Talk sans filet
Interesting challenge today: I had been invited to give a review talk to a colloquium in honor of Pierre Léna (my PhD advisor back in 1989-1992), called "Vision in Infrared Astronomy", and held in Paris (Carré des sciences dans le Vième). I would have loved to go there, to see all those friends and Paris, but I couldn't, realistically. Travel across half the world for a 35mn talk, just after having been there twice in the past 3 months was just too much (and last time I took forever to recover from the trip). I told so to Daniel Rouan, the top organizer. He looked for an alternate but couldn't find any on such short notice (1 month). So I ended up giving my talk remotely! Voice through skype, and Daniel was presenting my keynote presentation from his mac. Keynote 3 makes for such nice presentations. The transitions are gorgeous, as well as the layout. You would lick the slides. Anyway, it went really well, except for the fact that it was at 4:30AM Hawaii time (and that I locked myself out of the Gemini building 1/2 hours before I had to start talking! Panic, thanks Chris). Got a few positive comments from Daniel, Patrice Bouchet and Pierre Léna himself. Way to go.
