Today was supposed to be a day away from the email, laptop, phone, etc. But it didn't quite turn out that way. Among other things, SC11 planning required some attention. Will try harder tomorrow (there won't be a diary entry tomorrow for example).
Which raises a question - do you find time for a day off at SC? Some people arrive over the weekend and take a day away from supercomputing to do some local tourism. Others stay on an extra day or two after the end of SC for the same reason. Personally, unless flight schedules force an extra day or two, I don't normally do this.
Sometimes it makes for good anecdotes though. I recall when we had SC in Phoenix (year anyone?) some colleagues arrived a day or two early. On their off day, they spent a couple of hours driving up to the Grand Canyon to see the sights. Unfortunately, there was heavy fog and they didn't see a thing. A couple of hours drive back and the day wasted - but for the anecdote to be used at the dinners for the rest of the week.
You also get the hotel anecdotes. Pittsburgh was bad for this (year?). There was a sports game in town (Robbers? Stealers? Some such team name :-)) in the days just before SC11 and there was a lot of overbooking of hotel rooms. Cue chaos of hotel receptions filled with people arguing and fighting for rooms. Sales folks smiling awkwardly as they got the last room, only to watch one of their big customers be "walked" to a hotel 20 miles away from the convention center.
Such anecdotes are the fun of travelling that is our HPC world. We just hope they are happy anecdotes or at least ones that work out OK in the end.
1 comment:
There is a Seattle Seahawks homegame against the Ravens on Sunday.
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