Well, even though it was muddy for the New Year's BBQ, surprise surprise there's lots of snow now. Well, time to go get caught up on the BME news feed, I'm three days behind there. My wrist still hurts a lot but I'm getting used to typing with this splint on.
After the longest hospital wait ever (five hours — how is that even possible?) I found out that everything in my wrist was so inflamed that they couldn't even tell if it was broken or just really bashed up. So they packed me up in a splint and I get rechecked in a week.
Oh, and it was a combination of first taking a flying leap off of Phil's awesome ATV (I so wish that was taped), and then bullgod2481 and I think maybe Vegan Jonny as well punched me in the wrist super hard (not on purpose I hope).
We shot about four hours of footage (two BBQ, and then two afterhours tapes which I have been told are “very nasty” and most incriminating), so I'll try and get something put together soon. Anyway, I'll write more when I can but a huge thank you to everyone who made it to the BBQ, it was awesome to see you (again).
And I say a giant WOW to ServMe who came all the way from Belgium — I hope our distinctly strange style of BBQing was worth the trip!
OK, I'm largely repeating something that's already on /. but I thought it was a really cool and inspiring story and deserved being told here:
As some of you may know, it is illegal for US companies to export supercomputer technology to countries like India. Because of fears that supercomputers could be used to aid terrorism and help rogue nations (India a rogue state? Good one Ashcroft!), machines exceeding 190k MTOPS can't be exported to those nations. They fail to remember that the early US nuclear bombs were all designed on paper without the aid of computers, and even the space program used computers dramatically less powerful than the average modern desktop PC.
So India simply went ahead and built its own TFLOP computer, the PARAM Padma — currently exceeding 500k MTOPS — which is scalable on up to 16 TFLOPS (compared to the fastest US supercomputer, at about 10 TFLOPS). Not only that, but the computer uses relatively cheap off-the-shelf components and is dramatically less expensive than US competition (and as a result is being bought by universities and corporations in Russia, Canada, Germany, and so on).
The future is here, and it's global. Western nations can't hold back developing nations forever — technology will equalize around the world, and trade sanctions simply result in the market eventually being dominated by non-Western companies. Look at history — a few hundred years ago America was a developing nation, and look how it trounced Europe on most levels over the past hundred years. Don't think it won't happen again, either from South America or Asia… of course, their computer does run on IBM chips!
…but then there's always the Dragon.
Now I should really go and find some more extension cord and get the second set of speakers set up… And drag the BBQs back to the pit and all that fun stuff. I think I have my “must do” tasks complete so I can take a load off for the rest of the day.
The following BBQ message was just broadcast. Everyone coming should have received it, but I'm posting it here just to be safe:
PRE-BBQ Mailout for the TREMBLING IN TWEED BBQFirst of all, the BBQ starts at the normal time; early afternoon. Between 1 and 3 PM is when I expect the "first wave" will arrive, with more people arriving over the afternoon and early evening. I expect we'll light most of the fireworks around 8 PM depending on everyone's plans (I know some people are going to multiple events).
The weather forecast for tomorrow is SHOCKINGLY WARM. Predicted temperatures are well above freezing, with maybe a tiny bit of snow. That said, I would still strongly recommend bringing warm clothes.
As always, the event is BYOB, BYOF. Since it's too cold, there won't be suspensions, but given that this is also BMEshop territory, I'm sure we can work something out if people want to play.
The BBQ shirts are $20 (and it's sort of a 2-for-1 deal because we've got free goodies that go with them), and Ryan also has BMEshop hoodies from a run we decided not to put up in the shop for $20, as well as toques.
See you tomorrow!
