Conference

Today Friday and tomorrow Saturday we are having a conference. We celebrate the centenary of Wilhelm Magnus, the founder of the New York Group Theory Seminar, around 1950, continuing up to this day, and being one of the oldest seminars continuously running in the US. We have a few of the best mathematicians of our field, giving talks and sharing memories of Magnus. You can see one of the speakers in the picture, and visit the conference website.

New York rudeness

Today, while shopping and walking in New York, I had my dose of rude New Yorkers.

• First, in the corner of 34th Street and 8th Avenue, a young woman comes and asks me, point blank, "do you know if 9th avenue is that way or that way?" I point the way and say "that way" and right away, without uttering an extra word, she starts walking that way. That woman must not know the words "excuse me", or "please", or even "thank you". She had what she wanted, the information, so why lose two seconds saying "thank you"? Had I known she was going to be this rude, I would have pointed the wrong way.


• Then I head to a well-known store, B&H Photo Video, which was nearby (34th and 9th), because I was looking for a set of waterproof headphones I had seen in their website last week, while I was in Utah, at $19.95. I enter and ask some guy there "I would like these headphones". He calls and while we wait for them, he tries to charge me $29.95. I tell him: "excuse me, but the web price is $19.95." He looks it up and it really is $29.95. I ask him "has the price changed?" and he answers "no, they've always been $29.95". I tell him: "Excuse me, but last week they were $19.95 in your website". And he says: "That's not true". What do you mean it's not true? Am I blind or don't know how to read or what? Tell me it was a special, or it has changed, or that it was a mistake, but don't tell me it's not true. Here's a capture of the froogle entry where it still is $19.95. Froogle wouldn't have it at $19.95 if it weren't true.
  
  So visibly upset and half yelling I tell him: "Are you calling me a liar?" and he says: "No, but what you say is not true". "You've just lost a customer". And he incredibly says: "We never had it". Then, with all the yelling, a manager comes, I tell him what happened, and he nicely apologizes. I accept the apology and leave. But they've really lost a customer, it will be a while before I set foot in B&H again, no matter how cheap.


• Finally, when I get back to Harlem, I go to my local Duane Reade (125th and Frederick Douglass) to buy a couple of things. It's 8:35pm and I know they close at 9:00. I enter and buy my stuff and when I leave, the door is locked. A big guy comes and opens it. I ask: "is it closed?" Before he answers a woman tries to enter the store and he says "it's closed". I look at my watch: 8:42. "Don't you close at 9?" I ask him. And he says, quite upset: "You were inside the store, sir. Did you not hear the announcement?" I say "No" and he answers "You weren't paying attention." And leaves inside the store. Of course I wasn't paying attention to the announcement, 95% of the time they say "Johnny, come to cashier please." The big idiot implied it was my fault for not paying attention instead of theirs for closing the store 20 minutes early.

This city has two major drawbacks: first one, that everything is hugely expensive (a tiny studio in Harlem is $1,100 and is a great price?); and the second one is that some people are rude as hell.

Linux-based plane

Some of my readers (hey, Krako!) will love the fact that, in the Delta plane that took me today from Salt Lake to New York, the entertainment system was Linux-based.

Smoking room

Incredibly, the Salt Lake airport still has a smoking room. In my days as a smoker, it would have been a blessing, these days it surprises me and it seems old fashioned, so 20th century.

The Salt Lake Roasting Company

As I said two posts ago, when I arrived in Utah in September 1991, it was quite difficult to have a decent cup of coffee in Salt Lake City, because to the well-known weakness of American coffee one has to add that mormons, which were a majority here, don't ever take coffee. After a few desperate days without a coffee the right way, some friends took me to the Salt Lake Roasting Company, and sky opened for me :)

Founded in 1981, the Salt Lake Roasting Company is one of the places with more feeling in Salt Lake City. It's just a coffee shop, they only have coffee and pastries, no coke or alcoholic beverages. It's located right downtown, one block from the City Hall. But its most peculiar trait, which makes it unique among all coffee shops I know, is that (as its name indicates) they roast their own coffee. You can see in the picture the two roasting machines, which take up half of the space, together with the coffee sacks.

If you happen to go while they are roasting, which happens quite often, a strong coffee smell will welcome you and will be stuck to your nostrils for three hours after you leave. Needless to say, the Roasting Company serves a wonderful espresso, black, bitter and with foam, along with all coffee specialties you can think of. It also sells coffee by the pound, and all coffee paraphernalia. That first day I went, I spent 60 dollars right there in an Italian coffee maker, a coffee mill, two pounds of coffee and little espresso cups and plates. I still have that coffee maker in my house in Barcelona, and it has the curious feature that it is half metallic and half clay, with the top part being clay to preserve heat. Very cool coffee maker.

