Date:         Wed, 3 Dec 1997 16:45:06 -0900
Reply-To:     Chris Wyatt2 <syncro@GI.ALASKA.EDU>
Sender:       Vanagon mailing list <Vanagon@Gerry.SDSC.EDU>
From:         Chris Wyatt2 <syncro@GI.ALASKA.EDU>
Subject:      TRIP REPORT: I met Gerry!  Thanks, Chris Smith
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

Hi Volks,

I must apologize for personally delaying the latest revival of the list
by more than an hour, by distracting its caretaker.

A business trip took me to Pasadena for several days in November, and I
added a weekend in San Diego to visit some former Fairbanks folks.  While
there, I thought I would look up Chris Smith (our list co-admin), and
actually meet another Vanagon owner.  I did, and he invited me and a friend
over to the San Diego Supercomputing Center.

I anticipated a conversation populated with phrases like "rear heater
core" and "head gasket" and "intermittent cut-out", but it wasn't that
way at all.  Chris showed my friend Kaarin and I around the Center, and it
was the best thing I saw indoors on my trip to CA.  The rows of Cray
T3Es, SGI Challenges, with external waterfall cooling systems, and there in
the middle of them was Gerry.  Chris said that all Gerry does is run the
listserv, but I suspect it actually coordinates all research activities
at the SDSC.

The coolest thing they had was the Telemanufacturing Facility
(http://www.sdsc.edu/tmf), where a Laminated Object Manufacturing device
builds protype solid 3-D models to represent digital data.  Built with
layer upon layer of paper precisely cut with a laser, the finished
product feels like wood.  Examples of its output on display included tiny
hurricaines, the sea floor, and airplane wings.  Chris and I briefly
discussed attempting to use the LOM to build topographic models
of volcanoes or other geomorphological features using the satellite radar
data that I work with.  I'm looking into that on my end.

The state of the art meeting room was most amazing as well.  To get an
idea of what I am more accustomed to, around here they use a broken ski
pole as a pointer.

So, thanks a bunch for the tour, Chris!  I encourage everyone to drop
Chris a note if you are going to be in that area, and see if he can break
away long enough to show you around.  And be sure to rub Gerry for good
luck and wish him continued good health...

Cheers,

Chris Wyatt
'87 Syncro GL
Fairbanks, Alaska