[ANNOUNCE] London Perl Mongers Technical Meeting 2012-04-11
London Perl Mongers organises technical meetings every two months. The technical meetings are a chance to find out what has been going on in the Perl community, what techniques people are using and how Perl integrates with other software. The next technical meeting will be on the 11th April 2012 from 7pm to 9pm (you may arrive earlier, please sign in at the reception). You have to sign up to attend, see below. This meeting is sponsored by Venda who are inviting the world-renowned Damian Conway to amuse us for one evening and will appropriately be held at the Conway Hall. Many thanks to Anthony Webster, Venda and everyone involved for allowing us to use this wonderful venue. Venda is a SaaS eCommerce provider with offices in London as well as the US and Asia. The platform is built predominantly in Perl, and powers over 100 sites for clients including Tesco and the BBC. Damian will be presenting: Temporally Quaquaversal Virtual Nanomachine Programming In Multiple Topologically Connected Quantum-Relativistic Parallel Spacetimes... Made Easy! Watch in terror as Damian writes a Perl program to extract square roots using nothing but quantum mechanics, general relativity, and the very fabric of the space-time continuum. Along the way we'll also investigate: Wittgenstein's dark secret; the diminishing returns of physical computation; Roman philosophy; when Super Science Adventures go wrong; the greatest Lego kit of all time; the secret identity of Sith; carbon logic vs silicon logic; the giants of 1930's physics; elementary spin-half quanta under relativistic motion; CAT scans; Will Smith; bongos; drunken bets involving penguins; algorithmic consistency; God's dice and the problem of free will; intrinsic self-inconsistency; the many worlds outside Copenhagen; and the inventor of stage diving. What happens when Dirac meets Deutsch meets Damian? Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world! For more information and to sign up, please visit: https://londonpmtech.appspot.com/ See you there, Léon.
Re: [ANNOUNCE] London Perl Mongers Technical Meeting 2012-04-11
Hi Léon, i just tried to sign up and it said " Thanks for signing up, but *pierre masci* is already on the list. " I just wanted to check whether i'm signed up or not : i wouldn't want to miss this. Wonderful talk description! :o) Le 23 février 2012 14:27, Léon Brocard a écrit : > London Perl Mongers organises technical meetings every two months. The > technical meetings are a chance to find out what has been going on in > the Perl community, what techniques people are using and how Perl > integrates with other software. > > The next technical meeting will be on the 11th April 2012 from 7pm to > 9pm (you may arrive earlier, please sign in at the reception). You have > to sign up to attend, see below. > > This meeting is sponsored by Venda who are inviting the world-renowned > Damian Conway to amuse us for one evening and will appropriately be held > at the Conway Hall. Many thanks to Anthony Webster, Venda and everyone > involved for allowing us to use this wonderful venue. > > Venda is a SaaS eCommerce provider with offices in London as well as the > US and Asia. The platform is built predominantly in Perl, and powers > over 100 sites for clients including Tesco and the BBC. > > Damian will be presenting: > > Temporally Quaquaversal Virtual Nanomachine Programming In Multiple > Topologically Connected Quantum-Relativistic Parallel Spacetimes... Made > Easy! > >Watch in terror as Damian writes a Perl program to extract square >roots using nothing but quantum mechanics, general relativity, and >the very fabric of the space-time continuum. > >Along the way we'll also investigate: Wittgenstein's dark secret; >the diminishing returns of physical computation; Roman philosophy; >when Super Science Adventures go wrong; the greatest Lego kit of all >time; the secret identity of Sith; carbon logic vs silicon logic; >the giants of 1930's physics; elementary spin-half quanta under >relativistic motion; CAT scans; Will Smith; bongos; drunken bets >involving penguins; algorithmic consistency; God's dice and the >problem of free will; intrinsic self-inconsistency; the many worlds >outside Copenhagen; and the inventor of stage diving. > >What happens when Dirac meets Deutsch meets Damian? Mere anarchy is >loosed upon the world! > > For more information and to sign up, please visit: > >https://londonpmtech.appspot.com/ > > See you there, Léon. > > -- mas...@gmail.com http://lesrikikibians.fr
Re: [ANNOUNCE] London Perl Mongers Technical Meeting 2012-04-11
On Thursday, 23 February, 2012 at 14:27:17 GMT, L?on Brocard wrote: Damian will be presenting: [...snipped a load of garbage...] What is this meeting actually about? -- .
