Delays, Downgrades, Dress Shoes - My visit in Toronto

I haven't blogged here for a long time, opting to tweet short cryptic messages, if at all. Well, my trip to and from Toronto was eventful enough to warrant a full post or two.

Being the mileage optimizer I am, instead of flying direct to Toronto, I had a stopover in Houston, a Continental hub. Due to differences in price, I flew from San Jose airport instead of SFO, and parked my car in a hotel near the airport. This minor fact will prove crucial later.

The outwards flight went well, except that I did not get an upgrade on the flight to Houston (I was 2nd on the waiting list). I arrived in Toronto, and took the cool wifi enabled bus to my hotel. Upon arrival, I checked the conference schedule and was somewhat surprised to see that the main part of the conference starts the next evening, which meant I had a whole day to tour the city.

Since the banquet was to be held in the CN tower, Toronto's primary attraction, I decided to use my free day to visit the Royal Ontario Museum. That day I walked several kilometers to the conference venue, then to the museum, inside the museum, and finally back home. During all that time I wore dress shoes I usually wear for interviews -- I packed my best clothes for the conference.

What I did not realize, is that dress shoes can severely hurt your feet. By the next day my feet started to develop painful blisters and abrasions, which made it painful to walk. I used taxis for my travel to and from the conference venue since.

Academically, the conference was very fruitful. I got to meet many colleagues from institutions around the world, including Michael Wooldridge from the university of Liverpool, where I am about to interview soon. My students' talks went well and there were many interesting posters, some with the potential to lead to further research.

The conference banquet was held in the revolving restaurant on the top of the CN tower. This was the first time ever I've been to such a restaurant. Dinner was edible (not a trivial thing for a fancy restaurant) and the view was beautiful. Having the restrooms in the non-revolving part proved a challenge when I was trying to return to my seat. Sitting right next to the windows, I have attempted to send clever messages by writing them on paper and putting them on the non-revolving part of the restaurant. Few of these came back to me.

On the final day, I rushed to pack all my things and check out of the hotel. Then I took a taxi to the conference venue, attended the final talks and demos, and took the wifi bus back to the airport. At this point my feet were still in pain and it was difficult to walk.

At the airport, I found out that my flight to Houston was delayed by about an hour, which meant I was going to miss my tight 1-hour connection to my flight to San Jose. The Continental agents at Toronto had two options for me: Fly direct to SFO on Air Canada, or stay in a hotel in Toronto and fly via Houston the next day. In either case, my confirmed first class upgrade will be canceled since there was no first class availability.

Since my car was parked near San Jose airport, and they were not willing to pay for ground transportation to San Jose, I decided to go for the next day flight. However, since the flight was pretty early, I asked if it was possible to take the delayed flight to Houston and spend the night there. The agents agreed. This had the added benefit of being able to make the connecting flight in case the other flight happens to also be delayed.

By the time I made it through US customs and immigration at Toronto airport, the flight had been pushed back even more. The reason: Delayed incoming aircraft -- the plane from Houston departed late. With the flight two hours late, there was little hope in making the connection. By the time I was ready to leave toronto the plane I was supposed to board to San Jose was already en route and on time from San Juan Puerto Rico.

Upon hitting the ground in Houston, I decided to check the flight status to San Jose in a last-ditch effort to make that flight. To my astonishment, the flight was severely delayed and I would be able to make the flight! As it turned out, the plane fron San Juan (SJU) had to be diverted to Baton Rouge (BTR) due to weather in Houston. By the time I landed, the diverted plane was en route from BTR to Houston (IAH).

As it turned out, I had to spend a few additional hours waiting in Houston. The plane had to be maintained and was even further delayed. I finally landed in SJC 3 hours late. I still had the upgraded first class seat so I was able to sleep for most of that flight until finally returning home, going straight to sleep. Until now.

Mexico City - Here I come

In a previous post I talked about my frequent flyer miles plan for this year, and referred to the topic of a Mileage Run. This weekend I decided to make good on my plans and go on a weekend vacation to Mexico City practically free of charge.

How could I do that? Easy. I started by booking a flight from San Francisco to Mexico city via Atlanta on Delta airlines for $323 including tax and three nights in a hotel for $111 including tax. On the savings side of the equation are four nights in a bay area hotel which costs $220, 12,143 award miles and 6,939 status miles. The award miles are equivalent to half a one-way flight from Tel Aviv to San Francisco. If priced part of a return ticket this is worth about $200. So in all, I pay $434 and save $420. I also save on food due to visits to the airline lounges and on all expenses when I'm in Mexico City.

Anyway, the dates are 27/9 - 1/10/2007. On line updates will be posted.

