For the guts of this post of why I’m fired up this morning, skip this next paragraph.
For those of you waiting for Day 3…yeah that’s not really coming if you couldn’t already tell. Why? Well, (1) I’m lazy, (2) I’ve lost the momentum of GEOINT, and (3) nothing too exciting happened on Day 3 to be honest. I’ll give you one thing though: I did almost get robbed at a club. Day 3 was on a Thursday. Last day of the symposium, many had already begun to fly back home. Figured, ok let’s do it up on our last night and go downtown. Surprisingly, Nashville was DEAD on a Thursday night. After dinner, we attempted a dueling piano bar, Coyote Ugly, and to our disappointment, the bar that was recommended to us was closed. FAIL, FAIL, FAIL. So we actually succumbed to going into an 18+ college bar/club — the ONLY poppin’ place that night. Quite a mixture of honky-tonkness and freshmen trying to sneak some drinks here and there. The night got interesting (and scary) when a drunkard somehow got into the place. He preyed around us begging for drinks with his eyes and slurred gibberish. You could just tell he was out to get something to sell to make a buck or two for a drink. That something was our jackets. I had seen him eying my purse, but I was quick to run off to the bathroom with it. Came back and our jackets were stashed under his. He tried to deny it and pretended to look around for them, all innocent-like. Smooth buddy, smooth. My co-worker yanked them and we got the f* out of there. Nashville had been an awesome experience up until that. Needless to say, it hasn’t tarnished my view of this awesome live-music city.
On to the fiery part…scrolling through my unread Hacker News feeds in Google Reader, this one caught my eye: We Are Typists first, Programmers Second. I’m curious to see what you guys think, specifically my fellow programmers out there.
I pasted my comment below:
87 wpm and my one mistake was putting a period at the end of that paragraph (apparently that typing test doesn’t value proper grammar).
I’ve been typing pretty much since instant messengers came out, which was primarily how I learned to type quickly. I definitely do not program as fast as I can type. What is the need? Programming takes thought and often pseudo-coding in my head before I can even begin to put code down in an editor. If you’re going to lose a thought, write the main points down (pencil and paper is still effective!), or type the solution in plain English as a comment. Whoa, comments…who comments anymore right?
I used to judge a programmer’s skills by the way he/she typed, but our trade isn’t to type fast. Perhaps if you were a secretary (which I’ve been one) or a note-taker, it would be more valuable, but good programming goes far beyond keystrokes.
Booth duty started to feel very much like a chore by Day 2. The excitement of being in a new city in a convention center and not in a cube for once started to wear off. Even the Elvis look-a-like over at NetApp got pretty old pretty fast. We didn’t get as many attendees to stop at our booths as I had expected. Perhaps we appeared too intimidating since BAE Systems probably had one of the largest staff there and often created barriers to the kiosks. I felt a little like a Circuit City salesperson dressed in our black polos and khakis trying to get people interested in what a LION/LAIR was and how it could fit their needs.
I’ll take this moment to briefly describe what exactly LION/LAIR is and my role on the team. LION is the Live Intelligence Online Network and is a web application for intelligence analysts (IAs), usually open-source, meaning their data is collected from unclassified sources, i.e., the World Wide Web. We (as in the small IRAD team I’m on and not BAE as a whole) provide a collaborative analysis tool for these IAs in the form of a notebook structure, which helps the analysts to decompose their complex intelligence issues. An example of this could be figuring out what the status is of various regional infrastructures that may be areas of potential threats. Essentially, all this data is used to produce a monthly report for further analysis.
My job as a software developer is to enrich this application with features that will save an analyst time and encourage collaboration among other analysts within a community. Some capabilities in LION include RSS subscriptions to external feeds or other analysts’ notebooks, the ability to add/comment/vote on other notes, view notes textually and on a map and timeline, and one of the more recent features is the recommendation of related sources. This last feature is made possible by our back end, LAIR, or Linking Analysis to Intelligence Resources. This is really where all the magic happens as automated and manually populated metadata feeds LAIR to create relationships among similar resources, whether they are other notes within the community or other external sources.
During the GEOINT Symposium, one of the highlights was the Interoperability Demo, for which my teammate and I spent most of our time preparing. While many applications are able to function as standalone tools, analysts may sometimes have to use several tools to tackle a problem, from gathering data to making conclusions and taking action. The Interop Demo was broken down into three days to tell a story that somewhat resembled an episode of 24. A hypothetical scenario was created where analysts discovered that a fertilizer theft in a small nearby town revealed facts/events, which then led to a bomb threat at a country music event in Nashville. Several tools from a variety of companies were demo’d, including LION/LAIR, to illustrate their “interoperability-ness” with one another. This was to show mainly that the data from one application could be used as input to another and were important to different “players” in the defense world, from intelligence analyst to first responders.
