West...GOOOOD!

Well, that's pretty scary -- there's only one more day of this conference and I am now on my second blog post about it.

Sheesh!

Since I only work for Think Services (the new company spun off from the dismemberment of CMP) as an occasional speaker now, and don't write for what were CMP's magazines, I hope that I may be permitted to gush about what a great experience this is for a developer. You've got the conference proceedings themselves, which in my experience have largely composed excellent, immediately useful classes. Then there's the chance to rub elbows with your fellow hackers; in my case, I also get to hang out with some pretty high-powered folks who are speaking at the conference, I try not to be too much of a fanboy groupie but when you're in a room with people whose books you've read for years, it really hits you.

I gave my talk today ("Idiomatic Ruby", thanks for asking), and was a little underwhelmed at the crowd I drew -- not crushed, but I'd have felt better if I'd filled the room. Then again, it was 8:30 AM, and I was speaking at the same time as Uncle Bob, Michele Bustamante, Joshua Bloch, and a couple of other names I instantly recognized when Tami rattled them off but have forgotten now. So I guess I should be delighted that I had 20 actual warm bodies of any description in the room!

The talk went quite smoothly; only one person obviously yawned, and only one showed the Long Blink. In my rehearsals I kept coming in right around 90 minutes or a bit more, so I talked pretty fast to leave time for questions.

Of course there weren't any, so I had ten or twelve minutes to spare. Oops. And had I done more material or talked more slowly, there would have been tons, so I guess I won't kick.

Losing...health units. Must...rest! More tomorrow.