Arrived In Seoul

I made it to Seoul, but I'm running on practically no sleep in the last 36hrs.

Some quick observations

• Korean Air on the plane gives you disposable socks :), it's cool but I think right away you can tell the importance of foot hygiene in the culture?
  
• There were literally 7 Caucasian people on the plane and I ended up sitting next to one of them, what are the odds?
  
• I haven't seen many non Asian foreigners in the city yet, but it's still too early.
  
• The city reminds me a lot of Japan; Lots of little food shops, bright lights and accommodations with similar setup, leave your shoes outside.
  

Time for some zzzzz's for the little bee

The story of the little bee

Once upon a time there was a little bee. The little bee grew up in a large forest among many other bees. From the outside, there was little that seemed different about this little bee as compared to the other bees; it appeared like any other. But this little bee was different than the others. However, only a special bee would be able to see this difference.

The bees in the forest worked hard and always striven to improve their methods of honey collection and building better bee hives. For a while the little bee did the same ... it studied hard the latest techniques and eventually went to work with the other bees in the forest of the three seas. This little bee showed promise and new ideas. But inside the little bee always felt like something wasn't quite right, like there might be something else outside of the forest to see and something else it was meant to do.

One day the little bee met Lasbee a very smart bee that was passing through the forest of the three seas. Lasbee and the little bee spent some time together and became good friends. But eventually Lasbee had to leave the land of the three seas to go back home to the land of many bumps. But before Lasbee left, it managed to tell the little bee many stories about the land of many bumps; about the beautiful scenery, the many wise bees and about bee life there.

The little bee became curious, it stared thinking about the land of many bumps and about all other lands that are outside the forest of the three seas. Eventually the little bee ventured outside the forest, across the seas in search of the land of many bumps and of Lasbee ...

Dynamo and SOSP Conference

Last week, I attended the 2007 Symposium on Operating Systems Principles (SOSP) conference. At the conference, we presented our paper Dynamo:Amazon's Highly Available Key-value Store.

Peter did a fantastic job presenting the paper and answering questions. We also seem to have attracted a lot of interest from those attending. I would often overhear people in the halls and on the bus talk about Dynamo.

Today, I was thrilled to find out that we won the Attendees Choice Best Paper award!

For me, it was particularly rewarding to reunite with many of my former team members and friends who worked on this project. It was especially great to do so in an academic setting.

I am very proud to have worked on this project, but for me, the most important part was the great people, atmosphere and the good times we had together ... therefore, it was especially meaningful to see some of these people again!
When I joined Amazon and the project, for the most part, we were all fairly new to the company, young and found it very easy to interact with each other ... so, there are many fun stories to speak of both at work and outside. To this day, I feel very lucky to have been part of this unique team and experience in the industry.

The conference itself was quite enjoyable, especially due to opportunities to interact with some of the big names in systems community.

A needle in a haystack in Barcelona

It was beautiful day in Barcelona. I had already spent the afternoon at the beach swimming in the sea and enjoying the sun, and now I was due to take part in a salsa tour organized by my hostel. There was a large group of people, 28 of us, most of whom were a few years younger than me. As it turned out, the entire group of people consisted of English speaking nations with the only exception of our tour guide who was a local.

We first went to a well hidden bar where we got a dance lesson. Throughout the night I spent a bit of time interacting with many of the people in the group and it didn't take long for me to realize that there was no one special there with whom one can have a meaningful conversation or enjoy sharing the experience. Many of the Aussies in the group, seemed to be concerned with the quality of the beaches in Barcelona; I for one, found no such problems. Some of the Brits were just looking to get hammered, while a group of others was looking to celebrate a birthday and not open to interacting with outsiders. Finally there were a couple of American rugby players who did not produce a lasting impression. There was a couple from England that was cool, but in the end I decided to spend more time interacting with our tour guide.

When we eventually made it to the dance club, this was well after the lesson, there was a live salsa band playing there. After dancing with one of the Australian girls, I decided it was time to separate from the group and enjoy my time with the locals. So I did ... I enjoyed the music and observed some really good local dancers in the hope of learning something. There was one Brazilian guy who had style, he would gently guide the girls and you could really tell that they were enjoying the dance. For the most part I got the impression that many of the girls at the club were not open to dancing with strangers.

