CodeMash 2009

Once again this event was like a good wine.!  The older it gets, the better and more concise it becomes.!

Just when you think, how can they improve on something that is already great? The organizers of this event did an absolute outstanding job (Jim, Dianne, Jason, Brian, Jeff, etc).

Pre-Compiler: oh yeah, I got the most of this session.  In the spirit of CodeMash, I have decided to try something out of my comfort zone.  Last year, I tried Ruby.  This year, I have decided to give Groovy and Grails a try.  I immerse myself for a FULL day of these 2 technologies.  While I can't say I am a Groovy developer at the end of that day, I have a much better understanding of the technology.

KidzMash:  One word to describe this:  INSANE.  This is my 2nd year volunteering for this event. [CodeMash 2008].  Learned a few new things from the experience last year.  This year, I've decided to make it a little bit more interactive, so I've packed 4 laptops with Scratch.  Out of those, one have BabyMash installed, just in case there were some young developers in the making there (<6yrs old).   I was completely blown up by the number of kids we have:  35 kids.!!  Thankfully, Sarah Ford and Michelle and another mom  in there step up to help by providing extra laptops and balloons animals.!  Hopefully, I was able to influence those young minds to become a future RIA developer.

Open Spaces: I've got a lot of value attending these.!  I was just being a fly-on-the-wall. Intimidated by the sheer brain power of those people talking.! Looking forward more Open Spaces.!

Sessions:

• Scala with Venkat.  Got a candy with the infamous: "do I need to ask a question to get a candy?…" ;)
• Scaling of ASP.NET apps with Richard Campbell.  The man is a legend.!
• WCF with Keith Elder.  Good refresher course.
• User Experience with Josh Walsh.  Solid session.  Very good presenter.  Even though I have not worked on end user apps for a while, this session was a very good background information.

KeyNote: This might be the only portion of CodeMash that I have to skip.  Last year's keynote with Scott Hanselman was awesome.  Venkat was a terrific follow up this year.!  His analogy of how writing unit test compares to doing physical exercise was right on target.  All of the other keynote presenters were good, but they just could not capture my attention.

Negatives:  yes, there were negatives.

• Too many repeated sessions or content was very similar to another talk. Open spaces filled that void. :D
• Keynotes were not hitting the CodeMash audience (except Venkat… ;)
• Evaluation forms.  Why aren't the evaluation forms online instead of paper?  It would be awesome to fill them up online.  Instant feedback.!

Moments: CodeMash is also about networking with others, and I use Breakfast, lunch, dinner, party, water park, etc to meet someone new.  I love the small conference atmosphere where you don't feel like another number in a group.

• Met developer that work for Overdrive.  They developed the application that I just installed last year to get audio books from my public library into my Zune. And you know, they are based on Akron, OH.!
• My Twitter count went up by 10.
• Carl Franklin rocked the house on Thursday night.!
• Sponsors ads during meal time. FTW..!!!

Looking forward CodeMash v.2010 next year

KidzMash @ Codemash

I had an opportunity to volunteer some time for Kidzmash at Codemash. This is a great way to try to influence young minds to stay on a technical career.
The slides and sample code that I was "planning" on using can be downloaded here.

Jim Holmes, told me that he did not know how many kids will come or what the ages were. Well, I have volunteered before at my son's school, and I had 30 kids in the computer lab [previous post]. Of course,the kids at school were 10-13yr-olds that knew how to read and type on a computer..... ;)

Hello KidzMash..!! I had like 10+ kids with their parents showing up. Oldest one? 9-year-old.!! Youngest one? 5-month baby... yikes..!! I asked who knew how to read.? like 4-5 hands went up.

After about 5 minutes of Kids Programming Language (KPL), where you could hear crickets on the background, I decided to dump KPL, and I switch to Scratch.

Scratch is programming tool developed by MIT, to teach kids about programming concepts. I have download Scratch about 2 weeks ago, and I have put it to the test with my kids and they were able to use it within 5 minutes. Since this program is aimed at a younger age, I decided to use this program.

Kids were more receptive to this program. Thanks goodness.!! Here is the link for Scratch:

http://scratch.mit.edu/

Doodle Game included:

The intuitive editor for some of the graphics is just plain simple, they were able to draw, and play with this one character all of the time.!!

I have asked for volunteers helpers, and they were all raising their hands to take a turn at using the laptop. :D

Once again, this was just another way to influence young minds to the wonderful world of programming.

Codemash - Day One.!!

Brian decided to dress as the head gear dude from the Codemash logo.






So this great company I work for: Quick Solutions is giving away a Rock Band set for the Xbox 360 after Codemash. During the conference they are running a special contest to see who can score the highest point in Rock Band. Even Scott Hanselman got into the competition (singing and/or playing the drums).





Today was a blast. Neil Ford and his Poliglot programming keynote was very thought provoking. However, it was Scott's presentation about himself that just got everyone laughing very hard.

Favorite keynote moments:

• Neil Ford:

1 Test = 1000 opinions

• Scott Hanselman

a VI version of clippy...!!!

looking forward tomorrow sessions.

Codemash...

So there is this new unique conference that will take place THIS week. It is a nice, well thought out conference unlike anything I have been before. It has the feel of a CodeCamp but with a wider selection of topics.

The main theme is not to hear Microsoft talk about how great are its products (which they are..!!!) or to hear about how Java is so awesome that it is everywhere. No. The conference is about learning other technologies. Seeing what else is out there. Learn something outside your comfort zone. That's the key to this conference.

Last year's Codemash was awesome, it was nice to see how people were embracing the new paradigm of learning something new.

This year we were promised a lot more quality sessions by great speakers, not to mention the keynotes... (Scott Hanselman, Neal Ford, Brian Goetz).

And the Kalahari resort is an awesome place to see a real-live herd of white-pasty-oversize-developers with their offsprings... ;)



Dan and Matt build this cool Session scheduler..!! Here is my agenda for Codemash: Agenda for Arnulfo Wing.

I am looking forward seeing some Eyebrows being shaved this year (shaved heads is not cool anymore... ;)

Codemash - It's not over...

Codemash . It is hard to say anything that have not yet been posted/blogged. If you are like me and still want more *mash. Check out the google newsgroup. There is still a very active discussion on different topics.

Codemash - Session on OpenUp

I have attended the session with Scott Ambler. He is an amazing speaker. One of the reason I wanted to attend his session was because I have partially read his book: Refactoring Databases. And I think he touches a very important subject there. His talk yesterday was excellent. Even thought I don't really care to much about OpenUp, I wanted to hear him talking and I was not disappointed one bit.

If you have not heard about him, check out his bio on IBM website: Scott Ambler.

I will now have to bump his book to the top of my reading stack. :D

Codemash

First day of Codemash. You can feel that this is going to be a different type of conference from the moment you walk in. One of my favorite question to ask is: Where are you from? and How did you hear about Codemash?

One guy was from out of state. He mentioned that he drove 6hrs to get here.! Apparently it was a lot faster to drive here, than to take a flight to Cleveland, rent a car and drive to Sandusky. Whoa, talk about commitment.! How he heard about Codemash? His wife's friend heard about it somewhere. Then his wife told him to check it out and that's how he ended up in here. My next question was about technology. What technology he was using. Well, surprise, surprise he is a PHP developer.

Most of the other people that I have spoken to, have heard about Codemash through their user's group. Which again promotes the fact that Codemash is really a community event. It seems to be all word 0f mouth at this point.
Patterns Codemash

Codemash is Live..!

Codemash, the great Tower of Babel for geeks is coming soon. Check it out.