Network slowing to a crawl at OSCon. Image courtesy of Etherape.

Turns out that the clock on my Palm is 15 minutes off. I guess it sync’ed with my laptop last night, on which the battery was dying. Maybe it got messed up then. Dunno. Anyways, I ran way over on my Apache Performance talk. I’ve *NEVER* run over on that talk. Very very frustrating.

But at least now I’m all done for the conference, and now I can just attend and enjoy.

Today’s lunch is brought to us by Microsoft. Thank you, Microsoft.

And a pox upon all the silly people who feel *obliged* to take this opportunity to snipe at them. Being anti-microsoft is getting boring.

ok, let’s see, where are we?

Finishing up last minute run-through of my talk for after lunch. Just went to Randal Schwartz’s talk on mod_perl. It was very good, but needed at least twice the time.

Last night’s events were all excellent. Larry Wall’s State Of The Onion was, as usual, unexpected. (If that makes any sense.) And it made me think, unavoidably, that we have this great treasure in jars of clay. And we are all blessed to live in the same era as some of these great thinkers with whom we share this venue.

Paul Graham was funny and brilliant. I hope that a transcript is available somewhere, as I fear that I was aready fading by then, and missed much of it.

And Damian was Damian. I had heard that talk at least once before, perhaps twice. But it was fascinating with a largely non-Perl audience to hear the reactions.

And the keynotes this morning, also, were very good. Tim O’Reilly and Robert Lefkowitz were both excellent, and even insightful. I recommend reading these talks if they are available. Of course, neither will be quite as worthwhile in print, but it gives an idea.

Well, if it’s not packed now, it’s not going. (I can’t find the book I’m reading, so I’ll just have to take something else.) I’m off for some lunch with my family, and then it’s off to Portland. See y’all at OSCon.

On the plane on the way to Atlanta, on the way to Portland.

Going through security was the least painful that it has been in a long time. I suppose that once one gets used to it, it gets better. Or perhaps it really is getting better.

This time, I even had two laptops, and this earned me no more than a half-hearted attempt at a joke.

I brought “Dancing Barefoot” with me. I actually obtained it last year at OSCon, but had not gotten around to reading it yet. I started it in the airport, and finished it shortly after takeoff. Wil Wheaton is a great writer. While the writing style is more akin to blogging than to great literature, he’s smart, funny, and in touch with what it’s like to be a geek in a world that doesn’t understand geeks. Highly recommended, even if you can’t get the autographed version. 😉

Then I started reading “Memoirs Found in a Bathtub” by Stanislaw Lem. It is strange, but it has a historical slant that appeals to me. I’ve often wondered what future generations of archaelogists would think of us if, somehow, our written record were lost. Well, that’s what the book is about

Anyhoo, I’m about halfway to Atlanta, and starting to really look forward to the conference. I’m not quite as prepared as I’d like to be, but I’ll look through my presentation again in Atlanta.

I brought some John Wayne movies, and I’ll probably watch them most of the way to Portland, if my battery holds out.

(Written on my Tungsten E, using my infrared wireless keyboard. Yay, cool toys!)