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Have spent the better part of the past two days at work (along with some additional hours) working on an Introduction to GPU Programming course that I am delivering tomorrow. It is the first of such courses, so I suspect it will be a bit rougher than usual, plus it compresses a lot of material in a single day, covering architecture, OpenACC, and CUDA programming. I might squeeze in an OpenCL example if all goes well by the end of the night. Although GPUs have a limited range of application (essentially SIMD tasks, or at least for that component), their capability is really the last thing driving performance in the world computing space these. I guess next month I'll arrange for a transition course from the University to NCI, after all, that is supposed to the national peak facility. In other work-related matters discovered today that we have the AFL Grand Final day as a holiday at the University, which stands out as an oddity in not having state-holidays. If I recall correctly I actually turned up last year.
Last night attended the 73rd annual general meeting of the Proportional Representation Society of Australia (Vic-Tas), which didn't exactly have an enormous turnout but it was a pleasure to catch up with some familiar faces, including Lyle Allan. The President, Dr Stephen Morey provided a four-point action outline which I think really needs some tightening up. The advocacy of below-the-line voting I think is something really reserved for political wonks, and sat a little oddly with guest speaker, Dr Narelle Miragliotta who spoke on convenience voting and especially how voters love it, and political organisations are lukewarm. Curiously voters seem indifferent to security concerns of electronic voting, which is a bit of a worry. Interestingly, the PR society doesn't cover my main interest which is the formation of all-inclusive proportional governments, such as the Swiss model.
The night previous![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
caseopaya and I went to the local talent concert series at the University of Melbourne where the grand finale of the night was a rather good presentation of Saint-Saëns, Piano Trio No 1 in F major, Op 18. Afterwards had a meal at a local Lygon Street restaurant established by a Syrian refugee family. With all my various travels and teaching I haven't been as often as I would like to University House and I certainly haven't found an excuse to organise a dinner or any sorts at one of their special dining rooms (although they don't come cheaply).
In my masses of spare time, I have managed to squeeze in some gaming over the past few days. Last Sunday was our regular RuneQuest session which went well with a series of lucky dice rolls as we continue our efforts to bring order to the chaotic ruins that we inhabit. Following from a discussion on the RuneQuest Rules mailing list I have started an article (currently c1500 words) reviewing the various editions of the game from the design features of modularity and flexibility and making the argument that we're all actually playing RuneQuest 1st edition with elaborate house rules. Finally, astoundingly pleased to see that a new edition of Bunnies & Burrows is up Kickstarter. I have received the OK from co-author Dennis Sustare to write an Australian scenario and campaign pack for the new edition. That will be the next project after RQ Con DownUnder.
Last night attended the 73rd annual general meeting of the Proportional Representation Society of Australia (Vic-Tas), which didn't exactly have an enormous turnout but it was a pleasure to catch up with some familiar faces, including Lyle Allan. The President, Dr Stephen Morey provided a four-point action outline which I think really needs some tightening up. The advocacy of below-the-line voting I think is something really reserved for political wonks, and sat a little oddly with guest speaker, Dr Narelle Miragliotta who spoke on convenience voting and especially how voters love it, and political organisations are lukewarm. Curiously voters seem indifferent to security concerns of electronic voting, which is a bit of a worry. Interestingly, the PR society doesn't cover my main interest which is the formation of all-inclusive proportional governments, such as the Swiss model.
The night previous
caseopaya and I went to the local talent concert series at the University of Melbourne where the grand finale of the night was a rather good presentation of Saint-Saëns, Piano Trio No 1 in F major, Op 18. Afterwards had a meal at a local Lygon Street restaurant established by a Syrian refugee family. With all my various travels and teaching I haven't been as often as I would like to University House and I certainly haven't found an excuse to organise a dinner or any sorts at one of their special dining rooms (although they don't come cheaply).In my masses of spare time, I have managed to squeeze in some gaming over the past few days. Last Sunday was our regular RuneQuest session which went well with a series of lucky dice rolls as we continue our efforts to bring order to the chaotic ruins that we inhabit. Following from a discussion on the RuneQuest Rules mailing list I have started an article (currently c1500 words) reviewing the various editions of the game from the design features of modularity and flexibility and making the argument that we're all actually playing RuneQuest 1st edition with elaborate house rules. Finally, astoundingly pleased to see that a new edition of Bunnies & Burrows is up Kickstarter. I have received the OK from co-author Dennis Sustare to write an Australian scenario and campaign pack for the new edition. That will be the next project after RQ Con DownUnder.