The wonders of Skype

Four countries... seven people.... one hour, and $4, and all the family is in one phone call.

My parents are currently in Ürümqi, China, while I am in Koc University, Istanbul, Turkey. So, they sent me a text message with their room number and I immediately called via skype. After talking for some minutes they wondered what my younger brother in Israel is up to. So, I suggested adding him to the call. A few clicks later, and he was on line. During the call I saw that one of my older brothers (also in Israel) is online on skype so I added him to the call as well. Then I also added the oldest brother who currently lives in Saarbrücken, Germany by calling his number again via skypeOut. So now, there were 6 people online (my parents, myself, and all my brothers).

My parents repeated their story about their trip to China and asked everyone to tell how they were doing. During the call, they wondered about my grandmother, so after all the brothers were off the phone I connected her cell phone. So, in total seven people were online in this one conference call made possible by skype. The most amazing thing, that even though the entire conference lasted more than an hour, the total cost was less than $4.

EUDC07 after break

After we failed the break, the next two days were much calmer. On Wednesday there were the quarter and semi finals. You can see the motions and winners on this site. I decided to skip the semifinals and sleep instead (I was very tired after the boat cruise -- it was too long and I was in no mood for it).

Last night there was a "Global Village" event.  In that event every country brought items that represent their culture and local cuisine, while the Turkish brought traditional food and atmosphere, including Hookahs and a belly dancer.

In the Israeli stand we had lots of Bamba (see picture), Bisli, and chocolate with popping candy. We also brought traditional apples in honey and Israeli wine. It was a great success, and we had supplies for the entire night.

The Scottish table had shortbread and fudge, while the Slovenians brought tasty meat. Croatia handed some nonperishable items and information, while Azerbaijan handed out money...

The night was a great success and ended with the Israelis and Irish trying to outsing each other with folk songs. We sang among other songs "אחד מי יודע" and  "יונתן הקטן". Our enthusiasm encouraged other nationals to sing their own songs. With this surge of nationalism we were afraid we'd renew the war between the former Yugoslavian nations, but luckily they were more determined to outsing us, especially when we joined forces with the Irish. When the night was about the end, we sang our national anthem "Hatikvah" and went back to our rooms.

Today was finals day. I decided to skip the ESL final after hearing the first two speeches, but did come to the black tie grand final in Hagia Irene church. The final was a very interesting and fun-to-hear debate. In conclusion, Cambridge B won the tournament. Note this is the same Cambridge B that we met in Round 2.

When the final results were announced, we also got the tab sheets. It turns out that the judge in the last round also gave us a fourth place, which I cannot understand. What I even less understand is that he gave first prop third place and the win to the worst team in the room -- 2nd opposition, even though they  added no substance to the debate at all. In the end, our team was ranked 130 out of 168 with 8 points, and 57 out of 92 in the ESL rank. My personal rank was 227 out of 336 with 485 speaker points (average of 69.3).

After the final I decided to skip the party (I don't really feel like partying) and go directly back to the university. The bus ride (in both directions) felt like it took forever. It was about 1.5 each direction in a city bus with no A/C, and in the way back I had no one to talk to as well. Now that I'm back I feel a little better.

Tomorrow we're having brunch on the Asian side of Istanbul, and during that brunch the EUDC council will vote on the location of the next Europeans. The vote is between Talin, Estonia and Hertzeliya, Israel. The Hertzeliya team have made great effort to ensure as many votes as possible for our bid, and we are hoping for the best. I asked them to invite me to run the tab and they will definitely consider it if they win.

C*

I shall begin with explaining the title of this post. C* is the symbol on all Turkish currency and the Turkish flag. To me it looks like a name of a programing language,  something similar to C# or C++. People in the debating championship didn't find this joke funny.

Today I decided to join some friends and go the nearby town of Sariyer to the north of Istanbul. We ate some breakfast and walked by the beach, and then I returned to the university.

It rained the last two days, and this turns out to be the first rain here in three months. Like the organization committee  said, it seems like the British and the Irish have brought the rain with them.

At 17:00 the tournament formalities started with the debater briefing and then there was a good barbecue dinner, an opening ceremony, and a lame party (which is still ongoing). More updates on the actual tournament tomorrow.

There’s Linux in the Air

Today I flew on a Turkish Airlines Airbus A330 to Istanbul in order to attend the 2007 European Debating Championship. On the way there, there was a very nice on-board entertainment system with personal screens, and the route display system ran on Linux. I know that because a Linux boot screen was visible on all personal screens for several minutes. Regrettably, I did not bring my digital camera over, so all I have for you here is the caricature above.

