From NVIDIA’s CUDA FAQ:

45. What are atomic operations?
…
There is no radiation risk from atomic operations.

Now if only the –fatbin command line argument didn’t segfault the compiler, I would be able to make some progress!

The weather cleared up enough today that I was able to wander around campus a bit. I had heard rumors of a couple of New Deal era mosaics in somewhat tricky-to-find places on campus. They are on the side of a building called The Old Powerhouse Building. It was a working powerhouse until sometime in the early 1930’s when it was decommissioned and turned into an art gallery. Here is the whole story.

The Berkeley campus is pretty big. I have been here for almost 5 years, and there is still a lot of it I haven’t seen, yet, despite my penchant for wandering around aimlessly when the weather is nice. There is apparently more New Deal era artwork strewn about Berkeley. I will have to hunt some more down, at some point. It is pretty neat. I would not complain if the current economic troubles somehow resulted in more neat artwork on public buildings.

Apparently, this guy has wandered a lot more extensively than I have, and has taken pictures of New Deal artwork in post offices all across the country. He also has a nice collection of pictures of county courthouses.

I’m taking off a few weeks before going to Japan, to visit my family and get things generally settled, packed up, sold, or given away. This means that this is my last week at my current job.  I am excited, but also a little sad. It certainly hasn’t been a bad job, although it could be a little dull. But that was really my main complaint, and it’s really not much of one.

In some ways, I think I’ll probably miss it a little bit. My coworkers are fine people, the atmosphere is anything but stressful, and the work is generally concrete and rewarding when it’s there.

But I’m still looking forward to being out of work for a little bit. Being able to have time to myself and being able to go out and wander about aimlessly (although the weather might be a little bad for that) is definitely something I want. I need to get things organized, figure out what I really want to take with me to Japan, and what I want to leave behind. I don’t have that much stuff, but I definitely have enough that I can’t get it all to Japan. I’ll get to visit with my parents, which I always enjoy (I won’t mind the hot weather, either). I’ll get to wake up at 10am and not worry about having to catch the bus at any particular time of day.

It’s a definite step towards something new, and towards a new level of independence for me. I’m working and making money on my own right now, but I’m still living with a friend from college and clinging to some extent to a strong network of friends I met in school. When I go to Japan, I won’t have the friend network, the roomate, and I have the added bonus of being in a working environment where the primary language isn’t my primary language. It’s kind of scary but exciting. When I interviewed, I essentially spent the whole day speaking only in Japanese, and I managed pretty well (and I was even jetlagged and getting sick!), so as long as my coworkers are supportive of me, I should do ok.

But I know all of this won’t really sink in until I have my room all boxed up and I’m on a plane to Japan.