smartfart's Journal: So I made it to YAPC this year... (yapcna2006)

I had been wanting to attend for the last 2 years, and finally had the wherewithall this year to actually do it. So far, I've had a blast, but there have been a few issues here and there, bumps in the road, if you will. Nevertheless, I'm coming back next year, if at all possible.

There's a conference wiki that the interested reader might want to browse, and also mailing list archives exist somewhere, but here are my observances, such as they are.

My Saturday connecting flight out of Atlanta was delayed for 1 hour, which put me at O'Hare at 10PM. I guess I finally arrived at IIT at 11:30 or so (I really don't remember). The only food available was a coke and chocolate muffin from the 24-hour on-campus 7-11.

After getting some food, I hung out with someone (his name escapes me now) that helped me try to get online via the advertised wireless. My Nokia 770 Internet Tablet, which I've had for 2 weeks now, got right on, no issues, but my laptop was a different story. First off, X refused to start, complaining about libraries not existing (they do exist, and anyhow the thing worked fine before I left New Orleans), and dual-booting to WinXP also didn't give me any joy. I found out the next day that the Cat-5 jacks in my dorm room were hot, so at least I had something. The 770 is a cool tool, but trying to get serious with email or IRC on a squint form-factor machine isn't my idea of fun. I finally gave up trying to get a wireless connection at 1:30 AM or so, and went to bed.