Gnome Summit 2004: Boston
This Thanksgiving weekend was spent in Boston. I went there mostly because of the Gnome Summit, but also because it could provide me with the small vacation I needed.

I drove to Montreal, where I was supposed to pick up Kamil. He was forced to take a later plane, and by the time we left Montreal it was almost 22:00. By the time we got to Boston, it was 03:00. By the time we found MIT, it was 04:00. Boston is the most difficult city I've driven around. No use in getting a hotel at that point, so we slept in the car next to a graveyard.

In the "morning", we went to get breakfast at a local diner. The craziest thing happened: Chris Lahey of Novell, whom we both recognized, came in to have breakfast too. What are the odds? This was a good thing, because he gave us definite instructions on how to get back to MIT.

Just down the from the diner there is a YMCA in a very, very old building. It definitely had character. Showering after sleeping in a car is a good thing.

We arrived at the crazy new MIT Stata Center:

The "Dr. Suess Building"

Inside the main auditorium

The Gnome Summit Beacon

The day went by very quickly, there were several good discussions about how to make Gnome more attractive and marketable so that it remains competitive as software, as well as interesting to work on and use.

That Saturday evening, Kamil and I drove around to every hotel within 40km North of Boston. As a matter of course, all of the hotels were full. Not to make the trip too cheap, we made sure to pre-book a hotel room for Sunday evening. But Saturday sleeping was done in the car in a parking lot.

The 1994 Mazda Protege car-bed, through open trunk

Yet another trip to the YMCA for general bodily maintenance. One of the cool things on Sunday was a show-and-tell for what people have been working on in Gnome. A few interesting projects included Gamin, a new GUI editor called Stetic, and a very interesting poem generator by Jon Trowbridge. In the demo, he checked off several word-source books in the options, including something about sex, a Sherlock Holmes novel, and a Linux kernel book. Here is the great poem it generated:

Her hand. Remeber, too secure, a real
effect were to become a couple of
examples and converted to a stand.
The place? In fact, her hands. The boy, the whole
remaining shaft. A few descendant, and
recover it. The time. Sometimes the case
in more. The two devices to a mere
detail. The door behind her death began.

I presented Celestia. It seemed to make an impression on many people visually, though I tried to focus my presentation on how it's a true exercise in portability, seeing as it runs on so many platforms. Even keeping the autotools files in working order is a challenge. One way or another, it was a decent presentation.

That afternoon we took a break and went to visit Harvard, since the MIT campus really is not that breathtaking. Harvard's definitely is. The buildings are old and beautiful. I took many 360° panoramic shots of the courtyards. Hopefully I can get a chance to assemble them soon.

Sunday evening we slept in a hotel! A real bed!

Monday morning there were presentations on improving Gnome's performance and how the Linux kernel will help. Around noon, Nat showed up with his Sony Aibo robotic dog. It was fun to watch and interact with.

We couldn't stay for the closing event because of a need to drive back home. Stopping twice, it took me 7h22m from the Stata Center parking lot to my garage. The total trip was 1632km in length. I look forward to next year. Right now, I need sleep.