Chapter 953 Mark
They ate with relish and finished all the food on the table, even drinking up the last bit of soup.
Jimmy touched his bulging belly, slumped in the chair and hummed comfortably. Looking at his appearance, if he had a toothpick in his mouth, he would probably look like an old man from the mainland.
"By the way, Mike, do you have time on Independence Day?" Jimmy suddenly asked Zhang Hao.
Mike is Zhang Hao's English name. Since he was going to study and live in the United States, it was inconvenient not to have an English name. Zhang Hao named himself Mike, so everyone usually called him Mike. This name is very common, just like the names of Jiefang, Zhengguo, Jianguo, and Jianjun in China. There are many people named Mike in the United States, at least 900,000 if not millions.
"Independence Day? There is no arrangement yet. What's the matter?" Zhang Hao asked curiously.
"I have a cousin who is studying at the University of Illinois. He has been asking me to go over to his place to play for two days. Since the school is closed for Independence Day and there are three days during the weekend, how about going over there to play with him?"
"University of Illinois? Which campus?" Zhang Hao asked. He knew the University of Illinois, of course. It was the most influential public university in the United States, known as the Ivy League of public universities. It was no worse than their MIT and was very famous.
"Urbana," Jimmy answered, "My cousin is a computer expert. He's currently interning at NCSA in Illinois. Didn't you say before that you were interested in computer networks? I think you could ask him for advice. He's an expert in this area."
Zhang Hao was immediately attracted when he heard this. He had heard of NCSA in Illinois. Founded in 1985, NCSA is the most famous computer research center in the United States. Moreover, NCSA in Illinois is one of the four major branches of NCSA and is very famous.
It was the first time that Zhang Hao knew that Jimmy actually had a cousin studying at the University of Illinois and working at NCSA. This was quite unexpected.
After thinking about it, it is very convenient to get from MIT to Urbana. In addition, the Independence Day holiday is only three days, and the California Laboratory will also be closed on Independence Day, so he just happens to be free. In this case, he might as well follow Jimmy to Urbana to see it, but he doesn't know Jimmy's cousin, so is it appropriate to go directly there?
"There's nothing inappropriate about it. My cousin is a very nice person, and I've mentioned you to him before, and he welcomes you to visit him," Jimmy replied with a smile.
Since Jimmy said so, Zhang Hao naturally would not object and immediately thanked Jimmy with a smile. Jimmy waved his hand generously and said that it was a small matter and he would take care of everything. In this way, the arrangement was finalized.
After staying in the United States for a long time, Zhang Hao realized that foreigners are actually not much different from Chinese. When he was in China, he often heard that people in the United States are indifferent and that children are kicked out of the house to become independent when they turn 18. It sounds shocking.
It was not until I arrived in the United States that I realized this was pure nonsense. Many young adults in the United States live with their parents, and many Americans attach great importance to the concept of family. It is common to see interactions between not only parents and children, but also relatives, and the relationships between them are very close.
As for daily interactions and work, Americans also value interpersonal relationships, but their interpersonal relationships are based on mutual help and doing their best. They usually keep a distance from strangers or unfamiliar people, but once they accept the other person, there is not much difference between them and the Chinese.
I returned to school and continued my previous studies and life. In the blink of an eye, more than half a month had passed, and soon Independence Day, which is the American National Day, was approaching.
As soon as the school was on vacation, Zhang Hao and Jimmy flew to Urbana. Urbana and its sister city Champaign are twin cities and are also one of the main campuses of the University of Illinois.
The plane landed smoothly and they left the airport with their simple luggage. When they were outside the airport, Jimmy, who was walking in front of them, saw a young man of medium height with blond hair and glasses. He excitedly shouted and waved at him, and at the same time turned his head and said to Zhang Hao behind him: "Look! That's my cousin Mark!"
"Hi Mark!"
"Hey Jimmy!"
When they met, Mark and Jimmy hugged each other warmly and patted each other on the back. After they separated, Jimmy introduced Zhang Hao to Mark: "This is my classmate and roommate, Zhang Hao from China. You can just call him Mike."
"Oh, you are Chinese? I'm sorry, because you are the first Chinese person I know. Hello Mike, I'm very happy to meet you." Mark first made an exaggerated expression, then immediately apologized to Zhang Hao and extended his hand to Zhang Hao enthusiastically.
"Nice to meet you, too. Thank you for coming to pick us up." Zhang Hao smiled and shook hands with the other party. Perhaps it was Zhang Hao's fluent English without any accent that surprised Mark a little, but he quickly greeted Zhang Hao and Jimmy in a familiar manner and even took the initiative to help them carry their luggage.
