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Late last week held two days of workshops, Regular Expressions with Linux and From Spartan to Gadi, the latter teaching researchers how to get on and use NCI's main system, Gadi, the most powerful supercomputer in Australia (and number 24 in the world). Like all the workshops I give they can be quite content-heavy, so a process of adding extra documentation will be a priority for the early this week (NCI, it must be said, really need to update their documentation). Planning on returning to my more usual fare next with Introduction to Linux and HPC, and Advanced Linux and Shell Scripting for HPC. Also have submitted a draft PID for a HPC mentorship programme for researchers that I have in mind (and tied in with my studies at Otago University). I have also just submitted an abstract for eResearch Australasia on the developments of the Spartan HPC system; I think I'll put a second one in for developments in the international HPC Certification programme.
The past few days I've also had the opportunity to delve into the gaming hobby; a CyberDarkspace session on Thursday, a D&D5e session on Saturday, and my Eclipse Phase game on Sunday, plus another scene for my much-neglected HeroQuest Glorantha story on the same day. The CyberDarkspace session ended a particularly good plot arc, but there was general agreement that we should continue that. The D&D5e game was short term, and I confess I had troubles getting into at first because D&D does bore me. But my interest perked up in the latter half of the session. As for Eclipse Phase, that involved burying the PCs deep in the Baikonur Cosmodrone with an evil supercomputer as the surface was nuked; I mean, I may as well turn it up, right?
All this aside, the most memorable experience of the past few days has been the response to my f-locked post on Friday. I don't know what I expected, but the outpouring of solidarity, understanding, and love on the posts and through DMs was overwhelming and inspiring. I want to thank everyone who reached out, you really all have made an incredible difference, and far more than you could possibly know, and indeed it has generated many grounds for self-reflection and cautious optimism. Whilst on the topic of self-reflection, I have to mention that last week I managed to get to have a video-conference with a very old cyberpunk friend who goes by the nom-de-guerre Molly Millions (yes, the William Gibson character) and on Friday night a smashing good video-conference night of drinks and conversation with Holly M., Luke M., and Louisa G. The greatest power of the Internet from a human perspective was always how it brought people together. With video-conferencing it has just raised the visceral component up another level. More bandwidth please!
The past few days I've also had the opportunity to delve into the gaming hobby; a CyberDarkspace session on Thursday, a D&D5e session on Saturday, and my Eclipse Phase game on Sunday, plus another scene for my much-neglected HeroQuest Glorantha story on the same day. The CyberDarkspace session ended a particularly good plot arc, but there was general agreement that we should continue that. The D&D5e game was short term, and I confess I had troubles getting into at first because D&D does bore me. But my interest perked up in the latter half of the session. As for Eclipse Phase, that involved burying the PCs deep in the Baikonur Cosmodrone with an evil supercomputer as the surface was nuked; I mean, I may as well turn it up, right?
All this aside, the most memorable experience of the past few days has been the response to my f-locked post on Friday. I don't know what I expected, but the outpouring of solidarity, understanding, and love on the posts and through DMs was overwhelming and inspiring. I want to thank everyone who reached out, you really all have made an incredible difference, and far more than you could possibly know, and indeed it has generated many grounds for self-reflection and cautious optimism. Whilst on the topic of self-reflection, I have to mention that last week I managed to get to have a video-conference with a very old cyberpunk friend who goes by the nom-de-guerre Molly Millions (yes, the William Gibson character) and on Friday night a smashing good video-conference night of drinks and conversation with Holly M., Luke M., and Louisa G. The greatest power of the Internet from a human perspective was always how it brought people together. With video-conferencing it has just raised the visceral component up another level. More bandwidth please!
