katsmeat

On Tuesday, I was in Cambridge for the first time in about eight months - Mathworks were running a Matlab symposium at the Cavendish Laboratory, the Department of Physics. It was free to attend and there literally was free lunch, who could possibly say no? I attended two boring and pointless talks (one of which was from Mathwork's UK Head), one sort-of OK talk, and two fascinating and usefull ones. Both of these were given by this woman, which implies I really, really ought to start reading her blog.

In these things, the lecturers tend to have a small stockpile of branded merchendise, to hand out as a pat on the head to any audience member who asks a good question, answers a lecturer's question or points out a mistake. And I got one! A Mathworks USB stick!

My thought process when this happened went something along the lines of... "OMG! Did I really just answer that? I'm so clever! I'm utterly briliant! And here's the bloke walking over to hand me the USB stick. Now politely say thank-you, smile modestly on the outside, grin like a maniac on the inside...

And it's a 1Gb. Oh, wow. Thanks. Jeez, have you had a box of these sitting forgotten at the bottom of a cupboard since 2005?"

So yes, my gratitude seems to last like snow under a flamethrower.

The Cavendish is interesting - incandescently prestigous (29 Nobels according to Wikipedia) yet the buildings look remarkably shabby (they're big on damp-stained ceiling tiles and peeling paint). One gets the impression of buildings built cheaply in 1960-something, that have been since continually chopped, altered and added-to as requirements change. Each time done as quickly and cheaply as possible. There's an vague air of "we don't care about appearances, because we don't have to care about apearances."

There are, however, lots of interesting glass cases, filled with aparatus used by varous exceptionally_famous phycists. I assume these were the things the Science Museum didn't want when they were clearing out the person in question's office or lab after death or retirement. They have the nice tradition of having a rows of annual, group photos of the department's research students. Impressively, I was familiar with about 1 in 20 of the names - Cockcroft, Walton, Blackett, Thompson, Watson, Crick, Bragg, Rutherford. If I didn't know the person, I was at least aware of the name in connection with some rule, law or equation.

After it was over, I took a quick wander through the town, mainly popping through those bookshops that are still open, but not buying anything. Then home.

Cambridge yesderday. Met auntysarah, the_local_echo then, in the evening snigl3t and her partner, < lj user= "got better thing to do then messing about with livejournal >.


She introduced me to a monumental waste of time - 6 down, about a 1000 to go.

http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?view=catsmeat&shelf=list

< sigh >

Up betimes and to setting in order of my bicycle. I did change the bearings on the back wheel. Though discover the bearing cones were pitted, which did vex me mightily as I am sure spares are going to be a swine to source.

Then by train to Cambridge, to call upon the booksellers, Galloway and Porter, at their ware-house in Cherry Hinton where a great multitude of books were, this day, in sale to the publick for little very money. From thence to the house of Mrs snigl3t to take coffee and admire the new motorcycle helmet her husband has bought for his birthday.

Then together to see "Snakes on a Plane", a strange conceit though it did please me mightily. Then, after a fine dinner at CB1, home and to bed.

Another evening at the dry-ski slope. Only one bloke went home in an ambulance - he fell forward and broke both wrists. I'm glad I wear wrist guards. Tomorrow, I'm doing the tourist thing at the Duxford Air Museum with my new American office mate. A day off is probably a good idea because I think I'm losing it. I managed to put on different shoes this morning and only noticed when I was taking off my snowboard boots when I came off the slope. They were similar shoes, but even so.

Incidentally, tomorrow is also Empire Day ... so have a good one!