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Category Archives: Nerd

Self description

It took me a while, but I eventually updated my About Me page. =) P.S. I have at least 5 more ideas for blog posts but I’m lacking the brilliant idea to make them interesting.

Posted 11 March 2009 † Matteo § English § FreeBSD § Personal ‡ Comments (2) °

Dell’inverno e delle scale

Dopo una settimana a Providence, posso rilasciare un primo bilancio: fa freddo. Anzi, fa molto freddo, almeno se si sta all’aria aperta. È talmente freddo che qui a Providence c’è la stessa temperatura che c’è a Padova, solo che è in gradi Farenheit. Questa l’ho rubata a Fabio, e so che non tutti l’avete capita, [...]

Posted 17 January 2009 † Matteo § Italiano § Misc ‡ Comments (7) °

Code tools

This is mostly a follow-up from yesterday post: ATM, to write code for my little project, I’m using Eclipse+PyDev+Subclipse+SVN on my MacBook Late 2008. These tools seem to help improving my productivity.

Posted 24 December 2008 † Matteo § FreeBSD ‡ Comments (0) °

Writing code when you are a theorist

Despite my involvement in the FreeBSD and FreeSBIE projects, I do not think of myself as a coder, nor a “system” guy in general. I’ve always been more attracted by theory and I followed a mainly theoretic courses path during my M.Sc. . My thesis is about theory in data mining but involves some experiments [...]

Posted 23 December 2008 † Matteo § FreeBSD ‡ Comments (2) °

Dijkstra e le riforme

Sulla porta del mio ufficio nel dipartimento di Computer Science di Brown University è attaccato un cartello. Dice Please adopt an Italian student. Our government does not let us study. La scritta è presa da una foto vista su flickr: una studentessa partecipava ad una manifestazione tenendo ben in alto un foglio A3 bianco con [...]

Posted 04 December 2008 † Matteo § Italiano § University ‡ Comments (6) °

On the naming of computers and its evolution

Like many geeks, I have my own style in naming the machines I have access to. This may sound strange to people not used to live between a chair and a monitor but, according to many, you may really want to give a name to the non-animated thinking being (please note the double absurd of [...]

Posted 03 December 2008 † Matteo § English § FreeBSD ‡ Comments (8) °

Companeros, Kamaraden, Collegues, Compagnons, Compagni, …

Dopo quasi due mesi in Providence posso cominciare a valutare i miei rapporti sociali con le persone che ho incontrato qui. Di questo post forse non si sentiva la mancanza, ma contribuisce una pennellata alla tela su cui cerco di dipingere il ritratto della società americana, o almeno di quella parte in cui vivo. Il [...]

Posted 18 November 2008 † Matteo § Italiano § Personal ‡ Comments (6) °

Magnis Itineribus (going on by huge steps)

In little more than one month at Brown University, under the supervision of Prof. Upfal and Prof. Pietracaprina, I think I learned a lot, both in terms of new concepts, ideas, tools and in terms of how to do research. Yes, I’m really proud of myself and of the work I’ve been doing since I [...]

Posted 06 November 2008 † Matteo § English § FreeBSD § University ‡ Comments (1) °

Italian newspapers suck. US newspapers suggestions needed.

I really like reading newspapers, when there are intelligent editorials above all. Reading an electronic edition just isn’t the same thing, to me. But I want to read quality newspapers, and consider a publisher’s duty (and a reader’s right) the newspaper to be written in correct current but rich language, with correct syntax and an [...]

Posted 27 September 2008 † Matteo § English § Misc ‡ Comments (3) °

Food problems

As I often said I’m just (too) fat. On Wednesday I’m leaving to the USA, which is traditionally considered an unhealthy country for a food point of view. This fact makes me feel in trouble, or at least I feel my health in trouble. Therefore, I will have to pay the maximum attention possible when [...]

Posted 26 September 2008 † Matteo § English § Personal ‡ Comments (5) °