What did I do Thursday?

I just got back from seeing the Great Wall. That was way exhausting, seriously steep stairs... and lots of people. Apparently pushing and "coughing-up" phlegm is normal here. We then went to a jade factory, saw some live carving, and then had a nice (was told it was Matt-friendly) food. Anyways, we then went to Tienanmen Square, and walked across the way and through the Forbidden City. We then stopped into a silk factory, which was neat, but it was pretty much like the jade place, a sales pitch. The weather was way awesome, but the sun will suck the energy right out of ya! The guide said it was probably the best day in the 9 years he has been working the tour. Anyways. I just got home and "unloaded" kinda scared now. I gotta call housekeeping, that gand triple-ply isn't easy-flush.

-Matt

So what did I do Tuesday?

Just met Hans Boehm and Doug Lea. Just sayin' :-) I do have pics. I chatted some camera stuff with Boehm, and joked on a programming language with Lea. Very very nice people!

-Matt

First Day In China

Went to Wal-Mart! Ok, well, I am a bit scared being vegan and eating out. I have done it a few times already here but I can pretty much guarantee my last meal had some meat stock. I printed out notes saying no meat/fish/oyster/etc etc etc. (Yes, fish is meat and so are oysters). Anyways. I really am finding people looking at me weirdly. Very very very very few people understand English well or at all. I am really surprised. But, earlier, I met one really nice kid who helped me order. We spent ages! He took me to a restaurant, sat down, and helped. I tried to give him a few Yuan, but he turned it down. Just wanted to meet me again. That was really humbling.

So what else? Well, I met a few really nice people at the airport. I must say, the hotel is pretty slick. Looks nice, goldfish throughout the hall, Chinese art. Pretty neat. But... I still haven't had a real cup of coffee in a while, the one at Melbourne airport was frikkin' awesome!

And I've already stopped up the toilet once! Triple-ply. I was counting them layers as I was doin my business. I haven't had much sleep either.

Much love from the Northern Hemisphere!

-Matt

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