However, when I'm finally back online, I realize that I cannot get my emails from Salk (remember, I still have my salk.edu address) When I ask, I learn, "noooh, sorry this address cannot be used. We are accessing the internet through the UKE and they do not support out-house mail servers. "So I cannot read my mail??""I am afraid, no" GREAT. First, they use STATIC IP addresses (which NOBODY does anywhere since the 80's) second, they somehow tie your fixed IP to the computers own MAC address (you can see it under the network configs) which means people can never change computer themselves without asking the system admin. NAZIS!!!!! let alone my VPN, to be able to get all the Cell/Science/Nature articles for free through Salk -and use the Mac Vector software!!!! Also when I try to print, I produce 15 pages of source code or something, but not the webpage I am trying to print out. I feel like a complete idiot. Asking doesn't help, since I'm using a Mac and "those Macs, they're always trouble!" Hell, no, not before a Microsoft-Borg messed around with my network-settings.
EVEN worse, when I finally come here into the safe haven of my milk bar, MY INTERNET CONNECTION DOESN'T WORK!!!! Panic strikes me: I am totally disconnected with no means to get things fixed!!!! But then, the automatic "network diagnostics" somehow fixes the problem leaving me with the uneasy feeling that I am at the mercy of some processes I have only incomplete understanding of.
OK for now: my mail is here and the connection is working. Not so bad after all.
My sister wold find her old opinion confirmed: "you are addicted to the internet" "you have withdrawal symptoms, when you cannot use it" "Maybe you should think about this?"
-Maybe she is right? Hm. ;-) *noshe'sNOT* ;-)
Ah well, lets get this printing thing working today. Plus I am determined to get some cells thawed from my shippment to finally start DOING EXPERIMENTS!!!! YESSSSS! Thats what I came for, no?
The sunday was quiet (ALL stores are closed on sundays, only coffeehouses, bars and Restaurants are open), I am having coffee and sweet pastries in one of the Portuguese cafes at the "Schanze" and find myself in a whole crowd of Brazilians. Ciça and Patricia would love it here. However, I end up chatting with an older guy from Persia, who asks me about the book I'm reading, ("Die Vermessung der Welt" by Daniel Kehlmann) he's a translator of literature into persian. the book he's working on right now: "Venus in Furs" by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. (from this stems the word "Masochism", BTW).
The copy he is reading is heavily annotated. I never read it myself, sorry to disappoint you guys!
Well, I guess he's a bit of a freak. I comment: "not sure if this book will go well in the bookstores of nowadays Iran..." He replies its for Iranians outside Iran.
He makes some comments that some important literature "such as the Marquis de Sade was never translated into Persian, and that "the Perisan people need to be educated about this". While I agree, that knowledge should be available to those who seek it, I am not sure that I would devote my life onto bringing Sacher-Masoch and the Marquis de Sade into Iran. But he may have a long-term agenda, you never know...... ;-)
We talk a bit and he invites me to a reading of an Iranian writer in the University tuesday at 7. I'm not sure, but I'll see how my schedule runs today, but OK thats it for now: I gotta start working finally. Sorry for lots of computer talk today, but thats what affects me these days!
Tomasoooooo, Alonso and I were laughing our asses, when reading about the Persian stuff... And No! You are not addicted to the fantastic world of computers and the Internet! It is fantastic learning your whereabouts! And BTW! The problem of IP, network connecton, etc... It is just because you are in a fucking hospital! We have a shitty connection because the hospital guy's do not want us to connect to the main hub! So, we end up having this weirdo radio-frequency kind of connection, so the day we have a storm the noise is so, that you get nothing.... I never had an Internet connecton depending on the weather! So weird! And you are gonna love this: I bought a mac pro with 2 processor quad core (Alonso is to blame) I'll see how it ends up...
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