Monday, August 25, 2008

The Distributed and Parallel Systems (DPS) VS The National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN-CNAF)

After the first 2 weeks used to get confidence with the place I can show you the place where I will spend the most of my life the next 3 (or 4) years.

And... this fantastic... 24 inch Dell display, plus the sunray station... YES, it's mine... here you are my desk, where my thinkpad (my "think-nerd" sorry, that's the real name of the machine) is waiting for me! :)

When I start thinking that in my previous job I had to wait 4 months to have something to work with. I've received a crappy (Celeron 1,6 Ghz, 1GB RAM and 15" display) laptop after 4 months and a phone after one and half year. Is that possible?

I've never talked about the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN for short), and actually the section where I previously worked, the CNAF, so INFN-CNAF. Now, I am out of that shame I can make an objective analisys. So, the exact picture of the INFN-CNAF is practically a public machine that eats public money (coming from national & European research projects) and spread that money among unskilled people which usually (in some complex way) are friend of the heads. Once the financiament is obtained, nobody cares in which way the money are spent. The heads of the INFN-CNAF don't care if you are working hard in your project... or you are not working at all. All the people in the top of the organization (the one which are payed more) are not able to do their job, are totally incompetent (because they get that position not because of their management skills... but because of their political skills)! "Project management" is something really lacking there!

Fortunately I am out, I really hope the Minister Brunetta will change the way things are at the INFN-CNAF by kicking some of the untouchable INFN-CNAF's asses.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Innsbruck == ("iss so viel du kannst" + "sechser garantie") :)

So, this week in Innsbruck has been really really interesting. Some of mine Austrian friend (Kassian and Simon) have introduced me into their culture... which can be basically described as: "eat & drink as much as you can!" :)

During the summer there are 2 interesting places where you can go and feed up your engine :)
In the evening, you can go to the "hofgarten" and ask for a "sechser garantie" (which means six guarantee), which means that for 10 euro you can have 6 beers :)

But the most interesting place, in my opinion, is the "arzler alm".


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There are no ways to go to this place with a car, you need half an hour of hiking to get there. The place is somewhere in this montain :)

The path is very... natural! Just few signs... it's very easy to get lost it it is your first time.

When you arrive... you sweat... a lot, but after few seconds you really understand why you have done this! For the girls... and the meat of course. Yes, the meat, because in this place you pay just 10 euro and you can eat all you CAN! It's called: "iss so viel du kannst", which meas, all you can eat. And, it is absolutely true! :)

I'm sorry but I forgot to take the pictures of what we eat for 10 euro, but I assure that it worth the money. :) Next time I'll documentate everything as usuall, this time I've just enjoyed the place! :)

The waiters are really really nice... I've used one of my friend (Vlad) :) to take this picture (sorry Vlad... it was the only way to get this picture). One of the most beauriful girls I've seen in Innsbruck! (she looks really Italian, isn't it?)



So, if you are planning to visit Innsbruck in the summer... the keywords are: "sechser garantie" and "iss so viel du kannst"! :) Enjoy Innsbruck!

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Moving to Innsbruck!

Hello everyone... after one and an half years spent in Bologna it is time to change and get some fresh air, so I decided to move to Innsbruck for a PhD of 3 years (it's going to be a long time) in the topic of "multi-core architectures" (actually compiler optimization for multi-core platforms).

Today I had the change to see the city center for the first time, here you are some pictures:



The weather is not so nice today, after 2 days of rain the clouds are still here... threatening for rain!

and... here you are the more world advanced public transportation :) Yes, Innsbruck has it!

And unfortunately the first day I didn't find any statues of men on horses. I know that's not nice... but I will keep an eye on this and I will look for them (I have plenty of time to find one).
The city is kind of beauty, maybe small... but that's fine. Fortunately/Unfortunately it is full of Italians :)... but I know how to deal with them! The majority of the restaurants here are managed by Italians or Turkish people, so I guess I am not going to miss the italian kitchen.

So, in conclusion I can say that this is a strange place indeed... it is not Italy (but there are a lot of Italians)... it is not Austria... it is just Tyrol. More pictures are coming in the next days, bye for now!

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Vacation == Puzzling equation still works!

Every time is the same story, a couple of days of vacation and voila' a new puzzle added to the collection! :) This 1000 pieces baby is a present coming from a very very special friend of mine, Cinzia... I miss you baby!! :(