So, the Roasting Company became (and still is) my favorite hangout in Salt Lake, and I still remember quite fondly that I wrote my first math paper sitting at one of its tables some evening in 1994.

Everything is different nowadays, and neither mormons are a majority in Salt Lake, nor it's difficult to have a decent cup of coffee here, with the invasion of imports that happened in the late 90s and then with the Olympics, especially from California, escaping rising real estate prices and violence in Californian streets. But the Roasting Company is still there, with its faithful clients. We hope it will stay this way for many years. I recommend anyone who goes to Utah, and likes coffee a little bit, that he stops by the Roasting Company. He won't be disappointed.

Dr. Seuss

Today I went for dinner to my friend Aldo's house. Aldo is Chilean of Italian descent, and we did our PhDs together here in Salt Lake, we shared an office for four years. After many misadventures he ended up leaving mathematics and now he works in a biology company, but he still lives here in Salt Lake with his wife Laura and their daughter Giuliana (age almost five).

After dinner we read a few Dr. Seuss books to the kid. [And now I go on a lengthy explanation about Dr. Seuss' books, which are virtually unknown in Spain, and which I will spare my American readers, who probably know more about Dr. Seuss than I do.]

Salt Lake City

Salt Lake City is the capital of the state of Utah. It has a population of about a million and a half people in the whole metro area, which goes North to South from the Great Salt Lake (which lends its name to the city) to the Utah Lake, about 40 miles South. It is 4,200 feet over sea level in the valley, surrounded by mountains which go over 10,000 feet. The mountains are impressive, as you can see in the picture.

Salt Lake City is worldwide famous for being the capital of the mormon church. The mormon temple is the city center, and all streets are numbered starting at the temple. Although we must say that the percentage of mormons is decreasing every day as the city becomes more and more cosmopolitan. It also became famous because of the 2002 Winter Olympics, which, as it already happened in Barcelona, brought many improvements to the city, and since I left in 1996, the city has a new tram, the interstate I-15 has been widened and improved and the airport has a new terminal, to mention a few examples. There are eight ski resorts at less than an hour drive from downtown, and Utah brags about having the greatest snow on Earth. Skiers say it really is exceptional, due to the dry climate of the area. And of course, the Utah Jazz play here.

I lived here between 1991 and 1996, I got my PhD at University of Utah, and the main reason to come back was to visit my advisor, and some friends who remain here. It is quite weird the effect that it has going back to a city you know well after a few years: everything is more or less the same, but everything has changed a little also. You feel like you know everything, as if you never left, but then you realize the small things that have changed, a store you liked has closed, that building is new, etc. I am especially fond of Salt Lake, five years is quite a long time.

Mormons make the city slightly different. It used to be quite difficult to have a good cup of coffee, since mormons don't take stimulants. Nowadays there's plenty of Starbucks as everywhere else. But the large percentage of mormon population makes that the possibilities for naughty entertainment, night clubs, discos, strip clubs, is quite limited for a city this large. Bars where they serve hard liquor (that is, anything but beer) have to be, by law, private clubs that only admit members. But anyone can become a member for a night at the door paying a 5 dollar fee. A low-class bar Albert and I used to go (the "Norwood Club") used to have promotions like "become a member for a dime". You make the law, I'll find the loophole. These days, this private club business is an anachronism, but it's kind of cute.

So, it is a very pretty city, very green, great mountain backdrop, very clean, but at the same time quite boring and conservative, with a limited entertainment offer, except if you are the outdoors/mountain/hiking/skiing type, in which case the opportunities are endless. People are extremely friendly, and many have visited Spain or other Spanish-speaking countries, since mormons have to go on missions for two years. Yes, it's these kids you see in shirts and ties with a book underarm and a black plaque with its name in the left breast. But this fact also makes it quite international. American Express has its international center here, where more than 130 languages are spoken, most of them by mormons who learned them in their missions.

Salt Lake City, a very peculiar place, very pretty, and sociologically very interesting. You have to live here to fully grasp it.

And by the way, if you like basketball, you will enjoy knowing that the Second South Street has been renamed "Karl Malone Way" :)

Utah

This evening I fly to Utah. It's a very peculiar and interesting place, and I know it well, I lived there for five years. I am going to visit the university, my PhD advisor (who's not getting any younger) and a couple of friends I still have in Salt Lake. I will keep posting to tell you cool things from there.

