Thursday, November 12, 2009
TechEd Berlin - Day 3 - How many miles have I walked this week?
Found myself in a strange town
Though I've only been here for four days now
I've got blisters on my feet
Trying to find a friend in Friedrichstrasse.
{with apologies to The Jam}
Though I've only been here for four days now
I've got blisters on my feet
Trying to find a friend in Friedrichstrasse.
{with apologies to The Jam}
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
TechEd Berlin - Day 2 - Where's my hotel?
There’s a U-Bahn station near my hotel at Wittenbergplatz which I can use to get to the S-Bahn railway at Zoologischer Garten, instead of walking directly up Budapesterstrasse. Looking at the map, it only saves me about 30 yards so it’s more for variety. So tonight I get off the S-Bahn and bump into the people who work with me on the BizTalk desk at TechEd. They are taking the underground too as their hotel is on the same line as mine. We are chatting on the train and it occurs to me that I am not concentrating on where I am going. As we pull out Wittenbergplatz, I realise that this was the one I needed to get off at. At the next stop, Nollendorfplatz, I make my farewells but they tell me this is their stop too. Not wanting to appear a confused idiot, I don’t mention my mistake and, while they are distracted by a noodle stand (which smelled gorgeous), I sneak back to the opposite platform to wait for the next train back to the station I’d missed. Ten minutes later I am at Wittenbergplatz and climb the stairs to the surface. I recall the morning trip where a woman took a photo of the building opposite (which doesn’t look so impressive at night) and the pedestrian crossing where I waited for the lights to change. I don’t recall the side road next to the crossing being there, though... Off I stroll down the road and soon start to wonder why it is taking so long to find Nurnbergerstrasse and my hotel. Maybe it is because I’m walking in the dark after a busy day? As I reach an Underground station, I check my map. It is Nollendorfplatz - the one where I left my colleagues buying noodles. I had managed to walk in the exact opposite direction and so it’s back up the stairs and on to the platform. Ten minutes later I am again at the stop I need. This time at the surface I am facing the right direction and the building that the woman had been photographing looks vastly more impressive. And there is no side road by the crossing. Before I know it, I am back at the hotel...
TechEd Berlin - Day 2 - It's all work, work, work...
There were numerous Xbox stations positioned around the event with people like this showing how easy Expert mode was. Bastards.
TechEd Berlin - Day 2 - Messe Berlin
The Messe Berlin has an impressive facade at the South Entrance and the reception area is vast.
I love photo-stitching software. This panorama is made up of 6 photographs:
I love photo-stitching software. This panorama is made up of 6 photographs:
Monday, November 09, 2009
TechEd Berlin - Day 1 - Berlin Wall, 20th anniversary
Ah, hindsight...
Back on Saturday when I was packing, I decided to not take my DMs with me. They’re not comfortable enough yet but they would have kept my feet dry. And I forgot to bring the cagoule that I planned to use, having seen the predicted weather forecast.
So here I am standing in the rain for an interminable length of time waiting for some giant dominos to be pushed over. My feet are wet and the rain has soaked through my coat, jumper and T-shirt. And this while being in an umbrella forest. Umbrellas are great – a single person can keep quite dry while sheltering under one. This benefit quickly disappears when overlapping umbrellas form a cascading waterfall of drips.
Two hours. That was today’s “interminable”, as calculated from the photo timestamps. Two hours of being squashed up with lots of other people ensuring no-one poked me in the eye with their opened umbrella. And when the dominos DID fall, I pretty much missed it in the chaos of bobbing heads and cameras.
Did I get anything out of the evening? Of course. Highlights, or at least mediumlights (in no particular order).
Back on Saturday when I was packing, I decided to not take my DMs with me. They’re not comfortable enough yet but they would have kept my feet dry. And I forgot to bring the cagoule that I planned to use, having seen the predicted weather forecast.
So here I am standing in the rain for an interminable length of time waiting for some giant dominos to be pushed over. My feet are wet and the rain has soaked through my coat, jumper and T-shirt. And this while being in an umbrella forest. Umbrellas are great – a single person can keep quite dry while sheltering under one. This benefit quickly disappears when overlapping umbrellas form a cascading waterfall of drips.
