ETRA 08

Another ETRA just wrapped up. This was the 5th since 2000 and it seems to be getting better every time, even though attendance (~100) and paper submissions (~45) may have plateaued. The quality of the papers has improved a great deal over the years, however. There are a number of very bright grad students responsible for this, so I'm hopeful that they'll continue with eye tracking and keep the momentum going. The cover pic shows just one example of this work, in this case the development of a one-point calibration technique for gaze tracking of infants. Infants are particularly troublesome eye tracking subjects since their attention span for staring at calibration dots is quite short.

Of course it's not all work. Conference attendees require nourishment, and as is typical, large groups often form to go off in search of sustenance. This can be problematic with reservations, however, requiring the group to wander from place to place in search of open table space. I think restaurants refer to this as "getting slammed" when a group of 20 people manage to get in through the door. The first night (pic at left) we finally found a pub with enough space to sit us all. Outside. And it was cold. The waitress just managed to clear out a group of 15 or so people when we showed up. Eventually we all got our food (good stuff too) and finished off our meals in our coats. The next night we got smart and called ahead. Oleg, the guy across from me, called in reservations and found us an excellent place for dinner. He also got us a good place the next night, where a live band played after dinner. I could have stayed in Savannah Saturday night, but I was by then too tired and wanted to get the 5 hr drive home overwith. I am now "decompressing" on the couch after a quiet, long night's sleep. Saturday we're off to Florence!

On to ETRA

Turns out the octogenarian's little tap on the beamer was more serious than it appeared. In fact, because his bumper first hit my wheel, the impact bent the entire shock/strut assembly. Result: after three months' anticipation ("three months!"—homage to Point Break, one of my favorite Keanu movies), the beamer was deemed undrivable forcing me to make the 5 hr drive down to Savannah in a rental. And what a rental! A Kia Optima. Not very comfortable, not clean (you can't see it in the picture but the windshield was filthy), and it smells! Economy class, essentially :) To be fair, the octogenarian's insurance company meant well and paid for a rental model comparable to the beamer sitting in the shop, but unfortunately no comparable model could be found (on such short notice). So I shlepped it along in this goofy thing all the way down to the coast. Maybe it was just as well; I took the side roads, rife with slow speed zones, at which, naturally, many cop cars can often be found. Anyway, after an uneventful drive I made it in time for dinner with friends. This morning we're off and running with the conference goings on. So far so good!

Easter Sailing

While out shopping yesterday we had stopped by West Marine to pick up some new cordage (double-braided nylon, my favorite :) Just a few short snippets to replace a few short lines on the boat. One of the more problematic items was the rudder lanyard. The old line was so worn that it would not properly set in the jam cleat (holding up the rudder when in the slip; sorry, I didn't take a picture of this so it might be hard to explain). I think that old lanyard was also too thin for the cleat. I used 5/16 line to replace it and this now provides sufficient leverage to allow me to lift up the entire rudder out of the water. In addition, we replaced the tiller tamer line (holds the tiller in place when in the slip) and the boom vang line. Everything now matches and looks really nice—much nicer than that old graying, degenerating stuff that was there before.

After all that "cutting and splicing" (2 hrs worth), we went out sailing. There was supposed to be no wind (NOAA forecasted 3-7 mph wind). So I had prepared the asymmetric spinnaker to see if we could get a hang of hoisting and sailing that large piece of fabric. However, the latter half of the cold front brought with it some more wind. Yesterday it was blowing 15-20 mph (Beaufort force 4-5), gusting to 30 (force 7) so we decided to go shopping instead. Today, it climbed from 5 mph (variable at 14:00) to about 10 mph (3 Beaufort), gusting to 16-20 mph (4-5 Beaufort) by 16:00 when we decided to head in. We never did get the spinnaker hoisted, but we had an excellent Easter's day sailing nonetheless. You can see the spinnaker bag on the bow in the video clip.

Unlucky Anderson

This is the second time the car gets dinged in Anderson. This time it's not the firebird but the beamer. Not at the movie theaters but at Sam's Club. An older gentleman, a retiree (to put it mildly; I have other terms but will refrain from using them) backed up in to the passenger side front quarter panel. We were just leaving, backed up from our parking stall into the lane, when this guy backs up his Ford Explorer pickup right into the beamer. They were in a hurry, trying to get back to their church for some kind of Easter egg hunt thing. He told us he had only looked right and didn't see us in the lane before backing up. Well, maybe a minor thing, but we had to wait for the cops to show up to write up the report. Unfortunately, he managed to bang me right in the seam between the front quarter panel and the front panel, possibly knicking the wheel. Now the gap between the panel and hood on the passenger's side and the driver's side differs, and the steering seems a bit off (alignment?). Hopefully they'll fix it back to it's three-month old shape. What a bummer! And just two days before heading down to Savannah...sheesh...

Lazy day on the lake

After we got back from Reno we picked up the cats, who got back into the routine pretty quickly. Out every morning, then back inside for a snack in the afternoon. Now with daylight savings time, they go back out after their treats, but usually they just hang around the yard or the deck. If there's time before dinner we take them out for a forest walk. They're usually pretty excited about that.

This weekend we went out sailing on the lake. Not much wind, only 6 mph, so it was a lazy couple of hours. Still nice, though. Even with this light wind we managed to circle around the sailing club's race circuit to find new potential arms of the lake to investigate when the winds are better. This year we might have to stay on Lake Keowee if Lake Hartwell's water level remains as low as it is. So we're on the lookout for good places to anchor the sailboat on local beaches so that we can go for a swim in the summer months.

After sailing Corey wanted to get some yardwork done. I think she had time enough to clear out another region of the yard of fall's debris, while I drove in another truckload of mulch. There's more stuff to do in the yard, and more mulch to get. I'll try to get more mulch Monday. Then Tuesday I get to play with a new band—a metal band this time, when we'll try to play some of the harder hits of the 80s as well as more recent stuff. Should be fun!