SC07 Day 1: Supercomputers and... Pikachu?

Sunday dawned bright and cold for Day One of the SuperComputing 2007 conference. During a short bus ride to the convention center I found myself wedged in the last seat next to Pikachu. It turns out Pikachu is a college student competing in a performance challenge tomorrow at SC07. The students write the software, and hardware vendors (Apple in this case) provide the hardware. Costumes are optional.

Upon arriving at the center I found registration hadn't opened yet, so I headed over to the complementary breakfast. All of the people I met there came from an academic or government background. The conference's educational program is geared for college professors and high school teachers who want to keep up to date with the technology so they can better help their students. Unfortunately they keep being stymied by short-sighted administrators who would rather spend money on content filters than on equipment and support that would really make a difference. When do our own schools get one laptop per child?

After breakfast I headed over to the registration desk to collect my badge and ugly brown knapsack. JavaOne is still tops in the backpack category in my book, by the way. I find it amusing that will all the technology at our disposal, simple things like making a lanyard badge that doesn't keep flipping itself over are beyond our capabilities. The only interesting thing in the bag was a Magic-8 ball from Microsoft. Hmm, I wonder if my Windows laptop will crash today? "Very likely."

Security was tight. After arriving at the room for my first tutorial, and flipping the badge around so the guard could read it, I was turned away because the badge had a "T" on it instead of an "S". I figured T was for Tutorial, but the gentleman blocking the door could not be persuaded, even when I offered him a nice lanyard.

So it was back to the registration desk for me, on a quest for my missing letter. It turns out S is for Sunday; T is for Tuesday when the regular part of the conference starts Technical. Half an hour later, I was back at the tutorial room. The guard let me in this time, as soon as I flipped my badge over so he could see the magic letter.

Updated 11/13/2007: I located Pikachu later at the Cluster Challenge area in Hall 1 and added the picture you see to to the right. I believe they're from Indiana University. Would anyone from their school like to tell us more about the team?