Wednesday, November 07, 2007

My Trip to Linz, Austria, for RTLWS 2007

5:36 pm Austria time, November 1, 2007, Linz Austria
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Ok, I got up at 4:30 am Guadalajara time yesterday to finish packing and get to the airport for a 7:40 am flight. On arriving to the airport, I soon found out that the plane would arrive at least 1 hour late. Well, it ended up being two hours late, with the confusion about where the pilot should taxi. The pilot came on the PA announcing that he had received "conflicting information" from different persons in the control tower, and that we could NOT push back until it was resolved. I had never heard a pilot so directly badmouth the ground crew or control tower. Well, that ended up being over a 1/2 hour extra in and of itself. I bet it would have been a five minute delay if they had not been trying to blame each other. So, we were on our way to Atlanta about 20 till 10, about 2 hours late. I though, hey, no problem, my layover is 4.5 hours.

In Atlanta, we taxied for what seemed like forever, stopping for some long period waiting to cross runways, etc. They did not have a normal gate for us, and for the first time in the US, we were greeted by a scissor bus, the kind that can raise up to the plane. So, that just means extra time. Another first, at least some airlines at some airports are now checking luggage through when the origin and destination are both international, BUT YOU STILL HAVE TO GO THROUGH CUSTOMS WITH CARRY ONS EVEN THOUGH YOU WILL NOT ENTER THE US. And of course I still had to go through immigration. It seemS our bumbling "homeland" security department only wants to help the foreign airlines be more competitive against our "homeland" airlines. After getting through immigration and customs, then we were greeted by the longest line I have ever seen to get through security. With originally a four hour layover, I only made it to the gate 10 minutes before boarding, just enough time to grab a burger.

At the airport in Atlanta there were troops everywhere. Looking at their face I figured out that they were probably going to Iraq. I talked to one, and sure enough, they were headed for Iraq. He said that yes, they were going to Iraq, and he wished he could hide and not get on the plane. I really did not know what to say, but I thanked him for his service and said that I wished it could be different, that he did not have to go to Iraq. But, all of those guys with the long faces, dressed up in uniform, getting ready to serve their country, was very touching, though sad.

On the plane, I was surrounded by missionaries going to some country north of Afghanistan that I do not remember. They were actually VERY nice people, and I hope that they can help out a bit. It was interesting, they did not know what Linux was, but they were aware of the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) program, and had tried to get some, but they will be a shortage for some time after production starts. You will only be able to get one by buying two and donating one, or buying 100,000. We plan to buy four, to get two for Ricardo and Adelina. Well, the missionaries did not seem too worried about being decapitated, but I am not sure if I would like to go where they were going.

By the way, the Airbus A340-600 has bathrooms downstairs, but not the A340-300 that I flew in this time.

This time I went through passport control, but not customs in Frankfurt. Since my flight Germany to Austria is like a national flight (Schengen Agreement), I had to exit the international area to get on that flight. I arrived in Austria only a little late. At the airport, I figured out that I could take a bus to the central train station, then the tram to the end of the line where the University is. From the end of the line (right across from the University), I had the trusty map I printed from Google Maps, and it was very simple to find the hotel. One of the old trams is show below:



The Hotel is run by the University and has some dormitories and some hotel rooms. The rooms were actually quite large and there was a bed, 2 desks, and a couch. The bathroom was a manufactured bathroom kind of like a molded tub kit, but it was the WHOLE BATHROOM made out of about 5 pieces, the roof, the floor, and three wall pieces. Very small, but actually quite cute and functional - and bright orange. Oh, and the best part, free wired Internet!! The room is in a circular wing and is wedge shaped, about 15 feet at the window, down to about 5 feet at the door.




