Without a Traceroute

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My computer conks out…

September 26th, 2008 · Italy, Technology, Travel

The Italian hackmeeting is really awesome. There’s a bunch of cool people, and the building is awesome. It was apparently built by some guy with mafia ties as a fancy house in the city, but was confiscated by the government before construction was complete. It sat empty for years, but now it’s a squatted social center. I only wish I spoke Italian, because it’s tough to follow the presentations.

Sadly, my computer is now totally dead. The hard drive had been behaving much better, lending further creedence to the loose-connection theory. However, today, it started freezing during bootup at the “Checking NVRAM…” stage of the POST. It’s completely unresponsive. Even more bizarre, if I try to enter the BIOS, it prompts for a password, and I’ve never set a BIOS password for this machine.

I’ve been in touch with tech support via email, and they claim there’s no easy way to reset the BIOS, no reset jumpers like on a desktop. The machine is still under warranty, so I’m hesitent to start tearing it apart and shorting EPROMs based on suggestions from the internet (or Italian hackers). Tech support keeps giving me variations of, “just bring it down to the store”, despite the fact that I’ve told them I’m traveling.

I’ll see if I can get them to pay for repairs at a computer shop here. Alternatively, I may wind up shipping it back the US for warranty service, and then just buying the cheapest thing I can find here, since I’ll be looking at a least a month round-trip. The ASUS eee PCs can be had for around €250, and they’re kind of trendy so I’m sure I could re-sell it easily if/when I got my machine back.

Ugh, super frustrating. If anyone has ideas or suggestions, I’m open.

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Where was I?

October 7th, 2008 · Hacker culture, Italy, Photos, Technology

I guess the last time I wrote was over a week ago now. As you may have noticed, the site was down for a few days, too. Between that, and the fact that I haven’t been any place with reliable internet, it’s been hard. I’m going to try to get caught up, but I think I’ll do it as several posts because that seems to make more sense.

So, first, the Italian Hackmeeting. My biggest impression on first arrival was just how cool the location was. I think I mentioned this earlier, but the story I heard was that the place was built as a party mansion for a guy with mafia ties. It was pretty huge, with at least two main levels, plus the roof and the basement. There was also a good-sized coutyard with gardens and mosaic tiled fountains that I’m sure were quite impressive at one time. The place now is appropriately graffitoed (Italian word!) and grungy, with some pretty cool artwork and berpunk junk lying around. All in all, an excellent venue for a hackmeeting.

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Frustration

October 11th, 2008 · Italy, Technology

After the hackmeeting ended, my top priority was trying to get my computer situation resolved. I generally hate solving problems by just throwing money at them (although that’s usually remarkably effective at smoothing away life’s little irritations). Not only does it make me feel wasteful and profligate, it makes me feel stupid that I couldn’t come up with anything more clever than buying my way clear.

However, in this case, the answer was pretty obvious. I had a dead computer that could not be repaired here. I needed a new, working computer. Monday, I went to one large electronics store that had an Asus eee PC 900 for €400, and a Acer Aspire One for €300. I resisted the temptation to just buy something on the spot, did some research at an internet cafe and located some specialty computer stores (God, I wish Europe had Fry’s). Tuesday I spent most of the day (4 or 5 hours) trekking around from store to store comparing prices and seeing what was available.

I finally bought a Asus eee 901 (for €400), which is quite similar to the 900, except it ships with the new Intel Atom processor and a larger battery. This means better performance and longer battery life. I also got a USB drive enclosure (€10) and a 120 GB external drive (€50), since the eee pc has only 20 GB of on-board storage. The guy at the store helpfully loaned me a small screwdriver to transfer the old laptop’s HDD to the enclosure, which then led to this unholy scene:

It's Alive!

It's Alive!

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Arrived in Milazzo

October 11th, 2008 · Italy, Travel

NOTE: Unlike my other posts lately which were written on or about the day they were posted, this was actually written on the night in question (Thursday, October 2).

