Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Done projecting. Time to reflect?

Well, I've been back from U of I for over a month, so it's more than about time I got to writing it up. Interacting with people who are just as passionate about computing, but looking at it from completely different perspectives, is a soothing tonic for a systems person. It reminds me that these systems we build don't just blink in datacenters anonymously; when they function right, they do real, useful things that matter deeply to others.

I think my talk went fine, as things go. If I'd had one thing to do over, I would probably not have pounced so furiously on Crispin Cowan's Q&A flamebait about how everybody knows VMs are slow; Crispin, that's one for you, there.

Friday, October 03, 2008

Reflections|Projections 2008

I'm going to be at Reflections|Projections 2008 this weekend. I'll be talking about the role virtual machine monitors can play in systems research, using VProbes as both an example and exploratory tool. It's an honor to have my name on the same web page as some of my fellow speakers. Curious parties should swing on by UIUC's1404 Siebel at 4pm Saturday.