un buon cambio e nessuna penale strana.
+
+==== Car Rental ====
+
+Today I finally rent a car. It's a SaturnIon, a brand and model I never heard
+of before.
+
+http://www.edmunds.com/media/seo/500/2006.saturn.ion.jpg
+
+I felt very comfortable driving all over Europe: Italy, Swiss, Spain, France,
+Germany, Belgium, and even Greece... But, for some reason, I was quite afraid
+of driving a car here in the States.
+
+Maybe it's because the road signs are somewhat different and there are a few
+subtly different rules, such as turning right on red, not parking in front
+of hydrants, etc. Most probably, it's because I've seen way too many movies
+where people get stopped by police and thrown in jail quite easily!
+
+Well, so far everything went very well. I mean, except for parking. Parking
+in downtown is easy if you're willing to pay $10-12 for a few hours.
+It's a big pain in the ass otherwise... The best way I've found so far
+is to park near a minor T station and then get the T to downtown :-(
+
+And, of course, the car has AutomaticTransmission, which I managed to learn
+quickly: the trouble comes when you switch the other way around ;-)
+
+Ok, today I've driven all around Boston just to get used to it. Tomorrow
+I'll probably dare getting on the highway to see around.
-=== Fri, 10th ===
==== Business Visa? ====
Isn't it a good idea? Costs less than renting a car and is almost
as versatile.
+<rasky> http://www.carsharingfirenze.it/ :)
+
Today I walked to their offices to give them my documents
and get the magnetic card. They said they will enable it
first thing tomorrow *if* the "insurance risk declaration"
shop names are simply dumb: '''Pay Less''', '''Save-A-Lot''',
'''Big Deal''', and so on.
+''Sounds very '''meno tasse per tutti''' to me... -- PiroPiro''
+
Second, they try to subtle deceptions such as: "take 2 for $24.xx",
and, next to it: "take 3 for $21.xx", Which of course is
impossible. It's a trap! The little figures placed
==== Bad Neighborhood ====
-http://bender.codewiz.org/wikidata/text/DaneelHackingXo.jpg
+Walking home alone in the night, I may encounter some ''bad'' guys:
+
+http://bender.codewiz.org/FunWithWeapons.jpg
+
+Better be careful :-)
+
=== Tue, 8th ===
As always, I'd very much appreciate being told about any mistake I make.
-''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!''
\ No newline at end of file
+''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!''
projects / wiki.git / blobdiff