Lonely Lion

Chicago is the center of the nerd universe this coming week, with back to back Railsconf and YAPC. I’m getting my schedule together this afternoon, figuring out which talks to attend. There’s still some not-sures, but I have big chunks of it figured out.

Friday (Railsconf)

Friday morning is a slam dunk for me, the afternoon is pretty much up in the air. I’m really looking forward to the keynotes, especially Paul Graham. The _why thing should be pretty fun too.

• Dave Thomas Keynote 9:15
• Introduction to Capistrano 10:45: It’s been on my radar for ages now, but I still haven’t spent the time figuring out how to use it. This is one I’m really looking forward to.

Saturday (Railsconf)

Not entirely sure what I’ll be up ot Saturday. I have to skip out on the keynotes, as I have a BBQ to attend.

• Ajax on Rails 9:00: My Ajax usage has been pretty canned, I’d like to expand it out a bit. I’m also interested in having RJS spelled out to me.
• Putting the BBC’s Programme Catalogue on Rails 11:30: The site is really impressive. It’s also one of the few talks scheduled in the “success story” category that doesn’t have a price tag attached to it. As in, the BBC did it for the joy of doing it, not the profit. At least, that’s my take on that particular track.

Sunday (Railsconf)

I’m looking forward to the lightning talks. They’re always my favorite part of any conference. Otherwise, I’m planning on attending the morning session of Agile Databases with Migrations. I’m using Migrations pretty frequently now, but am interested to see how others use them.

Monday (YAPC)

I’m going to miss most of Monday, we’re closing on our condo (hurray!  home ownership!  Way to be an adult!)

Tuesday (YAPC)

I’m planning on attending the full day of Perl 6 talks.  I’m pretty excited to see the vaporish Perl 6 project get a full day all to its own.  Exciting stuff.  Plus, Tuesday night is the big Dave and Busters auction night, which is rumored to be lots of fun.

Wednesday (YAPC)

Another full day plan.  Mark Jason Dominus is doing a half day on Higher Order Perl.  It’ll probably be a crowded session, but great.  I’ve heard nothing but good things about him as a speaker.  His book is great.  The afternoon is all lightning talks.  Go lightning talks!

All in all, it’s going to be a great few days.  I’ll try and write up stuff as it happens.

Go Chicago!