To Beijing?

So, a paper myself and advisers have been working on, "Towards Region-Based Memory Management for Go" was accepted to the "Memory Systems Performance and Correctness (MSPC) workshop (See Session 3). I also have a "ticket" to Programming Language Design and Implementation (PLDI) conference. I have been pretty up/down about being vegan and going. But, well, anyways... I am to leave tomorrow to go to China (about a 12 hour flight). Kinda nervous. Anyways, I'll try to take pictures, but I might not be able to upload them (due to not having a mini-B USB cable or proper SD-reader). But, I'll be in China, I should be able to find one of them some where!
Much love and peace, and Slayer!
-Matt

New version of PDFResurrect

Wow! It has been just over 2 years since I last updated PDFResurrect. I made a few bug fixes and added in some makefile and configure patches from the Debian maintainer, Francois Marier. Exciting blog post you say?! YEAAAAAH YAAAAA! And special thanks to 757labs and especially to Jody for fixing some wiki issues.
-Matt

Water water everywhere...

Woke up this morning to the voices of my neighbors complaining about water... and then hearing sloshing. Well, someone's hot water heater busted. I am on the top floor, and well that water went everywhere. My apartment flooded. Luckily I lost nothing except for some sleep, and ummm well I have a wet floor now. I must say, our apartment manager here was on it fast! He called in a crew to dry/suck things up. I am worried the floor is still wet and I'm afraid of bacteria. He said they sanitized things, but yeah. Anyways... the worst part, I vacuumed the carpet last weekend. -Matt

Ok... That's it! I'm ready to leave this country...

BREAKING NEWS: WORLD'S LARGEST SPIDER ENTERS MY HOUSE. Sitting down trying to get some work done on a side-project. When I see this sprawled out thang moving near my window half-hidden by the blinds.... "Oh not it's not" ... Yep! A spider alright. One of them ginormous Australian beasts! I could have put a saddle on the monster and ridden' 'er around. Instead, I captured the creature using an empty plastic Chinese-food container and took 'em outside. One of the most horrific experiences of my life. I do hope he/she is happier outside though.

-Matt

Amon Amarth and I,Frankenstein

So last night I decided to hangout with some vikings, and catch some totally sick viking metal. That's right my faithful readers, I rocked to Amon Amarth. Johan has got the most amazing voice, I can only imagine he tells the best campfire/ghosts stories. Awesome show, and the openers Eye of the Enemy and Orpheus were good too.

Then, tonight, I decided to go grab some coffee with a buddy. Well, as we were heading towards DeGraves Street in the CBD, we ended up walking through the set of a movie being filmed (I, Frankenstein). I had seen tons of filming trucks around for a few months, anyways, they happened to be filming a street scene down Flinder's Lane. Fog machine, car, etc etc. Anyways, I saw them film a dude run on top of a car. Pretty neat.

-Matt

David Bowie and Jim Henson

So I went to the Astor Theater in St. Kilda, Melbourne last night. This is a way old and cool theater, kinda like the Naro in Norfolk, VA but about twice the size. The restrooms are called the "cloak room" and there is a "resident" theater cat. This place is just marvelous. They tend to show older classics (e.g. Ghostbusters, Back to the Future, Indiana Jones...), and even B-movies. Last night I saw Jim Henson's 1986 film "Labrynith". Great film staring David Bowie (and his package a'la way-tight-pants). And yeah, he is an awesome actor, one word... "epic." Great flick, great theater! -Matt

Close call with the thirsty metal monster...

So last night I decided to head over (down-and-over) to see my buddy's band play in Richmond (in Melbourne, AU) at the 1890's built Great Britan Hotel. I am sure you can imagine that such a building was probably a pretty early establishment during the birth of Melbourne. Anyways, I get there to this way cool bar, with a pinball machine, two floors, and a beer/smoker garden. Anyways, I don't drink, but I explored a bit and ended up on the basement floor in what seemed to be like a dungeon. Candle-lighted, and very low house lights. Anyways, that's where the band played. So, as usual, I had to take a leak. Well, I was directed through a rather oddly (horse-stall shaped) door, and to my chagrin, as common in pubs/hotels around Melbourne the men's urinal is just a large wall of metal you pee on, and water periodically washes down it. Well, these pee-wall's (is there a proper name?) have a little raised area just before the wall, so most people step up on it and let-loose from there. Well, when I first got to Melbourne (~1.5 years ago) I thought you were /not/ supposed to step on them, so I would effectively pee-behind-the-line. Well, as I learned some time soon after I arrived, you are to stand on the raised-ledge, and hit the wall from there. Well, the ledge was a bit taller than I imagined and I tripped. And that's when that slow-mo life-threatening state of mind kicks in. I was falling forward... forward into the urinal! NooOooOoOooOoo. Luckily my neurons fired a bit faster, and told my hands... "hey hands, ya know you are about to touch a pee-wall... that's pretty gross... yea?" So I retracted my hands, just before touching the wall, and some how, through shear will and fright, I regained balanced and was able to avoid being eaten by the urine-thirsty metallic monster. -Matt