Over the course of nine months or so, I visited:

1. Kanpai Sake Brewery, London

2. Bimber Distillery, London

3. East London Liquor Company, London

4. Dojima Sake Brewery, Ely

5. Copper Rivet Distillery, Chatham

6. The Foundry, Canterbury

7. Spirit of Yorkshire, Filey

8. Cooper King, York

9. Cotswolds Distillery, Stourton

10. Penderyn Distillery, Penderyn, Wales

11. The Scotch Whisky Experience, Edinburgh

12. Lindores Abbey Distillery, Fife

13. Royal Lochnagar, Balmoral

14. Glenlivet, Speyside

15. Speyside Cooperage

16. Glen Moray Distillery, Speyside

17. Aberfeldy Distillery, Highlands

18. Dalwhinnie Distillery, Highlands

19. Glenkinchie, Lowlands

20. Oban Distillery, Highlands

21. Kilchoman, Islay

22. Ardnahoe, Islay

23. Bunnahabhain, Islay

24. Ardbeg, Islay

25. Lagavulin, Islay

26. Laphroaig, Islay

27. Holyrood Distillery, Edinburgh

28. Oxford Artisan Distillery, Oxford

Topological data analysis

Topological data analysis is a field which uses ideas and techniques from topology to analyse and characterise data sets. This course covered a lot of ground quite quickly:

We can approximate a topological space by simplical complexes (which is closely related to the familiar triangulation used

Using simplical complexes to represent topological spaces and computing their homology.

• Simplical complexes and computing them from data

• The homology of simplical complexes

• Persistent homology, which is the main tool of TDA

• Comparing persistence diagrams (the space of persistence diagrams)

• Statistical analysis of persistence diagrams (monte carlo simulation)

• Some applications

• Functional summaries of persistence diagrams (rank, landscape, persistence image)

• Functional principal component analysis (FPCA)

• Union-Find for connected components

• Kruskal’s algorithm for MST

• Smith Normal Form for computing the boundary matrices

• An incremental algorithm for computing Betti numbers

• An algorithm to compute persistent homology by pairing simplicies

• Morse theory for smooth manifolds

• Discrete Morse theory

Social events

• A reception

• A closing dinner.

• A diversity session and panel discussion.

• Morning tea every week day.

• BBQ lunch each Wednesday.

• A lunchtime lecture each Tuesday.

• A maths-related movie night on Thursday night.

• An excursion to the Philip Island and the penguin parade.

• An excursion to the Yarra valley to visit a winery or two.

• A tour of the Monash University Wind Tunnel Facility

I’m looking forward to seeing just how much Linux has changed since I last built my own kernel (circa 2003).

I’ll be going to the Open programming languages, Multicore and Parallel Computing, Data Storage & Retrieval, and System Administration miniconfs. Session wise, I intend to look in on most of the kernel and low-level user space talks that I can.

After LCA per se is done (but during open day, unfortunately) I’ll be at DrupalSouth to pick up some more Drupal-fu by osmosis.

If you’re interested, you can see more LCA and Drupal specific articles in the LCA archive and Drupal archive.

I caught a taxi to the airport at 12:10 and checked in to find that my flight had been cancelled, but I’d be able to get the next flight after that and still make my connection. This was fine with me, it just meant I’d be spending the hour wait at Canberra instead of Melbourne. We landed in Melbourne at 14:25 (the time my next flight was supposed to start boarding) and I rushed to the departures screen to determine which gate my next flight departed from, only to find that it too had been cancelled.

I eventually found a customer service desk with staff and discovered that, yet again, I’d have to catch a later flight. In an attempt, I suppose, to make up for some of the inconvenience they gave me a voucher to get a meal. Melbourne airport is a particularly boring place, though the numerous and frequent announcements about delayed, rescheduled, redirected, reassigned and cancelled flights did keep me (and the throngs of other affected passengers) somewhat entertained.

At the end of the day, QANTAS got me to Devenport more than three and a half hours later than my itinerary (booked not three days previous) stated, thereby inconveniencing myself and my family and resolving any doubt in my mind as to whether I’d be returning to QANTAS.

At the other end of the spectrum, the QANTAS ground and cabin crew were pleasant and helpful. It’s a pity their logistics aren’t as good as their service.