the path

Tonight at the VLDB conference banquet we were served something I’ve never eaten before: reindeer. To complement the entree was a starter of poached scallops with white wine, and a dessert of white chocolate and orange mousse. As for entertainment a local choir came to sing authentic (albeit unintelligible to me) Norwegian music. Tonight Raja and I are headed out to a local pub to take in some of the culture and alcohol.

This morning the VLDB presentation of the software and demo went well, and this afternoon it was time for the actual demonstration to the conference participants. We had a total of seven sensor platforms (www.sensorplatform.org) that went on to the demonstration board but only six of them were responsive with any data. The TCP/IP stack needs some work as there is a memory error that keeps occurring at some random points during bootup. Currently we’re trying to determine if it is a hardware issue or not — most likely no because the stack works well on some platforms but gives errors on others. Anyways, Purdue University seemed pleased with the results we were able to display and we’ll be giving another demonstration on Friday before returning to the States on Saturday morning.

Since the conference didn’t start until today I was able to get out and do some sightseeing in and around Trondheim yesterday. I mentioned in a previous post that two of the most famous landmarks in the city are the Nidaros Cathedral and the Archbishop’s Palace. It’s hard to describe in text just how beautiful the cathedral was to see in person because I wouldn’t be able to convey the intricacies of the sculptures or artwork to do the real thing any justice. As can be seen below, the front of the cathedral is covered with tens of religious figures all carved from stone and the spire that towers into the sky.

   

   

It costs around 40 NOK (roughly $7) to go inside and I’m glad I did because the views from the inside were as awe inspiring as those from the exterior. It’s difficult to say exactly what each of the artifacts inside represents because the signs were mostly in Norwegian. Suprisingly, even though the inside was very dimly lit a number of pictures came out really well. The images of the stained glass looked very blurry so I decided not to include them in the gallery.

I didn’t find the Archbishop’s Palace to be anything terribly special other than having been around for almost one thousand years. The courtyard and some buildings are palacial in size but certainly aren’t shown in a way one would expect a palace to be.

   

On the grounds, though, there was a museum dedicated to Norway’s involvement in World War II and and seizure by the Nazis. The displays were very well done with lots of pictures and historical documents — I learned a great deal from the hour or so I spent inside.

I’m finally here in Trondheim, Norway, after about 18 hours of travel. The flight from Orlando to Amsterdam was delayed an hour so getting into Amsterdam an hour later made it difficult to catch the Fokker 100 jet over to Trondheim. We managed, although I would’ve enjoyed the opportunity to walk around Schiphol but there isn’t any reason we can’t do that on the way home. Both flights were bumpy but the transatlantic journey was cold and noisy. Fortunately for us, Raja and I got seats in the emergency exit but it was right behind the jet turbine and the emergency exit was freezing cold. The trip from the Trondheim airport to the actual city takes about 30 minutes by bus or taxi. Along the way we went into three tunnels — something you don’t ever do in Florida.

The drive from the airport went quickly because all of the scenery is new to me. We drove by these pristine wheat fields and the landscape was sprinkled with different colored houses. Raja and I noted that the majority of the houses we were seeing were red, but interspersed among the grasses and fields were also a few white, green, and yellow colored homes. The bus driver informed us that many of the less wealthy families would paint their homes red because of the abundance of copper mines that existed in the region. An oxide found in the copper mines when mixed with water and other ingredients would generate a red paint that was cheap (or free) enough for a lot of people to use. I did some additional research on the topic and discovered this type of paint is called Falu red and originates in Sweden.

We arrived safe and minus one piece of luggage that is essential to our demonstration. Luckily, though, it arrived in the hotel last night after 11pm. The town is really quaint with a lot of small cobblestone roads and very narrow alleyways. I’ll have some more time tonight after the evening’s events to explain more of what is here.

I knew it wasn’t going to be hot here but the temperature is ridiculously cold for August as far as I’m concerned — a mere 55 degrees right now (it’s almost noon). There’s obviously going to be a weather difference between Wellington and Gainesville and above the 60th parallel but Florida lows are twice that of the lows expected here during the week.