As we waited for the airplane in Memphis it was obvious who was a local and who was flying in from the bay area. The slow drawl, the snippets of cell phone conversation including "those profane rock and roll lyrics", the sports jackets replacing the casual vests, all cues.
The Atlanta Linux Showcase was an excuse to duck back to the southeast to visit with friends and parents. The hard bit about coming back here is that I have to keep it pretty secret because there are so many people who'd love for me to drop by while I'm in the area that I'm going to disappoint someone. So, sorry to all those I've missed.
I'm a little pissed off at OmniSky , who doesn't have coverage out here. Thankfully, my Ricochet does, but obviously as soon as I get back I need to wire up a cable to get my Palm to talk to a cell phone and ditch the bulky OmniSky which works in Memphis but not in Atlanta. What were they thinking?
On Wednesday I got dropped off at the Cobb Galleria, nervous 'cause I was a little late to meet Eric , but I shouldn't have worried, 'cause Mike and the crowd from Higher Technology Services were just in front of me in line. So we ended up cruising the show floor and harassing (that's one word!) vendors, talking with Beau, an ex-whitewater guide who worked for the same company I used to work for on the Ocoee (in fact, I may have met him before, but my memory of those years is shady), who was now working for the Linux General Store , and he gave me a reason to talk for a while with Kate, who has a boyfriend who now works for Pixar .
So we wandered around for a while and ended up talking with Shelly (yeah, the spelling may be off) with a company that sells decked out Alpha boxes and are totally awesome with the little paddle-ball thingies, which I still haven't mastered. I'll give them front-page billing later. We decided that there are two types of people, those who can bounce up, and those who can bounce down...
After that for a bit we headed on over to Dave and Buster's where we played San Francisco Rush 2049 and a really cool Ferrari simulation, the former was the acceptable compromise for people who didn't feel like double-clutching a six-speed manual tansmission, so we spent the good part of the evening drinking vendor subsidized alcohol and slamming virtual steel against virtual concrete.
The next morning Eric and I stumbled out of the hotel thinking "well, we've hit all the exhibits, and nothing in the schedule seems worth $185", and decided to drive up to Chattanooga for geek lunch.
Ages ago, a couple of us started doing lunch at The Coffee Shop , over the years I kept up the tradition 'til it became apparent that you could always find a cool conversation at lunch there. Since I've left it's fallen off a bit, but it's still a Friday tradition.
Usually when I come back in town it's this huge reunion thing, but since Eric and I showed up mostly unannounced it was the core group, and I really enjoyed being able to chat with people in a small group. Barry , Topspin , Robert (I'll link to his more frequently updated fishing site when I've got a real net connection), Larry , Mike, Eric , and a few other guys from the Higher Technology Services crowd and one from McCallie (apologies to anyone I've left out). Had some good talks about everything from teaching high schoolers to program to flying.
In the evening we headed back down to Atlanta hoping to catch the EFF DeCSS benefit dinner, but, alas, we were confused about ticked availability. So we went to Ru San's for sushi. Well, sushi Atlanta style, including a smoked catfish roll rolled in pecans and deep fried.
Interesting.
And, of course, I'm used to my sushi chefs being Japanese and not Hispanic, but that may just be me imposing my California cultural standards on the rest of the world.
Afterwards we hooked up with Gary , then went to the Penguin Computing Friday the 13th party, where we talked with Shelly a bit more, and now I'm home writing this.
Tomorrow I get together with the parents, then it's back up to 'nooga for more visits with friends. I really, really, really need to get back here more often 'cause there are quite a few regular correspondents that I don't expect to have a chance to chat with this visit that I'd love to get in touch with, Ziffle and Charles off the top of my head.
Anyway, more news from the front as events warrant.
Friday, October 13th, 2000 danlyke@flutterby.com