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In April of 1996 I travelled to Minneapolis, Minnesota, to attend a trade show of the American Association of Neurosurgeons. I was part of a team which had designed and implemented an interface between an industrial-strength relational database and web browsers in the form of CGI scripts - written in Perl - which generate HTML to provide functionality which includes a searchable index to the neurological components of the National Library of Medicine (including graphical elements) and an interactive walk-through of the neurosurgical protocols encapsulated in the CPT codes.

[January 2001 update, while I'm putting these pictures in my web album: I think these were taken with my Apple Apple QuickTake 100 digital camera, which generated relatively poor quality images (especially in low levels of ambient light, like inside a coffee shop). I can't remember why I have so few images from that trip, but so it goes... Here are some random comments from what little I remember of that trip.]

We touch down at the Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport (MSP). In the distance one can see the Minneapolis skyline.

Of course we're at the gate furthest from the airport proper. A long walk. Sigh. I notice that folks are wearing very warm sweaters and jackets, even though it's already April.

One doesn't have to be in the Twin Cities for any length of time before a local gleefully tells you that they have two seasons: summer, and the eleven months of looking forward to summer.

Here's the view from my hotel room in the downtown Hilton, high above Minneapolis. Damn, things are flat, flat, flat!

I spend much of the few days we're in town strolling around with Michael of Bitstream Underground. We knew each other across the Internet, via the FirstClass Bulletin Board System software, despite never having been closer to each other than 1591 miles (2560 km) (1382 nautical miles). From Xerox PARC's map viewer:

One of the great places to visit is the CyberX café, which was hip before most folks had a clue what a modem was or where one should insert the plug. There was a great Japanese restaurant by the river, where the whole team had dinner on the neurosurgeons. We skipped taking a trip to the Mall of America, but I was struck by the human Habitrails which connected many of the downtown buildings so the inhabitants don't have to expose their flesh to the wintertime weather (see previous local comment).

At left are Michael and his girlfriend, whose name I seem to have lost. Forgive me, please. I do remember that we were at the Dunn Bros. Coffee Shop. Does it still exist? At right you see me, trying in vain to wake up.

Well, there's the digital remnants of my trip to America's mid-west. I had a great time. Perhaps I'll have a good excuse to visit again before too long....