Author: Robert Hyatt
Date: 06:58:18 12/04/03
Go up one level in this thread
On December 04, 2003 at 00:25:34, Johan de Koning wrote: >On December 02, 2003 at 10:13:36, Robert Hyatt wrote: > >>On December 02, 2003 at 01:10:24, Johan de Koning wrote: > >>>I know you know the I in ICGA and the W in WCCC. >> >>Yes. "I" somehow equates to "European".. >> >>This organization is _really_ the ECGA, not the ICGA. And the WCCC is really >>the ECCC. World events are held all over the world. Continental events are >>held on a specific continent. >> >>>And I hope you know that 98% of this world's population does not care about >>>TG-day, nor about I-day, nor about Halloween, nor about UAb classes. >> >>This isn't about "UAB classes". It is about taking off for 1.5 weeks from >>_any_ job, spending a lot of money to trave, for room and food, and doing >>it _every_ year/ every 3 years, since these events are _never_ held outside >>Europe. There are other continents on this planet. But my stand here is well >>known and won't change anything, except that something will come along to >>replace ECGA with something containing a real I.. even if I means Internet. > >So you can't/wantn't invest the time, the energy, and the money. >That's understandable, but it applies to everyone around the globe. >(Particularly to those with real jobs. :-) I daresay mine is just as "real" as any other. I'm in my office at 8am M-F. I often leave by 7pm. :) > >Since North America is a big continent, it also applies to anyone >living there at one end and playing at the other end. In that regard >there's little difference between for example Boston, LA, Vancouver >and Tokyo, Sydney, Johannesburg. You miss my main point. The following are the reasons I can not attend a WCCC/WMCCC event. 1. Time. The things take over a week. Old ACM and WCCC events thru the early 1990's took a weekend + 2-3 weekdays. That's a big difference from 1.5 weeks. 2. Cost. (1) makes (2) quite high. 3-4 nights in a NYC hotel is not cheap. 8-9 nights is a lot more "not cheap". Factor in food. I can fly from the east coast of the US to the west coast for $100-$200 if I plan well. Multiply by 10 to travel to Europe. 3. The other points are just annoying. IE I would _never_ attend an event over Christmas or Thanksgiving. Most any other holiday I would work around. But the priority of holidays (IE July 4 in the current discussion) is _tiny_ compared to (1), and eventually (2). (1) _could_ be fixed. Why we need 11 rounds with 16 participants is beyond my reasoning. And if we really do, why the first 4-5 couldn't be done before the event, on ICC, is also beyond my reasoning. It could cut 1.5 weeks to 3-4 days easily. But apparently there is some interest in keeping these things "long". What that is is beyond me.. > >There are of course cultural problems. Some people in some places >do not fluently speak your native language. Not to mention different >foods, different holidays, different ethics on recrational chemicals, >recreational weapons, and recreational driving (a panic break on "die >Autobahn" cost me to tyres). But again, these problems apply to everyone >around the globe. > I've driven on the Autobahn. I don't consider that an issue, other than most maniacs seem to collect there. :) I don't have any cultural issues that prevent me from traveling. I've been to many places. Japan, China, former USSR, London, Paris, Stockholm, Berlin, Amsterdam, and probably a few places I missed (totally ignoring North America / South America of course). >The bottom line is that you have to choose your excuses carefully. >An interesting optimization problem is to pick more then one excuse >without offending the rest of the world. My primary reason has _always_ been "time". 1.5 weeks is simply not managable. Would you like to sign up for a course in (say) computer architecture or operating systems or parallel programming or assembly language programming, and discover that your instructor disappears for two straight weeks? It just isn't reasonable. It never was reasonable. If you look at early ACM/WCCC events, they were 4-5 rounds. The reason was to keep the event short so that people could actually attend without wrecking their jobs... Cost is certainly a second-level issue. Holidays is mostly "noise". I have some constraints I personally impose. IE no travel on Thanksgiving or Christmas. I've traveled on other holidays with no real problem. So don't lock on to the "holiday" as "the deal breaker". The length of the event (for me) is the deal breaker. Combined with the cost, and it is just untenable. > >... Johan
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