Well, the Portland Nerd Dinner was quite a success. A couple of people didn't show,
but there were still five of us, which is a perfectly respectable number.
One thing I really enjoy about the idea of a nerd dinner is that it takes all this
stuff (internet, coding, huge mountainous piles of knowledge) and turns it into something
with a feeling of community. It's nice to meet the people behind the books/blogs/sites/whatever.
I was perfectly primed for it, too, given that I had just read, and very much enjoyed, Dino
Esposito's recent MSDN article on ASP.NET session state. It's nice to find yourself
in the company of the kind of people who can appreciate your enthusiasm for that sort
of thing.
So, the guest list:
Me - Not much to say about this jerk
Dave - Independent contractor who lives in Bend, OR - Wants to learn more about .NET,
talked about some of the difficulties involved with getting a group together in Eastern
Oregon. He's been an independent contractor for about eighteen years now.
Joe - Contractor
currently working on a big mainframe --> .NET migration. Sharp guy with a lot of
experience in weird areas. Describing previous work at an Intel fab, he made it sound
like the entire place had been designed to kill developers (arsenic, possibility of
electrocution, hydrogen explosions - the works). It made me kind of jealous that I
don't get to face death on a daily basis doing what I do.
Phil - Works for Fawcette
publications, and gave a talk at a Padnug meeting a while back on the subject of UI
design. He's consulted just about everywhere, and he's currently writing a VB.NET
based CMS, which is really cool. I was looking into coding a CMS for a while, and
it was uber cool getting the opportunity to talk to someone about the various obstacles
involved with the process.
Jim - Jim Blizzard
organized the whole thing, so a big thanks to him.
The night was a lot of fun.
I mean, if sitting around with other nerds and talking about COM interop is the sort
of thing that gets you going.
Those of you who didn't go should go next time, as there absolutely will be
a next time, and it's going to be even nexter than this last time
(which is way laster then the next one will ever be).
Good stuff.