What did we leave? 98 degree high temperatures, fires (which threatened, but fortunately did not touch, Tom Christiansen's house), water restrictions, and all-round misery.
What's San Diego like? 80 degrees during the day, no fire, gorgeous harbour with scores of yachts out sailing, and all-round good times.
That's not to say that getting there wasn't hell. Awake at 5:30 (after going to bed at midnight, then being unable to sleep). Lots of driving to the airport, then lots of flying (via San Jose, to get the cheapest possible tickets). Kids were great on the flights, but we were all knackered by the time we landed at 2pm.
I've hooked up with the other O'Reilly staff who are busy setting up rooms and ensuring everything's in place. We've given ourselves an extra day of setup, so as to allow more time to fix any unexpected problems that crop up. Predictably, we haven't had any :-)
The basement this year is machine room, registration, Dr Dobbs' interview room, and press room. The exhibit hall is upstairs. The basement floor is an incredible blue. Wow. And there are Apple machines everywhere, including registration. Each machine has those cool spherical speakers. They're already talking about stereo wars.
It's so good to catch up with everyone again, all my friends from the conferences group that I interact with online and rarely meet. It's like going from black and white, the sudden rush and pleasure of being with them all again. This is, of course, the same pleasure that comes from hanging out with all the Perl people too, but that won't happen for another day or two.
Over and out!
--Nat