Re: [ANNOUNCE] London Perl Mongers Technical Meeting 2012-04-11
On 28 Feb 2012, at 21:55, Paul wrote: > On Thursday, 23 February, 2012 at 14:27:17 GMT, L?on Brocard wrote: >> Damian will be presenting: >> > [...snipped a load of garbage...] > > What is this meeting actually about? It's some washed up ex-neighbours actor, who is doing a one man alternative performance show, L.pm gets an arts grant if we arrange a stage. I still think we should have gone with Bouncer. G.
Re: [ANNOUNCE] London Perl Mongers Technical Meeting 2012-04-11
Hi Paul, On 28 February 2012 21:55, Paul wrote: > On Thursday, 23 February, 2012 at 14:27:17 GMT, L?on Brocard wrote: >> >> Damian will be presenting: >> > [...snipped a load of garbage...] I'm going to put "garbage" down to a lack of humour and not having come across a Damian talk before (London.pm has been lucky enough to have Damian talk for us several times in the past, and he doesn't charge us for the pleasure). > What is this meeting actually about? A quick google will point you to: http://damian.conway.org/About_us/Bio_formal.html Damian is a fantastic (professional) speaker, and Perl developer - what he's speaking about usually doesn't matter, if he's speaking you want to see it just from the quality and humour of the presentation. He explains very complex issues (quantum superpositions for example) in a way you completely understand at the time. If you are after technical content that you will find directly useful to your day to day work, then this may not be the talk you are looking for. As it is I can see that there are only a couple of spaces left. Cheers Leo
Re: [ANNOUNCE] London Perl Mongers Technical Meeting 2012-04-11
On 28 February 2012 21:55, Paul wrote: > On Thursday, 23 February, 2012 at 14:27:17 GMT, L?on Brocard wrote: >> >> Damian will be presenting: >> > [...snipped a load of [REDACTED]...] > > What is this meeting actually about? > You snipped a rather lengthy description of the expected subject matter. If that's not to your taste, then perhaps you might want to wait until the next tech meeting. Personally I enjoy having variety in my technical diet, and I always find Damian's talks to be interesting, thought provoking as well as fun.
Re: [ANNOUNCE] London Perl Mongers Technical Meeting 2012-04-11
There are a number of us who live in the home counties, so getting into London requires a bit of planning and is quite a hassle. I have seen Damian talk before, and while he is interesting, I'd just like to know beforehand how much I would find "directly useful in my day to day work". Thanks. -- .
Re: [ANNOUNCE] London Perl Mongers Technical Meeting 2012-04-11
On 29 Feb 2012, at 11:04, Paul wrote: > There are a number of us who live in the home counties, so getting into > London requires a bit of planning and is quite a hassle. I have seen Damian > talk before, and while he is interesting, I'd just like to know beforehand > how much I would find "directly useful in my day to day work". Thanks. I think it would be quite hard to guess how much a talk would be "directly useful in my day to day work" given that we have no idea of either what your employment consists of, or what the actual content of the talk will be (having not seen it before). You're expecting the list to be able to give you a quantitative metric given no quantitive data (and without a scale - is 'directly useful' a number, a %, a quotient…). Sorry, but that just isn't possible without making an entirely wild guess… As such, I guess 42. Cheers Tomas
Re: [ANNOUNCE] London Perl Mongers Technical Meeting 2012-04-11
On 29 February 2012 11:04, Paul wrote: > There are a number of us who live in the home counties, so getting into > London requires a bit of planning and is quite a hassle. I have seen Damian > talk before, and while he is interesting, I'd just like to know beforehand > how much I would find "directly useful in my day to day work". Thanks. > I will personally refund you DOUBLE the entrance fee if you don't find the talk meets your requirements now or in the future. *certain exclusions may apply
Re: [ANNOUNCE] London Perl Mongers Technical Meeting 2012-04-11
