Monthly Archives: December 2009

Friday night – Fascinating

Fascinating day.. Woke up in Tarrytown New York with no idea where I was.. I lay in bed for a few minutes trying to figure out where I was and why.. It’s was fun and disconcerting (which is better  than disconcerting and fun)   I’d driven down with my friend  Steve last night  to go to a meeting in Yorktown with folks from the University of Vermont and IBM scientists.  
  The meeitng today was very cool.. mathematicians. physicists, operations research, medical researchers.. all looking for common ground. We were looking for ways to collaboate around IBM’s smarter Planet ideas and UVM’s complex systems concentration.. I think we came up with some cool threads to work.
   A bonus of today’s visit was a set of tours.. First stop was a visit to Yorktown’s large Bluegene supercomputer. It’s one of hte most powerful computers in the world (outside of a government facility.) . Many of my friends worked on this thing.. it’s an amazing piece of technology.. and a work of art..  albeit a very loud piece of art.

The supercomputer is made of several long rows of racks.. all canted at a funny angle.


Company lore says that the original build of the device had the racks placed at an angle to facilitate cooling.. the graphics design folks  liked the fact that the racks were angled.. but they didn’t think they were angled enough. Consequently.. the outside  frames are canted at a steeper angle than the inside.. Life emulates art.

ps. the pattern on my jacket is some sort of bizarre optical illusion. that must have something to do with the lighting.. My jacket is a really boring pattern.. The camera made it psychedelic.   Cooooool

It was really fun looking through the guts of this thing.. I felt really proud.. I was a minor player in the creation of the 10’s of thousand of chips that make up the machines ‘brains’ .

After touring Bluegene.. we took a quick outside tour of a new solar idea that’s being developed in yorktown. the idea is to concentrate more of the sun on a solar cell that usual.. In this case, they were concentrating 2000 equivalent suns on a Gallium Arsenide solar cell cooled by liquid gallium.   As a result.. they were able to get about 75 watts from a 1 cm**2  cell (that’s PHENOMENAL !)

Around 1:30 I wandered down to the lobby and stumbled into a party for a bunch of friends in the communications are of IBM. It was awesome seeing these guys.. I really like them all..   I was having so much fun talking to all of them that I didn’t see the car that had been sent to pick me up. After about 30 min, I realized I was still standing there.. I called and realized that the poor driver had been waiting quietly for me to walk outside.
   The driver was an awesome guy.. Ruddy.. we had a great tlak on the way down to NYC. He told me all of the cool/weird/awesoem/horrible folks he gets to/has to drive around. For example.. He drives Christopher Walken around.. how cool is that ?! (more cowbell !)
  Even with the late start, I got to my meeting in the city in plenty of time.. I  was going to ogilvy.. IBM’s add agency where I’m doing a project around our Smarter Planet stuff. I love goign there. the folks are all so cool and smart. I’m finding I love watching other folks..differnt non-engineering folks.. work .

And besides.. they have a warthog made out of tires in their lobby. Whay wouldn’t I love them ?

Now I’m at Maxes.. he’s sleeping off the last 2 days of staying awake to finish his semester. Hes doing great.. and I’m so proud of him…

Right now though.. i need to sleep//.. so .. more tomorrow..
Nite folks.. Nite everyone. happy last night of Chanukah !
-me

Thursday night – Stories

I’m in a hotel room somewhere in westchester county. My buddy Steve and I drove down this afternoon for a meeting in Yorktown tomorrow. It was great talking to Steve.. a great guy, very thoughtful, good talker, good listener.. We got here about 9-ish in time to meet some of the folks from UVM we’ll be meeting with tomorrow.. We spent another hour talking with them.. then Steve and I went out and grabbed a late dinner… more talking  The conversations have  been great all day.. ..The thing is, though.. I keep hearing myself telling the same stories.. I’m not telling them to the same folks..  but when I come across someone new.. and they want to hear about The Colony.. or any other facet of my life.. my family, , sam, work, burning man, It sometimes feels like I’m pulling out a tape and hitting play. Maybe that’s unavoidable when you have things you want to relate..   but I hate feeling like I’m repeating something.. or worse.. boring folks. I simply don’t know how to stop talking sometimes, Why do we tell the stories we tell ? Why do we feel compelled to tell them as often as we do..  ? (as I do ? ?
    As if to make that point.. here’s an interview I did last night for the Linux Tech Show podcast..   Same stories..  different audience. ,  

Guess it’s time to make some new ones.

Yikes .. It’s nearly 1:30.. I better shut up now.. Gnite everybody.. nite Sam !
-me

Wednesday night – Smart Grid

Friends,
IBM put out another of our Smarter Planet videos today.. let me know what you think of this one. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93YM0PNFgSs

The earlier one on micro-forecasting is here   . IBM is building a series around these.. which we hope will raise awareness our Smarter Planet ideas on how computers can help solve environmental issues.  I’d really like to know what you think.. and get suggestions for how to improve them.. and get ideas for future topics.   If you like them, please send the links on to your friends.. we’d like to get them into circulation.

   Aside from that it was a quiet day. I did manage to get out and do some xmas shopping this afternoon. It felt good to be doing it. I did get choked up a few times as I realized I was buying for two kids

now.. not three.. It’s such a strange way that San’s absence is more

present than anyone sometimes.

Overall it’s good to be out in the world, seeing people shopping , running into freinds.. Church street looked beautiful at twilight.


I did come across one greeting card that stuck me very powerfully.. it’s had a quote by anais nin.. (kind of a surprise there.. ) Here’s what it said.

I’m leanring that again and again these days..

I think I’m expanding…

Nite folks, nite Sam !
-me

Tuesday night – advice

I was on the phone 8AM until 6PM without even a break for lunch, yet when I left for the day I was feeling refreshed and energized.. I got half way ome trying to figure out why I felt  so jazzed after what should have been a grueling day.. Then I realized what I’d been doing all day. 8 of my 16 meetings (yes.. 16 !) today had to do with my day job. Pretty interesting stuff these days. especially some of the new stuff I’m focusing on.. The other 8 meetings.. were about mentoring and advice..   That is  .. me acting as the grizzled Yoda character and some young person who’s twice as smart as me comes and asks for my advice on job, career, school, etc. .. I grunt occasionally and make a few nonsensical remarks.. then they thank me profusely and hang up.   I’m not sure why suddenly my advice–giving numbers are up. I suppose it’s because it’s near the end of the year and everyone;s under stress.. or feeling philisophical as the holidays roll around. Maybe it’s because I’m enjoyign my work much more these days and folks can smell it on me ?  I don’t think the advice I give is always that good.. but what I can say is that giving advice makes one feel better. It’s funny how working on someone else’s troubles makes your own seem less important.. It’s also so true that it’s easier to work on someone else’s issues than your own.  I’m not so sure exactly why.. but I have to say I’m grateful for the opportunity.
   That’s it for tonight.. get back to work …. may the force be with you.. !

Nite friends.. nite Sam
-me