From my recent ramblings in this part of the e-world, I can convince myself (and hopefully you too) that I had a pretty productive/fruitful trip to Germany - mainly for work (workshop, Blue Gene/L) and needless to say, some extra-curricular activities (Cathedral & Brewing Houses in Cologne, Historic Jülich Citadel and Brown Coal Mining near Jülich; Aachen in Germany; Vaals, Drielandenpunt in Netherlands). As like any other good thing, this wonderful trip, my first official one to Europe, drew to a close this past Sunday morning. Return journey didn’t feel anything like a return journey - I felt at home (and kept feeling at home) since Düsseldorf airport as one more Michiganders, Michigan Techies and many known people … all the way back to Houghton - by far the most familiar 20+ hour flight Barring a bump off in Amsterdam (due to short layover time as well as loooong queue at the international checkpoint) and some health related concerns for a fellow passenger during AMS-MSP flight, rest of the journey was quite peaceful.

The following list summarizes all that I learnt - during my stay in Jülich as well as during return journey:

1. Addition isn’t always associative – especially when multiple processors are used in the process. For example, when addition is performed using N processors, the N parts that make up the final sum should first be sorted. Then, more importantly, smaller numbers – especially should be added first and then the bigger ones. Such an approach usually leads to a better accuracy of the final sum compared to when done other the way around.
2. IBM’s XL compiler is by far the most strictest. When Dr. Roberto Orlando had once mentioned that the PGI compilers weren’t as strict compared to the corresponding Intel compilers, I had very little or no idea about what it meant. While attempting to compile SMEAGOL on JUMP, I realized – on a first hand basis – what does one mean by a strictness of a compiler. Although commercial, unlike GNU or even Intel to a certain extent, I strongly believe that people – especially the code developers – should test their codes against IBM compilers. They can then charge just enough money to purchase these compilers and keep their subscription alive. Personally, I would have no problem with it.
3. Advanced ViM usage – thanks to Siegfried as well as Jan, I know couple more fancier commands that are and will be quite useful. Without the knowledge of these, most of my stay at the NIC would have gone in fixing just the very first column of many a source files – and you can imagine – there are few tens, if not hundreds, of them and each of them sometimes have few hundreds, if not thousands, of lines Now that I have some idea about and can actually read these magical, write-only, regular expressions within ViM, I plan to learn them in more greater detail – hopefully soon enough.
4. During a journal club meeting at the NIC, I was reminded of how I used to give presentations few years ago – stacking up each slide with as much information as possible (sometimes very hard to read) and then rushing through them with high speed narrations. It used to feel like my slides were newspapers and I was the newsreader! Thanks to some self realization (I don’t recall under which tree I was sitting when this thought dawned on me – could have been a beer tree for all I care) and His Steveness (during iPod release), I can confidently say that I have considerably improved my presentation skills and that people seem to understand/appreciate it a bit more.
5. HDR movies, if possible to make, would be really fun to watch.
6. We are already asymptotically dead.
7. People in this part of the universe cross countries like we (natural as well as adopted YooPers) cross counties.
8. For all practical purposes, I strongly believe that beer should be re-defined as a strictly non-alcoholic beverage. This idea is not entirely personal – first thoughts of it came while reading the hilariously hilarious Kannada work – gaaMpara guMpu – by daasharathi deekshit.
9. Walking is really good for health – I haven’t walked so much in as long as I can remember and it’s fair to say that I have rediscovered the joy of walking – walking long (really long) distances as I once used to do. It might also be fair to say that I have walked through, around pretty much every important (and less important) streets of Jülich during my nearly fortnight long stay. As a result of all these walking, one should expect that I loose some weight. But let me not be selfish here – someone else did and that’s just fine with me.
10. Internet Chatting IS Good: There was a time, not long ago… Sunday, the 6th May 2007, I was at this Lieveboll Café in Jülich and after few cups of cappuccino, I realized that all I had left with me was € 1.50. Citi outlet wouldn’t accept my card without a PIN, Citi officials in US wouldn’t send me the PIN, local banks in the area wouldn’t let me in without their card, local shops/restaurants wouldn’t accept credit card as a method of payment and worst of all, my knowledge of German started and stopped at Hallo… things were starting to get quiet ugly and desperate. But for this beautiful thing called Internet Chat and more importantly, Ralph being online (though in Houghton), which helped me get the German equivalents of ATM (Bankautomat or Geldautomat) – I would have literally been bankrupt for the reminder of my stay here! None of the Bankautomats worked but it was during an evening walk with my camera that I saw an International Geldautomat that gleefully accepted the Wells Fargo card like every other machine I had tried before and unlike any of them, gave me the MONEY!!
11. Learn the local lingo: Not every town would let me survive for fifteen days with the knowledge of just Hallo. I should have taken the advice of Ralph as well as Jon more seriously and learnt few more phrases.
12. Carry Hard Cash: Most business establishments, at least in Jülich won’t accept credit card as a mode of payment - especially if the card issuing bank is outside of Europe. If only I knew this before, I would have carried more currency with me and would not have missed some wonderful opportunities.
13. It DOES NOT matter when one books the airline ticket; all that DOES matter is when one checks in. It now makes (more) sense as to why most airlines provide online check in facility up to 36 hours before departure time.
14. Google is probably the most well known six letter word in almost any language - I guess it has crossed any/all linguistic barrier. Having it printed on a long sleeve black T shirt has lots of advantages. Carrying an Apple notebook does not hurt either!
    
