1.0UCT HPChttps://ucthpc.uct.ac.zaAndrew Lewishttps://ucthpc.uct.ac.za/index.php/author/andrew-lewis/rich600338<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="bCTtCeaNvF"><a href="https://ucthpc.uct.ac.za/index.php/2010/04/23/egee-user-forum-in-sweden/">EGEE User Forum in Sweden</a></blockquote><iframe sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" src="https://ucthpc.uct.ac.za/index.php/2010/04/23/egee-user-forum-in-sweden/embed/#?secret=bCTtCeaNvF" width="600" height="338" title="“EGEE User Forum in Sweden” — UCT HPC" data-secret="bCTtCeaNvF" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" class="wp-embedded-content"></iframe><script type="text/javascript"> /*! This file is auto-generated */ !function(c,d){"use strict";var e=!1,o=!1;if(d.querySelector)if(c.addEventListener)e=!0;if(c.wp=c.wp||{},c.wp.receiveEmbedMessage);else if(c.wp.receiveEmbedMessage=function(e){var t=e.data;if(!t);else if(!(t.secret||t.message||t.value));else if(/[^a-zA-Z0-9]/.test(t.secret));else{for(var r,s,a,i=d.querySelectorAll('iframe[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),n=d.querySelectorAll('blockquote[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),o=new RegExp("^https?:$","i"),l=0;l<n.length;l++)n[l].style.display="none";for(l=0;l<i.length;l++)if(r=i[l],e.source!==r.contentWindow);else{if(r.removeAttribute("style"),"height"===t.message){if(1e3<(s=parseInt(t.value,10)))s=1e3;else if(~~s<200)s=200;r.height=s}if("link"===t.message)if(s=d.createElement("a"),a=d.createElement("a"),s.href=r.getAttribute("src"),a.href=t.value,!o.test(a.protocol));else if(a.host===s.host)if(d.activeElement===r)c.top.location.href=t.value}}},e)c.addEventListener("message",c.wp.receiveEmbedMessage,!1),d.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded",t,!1),c.addEventListener("load",t,!1);function t(){if(o);else{o=!0;for(var e,t,r,s=-1!==navigator.appVersion.indexOf("MSIE 10"),a=!!navigator.userAgent.match(/Trident.*rv:11\./),i=d.querySelectorAll("iframe.wp-embedded-content"),n=0;n<i.length;n++){if(!(r=(t=i[n]).getAttribute("data-secret")))r=Math.random().toString(36).substr(2,10),t.src+="#?secret="+r,t.setAttribute("data-secret",r);if(s||a)(e=t.cloneNode(!0)).removeAttribute("security"),t.parentNode.replaceChild(e,t);t.contentWindow.postMessage({message:"ready",secret:r},"*")}}}}(window,document); </script> Andrew Lewis and Timothy Carr from UCT accompanied by Dr Bruce Becker attended the 5th and final EGEE User Forum in Uppsala, Sweden.  It was a great opportunity to meet other Grid users and project coordinators and we made some very useful contacts.  It was also fun to meet up with some of the people we'd been working with in Europe for the past year.  The key theme from the conference was one of more collaboration in order to avoid duplication of effort, especially in the MPI and portal domains. It took a while to get used to the weather, frequently well below zero with occasional light snow.  As it was the last EGEE forum (the project phase is now closing and it will now be EGI) the coordinators decided to make it a memorable event and on Tuesday night we enjoyed a spectacular dinner in Uppsala Castle.  Over the course of the forum the South African delegates attended discussions in bioinformatics, Earth observation, scietific gateways and portals, computational chemsitry, high energy physics, parallel processing and MPI architecture.  Dr Bruce Becker gave a very well recieved talk on the South African National Grid in the Regional Projects session.  Two windfalls to come out of the forum were the implementation of gqsub (a qsub like wrapper for gLite developed by a Scottish University) and a graphical monitoring tool for the grid using Google Earth. Unfortunately on the 2nd last day of the conference ash from the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull shut down air traffic over Europe and we found ourselves stranded indefinitely in Sweden.  Luckily we had not booked out of our hotel yet, or found ourselves stuck in the 'departure hall limbo' as so many unfortunate travellers did.  The Swedish home affairs were extremely helpful and granted us temporary residency.  We took full advantage of the situation and visisted the HPC data center at Uppsala Multidisciplinary Center for Advanced Computational Science (UPPMAX), went on a brief visit to Stockholm and a walking tour of a Viking village at Gamla Uppsala.  We also visited the spectacular Uppsala  University Museum housing a collection of Viking and Egyptian exhibits, a huge display dedicated to Carl Linnaeus as well as first editions of Newton's Principia and Galileo's Sidereus Nuncius. On the 2nd Friday we took a chance and managed to wangle our way onto an aircraft heading for Doha.  48 hours later we were back in SA to find that our director had kindly given us the Monday off in consolation for all our hardships ;-)https://ucthpc.uct.ac.za/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Untitled-6.jpg