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April 2008 Blog Posts
Return from Alt.NET Seattle

4 days on a train (2 each way) and 3 days in Seattle.  And back to work in a few hours.  Sounds about right.

I'll have more detailed stuff to say about the conference in some follow-up posts.  It was a good time.  Good to put some faces to the names I've learned over the last year or two.  There were some good discussions overall.

I can't say that I had any 'epiphany' type moments.  In some cases, I think I confirmed some of my more 'contrarian' opinions about alt.net practices, in others, I think I confirmed that I need to take a closer look (and in one case, both at the same time).

Jeffrey Palermo made a comment the opening night about how the first Alt.NET conference had lead to a bit of negativity afterwards.  I don't know that it directly had anything to do with it, but there were no fistfights, etc.  There was a lot of disagreement on particular topics but overall it was a positive experience. 

As a side note:  if you are traveling by yourself and have some work to get done, Amtrak does a good job.  As one woman put it (paraphrasing), "When you travel by plane, they make you feel like dirt.  Here, it's almost like they are glad to see you."  It costs a bit to upgrade to a private room with a private shower, but it was remarkably comfortable, and I was able to get a lot of coding done (as beautiful as Montana and North Dakota are, I've seen them before, and there isn't much else to do traversing them).

More later.

posted @ Wednesday, April 23, 2008 12:37 AM | Feedback (0)
ALT.NET Open Spaces Seattle Conference

I'm leaving tomorrow for the aforementioned conference.  I'm looking forward to it.  I'm hoping to learn quite a bit, as well as put some faces (and voices) to the names that have become somewhat familiar to me by now.

Why am I leaving tomorrow?  Well, I was originally going to fly out of O'Hare on American, but last week, when it still wasn't clear how long the cancellations would last, I worried about having last minute problems with my flight.  And I also started thinking about a project that has been lingering in semi-complete state for, well, arguably years.  So, I decided to take some extra time and take the train.  I'm hoping I can get in about a month's worth of work in a couple of days.

Plus, I need to avoid the cougars in the neighborhood (4 blocks away from where I live).

I'll be staying with my sister and her husband.  I'm not going to attempt to blog it live or anything (especially since my DSL, on cue, will drop a day or so after I leave), but assuming I make it back alive, I'll have some feedback from it.

Should be fun.

posted @ Tuesday, April 15, 2008 6:40 PM | Feedback (3)
Co-worker quote of the day

"the light could be the end of the tunnel AND the oncoming train AND that warm comforting light we all hope is there at the end..."

posted @ Monday, April 07, 2008 1:54 PM | Feedback (0)
HP MediaSmart Server

Bought one of these suckers (it's the EX470 model, I think) and am configuring it now.  I'm not exactly thrilled that it doesn't use normal RAID type stuff for protection of data, but we'll see how it goes.

I just noticed that it is a "Product of China" which I guess means I shouldn't try to eat it.

See, that's a joke.  My girlfriend has a 2+ year old and whenever she/we need to explain that she shouldn't put something in her mouth, we tell her that it is "Made in China" (because of all the stories of lead in various Chinese products recently).  This made it difficult to explain to her why we were eating in Chinatown in Toronto during our vacation.  Although, we were eating Japanese food.  In Chinatown.

You had to be there.

Anyway, we'll see how this goes.

posted @ Wednesday, April 02, 2008 7:18 PM | Feedback (2)