The last three days at the Microsoft eScience workshop in North Carolina gave me a good overview to the current direction of scientific research.

First off, this is an academic conference, very academic... it is not closed to industry but the few of us from industry really stood out.  This is a Microsoft sponsored conference but the sponsorship comes from the Microsoft Research branch.

On my last flight, it took me 9 hours to fly from Halifax to Toronto (long story).

At the moment there is a huge storm in Atlanta (my transfer point) so we are sitting grounded on the runway in Raleigh... it is already past the time for the last flight back to Toronto... much joy.

At least my laptop was fully charged and for some reason I'm picking up a wifi connection on the middle of the tarmac.

Here is a new equation that doesn't yield the results that I was hoping for:

(Amazon S3) + (Microsoft HealthVault) + (Google <yet to be named health record storage>) = No go in Canada

Apple's chief, Steve Jobs, has gone on record as loathing the noise made by computer fans (hardware, not enthusiasts...) (here and here).

I wonder if Steve has ever sat in the midst of an audience of over 200 where more than half of them are typing away on Macbooks?  The chicklet keys sound ok on their own but once that sound is multiplied... Steve should be ashamed.