<span class="il">Barcamp</span> <span class="il">Atlanta</span> <span class="il">3</span>
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 <span class="il">Atlanta</span>) 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" target="_blank">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/" target="_blank">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/" target="_blank">http://github.com/</a> ), a talk on social media and MomoCon ( <a href="http://momocon.moonfruit.com/" target="_blank">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" target="_blank">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 <span class="il">BarCamp</span> 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/" target="_blank">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 <span class="il">BarCamp</span> 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 <span class="il">BarCamp</span>
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/" target="_blank">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/" target="_blank">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/" target="_blank">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 <span class="il">Atlanta</span> ( <a href="http://blog.freesideatlanta.org/" target="_blank">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 <span class="il">Barcamp</span> -- 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" target="_blank">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" target="_blank">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/" target="_blank">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>