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palfrey at 11:39am on 04/12/2004
palfrey at 11:39am on 04/12/2004I've come again to the US for a conference, this time the Globecom 2004 conference at which I've been presenting some of my work. I should realised something was a bit wrong with this place when as the flight came into Dallas I saw a large sign labelled "Don't trust the liberal media". Yup, I'm in fuck-your-sister country. Dallas, despite being variously famous, is a remarkably boring city. I got in here on Saturday 27th, and so had the Sunday to explore. As one Russian delegate put it later, it's a bit like Chenobyl. Especially on a Sunday. I.e., there doesn't appear to be a living soul for miles. There's a lot of parking lots and skyscrapers, but not a lot of people. Photos are probably up on my site as we speak of all of that. There's a couple of good art museums, but that's about it. Uptown area had a good noodle bar called "TomTom" and there's a cool free (because it's ancient and supposedly restored) tram system. Spent a little while talking to a cute Starbucks barista, and picked up the first book of the Deathstalker series in a Borders. Photos of things are now up.
Fast forward to the Monday, and the Wireless and Ad-hoc Networks workshop. Apparently the 25 papers that are on the listed program are from an original set of 120 submission, so that's pretty good. Downside/upside (depending on which papers, and whether your brain is numb from several hours of talks) was that a number of the people didn't turn up. Somehow it still ended up being the most heavily attended workshop, with somewhere in the 40 people range in the audience. I did my presentation in the afternoon, and it worked out pretty well. Got a couple of references to other papers/people from some of the attendees, and managed to ask a few questions myself here and there. In the evening we have the welcome reception. Misnamed for me, beause I've done everything I was at this conference for, and so it's more of a goodbye thing for me. Spoke to a variety of interesting people, all of whom I always think are a lot older than me, and then turn out to be 2nd/3rd year PhD students, and I end up feeling a lot less out of place. Exited relatively early, as I think the jetlag was still hitting me + needed to get up early today.
Fast forward to the Monday, and the Wireless and Ad-hoc Networks workshop. Apparently the 25 papers that are on the listed program are from an original set of 120 submission, so that's pretty good. Downside/upside (depending on which papers, and whether your brain is numb from several hours of talks) was that a number of the people didn't turn up. Somehow it still ended up being the most heavily attended workshop, with somewhere in the 40 people range in the audience. I did my presentation in the afternoon, and it worked out pretty well. Got a couple of references to other papers/people from some of the attendees, and managed to ask a few questions myself here and there. In the evening we have the welcome reception. Misnamed for me, beause I've done everything I was at this conference for, and so it's more of a goodbye thing for me. Spoke to a variety of interesting people, all of whom I always think are a lot older than me, and then turn out to be 2nd/3rd year PhD students, and I end up feeling a lot less out of place. Exited relatively early, as I think the jetlag was still hitting me + needed to get up early today.