Two hours. That was today’s “interminable”, as calculated from the photo timestamps. Two hours of being squashed up with lots of other people ensuring no-one poked me in the eye with their opened umbrella. And when the dominos DID fall, I pretty much missed it in the chaos of bobbing heads and cameras.
Did I get anything out of the evening? Of course. Highlights, or at least mediumlights (in no particular order).
- Trying to listen to Hilary Clinton while her delivery was being translated into German over the top.
- Watching Gorbachev on a screen some distance away when the rain stopped. Apparently also in attendance were Lech Walechsa, Nicolas Sarkozy, Dmitry Medwedew, and Gordon Brown but it was impossible to tell with the umbrella forest blocking out anything worth seeing.
- Glauwein and Rostbratwurst from the stalls
- Hearing Jon Bon Jovi play his new song. This was working hard to avoid being a lowlight. One song – not particularly memorable. Left wondering “why?”
- Fireworks at the end were good (although half-hidden by smoke at times)
- Watching outside broadcast units in action. I was disappointed to see some drunken local trying to gatecrash a presenter’s delivery. Wasn’t even the mildly amusing jape in the background but trying to run in front of the camera instead.
- Seeing the Holocaust Memorial. It was kind of weird seeing people clambering over the concrete blocks like they were playground obstacles.
- On the way back, buying a litre of premium (4.9%) pils for €2.50 from a shop by the underground station.
TechEd Berlin - Day 1 - Registration
TechEd is quite a well-oiled machine. Before you arrive you can print off a bus pass for the city (assuming you registered online) so you can get around with just a slip of paper. The hotel you are ataying in is primed with travel notices to hand out to attendees. When you get to the event, getting your registration pack and swag is a breeze although the queue for the former was a bit too long for my liking (Just-in-time travelling a speciality) as I had to be there ready to work.
Note - Before you leave your hotel to go to such an event, read the emails that you were sent. They may include such comments as "bring government-issued photo ID". Do not, instead, read the documentation whilst standing in line when realisation dawns that your passport is safely locked away in the hotel. Luckily, they accepted my Microsoft security pass and a credit card with my name on it.
The swag was a branded bag. For non-staff, they threw in a metal water bottle to reduce the environmental impact of TechEd - you would make use of the water cooler stations around the event instead of raiding the fridges and coffee stands. Maybe the organisers though that TechEd staff require a constant caffiene to keep working and water would just impact performance?
Note - Before you leave your hotel to go to such an event, read the emails that you were sent. They may include such comments as "bring government-issued photo ID". Do not, instead, read the documentation whilst standing in line when realisation dawns that your passport is safely locked away in the hotel. Luckily, they accepted my Microsoft security pass and a credit card with my name on it.
The swag was a branded bag. For non-staff, they threw in a metal water bottle to reduce the environmental impact of TechEd - you would make use of the water cooler stations around the event instead of raiding the fridges and coffee stands. Maybe the organisers though that TechEd staff require a constant caffiene to keep working and water would just impact performance?
Sunday, November 08, 2009
TechEd Berlin - Day 0 - walking around
It is really hard to imagine what the city looked like in the 1940s as so much rebuilding work has reshaped Berlin but then you come across the ruined Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church which really makes you pause for thought.
TechEd Berlin - Day 0 - off to Hearthrow
Interesting conjunction of events for the coming week in Berlin.
1 TechEd Europe event (where I'm helping out)
2 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall coming down (celebrated in Berlin)
3 Remembrance Day (not celebrated in Berlin)
The first should be no problem - smile, act techy and remember the Paracetamol for the hangover. The travel is going well so far even though the train into Reading was running 5 minutes late. On my tight schedule, that was a worry but not critical. As was there being initially no one at the RailAir ticket desk. So now I'm making use of the free wireless on the coach to write this blog post. Ah, luxury travel - don't get Internet access in taxis.
The Berlin Wall festival should be good - I'll need to find out tonight what's going on next week. I don't want to miss the celebrations just because I couldn't be bothered to do a little research. The event has had a reasonable amount of coverage in the UK (TV programmes, newspaper articles, etc) so will be interesting to see how it is covered at source.
