Oracle Tech Day & NY Cabbies

Computers

It's been awhile since I've visited New York. Last time I was there I met with customers in the World Trade Center. Yesterday I was in midtown Manhattan at the Grand Hyatt, attached to Grand Central Station.

I presented at an Oracle Technology Day. Over 500 people registered for the event to hear about technology and solutions from Sun and Oracle. I discussed, among other things, our ERP Grid Reference Architecture that combines Oracle's 10g RAC with our Opteron-based Servers and Infiniband. Sun is sponsoring five cities. Over 700 are registered for the Atlanta session, to whom I'll be presenting next week.

On the way back home from the NY session, I was dropped off at LaGuardia. I had to cross a two lane street to get across to the main gate/check-in curb. It was a clear (but cold) day, 100% visibility. In front of me was a wide brightly painted cross-walk. Several people were standing there waiting to cross (which should have been my first clue that things are different in New York). Finally a natural break in traffic... the next group of vehicles is about 70 feet away, lead by a black limo approaching at about 20mph. Great! It's our turn... I step out and start to cross. Suddenly someone yells out to warn me... "Hey Buddy, Watch Out"! I look to my right and the limo driver apparently has no intention to respect the inalienable rights of pedestrians in crosswalks! He slows down just enough to allow me to back up onto the curb and get out of his way!

The term "inalienable" is apropos to this experience :-) The root, alien, has this definition:
Adj. Belonging to, characteristic of, or constituting another and very different place, society, or person; strange

I think I saw the cabbie mutter: "you're not from around here, are you". Or, something like that :-) I'm reminded of Morpheus' line in The Matrix when he explains to Neo that: "Some rules can be bent, others can be broken". Seems to be the creed of the NY cabbie.

Anyway, New York is a lot of fun. Just look both ways before you cross. And then, run like hell.

January 19, 2005 06:41 PM EST Permalink