Down-home Hoedown action
August 11th, 2008 by ymendel 5 comments »
We were in Hunstville for the Ruby Hoedown this past weekend, and let me just say that Jeremy McAnally knows how to put on a hoedown. All you people who didn’t come because of the location or the size or the timing or any other reason, you screwed up.
With two EVDO cards and a nice AP, Confreaks managed to give one of the best conference networks I’ve ever experienced. Granted, I don’t have a lot of conference experience, but I know enough to say Confreaks » O’Reilly. I think in general this was the best conference experience I’ve had, owing in large part to the regional aspects: smaller, more focused (as in there was only one track), less focused (schedule not completely nailed down, good hallway track action).
Obie catches us in a moment, probably thinking of ways to screw with Rein during his talk
Rick, being on the schedule, gave his talk on going through a major refactoring and adding tests to old code, focusing on the experience of turning flog into flame. I was inspired to give a lightning talk on truthy. Kevin managed to squeeze one day of the Hoedown in between other blocks on his busy schedule — legitimizing us with the presence of an iPhone — so this wasn’t the conference to get “the full OG monty”, as it were. Maybe we’ll have to break open the seal on that at something even more local than a regional conference. NashDL OGConf, anyone?
Other highlights:
- Hashrocket quoting me in their 3-2-1 ad on the back of the schedule
- Obie including our logo among many others, showing the consultancy marketplace in his “Hustle” presentation
- Getting a dollar from Joe Kutner for explaining why
!=isn’t a method - Finally seeing Giles (“Crakahashi Method”) Bowkett present
- Being disqualified from the RPSbot competition for cheating
It was a good time. What do you expect when testing, pizza, and bocce come together?
Rick’s talk on flog/flame: (get the code to follow along)
Rick giving Gregg Pollack from RailsEnvy the overview
My lightning talk on truthy:
Me giving Gregg Pollack from RailsEnvy the overview
August 11th, 2008 at 11:16 AM
Yes, I might have only been there for one half of one day of the conference. But, does that not mean I cannot throw in my two cents. My highlights:
August 11th, 2008 at 11:52 AM
I’ll see your two cents and raise you an “everybody’s got one”... My highlights also included bryanl’s (http://smartic.us/) “test all the fucking time” talk; talking hippo craziness with giles, defunkt, ali & imagetic; and just the general “hallway track” in general.
Good times.
August 12th, 2008 at 01:53 AM
Congrats to both of you on your talks, Rick and Yoseff! One with the excellent detail and the other with the excellent wit. And Kevin, really, how long until I see you present?
I totally agree that the Hoedown was the best conference I’ve attended yet. It was small, quiet, intimate, and the signal-to-noise ratio was high.
Kudos to you alone, though, Kevin, for mentioning the awesomeness that was the Hashrocket RV. If only those kinds of parties could happen at every conference.
August 14th, 2008 at 12:48 PM
Veez:
I read that comment as “Rick isn’t funny”, and I support this message.
August 14th, 2008 at 03:12 PM
Hey, I represent that remark!