Busy

Sunset on Santorini.

Hello everyone, sorry for not posting in the last few weeks. I have been really busy with work and travel. Even though I got to swing through Switzerland on my way to and from Santorini, and even had time for a small hike there, I spent most of my day and night time working on an IPDPS paper. Unfortunately I was too slow to get enough data and explain it appropriately to make the deadline. But we made good progress and have a good paper soon.

Hiking in the Twannbachschlucht in Switzerland.

EuroMPI in Santorini was fun and interesting; the first time attending since I switched jobs. The conference is usually set in some nice European town in September. Fall is a nice time of year because most of the tourists have left, but it is still nice and comfortably warm. It just seems that at many of them I end up spending a lot of time in my hotel working on a paper for the October deadlines.

Conference dinner was in Oia.

I did make a point to be out at sunset every day to get some pictures within walking distance of the hotel. According to Ken Rockwell's advice (a photographer's pages I sometimes read), sunset and sunrise are the only times you need to be out anyway, since that is the only time of day when the light is perfect. I usually can't make sunrises, since I'm in bed. But sunset in Santorini is easy: do that first, then have dinner at 9 with the early dinner crowd.

View from the table at the conference dinner.

I stayed in a cheap hotel that I had booked through the conference registration page. It was fine, but clearly not oriented towards the business traveler. I think they expect people to go out and do things in Santorini, instead of sitting in their room working. The WiFi was free, but didn't really reach my room. My laptop could see the signal, but never log in. So I spent time downstairs in the breakfast area where the base station was. Unfortunately that was accros from the reception desk where the daughter of the owners spent a lot of her time watching TV on her laptop. This was a small hotel with the family of three running most of the operation. I would go back there for vacation, but probably not business.

Evening in Thira, where the conference center was.

I got some good pictures even with the short time I allocated for it. You can see all of them here, but that is easy on Santorini. Aim your camera anywhere and shoot. It's bound to be interesting and capturing.

At a fancier hotel than mine.

People of Santorini make a point to show off their island.