Aside from demos, Day 2 was memorable in that it was Geowalk Night, a.k.a. let’s party hop from one venue to another all within the Opryland Resort! I had not realized how big of a presence BAE Systems had until I started to see our name and logo everywhere. We were on everyone’s name badges, the hotel key cards, and of course, everyone remembered BAE for throwing the best party. Some of the major companies that sponsored GEOINT this year each rented out a venue in Opryland. Stops along our geowalk included DigitalGlobe’s Monster Bash, Boeing/General Dynamic’s shindig at Jack Daniel’s Saloon, and finally ended up at our own party at the largest venue, the Vegas-style night club, Fuse. Although all the parties had open-bar, I can guarantee you that BAE racked up the biggest bill, as our party kept getting extended hour after hour until finally, we closed it out at 2 am (originally set to 11 pm!). You don’t even want to know how big that bill was! This was my first time out actually partying with co-workers, and boy did that get interesting really fast!! No further comment there, but yes, I do have incriminating photos and no, I will not post them here.
With that, I will wrap it up here. Stay tuned for the finale of Day 3.
Time is really limited right now to blog since I forgot to shutdown my laptop and my battery is quite low. No charger either since it’s back at the podium in the exhibit hall.
First off, I have never been so ecstatic to start blogging. Not because it was a great day at GEOINT or anything, but because I had witnessed probably the most (*as i pause here to think of the right words to even start describing this experience…*) unique and stunning musical show ever, and it only lasted around half an hour, if that. The phenomenal,Theresa Andersson. I’m not really one to buy a cd nor devote a majority of a blog post to a musician, not because no one was deserving, but because no one had ever really moved me as much as her. After her first song/performance and getting non-stop chills listening to her sing, I was completely sold. Her music is not only beautiful, but impressive to watch her perform. I cannot even begin to describe the awe I was in when seeing her use her own voice as backup singers using some recor…
*and that’s when my battery died…listening to her cd now as I try to retrace this thought three days later*
Ahh yes, the backup singers whom she called “the Kitchenettes.” (Her cd cover states that she records her music in her kitchen.) First thing she says to the audience after her soundcheck is, “Hey guys, make yourselves feel like you’re in my kitchen.” How strange, right? First thing I thought was, hmm this is kinda hippy-like. This could be either really weird or really good.
She starts to strum and sing the first few notes of the song on her violin as she pushes down one of several pedals to record herself. Then she moves over to her drums to create a beat and once again records this. But all the while, music has continued to flow so smoothly from the previous recordings that continue to loop. Next thing you know, you hear a softer familiar voice in the background but no other singers are present on stage. She belts out meaningful lyrics to these catchy beats. A beautiful New Orleans-influenced song has just been created in front of your very eyes.
One of my favorites from the night is this song called, “Hi-Low,” which has a Hawaiian feel to it. It’s soo amazing to watch her perform this one because she makes two distinct voices immediately after one another in two different microphones as if she did have a background singer right there with her.
It’s difficult to describe Theresa’s music in comparison to others, as she composes music so uniquely and beautifully. Her genre of music (according to her Facebook profile!) is Indie Soul. When I think of folk, I think of the also very talented Jack Johnson, but she really does kick it up a notch, or two or five or ten! I would say she has this fusion of soul and folk and kind of has a less poppy “Natasha Bedingfield-meets-Norah Jones” sound. Her tunes are simple, yet you wouldn’t be able to tell how complex the composition of the song really was without seeing her live. She has to deal with accurate timing and synchronization of the several recordings, when to turn them off and when to join them, and singing and playing of course. It is truly fascinating to watch her dance and hop around barefoot as she switches pedals and instruments, from guitar to violin to drums to even just clapping or beat boxing to create a maelstrom of such cool sounds!! In one word, Theresa Andersson is “effervescent,” as described by the bar owner when he outro’d her.
