Tuesday, June 29, 2010

CodeStock

Adventure 20100625

Time for another CodeStock round-up!  I have no idea why I typed that sentence, but it sounds funny inside my head, so I'm going to go with it.  Yeehaw!  Or some such.  Anyway, had a great time at CodeStock again this year.  Once again Michael Neel did a fantastic job of leading the effort to keep everything organized.  The move to the University of Tennessee Conference Center was a huge success in my opinion, considerably more comfortable and well worth the small rise in registration cost.  The sponsor teams were also all very friendly and helpful.  Unfortunately due to some timing and personal health issues I only got to see about half of the sessions I wanted to, and didn't make it to any of the after session fun, but I still got to listen to some absolutely great speakers:
  • How we made Windows 7 Fasterer? - Brian H. Prince
  • A Little Lean with Kanban - Tim Wingfield
  • A Field Guide to Moving to the Cloud - Michael Wood
  • CodeStock Keynote - Rachel Appel
  • Introduction to iPhone Development - Gun Makinabakan
  • What's happening on the legal side of technology - John Petersen
  • iPhone or Windows Phone 7: How Do You Choose - Robert Shoemate
  • Getting Started with Arduino - Jim Christopher
My top pick for "Best of CodeStock" this year is a tie between Tim Wingfield's session for providing the most useful breakdown of Kanban I've ever encountered, and Jim Christopher's session as the most fun performing as his assistant during the live wiring of his Arduino Build Status Indicator.  (Yeah, I'm hooked and next paycheck already know which Arduino kit I'm ordering....)

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Jon and Laura's Wedding

Adventure 20100612
My latest adventure involved driving up to Detroit for my friend Jon's wedding.  I moved out of Detroit back in the Fall of 2001 and I have to say I was rather shocked by how much it has changed in the last nine years.  Jon is the only friend I have kept in contact with from my time up in Detroit, but a few people remembered me (I tend not to be an easily forgettable person) and other than the driving time itself it was a pleasant little trip.

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