As I write this, I am sitting in Nashville listening to a group of developers jam on guitars / Bass. It is a good night.
The event is the Nashville .NET Rocks Roadshow. The speaker was Kate Gregory. As expected, she gave a good presentation on C++ 11 and C++ Amp. I have a strong C++ background and know these subjects well, so there were no big surprises, but it was still a good talk. It is nice to hear a competent defense of C++ in the wake of the developer productivity that is .NET. I do wish that she had addressed what I think is a problem - catching up to productivity enhancements every 10 years is nice, but C++ really could use a quicker cadence for specification modification. I imagine that in 10 years we will be back on the defensive talking about missing features.
Carl and Richard both gave good talks that both hold possibilities professionally.
But by far the most interesting part of the evening was the live recording of a .NET rocks episode. It is interesting to, in a small, personal way, be a part of something public that has had a big impact on my life. It is odd to see some of what goes on behind the curtain, but it was a very good experience that more than met expectation.
Now the after party is going. I had a chance to catch up with some friends I made at Codestock, but now most have left. Carl is participating in a jam session. Richard is running a scotch session. I sit alone in the corner blogging. I am losing the battle against a plague my children morphed into something entirely unnatural, and definitely do not want to infect a travelling show.
Jimi Hendrix. I wondered how long that would take. Apparently 4 songs, or 1 hand-written blog post.
If you get a chance to attend one of these events, I highly recommend it. If you do, stick around after. There is more to life than work.
