Skip to main content

Conference


Thanks to Mathoov for the photo.


I've been of two minds about what to blog about. On one hand, I want to avoid talking about the mundanities of life. I don't want this to be another blog about the latest ham and rye sandwich or why cats are the best thing ever. On the other hand, life is a really easy way to get material, if you happen to have one that isn't heart crushingly boring. That's not to say we all live boring lives. No, it's just that from the Reader's perspective, it's nothing particularly interesting.

However, something happened this week that was slightly out of the ordinary. I was sent to a Google Tech Conference. Google I/O, is what it's called. If I start getting into details, the non-technical among you will likely be more bored from this blog than usual, so I'll venture into the rosy tinted world of analogy.

Programmers/Software Developers/Software Engineers/whatever the hell you want to call us, are really just builders. Think of us like construction workers; without the animal attraction and manly musk. We build Stuff. Google has made a bunch of interesting pieces to build stuff with. In the tech world, they are called components. By analogy, you can think of them as bricks. Some people try and offer bricks because they want to SELL them. Google just wants to GIVE bricks away.

Following this tortured analogy, the idea is that builders will make more interesting things, that'll get more people on the web, which is how Google make money. It's a very quixotic idea, and not one to make sense to the average person. But at the heart of the tech world is a spirit of sharing and caring and all that good stuff that you associate with the 60's. Except no one would ever want to give us free love, and our drug of choice is Starbucks.

So anyone who follows this Free Love kinda ideal that lies at the heart of software development, gets free geek Cred points. Techies think better of you, your company is 'cooler'. I'm sure there is a convoluted process by which this translates into the bottom line, but darned if I can find it.

So that's what I did for two days. Attend sessions about bricks. And ways to make cooler buildings.
Labels:

Comments

Gareth said…
That sounds like an awesome way to earn a paycheque for two days. :)
9:02 AM
Monkfish said…
I'm sure you learned some interesting stuff, got some cool t-shirts, will now be able to use those bricks to build some amazing things and had a wild time at the after hours parties. But, most importantly, did you find us new jobs?

If not, this conference goes down as a failure in my book. And yes, I am writing a book.
10:56 AM
Niteowl said…
NH : that's super duper positive way to look at being surrounded by alpha geeks, definitely.

monky : I tried to get us hired on many, many startups. None of them offered full dental, medical, and five weeks vacation though. They did have bean bags, which almost sealed the deal.
1:27 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Insults From A Senile Victorian Gentleman

You SIR, have the hygeine of an overly ripe avocado and the speaking habits of a vaguely deranged chess set. I find your manner to be unctuous and possibly libelous, and whatever standard you set for orthodontal care, it's not one I care for. Your choice in news programs is semi-literate at best and I do believe your favourite news anchor writes erotic literature for university mascots. While I'm not one to point out so obvious a failing, there has been rumour that the brunches you host every other Sunday are made with too much lard and cilantro. If you get my meaning. There is something to be said about your choice of motor-car fuel, but it is not urbane and if I were to repeat it, mothers would cover their children's ears and perhaps not a few longshoremen within earshot would blush. How you maintain that rather obscene crease in your trousers and your socks is beyond me, perhaps its also during this time that you cultivate a skin regime that I'm sure requires the dea...
12 comments
Read more

Cyberpunk 2077

 Like a late 90's webring, replete with link back and hints at an actual relationship with other authors, this is a piece I'd like to say in.. rebuttal is too harsh a term, in reply, to my very long standing internet friend, zompist, where he posts his various gripes with that great sprawling hot mess, Cyberpunk 2077. Now I say hot mess because that's what the internet at large thinks of it, but me, playing on the worringly over-powered computers on GeForce Now, have experienced nearly no problems. Or at least not problems that bother me enough. Keep in mind I'm the Homer Simpson when it comes to critiquing alot of things. I just like, alot of things. Cheap date, as it were.   It might be my hundreds of hours in Bethesda titles and regularly having to look up console commands to debug yet another janked out quest, but it takes a rather large bug to befuddle and begrudge me. Like if a bug repoed my car, maybe, or  told me how much weight I had actually put on during ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Learn A New Thing...

Man, you really do learn a new thing everyday. There have been a few shocking realizations I've had over the past month or so: -bizaare is spelled bizarre (how bizaare) -scythe is pronounced "sithe", not the phonetic way. Which is the way I've been pronouncing it in my head for my whole life. My entire youth spent reading Advanced Thresher Sci-Fi and Buckwheat Fantasy novels, for naught! -George Eliot was a woman, real name Mary Ann Evans. -Terry Gilliam is American. -Robocop is a Criterion Film. I shit you not . -Uhm, oh damn, just after I post this, I find that, this movie is a Criterion film as well . Maybe I don't know what being a Criterion film really entails.. Alright all (three) readers of my blog, post and lemme know some earth shattering facts you've learned recently.
14 comments
Read more