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.

read more...

CouchCast Review Of Accelerando

Today we reviewed the Sci-Fi book Accelerando.

If you’ve been reading current science fiction, and particularly if you’ve been reading the discussion around current science fiction, you’ve probably heard of the concept of the Singularity. If you haven’t, briefly, it’s the idea that technological development is an exponential curve, which means that technological change will keep getting faster and faster until it vertically spikes. This is the Singularity, since beyond this point whatever exists afterwards will probably be incomprehensible to those of us who live on this side of the spike.

Visit CouchCast.org for all of our shows. Come and be part of this sometimes wacky, sometimes funny, and sometimes techie podcast. Hosted by Robert Merrill, Matthew Reinbold and Thom Allen.

read more...

The Neighbors

The Neighbors, originally uploaded by digitalthom.

Great band playing at Jordan Landing. Mostly classic rock.

- Taken at 9:20 PM on August 17, 2008 - cameraphone upload by ShoZu

read more...

Monster Bus

Monster Bus, originally uploaded by digitalthom.

I never had a bus like this when I was in school

- Taken at 12:25 PM on August 16, 2008 - cameraphone upload by ShoZu

read more...

Speaking At WordCamp Utah 2008

I'm excited that WordCamp has been scheduled for Utah. I'm an avid WordPress fan, developer, hack, and bigot. OK, I love other software too, but I really do use WordPress for a lot of projects.

Joseph Scott of Automattic has worked really hard to get this WordCamp going, and I think there is a fantatic lineup of speakers. You will be rocked by Cameraon Moll, Ash Buckles, Alex King, Richard Miller, Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg, and myself. I'll be talking about using WordPress with podcasts, video and other media.

The event will take place September 27th, at the Novell Open Source Technology Center in Provo, UT. Registration is cheap, includes a t-shirt and lunch. It's on a Saturday so there shouldn't be an excuse for not coming.

If you want to learn more about WordPress, its future, and some of the really cool things that can be done with the tool, please come.

read more...