2001: A GEEK ODYSSEY

Tue, Oct 30

<20:50> Due to rumours of AC kernels' better I/O performance, I gave the latest a try. Of course I'm still using the preemptible patch and GCC 3.0.2. At least DivX movies are slightly faster ;-)

Fri, Oct 26

<02:14> Linux-2.4.13-preemptible-devfs-pcmcia all in working order :-]

The system is a lot more responsive. It is particularly noticeable with big, bloated programs like Galeon-Mozilla. Sometimes I have to use Netscape and it seems blazingly fast. But now GM is tolerable, thanks to those clever opensource hacks (wish they would do the same for GM).

Thu, Oct 25

<23:39> Devfs seems more stable with Linux 2.4.13, but better touch wood (/dev/head will do for now).

Today's CUPS lecture on complexity by Prof. Jensen of Imperial was not bad as such, but the organization could have been better. The time limit of which Anson the chairman reminded him, was not of much help. However, the conversation I had with Sakari (he's doing a PhD at Chemistry Dept but a rather physical one) later at Fountain Inn turned out to be of a surprising level of utility. I am now even more certain of going to Jyväskylä, Finland for further study. It will give me a chance to hang around a decent university (with probably the best Physics Dept in Finland) without immediate pressures on the choice of a PhD or whatever. Not to mention Emilia and other great friends there. Even so, we agreed it might be interesting at some point to spend time abroad, in a financial environment just to make some cash, and for the ever-important change. To put it in math: The grad points in the direction of the strongest change. (That's graduate as well as nabla :-)

Wed, Oct 24

<02:04> Yesterday's flood at Queens' and elsewhere remains. It rained almost all of Sunday, but it's still amazing how little the river and the soil can take.

Updated to EMACS 21.1. The X version has lots of newbie candy, but one killer feature which I'd been waiting for is finally there: syntax highlighting in text mode (used to be only in X). So I'm now using the -nox version, as that was the only reason holding me back.

Sun, Oct 21

<02:41> Water and carbohydrate powered clubbing machine goes teQno with hardhouse provided by Mr Whippy's DJ Hogg :-]]]

"Do you have eyes under those, can I just check" someone asked about my wearing the sunglasses and I only wonder why she did. I thought they would complete the set. Perhaps she was expecting cybernetic implants. Always go for the kewlest scenario when analyzing people's motives.

Another co-clubber suddenly went serious on her face and told me she should give me a red card for enjoying myself too much. Well the fact just is that if you want to see me smile a lot, take me clubbing.

Sat, Oct 20

<03:42> Yunus, my neighbour, asked me today (Friday) why I'm never around. I told I was, just my schedule is perhaps different from others'. He guessed correctly that I'm a night person. And having just spent a nice evening with two of my kind, I feel a lot better.

Rend had asked me for a dinner at Darwin. It turned out it was a special FH for old members. To my surprise, the people I chatted with seemed actually interesting. I was a bit annoyed though when Rend tried to make a big thing out of my CERN experience. Anyway. Sohail joined us as he's visiting Cambridge for the weekend, we had a couple games of pool. From then on it was a general mess, for instalce: Simon, who was supposedly going to London, had left his keys with Sohail at Rend's place. But that was a nice excuse to go to Rend's for tea and chat. After spilling tea on his jeans, Sohail changed to something like a djellabia. I forgot the name but apparently the names vary with the material as well.. and that gave a nice start for the conversation over men's fashion freedom. Well, tonight there's Hard House at Q and I don't like wearing trousers again. :-)

Mon, Oct 15

<22:23> Crouching Tekno, Hidden Hog ^_^

Guess that sums up the fact I totally enjoyed my first go at Ninjutsu. I'm not sure if it's pain or pleasure in my arm joints after those locks. :-) The people are great, the art itself seems like a good mixture of challenging and practical, and the black clothes rule (albeit my belt will be white for a while). |-]

Sun, Oct 14

<04:06> The photo collection is now online. Note that it's supposed to be very minimalistic in every respect. I think the users can decide if the want to open links in new windows. Hopefully the old links to pix are OK also. The script to make gallery pages and entries from images is, of course, written in Python :-)

<21:31> The only possible way of going to the gym at Queens', I thought, was to run all the way, and run back again after the workout. After doing that, it does not feel like a bad idea at all. :-)

Sat, Oct 13

<02:42> Linux 2.4.12 - devfs seems more stable now. Also building a gallery script.

<13:46> OK folks, devfs isn't exactly stable yet. It's better than before (doesn't freeze the system) but the machine failed to wake me up this morning.. almost missed a lecture. Noticed problems both with crontab -e (EDITOR=emacs) and ogg123. Now compiling 2.4.12 with good old manual /dev.

Tue, Oct 9

<00:44> Call this low frequency of diary entries a kind of depression. No shit. Sometimes I don't know if I'm a total optimist or the most pathetic pessimist. Maybe it's just seeing the freshers with a new world ahead of them, myself being an old 4th year comrade for whom there's nothing new and exciting by the Cam.

But the lectures in fact seem intriguing. The particles course is so good (R. Batley the lecturer gave a cool 1st year waves course) that I'm considering to leave QFT. Also because there's plenty of quantum field theory in Theoretical Concepts, which is moreover rumoured to be more challenging :-).

Nothing to do with the fact that QFT is the only lecture at 9 am Tue/Thu/Sat :-). But really there are a lot of issues with the lecturing styles. Maybe it's because QFT is a math dept course.

Sat, Oct 6

<01:14> This is great. My summer project writeup is due on Monday, and the printer's busted. The entire printing head is clogged with dried ink, so I could just buy a new one. But I'm not feeling very good about inkjets in the long run.. fortunately there's a neat little laser at the dorm computer room, and it seems to work. All I have to pay for is paper which I'd have to do anyway.

Now checked the initial lectures of four courses (will be examined in three) that seemed interesting: Quantum Field Theory (by maths dept), Theoretical Concepts (with field theory), Gravitational Astrophysics, and Particle Physics. I was thinking of ditching the latter as I've done enough of particles for now.. but then again it might be quite easy after all the experience. Gotta see where the two field theory courses are heading.

Mon, Oct 1

<02:47> Adapter makes /dev/me one happy bloke. Immensely frustrating to be at the new flat, with the Etnernet working, but no power.. So. All the stuff I left at Queens for the summer I still haven't retrieved. Those include adapters for my continental power plugs to the British non-standard. Luckily Lauri had one I could borrow today. Also met up with Antti from Lyseo. Tomorrow and Tuesday will be busy, not the least because of Societies' Fair. Now listening to the new album by 22-Pistepirkko, digesting the Glenmorangie from Lauri and compiling a new kernel with devfs :-)