TSSJS Vegas and Other Stuff

Thursday wrapped up my time at TSSJS. I did my puzzlers talk with Brian. It was difficult to imagine how the puzzlers would work and though I see room for improvements, it worked well enough that I will do it again. Having Brian to banter back and forth with was wonderful.

We started off simple with a method cache warmup problem and then got progressivly more complex. The last puzzler was based on a bench that I managed only to complete the night before the talk. For a while I though I was going to have to paper the explanation. In retrospect I probably should have papered anyways because it is hard. The puzzle is about benchmarks that go upside down. In other words, you do the right things to make things go faster and instead, they go slower. In this case I was using GC to throttle the application. It all slowed up in user response times being upside down. It really requires a longer blog posting to fully explain. Once I've better vetted the code, I will post it.

After the talk is was off to interview Azul and then Jody filmed a 4 way discussion between John Davies, Holly Cummins, Gil Tene and myself. Prior to all of this we got to watch an edited version of a documentary that Jody had filmed for CNN. Can't wait to see it on the tube.

I had to miss Friday due to Anna's recital. Normally I take the trains to get about but the schedule just wasn't going to work so I rented a car. I was curious about the Smart so I picked one up from the rental company and then headed out on the highway with it. From this experience I can tell you, the Smart is *not* a highway car. Speeds on Hungarian highways is 130km/hr. The car's speedometer stops at 160. I did mange 150 but that was going downhill with a tailwind. I would say that 110-120 is about as much as you can comfortably push it. Anything faster requires a lot of concentration and strength to keep it going in the direction you want it to be going in.

The car is light and it feels light. The bow wave off of even a modestly sized Van caused the car to shutter. Trucks almost blew it off the road. But even so, the car's interior did feel spacious. From the outside it looks strange but from the inside it is like you are in a much bigger vehicle. You only notice the difference when you look behind you and you don't see any car.

Parking was a treat. I put the car into a spot that I would have never even come close to considering. And gas consumption was the big winner. The tank is much smaller so you do have to fill up as often. However the payment inside was about 1/2 of what I'd normally pay for the distance traveled. Big win in my books.