Unconventional Milan

I'm back from the conference on Unconventional Computation and Natural Computation (UCNC) in Milan. Excellent conference, with lots of great presentations, conversations, and food.

My Evernote experience was a success.  I managed to take the notes I wanted, using my Netbook.  Fortunately, the venue being a university, the rooms had suitable benching for resting the Netbook on -- no more bruises where the computer's little feet dig into my legs.  And there were enough power sockets around that I could recharge as necessary.

When there was a particularly useful or interesting figure on a slide, I took a photo of it, and added "[photo]" to my notes at that point.  Then, when I got home, I downloaded the photos, straightened them up, cropped them, adjusted the contrast, and pasted them into Evernote in the right places.  That worked even better than scribbling down a diagram.  But it did mean that I had to remember to sit near the front.

So now I have enough trials to be convinced Evernote is the right approach, for SF conventions, for seminars, and for conferences.  Legible, searchable notes are a boon.

Unconventional Computation with Evernote

Today I'm off to the conference on Unconventional Computation and Natural Computation (UCNC) in Milan.  I'm running the CoSMoS (Complex Systems Modelling and Simulation) workshop there on the Monday, including giving a talk.  Then it's several days of listening to lots of interesting talks from the "here be dragons" end of computing.  On the Friday, one of my students is giving a couple of talks on his work.

This is the first conference I've been to where I'll be taking notes in Evernote on my Netbook, rather than with a pen in a lab book.  Last year, UCNC was in September, and I didn't start using Evernote until October.  I did use Evernote at the science fiction convention at Easter, where it worked really well, but this is the acid test: using it for the day job!  Like at the con, I've set up a bunch of template notes, one for each session, ready to start taking notes.

I hope there is somewhere to rest the Samsung Netbook so its sharp little feet don't bruise my knees like they did at the con!