Chicago

I've been in Chicago all of this week.

Here are some random thoughts to consider.

When the counter at a fast-food restaurant is fitted from counter to ceiling with bullet-proof glass, should you be worried?

Chicagoans are actually fairly nice in general, you just have to realize that they have a Chicago attitude, and that attitude can be misinterpreted as being mean.

Conferences should not be held in areas that have little food available. Or in areas where the concierge recommends not walking around in the neighborhoods around the hotel/conference center.

Cute girls at CS conferences get a lot of attention regardless of what they're presenting or promoting.

I want to build automatic tour guides for BYU. You know the people that drive the golf carts around and talk about stuff? Those can be easily automated, and a computerized version would actually be much more helpful by providing inside views of buildings, localized overhead mapping, varying levels of details driven by the users, etc. I think it would be an incredibly fun project.

Ethiopian food is unique, but somewhat not the most exciting meal.

The nerd level of a CS conference is rather intense, but the interesting thing is the nerdiness involves people getting into in depth discussions about their cutting edge research. Most of the people here are either PhD's, or in the process of obtaining Master or Doctorate degrees.