Barcamp Atlanta 3 was a good time, although turnout was perhaps a little lower than in years past. The weekend started in the Georgia Tech ATDC (on 5th St in downtown Atlanta) with a Barbecue Dinner, then a kickoff where the organizers and sponsors got a chance to get up in front of us. We soon discovered that the published LAWN login was good for only two accesses at a time, but fortunately there were plenty of wireless routers around and after some fumbling we had one plugged in to the wall for WFO ( <a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=WFO">http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=WFO</a> ) wireless access. <br>
<br>I had fun heckling the Microsoft rep, who was flogging some incredibly khoul entrepreneurial 'opportunity' where they'd provide a bunch of serfs in India to code your web project up overnight for FREE, if only you sold them your soul (use some Cloud thing associated with Windows 7). Heckling him was probably a mistake, since MS paid for at least part of my dinner. But I haughtily refused to take any of the big pile of swag they brought, includijng the black T-shirts that said "Make Web not War". Hey, it ain't my side that's fighting a war. One of the other folks there pointed out the bottle of hand sanitizer included with the shirt, I guess to clean your hands off after working with that stuff. I was sorry to see that one of the folks there had lost essentially all of her cell-phone data in the recent Sidekick Disaster ( <a href="http://techblips.dailyradar.com/story/trouble-in-sidekick-land/">http://techblips.dailyradar.com/story/trouble-in-sidekick-land/</a> ). I think I'm sticking with my Palm 3x for now.<br>
<br>Sessions went from 19:30 until midnight. Among the ones I saw were a very good one on git and github ( <a href="http://github.com/">http://github.com/</a> ), a talk on social media and MomoCon ( <a href="http://momocon.moonfruit.com/">http://momocon.moonfruit.com/</a> ), a preview of the Keynote Speech for next week's cloudcamp ( <a href="http://www.cloudcamp.com/?page_id=1288">http://www.cloudcamp.com/?page_id=1288</a> ). The Git talk was particularly inspiring -- this might be the source code control system Of the Future. I also saw a talk on makin' a pretty amazing Duct-Tape corset.<br>
<br>Some of the most fun at BarCamp is actually in the less-formal parts. This year beer was available from the start, which certainly loosened everyone up. I got to talk to Michael Mealling about his khoul Ruger 10-22 hack. I brought my Maverick ( <a href="http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/warfare/943c/">http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/warfare/943c/</a>) but alas on about the second shot a pin fell out of the trigger group. I foolishly decided to do some gunsmithing after a few beers and stripped a screw as a result, so it was out of commission for the rest of the event. The MomoCon guy brought his enormous big-screen TV and a Microsoft 360 game box (which was actually working!). There were also some folks flogging some kind of joystick extension gizmo for it there. I had way more fun watching _Call_of_Duty_ than trying to play it, as usual. And apparently the unit surivived the whole evening.<br>
<br>The Rule of BarCamp is that you have to present. This year I gave 2.5 talks. The first talk was sparsely attended ("Fun Pocket Gizmos!), but went ok. The second talk I gave was "Zymurgy with Samples", and I was somewhat shocked to find that nobody knew what Zymurgy was. I had about 6 folks there (good for a BarCamp talk!), and I took them quickly through what beer is and how to get started in homebrewing. I dunno if I made any converts, but all present agreed that the samples were at least good.<br>
<br>Alas, I think I was one of less than five people who actually spent the night in the building. I fell out at about 04:30 and was up again at 07:00, to a delicious breakfast of Chik Fil-A biscuits. Folks started filtering in again around 09:00, and we had a lively fun debate about the Crisis du Jour (healthcare, of course), filled with lots of fun anecdotes and terrible personal stories. I had a great time playing with Brian Pitts on his Open-Mesh ( <a href="https://www.open-mesh.com/store/">https://www.open-mesh.com/store/</a> ) routers, which seem to almost work, cost very little (like, $25 ea quantity 20), and have some really interesting features (Web-based dashboard! Auto-config!). I also found out about Ignition Alley ( <a href="http://www.ignitionalley.com/">http://www.ignitionalley.com/</a> ), found out there's actually a co-working space right in Avondale Estates (<a href="http://techdrawl.com/new-co-working-space-in-avondale-estates/">http://techdrawl.com/new-co-working-space-in-avondale-estates/</a> ), about a mile from where I'm sitting, and talked to an actual human involved with Freeside Atlanta ( <a href="http://blog.freesideatlanta.org/">http://blog.freesideatlanta.org/</a> ). Randall Bollig gave a pretty fun talk about Burning Man, which I'm *still* too scared to go to. Lunch was delicious pizza and soda.<br>
<br>Around 13:00, I was standing around near the Schedules when Logan Gray wandered up and said "Boy, someone should give a gadgets talk!". I pointed out that I had already given just that talk, and he graciously offered to share another one with me. We had the great honor of closing out Barcamp -- but his gadgets kicked my gadgets's butt. I was 'specially impressed with his Optoma Pico projector ( <a href="http://www.optomausa.com/Product_detail.asp?product_id=399">http://www.optomausa.com/Product_detail.asp?product_id=399</a> ) and the Kodak ZX1 camera ( <a href="http://store.kodak.com/store/ekconsus/en_US/pd/Zx1_Pocket_Video_Camera/productID.145117100">http://store.kodak.com/store/ekconsus/en_US/pd/Zx1_Pocket_Video_Camera/productID.145117100</a> ). Both were amazing and fun, and made my GP2X Wiz look pretty pale. <br>
<br>Brian Pitts brought a bunch of really great EFF swag to the event, so now I'm the Proud Owner of an EFF secret decoder ring ( <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/skyfaller/2472391783/">http://www.flickr.com/photos/skyfaller/2472391783/</a>) and a bunch of "Defective by Design stickers, which I'm just waitin' to slap onto my friends' gizmos. <br>
<br>It was a great time, and I hope that the event and I can both return next year.<br><br>-- CHS<br><br>