Mark was driving a Honda, which was much newer than Zhang Hao's old Ford. It seemed that Mark had bought it not long ago.
After getting in the car, Jimmy touched the interior and asked Mark with a smile when he bought this car, which looked very good. Mark said he just bought it last year because he had some income from NCSA, and he saved some money last year to replace his old car. This car is good, not expensive, fuel-efficient, and easy to drive.
Driving towards the city center, Mark told them along the way that they didn't need to stay in a hotel because it was Independence Day holiday and his roommate was on vacation. The apartment they lived in had an extra room , so they could just live directly in his apartment, which would not only be convenient but also save accommodation costs.
Jimmy naturally had no problem with it. Zhang Hao thought about it and didn't refuse. He thanked Mark immediately. The three of them chatted as they drove in a car and soon arrived at their destination. This place was similar to where Zhang Hao and his friends lived in Massachusetts, but the facilities and structure were better. Mark's apartment was on the first floor and the place was bigger than Zhang Hao and Jimmy's. It was a large apartment with three bedrooms, two living rooms, three bathrooms and a kitchen. The rooms had been cleaned up long ago. Zhang Hao and Jimmy each had one room, and the other was Mark's original room.
"Wow! These things are really cool! Mark, are these all yours?" As soon as he entered the door, Jimmy's eyes were attracted by several computers in the corner of the living room.
There was an IBM PC, a desktop computer assembled by Mark himself, and an XPS ultrabook that Dell had just launched this year. These computers had very high configurations. Mark himself was a computer expert and had optimized and upgraded the original configurations. Jimmy was drooling at the sight of them.
These are all good things! Personal computers are not cheap nowadays. Jimmy and Zhang Hao's majors are related to computers, but the best computers they can get are the school computers. In the dormitory, they share a Dell desktop computer, because Dell's desktop computer is much cheaper than IBM's, and the configuration is more reasonable.
Zhang Hao was better off because he often went to the lab as an assistant, and the lab had a full range of computers, all the latest and best. But Jimmy was different, he was a computer enthusiast, and when he saw that Mark actually had three high-performance computers, he was stunned.
"Want to try it?" Mark knew his cousin very well and asked with a smile.
Seeing Jimmy nodding vigorously, Mark smiled and asked him to try his toys. Jimmy couldn't wait to turn on the IBM computer. Soon the computer started up and he started operating it directly.
"Oh, baby, it feels so good! This speed, this performance, I love you so much!" As soon as I got started, it felt completely different from my own computer. The computer was much better in terms of response and other aspects. After operating it for a while, Jimmy was immediately overjoyed .
Next, he tried the Dell XPS ultrabook and was even more envious. Finally, he tried the unbranded computer that Mark assembled entirely by himself. After trying this computer, Jimmy was even more surprised because the configuration of this computer far exceeded his imagination. It could be said to be the most powerful personal computer he had ever come into contact with.
"Mike, you try it!" Jimmy was having so much fun that it took him a long time to remember that Mark and Zhang Hao were watching him from behind.
"Is it okay?" Zhang Hao asked hesitantly.
"Of course!" Mark smiled and made a gesture of invitation. Zhang Hao waited for Jimmy to give up his seat and sat down in his previous seat. Then he operated the computers like Jimmy.
Although they were all operations, Zhang Hao's operation made Mark who was standing next to him stunned slightly, because Jimmy's computer operations were just very routine operations , but Zhang Hao was different. Zhang Hao directly wrote a small program on the computer. This small program was written very quickly and was completed in the blink of an eye. After it was completed, Zhang Hao clicked on the program, and the program started running. Then the program began to automatically retrieve various data in the computer, and the data was displayed through the program after just a few minutes.
"What is this program...?" Mark asked, pushing up his glasses.
"Oh, this is a computer testing program I made myself, which can score the computer's performance." Zhang Hao replied with a smile. Although there have been many programs for computers, especially personal computers, and after the emergence of Microsoft Windows program, computers also have some functions to retrieve hardware performance.
However, Zhang Hao feels that this function of Microsoft Windows is not practical. It can only retrieve the hardware model, brand, etc., and there is no specific feedback on the computer's technical score. This is not very useful for people who don't understand computers.
Because of this, Zhang Hao created a small program when he was interning in the laboratory. This small program can be used to evaluate computer performance through software. Although this program is not yet perfect, it can still provide a rough evaluation. Just now, Zhang Hao used this small program he designed to evaluate Mark's computer.
Mark is an expert in computers and immediately discovered the purpose of this small program. Although this program is not perfect yet, it has quite desirable features in terms of design ideas and uses. In addition, Zhang Hao's structure of this program is very unique, and the whole program is simple and easy to operate, which aroused Mark's strong interest.
