Thanks for all the kind comments

I’m overwhelmed at all the kind comments from people about my RIF. I’m not the only one: there are lots of really good, smart people leaving Sun in this process, and the company will be the poorer for their departure. Look for them on LinkedIn, please.
As I mentioned, I was due to host the Thursday afternoon SunLabs tea, and I decided to turn it into a celebration. After all, how often does someone get to spent 20 years with so many creative, imaginative, dedicated people? I picked up some champagne and pastries, threw together a few slides*, and we had a really good time. Thank you all. And best wishes to the other RIFfed folks that joined us.
I’ve amended the info in the sidebar to include my new email address. (It’s going to be interesting to hunt down all of the places which have my Sun address – airlines, iTunes, etc. etc.)
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* The slides are here – PDF, about 975KB. I don’t think there’s anything proprietary. For those who were at the tea today, I’ve added a footnote with the punch-line to that joke.

RIF

Well, after 20.63 years at Sun, I have been caught up in today’s RIF (Reduction In Force). As of 5pm today, I’m out of here.* So far the most common reaction is “You’re kidding!!!” Sadly, no.
However between now and then I’m hosting the regular Thursday afternoon SunLabs tea, so I’d better get on with the arrangements.
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* Of course over that period you accumulate a lot of stuff, and there’s no way that I can clear my office today. No matter.

And a dark cloud of secrecy settled upon the land….

A piece in Capitol Hill Blue begins as follows:

On an unspecified day last week an employee of a federal agency that cannot be revealed delivered a document that cannot be identified to a company that cannot be named seeking information that cannot be discussed.

And the depressing thing is, it‘s true. Or I think it is. But since all of the facts are secret, we’ll never know. And that’s the whole point.

Delayed random 10

Didn’t want to try doing this through my Treo….

  • “Jennifer’s Rabbit” by Tom Paxton
  • “Even Less” by Porcupine Tree
  • “Post Punk Progression” by Snow Patrol
  • “The Shock Of Contact” by the Legendary Pink Dots
  • “Who Am I” by Country Joe and the Fish
  • “A New England” by Kirsty MacColl
  • “Messages” by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
  • “Outside My Window” by Peter Buffett
  • “Time” by Pink Floyd
  • “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)” by Jimmy Somerville

A really nice (and very representative) collection this time.

Photos from England

I’ve posted a selection of photos from last week’s trip to England. Among the highlights:

  • A BA 767 1,000 ft. below us in the stack at Ockham
  • Rabbits (or are they hares?) outside a butcher’s shop in the Covered Market in Oxford
  • The Varsity (Oxford vs. Cambridge) ice hockey match
  • The “Alison Lapper: Pregnant” sculpture in Trafalgar Square
  • Somerset House
  • The Millennium Bridge over the Thames
  • The Thames as a working river

Taxi!
Enjoy.

Heading across the pond….

I’m at the Heathrow RCC waiting for them to call my flight. I’ll be back in Brookline by midnight, and in the office tomorrow.
It’s been a good trip. Good work-related meetings, a chance to walk the streets of London (a favourite pastime), spending time with my mother and brother, and a delightful couple of hours with an old friend of the family last night . (We sank a couple of pints at the Founders Arms on the South Bank, which lubricated a wide-ranging conversation.)
Apart from a brief snow flurry, I’ve dodged bad weather until today. Right now I’m watching planes taking off on runway 09R, and as each aircraft lifts off it’s squeezing great clouds out of the 100% humidity. Spectacular, especially the 747s and MD11s.
They’ve just called the flight (UA925). Time to go…

Blogging from the bus

I’m blogging this from the top deck of the Oxford Tube, an express bus to London. It’s 7:30, and we should arrive soon after 9. This gives me time to dig in to the book of the moment: “Conversations on Consciousness” by Susan Blackmore.. (She of the multicolored hair!) It consists of lightly-edited conversations that she recorded with 21 philosophers and neuroscience researchers, from Dennett and the Churchlands to Koch, Penrose and Crick. I picked it up at Blackwells on Thursday, and I’m really enjoying it. The conversations are arranged alphabetically, and so far I’m up to Susan Greenfield. (OK, so not all of the pieces are equally enjoyable!!) Recommended.

@GMP

I’m spending today at Sun’s Guillemont Park facility over here in the UK, meeting with a number of colleagues. Travel was uneventful: the flight from Boston to Dulles was about an hour late, but I still had time to hang out in the RCC. The London flight was about 65% full; I had a window seat with no-one next to me. Smooth flight, had to hold at Ockham but still arrived 5 minutes early. I got to Oxford around noon. After the usual greetings, I had lunch and a short nap; then I decided to take a quick walk up the hill to clear my head and get some fresh air. I started out in sunshine with a blue sky and a few fluffy clouds above; 10 minutes later I was in the middle of an intense snow shower. The weather here is quite cold and definitely volatile….