Paul wrote: > I'd just like to know beforehand how much I would find > "directly useful in my day to day work". Ah, that's easy: absolutely NONE of it will be directly useful in your day to day work (unless your day to day work is very unusual indeed). It will be instructive, it will be amusing, it may even be illuminating...but it will almost certainly NOT be useful. And I certainly wouldn't blame you if you feel that isn't worth traveling all the way in to London for. Damian
Re: [ANNOUNCE] London Perl Mongers Technical Meeting 2012-04-11
Paul writes: > I'd just like to know beforehand ... Too late, it seems. The event page now says it's full: https://londonpmtech.appspot.com/ If it turns out that some of the people who've signed up can't actually make it, is there a mechanism for them to relinquish their spaces and make them available for others? Smylers -- http://twitter.com/Smylers2
Re: [ANNOUNCE] London Perl Mongers Technical Meeting 2012-04-11
Having attended one of Damian's talks before, I'd quite happily solve the logistical problems involved in getting there from the Eastern Cape to hear this one. Unfortunately international distance is measured in money, not time. Jonathan
Re: [ANNOUNCE] London Perl Mongers Technical Meeting 2012-04-11
Perhaps: open bidding for seats on ebay? On Wed, Feb 29, 2012 at 7:25 AM, Smylers wrote: > Paul writes: > >> I'd just like to know beforehand ... > > Too late, it seems. The event page now says it's full: > https://londonpmtech.appspot.com/ > > If it turns out that some of the people who've signed up can't actually > make it, is there a mechanism for them to relinquish their spaces and > make them available for others? > > Smylers > -- > http://twitter.com/Smylers2 -- Best Regards, [Joseph] Christian Werner Sr C 360.920.7183 H 757.304.0502
Re: [ANNOUNCE] London Perl Mongers Technical Meeting 2012-04-11
On 29 Feb 2012, at 11:44, Damian Conway wrote: > Paul wrote: > >> I'd just like to know beforehand how much I would find >> "directly useful in my day to day work". > > Ah, that's easy: absolutely NONE of it will be directly useful > in your day to day work (unless your day to day work is > very unusual indeed). I'll add that if you use any of this stuff in your daily job, you will get fired*. At least that's what Damian said it'd happen in the last talk of his I attended. I wouldn't miss it for the world. * Ignore this if you deal in crystal meth.
Re: [ANNOUNCE] London Perl Mongers Technical Meeting 2012-04-11
On Wed, Feb 29, 2012 at 11:04:45AM +, Paul wrote: > There are a number of us who live in the home counties, so getting into > London requires a bit of planning and is quite a hassle. I have seen Damian > talk before, and while he is interesting, I'd just like to know beforehand > how much I would find "directly useful in my day to day work". Thanks. That depends on whether you're only interested in stuff that's immediately useful or in stuff that is bound to be useful at some point over the next several years. -- David Cantrell | Reality Engineer, Ministry of Information Guns aren't the problem. People who deserve to die are the problem.
Re: [ANNOUNCE] London Perl Mongers Technical Meeting 2012-04-11
On Wed, Feb 29, 2012 at 12:36:00PM +, Pedro Figueiredo wrote: > I'll add that if you use any of this stuff in your daily job, you will get > fired*. At least that's what Damian said it'd happen in the last talk of his > I attended. Damian *lies*! I used Quantum::Superpositions in production code the day after his talk a few years ago, and I wasn't fired! Instead the company went bust. -- David Cantrell | Minister for Arbitrary Justice All children should be aptitude-tested at an early age and, if their main or only aptitude is for marketing, drowned.
Re: [ANNOUNCE] London Perl Mongers Technical Meeting 2012-04-11
On Wednesday 29 February 2012 14:14:14 David Cantrell wrote: > On Wed, Feb 29, 2012 at 12:36:00PM +, Pedro Figueiredo wrote: > > I'll add that if you use any of this stuff in your daily job, you will > > get fired*. At least that's what Damian said it'd happen in the last talk > > of his I attended. > > Damian *lies*! > > I used Quantum::Superpositions in production code the day after his talk > a few years ago, and I wasn't fired! > > Instead the company went bust. ... in /this/ universe.
