Muli Ben-Yehuda's journal

The plan for Sunday was to visit the Boston Common and walk the
freedom trail. I had a hard time waking up, and by the time we got to
the Boston Common, I was feeling all queasy (possibly due to the
greasy breakfast we had at McDonalds). I sat on a bench near the duck
pond, and Orna went a-strollin’ in the Common’s gardens, taking
pictures of … what else, squirrels. And birds, ducklings, peaceful
mulices, etc, etc.

When Orna returned from her duck photographing escapades in the Boston
Common, we considered canceling our plans and heading home. I wasn’t
feeling up to doing anything, and Orna caught my bug and wasn’t up to
doing anything either. I realized that a) Orna will not go on without
me and b) she will be really miserable if we go back to the hotel, and
forced myself to get up and start walking. Amazingly enough, it
worked. We walked along the freedom trail, saw Boston’s many burial
grounds (I still find it peculiar that a burial ground is a tourist
attraction, but … ok), and visited Paul Revere’s house. Actually, we
just passed by it, didn’t even go inside. I just wanted to sit and
rest, and Orna was annoyed that photographing inside is not alowed. We
also saw a strange parade in the Italian quarter.

The freedom trail ends at the Charlestown navy yards. I wanted to find
lunch (just an excuse to stop walking, really), but we didn’t find
anything appetizing, and so went on and visited the USS constitution,
the oldest ship still in commision in the US Navy.

From the navy yards, we walked a loooong time until we found a T
station, took the T back to Cambridge, wolfed down lunch/dinner at a
Burger King (hey, it was there and it was open), made it back to the
hotel, and collapsed on the bed. We made it.

In the morning of day 3, we went a-walking to Harvard Yard and Harvard
Square, in Cambridge. We had dinner sitting on the grass, and then
Orna took many pictures of squirrels. Many, many pictures of
squirrels.

Cambridge is so quiet on Saturday morning, everything is peaceful and
serene. Once again I mention to Orna I would love to move here, and
once again Orna says something about 20 degrees below.

From Harvard Square, we went to the Harvard Museum of Natural
History. This is the “real thing”, with exhibits that scientists use
to study animals and plants. The halls are quiet, and have a dusty
feeling to them.

[Orna writes: ] Muli particularly liked the glass flowers exhibit,
since it had very strong air conditioning. He sat down on the floor
and studied the documentation for his new watch (a swatch with many
dials and hands, that stops moving when you press a button, but then
another hand starts moving…). Orna was suitably impressed with the
glass work, which was so good she had to convince herself that it’s
actually made from glass.

We saw a fish with hands and legs, sitting in a box full of
formaline. This is the 41st fish of its kind that was caught, out of
about a hundred. Did the first one that was caught survive? The fish
was located among many dinosaur skeletons. The next hall as the
stuffed animals hall, each room more fascinating than the previous
one, so I kept taking pictures. Muli gave up around the birds stage,
but Orna kept going to the crystals and precious gems exhibition,
where she got a demonstration of a technique to tell crystals apart:
based on their respone to UV light, based on the color that they leave
as a powder, and based on their reaction to acid.

Muli tried to convince Orna that if they’ll live in Boston one day,
they’ll be able to take the kids here every day. Orna reminded him
about the cold again.

We then went to the Boston Science Museum, not according to the
original plan (we meant to head for the MIT museum), due to a pretty
prosaic reason – it was closer to the T station. Yes, the value of
things began to be measured in “standing on our feet” quotas. Is it
worth walking there? is it worth standing and looking at it?

The science museum was disappointing. Flooded with violent kids,
unmaintained exhibits (broken, not working, giving a Windows error
message on the screen!). Many exhibits are dedicated to the same
subject, none of which require real action or thought on the part of
the viewer.

The computer museum, which is the real reason we visited the science
museum, has been dismantled. Its exhibits have been divided among 6
different museums, and there were only a few exhibits on display at
the science museum. Muli really liked them; Orna was disappointed by a
simulation enigma machine that didn’t quite work.

The next attraction was the duck tour. A ride in an amphibean
vehicle. There are 22 duck tour vehicles, and the drivers have created
their own folklore. Our driver, in particular, enjoyed breaking some
long-held Boston myths – the only reason Paul Revere is so famous, for
example, is because he was caught on the midnight ride. There’s
another guy who actually completed the ride without getting caught,
but who ever heard of him…

Sailing the river in the amphibean vehicle, Orna took pictures of
cormorans, seagulls, and maybe even a duckling.

After taking the T back to Cambridge, Orna stayed behind to buy shoes,
and sent Muli alone to the hotel. Ten minutes later, he returned. It
turned out he walked in the opposite direction.

Paul McKenney‘s Linux Kernel Scalability: Using the Right Tool for the Job.

Linux Kernel Networking Summit presentations, especially the summary and the 2.7 plans.

So, I’m back from OLS, but not yet back in Israel. I am spending the week working at IBM Tucson’s facility. The exact details of what I’m doing are not only confidential, but also incredibly boring. I’ll spare you, gentle reader.

I still have some stuff from Boston and all of my notes from OLS to put up. I’ll start right now, and we’ll see how far I get.