Peter (one of the organizers) called me at about 7:00 pm, and we jumped on the tram to go see the downtown and get a bite to eat. The downtown is beautiful, with lots of shops and restaurants. I had a lot of fun talking to Peter about the culture in Europe. Peter is originally from Austria, has a French wife, and they now live in England. He said that Austria (and even France) is very title oriented, and it is not just what you know, but what your title is. Even if they know your abilities, they can not pay you more than your title allows. England he said, is very much less title oriented, and you can get jobs based on your abilities. Well, even in England or the US, your title gets you in the door.

Last night I ran into Siro from Kenya and some of the Chinese that I met in China last year. Siro can speak perfect English, Spanish, Swahili, and Abagusii (his native language). Ricardo remembers him from China and he talked to him some in Spanish, and Siro let him use his computer at times. Siro is actually now in China working with the real-time Linux group in Lanzhou.

Thomas Gleixner, another of the China attendees, is also here. I found out that he has a couple of the OLPCs (One Laptop Per Child) and has been contributing to the project, making sure the tick-less timer he wrote for the mainline kernel also works for the OLPC. The OLPC needs it so save energy. Thomas is shown in fine form below, at his best discussing Linux over beer:



The next day (Thursday), I met some of the people in the dining room that were at the conference in China last year, and I then went with them to the University. I helped to carry things in and set up, and in general get ready for the start of the conference the next day. In the afternoon, I took a hike up above the University with Peter. It was absolutely beautiful with the leaves turning color, and there is a very old train right-of-way that was for horse drawn trains.

One of the common quick food places in Austria is pizza and typically also with Gyro type meat on one side of the oven for sandwiches. The pizzas are all precooked, and then they heat them up in an extra hot oven when you order. No matter where you go, it seems like the pizzas are about the same size and it costs 2.20 euros for a 1/4 pizza. Of course lots of stand-up frankfurter / bratwurst stands with great sauerkraut and bread. You can even buy beer and stand and drink it on the street. They have McDonald's, but NO Burger Kings.




Thursday night - about as exciting as it gets. I thought I would be nice and go to the airport to meet Alex and Oscar. The tram was running, but, on arriving to the central station, I found out that this being a holiday in Austria (All Saints Day), the bus to the airport was not running. The nice woman at the information desk, being very helpful, told me no problem, I was lucky, the train was coming in 10 minutes, and there was a free shuttle from one of the stations to the airport. I went to the train ticket office and purchased a ticket, telling him that I wanted to go to the airport station and then use the free shuttle. At the station, I would find a "free" phone to call the airport. I boarded the train on platform 9, and soon we were under way. The conductor came by soon and punched my ticket, but could not speak any English. As luck would have it, the group of girls sitting across from me spoke English, and looked at my ticket, and confirmed I was on the right train, and would get off in about 10 minutes. When I heard the station announced, I confirmed with the group of girls, that this was correct, and then got up to get off. I opened the door and looked out, but the station looked strangely very dark and silent. Looking up, I saw the name of the station, and it matched my ticket so I decided to get off. Getting off the train there were almost no lights, and no phones in site, just a small warming room, and some stairs at the end. I was not very comfortable, and was standing there with one hand on the door handle wondering if I should get back on. Just then, the train started moving, and I did not have much choice. Below you can see the lonely station:


