A week of attempting, in a mostly futile fashion, to build a full suite of certificate machines and perform full upgrades. Most of the grief has been trying to get the Java instances to behave in various combinations of virtual machines under differing hosts on some hardware that’s known to have odd characteristics (Dell 2950). But, in the end we have a set of notes of things that can go wrong and how to work around them.  The upgrade testing will have to wait until I’m back in the UK later next week.

Next stop, San Francisco Airport to catch the red-eye to New York to visit Mr & Mrs Pride and perform east-coast toy shopping. I wonder how much more the suitcases can take.

Spent a couple of hours in Starbucks sipping coffee and typing up Saturday’s exploits. Most of the time seemed to be spent fighting the lack of Google wireless. The huge number of wireless lans that are visible makes me suspect there’s an issue for anyone not willing to crank up the power.

For the afternoon I popped over to the Computer History Museum and hooked up on one of the tours. Whilst none of history is particularly unfamiliar it’s nice to hear the slant given over here. The various exhibits cover the entire electric computing age but despite the fact that they do restore some pieces of equipment to a working state (they’re currently working on a DEC PDP 1, and are moving onto an IBM 1401 later) it is sad that most of the kit is just dead metal.

The one aspect of the older kit that was amusing was the size of the consoles, the hoards of lights and switches, the intimation of huge power at the flick of a switch (never mind the huge amount of power needed to run the thing) with the huge desk area in front to keep the relevant reference and operations manuals open.

But the one thing, more than any other, that all these big-iron consoles kept reminding me of was the parody of the M$ Surface, it’s a big-ass table.

First order of business was the acquisition of a new lens. Canon have a new IS (Image Stabilised) lens which appears to be explicitly for their digital SLRs. A 55-250mm f4-5.6. Having been used to the 70-300mm F4-5.6 which I got with the camera originally, and also had on the previous chemical EOS I had I was a little loath to reduce my range option. But, the new beast is quite a bit cheaper, ~$300 against the ~$550 for the IS version of the 70-300mm. In taking slight reduction I can put the saving toward an IS version of the base lens that came with the camera, an 18-55mm. This would then give me IS across the range. Then the only remaining temptation is going to be a second body so I don’t have to keep exposing the inner face each change. There’s a new 12Mpixel Canon but for some reason they’ve switched it to SD cards rather than CF. I don’t see the point really, since I want as fast as possible a card especially as image size increases and the SD only go to 150x whereas I can get 305x CF.

Anyway, off to SF I head to get a trip around the bay, doing the tourist and taking pics of anything that moves and doesn’t.

Under the Golden Gate bridge, a loop around Alcatraz, and then under the Oakland bridge. Much experimenting with the new lens. It seems to be very effective in keeping a steady spot, but the effects of a boat bouncing around on the swell coming in from the Pacific is enough to make the framing you thought you had obsolete before you realise. Multiple attempts seems to be the order of the day. The only downside appears to be how quickly I can get through the storage. Shooting in raw mode I manage to fill 4GB of storage just on the boat trip.

After off-loading everything to the Air in the car I contacted my work colleague Xixi who works from her home in SF. A few attempts at a rendezvous point later I head out to 18th & Judah, pausing to enjoy the delights of a traffic jam and detour due to an accident, Digital Doris grudgingly recalculating my route. On a windy corner I finally met the person I’ve had dealings with for 3 years, and work directly with for a single year.

We leap into my dubiously parked car (I have not unravelled the nuances of kerb markings) and head to the Botanical Gardens in Golden Gate Park.

A very pleasant few hours spent in Xixi’s company, getting to know some of each other’s history and exchanging the usual comparisons and views on of worlds and experiences.

A further hour chatting in a coffee shop and we go our separate ways. I head back to Mountain View and contemplate what flavour I fancy for dinner.

A very gentle stroll from the motel to Castro St (my feet aren’t used to all this walking) and I decide to try one of the cursed corner restaurants. On the intersection of Castro & California there are two corner plots that seem to be cursed for businesses. One corner is still closed, the only obvious steak-house as was. The other is a ‘world cuisine’ establishment called Castro Point. As is usual I couldn’t tell you the nuances of the food (me no restaurant critic, I just know what’s good), but a calimari starter followed by a nice 10oz rib-eye steak with a fancy porcini & pepper topping. All accompanied with a nice Italian Spanish tempranillo wine. Despite being in the region I still can’t convince myself to try Californian wines. Despite the not entirely cheap prices I get the feeling this one won’t be here next time I visit. A lot of staff, and what would appear to be an approach that favours only one sitting of an evening together with a cuisine doesn’t justify any higher prices I don’t see how they can last. Which is a shame, but I’m sure there’ll be something else to try instead.

Now, what to do tomorrow.

Finish the week realising that i’ve been trying to get the new Satellite machine synced for a whole week and that it’s still not complete. There is something seriously borked in the land of Denmark, though whether I can get anyone to take my complaints seriously remains to be seen.

