🚀 go-pugleaf

I just wanted to follow up on a few items which I've been asked about,
directed mostly to parties in the United States.

1. The current exchange rate makes the hotel room rates *very* attractive,
particularly considering that the Marriott is right downtown in a major
city.  This is mentioned in the brochure, but some folks have missed it and
it bears repeating.  Room rates have been a touchy subject in the past, and
this is a pretty good deal by comparison (San Francisco, for example).

2. Toronto is arguably the nicest city to visit in North America.  Don't ask
Brian Kantor, since he's still ticked off about my recommendation of
Cincinnati (just about everyone else liked Cincinnati, Brian). :-)

3. Yes, this is the first time USENIX has hosted a symposium on the special
topic of Applications Development.  This means there's no track record, but
the paper content is good.  Developers are a largely disenfranchised group
within USENIX since their employers generally opt to send their marketers to
UniForum instead of USENIX.  However, the developers have been doing some
good stuff, and we've captured a lot of it in the proceedings for this
syposium.

4. The tutorials by Richard Stevens and Rob Kolstad were scheduled on two
different days on purpose, so that attendees would be able to attend both if
they wished.  They complement each other, and we're expecting a larger than
normal number of attendees who have not usually attended USENIX in the past.
Richard Stevens' tutorial is basically how to get the most out of an
application running under Unix, and Rob Kolstad's tutorial is how to get the
most out of Unix in developing an application.  As many of you know, these
are both *excellent* instructors and their tutorials frequently sell out.

5. Yes, there's a Goods and Services Tax (GST) tacked on to most things you
buy (including your meals and hotel room), but for visitors, it's pretty
easy to get a refund.  Simply keep the *original* receipts in your wallet,
purse, or notebook --- not the credit card slips or photocopies --- and send
them in after you get back from your trip.  The GST *and* your receipts will
be returned to you (so you'll still have the original receipts to submit on
your expense account, if necessary).  This is a mostly new thing, and I
don't know just how quickly the receipts will come back, but they're
obviously interested in doing it quickly.  ***If anybody has hard evidence
regarding time to get refunds, please let me know.***

6. Lastly, if you're a U.S. citizen, you *don't* need a passport to visit
Canada.  However, it's a very good idea to carry along some sort of useful
identification which shows you live or were born in the U.S., such as a
driver's license at a minimum, or a birth certificate.  If you do have a
current passport, by all means take it along.  As far as I know, all
Canadian provinces, including Ontario, honor driver's licenses issued in the
States for driving passenger cars.

For more information, send me e-mail, <jim@math.psu.edu>, or drop a note to
the USENIX Conference office, <conference@usenix.org>.

	Jim

--
    Jim Duncan <jim@math.psu.edu> Penn State Math Dept Systems Administrator
 "[A computer is] like an Old Testament god, with a lot of rules and no mercy."
						Joseph Campbell