October took me to Orlando, Florida for the Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement Conference (ESEM). It is here that I presented a research paper on bringing together different components of software product value.

Prior to departure I checked the weather forecast – minimums of 24 degrees each day, and maximums in the low 30s. Coming from Sweden this could only be described as hot. Upon arrival I was happy with my decision to pack light. I had a heavy jacket to get to the airport, but everything else was summer attire.

The weather during the conference met my expectations – although I was inside windowless air-conditioned rooms all day.

After the conference (Thursday-Friday), I chose to spend the weekend in Orlando before heading back to Sweden. And this is when global warming started to fail me. Saturday I went to Disney World and was quite cool (especially after Splash Mountain), and I started shopping for a jumper after nightfall (but failed to find anything I liked in a size smaller than dooner cover). However, I awoke on Sunday to head to the Kennedy Space Centre to be told by reception that the temperature was the coldest on record in 35 years. It was 10 degrees overnight with 19 as a maximum. Armed only with summer clothes I donned on two t-shirts and headed on my way … past Floridans in scarves, gloves and beanies.

The Kennedy Space Centre was amazing. If you see any job postings for positions of astronaut, please let me know.

The photos are below. I trust you can work out which are from Disney, and which are from the Space Centre.

Towards the end of the [European] summer I headed to Patras, Greece for the Euromicro conference. I presented a research paper on a method for determining the relative importance of features, quality, intellectual capital, time and cost in the development of software products.

This conference joins two groups – people interested in the software management issues, and people interested in technical hardware issues. I fit into the former group, but in my opinion all of the keynote speakers fitted into the latter group. However, the research paper sessions were much more enjoyable.

I got some great feedback. But as it turns out this is a tangent explored as part of my PhD studies that I will not be exploring further.

I was joined by some of my friends from Blekinge Institute of Technology, who were also at the conference. This helped make for a very nice experience. Especially as one brought her family.

It was lovely to be on the Mediterranean (as you can see from the photos). But the conference and conference related activities were inconveniently placed during the beach-worthy times of day, but I suppose that is not what work paid for. But I did manage to swim before/after the conference each day.