SC08

SC08

17 - 21 Nov 2008
Austin

PREAMBLE: I must bring a better camera with me on my next trip. The Coolpix L11 just cannot make it. The venerable Coolpix 4300 (may it RIP) did a much better job on all the previous trips.

UA804 - Singapore to Tokyo

Service on UA has gone from below average but still acceptable to downright rude at times.

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Somehow them Americans are fond of giving you the cold turkey treatment

Transit at Narita

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The only proper meal in the entire trip to Austin, as can be seen from the happy faces. The only catch is must ownself pay money one.

UA838 - Tokyo to San Francisco

Served by an extremely rude hostess who seemed to to treat all passengers (or "customers" in UA parlance) with contempt.
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An indeterminate slab of meat (probably
beef) with the usual sides for dinner

 

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Breakfast was not much better

UA374 - San Francisco to Austin

No window seat, no service, basically fell asleep for the entire 3-hour flight, so no photos.

At the Convention Centre

Keynote Speech by Michael Dell, overheard described as the worst keynote speech ever. In summary, "all the best things in HPC are happening on Dell computers".

In and around the exhibition hall

IBM iDataPlex

SGI Molecule - made from hundreds to thousands of wholesome Intel Atoms!

A static display of what was then the most expensive sofa set in the world, a.k.a. the Cray 1

Sun magic show again

Fujitsu FX-1

This has probably nothing to do with it's more infamous namesake in Singapore

Outside the convention centre

The obligatory Thursday evening social event

that is part of every SC. Held at this place called Star Hill Ranch Extremely cold due to wind chill, so left very early.

Queuing for transport to the ranch. Snaked about three quarter way round the convention centre.

Greeted by these miniature donkeys upon arrival

What we call Red Indian (or, to be politically correct, Native American) Dance

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Quicktime movie
Warning: Large file - 19MB

Cowboy Poetry. Arrived just in time to hear a melancholic piece about some cowboy's sweetheart who BSOD'd and was waiting for him at /dev/null.
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Quicktime movie
Warning: Large file - 10MB

Mariachi Singers. All Greek to me (although techinically, it's most probably Spanish).
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Quicktime movie
Warning: Large file - 51MB

Visit to TACC,

courtesy of TACC and Sun, specifically to see their Ranger system, ranked 6th on the November 2008 Top 500 list.

That famous monstrous Infiniband switch

Cold aisle

Hot aisle

Food

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Fried suckling pig (not chicken) drumsticks
Dinner about 1km (30-min walk) from the hotel (had steak and lobster combo)
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Had this for breakfast at some sidewalk cafe near the convention centre

Brazillian barbeque for lunch just across the road for the convention centre

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Final dinner in Texas before heading home

The Hotel

The room

And the view (or rather, the lack thereof)

The (More Interesting) Freebies

Foundryman!
You can have Petaflops now!
The only penguins in the entire show

From Microsoft you get golf caps, decent 2GB thumb drives and mouse pads

Blinking lights, the must-haves of every SC.
Cray lip balm

T-shirts from Sun (left) and ORNL (middle and right)

~ The End ~