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Friday, July 18, 2008

Attending a Symposium/Conference for the first time...

8+ years of Software development and this is the first time I am attending some sort of conference. I have previously not done the same as I did not want to pay the $$$ from my pocket. None of my previous employers have ever decided to shell out money for "my" growth :-)...Thankfully Overstock is so much different. They pay for any developer who wishes to attend a conference and infact encourage the same. Nice to be part of a company that invests back in their employees.

Anyway, I attended an interesting talk where I had my former boss and current boss in the same room. My former boss being a presenter and my current boss part of the audience along with me. I must admit, it is a bit intimidating thinking of the following fictional nightmarish conversation that might have ensued between them:

Former Boss: Can't believe you guys hired the moron..!
Current Boss: Yep! Me too, this is definitely not a case where the phrase, 'Your loss is our gain' is applicable.
Former Boss: He had his moments with us, I am curious as to what damage he has done to you?
Current Boss: Let me see...From the time he has landed, we have suffered quite a few disasters....I really have no way of linking the disasters to him, but I am leaning toward bad karma that most likely is following him.."
Former Boss: "I totally understand..ever since he left, our stock prices rose.."
Current Boss: "You know, since he came, our stock price actually rose, so maybe there is some redemption for him..but then again, our stock fell pretty bad today...I feel he is a time bomb..Any chances we can pay you to take him back?"
......
....more stuff...EEEP!

I hope the above is only part of my dreams ;-))....Lol !

Anyway, regarding NFJS..from what I attended not bad, I was not blown away or can say I enjoyed all the talks but one cannot hope to satisfy everyone.

...I think I might be able to do something like this, atleast that is the goal...Just need a good enough topic.."Sadness that there is no originality in me :-("....I need a good counsellor, and puhlease, I don't mean a shrink!

I liked the talk about base Java by Venkat Subramaniam...a very lively speaker, some topics were basic but the presentation was super, I must admit I learned stuff! I liked Ken Sipe's "Hacking, the Dark Arts"..nicely done with lot of examples, tips etc...

Got another day of NFJS tomorrow...can't wait to get there...I hope I can goto Java One one of these days..I just want to sight Gosling or Rod Johnson or Martin Fowler and that will be more memorable than the close encounter of the third kind I had the other day ;-)

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