Re: [ANNOUNCE] London Perl Mongers Technical Meeting 2012-04-11
On Wed, Feb 29, 2012 at 12:25:20PM +, Smylers wrote: > Too late, it seems. The event page now says it's full: > https://londonpmtech.appspot.com/ > > If it turns out that some of the people who've signed up can't actually > make it, is there a mechanism for them to relinquish their spaces and > make them available for others? No. However, I have already slightly overbooked, assuming some people will sign up but not actually turn up. This should teach you to sign up early. Or at least to bribe me early[1]. Leon [1] Orange items welcome
Re: [ANNOUNCE] London Perl Mongers Technical Meeting 2012-04-11
Leon Brocard writes: > On Wed, Feb 29, 2012 at 12:25:20PM +, Smylers wrote: > > > If it turns out that some of the people who've signed up can't > > actually make it, is there a mechanism for them to relinquish their > > spaces and make them available for others? > > No. > > However, I have already slightly overbooked, assuming some people will > sign up but not actually turn up. Good plan. > This should teach you to sign up early. I did, as it happens. What I failed to do was spread the word sufficiently quickly among colleagues who aren't London.pm regulars. (So what it possibly teaches me is that I should also sign up early with names of colleagues I'm hoping to persuade to come ...) See you there. Smylers -- http://twitter.com/Smylers2
Re: [ANNOUNCE] London Perl Mongers Technical Meeting 2012-04-11
On Wed, Feb 29, 2012 at 05:09:06PM +, Smylers wrote: > I did, as it happens. What I failed to do was spread the word > sufficiently quickly among colleagues who aren't London.pm regulars. (So > what it possibly teaches me is that I should also sign up early with > names of colleagues I'm hoping to persuade to come ...) Thus encouraging more overbooking? This could soon turn into an airline-line revenue management system where we'd charge for entrance and everyone would pay a different amount for entry. And then I'd go bust, be bailed out by the government etc. etc. Luckily we have our sponsors to help keep it free. Thanks Venda! Leon
Re: [ANNOUNCE] London Perl Mongers Technical Meeting 2012-04-11
On 29 Feb 2012, at 11:26, Sue Spence wrote: > On 29 February 2012 11:04, Paul wrote: >> There are a number of us who live in the home counties, so getting into >> London requires a bit of planning and is quite a hassle. I have seen Damian >> talk before, and while he is interesting, I'd just like to know beforehand >> how much I would find "directly useful in my day to day work". Thanks. >> > > I will personally refund you DOUBLE the entrance fee if you don't find > the talk meets your requirements now or in the future. > > > *certain exclusions may apply I suspect that'd be a more compelling offer if you offered DOUBLE his travel costs, somehow :D Joking aside - I don't think this is the kind of talk one attends because it will be "directly useful in my day to day work", but rather because it's DC, and you don't get the chance very often
Re: [ANNOUNCE] London Perl Mongers Technical Meeting 2012-04-11
On Wed, Feb 29, 2012 at 11:33:10AM +, Mike Whitaker wrote: [...] > Joking aside - I don't think this is the kind of talk one attends because > it will be "directly useful in my day to day work", but rather because > it's DC, and you don't get the chance very often I've seen a video of this talk, got to the end, pushed my brain back in through my ears, and decided to watch it again. The lucky people who got tickets for this are in for a treat. Coming to see it is definitely *not* a wasted journey, unless you're a boring git who is only in IT because they heard there was money in it.
Re: [ANNOUNCE] London Perl Mongers Technical Meeting 2012-04-11
On Thu, Mar 1, 2012 at 03:48, Peter Corlett wrote: > On Wed, Feb 29, 2012 at 11:33:10AM +, Mike Whitaker wrote: > [...] >> Joking aside - I don't think this is the kind of talk one attends because >> it will be "directly useful in my day to day work", but rather because >> it's DC, and you don't get the chance very often > > I've seen a video of this talk, got to the end, pushed my brain back in > through my ears, and decided to watch it again. The lucky people who got > tickets for this are in for a treat. I was going to ask if this talk was going to be taped (and also hoping it wouldn't turn into a huge pro/con discussion at the same time) If it's around on a back-channel I'd love to check it out too, pretty please :) Paul