If you are reading these lines and wondering to yourself "what is this Linux he's talking about?", I'll have to first point you here and then explain that I am a Linux and Free Software enthusiast for many years now and use Linux exclusively for at least 8 years.

Anyway, after we landed at the airport, it took a long time to pass passport control, and then a much longer time to wait for all the Israelis to pass. Especially as one of our group needed to buy a visa while another lost her passport (she found it eventually).

After finally everyone was set, we were taken to the university and got our room. The four Technion males were allocated to one dorm room. I'm now very hungry so we're soon going to grab some food. My plan for the weekend: check projects and get some work done. The tournament will start on Sunday. Expect another update then.

Handbag Only

Last week I flew back home with no luggage, with only a handbag. This was due to the fact that I left my luggage at my brother's house in Saarbrücken. I will pick the luggage up when I return to Dagstuhl (and my brother) in October.

However, then I will be flying from the US and back, and thus will be able to carry the luggage left at my brother's house in addition to whatever luggage I fly with to the US.

So, how do you fly handbag only? I checked in for my flights the day before and printed out an electronic boarding pass. I then used this boarding pass to go directly to the gate and board the flight without even passing the checking counters. Even my Silver status was mentioned on the boarding pass, so I got to use priority boarding as well.

In the Amsterdam - Tel Aviv leg I was assigned a whole row, but shortly before departure the flight attendants had to move two children who sat near the emergency exit to my row.

Upon landing at Ben Gurion airport, I head directly outside and wait for a shared taxi that (after three hours) brought me home.

A night at the opera*

Tonight I went to see my sister in law, Osnat Kaydar perform the lead female role in the cantata Camina Burana by Carl Orff. I am not a big classical music fan (to say the least), but I enjoyed the show very much.

It turns out that the opening and closing movement of the piece called "O Fortuna" is very well-known from movie trailers and many other uses in popular culture. Here it is for your listening enjoyment:



This piece is actually a 1936 adaptation of a medieval collection of poems by the same name. The text is almost entirely in Latin, which means I understood it just as well any other in the audience. The performance was amazing and I couldn't get the "O fortuna" out of my head for some time afterwards.

After the concert, we went to eat at a good steak restaurant in town, and then back to sleep. I have packed my luggage, which I will leave here until I return in October. Tomorrow I'm going to fly home with a handbag only.

* By the way, as I said, this was not an opera but a cantata, but I chose to bend the title a bit.

Mein Bruder in Saarbrücken

Today I have left Schloß Dagstuhl on my way to visit my brother, Ronen Altman Kaydar, who lives in Saarbrücken.

I arrived by taxi all the way from Dagstuhl. There were two other passengers in the taxi who were en route to Paris by the new TGV train. As we are all game theorists, we split the fare unevenly using the Nash Bargaining solution (yes, it's the same Nash), so I paid €9 while the two others split the remaining €48 bill evenly.

I'll now answer the question I was asked several times during the conference: What is my brother doing in this unknown corner of Germany? Well, the short answer is: translating English tour guides to Hebrew.

However, this has nothing to do with the reason for him being in Germany. He's there because his wife, Osnat Kaydar, is an Opera singer, and studies at an opera school here. Tomorrow I am going to attend one of her concerts, so stay tuned.

Excursion to Völklinger Hütte

Today after lunch there was a break from conference sessions. Conference participants were encouraged to participate in an excursion to an old ironworks, where iron ore and coal is converted into pig iron, which is the basis for the manufacture of steel.

In the tour, which took place outdoors in the rain, we saw the various steps in the production of steel. Our guide took her work seriously, while we joked about how hard is it to work in the "industry".

It turns out that parts of the old ironworks were converted into exhibition halls. Today, there is an exhibition titled "Genius I" about the inventions of man from prehistory until today. It begins with an exhibit of prominent inventors and inventions. Some are reasonable such as the Wheel and Galileo Galilei, but some were more German-centric, such as Beer, and several German inventors.

The rest of the exhibition was very similar to any old science museum. I was not very impressed. As our time was limited, we had to leave quite early, so I didn't see much more of the exhibition.

Photos were shot at the ironworks tour, but I cannot publish those online. I will get them later in the conference.

Dagstuhl day 1

First day of the Dagstuhl seminar is now over. This is a good opportunity to tell you more about this unique place.

The idea of Dagstuhl seminars is to bring top computer scientists in a particular field from around the world and have them communicate with each other and do research. This communication is promoted by several means: First, all participants stay in the same building with hotel-style accommodations. Further, there is a coffee room, game rooms, a piano room and more informal activities to allow people to communicate. However, the most direct effort to promote communication is the random seating during lunch. The idea is to force people to talk with people outside their own narrow field of research.