On Wednesday it will be November 11th and Remembrance Day. Obviously an important day around the world for those countries on the Allied side. It will be interesting so see if anybody is wearing poppies.
1 TechEd Europe event (where I'm helping out)
2 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall coming down (celebrated in Berlin)
3 Remembrance Day (not celebrated in Berlin)
The first should be no problem - smile, act techy and remember the Paracetamol for the hangover. The travel is going well so far even though the train into Reading was running 5 minutes late. On my tight schedule, that was a worry but not critical. As was there being initially no one at the RailAir ticket desk. So now I'm making use of the free wireless on the coach to write this blog post. Ah, luxury travel - don't get Internet access in taxis.
The Berlin Wall festival should be good - I'll need to find out tonight what's going on next week. I don't want to miss the celebrations just because I couldn't be bothered to do a little research. The event has had a reasonable amount of coverage in the UK (TV programmes, newspaper articles, etc) so will be interesting to see how it is covered at source.
On Wednesday it will be November 11th and Remembrance Day. Obviously an important day around the world for those countries on the Allied side. It will be interesting so see if anybody is wearing poppies.
TechEd Berlin - Day 0 - The journey begins
All journeys have to start somewhere.
Thursday, November 08, 2007
TechEd day 4
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
TechEd day 3
Today definitely benefitted from a good night's sleep - I even managed breakfast.
[[Add stuff that I did]]
Justin wanted to take in the Champions League match but there was no way we would get any tickets so we settled on finding a pub with a TV after grabbing some food.
As I was walking along Carrer de Jaume I on the way to meet Justin, around 7pm, I entered a very noisy Plaça de Sant Jaume. There seemed to be dozens on young women with flags and whistles singing and, I assume, protesting about something outside the Oficina de Turisme. Any ideas what they are doing would be much appreciated.
This part of town is great for little side roads (like Carrera de la Boqueria) with shops and people but I was in a hurry so didn't have much time to browse. Soon I was on La Rambla and meeting up with my colleague. Food was a little hard to find as some places didn't open up their kitchens until 8pm but Justin soon found an Indian Restaurant for us. I was a bit wary as the menu outside had a nice, large UK flag on it to attract British tourists but we went in anyway - how different could it be?
On the whole, not too much - they sold Kingfisher and Cobra just like back home. And popadoms too but these arrived as crispy tubes rather than flat disks with only one bowl of spicy raita? Where's the right orange stuff or the mango chutney, chopped onions and lethal lime pickle? After mixed pakora starters, we had a main. I'd asked for mushroom rice to go with the fish dish and that got a surprised look but the waiter quickly put something together for me. On the whole a safe experience, especially as there were no proper tourists in there to embarrass me.
Next was a hunt for a sports pub and Justin, who seemed to have a knack for this, pulled us into a Paddy Pub jam-packed with 'Gers fans - or at least it seemed full as they were all clustered in the doorway leaving a lot of space at the back. I say "a lot" with reservations - the pub was quite small but still sported three large flat-screen TVs (two for the downstairs audience and one for the small balcony which also hosted cublicle with the token urinal). Quite a cosmopolitan affair - Justin and the owner of the bar were from the US, the fans were Scottish and Italian, and I was English, all in an supposedly Irish pub. Drinking Bulmers from large cardboard cups.
Justin did ask me to teach him some football songs but I didn't really know what the Rangers fans were singing (apart from "Rule Brittania" and the National Anthem). Had to explain unionist/protestant demographic of the club as a fan draped in a Northern Ireland flag staggered past us.
The Barca-Rangers match wasn't too exciting. The Scots didn't really have much chance - I'm sure that if they had scored it would have just irritated their hosts into putting even more past Allan McGregor.
I decided to hang around while Justin went back to his hotel so I could soak up some of the atmosphere. In this case "atmosphere" started off as the unwanted attention of prostitutes and guys selling loose cans of beer but it improved as more Scottish fans arrived from the ground. A couple of beers and it was off back to the hotel, trusty AutoRoute map in hand...