It is clear that the mellow, yet very appreciative crowd had a united sense of respect for her as they listened so attentively and were nearly silent in between her setup for the next song. I actually found myself whispering to my friend Evan, “AMAZING!” as he “shhhh’d!” me back. Under normal circumstances, I would have been absolutely disappointed that I forgot my camera that night to share this experience with y’all, but there was just too much to take in that it would have taken away from the moment. Instead, check her out on this YouTube video, in her very own kitchen:
So that was the highlight of my trip to Nashville! I could not have been exposed to this experience without reuniting with my friend and high school classmate, Evan Goodberry. He introduced me to this very cool dive bar, the Basement, where we got this unexpected musical treat — for free too!! I knew Nashville was a music city before I arrived, but I had no idea I would get this blown away. THANKS SO MUCH, EVAN!
All this music talk, and where’s the geoint?! Well Day 1 was fairly exhausting being that it was the first taste of booth duty. That is, standing on and off talking to potential customers and demo’ing for about 7 hours. Oh yeah, and having to compete with the Johnny Cash look-a-like and Wii station at the NetApp booth across the aisle. The day ended well though…you know, with a Yuengling later (I’ve made it a point to drink it whenever I can. Thank you Tennessee for finally bringing this beer outside of the northeast!)
Updates on Days 2 and 3 to follow, which were MUCH MORE EVENTFUL! I’m starting to get the sniffles. Not cool since I have to fly back to San Diego in about 8 hours. Perhaps I can make it to a Waffle House before my flight! “Like my waffle house hash browns…” with jalepenos!!!! Oh yessss!!!
All I can say is: wake up, go to Exhibit Hall, see if I can start setting up my booth, get told to come back later, help out in the private demo room, return to hotel room to nap. Rinse and repeat every 45 minutes.
What a day. The Exhibit Hall pretty much looked like RIT’s Career Fair on crack. There were a TON of signs and cool furniture. Many companies had interactive flat screens and leather couches. The floor was adorned with lots of lush green plants with large signs of each company hanging above their respective sections.
Glad the day is finally over now though. We did get a chance to attend the Welcome Reception in the Grand Ole Opry. After a shockingly cold walk (to the shuttle), we warmed up with free beer/well drinks/wine and hors’duerves. It was pretty sweet getting to roam around on stage and backstage too, as seen below:
Finished the night off with a bottle of Yuengling with a co-worker (I was so ecstatic when I saw that the bar right by my room had Yuengling!! in the SOUTH! it’s unheard of!). The night has ended well.
In less than 12 hours, it will be show time. The booths open up and the talks/demos begin. Let’s get this show started!
Well, to be technical, it would be Day -1 seeing as the first official day of the GEOINT Symposium is Tuesday of this week. So that’s right, I’m here in the nation’s music city, Nashville, Tennessee, for I guess what you’d consider to be a trade show for the geospatial intelligence community. Lots of big-name defense companies are here (BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Goodrich, etc, etc.) to essentially demo to and network with potential customers. Some day I’ll actually explain in some detail of what i actually do and what kind of project I’m working on.
For now though, I’ve decided to document just a little each day of my first business travel experience. Nothing too monumental today, but it has been a fun one. From pleasant plane rides to staying at the second largest hotel in the U.S. — the GAYLORD OPRYLAND! Just had some beers with the co-workers to some great live music at the Jack Daniel’s Saloon right here within the resort. Methinks this will be quite a fun trip! Time to rest up for tomorrow’s 8 am test setup in the Exhibit Hall!
P.S. They have a “Waking With the Stars” service so I can pick any country music star’s music as my wake-up call. I don’t know any of these people, except Winona and Vince Gill. Vince Gill it is! Yee hawww!
Under normal circumstances, I would have been absolutely disappointed that I forgot my camera that night to share this experience with y’all, but there was just too much to take in that it would have taken away from the moment. Instead, check her out on this YouTube video, in her very own kitchen:
87 wpm and my one mistake was putting a period at the end of that paragraph (apparently that typing test doesn’t value proper grammar).
I’ve been typing pretty much since instant messengers came out, which was primarily how I learned to type quickly. I definitely do not program as fast as I can type. What is the need? Programming takes thought and often pseudo-coding in my head before I can even begin to put code down in an editor. If you’re going to lose a thought, write the main points down (pencil and paper is still effective!), or type the solution in plain English as a comment. Whoa, comments…who comments anymore right?
I used to judge a programmer’s skills by the way he/she typed, but our trade isn’t to type fast. Perhaps if you were a secretary (which I’ve been one) or a note-taker, it would be more valuable, but good programming goes far beyond keystrokes.
Syp Vandy on November 18, 2008 08:59 AM