WordCamp Utah 2008 Wrap Up

Had a great time at WordCamp Utah on Saturday. The Open Source Technology Center at Novell was great. There was plenty of water and snacks. And there were plenty of people in attendance.

I have to give thanks to Joseph Scott for pulling off such a great event.

Here are some pictures I took at WordCamp. I'm using the NextGen Gallery plug-in instead of Flickr. While I use the gallery feature to store pictures, audio and video, I didn't use it to actually show a gallery of photos.

After some struggle to get the gallery manager to work right, I think I finally have it figured out. I think the issue was more user error than application error.

[album=1,extend]

And a link to my presentation video from Ustream. Thanks to RockyMountainVoices.com and Jake Spurlock for the video.

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Night Shade Look Alike

Often when I wear this shirt, people look real hard to see if it's me. Like I'm wearing a shirt with my face on it.

No its not me. Thanks to the guys at Night Shade Books for the shirt. Got it at World Horror Con in Salt Lake City 2008.

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Mountain-Con 4 Wrap Up

Mountain-Con 4 concluded this past weekend, and I was able to attend all three days. All in all I can say it was a pretty good con. Every convention like this has its pros and "cons", and for a fledgling, read forth year, science fiction fan convention, its doing pretty good.

The Davis Convention Center was a great place to have this convention. Mainly because its built for this type of event; big rooms, large hallways, big bathrooms, close to restaurants, and most importantly, free wireless internet. Inevitably there is down time between panels or presentations, and its always fun to jump on the Internet and see whats happening.

There were plenty of things to do. Plenty of things see. Plenty of people to meet. Saturday is usually the day most people attend in their costumes. You can always count on Storm Troopers and Darth Vaders. Not so many Star Trek costumes this year. Not sure why.

Brandon Sanderson was there, the author tapped to finish Robert Jordans last book in the Wheel of Time series. That must be a daunting and stressful task. While there are always plenty of celebrity guests, I get a kick out of meeting all the lesser know, or unknown, authors and attendees. I always add to my rolodex at conventions like these. Heck, that's how I met Jeff Norris of iscifi.tv, and Paul Genesse, author of the Golden Cord.

I have to say a couple of things before I end. Basically wished for next year and beyond. I love to see the gaming room controlled better. Gamers had more space than anyone, and it was wasted. I would have like to see the dealers, more dealers, in the gamers room and move the gamers into the dealers room. Great opportunity missed to have rockin game demos, or significantly more dealers.

I would also ask to reconsider the cost of the Banquet. I would attend, but nothing is worth that kind of money except maybe my wife on a significant occasion. The event sounds fun but is out of reach for most people.

I would also hope your have secured guests for next year. You know as well as I do these people book way out. If your not first, you don't get prime guests, which draw more attendees.

Good job to everyone who volunteered. I know the amount of work that goes into putting on events. Sleep for a few days. Then get on next years event. Please.

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My Request For Government Bailout

News over the past few days has been all about money the US Government has been giving to ailing financial institutions in hopes of keeping them from collapsing. I'm not a financial expert, but I'm sure the layman can recognize what a sham this is.

So this morning I thought it was appropriate that I ask the US Government to give me a few Billion dollars to help bail me out. I'd even take less, say several hundred thousand. That would do it. Hey, it's my money too. All those tax dollars I've put in the coffers over the years. If my elected officials are going to squander it, I want my share back.

I got some great responses from Twitter friends. Here they are:









As you can see there are plenty of people who want their money back. Please give US our money back, don't waste it on these poor management schmucks who have been fleecing Americans for years now.

Wow I'm hardly ever political on this blog, but man that felt good. Sorry RacerX996, I edited your comment. Those reading this post can also find the original on my Twitter account for your reading pleasure, and to get the full affect.

[Update]

Thanks Christopher Penn.

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In memory of lives lost on 9.11.2001

[caption id="attachment_834" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Remembering Lives Lost On 9-11-2001"][/caption]

It's been seven years since the tragic events of September 11, 2001 took place. Over 3000 lives lost. And many more have been lost in the fight on terror since. Whether you're a support of the current actions in Iraq and Afghanistan, our duty as Americans is to remember the lives lost in New York and Pennsylvania. We should also remember our military men and woman who gave their lives fighting terrorism since that day.

In Memorium

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Worlds Largest Diet Coke Can

  

Worlds Largest Diet Coke Can, originally uploaded by digitalthom.

I took this picture at some road side gas station in Idaho. Couldn't pass it up. I think they must be the biggest soda cans in the world.

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Baddest Bike In The World

Baddest Bike In The World, originally uploaded by digitalthom.

This is one monster machine, the Suzuki Hayabusa. Very cool. Crappy lighting, sorry, phone cam sucks.

- Taken at 12:46 PM on September 04, 2008 - cameraphone upload by ShoZu

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UTOSC 2008 Was A Smashing Success

The 2008 Utah Open Source Conference was a smashing success in my book. I want to thank Clint Savage, and everyone else involved in putting on the event. Everyone involved had a great attitude and did everything possible to make us feel comforatable. 

I wasn't able to get to the conference until later Friday afternoon, having missed many of the great keynotes on Thursday. I was able to sit in on Howard Taylors address on The Free Content Business Model. Howard is a great presenter no matter the topic. The next presentation was given by Joe Brockmeier on How to bootstrap a community.

On Friday night my wife and I attended the geek dinner for UTOSC guests at Tucanos Brazilian Grill, at the Gateway. Food and fun was had by all.

Saturday started early, 8AM, learning about Ubuntu LTS. Next up was Linux Multimedia. This was probably the best presentation I attended. Mainly because I am interested in creating a home media center. Brandon did an excellent job, despite having sever technical difficluties getting started.

I was able to have lunch (catered by Sugarhouse BBQ), with several friends who were attending the event. I made some great contacts, got some great schwag, and learned a lot. I can't until next year, it's sure to be even better.

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