[[Add stuff that I did]]
Justin wanted to take in the Champions League match but there was no way we would get any tickets so we settled on finding a pub with a TV after grabbing some food.
As I was walking along Carrer de Jaume I on the way to meet Justin, around 7pm, I entered a very noisy Plaça de Sant Jaume. There seemed to be dozens on young women with flags and whistles singing and, I assume, protesting about something outside the Oficina de Turisme. Any ideas what they are doing would be much appreciated.
This part of town is great for little side roads (like Carrera de la Boqueria) with shops and people but I was in a hurry so didn't have much time to browse. Soon I was on La Rambla and meeting up with my colleague. Food was a little hard to find as some places didn't open up their kitchens until 8pm but Justin soon found an Indian Restaurant for us. I was a bit wary as the menu outside had a nice, large UK flag on it to attract British tourists but we went in anyway - how different could it be?
On the whole, not too much - they sold Kingfisher and Cobra just like back home. And popadoms too but these arrived as crispy tubes rather than flat disks with only one bowl of spicy raita? Where's the right orange stuff or the mango chutney, chopped onions and lethal lime pickle? After mixed pakora starters, we had a main. I'd asked for mushroom rice to go with the fish dish and that got a surprised look but the waiter quickly put something together for me. On the whole a safe experience, especially as there were no proper tourists in there to embarrass me.
Next was a hunt for a sports pub and Justin, who seemed to have a knack for this, pulled us into a Paddy Pub jam-packed with 'Gers fans - or at least it seemed full as they were all clustered in the doorway leaving a lot of space at the back. I say "a lot" with reservations - the pub was quite small but still sported three large flat-screen TVs (two for the downstairs audience and one for the small balcony which also hosted cublicle with the token urinal). Quite a cosmopolitan affair - Justin and the owner of the bar were from the US, the fans were Scottish and Italian, and I was English, all in an supposedly Irish pub. Drinking Bulmers from large cardboard cups.
Justin did ask me to teach him some football songs but I didn't really know what the Rangers fans were singing (apart from "Rule Brittania" and the National Anthem). Had to explain unionist/protestant demographic of the club as a fan draped in a Northern Ireland flag staggered past us.
The Barca-Rangers match wasn't too exciting. The Scots didn't really have much chance - I'm sure that if they had scored it would have just irritated their hosts into putting even more past Allan McGregor.
I decided to hang around while Justin went back to his hotel so I could soak up some of the atmosphere. In this case "atmosphere" started off as the unwanted attention of prostitutes and guys selling loose cans of beer but it improved as more Scottish fans arrived from the ground. A couple of beers and it was off back to the hotel, trusty AutoRoute map in hand...
Labels: Microsoft, Spain, TechEd
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
TechEd day 2
Before the conference I noted that my faithful day-in-and-day-out M&S trainers had finally fallen apart. The soles had already worn out of tread but now the side had split so they went into recycling. Pretty impressive longevity - over 15 months.
This meant I had to fall back on my "pretty" blue Adidas trainers - they're OK to wear (or seemed to be anyway) but the laces have little grip and keep coming loose over time. After walking miles in airports, between the hotel and the conference, around the conference, and then carousing in Barcelona last night, I find a nice set of blisters. Walking to the conference this morning was not as fun as it could have been...
On top of this the three bottles of beer at the opening of the Ask The Experts area, the rioja, the booze at the Marley bar and the minibar cans meant that I didn't feel great in the morning. For some reason, I didn't think of taking the aspirins I packed for this precise eventuality until I was at the conference (and they were not). Additionally there is a chemist on my route which didn't sink in either. So from 8am to 8pm (when I got back to my room and spent 10 minutes searching for them) I felt not 100%. Yes, I did skip breakfast.
One thing I had forgotten is that it is not always wise to drink a lot of water in the morning to rehydrate yourself. What this seems to do is awaken whatever you drank but your body hasn't processed yet so the stomach starts to decide it isn't too happy at the moment. Just how far are the toilets from the Ask The Experts area? It didn't seem that far yesterday ....