In fact, this has been more of a case of receiving the first draft of the training material and having to fill in the blanks and provide feedback to help produce what will become the real training materials. Even so, it looks like this project finally provides the framework to address the shortcomings and complexities in building an integrated secured cross-machine access system based on standardised components.  Certainly the various elements involved have been around for a while, but as is so often the case it has taken someone the time and effort to disect the common attributes and standard use cases and put the elements back together into a more cohesive whole. With any luck the result should kickstart a more general re-appraisal of how various disparate components and projects interact, and what basic assumptions they make about their operating environments.

Most of the guys attending the training sessions have either left or will do so early tomorrow, so then begins the task of learning the details of supporting the existing, and more variably complex products.  Perhaps I should patent the idea of headphones with cups underneath to capture the leaking brains for any others who are faced with similar training ordeals.

Taking my time to catch up with the folks on IRC and discussing possible lens purchases delays my leaving the motel until mid-morning.

I decided to head to SF and see if I can do a boat trip around the bay. On driving along the Embarcadaro I end up parking too soon, and spend the time prior to lunch wandering along the even numbered piers, noting the state of disrepair. Lunch is some calimari followed by cajun-peppered red snapper whilst looking out over the inner bay.

In the mini-market in the main port building I note the following sign

I cannot help but think they had to add the second piece on the sign after receiving complaints or excessive curious solicitations.

Headed back down the even piers (all the while wonder where the odd ones have got to) I discover on checking the map back in the car that the odd-number piers are beyond the main port building and that I’ve done all the wrong end. Unfortunately by this time I was succumbing to the effects of backpack friction on the sun-burnt areas accumulated the previous day. In the spirit of the great intrepid explorers I conclude it’s all bollocks and return to the motel for a nap.

Eventually I headed out fairly late for a bite, and decide to try the kebab place I’d noted a previous night. After ordering, paying and then waiting at a table for ten minutes the owner comes to apologise after realising they’d handed my meal to someone else. He invited me to the till where my money was refunded and he then offered me something slightly different on the house. After a few minutes he delivered it to my table along with a little box of regional sweets along with further profuse apologies and a chit for a further free meal the next time I turn up. Two meals for nowt, that’s service, especially as I could have coped with a doner kebab in a paper bag.

The trip back down (and up, and down) is taken at a slightly brisker pace having noted nothing too scary on the way to the observatory. On stopping at the first proper intersection back in civilisation to pick up some after-sun I note the distinctive smell of burnt brake-pads. Well at least I don’t have to pay for them

Saturday evening I decide to wander to the local establishment that resembles a pub (that doesn’t also claim ginyouine oirish descent) and sup a few Sam Adams. Kept being amused by the presence of a particular beer on tap CzechVar in a distinctive red on white type. Enjoy explaining to a couple of bemused Americans that their country is almost the only one in the world where that particular brew is named as such.

So, I reach the weekend. The guys in the office have been working like trojans all week on keeping things ticking whilst simultaneously covering for sick colleagues and manning the exhibition stand, so I’m left to occupy myself for the weekend whilst they catch up with their families.

Saturday starts with a visit to the museum at Moffett Airfield. The museum having moved from “Hangar One” to an adjacent building after the hanger was declared PCB contaminated. The museum is staffed by volunteers who are mainly former servicement and women who were stationed at the airfield. Most curious item to see is the Graphotype machine used for punching text onto dogtags

And the trailer

12►

Thursday I was drafted to be on the stand at the RSA2008 Expo at the Moscone Center(sic). Your typical trade show which I’d have to sum up as “1001 Corner Cases”.

Friday was spent catching up on email and setting up an RHN Satellite server
as the availability of updates for deployment in the office was limiting support and the developers.

Shipped out Wednesday morning, or at least that was the plan. The usual horrible early start and SWMBO kindly gave me a lift to Heathrow airport and got me there well before 7am. Decided the company paid-for economy ticket was going to be too cramped for my liking and paid for an upgrade to premium economy. Through security (this week the laptops stay in the bags, and you keep your shoes on) and gently amble in the direction of a fried breakfast. After which I started on whichever tome of space-opera I’d thrown in the bag, with the occasional wander to the Dixons store to ogle at the Macbook Air they had on display. After a while I realised they’d not updated the gate-open time for the flight, one hour delay, which turns into 1.5 hours. And then suffer the ten hour tedium of the flight itself.

Arriving at SFO the weather turns out to be pleasantly warm compared to the UK and I conclude my decision not to bring a leather jacket was a good one. The car rental seems to have warped me into an alternate reality of opulence, either that or my decision to have all the insurance made his day. I got a choice of almost anything they had, and plumped for a Sebring convertible with 800 miles on the clock.

Top down, drive down the 280 and head into Palo Alto for some shiney Apple goodness. One SSD Macbook Air, and wired ethernet doobry, and superdrive, and 1TB Time Capsule later I feel suitably saited and pop to the office and find that the ID card we were issued in Farnborough this time last year on moving into the new offices there actually lets me into the office here at Mountain View. Organisation ? Who’da thunk it ?

And to conclude this missive, the view from the office facing East,

The odd roofline of the build on the left is the NASA Ames wind tunnel, the big grey lump with the black top is the old airship hanger at Moffett field, and the two green things behind are the existing hangers as occasionally featured in Mythbusters.