kodiak

Somehow a martini just isn’t the same here …

Trondheim!

Today I ventured out with my camera for a while and took a few shots while exploring town. I will be here for about a month, so I can take my time. One big perk about being this far north is that you have “interesting” light all day. The best light for landscape photography is near dawn and dusk, and that is about all you get here- 4 -5 hours of dusk. An even bigger perk is that you don’t have to wake up early to get it!

A beer in Frankfurt

See you in Banff!

Unfortunately I don’t have something to present this year, but I am heading to WWW2007 anyway. The plenary program looks strong this year and as always- there are papers from some of the best people in web research, systems, data mining and machine learning. I am only heading up for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday due to time constraints on either side of the conference, but I am excited to see the material for those days.

Register now, because the deadline for early registration expires on Monday. Not that it is cheap in the first place, but if you want to go- there is no point in paying more.

For those of you debating whether or not to submit, the poster deadline is the 12th and the developer track deadline is the 16th. I have to admit that I am considering putting something quick together on web services with python and JSON for the developer track, but maybe that is better left to the experts :-P

See you there!

Back in DFW

Evening Flowers

Just a shot I snapped last night while walking from the park to dinner. The flowers in the streetside shops are amazing here. This is just a taste.

Graffiti in San Telmo

This morning I wandered down to San Telmo, one of the older parts of the city, and not quite so touristy. Amongst other things I came across this basketball court and graffiti. There is street art covering large portions of the city. Some of it is like this example, but others are more like urban murals. Quite beautiful.

There are other photos from this morning in my flickr photostream, but nothing worthy of a new set. Enjoy!

One last game with Manly

I had forgotten how much I love to play rugby. In college, my life revolved around it for a good part of the year, and when my knee trouble started during the last half of my junior year, I was deeply saddened at not being able to play. Almost as much as playing, I missed the community that surrounds rugby and the camaraderie that is shared between all ruggers. It is almost and unsaid bond between those that play. An understanding- this isn’t easy, but if you can do it, you are one of us. All you have to do is play your hardest, play clean and play fair. That is all it takes.

Today I played in the last game of the Vintage Rugby Tournament. We were the last match, on the last day, and played the host club in a friendly game. Again, the Manly Steamers played their hearts out and fought a younger, more aggressive team to a draw. The match was a friendly, and therefore more relaxed, but there were a few little things that really stuck out in the game.

The first was that even though we did not speak Spanish, and neither the referee, nor the opposing side spoke English- we all played the game and had no problems communicating. Sport is odd like that, there are rules. You learn them from the time you being playing. They are a constant, even though the interpretation of them may very from continent to continent, or even match to match!

The second moment is harder to describe and fully understand unless you have spent 4 days with these people. Warwick- a member of the Manly side- was paralyzed in an auto accident a few years ago. He still tours with the team, accompanied by a care giver and is included in everything possible. In the last period of today’s match, it was arranged to have Warwick score the last try of the game. While being a symbolic gesture, it was wholly more than that. He wheeled on the field at the 22 yard line and we passed the ball out from the scrum along the back line to Warwick on the wing. He moved, slowly but surely, along the sideline, and was them pulled into a rolling maul involving not only the Manly side, but also our opponents. We pulled him forward in his chair and as he crossed the try line both sides erupted in cheers. This was perhaps the most special moment in sports in which I have ever participated. It means more to me than any victory or any loss. It expresses the true nature of sport and why it is much more than a game. The people involved, the community that surround it and the memories it creates are the beyond simple scores and statistics to which we are often reduced. Only in participation can you hope to understand and only then would you comprehend why a group of over-aged heroes from a forgotten era still gather every two years from around the world to play the game they love and celebrate the joy of sport.