The helpdesk stuff is going OK.
1 They ask me an ITPro-style question (Dev questions get tefloned to someone else)
2 I exhaust my knowledge on the subject (varies from seconds to tens of seconds)
3 I ask them for their email address
4 I research question
5 I email them the answer/response
After lunch I scanned the schedule for the useful or the interesting.
1:30pm
"WIN201 - Next Generation Networking in Windows Vista"
This was a good overview from a Polish expert by the name of Rafal Lukawiecki who's working in the UK. The focus was on IPv6 which we need to implement world-wide in the next 3 years before all the existing IP addresses run out, 70% of which are allocated to US companies and as a result most of them don't see what the problem is. China, on the other hand, have a different opinion.
The 2:45pm slot didn't have anything that appealed so I tried one of the WCF hands-on labs. The combination of my groggy head and the dry qualty of the lab led to me giving up after a while but with a little more practice under my belt. Another 40 hours should do... :-)
5:00pm
"MED204 - Microsoft Robotics Studio"
Although something that felt like a meeting of model aircraft enthusists, there's a lot of serious work going on with robotics (e.g. NASA space exploration).
Afterwards I hung around until 8pm reading email and generally taking it easy. Back at the hotel, once the aspirin kicked in, I had a bath and then some more Halo 1 on the PC. Boy, do I suck at Halo on the laptop (and I'm playing campaign, not online) but it passes the time.
This meant I had to fall back on my "pretty" blue Adidas trainers - they're OK to wear (or seemed to be anyway) but the laces have little grip and keep coming loose over time. After walking miles in airports, between the hotel and the conference, around the conference, and then carousing in Barcelona last night, I find a nice set of blisters. Walking to the conference this morning was not as fun as it could have been...
On top of this the three bottles of beer at the opening of the Ask The Experts area, the rioja, the booze at the Marley bar and the minibar cans meant that I didn't feel great in the morning. For some reason, I didn't think of taking the aspirins I packed for this precise eventuality until I was at the conference (and they were not). Additionally there is a chemist on my route which didn't sink in either. So from 8am to 8pm (when I got back to my room and spent 10 minutes searching for them) I felt not 100%. Yes, I did skip breakfast.
One thing I had forgotten is that it is not always wise to drink a lot of water in the morning to rehydrate yourself. What this seems to do is awaken whatever you drank but your body hasn't processed yet so the stomach starts to decide it isn't too happy at the moment. Just how far are the toilets from the Ask The Experts area? It didn't seem that far yesterday ....
The helpdesk stuff is going OK.
1 They ask me an ITPro-style question (Dev questions get tefloned to someone else)
2 I exhaust my knowledge on the subject (varies from seconds to tens of seconds)
3 I ask them for their email address
4 I research question
5 I email them the answer/response
After lunch I scanned the schedule for the useful or the interesting.
1:30pm
"WIN201 - Next Generation Networking in Windows Vista"
This was a good overview from a Polish expert by the name of Rafal Lukawiecki who's working in the UK. The focus was on IPv6 which we need to implement world-wide in the next 3 years before all the existing IP addresses run out, 70% of which are allocated to US companies and as a result most of them don't see what the problem is. China, on the other hand, have a different opinion.
The 2:45pm slot didn't have anything that appealed so I tried one of the WCF hands-on labs. The combination of my groggy head and the dry qualty of the lab led to me giving up after a while but with a little more practice under my belt. Another 40 hours should do... :-)
5:00pm
"MED204 - Microsoft Robotics Studio"
Although something that felt like a meeting of model aircraft enthusists, there's a lot of serious work going on with robotics (e.g. NASA space exploration).
Afterwards I hung around until 8pm reading email and generally taking it easy. Back at the hotel, once the aspirin kicked in, I had a bath and then some more Halo 1 on the PC. Boy, do I suck at Halo on the laptop (and I'm playing campaign, not online) but it passes the time.
Labels: Microsoft, Spain, TechEd
Monday, November 05, 2007
TechEd day 1
Well, not as exciting as I had hoped it would be. Never mind.
