Now, that’s what I call a time machine: leaving Auckland at 9am and arriving at 7.10am the same day in Vancouver. Try and beat that! 😉
What am I doing in Canada?? Well, I’ve developed some software, called BenchMarking Via Weka, which got accepted to the NIPS 2008 workshop on open-source software in machine learning (= MLOSS). Even though I only ended up with 5min of talk time, it was a good opportunity to meet other people out of the machine learning community. Not being an academic, this kind of hands-on workshop should be right up my alley.
Now, since the workshop wasn’t actually held in Vancouver, as the main conference, but in Whistler, I had to get on the bus and drive for another couple of hours. In nice weather, the drive would have been quite scenic, but at that time, everything was just really cloudy. Still all those clouds hanging in there, driving along the strait (not sure which one!) that separates Vancouver Island from the mainland.
After arriving at the hotel, The Westin Resort & Spa, I realized that I didn’t get any breakfast at my hotel, but had a fully equipped kitchen at my disposal. So first thing that I did (after the mandatory long, hot shower to get the travel dirt off), was going downtown (actually, more like downvillage) and buy some groceries. Boy, it was some time ago that I was living in the US… So I had to get used to the fact, that the stuff is always tagged with a price that excludes the tax. Duh! Anyway, after choosing the right milk (the light blue milk with 1.5% milk fat is close to the 2% one here, which is pink) and other bits and pieces, I could finally lug the result of my successful hunt back home. …and had some lunch! 🙂
The Westin Resort & Spa