During one of the songs, I caught a glimpse of one of the girls; she smiled at me. She was about 5'2 with dark skin and dark hair curled around like an umbrella up to her cheeks. She had a beautiful smile and you could tell right away that there was something special about her. A few minutes later I asked her to dance and we did; she was much better than me. Right away, she spotted that I've taken salsa lessons in the past and so we laughed about it; she said that she didn't care what salsa style to dance and that I just had to find my own. She was from Brazil. When I told her that I was from Canada, she replied with a smile "Americas unite" :) ... I thought to myself: yes, two worlds unite in Europe. You could tell by the way she interacted with people, how she looked and how she smiled that she really knew how to enjoy life. She was truly a needle in a haystack.

When I was leaving the club I found her standing outside with some sleazy guy in a suit; I decided to be more expressive this time. I came over and told her that she was wonderful and to take good care of herself. She smiled and asked to give me a Brazilian hug, then told me to take a really good care of myself as she squeezed my hand. After departing, I understood that sometimes it's important to communicate your feelings, especially with people who are open, as it makes for a stronger connection.

A trip to University of Barcelona

Given how much I love Spain and Barcelona, I decided it would be worth wile for me to explore potential opportunities as a Phd student while I'm here. So, my mission was to get to the university and talk to some professor about the research they do here ... previously I couldn't find much information online.

I went to the university, past the security guard and into the campus ... I landed right into the math department area ... I felt right at home. There was a big square with the buildings connected on all sides. I went into the math department office and asked for help to find the computer science department. I was told to go to the next floor. I did. I walked into what was an Algebra department and asked to talk to a computer science professor; luckily a woman spoke English and walked me to the first available professor. I had no problem, a professor was available and had free time. By this time, I felt things have been moving very smoothly given that I am a tourist, who doesn't speak Spanish and just randomly popped in without telling anyone why I was there for!

The professor I was talking to was very friendly. We talked a bit about the research they do at the university there and about my past experience and interests. As it turned out they were doing research using AI to study human behavior, a topic I have quite a bit of interest in and have previously mentioned in my blog post Why Performance tuning is like Behavioral Psychology. The conversation was very positive and we agreed in the end that I should apply and that if there is a match I might qualify for projects that they will have soon.

I asked about other universities in Spain and got a nice list of universities for me to look into.

There are times I get the feeling like things go my way and a task that may seem difficult just flows naturally, this was one of those times.

Pedro the Hang drum player in Barcelona

Another sunny day in Barcelona and so I was out on a random walk through the city ... this has recently been my way of sight seeing. On my walk I encountered many interesting things and stories, but I will tell just one right now.

I was walking near cathedral Barcelona when I heard a really neat musical sound ... it instantly reminded me of a track I love in the movie Constant Gardner ... so I walked towards it. It was coming from a small square in a narrow alley. I walked in and sat down listening intently ... the music was beautiful, the instrument looked strangely unfamiliar.

I listened and exchanged a few words with the musician during his breaks. He was Brazilian from Rio and he obtained this weird instrument from Bern, Switzerland. I wanted to have a conversations with him, but his breaks were too short ... luckily in a nice coincidence, a group of tourists walked in with a guide who asked the guy to stop playing at his next break. This was perfect, it gave me an opportunity to talk with him.

His name was Pedro. It turned out that this instrument was new and that there are two masters in Bern that made it. Pedro was one of 5 Hang drum artists in town; later I would see another one. He told me artists needed license to play in Barcelona and got a time slot at a specific location. We talked about his music and his album and the instruments used in different tracks, as well as, his band with another unusual instrument from India. Turned out Pedro went on a 4 month tour of India in the south. He told me about some sights he'd seen there, like the continuous body burning fire and the oldest living city. We agreed that I would email him and he'll make some suggestions about places I should go there. In the end we shook hands and I told him to keep playing the beautiful music for the world to hear.



In the video above, it's Pedro playing on the Hang drum at the same place in Barcelona where I met him. He also has a blog

I was thinking about it, this is an awesome instrument that may not be too difficult to learn but sounds amazing. This is the perfect instrument for the march!