Our noble goal of visiting every display at SC07 devolved, due to the crowds and number of booths, to passing slowly by every display and stopping to chat when we could. Two spots, however, commanded daily pilgrimages: NASA and Fusion-io.

Multiple visits to NASA are necessary because IT’S NASA: the epicenter of all that is awe-inspiring. And because each time you stop to breathe in the essence of pure science, you see a different video than the one that was playing before. Or meet another honest-to-God rocket scientist. Or read a dozen more facts on a display board that you missed the time before. One of the comments we heard on the press tour was that NASA is “looking at increasing compute capability.” Wow. These are the guys who can currently run binary black hole merger simulations and global climate modeling and numerical investigation of young stars and entry/ descent/ landing simulations. We’re not worthy!

Our daily swing past the Fusion-io booth is a little more down-to-earth: we want to see who’s on the bikes. The creators of the “world’s fastest drive” use the tagline, “You can’t spin fast enough” to encourage onlookers to mount one of the two bikes that sit on parallel, circular tracks and spin the pedals – well “fast enough” to complete the circle. What fun!