sanity restoring break
I should probably cover in more detail what I'm currently upto and why randomly large photos have been appearing on my blog.
I'm taking an excruciatingly long over due sanity restoring break.
I needed some away from work time, despite having just had a different working environment for some weeks, working in education that summer recess is a god send, I get tonnes done. However designing systems based around teaching whilst I'm damn productive it is harder to get feedback on some designs.
So I wanted to go to the "Future of Web Apps" conference but I needed a catalyst to spur me to book it. Especially as when I looked at flying either side of the conference dates flights were thousands and thousands... well 1500.
That came in a two pronged attack from fate, or coincidence or whatever you call it.
Firstly I had an invite to a wedding of two of my old college friends. This is in London some days before the conference, so I thought since I'm going to be flying about I might as well head on over to San Francisco International and get to see some amazing people discussing the future of my industry, well part if it.
I doubt if Mr. Rose or Hardt will be getting into the large scale production of FPGAs and their impact on security with added processing power in small packages.
dick hardt is currently one of my favourite presenters, along with so many others, Guy Kawasaki included - "What you gonna do - not invite me back ?" With great influences from Lawrence Lessig I enjoy watching and re watching their lectures, each time spotting a new technique.
Whilst all this seemed appealing I still needed a kick up the butt to get me going...
Secondly I happened to be chatting online with another college buddy that I was considering it, he works for a major international airline. When I looked at flying days before and having a week in SF I found costs dropped by a third. It was still a bit more that I wanted to pay. We worked out though, I could fly in to London for Wedding, kick around the English Capital for a day or two then Fly to SF from their using a UK carrier, Virgin Atlantic. Stay in SF for a week do conference stuff, and take in some of the sights, the prison (as a visitor), the bridge - that famous movie set rolling hill, the trams.
So after exploring some options we found an even cheaper set of flights, to London then to San Francisco and back all for about $400 including taxes. Fantastic, this meant I could even afford a gift. However I'm flying on the fifth anniversary of 9/11 - people say I'm brave for doing it - however I reckon statistically those flights will be the safest most guarded in the skies that day. In fact if I can order 4 or more sky marshals for my flight I'd like that arranged please - in fact why hold back, feel free to put one on each row.
Boom I booked, the conference, the flights and set about looking for accommodation in both London and SF. Had my boss sign a leave form, I think the personal lady who takes care of holidays had forgotten I still worked for the company, since I go and see her so infrequently. I had a fairly tight schedule. You see I wanted to fly into London the day before the wedding, however we had a project didn't finish until the Friday afternoon. I explained I'd make a judgement call and dependant on how smoothly stages 1-3 of the project went would decide if I needed to be there for stage 4, my boss seemed OK with this. He was surprised that I considered "having to go off and do computer stuff" a holiday.
When I told several of our VPs, who had all been concerned that I hadn't had a break in such a long time, two of them nearly fell clean over that I was planning on deserting the ship for any length of time. One of them very kindly brought in for me a tourism book of SF a place he seems quite fond of.
Once it was all booked my inner geek started getting extremely excited about SF. I sat for an entire evening browsing website with links to "Future of Web Apps". I struck gold when I found lunch 2.0. This is an event hosted by Hitachi, a lunch actually. I began looking at the maps and worked out that whilst it was a bit of a slog to get from central SF near the Golden Gate bridge all the way down to Santa Clara for Hitachi, however then I spotted other big names in the valley that I could visit. The train to Santa Clara goes through Palo Alto... home of Xerox PARC. After lunch I'd be round the corner from this little fruit company I'm fond of. So it was set, free lunch and geek sight seeing.
Hence my hectic and tight schedule is thus...
Arrive London Heathrow - Friday 08.09.2006
Wedding - Saturday 09.09.2006
Visit college friend near Londonshire - Sunday 10.09.06
Fly to SFO - Monday 11.09.06
Visit geek sites - Tuesday 12.09.06
Conference Day 1 - Wednesday 13.09.06
Conference Day 2 - Thursday 14.09.06
Alcatraz - Friday 15.09.06
.
Suggestions....
.
Come home - Monday 18.09.06
Oh yeah and the photographs... well my phone is just that good. Check it out, blogger.com integration... almost makes it worth staying at blogger.com
I'm taking an excruciatingly long over due sanity restoring break.