Looking around, I realized I was in the middle of nowhere, and this was likely a commuter station, with a parking lot outside, but no cars. There was nothing that looked like a "free" phone, only one public phone on the other side in a "superman" booth. I walked down the stairs, crossed under, and came back on the side with the phone. I looked for a free number for calling the airport, but nothing. I continued looking around the station and found an electronic ticket machine in the warming booth, with schedules on the wall. I went back to the phone booth, and looked again, but it did not have any slots for money, and the card slot did not accept my credit cards. I walked down and outside, and could not see any houses in sight. So, I decided this was not working out and I would just buy a ticket and take the next train back, letting Alex and Oscar fend for themselves, as there was no way for me to get to the airport on time now. Only problem, according to the schedule, almost NO trains stopped at this little station, and it was over an hour until the next train stopped. It was also quite cold and I was not well dressed. Well, I purchased the ticket for 1.60 euros, not wanting to argue with a conductor that might not speak English, that it was not my fault and I should not have to pay. So, I walked briskly back and forth the distance of the platform to keep warm, not wanting to leave in case a train came early. There were a number of trains that came by, some freight, some passenger, and some combos, but NONE stopped. The trains came so fast, there was virtually no way to flag them down, and they probably would ignore me anyway. After over an hour, a train came by about the scheduled time, but did NOT stop. I waited another 15 minutes, thinking the train was late, but nothing. Maybe with the holiday, the schedule was cut short or something. I finally decided I needed to cut to the chase and figure out a way to get out of there. I did not want to spend the night walking back and forth and I did not like the idea of walking, not knowing which way to go and whether I would find a house. I decided the best option was to call the free emergency number for the police, explain my plight, and ask them to send a taxi. A nice gentle man answered the phone, but could only speak broken English, but understood the station I was at and that I wanted a taxi. He was insisting on sending a police car, saying he had to make sure where I was. I would think they would have caller ID and know exactly where I was. Well, he told me to wait in the station. A little over a half hour later, two nice policemen arrived, but apparently did not understand why they had been called, and were asking me questions in broken English. I showed them my ticket with the station number, pointing at the station name, and said I thought it was the wrong station for the airport. Finally, I just said "TAXI", and they looked at each other and said "aaahhh, taxi". They went back to the police car, and used the radio, I assume asking for a taxi, then waved and left. Well, about a half an hour later, a taxi shows up. The driver knew how to speak English, and also how to charge foreigners. It was 47 euros back to the central station. Taking the tram back to the hotel, I found Alex and Oscar just finishing to check in.

Friday and Saturday were the main days for the conference, and I will spare you the technical details of real-time Linux. The most exciting part was Thomas Gleixner (the kernel developer adding real-time capabilities to the mainline kernel) tearing into the real-time Linux distribution companies. He is upset that they do to much back-porting of new drivers and other things to old kernels instead of just updating to a new kernel and helping test the new kernel. His point is that the creating and doing the back-ports is a lot more complicated than updating to newer kernels, and the patches for the back-ports are actually quite a bit bigger than the diffs for the newer kernels. He would like to see them help the community test the newer kernels, and he says it would be cheaper for them anyway. Well, Thomas was never one to shy away from a good argument. And, that is of course the way of Linux, nothing hidden, all of the fights in public. Kind of like our government as compared to communists where all the fighting is behind closed doors.

We went out on the town both Friday and Saturday night with the group. I got to talk to some Serbs that actually DROVE from Serbia to attend. They told me that the main reason they came was to listen to my talks about light rail control and safety critical systems with open source, though I think they were being nice to me. They want me to come to Serbia, and I just might be able to do that. They have money at the University of Guadalajara for doing research with other professors, minimum 6 week stays. Well, I will start trying to figure out if I am eligible for next summer. You just never know where life will lead you!!!!

Oh, on Saturday night, we went to a MEXICAN restaurant with the Serbs. It was VERY different from Mexican restaurants in either the US or Mexico. I got a chicken Burrito and it was a huge flour tortilla with strips of chicken, green beans, peas, carrots, in a funny tomato sauce. The tortilla was just folded in half, NOT wrapped like in the US. And, they guy across from me ordered fajitas, for which they used the same meat, vegetables, and sauce as the burrito!! The sauce they put on the table seemed to be ketchup based with a hint of Tabasco sauce thrown in. Well, I do NOT think I will ever bother trying Mexican food in Austria again!!!

Another thing, the Real-Time Linux Workshop will be in Colotlán, Mexico next year, and the two Mexicans that I know (Oscar and Alex) came to present what we were planning. Alex gave an extremely good presentation in English. It sometimes surprises me to see how well some Mexicans can speak English when I have have always talked to them in Spanish. I think for Oscar and Alex, it was much easier communicating with Europeans in English than with Americans which tend to use a lot of slang, and run a lot of words together.

