RubyConf: Day Two

The second day of RubyConf 2006 was also my last. I needed to fly out late Saturday night and ended up missing both matz's keynote and the RejectConf — not to mention all of Sunday's talks. I was glad to see Saturday's talks though, and to get another day of meeting up with people.

My favorite talks were Nathaniel Talbott's and Tim Bray's. I'd decided to step out during Laurent Sansonetti's, since I'm not a Mac user, but regretted it when I stepped back in toward the end of his talk to hear him talking about some changes to Ruby's core that he's experimenting with — I think he should have been at Friday's implementers' summit.

The lightning talks were great. (Josh Susser's talk had to be cancelled due to illness, so the filled the slot with an impromptu lightning round.) I thought about doing one, but the nine available slots were filled before I could sign up. Hopefully next year will feature a scheduled lightning round.

I was interviewed by Jack Wohr, of Dr. Dobbs, I haven't seen the interview show up at his blog covering RubyConf 2006 yet but there are a lot more good interviews there. It was pretty interesting to be on the other side of the mic. Hopefully I can use some of the things I saw him doing in my own interviews. Speaking of which, I was able to line up several interviews for the near future. It was really cool to be able to ask people in person, instead of having to coordinate everything by email. A couple of people also asked me about doing some of the interview as podcasts, I'm a bit apprehensive about it (I hate the way I sound 'on tape' and I'm not really ready to sink a bunch of money into audio gear) but maybe it will happen.

We (Mike Moore and I) also got some more work done towards our planned MountainWest RubyConf in the spring. We might have lined up a couple of major sponsors, which would help keep everyone's cost down. I also got some good feedback on the implementors' summit; it looks like people are interested in a reprise in the spring. I need to get a call for papers put together in the next week or so, so that I can post it.

Finally, I'd just like to tip my hat to two people:

• James Gray — He's been a good friend by email and IM, and it was great to finally meet him. James, I looking forward to seeing you again at next year's RubyConf.
• Hal Fulton — I've interviewed him, and have been reading an advance copy of his new book. When I caught up with him at RubyConf he signed the advance copy for my son, who's been wanting his own Ruby book for a couple of months. Hal, you really made my son's day. Thanks!