9000 miles by airplane, 200 miles of driving. 3 countries , three states and 28.5 hours end to end and I’m finally ‘home’… though not hone-home.. I’m at Diane’s folks Gabe and Marcia’s house in Endicott NY. . Diane, Gabe, Trevor and the dogs drove down today… So I rented a car at JFK and drove here to meet up with them.
It was so, so ,so nice to see them when I got here about 6 tonight. it’s been more than 2 weeks since I’ve seen Gabe.. he’s gotten another foot taller (or so it seems) in that short time. .

It’s 11:20 at night here which is around 9 AM india time. For some crazy reason.. I feel great.. I think the jetlagg hasn’t hit me yet.. I am sleepy.. so let me get some of these sotred up pictures out there…

These are from friday in Bangalore..

Harish came and picked David and me up from the hotel at 7AM… … and I’d only gone to sleep at 2:30.. I was a tired pup.. but I needed to finish my presentations for Friday. Here’s a parting shot from my hotel window…

I saw the following sign on a truck.. I love hte choice of words the indians use for expressing themeselves.

The city of Bangalore has a massive public relations campaign trying to get folks to take more interest in making the city more livable.. Like this ad. Note the Kanada script on the right.. I find hte writing very beautiful !

First stop yesterday was the India Semiconductor Association (ISA) . about 60 folks representing all different areas of the semiconductor industry were there to hear David and me speak.. . I’ve spoken at ISA events before.. Turns out I knew about a half dozen of the folks in the room which helped put me at ease. David went first.. and did a great job..

Then I got up and did my bot.. which I think went quite well ..

Afterwords they gave us each a nice gift and took some pictures.. It was weird having that attention on us. I love speaking at this group.. there is sooooo much energy and optimism abotu the indutry and its future.. We need to rekindle that in this country !

Here’s a shot of my Burllington friend Joe who’s been on assignment in Bangalore for 9 months.. I loved the sign behid him.

After the ISA talk, I had back to back toalsk wht hte STG tean nenbers until about 7PM .. We didn’t have time to break for lunch so Subhrajit went out for sandwiches.. Note: A veggie sub over there has peas in it !!!

I absolutely loved meeting wiht all the STG folks through the day .. there is SO much talent and enthusiasm.. They really need to build their experince and leadersip base to leverage all that talent.. I’m going to do all I can do to see that that happens. It was dark by the time we left the IBM plant..

Joe, Harish, Subhrajit and I headed to Sudir’s house for a post RTLE dinner.

We parked behind theis cool poster of a spiritual leader.. I think I know who this guy is.. ntot sure.

Sudir and his wife have a really beutiful house smack in the center of Bangalore’s nightlife districe .

Here’s Pamela and Sudir’s wife.

Here’s Murali ) Hes an MIT graduate (phD EE>) a few years back. his research area was SQUID devices for detecting atomic orientations.. It’s really cool stuff. Murali is a good friend and protegee of my friend Ed. He’s coming to see us in Burlington in 2 weeks. which is pretty lucky given that I left my sports jacked over at Sudir’s.

Here’s a picture of Pamela and my friend Mohan..

Here’s my friend Mani.. What a great guy He and Subrajit tok extra good care of me.. picking me up at the hotel . driving me back and forth, et.

Here is a picture Mani jas of is kids n hiss cell phone.

It turns out that yesterday was ani’s 48th birthday.. Subrajiht had smuggled in a dessert ,,

Here’s the admiring crowd.

Out go the lights.. one breath !.

Tradition dictates that you feed the birthday boy cake just as you do with wedding cake here..

Here I am with her-middle-name-is-john.

.. and with Mani the brithday boy.

Around 11, pamela’s driver took me to the new Bangalore airport.. It really is a new and sparking place.. I like the little light accents

New or not.. the place is famous for long lines !

I got to the gat just as we began boarding.. I had only a few minutes to blog by cell phone, got on the plane.. then fll asleep for nearly the whole flight..
I woke when we landed at Charles de Gaulle in Paris.. Not my favorite airport.. It’s so hard to find your way around. Once again.. I went as fast as I can.. and just got to the gate as the plane to JFK was boarding.. phew..

I did take a few minutes to place a SamStone in the airport.

The flight from paris to JFK was also uneventful.. I think I slept about 2 hours.. the rest of the time I wrote aC++ code to read the output of a USB Spirometer, a device for measureing pressure vs. time. I’m workign with Peter B a Neurologist at UVM whose goign to use this interface to drive a video game to help kids with illnesses like Cystic Fybrosis enjoy their breathing exercises .. I got my code working ust as my laptop battieris were about to run out,It was so cool.. I wonder what the folks around me thought about watching me breath into this thing hooked ot my laptop.

We got to NYC abotu 1PM, 30 minlatelate.. I cleared customs quickly since I was carrying my baggage.. the Immigrations guy looked at me and said” Many, you travel alot’.. when one of them says that.. you knwo you do travel a bunch !

I grabbed a hertz car and took off for Endicott.. 200 miles away.. It took me an hour to clear the city.. traffic was backed up and it was hot and hazy as can be. one thermomoter I saw said 102 degrees !.
.

I got here around 6.. and just hung out with Dinae, Marcia and Gabe.. (here’s Gabe below) ..