The conference starts later today so after a good breakfast I'm walking down the palm-tree lined beach road to the centre wishing I still had a pair of sunglasses [[must find a shop]]. The air is warm enough that I leave my fleece in the rucksack.
I have no idea what the internal theme was for this restaurant as it seemed to be closed down (not just shut) and it was difficult to look through the windows. What a pity.
This part of Barcelona is full of building sites although most of the huge tower blocks seem fully built if not nearly finished. Looking out of my hotel window, I managed to count TWENTYONE huge cranes in a 180 degree view of the city.
and this building looks familiar...
Here is my home for the rest of the week (well, 9 hours of it anyway).
First thing I receive is a pair of fetching green Ask The Experts T-shirts because after four-five days just one top tends to get a bit whiffy. The workload back home seems to be looking after itself so I watch the 4pm "Think Big - Vista Media Centre" session, just in case it comes in handy to answer customer questions.
After the break I take in the 5:45pm "Introductory Walkthrough of Windows Communications Foundation (WCF) and Visual Studio 2008" as this is an area I really need to get into. My developer skills are amazingly poor considering I work in the developer unit in PSS but I'm starting to understand what WCF is doing.
What a great cloakroom ticket to have at a tecky conference. Well, I found it funny...
The Ask The Experts area doesn't open until 7pm and I'm not scheduled to work but I turn up anyway to meet Justin from the MSMQ group in the US. It is supposed to be a developer-oriented conference but all the questions are about usage and troubleshooting (which would be better handled next week when the IT Pros have their event).
At 8pm, Justin and I slope off across the road to talk shop over tapas and rioja. Very civilised. And much later, ten fortyfive maybe, we get on the tube to find a bar in town. Not surprisingly, at this time of night on a Monday, there doesn't seem much going on but we do find a Bob Marley pub where I introduce Justin to Magner's cider'n'ice. There's only time after that for a brazilian sugary cocktail before leaving Justin to find his hotel while I catch the last tube back to find mine.
This is where I find Spanish road signs suck. I managed to get home tonight by luck and the fact I had Autoroute on my laptop. Coming out of the tube statiom, I looked around for road signs and, finding none, looked at the roadmap next to the station. Taking the big red blob as a hint, I calculated my route home and set off.
In fact I was 90 degrees off.
The road did look decidedly long as it seemed to stretch off to infinity (where I was expecting the sea) and while phoning home I decided that now was a good time to bring out the laptop. The area was very quiet - one person every 5 minutes, sort of thing - so I didn't feel too worried bringing out a thousand Euros worth of kit that could be ripped out of my hand.
And I soon worked out that I was walking parallel to the beach and actually at the crossroads with the road that had my hotel on it. Infallible male sense of direction came through in the end.
Now some quality time to raid the minibar and put in a couple of hours of Halo on the laptop...
The conference starts later today so after a good breakfast I'm walking down the palm-tree lined beach road to the centre wishing I still had a pair of sunglasses [[must find a shop]]. The air is warm enough that I leave my fleece in the rucksack.
I have no idea what the internal theme was for this restaurant as it seemed to be closed down (not just shut) and it was difficult to look through the windows. What a pity.
This part of Barcelona is full of building sites although most of the huge tower blocks seem fully built if not nearly finished. Looking out of my hotel window, I managed to count TWENTYONE huge cranes in a 180 degree view of the city.
and this building looks familiar...
Here is my home for the rest of the week (well, 9 hours of it anyway).
First thing I receive is a pair of fetching green Ask The Experts T-shirts because after four-five days just one top tends to get a bit whiffy. The workload back home seems to be looking after itself so I watch the 4pm "Think Big - Vista Media Centre" session, just in case it comes in handy to answer customer questions.
After the break I take in the 5:45pm "Introductory Walkthrough of Windows Communications Foundation (WCF) and Visual Studio 2008" as this is an area I really need to get into. My developer skills are amazingly poor considering I work in the developer unit in PSS but I'm starting to understand what WCF is doing.
What a great cloakroom ticket to have at a tecky conference. Well, I found it funny...