Sunday, there were no events for the RTLWS, but there were for the joint conference which was the Consumer Electronics Linux Forum, so there were a lot less people. The lunch was absolutely delicious, with slices of pork roast in gravy, a huge dumpling, sauerkraut with caraway seeds, broth with vegetables, and fresh bread.



After the meal, we took the Chinese and the Mexicans up on the hill where the old train right of way was. Another VERY beautiful day. I then went into town with Alex and Oscar.







Monday, I think that the jet lag and general lack of sleep finally kicked in for Alex and Oscar, and they came out for breakfast, then spent the morning sleeping, while I worked in my room and answered email. I also did not get as much sleep as I did in China, where I always had Ricardo as an excuse to not stay out late. Oscar and Alex had return tickets from Vienna, so they decided to check out of the hotel, and go to Vienna in the afternoon. So, I went into town with them and they wanted to see at least a couple of more things downtown before leaving. I left them at Mozart's house, so I could go see the Church on the hill that I had been noticing since I arrived.

I took Line 3 of the tram to the end, then walked across the street to the station for the train that goes up the hill to the Church. It was not a cog train as I had thought, even though the tracks were quite steep. It was a very old electric, single car train that went very SLLLOOOOOWWW up the hill (buh bump, buh bump, buh bump . . . . ). Below you can see a picture of me standing next to the train, followed by a short video:




The views were quite spectacular. At the top, things were mostly closed since it was off season, and a weekday. For me, this was best, since there were no crowds, and the views were just as beautiful. I found a fancy restaurant open and got the best cup of coffee in the world along with an absolutely delicious fruit/nut bread.





I had a round trip ticket to get back, but on talking to the waiter, I decided to just walk back down. I was glad that I chose to do so, as the views are much better walking and the exercise and cool air were very refreshing. I stopped and sat with an elderly Austrian gentleman that said hello to me and was sitting on a bench beside the trail. We sat and talked for about half an hour. At first, he was searching for words and could not talk so well, but he slowly warmed up, and by the time I left, he was talking almost like a native. Ok, well, not quite that good. He explained that it had been two years since he spoke very much English, and that he was very rusty, and it took him a while to get back into the swing. I told him it was so beautiful here that they should have to pay extra for the privilege!! He told me that he would not want to live anywhere else.

Well, we are over the Atlantic ocean, somewhere below Rikyvik, and another window just popped up warning me of a low battery, saying I only have 10 minutes. The guy next to me is from Denmark, and is going to a convenience store conferefnce in the US. He helps manage gas stations and convenience stores in Denmark. The convenience store - 7-11. He said, that like in Mexico, 7-11 is exploding in Europe. Well, we have 4 or 5 hours to go. The guy from Denmark noticed that the trip Frankfurt to Atlanta is 10 and a half hours, but the trip Atlanta to Frankfurt is 8 and a half hours. He was asking me if I knew why, but I can only speculate it is favorable jet streams for the Atlanta to Frankfurt leg. I will have to check!! Somebody just smoked in the restroom, and they were making sure we knew it was against federal law. It must be really addicting for someone to risk getting arrested to smoke on an airplane!!

Ok, I am now down to 5 minutes and had better get this thing turned off before I lose power!!

I am here at the Atlanta airport now, and a new feature is that they have a Delta recharge station where you can recharge laptops and cell phones, and of course a place to sit and work. I am going to work on cleaning up and clarifying the text so I can post it when I get back to Guadalajara. I will also cut down a couple of the pictures for putting on my blog.

I am now on the plane from Atlanta to Guadalajara. It is an old Douglas MD-88. A very smooth plane, showing the years, but the great thing is that they have two wide exit rows that are just like first class for those of us with a thin arse. Like the fine old 727, I am sure we won't see this one in service much longer, though it has served us well!

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