OSCON 2006

This was my first OSCON, and I have to say: it was definitely more about connecting with the folks than learning from the sessions or the tutorials. I really enjoyed connecting with the ActiveState guys, Shane Caraveo and Jeff Griffiths, who I've only known through mailing lists up to this point. It was also interesting meeting other Python guys like David Mertz (author of Text Processing in Python) and Robin Dunn (co-author of wxPython in Action). Seeing and hearing from other Python greats like Jim Huginin, Raymond Hettinger, Alex Mertelli, and Guido van Rossum was also a kick.

[humor]Best of all, though, was meeting up with Steven Wilcox, creator of the Pumpkinvine blogging system. It was hard enough to believe that we actually ran into one another at the conference, but we immediately hit it off like old friends. Not only did we get to talk Python and Ruby programming informally, but he invited me along to many of the same sessions he was attending. He also asked me to go to lunch and an afternoon hike with one of his good buddies who lives in Portland. We ended up taking a tour of the Rose Garden and got to see a wonderful view of Mt. Hood. Thanks for a great time, Steven! [/humor]

I probably got to see more of the area than most of the other attendees. Somehow I wasn't able to get a Residence Inn room in the Portland area, so I drove in from the Residence Inn in Vancouver, WA. Let me just say, Portland has some serious traffic issues.

As much as I enjoyed the time out in Oregon, it was nice to get back to the Baltimore area. Wish I hadn't brought the high temperatures with me though!