The Ask The Experts area doesn't open until 7pm and I'm not scheduled to work but I turn up anyway to meet Justin from the MSMQ group in the US. It is supposed to be a developer-oriented conference but all the questions are about usage and troubleshooting (which would be better handled next week when the IT Pros have their event).
At 8pm, Justin and I slope off across the road to talk shop over tapas and rioja. Very civilised. And much later, ten fortyfive maybe, we get on the tube to find a bar in town. Not surprisingly, at this time of night on a Monday, there doesn't seem much going on but we do find a Bob Marley pub where I introduce Justin to Magner's cider'n'ice. There's only time after that for a brazilian sugary cocktail before leaving Justin to find his hotel while I catch the last tube back to find mine.
This is where I find Spanish road signs suck. I managed to get home tonight by luck and the fact I had Autoroute on my laptop. Coming out of the tube statiom, I looked around for road signs and, finding none, looked at the roadmap next to the station. Taking the big red blob as a hint, I calculated my route home and set off.
In fact I was 90 degrees off.
The road did look decidedly long as it seemed to stretch off to infinity (where I was expecting the sea) and while phoning home I decided that now was a good time to bring out the laptop. The area was very quiet - one person every 5 minutes, sort of thing - so I didn't feel too worried bringing out a thousand Euros worth of kit that could be ripped out of my hand.
And I soon worked out that I was walking parallel to the beach and actually at the crossroads with the road that had my hotel on it. Infallible male sense of direction came through in the end.
Now some quality time to raid the minibar and put in a couple of hours of Halo on the laptop...
Labels: Microsoft, Spain, TechEd
Sunday, November 04, 2007
TechEd Day 0 - flying out to Barcelona
So I'm off to Barcelona for TechEd for Developers in Barcelona. Back in August I hadn't even though of going but one of my colleagues in the US who's big in MSMQ said it would be good to meet up at TechEd. I thought he meant TechEd in the US and suggested that this would be unlikely. After being corrected, I started looking for a back door in as Microsoft wouldn't pay the 2,000 Euros to send me as a delegate - they would pay for my travel and hotel, though, so I volunteered to help out as a BizTalk "expert" in the Ask The Expert area. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on if you were planning to ask a BizTalk question or not, I've moved to the Vista desk as they couldn't get any volunteers there. For me this is a slight improvement as my BizTalk knowledge is probably less than that for Vista so from Monday I'll be here with a bunch of other non-Vista people handling questions.
The trip was pretty uneventful. The RailAir bus left on time with my tearful family waving me off. Sat in front of a pair of well-off old biddies who were trading stories from their lives and travels. I was amused by the fact that one of the ladies had to regularly phone her local pub to pay up because her husband and friends would frequently enjoy themselves so much that they would forget the bill and go home. The pub didn't seem at all annoyed as they knew she would phone eventually.
Having already checked in, it took about 15 minutes to clear through to departures. Had to resist laughing when the woman in front of me in the Bag Drop queue told her travelling companion that she had left her passport at home. [[I was mean enough to sneak a picture though I did later accidentally delete it while trying to free up space on the phone for email.]]
She was having an interesting chat with the Bag Drop man although he seemed to be shaking his head a lot which couldn't have been good :-)
Security wasn't too long a wait so I had an hour to kill in The Tin Goose before the gates were open for my flight. As I was off for Spain, a couple of pints of San Miguel seemed in order.
The plane was only a little late taking off because a member of the flight crew decided to go off sick at the last minute and a replacement had to be brought over from some storage area that they keep them in.
In-flight entertainment was playing X-Men 3 on my laptop. The playback isn't great for DVDs - a bit juddery at times and the sound sometimes gets ahead of the action but I managed. Hopefully my next laptop - which is designed for Vista unlike the faithful machine I'm currently using - will do a better job.
Once in Barcelona Airport (which I remembered from my trip with Samantha to Andorra) we had to walk the entire length of the airport to get from baggage area A (where we exited the plane) to baggage B (where our luggage went). I think this is just a ploy to make you walk past every opportunity to spend money at the concessions.
