Mixed Signals
Any sufficiently advanced information is indistinguishable from noise
Friday 16 May 2003, 5:59 PM
Tuesday: Technology Tour
Tuesday 13/05/2003
Spread over two days, the Citrix iForum does a good job of extracting every last drop of juice from thin client computing. As is traditional, we kick off with some keynote presentations -- every year, I think "Surely, there's nothing more they can do with Metaframe!" and every year they prove me wrong. This year, it's more security, better printing (still something of a sore point) and more collaboration tools. Unfortunately, the keynotes finish with a case study from a financial institution: nothing wrong with that per se, but the presenter has more than a touch of the Mogadon about him. The journalist to my left -- who we won't call Jon Honeyball, to spare his blushes -- expressed what we all felt with some loud and sonorous snoring.
Later, we have a Technology Tour -- a room full of computers running different aspects of the Citrix product line. They are attended by Citrixians, who wear the show uniform of red sports shirt and black trousers -- the effect is startlingly like a Star Trek convention entirely populated by Ensign Smiths, the hapless security bod who gets beamed down in order to get eaten/shot/blown up.
The evening is spent at Stirling Castle, staring at large paintings of Englishmen being massacred. In between canapés, our guide took us outside to show us chunks of Scotland in the clear spring air. With some relish, he pointed out various battlefields where... ah, you've guessed it. And in the distance, the last rays of the sun picked out the enormous William Wallace monument on a nearby hill.
Hm. I keep quiet and eat my dinner.
Spread over two days, the Citrix iForum does a good job of extracting every last drop of juice from thin client computing. As is traditional, we kick off with some keynote presentations -- every year, I think "Surely, there's nothing more they can do with Metaframe!" and every year they prove me wrong. This year, it's more security, better printing (still something of a sore point) and more collaboration tools. Unfortunately, the keynotes finish with a case study from a financial institution: nothing wrong with that per se, but the presenter has more than a touch of the Mogadon about him. The journalist to my left -- who we won't call Jon Honeyball, to spare his blushes -- expressed what we all felt with some loud and sonorous snoring.
Later, we have a Technology Tour -- a room full of computers running different aspects of the Citrix product line. They are attended by Citrixians, who wear the show uniform of red sports shirt and black trousers -- the effect is startlingly like a Star Trek convention entirely populated by Ensign Smiths, the hapless security bod who gets beamed down in order to get eaten/shot/blown up.
The evening is spent at Stirling Castle, staring at large paintings of Englishmen being massacred. In between canapés, our guide took us outside to show us chunks of Scotland in the clear spring air. With some relish, he pointed out various battlefields where... ah, you've guessed it. And in the distance, the last rays of the sun picked out the enormous William Wallace monument on a nearby hill.
Hm. I keep quiet and eat my dinner.
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