Monday, September 26, 2005

On the road to HPTS

We finally arrived at HPTS and it was a nice journey. The four of us (myself, Paul Watson, Savas and Dene Kuo) hired a car and drove from San Francisco down Highway 1. We were all probably showing our ages, listening to a-ha, Bon Jovi and others I care not to mention, as we drove. The scenery is great, the drive is sedate and I'd recommend it to anyone who has a chance. We stopped at a few places to stretch out legs and just take it easy: Santa Cruz was great for lunch, despite it being overrun with highschool cheerleaders, like something out of Bring It On, and we stopped for coffee in Carmel, with a walk on the beach. We finally arrived at Asilomar and as usual with this place, it's like stepping out of the real world and into the Twilight Zone: beauty, quiet, little of the 21st century comforts you're used to, and no real concept of time to interrupt some good work to come.

Today was mainly checking in and socialising with the rest of the invited attendees. It's been good to catch up with Jim Johnson, Jim Grey, Pat Helland and others I probably only get to see at this workshop. This year there seem to be less new faces than in previous years. I'm not sure what that means: are transactions so "un-cool" that it doesn't attract people as much, have all the really interesting and ground breaking things in transactions been done already, or something entirely different? I'm looking forward to tomorrow when the real work begins; maybe that'll help answer the question.

Update: I've been asked by Paul to point out that although he was controlling the radio in the car, he wasn't responsible for what we listened to. ;-)

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