A little later Linda and David came over. We went swimming and just goofed off.. Just what I needed

After dinner, Diane and I went over to Linda. Andrea and David’s to hang out on their porch.. It was wonderful and peaceful .. Heres a shot of Linda and Andrea .. They’re such great friends.. we had a great conversation about Sam (your ears would be burning , man)

OK.. jet lag is taking over now.. I think this will have to do for tonight.. More stuff tomorrow. It is so good to be home.. Gnite everyone.. Gnite Sam
-me

My friends.. I’m up way too late givvin the time I have to wake up tomorrow. I’m going to post these pictures with minumum text in the interest of getting some sleep !
 

As I left the lab in Delhi, the resident dog family was there to say good bye.. Seems they live there.. The staff makes sure that they’re well fed.. They are so cute !

Salim picked me up at 6 and took me to the airport.. I was there in plnety of time.. Not a quarantee in Delhi traffic !

I grabbed a quick bite at the McDonalds in the airport.. they hae a full veggi line.. and mot of it’s vegan !

This sign really caught me.. The message is true and it made me thing of my SMC..

THe flight to Banglaore was 2.5 hours and uneventful.. I landed at the brand new Bangalore airport. An infinite improvement ver the old Bangalore airport.. It was more like a bus station !

My friend Mani was ther to meet me.. It was so nice to see a friends face !

THis morening I went over to the conference at abotu 7:30 courtesy of my friend Subhrajit.. Here’s my freind Sukanya trying to dig out my registration from the pile

I went into breakfast and found so many frinds.. Here’s my buddy dave.. all the way from Burlington ! I never get to see him there.

Here’s the breakfast table I hosted.. all nice guys .. all differnt lines of work. I love hearign their stories ..

There were about 1000 people at the conference..

Nick D and reinds cncecrated the event by lighting a sacred candle.. a nice touch

Nick gave a really good talk.. .. proably his last official one in India.. e retires Oct 1. The company will be a differnt place without him.

This is hsi favorite line.. something his dad once said to him .

Lunch was amazing.. 1000 peple crammed into a small patio.. good food though !

I saw my freind Suparna.. . It was nice seeing her..

Eeek.. my turn to talk.. Lots of people !

Here are one of my set of copanelists Paul M, and Satish (I gave 4 presnettions/panels today)

And our other paneist Ed K. He graduated college in 1963 and looks younger than me !

Here are my copanelists on the Fellows panels.. Ray. Mohan. me and Dave.. all good buds.

Subrahjit gave me a ride home at 9:30 .. the streets were still packed !

I got here aroudn 10L30.. then dave and I worked for another hour and a half over a bottle of Indain wine. . No rest for the wicked..

OK.. Off to sleep.. GNite all. Nite Sam !
-me

Hi friends…

It’s about midnight and I’m struggling to stay awake. It’s been a good day here.. THe meeting was really interesting.. and I also managed to get some good day job work done. that’s the advantage of working in two such different timezones..

I am feeling sort of lonely and disconencted here.. Last night I did aomehting I rarley do when I travel.. I acaually went out and ate dinner by myslef. Usually when I travel by myself I only eat when there’s a group f folks goign out.. Last night I was too hingary to sleep.. so I went down to the resturant and ordered a meal.. just liek all the other guys eating by themselves.. I didn’t feel social.. and evindently neaher did they. we all ate in silence.. Actually.. it asn’t to bad. the food was excelelnt.. I even took pictures.. I call them ;Still life with okra’ ..

It was by far the best okra I’ve ever eaten.. My dad loves okra.. but I
wouldn’t touch the stiff as a kid.. now I love it.. Just one of the
many good traits I picked up from my folks..

For dessert I took Pan.. the wierd Indian concoction made of beetle leaf, lm e as in calcium carbonate.. not the citrus fruit), sugar, silver flakes, cardamon and (sometimes tobacoo all wrapped in a beetle leaf.. It’s got to be the weirdest thing eaten on the entire planet.. It tastes a bit like toothpaste mixed with wood chips wrapped in newspaper.. but for some reason I just love it.. ‘sposed to be good for your digestion.. and a billian indians couldn’t all be wrong.. could they ?

I got up at 6:30 this morning.. did some yoga and wentdown staris to have breakfast with einds. My driver Salim met me at 8:30 and we went out to battle our way to teh ibm site.. As we left.. I took a pictue of the most ignored sign in all of Delhi..

I love driving through this place. it looks familiar to me now.. I love the color. the people and the general disorder

THere’s some serous roadwork goign on here (a new metro maybe ?) .. I loved the signs they had plasted on the road works. The english is close, but no tobacoo leaves stuffed inside tobaco leaves.

The took ?!

And my personal favorite for all your crytographers and number theorists out there..

I just realized that it didn’t rain today !.. Though.. the streets are still pretty flooded.

The IBM Researhc lab here is beutiful and gleaming.. a perfect place for a meeting…

We worked from 9 till 6:30 then headed back to the hotel.. these cutre street puppies were foraging ouside the plant.. The mma was there too… they looked pretty helathy

It is pretty hot and steamy here.. I think this picture captured the feel of the late afternoon atmosphere .

We got back to the hotel in time for a 7:30 dinner.. Great conversationn. I partculary enjoyed the conversation tonight . I spoke with Chieko-san.. She’s a blind researcher at IBM Tokyo Lab who works on alternat ecomutere interaction. . Bo from Beijng, Eric from theCongo by way of S. Aftrica, Paul from NY, Nitendra from Delhi, Chalire from Minnesota and several others… I had to break for a half hour in the middle of dinner to take a work call.. but got back in time or the rest of the meal. Dinner was great !

Not muchelse to report here.. I’ve used some of the time here to catch u on the SamStone palcement and findings. I put about 15 new ones on the map today including the following ones..