IntelliFest 2012 - It's Official

Greetings:

OK.  It's official NOW.  IntelliFest 2012 (aka October Rules Fest 2008 - 2009, aka Rules Fest 2010 - 2011)  will be at the Bahai Resort Hotel in San Diego, CA (USA) Hotel on October 22 - 26.  (The hotel link is NOT the link for the official room rates - just an early link to see the hotel.)   The sign up links are not there yet BUT BE PATIENT!  They should be ready by the end of the week.

This year something different about the conference.  Ergo, the name change.  Jason (Morris, that is) is encouraging management and academic attendees to the conference, something that wasn't done in the past.  And, from my perspective, that's a good thing.  If your management personnel is not aware of what you are doing then you won't get the funding that you need to do the things that you need for research and/or new tools.  If your track is academics, you really need to be aware of new frontiers in commercial applications and vendors need to be aware of new adventures in academics.  Thus the new name of IntelliFest to mean gathering of intelligence on all fronts; commercial, management, academic and applied AI.  The inventors and researchers need to interact with the vendors and developers of AI products.  Management needs to see what is happening with both sides of the fence to understand how these things are interacting to understand how they can use these tools back home in their business to improve their bottom line.  Developers can get new ideas, either during the special vertical markets, the conference or the bootcamps, on how to improve strategy on development of their own products or new products.  All in all, the IntelliFest conference should prove to be fertile grounds for ideas for everyone in the BRMS, rulebase, AI or Intelligence fields.

So, make plans now (sounds a bit like hucksterism on my part but I don't make a dime on this stuff) to attend IntelliFest.  Since the speakers have not been chosen I can't say that it will be the greatest show on earth, but going on past performance I will say that I haven't been disappointed in the past.  So, watch for the speaker list, see if it meets with your approval and, if so, sign up early and get the Early Bird discounts and other advantages, like group discounts and some freebies for bootcamps, etc.  Tell'em Old Jim sent you.  You won't get anything special except maybe a wry grin and an exhausted sigh.  :-)

SDG
jco

D-Day + 18 hours at Normandy in 1944

Greetings:

Well, about 18 hours ago (0600Z) in 1944, the worlds greatest armada arrived at Normandy.  My Uncle Bill (Sgt. William L. Leach) had already arrived with the 82nd Airborne (The Famous AA patch, along with the Screaming Eagles of the 101st Airborne from the "Band of Brothers" HBO movie, as well as the British Airborne) who landed behind the German lines about 0200Z or so.  The Americans paid dearly at Omaha and Utah beaches that were heavily armed.  General Erwin "The Desert Fox" Rommel had done a great job there.  And even though Gen. George S. Patton didn't get in on the action, he was used as a decoy to hold the 2nd Panzer and 116th Panzer tanks up north who were expecting the real invasion to come in at Pas de Calais.  As a matter of fact, the 2nd Panzer and 116th Panzer didn't move until the 14th day of the invasion.  To quote the 82nd Airborne report "By the time the All-American Division was pulled back to England, it had seen 33 days of bloody combat and suffered 5,245 troopers killed, wounded, or missing. Ridgway's post-battle report stated in part, "...33 days of action without relief, without replacements. Every mission accomplished. No ground gained was ever relinquished."  What a report for such a small brigade.  They went on to fight in Operation Market Garden (what a fiasco) and Bastogne with the 101st Airborne and the British Airborne both times.

Anyway, sorry this reminder is so late.  All in all, England, USA, Poland, France, Australia, New Zealand, Greece, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, The Netherlands, Norway, and other nations - all chipped in what men they could afford (but mostly England and USA as well as Australia, Canada, France and NZ).  Of the 1,300,000+ men who invaded Normandy, over 120,000 men lost were KIA, MIA or wounded on the first day.  Of the 380,000+ Germans more than 113,000 were reported KIA, MIA or wounded on the first day.  It usually takes a ratio of 10:1 to storm a fortress successfully so losses of 1:1 were somewhat commendable - but sad nevertheless.  Unfortunately, it had to be done.  The USA was late getting there since the war for the rest of the world started in 1939 with the invasion of Poland by Germany and the subsequent declaration of war by England, France and most of Europe.  Only England was standing a year later while the USA congress argued and drug their feet in an isolationist mode.  Today, they are accused of being overly aggressive.  You just can't win.

So, lift a glass of cheer to the American, English, Aussies, New Zealanders and all the rest who stormed the beaches long, long ago.  If not for them, we'd be all be speaking German.  Not that Germans are all bad, it's just the Nazis that I can't stand.  The real German army was actually kind of neat.  At least they tried to kill Hitler.  Only a table leg saved him and he never was the same after that.  So, maybe they sort of succeeded after all.  At least he was crazy enough to keep the Panzer divisions at Pas de Calais until July rather than sending them to Normandy on June 6th- right?

SDG
jco