    
    

    Me, in AMS airport - waiting for rescheduling of my flight

    
    

15. I think I like Amsterdam - given the plethora of museums, pubs, roof-top restaurants, night clubs, looong sandy beaches along with a very pleasant sunrise/sunset, I need more time than a few hours layover… Shortage of time, however, didn’t stop me from shooting some pictures of the airport and the city:
    
    
    

    
    
    

    
    
    

    
    
    

    
    
    
    
    

16. Courtyard Marriott, where I was put up for the night by KLM/NWA - is pretty awesome. Apart from the courteous staff and spacious rooms with nicer views of surroundings, it’s technologically well equipped:
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

17. Keeping quiet (or mouth shut) can be very useful - I was about to ask, after requesting a combo package of Apple Pie with Nuts and Large Coffee in AMS, not to give me nuts. Something else kept me occupied and I had to remain silent - end result? Awesome tasting food:
    
    
    
    
    
18. Electric Power Supply in A330: I had no idea that even (parts of) the economy class in this carrier provided electrical power supply. Not only did this help me work on some presentations on the way back, it kept me awake - but for which, I would have completely missed the spectacular (pictures below don’t do any justice) icy shores/waters and rocky/mountainous parts of Greenland:
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
19. If you had read my experience of reaching India from Amsterdam (in August 2006), you would know that a certain cyclical dilemma had been bugging me for a while. For the sake of completeness, let me mention it again - First, I did not know as to why KLM/NWA flew a low-tech DC10 carrier from Amsterdam towards Mumbai/Delhi while they fly a fancy (and well equipped) AirBus 330 from Amsterdam towards US (and other European countries). Whether it was the unfriendly behavior of flight attendants that caused the passengers (mostly desis; does not apply to all desis though) to treat the cabin as a dumpster? OR whether it was because the passengers (mostly desis; does not apply to all desis though) used the cabin as a dumpster that the flight attendants behaved in an unfriendly manner??

    Guess what? It’s no longer a chicken-egg thing and I have figured it out - at least most of it. It is the passengers (mostly desis; does not apply to all desis though) treating the cabin as a dumpster along with a mentality - by paying for the airfare, I own the plane & the crew and I can do whatever I want - that causes (or forces to be precise) the flight attendants to be unfriendlier. It’s too bad that people often forget, especially when outside of their country/community, that their behavior is most often seen as the general behavior of the country/community - and more often than not, the other fellas from that country/community pay a rather heavy price.

    How did I figure this out? Fortunately or unfortunately, the middle aisle in my row was (three of the four seats) occupied by few desis (seats 17 D, F and G). I saw it first hand, with my bare naked eyes, as they not only drove away the fourth member of their section but literally turned it into garbage disposal unit. Adding to all this, they opened a fast food restaurant, abused the magazine pouch attached to the front seat as foot rest and used all four seats as their bedroom (trust me, ugly is an understatement). Few nuts and bolts that hold the arm-rest are quite loose now.

    It was very very hard for me not to talk to those folks about what they did but realizing that I had failed to convince my father, through 1990s, not to throw chocolate wrappers on the street or in the BTS (public transportation system in Bangalore) made me realize that it would be waste of my time and energy to do so…

20. List goes on….

PS #0: It feels good to be home and trust me, there is nothing that comes close to the feeling of sitting in front of your desktop/server at home, after a several day gap, while enjoying some good/decent food/beverage

PS #1: Back to work from tomorrow (Tuesday) and I cannot wait to explain all that I learnt in NIC, Jülich - especially the tricks of trade about using Blue Gene/L.

PS #2: Softball season begins officially tomorrow as well. Church League on Tuesdays and Michigan Tech Graduate League on Thursdays. Can’t wait to get on field either

PS #3: Please check my gallery for these and other pictures taken during the past 14 days.