photo credit: MMMMichelle

On the second day of Penguicon, the furries came out. Luckily, they weren’t drawn to the technical track, so for the most part, we were safe.

Most of the morning, Rick and I hung out. There weren’t any sessions that we wanted to attend, so we headed out for a few hours and wandered the local mall, which was roughly the size of the UCLA campus. It was two massive structures connected by a skyway over West Big Beaver Road¹. Astonishingly, it was filled with…nothing. Well…nothing for two computer geeks on the prowl. To be fair, there was an Apple Store, but even that felt half-assed.

Heading back, we met back up with Cmdln for his afternoon sessions. The poor guy looked like something out of Infected, his head cold threatening burst out of his skull and wreak havoc over the con. He held the beast at bay with liberal application of Dayquil. He and I headed off to his three panels.

I have to say, his Third Wave Power² was sorely tested by the panels he had that day:

• Avoiding Obsolescence: How to insure technology does not leave you behind, both personally and professionally.
• Beyond Silicon: Exploring alternatives to using silicon-based computer systems. Examples: Quantum computing, data storage at the atomic level, etc.
• Secure Computing: This was originally supposed to be about trusted computing and hardware security, I believe, but Vernor Vinge took it in a whole new direction, pointing out the single point of failure that transistors will become within the next 20 years. The example was that, if something wiped out all the transistors³ today, it would be Very Bad. People would die, vehicles would cease to function, etc. Imagine how bad it would be in 20 years, when computers are small and even more integrated with our lives.

We headed back to the room, caught the Tesla Coil concert, played a little Arkham Horror, and called it a day.

Sunday morning was pretty laid back. Bagels and coffee, conversation, then Rick headed off to hit some sessions he was interested in. The best session of the whole con, The Future of Programming Languages, was at 11am, followed by the OLPC roundtable and Math and Elections.

Following that, time to head home.

On the whole, it was a decent con. I enjoyed myself, and learned some interesting things. My one disappointment was that, for an Open Source conference, there was no discussion the philosophy of Open Source, methods of working in teams on Open Source projects, no talks on specific pieces of software or code. Other than waving the Linux flag, there was no real discussion of the core of the movement: The Source.

Penguicon 7.0 is moving to a larger venue next year, and I’ll be watching their progress. There is tremendous potential for a truly interesting and engaging con there, for both the younger geek set and the older geeks, the professionals who want to help carry Open Source forward. The Guest of Honor is Wil Wheaton and that should prove to be quite a draw. There is discussion of an expanded podcasting track, as well. All in all, it sounds promising. If all goes well, I’ll be returning next year.

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1. No joke. I’m not making that up.
2. Cmdln’s Third Wave power is the ability to as intelligent on the last day of a con, after having little sleep, as he sounds on the first day. Personally, I think this definition needs to be refined thusly: he has the ability to sound intelligent no matter how tired he is.
3. With an EMP, etc

People who have lived in LA are quick to tell me that, when I visit on business, I’m not living in the “real LA.” I’m staying in the company apartment which is not too far from the intersection of Wilshire and Westwood, in Westwood, about six blocks from the UCLA campus. If you take Wilshire west, you wind up in Santa Monica, and if you go east, you wind up in Beverly Hills. This, apparently, is not the “real LA.” Be that as it may, I’ve been traveling around a bit, and thought I’d share some of my observations with you.

• You cannot throw a rock without hitting a sushi joint. During my last trip out here I became enamored with sushi and sashimi, and one of my co-workers is telling me that he’ll take me down to Echigo, which is supposed to be one of the best places in town. Sushi knowledge is highly prized around the office, and if you bring up the subject, you’ll get an earful of recommendations, history, and even a little bit of argument. It’s heady stuff.

• There are a number of good cafe’s around town. Some, like Peet’s are chains, others are small and independent. One I hope to visit while I am out here is the Literati Cafe. Looks like fun.

• Bookstores and comic book shops are high on the list, since I’ll have a weekend free. The Golden Apple in Hollywood has come highly recommended, but there is also a Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash right around the corner. Also, I’m trying to remember the name of the place where Harlan Ellison used to sit in the window and write. Anyone? Anyone?

I have to admit that I like what I’ve seen, but the housing prices out here are madness. The apartment I’m staying in (2 bed, 2 bath) is $3,500 a month…nearly three and a half times my mortgage back home. I did some checking, and my house and the same amount of land would cost $600K out here. Good grief.

That’s all for now. More in the days to come.

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