Today I also gave my talk titled "An Axiomatic Approach to Personalized Ranking Systems". Several people gave me compliments about my talk and many asked questions both during and after the talk. Also, it turned out that we are not the only ones mining eBay for reputation data, which means we might be able to get the data from someone else instead of gathering it ourselves.

At dinner I was seated with several people I know, and one person from Stanford who I didn't know before. We had a nice conversation, and we have then retired to our rooms. There are no formal plans for the evening, so I plan to go online and maybe look around the premises here at Dagsuthl. All in all, I like it here.

Business Class

Special Update from Amsterdam Schipol Airport... I got upgraded to business class ("Europe Select") on my flight to Amsterdam because the flight was overbooked and Economy was full, so I got to feel KLM shorthaul business class service. The seats are standard Economy seats, but the service is improved. The food is served with real utensils and plates, and every passenger gets a personal video player with a selection of movies (I saw "300"), high quality earphones, and a kit with earplugs and eyeshades (among other stuff).

However, the two best things about "Europe Select" are the fact that the center seat is always free, and the fact that they clear trash and trays from your seat much faster than in Economy, several times during the flight. And the last useful perk is lounge access, which I am using right now to write this blog post.

Now I need to explain why there's a model house in this post. Well, that's another benefit of KLM Business class. You get one of these collectible model houses for free. Not very useful, but serves as an icon for this post...

Punalu’u black sand beach

Here is a photo I took at Punalu’u black sand beach, where I met Shira (this photo also courtesy of my camera phone, click to enlarge):

Air France Replies

In a previous post I wrote about the disservice I had on board an Air France flight. I have recently received the following letter in reply (Scanned image of the letter):

Dear Mr ALTMAN,

Your letter was transmitted to us by the by the Flying Blue Service. Thank you for having taken the time to write to us, thus giving us the occasion to communicate with you. We welcome feedback from our passengers, as we realize that this is our best means to maintain, and whenever necessary, improve the quality of our service.

We are sorry to learn that you were dissatisfied with the conditions during your flight from Paris to Tel Aviv, on 22/05/07. l fully understand your displeasure, and wish to apologize on behalf of Air France. We try to satisfy the passenger's seat requests. but we cannot guarantee them. l regret the Exit seat couldn't be assigned to you for safety reasons.

Furthermore, we do our utmost to insure the all-round professionalism of Air France cabin crews throughout their career. Your cabin crew is required to speak three languages, including English and french. We are generally proud of the professionalism af Air france personnel. I am sorry that on this occasion the service you received was not up to standard.

I do hope that you will afford us another opportunity to serve you to your entire satisfaction.

Yours sincerely,

LISE LEVY
Customer Relations Officer

No miles were credited to my account. I'm not sure if I'm going to take this futher.

Boarding Passes

This is how 8 flights look like. Boarding pass slips for my entire journey.

Home Sweet Home

Hi All! I'm back!

In the HNL-EWR post I forgot to tell you about the fact that my plane (a 767) was full. All 11 empty seats on the plane, including the one I cleverly left free between me and Itai were filled with nonrevenue passengers on standby. So, no free space for us.

Shortly after posting my previous post, Itai managed to get us admitted to the Delta Crown Room lounge at Newark. The lounge featured more comfortable seating and free drinks, although Dan lounge in Tel Aviv Ben Gurion airport is better.

Anyway, our Air France flight to Paris was slightly late, and for some strange reason the flight attendants insisted on counting and recounting the number of passengers on board with a clicker. The Air France Airbus A330-200 was full to capacity, and even though the flight was overbooked, we could not get rerouting and compensation.

The plane featured personal video touch screens, however most of the interactive system did not work due to some malfunction. So, there remained very few films to watch, one of which I already saw on a previous flight (Music and Lyrics). I decided to use my laptop and watch The 4400 instead. I did however enjoy tracking the flight in real time, and the option to see the view from a camera mounted below the plane. The food service on board was surprisingly good, and I enjoyed the lunch served after takeoff, although I had nothing edible for breakfast.

Upon arrival at Charles de Gaulle International Airport, our plane taxied for about 20 minutes, until we came to a stop at a parking space. It turns out that at CDG some jets are still de-boarded by bus, so we had to take airstairs and board a bus to the terminal. The terminal itself was not a pleasant place either. The ground staff refused to change our seats for the next flight, even though I'm entitled to priority seating and will not give an emergency exit row to anyone who's not fluent in French.