I finally got out of Palermo. I’ve decided that I want to visit the Aeolian islands, which are a series of volcanic islands off the coast of Sicily. Apparently they’ve only recently become a tourist destination and are still lightly frequented during the off-season(i.e. Now). In any case, I needed to get out of Palermo. It was dirty and noisy and crowed. “Clusterfuck” is the only word that adequately describes the traffic situation in Palermo. I feared for my life every time every time I set foot on the street. People I met at the hostel said that Palermo reminded them of Morocco or some Latin American countries more than Europe.

This is what large parts of Palermo look like, cars parked randomly and garbage on the ground.

This is what large parts of Palermo look like: cars parked randomly and garbage on the ground.

Other parts are quite beautiful, however

Other parts are quite beautiful, however

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Lipari

October 12th, 2008 · Italy, Photos, Travel

NOTE: Written on October 4.

Yesterday started out lame, but wound up rather awesome. The train station people were very nice about not deliberately waking me up and rousting me out. A janitor came in around 7:30 I think, I sort of half woke up, but he didn’t say anything and even mopped around my bags on the floor. I thought it was nice of him; maybe he was just happy to have an excuse not to mop that part of the floor. The tourist office in the train station never opened, but I caught a bus down to the port.

At the port, I got seriously jerked around by the guy working the ticket booth for the ferry out to the islands. First he sold me an €11 ferry ticket, then he told me the ferry didn’t leave until 6:30 pm (they’re on the off-season schedule now, with less frequent service), but there is a hydrofoil leaving at 12:15. It was only about 10 am at this point, so I’m like, “Fine, can I get the 12:15 instead?” And he does some fast change action where he takes back my ferry ticket, and all the change from the €20 bill I’d handed him. Then, he doesn’t give me a ticket, and he says “Ok, come back here at 12.” I was was like, “What?” but he was very insistent like, “It’ll be fine, you come back at 12 now,” and hustled me out the door of the ticket office before closing it and locking up.

I spent the next couple hours buying some groceries to take with me to the islands to save money on food, and then waiting in the tourist office at the port (where I discovered a hydrofoil trip is supposed to cost €16.50, not €20).

When I did go back to the ticket office (at 11:45, not 12), there was already a mob of people there, and I had to wait. I got to the window and it was the same guy; sure enough, he wanted to charge me again for another ticket. I stood firm and was like, “No, I already paid you, you need to give me a ticket.” he finally relented, only by then the 12:15 hydrofoil had sold out, so I had to wait for the 1:15.

I’m still not completely sure what to make of this situation. It’s possible the guy intended to take back the ticket and all my change and give me back the €20 note, in which case it was an innocent mistake and he wasn’t intending to rip me off. On the other hand, he was very pushy and obnoxious. A guy who lives in Milazzo later told me that the ferry operators have a reputation for being jerks to everyone, locals and tourists alike.

I think the lesson for me is that I need to be less worried about looking like a jerk, and more worried about getting ripped off. I should’ve been clear about the price, and I should’ve demanded a ticket or my money back on the first go around. This is hard for me, because I’m generally a pretty easy-going guy; especially in foreign countries where I don’t always understand the way things work, it’s easy to come off as the pushy, demanding tourist.

The hydrofoil was pretty cool. Boarding was an adventure, though. The Italians in general do not do lines. Everyone just mobs around a narrow gangplank and shoves their way forward. I got elbowed in the face by a woman who could’ve been my grandmother.

The trip took about an hour and a half. I’m really glad I decided to come here though. Lipari is incredibly beautiful. Accommodation prices are way down during off season. I’m staying at an apartment rented by a nice old Italian lady who speaks basically no English. I have my own private room with private bathroom (this is a first for me on this trip), a balcony with a view of the Mediterranean, a refrigerator, and there’s a shared kitchen here. All for €20 a night. When you consider that I paid €18/night for a bunk bed in a hostel dorm in Palermo, you can see why this is awesome.


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