Latest Happenings

As I write this, I am sitting in my hotel room in Portland, Oregon. And yes, on this trip to the pacific northwest, it has been raining most of the time I've been here. I'm here for SIGCSE '08 and the official launch of the book.

It borders on surreal. After I registered yesterday, I had a little time before the first keynote, so I popped into the exhibit area to see if anyone was at the booth. They weren't, but it was wild to see this big display for the book as the centerpiece of their booth. I wish I had counted now, but they probably had 20-25 copies displayed along with a big poster that was the cover. So then after the keynote, I went by to see if I could finally meet some of these people I had talked to by email and on the phone. It's kind of wild that a person can go through a process as big as writing and releasing a book and never meet the people involved face-to-face and for the only paper that is ever exchanged is the contract. The connectedness over the net has certainly changed things. So now, 2 months after the book is released, I actually meet the project manager I've been dealing with all this time.

The signing itself seems to have gone well. There were several people who did want me to sign copies, but others were just as happy to take a copy unsigned, and there were some who asked to be sent copies so they didn't have to carry it back on the plane. There were several who talked with me about the book, and it seems to have been good that I was there. Some of them remarked that they wouldn't have looked as seriously at it had I not been there to answer questions and such. One person gave me a good idea for a next, but much smaller, project. She suggested that I create an operating systems lab manual for use with Inferno. I'm going to give that some thought.

Between the response I got and some discussion in one of the sessions, I'm thinking it might be a good idea to write a paper or work up a workshop for next year's conference. Something to think about.

My time at the conference this year has ended with the authors' dinner. We went to this little restaurant that set up a "chef's tasting" menu for us. We totally lost count of how many appetizers they gave us. They had a really good pheasant ravioli. We had convinced ourselves that was the whole thing. Then our waitress came around and picked up our plates, gave us steak knives, and said that there would be 4 entrees. I think the duck was my favorite of those. And then came two desserts. But it was really kind of cool to sit around with all the other authors and the publisher folks I had dealt with so much for the past few years. So I guess it's time to post this and get ready to fly back tomorrow.