SciFoo Day 1

Today started out quite slowly. We didn’t have to be ready to load the bus for Google until 5 PM, so I slept in, took a nice soak in the hotel hot tub and had a great lunch with an old friend, Bob McBarton. By 5, I was ready and able to get on the bus already and off to Google we went.

I was on the first shuttle bus to arrive, so I was processed efficiently through the signing in and badging process, went straight for the beer cooler in the tent outside and some uncomfortable mingling. You know, the kind, what do you do, where are you from, how long have you been in town, what’s your sign, kind of stuff.

We were then called to collect a plate of dinner inside (which was actually a bit more extravagant than I had expected, although served on paper plates) and I arrived back outside under the tent. There weren’t many people out there, so I decided I would inhabit my own table and see who was brave enough to sit along side me.

So a few guys sat down as I was eating, and we went through the pleasant formalities again. After a couple minutes of conversation, I turned to Larry, sitting on my right and said “So Larry, what is your line of work” or something to that effect. To which he replies “I started Google”. Come again, please (a lot of brits in the crowd)? And everyone else is staring at me like I just crawled out from under a rock. How was I supposed to know that Larry Page is a household name? I guess I should have done my Scifoo homework…

So we sat and chatted for a half an hour about alternative energy, which I know a little about. Not quite as much Dan, who’s from Harvard’s Laboratory of Geochemical oceanography or Doug, a paleobiologist from the Museum of Natural History. Larry seemed to know his stuff pretty well, too.

I’ll fill you in more, but just got back to the hotel and need to crash. Safe to say, I was an interesting and fun first evening.