Incommunication

Today I was having breakfast at a Starbucks (for a change) when this couple arrived and sat in the next table. In the hour and a half I have been there, they haven't said a word to each other. I thought this was the ultimate incommunication: a couple having breakfast together, each one with a laptop, and without saying a word. Maybe they were telling each other sweet things by instant messaging, who knows.

Bike-cabs

Lately you can find these devices everywhere in the touristic area of Manhattan. In them, a guy just pedals and pedals to take you wherever you want to go, or to a tour of Manhattan. You should see the kids, usually college students, pedaling like crazy on the streets while a tourist couple admires the city from the seat behind. I think it's the ultimate exploitation, although I believe the rates they charge are quite high and the guys make a very good living anyway. It's just that instead of a step forward, it seems to me it's a step back, as it would to anyone who has read The City of Joy.

Brooklyn

I went for dinner to Brooklyn today to my friend Murray's house (Murray is an Australian gay mathematician, a very funny guy). Brooklyn is one of the five boroughs of the city of New York, which is special for its traditional way of life, far away from the idea people have of New York, and immortalized in movies like "Smoke". Where Manhattan is the land of skyscrapers, suits and tourists, in Brooklyn there are brownstones, neighborhood stores and normal people. Houses even have backyards. Here is a picture of Murray's backyard and the houses surrounding it.

Jewish new year

This week Jewish people celebrate Rosh Hashanah, their new year. Due to that, there are no more classes this week. The college is open, but there are no classes. American universities, even though many of them are nonreligious, are quite respectful of everyone's religious holidays. I remember when I was at Tufts that it always surprised me that there were classes on Easter week, and the chairman told me that if I wanted to observe the religious holidays I would be allowed to take them. I didn't though, since I am not religious.

Happy 5768 to all Jewish people!

September 11th

Today is September 11th, and the flags in New York are at half staff.

However, there are a few voices who have started questioning how long should celebrations take place, asking how long they should read the victims' names, and so on. In my opinion, they are kind of right, people should get over it , without forgetting of course, but it's about time each September 11th is not made into a special day anymore. I believe that seeing that we have gotten over it would annoy terrorists more.

The laundry room web

You're not going to believe this. Here is a picture of the laundry room of my residence hall:

If you go now to the Laundryview control page, you can check in real time the status of the laundry room. This way, we can check if there are available washers and dryers when we need to use them, or we can check if our cycle has finished. Incredible. Check out how the red washers move a little bit when they are in use. A great detail from the Flash programmer.

I think this is the ultimate use of the Internet :)

My apartment II (the bathroom!)

Attending to the insistence of my friend Yolanda (:*) in the comments to the previous post about my apartment, here you have two more pictures of the apartment. The first one is the bathroom, and the second one is the hall with the door that leads to the bathroom. This way you can have a complete idea of the apartment. The bathroom itself is very nice, its problem is that it is too large, especially for the apartment it is in. The bathroom must take up like 30% of the total area, and if it were 3 feet narrower, the whole apartment would gain like 25 square feet, which would make a world of a difference.

Flag backwards

This is a picture I took of the back part of a bus this morning.

Look at the flag, which is backwards. The stars don't go on the upper left corner, and not on the upper right? What a mistake, right?

Well, no. This is a detail many people don't know. When the flag is displayed on the sides of a person or a moving vehicle, it has to be displayed as if this person or vehicle had it on a staff and was moving forward, and then, from the right-hand side, you would see it like this. I mean, imagine that the flag was on a staff on top of the bus. When the bus moves forward, the flag waves backwards, and from the right-hand side, you would see it this way, with the stars on the upper right. So the flag has to be displayed this way on the right-hand side of the bus.

Here you have a few more examples.

[Again, sorry to all Americans who already know this, but I thought it would be interesting to Spaniards, since our flag looks the same from both sides.]

The NAC stairs

I was going down the staircase of the NAC building and it reminded me of how in horrow movies or in catasptrophe movies, the characters always escape (from fire or from the bad guy) on some starcase of the building, which is slightly dusty because nobody uses it, and it is always painted in white. Besides, in this one, the protecting cage (so you don't fall) gives it a really creepy look.

How can I be so jinx?

It can only happen to me that four days after I buy my iPhone, Apple goes and lowers the price by 200 dollars. They have left the 4gb at 299 (exactly as I suggested) and the 8gb at 399. It's incredible how this company has so many fans, when they get milked so badly. If you are a big fan and can't wait, you pay through the nose, while if you are a casual one who waits, you get it cheap. Doesn't make sense. They deserve that I return it. Maybe I'll do just that.

