So over the last weekend (Sat — Mon., May 16-18), I was at Timberline Lodge near Portland, Oregon for the annual Timberline Acquisitions Conference (9th annual anyway). The conference is one that I would generally not attend (what do I know about acquisitions other than you buy things) — but this year I had been approached with giving the Keynote. The group was looking for someone to give a talk on Open Source/Open Data — and that I can talk about. :) Overall, I think that the talk was successful. I’ve posted the slides from my talk into the OSU IR and will update the URL as soon as it gets it’s way through the submission process, though honestly, my slides are generally desolate of information — I like to use them primarily as a place holder.
From the conference, there were a few gems that I came away with. One came from a presentation by the folks at BYU discussing the VLC media player/server for setting up your own home grown video streaming service. It was an interesting talk — primarily because I’d primarily associated VLC media player use with folks that tend to utilize unofficial copies of media. Its very popular with that crowd due to its ability to pretty much read any media format (including some fairly rare codex). And while the folks from BYU did comment that by requiring the student body to utilize the VLC media player has resulted in an increase in what you might call, questionable media use by their students, it also provided an infrastructure for setting up high-quality streaming video.
For me, much of the remainder of the conference was getting to meet new people, talk to folks about issues related to the licensing of academic content and spending time with my family on the mountain. Unlike many other conferences that I attend, since this one was in Oregon, my wife and kids accompanied me to Timberline. For the boys, the trip was one that they had been looking forward to for months. They were really excited about the possibility of getting to play in the snow. And I think that Alyce was looking forward to getting to have a bit of a miniature vacation (especially since I was travelling to Columbus right after my time at Timberline).
So a couple of things about Timberline. Most people, whether they realize it or not, have likely seen the lodge. The Timberline lodge stood in as the hotel for The Shining (at least, for the outside shots of the lodge in the movie). I’ll admit, when I found out, I was wishing I would have brought the movie, and was, somewhat disappointed that I didn’t see the river of blood getting off the elevators. Oh, well. Timberline is also the only place in Oregon where you can ski year round. The lodge is located at the base of one of the many glaciers that reside on the mountain year round. Though, at this point of the year, there is still probably 120 inches of snow on the mountain around the lodge.
Back to the fun. I was able to do a few things with Alyce and the boys. We played in the pool (yes, there was snow around it), had snow ball fights and just played. I’ve attached a few pictures below for anyone that is interested.
–TR
Playing in the pool — yes, that is snow in the background
From above the lodge on the mountain
From the top of what is known as the Miracle Mile — around 7500 ft.
Snowball fighting
Burying Kenny in the snow