The conference had laid on a shuttle so I decided to take that to the CCIB instead of queuing outside and dealing with a taxi driver when I had no money and precious little useful Spanish left in my head. Very lazy, although it did mean a 1500m walk from the conference centre to my hotel on the beach.
I had checked out Google Earth for the location of my hotel and saw there was a building site next to hotel. I had hoped the image was not up to date but when I opened the hotel window I found I was wrong.
Reading the book that comes with your room, I was pleased to see that there was a wireless network. But there wasn't, unless you count the access point running on someone else's machine. So I talked to reception and they gave me a network cable. I now had an IP address! But still no Internet. Time to leave it until tomorrow.
Caught some Spanish news as I was browsing the channels. "Hmmm, that looks like Gibraltar" and so it was - the raising of sunken treasure from a British warship is big news in Spain and Gibraltar (Spain's version of Las Malvinas) was used to fly out the loot. Although I couldn't really understand what they were saying, they definitely didn't have happy faces.
Spent a long, slow hour in the hotel's restaurant watching some local youths drawing on a seat in the park outside the window. Must pop by tomorrow and see what they were up to - I've found the graffiti in Barcelona to be top notch :-)
Note to self - if the restaurant shuts at 11pm, don't expect great service at 10:20pm.
The trip was pretty uneventful. The RailAir bus left on time with my tearful family waving me off. Sat in front of a pair of well-off old biddies who were trading stories from their lives and travels. I was amused by the fact that one of the ladies had to regularly phone her local pub to pay up because her husband and friends would frequently enjoy themselves so much that they would forget the bill and go home. The pub didn't seem at all annoyed as they knew she would phone eventually.
Having already checked in, it took about 15 minutes to clear through to departures. Had to resist laughing when the woman in front of me in the Bag Drop queue told her travelling companion that she had left her passport at home. [[I was mean enough to sneak a picture though I did later accidentally delete it while trying to free up space on the phone for email.]]
She was having an interesting chat with the Bag Drop man although he seemed to be shaking his head a lot which couldn't have been good :-)
Security wasn't too long a wait so I had an hour to kill in The Tin Goose before the gates were open for my flight. As I was off for Spain, a couple of pints of San Miguel seemed in order.
The plane was only a little late taking off because a member of the flight crew decided to go off sick at the last minute and a replacement had to be brought over from some storage area that they keep them in.
In-flight entertainment was playing X-Men 3 on my laptop. The playback isn't great for DVDs - a bit juddery at times and the sound sometimes gets ahead of the action but I managed. Hopefully my next laptop - which is designed for Vista unlike the faithful machine I'm currently using - will do a better job.
Once in Barcelona Airport (which I remembered from my trip with Samantha to Andorra) we had to walk the entire length of the airport to get from baggage area A (where we exited the plane) to baggage B (where our luggage went). I think this is just a ploy to make you walk past every opportunity to spend money at the concessions.
The conference had laid on a shuttle so I decided to take that to the CCIB instead of queuing outside and dealing with a taxi driver when I had no money and precious little useful Spanish left in my head. Very lazy, although it did mean a 1500m walk from the conference centre to my hotel on the beach.
I had checked out Google Earth for the location of my hotel and saw there was a building site next to hotel. I had hoped the image was not up to date but when I opened the hotel window I found I was wrong.
Reading the book that comes with your room, I was pleased to see that there was a wireless network. But there wasn't, unless you count the access point running on someone else's machine. So I talked to reception and they gave me a network cable. I now had an IP address! But still no Internet. Time to leave it until tomorrow.
Caught some Spanish news as I was browsing the channels. "Hmmm, that looks like Gibraltar" and so it was - the raising of sunken treasure from a British warship is big news in Spain and Gibraltar (Spain's version of Las Malvinas) was used to fly out the loot. Although I couldn't really understand what they were saying, they definitely didn't have happy faces.
Spent a long, slow hour in the hotel's restaurant watching some local youths drawing on a seat in the park outside the window. Must pop by tomorrow and see what they were up to - I've found the graffiti in Barcelona to be top notch :-)
Note to self - if the restaurant shuts at 11pm, don't expect great service at 10:20pm.
Labels: Microsoft, Spain, TechEd
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