It's been a week since we got back from Linux World Expo at the Javits Center in New York City. I really wanted to write while I was there. You'd think that for $200 a night, you could get a decent internet connection in your hotel. John, Chris and I discovered that $200 a night doesn't necessarily buy a whole lot in Manhattan.
Our trip started out wonderfully, Portland International was pretty much shut down due to fog. Our first flight was cancelled. Fortunately, my favourite airline, Alaska got us on a flight to LA from where we grabbed an American flight into JFK. We finally got to our hotel just after midnight.
We were staying at the Roosevelt in Manhattan. To all appearances it was one of the poshest places I had ever stayed, how quickly I was disabused of that notion! On arriving at room 305, we quickly discovered that our door keys wouldn't work. The bellhop quickly ran downstairs to check on what was wrong. When he returned we discovered that we had been moved to room 344. So, we tagged along and found our new room. It was tiny, and there was no roll-away bed. They eventually delivered a roll-away for Chris and John and I took the two doubles. It wasn't long before we were all sound asleep.
We woke up the next morning to the sounds of the big city. For the most part we were refreshed. We decided that the best way to see the city would be to walk to the Javits Center, so we checked our map and headed out on a walk across Manhattan.
We stopped for breakfast at McDonalds, saw Times Square and eventually arrived at the Javits Center--That place is impressive. My first impression was that there were lots of exhibitors, but not many attendees.
We saw quite a few interesting things, but nothing we felt was revolutionary. The most impressive things to me were Evolution and Red Carpet from Ximian and Nautilus from Eazel. The Ximian booth was by far the coolest and most unique at the show.
We had a series of excellent meetings with the folk we went to meet with. How all of the contacts we made eventually come to fruition will be very interesting.
One of the highlights for me was getting to pinch hit for my friend and former employee
David Mandel at a panel discussion about Linux and Education. I was disappointed at the attendance, but met some really interesting people.
A couple of other notes about the hotel. When we returned to the hotel after the first day at the show, our room had not been cleaned! I went to the front desk and asked about it. I told the girl I was in room 344. She didn't believe me. I said look under the name John Shepherd. She didn't believe me (we were still registered in room 305). She asked me to run back up to the room and call her to prove to her what room I was in!
Also, I have the misfortune of suffering from migraine headaches. Fortunately, I have a prescription for a drug that usually takes care of them. I forgot my pills, and had them UPS Next Day Aired to the hotel. Of course they managed to get that messed up, and told me that my package had never arrived, and that if it had arrived it would have been rejected because my name was not on the room. Since I wasn't having any headaches I let it go at that. However, just to make sure that my medicine wouldn't stay in New York while I travelled home, I asked again when I checked out. I was informed that all packages are kept for seven days, and that yes my package really was in the hotel!
Needless to say, we won't be returning to the Roosevelt Hotel.
This week was Kyle's first week of work. What a great asset he will be as I now don't have to worry about being called away from my coding tasks to resolve network issues.
