Liza and I went to a conference in Las Vegas last week, called TAM: The Amazing Meeting. It's kind of hard to explain but it's hosted by the James Randi Educational Foundation, and it's basically a bunch of people getting together to discuss issues surrounding critical thinking and skepticism. They had some cool special guests including Adam Savage of The Mythbusters, and Penn & Teller from their famous show. The show was hosted at the Flamingo Hotel, a pretty nice place.

Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson, and astrophysicist and author, gave the keynote. There were some standout talks including ones by Phil Plait, the Bad Astronomer, Dr. Ben Goldacre, a doctor and author in the UK, Dr. Michael Shermer, a writer and well-known skeptic, and Dr. Steven Novella of the Skeptic's Guide to the Universe podcast.

But the best part about the conference wasn't the talks, it was the company! We had a great time every night hanging out with newly-made friends. The first night we ran into Brian Dunning and his wife Lisa, and had a bite of supper with them. Brian produces an excellent podcast called Skeptoid, and he's working on a television show pilot project with Dr. Novella, Dr. Shermer, and others. Very cool.

Thursday night we went to the Penn and Teller show at The Rio casino. It was a fantastic show, of course, and we were able to stay a bit later and get signatures from both P&T. Friday night was supposed to be the the Skeptic's Guide podcast dinner at a restaurant in Caesar's Palace, but the place was completely full. We grabbed a couple of people and went to The Palm where I had an excellent steak. After dinner we went back to the Flamingo bar to relax and chat.

Saturday night was the Randi.org "forum" party, again at Caesar's! They rented a suite that seemed to have no air conditioning, and people kept spilling out into the hallways, and we got kicked out by hotel security pretty quickly. We regrouped at the Flamingo bar and didn't get to bed until about 4 AM that morning. The next day had paper presentations instead of talks. We didn't get up very early for them.

I don't like Vegas for Vegas's sake, but TAM6 sure was a great time! We'll definitely be back for TAM7 next year.

I tried by best to keep the more incriminating photos off of Facebook, but...

rPath has just announced a deal we've struck with Novell to OEM their SUSE Enterprise Linux. This means that in addition to our standard rPath Linux distribution, our customers can choose to use SUSE as a base for their appliances. All of the technical benefits of a Conary-based system will remain available. rBuilder and the associated rPath technologies aren't tied to any particular version of Linux, and we've proven this by adding support for SUSE. Who's next?

http://venturebeat.com/2008/04/21/virtual-appliance-maker-rpath-teams-up-with-novell/
http://www.wral.com/business/local_tech_wire/venture/story/2767532/
http://opensource.sys-con.com/read/547747.htm

We got back from Paris yesterday afternoon, and we're still trying to recover from the time difference. I think we were just getting used to CEST when we left! We had a decent time in Paris. Unfortunately Liza got a cold just as we were leaving Geneva, and I wore myself completely out being on crutches walking all over the place, but it was definitely fun!

Before we headed to Paris we were able to have a tour of one of the detectors in the Large Hadron Collider. We had a private tour of the CMS detector:

Amazing stuff. I was pretty awed by the engineering and science that goes into a project like this. I'm going to be watching with interest to see the science that is generated when this huge project turns on in June.

After my talk and demo at the CERN workshop, we took the TGV from Geneva to Paris. The first part of the trip was really beautiful. I guess we were going through the Rhône Alps and the Dijon region. I'm not sure of the route exactly, but there were some stunning views. Unfortunately my camera was in the end compartment of the train and I don't suppose shots through the glass would turn out very well. I liked the train ride a lot--it was quiet and peaceful, and not very crowded. It wasn't as fast as I thought it would be until we got within about an hour of Paris, then it really picked up speed. The opposing trains going to same speed next to us were quite startling.