Upon reaching the departure gate (after passing security yet again), I was stunned to see that the boarding is again by bus. I further noticed that the flight would be at least 10 minutes late. There were no reasonable restaurants in the boarding area and everything was overpriced (and in Euro!). I boarded the plane quite early, but there were still more delays. It took more than an hour for the plane to start taxiing and a lot more than that until takeoff. I decided to read a book during all this time in order not to get too annoyed. However, one flight attendant managed to annoy me anyway when she insisted on addressing me in French twice, as if all Air France passengers are French. All in all, the service aboard the A320 was terrible, and was anxious to land, after more than 40 hours since checkout from the hotel.

We arrived 1:10 late. At Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, I whizzed through passport control, and arrived to the baggage hall just as the baggage from our flight started to appear. For some unknown reason, Itai's bag arrived before mine, even though mine was clearly labeled "Priority". Anyway, my bag did arrive quite early.

However, it turns out I just missed the shuttle cab to Haifa (Itai took the last place on the previous shuttle). I spent most of the shuttle ride sleeping. I finally arrived at home only at around 21:00, showered and went directly to sleep. Upon waking up, I immediately updated my blog for your reading pleasure.

Sleepless in Newark

Well, another update from Newark...

Here I am, still in Newark Liberty International Airport, waiting for my flight to Paris. I spent my hours here mostly sleeping on the terminal floor and chatting online using Internet connections from airline lounges that I sit outside of.

I need to emphasize here that Newark is not New York. This is not a typo. Newark, New Jersey is $14 away from Manhattan, each way! So, no, we are not going to New York.

I'm bored, so if you see me online, please chat with me!

HNL-EWR

Hi All!

I am currently at Newark Liberty International Airport, where I will be spending the next 5 or so hours, awaiting my connection to Charles de Gaulle International Airport near Paris, and then to Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv.



The 9 hour red-eye flight flight from Honolulu International Airport (Continental 14) went on easily, due to the extensive on-board entertainment. I divided my time between sleeping, and watching CSI and Without a Trace.

I had half a day in Honolulu before going to the airport. As it was a hot day and we won't have a chance to shower in a long while, we decided not to hike Diamond Head, but rather spend the day leisurely at the shopping mall. I went to a bookstore and read a little.

That's all for now. Next update will probably be from Tel Aviv airport or even from my parents' home in Kiryat Haim.

Maps generated by the Great Circle Mapper - copyright © Karl L. Swartz.

Hiking Oahu

Hi All!

Today I took TheBus alone to Manoa Falls, a nice short hiking trail outside Honolulu. The hike went through a thick forest, and ended in front of a beautiful waterfall.

At the end of the trail, I met a nice group of girls from Hawaii and the mainland. They continued on the Ahualama Trail, so I went with them. After about an hour we turned around and returned to the trailhead. In the meanwhile I chatted with one of them, we exchanged e-mail addresses. So, I invited her to read my blog (If you're reading this -- Hi Michelle!).

I planned to go to Diamond Head in the afternoon, but they told me at the hotel that it closes at 18:00, so I'll probably go tomorrow. I think I'll skip going to Hanauma Bay tomorrow as I have a flight to catch back home at 21:20.

Back at the hotel, 50 First Dates was on TV -- a stupid comedy set in Hawaii. It was interesting to see when I understood most of the Hawaiian references. So, now I'm back in the hotel updating my blog.

By the way, now that this a blog, you can comment -- so please do!

LUAU? What’s a LUAU?

Hi all!

Yesderday was the first day of the conference. I started the day by volunteering at the conference registration desk. There were very fewregistrations, so I mostly used the wifi to browse the net and chatted with people at the desk. For lunch I went to the Ala Moana shopping mall and ate some chicken with Itai and Vince (and others).

After lunch, I had my poster session. I put my poster near the entrance of the hall, so I got many visitors. Some of the visitors went to my poster specifically. For example, Kate Larson, who tought my paper in a course she was giving was very interested in my new results, and all the usual suspects (David Parkes, Toumas Sandholm, Michael Wellman) paid a visit as well.

After the poster session I was late for the next session about Multi-Agent systems. There were some interesting talks (and some less interesting), and I asked a question or two.

In the next session, I gave my talk. I added a slide in the last minute due to what I've seen at the poster. However, during the talk a found some small mistakes (text that shouldn't have been in the slides), but none were noticed. After the talk I got positive feedback from several people about my
talk and my work. I refered everybody who was interested to my website.

In the evening, there was the conference banquet, or Luau. A Luau is a traditional Hawaiian feast with Polynesian entertainemnt. The Luau at AAMAS featured a cast from the Polynesian Cultural Center. The show was entertaining and showcased traditions of the various islands of
Polynesia.