I needed some away from work time, despite having just had a different working environment for some weeks, working in education that summer recess is a god send, I get tonnes done. However designing systems based around teaching whilst I'm damn productive it is harder to get feedback on some designs.
So I wanted to go to the "Future of Web Apps" conference but I needed a catalyst to spur me to book it. Especially as when I looked at flying either side of the conference dates flights were thousands and thousands... well 1500.
That came in a two pronged attack from fate, or coincidence or whatever you call it.
Firstly I had an invite to a wedding of two of my old college friends. This is in London some days before the conference, so I thought since I'm going to be flying about I might as well head on over to San Francisco International and get to see some amazing people discussing the future of my industry, well part if it.
I doubt if Mr. Rose or Hardt will be getting into the large scale production of FPGAs and their impact on security with added processing power in small packages.
dick hardt is currently one of my favourite presenters, along with so many others, Guy Kawasaki included - "What you gonna do - not invite me back ?" With great influences from Lawrence Lessig I enjoy watching and re watching their lectures, each time spotting a new technique.
Whilst all this seemed appealing I still needed a kick up the butt to get me going...
Secondly I happened to be chatting online with another college buddy that I was considering it, he works for a major international airline. When I looked at flying days before and having a week in SF I found costs dropped by a third. It was still a bit more that I wanted to pay. We worked out though, I could fly in to London for Wedding, kick around the English Capital for a day or two then Fly to SF from their using a UK carrier, Virgin Atlantic. Stay in SF for a week do conference stuff, and take in some of the sights, the prison (as a visitor), the bridge - that famous movie set rolling hill, the trams.
So after exploring some options we found an even cheaper set of flights, to London then to San Francisco and back all for about $400 including taxes. Fantastic, this meant I could even afford a gift. However I'm flying on the fifth anniversary of 9/11 - people say I'm brave for doing it - however I reckon statistically those flights will be the safest most guarded in the skies that day. In fact if I can order 4 or more sky marshals for my flight I'd like that arranged please - in fact why hold back, feel free to put one on each row.
Boom I booked, the conference, the flights and set about looking for accommodation in both London and SF. Had my boss sign a leave form, I think the personal lady who takes care of holidays had forgotten I still worked for the company, since I go and see her so infrequently. I had a fairly tight schedule. You see I wanted to fly into London the day before the wedding, however we had a project didn't finish until the Friday afternoon. I explained I'd make a judgement call and dependant on how smoothly stages 1-3 of the project went would decide if I needed to be there for stage 4, my boss seemed OK with this. He was surprised that I considered "having to go off and do computer stuff" a holiday.
When I told several of our VPs, who had all been concerned that I hadn't had a break in such a long time, two of them nearly fell clean over that I was planning on deserting the ship for any length of time. One of them very kindly brought in for me a tourism book of SF a place he seems quite fond of.
Once it was all booked my inner geek started getting extremely excited about SF. I sat for an entire evening browsing website with links to "Future of Web Apps". I struck gold when I found lunch 2.0. This is an event hosted by Hitachi, a lunch actually. I began looking at the maps and worked out that whilst it was a bit of a slog to get from central SF near the Golden Gate bridge all the way down to Santa Clara for Hitachi, however then I spotted other big names in the valley that I could visit. The train to Santa Clara goes through Palo Alto... home of Xerox PARC. After lunch I'd be round the corner from this little fruit company I'm fond of. So it was set, free lunch and geek sight seeing.
Hence my hectic and tight schedule is thus...
Arrive London Heathrow - Friday 08.09.2006
Wedding - Saturday 09.09.2006
Visit college friend near Londonshire - Sunday 10.09.06
Fly to SFO - Monday 11.09.06
Visit geek sites - Tuesday 12.09.06
Conference Day 1 - Wednesday 13.09.06
Conference Day 2 - Thursday 14.09.06
Alcatraz - Friday 15.09.06
.
Suggestions....
.
Come home - Monday 18.09.06
Oh yeah and the photographs... well my phone is just that good. Check it out, blogger.com integration... almost makes it worth staying at blogger.com
posted by M at 9:18 AM
1 Comments:
Did you manage to get your kit filled hand luggage on the plane? Or did you have to resort to strapping various bits of tech to your body in an attempt to get it all through security?
Keep us posted with your journey up geek mountain to touch the hem of the web's greatest and good...
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