Sun, 05 Oct 2008
PyCon UK - 2008
At $DAYJOB I'm working with a strong team of Python (and Django)
developers so over the last couple of months my interest in the language
has grown. Thanks to YAPC::EU not being very exciting this year I had a
spare slot in my "conference schedule" and went to the highly
recommended (by me and previous attendees I'd spoken to) PyCon UK. I'm glad I did.
I was more than a little out of my depth in most of the talks but a lot of the speakers were excellent, especially Raymond Hettinger - who I ended up stalking (by accident) and seeing all of his talks. The technical level required of the audience was quite varied but I ended up going to a lot of the more technically indepth sessions as they just seemed more interesting. The downside is that I lacked the ability to filter module based talks in the same way I can at Perl Conferences and that I learned (the hard way) that Python has many test frameworks, modules and harnesses.
The venue itself was fine, large, easy to get around and had restaurants and pubs near enough that you could make a dash outside for lunch. The keynotes were both very interesting - Mark Shuttleworth and Ted Leung both gave their view (in different ways) on where Python is, was and should be. As a (mostly) Perl guy I was a little surprised by how little it even got mentioned - twice by my count and each time it was as an afterthought. In a way this is reassuring, it fits in with my own views and encourages me to learn a new dynamic language (Python and Ruby are both interesting in different ways).
I should probably note that There won't be a PyCon UK in 2009 - instead the organisers are doing PyCon Europe 2009. And based on how good a time I had this year I'll be there.
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Posted: 2008/10/05 22:31 | /events | Permanent link to this entry | This entry and same date
Google Dev Day - London 2008
I recently went to the London 2008 Google Dev Day (the title of my post
doesn't lie!) and while it was lovely to be near that hallowed grass (only
half of which was actually down) the talks themselves left a lot to be
desired - actual technical content.
I'm not sure if I'm the wrong audience in that I've already looked at the front pages and the code samples but I hoped, given the word developer in the events title, that it'd be a bit more tech heavy.
The actual talks were mostly well presented but they lacked any real depth on the subjects, most of them contained very similar material to the actual API introductions. It was nice catching up with some ex- coworkers though and, if nothing else, I've been inspired to look at the Google Visualisation APIs a lot more. When I get some spare time. Still, here's something to tick off on my PiP.
You can also view the Google Dev Day Videos on YouTube.
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Posted: 2008/10/05 21:56 | /events | Permanent link to this entry | This entry and same date
Spooks Code 9 - Making Torchwood look Good
When it comes to spinoffs the BBC isn't doing too well. After two, very,
very bad series of Torchwood we're now 'blessed' with Spooks: Code 9. It's got
nothing to do with the main Spooks series (a series I do like), has
very... inexperienced acting and dull plots.
What's good about it? A lot of the cast are very pretty and it's only 6 episodes long. Luckily it's been panned by nearly everyone who's posted a review of it (I like to be on the bandwagon every now and again) and with a little luck it'll be canned after just one season. Consistently bad. Let's hope this one stays dead.
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Posted: 2008/10/05 21:47 | /nottech | Permanent link to this entry | This entry and same date
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