UPDATE

I must learn not to post in the heat of the moment :) I went to the Apple store just to ask, and immediately they have refunded me $200, no questions asked. Everyone who bought an iPhone for the last two weeks is entitled to this refund, because if not, they could just return it and buy a new one at the new price. To avoid that, the company prefers to pay them back. Amazing service. Squeezing early adopters is still a shame though.

ANOTHER UPDATE

The guys at engadget have opened my eyes. This price drop can only mean one thing: at Apple Expo on September 25th, the new iPhone with 3G and 16GB will be introduced on time for the Christmas season, at $599. Obvious. These past few weeks have shown there is a market for a $600 phone. And the new iPod Touch has 16GB already. No question about this one.

Taxi strike

There is a threat from New York City cabs to strike tomorrow Wednesday. They refuse the installation of a GPS which would track their movements. I guess they won't be able to slack anymore. The worst part is that in 2004 there was a rate hike of 26% for them to pay for the GPS (and another device so they could accept credit cards). And now when it's the moment to install the devices, they are crying foul.

In any case, I believe most people will be delighted with this strike (as it happens in many cities, Barcelona among them), since traffic is going to improve tremendously without the yellow monsters filling up the roads. Let them strike, good riddance. Here in Harlem we don't see many of them anyway.

Buchholz's no-hitter

While we were at the US Open, something exceptional was happening in Boston: a rookie pitcher was throwing a no-hitter. What's more impressive is that the kid, only 23, was playing his second game in the big leagues. This is as if this kid from the lower teams comes up to the big club and in his second game, he scores four goals. Kind of like what Messi did at Barça two years ago :) [Sorry for the soccer analogy, but it's the only way for the Spanish people to understand how important a no-hitter is].

The great thing was, I could follow the baseball game inning by inning from the US Open stands thanks to my new shiny iPhone :)

US Open

The other day we went to the US Open. We were treated to an incredible match between Nicole Vaidisova and Shahar Peer, which went to the tiebreaker on the third set. Very exciting. After that, we saw the James Blake match, but at 12:30am we left and they were still in the third set (it would go four).

I... couldn't... resist...

Already while I was writing the other post about the iPhone, I was thinking: "But, who are you kidding?" Then I was a few days with my head spinning, doing what all addicts do: finding reasons to keep feeding your addiction. So, there are several reasons which convinced me to buy an iPhone:

• The $60 for the service you have to pay anyway. Since I arrived on August 8th, until the 31st, I had paid over $50 to the pre-paid T-mobile service, so at that going rate I would have paid more than $60 every month. Moreover, the $60 from AT&T include unlimited internet, the other one doesn't (no internet at all).


• The fact that you can buy it refurbished on the Apple web site for $399. Apple gives the exact same warranty to the refurbished devices than to the regular ones.


• That unlocking is already possible, although still not available to the general public. It will be soon. Can't stop the unstoppable.


• That probably I will be able to sell it at a reasonable price when I go back to Barcelona.


• That the iPhone is the coolest device available right now, by far.
  

So, a few days ago I gave in, and I am now the proud owner of a 4GB iPhone.

The truth is that it's really awesome. What's more impressive to me is the maps, an icon takes you directly to Google Maps, and you can see a map of any area (in the world) covered by Google Maps. It's like having a world map in your pocket. And this is possible because the iPhone is permanently connected to the Internet. If there is a Wi-Fi available it uses that, and if not, it connects via the AT&T EDGE network. It's kind of slow (2.5G, between 70 and 135kbps, about twice as fast as the old modems), but it works. It's expected the European version will have 3G, which is more developed in Europe than in the US.

I configured my email right away, and now I can see my email directly in the iPhone. It updates the mailbox every 15 minutes. Actually that takes away one of the pleasures of the internet we had grown used to: getting home and going directly to the computer to see which emails have arrived during your absence. Now you can read them as they arrive.

It has a few drawbacks. The browser does not accept Flash, and it's ridiculous how many pages nowadays use Flash. Only Youtube works, because of the special agreement between Apple, AT&T and Google, the same agreement that makes Google maps work. Then, the fact that it's not 3G. On top of this, Apple has restricted the Bluetooth capabilities, it only lets you pair it with a hands-free device, and not with a computer or with another Bluetooth phone. I guess they don't want you to use the iPhone as a modem. But the biggest drawback is the price. I believe they would have sold twice as many at 299 or something like that.

In any case, I am sooo happy :)