We got to Paris Wednesday night, and found our way down to the RER train and realized that the metro ticket machines wouldn't take my credit card. So I crutched my way back up, and tried to find an ATM. Finally found one outside the train station with the help of a couple of very helpful locals. We got to our stop eventually, and tried to find our hotel. I think we walked by it twice before we spotted it. No big neon marquee for this one! It was a nice little room with a tiny kitchenette. Our hotel was right next to the Arc de Triomphe:

We spent most of Thursday relaxing because Liza had a cold, and I was still tired from CERN. We found a bakery and got some good bread and wine. Friday we met up with Liza's sister who happened to be in Paris at the same time on a school trip, and walked down the Champs-Élysées to the Louvre. We spent about 3 hours there and probably only saw 10% of the collection. Some fantastic art. I didn't take very many pictures inside the museum because I don't generally like the results. Poor lighting for photography, lots of people, too much glass.

The next day we went to the Palace of Versailles. The train ride out was confusing, and we got off too soon, so we had to walk about a mile to the Chateau. Somehow the RER train splits into different branches at the end, and we weren't sure how to tell which branch it would take. We weren't the only confused tourists who got off at that stop, though! On the way back we found the correct station and walked quite a bit less. Much better.

Versailles was big. I probably would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't been on crutches. Lots of fine artwork and enormous rooms, but I felt like the tour could have had more depth. I would have liked to have seen some of the inner workings of the palace: the servant's quarters, the kitchens, etc. I wanted to see some contrast to the ridiculous opulence of the main areas. I had a hard time imagining the area as it must have been when the royals lived there. I think they could probably do more to recreate that feeling. The entire place seemed to be under construction, too. I'll bet once the renovations are done, it will be a much more enjoyable experience.

Given our short trip, there were about a million things we wanted to see in Paris but didn't have time for. Notre Dame, the Pantheon (which we made it to just after closing time!), Sacre Coeur (which we approached after the Louvre but were too exhausted to get to, and it was raining), the Catacombs (I'll save that for when I'm not on crutches...), Musée d'Orsay, Musée de Cluny, and a million others!

The best part was visiting the little bakeries and shops, and enjoying lots of non-imported French wine!

We arrived in Geneva after a couple of uneventful flights. We were on the brand-new American Airlines RDU -> LHR flight for the first leg, and the flight was delayed about two hours while they dragged in a replacement antenna, or something like that..much better than having the flight canceled! We had a long layover at Heathrow anyway, so it worked out well enough. Security in Heathrow was interesting. You didn't have to take your computer out of your bag, and you could leave your shoes on, but I had to go in a private room for them to inspect my leg brace. The TSA just wanded me in a public area. I definitely appreciated not having to hassle with my computer and shoes.

We got into Geneva at about 2 PM after a very long and slow line at passport control. Our host picked us up and gave us a brief tour of CERN, where we had some lunch. Afterwards we took the bus system (really a fantastic system) into the center of Geneva, where we promptly learned that everything closes at 6 PM! Oh well. We wandered around a bit, tried to find some grocery store to pick up some food, but those were all closed too. So we hopped back on the bus and got back to CERN.

Sunday was more productive. We found a grocery store in the airport (!) that was open, and stocked up on some picnic-style foods, and got back on the bus and headed to the Jardin Botaniques for lunch. The weather was beautiful! Now we are both exhausted and want to sleep. Jet lag works in mysterious ways. Tomorrow we are getting a private tour of some of the underground areas of CERN, and then I am giving my first of two presentations at the workshop.

My wife and I are going on a combination work/fun trip to Geneva next week. We're flying in onto Geneva Saturday morning, and I'll be giving a couple of talks at a workshop at CERN on Monday and Wednesday. Wednesday afternoon we are going to take the TGV to Paris and stay there until Sunday morning. We're staying at CERN's hotel for our stay in Geneva, and I found a place very near the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. I have a couple of questions for the lazyweb:

1. What should we do in Geneva? I haven't spent much time on this leg of the trip. We'll be outside the city staying at CERN, but I figure there must be some nice sites around.

2. In Paris, how can we get some fantastic but relatively inexpensive pastries?

3. How can we find decent, inexpensive food in Paris? I don't want to get stuck in tourist shops, and we're not really haute cuisine people. But, we're going to be in Paris, so we should probably not regret our culinary choices. We will hopefully have a little fridge in our hotel so we might prepare some food there.

4. I guess I don't have a fourth question. Thanks!