I’m not going to the European Lisp Symposium this year.

It’s a shame, because this is the first one I’ve missed; even in the height of the confusion of having two jobs, I managed to make it to Hamburg and Zadar. But organizing ELS2015 took a lot out of me, and it feels like it’s been relentless ever since; while it would be lovely to spend two days in Krakow to recharge my batteries and just listen to the good stuff that is going on, I can’t quite spare the time or manage the complexity.

Some of the recent complexity: following one of those “two jobs” link might give a slightly surprising result. Yes, Teclo Networks AG was acquired by Sandvine, Inc. This involved some fairly intricate and delicate negotiations, sucking up time and energy; some minor residual issues aside, I think things are done and dusted, and it’s as positive an outcome for all as could be expected.

There have also been a number of sadder outcomes recently; others have written about David MacKay’s recent death; I had the privilege to be in his lecture course while he was writing Information Theory, Inference, and Learning Algorithms, and I can trace the influence of both the course material and the lecturing style on my thought and practice. I (along with many others) admire his book about energy and humanity; it is beautifully clear, and starts from the facts and argues from those. “Please don’t get me wrong: I’m not trying to be pro-nuclear. I’m just pro-arithmetic.” – a rallying cry for advocates of rationality. I will also remember David cheefully agreeing to play the viola for the Jesus College Music Society when some preposterous number of independent viola parts were needed (my fallible memory says “Brandenburg 3”). David’s last interview is available to view; iPlayer-enabled listeners can hear Alan Blackwell’s (computer scientist and double-bassist) tribute on BBC Radio 4’s Last Word.

So with regret, I’m not travelling to Krakow this year; I will do my best to make the 10th European Lisp Symposium (how could I miss a nice round-numbered edition?), and in the meantime I’ll raise a glass of Croatian Maraschino, courtesy of my time in Zadar, to the success of ELS 2016.