June 19th, 2006
BarCamp
On Friday, Laurence mailed me a notification of a two-day event for geeks. I was sort of surprised, because I didn't really think he regarded me as worthy — because I am blonde and female, but because I rather think I actually act blonde and female too, and the most complicated code which I have write rarely amounts to more than...
Lookup := @DbLookup("":"NoCache";"":"";"(lkpDocTypeCategories)"; docType; 2);
FancyValue:= @If(Lookup = "1"; "Document based on the product classification system"; Lookup = "2"; "Other product document"; "General document");
@If(@IsError(FancyValue); ""; @IsDocBeingRecalculated | @IsDocBeingSaved ; FancyValue; "")
...although I do think the computed HTML which Brendan taught me to use in Notes column headings is rather clever, and I did manage doing an Implode/Explode all in one expression recently without any help.
And although Lotus Notes can run on Linux and can integrate with MySQL (not to mention that IBM has thrown a lot into the OpenSource community in recent years), it isn't really all open. But the spirit of BarCamp turned out to be one of openness, so I was welcomed, and I met a couple of delightful fellows and a small number of women too, although most of the latter evaporated after the first day. It was actually quite touching to see that guys like Edrich and Ralph had come all the way from Durban, braving horrible modes of transport just to be there. And it goes to prove that geeks are not really abnormal reclusive mutants who like to live in troglodyte isolation; they crave company as much as other editions of homo sapiens do, it's just that normal mortals do not provide an appropriate interface for connectivity, which is why BarCamp is so welcome.
I missed Derrick, particularly as there were some presentations specifically about Python, and I saw something about raytracing on somebody's laptop as I walked by. I actually wanted to open my presentation with a reference to Derrick (because if it hadn't been for him, I would not have been there), but I decided to keep things as short as possible, being insecure about the fact that my presentation was about a commercial software platform.
Unfortunately I missed some of the first day's presentations, but I was present for Dave's well-prepared presentation about blogging as a marketing tool, which convinced me that Marius was right when he said I should create a blog for Pavatile's people to use. From Rafiq and others I learned why some of the code I had wanted to fiddle with in my own Neil Turner blog template should be treated with respect (in fact, I will now have to check whether I did not unwisely delete some of the more useful tags!). Rafiq is also campaigning to have TYFYC (thank-you for your comment) recognised as a ligit Internet acronym. (Meanwhile, I am still trying to figure out überhaupt how to make comments show up in this blog!)
Dave, Rafiq, Adrian and Miguel.
An unexpected thing happened after I left. The BarCamp had been held in a cold and grim school hall, so you would have thought that I would be happy to go home. I had become quite cosy in my chosen lifestyle of white linen, no more TV, and no internet connection at home. I had been quite proud of having given up my computer addiction for so long, with no regrets. But when I left the BarCamp, I didn't feel like going home at all. I went straight to an Internet café...