Here is a long overdue update !
..but it’s already time to go to sleep !
Two weeks ago I went to Italy to participate to the wedding of my cousin. I don’t normally travel to go to weddings, but being a family matter and since the marriage was in Rome, I figured that I could take the opportunity to use an early summer vacation.
Things in Rome were as usual… it was great to go back home, because of the the rhythm there. My father has retired form work recently, my mother has a pub and works at night. My sister goes to the university. Seems like a rather happy family ! ..at last.. considering that when I was growing up, things were quite different. I suppose that one just has to have patience and hang on.
As I sometimes do, I brought a laptop for my sister. Computers are nowadays pretty much a requirement to study in certain fields. So I went for a Sony Vaio SZ.
I read a few messages on the net about someone that seemed convinced about installing foreign drivers to a Japanese VAIO and I foolisly proceeded to install an English version of XP.
Mistake #1: don’t format the HD before you make the recovery disk. That’s right, the recovery disk (which has all those useful drivers) has to be burnt from an image preinstalled in the HD… you don’t get the DVD.. I suppose that a DVD is too expensive to pack, even when you are buying one of the more expensive computers around !
Japanese drivers can’t be downloaded from Sony’s site ! European drivers can be downloaded only if one has some European-machine serial number to provide. American drivers can be downloaded with ease but the installer checks the machine and refuses to install the drivers !
I eventually got around this by using an unwrapper for the Wise Installer (the one used by Sony America). Still there were a lot of problems on which driver to install before, which later. Now almost everything works. It took me a very long time to get to this stage.. but eventually I will re-order the recovery CD and try to use those drivers on the laptop of my sister.. which is unfortunately already very far away ! (will have to do with my remote desktop 8).
My girlfriend came with me this time. Everyone in the family was pretty happy to see me bringing a woman around. I admit that in the past I even thought about the possibility to drag some chick along by offering to pay expenses… so that I could get this duty of bringing a woman around.
I don’t get that much pressure, people don’t ask much, but it’s one of those things that one can feel… real men are supposed to get ther driver license early in life, start smoking and bring chicks around. ..I was never like that.
Throught the eyes of my girlfriend I managed to appreciate how unique Rome must be. Amazement from her at the sight of those monuments that seem so common and useless to me. She also got her first tourist medal: short-changed with a cheap 10 Thai coin instead of a 10 Euro bill… with regards from some food place where she sat and had the usual “great” Italian service 8).
Women take time.. and they all at some point mean trouble. We men joke on how irrational and hypersensitive women can be. One jokes and forgets that it’s and hard truth ! ..and there is nothing that can be done. One just has to learn to accept a parallel world made of, frankly, useless paranoias.
Recently I wrote no code at home. Supposedly my job should provide me with enough to learn during work hours.. but actually things have gotten pretty boring again… did you know that the next gen console from Nintendo has no shaders ? It’s basically a pumped up GameCube !! ..or so it seems to be.
I’m not revealing anything special here. I looked around and apparently everyone knew that.. it was just me that I didn’t care to find out earlier.
Recently my job has shifted clearly from graphics programmer to network programmer.. which is still challenging, but it’s also not the best way to use the accumulated knowledge on graphics programming.
Yet.. I can’t even find the time to sit down and review my resume ! I’m trapped ! I need to get out ! …actually I need to stop going out as much, and rather spend the weekend home doing things. I have a mile of footage filmed in Rome and I still even have to find the CD with the software to connect the new camcorder to the PC.
Additionally, I’ve been testing the new Google/Picasa album. Here you can see some pictures shot in Rome.
Have fun !
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Posted by Davide Pasca as Diary at 2:27 AM EDT