I just keep burning through that travel karma...

So almost a frickin' *WEEK* ago, I was headed to Pitt. Yes, the conference has kept me that busy - it ended at 1pm today, and this afternoon was the first chance I'd had to even go to the UPitt Cathedral of Learning... across the street.

My train from Raleigh (whoo Amtrak!) wasn't due to get in to Pitt until midnight or so, so I figured I'd save $130 and just hang at a Denny's or some other 24hr place until the next morning. Okay, so I stayed up all night the night before too, to catch my 5:40am train, but hey. That's what caffeine is for.

Well, on the way from DC to Pitt, I mentioned this to a woman on the train, and she was, to say the least, a little concerned.

"Have you ever *been* to the downtown Pitt train station?" "Uh, no." "Have you ever been to downtown Pitt?" "Uh, no?" "Yeeeaaaaaah."

Well, I took a couple hour nap, and when I woke up, she invited me home.

No, not like that, silly readers. She had called ahead to her house, and told her husband the sitch, and they offered me their guest room for the night. He's an Antiochan Orthodox priest, and their stipulation was that I had to go to service the next morning, Sunday, since they wouldn't have time to drive me the 40 minutes to Pitt beforehand.

Gee, darn.

They were *fantastic*, and not only did the put me up for the night, they fed me breakfast, I got to see a really neat service, and afterwards they stuffed me with coffee, pirogies, and cake. All of which I later found out they had to pay into a fund for. Everyone at the church was just fabulous, and then they drove me in to Pitt, to the train station to get my luggage which I'd checked, and then to the hotel. They refused any payment for even gas money.

Every so often, people surprise the hell out of you.

I just keep burning through that travel karma...

So almost a frickin' *WEEK* ago, I was headed to Pitt. Yes, the conference has kept me that busy - it ended at 1pm today, and this afternoon was the first chance I'd had to even go to the UPitt Cathedral of Learning... across the street.

My train from Raleigh (whoo Amtrak!) wasn't due to get in to Pitt until midnight or so, so I figured I'd save $130 and just hang at a Denny's or some other 24hr place until the next morning. Okay, so I stayed up all night the night before too, to catch my 5:40am train, but hey. That's what caffeine is for.

Well, on the way from DC to Pitt, I mentioned this to a woman on the train, and she was, to say the least, a little concerned.

"Have you ever *been* to the downtown Pitt train station?" "Uh, no." "Have you ever been to downtown Pitt?" "Uh, no?" "Yeeeaaaaaah."

Well, I took a couple hour nap, and when I woke up, she invited me home.

No, not like that, silly readers. She had called ahead to her house, and told her husband the sitch, and they offered me their guest room for the night. He's an Antiochan Orthodox priest, and their stipulation was that I had to go to service the next morning, Sunday, since they wouldn't have time to drive me the 40 minutes to Pitt beforehand.

Gee, darn.

They were *fantastic*, and not only did the put me up for the night, they fed me breakfast, I got to see a really neat service, and afterwards they stuffed me with coffee, pirogies, and cake. All of which I later found out they had to pay into a fund for. Everyone at the church was just fabulous, and then they drove me in to Pitt, to the train station to get my luggage which I'd checked, and then to the hotel. They refused any payment for even gas money.

Every so often, people surprise the hell out of you.

As for the conference...

This has been, hands down, the best conference I've ever attended. Period. Bar none. It was actually two conferences meeting at the same time: WICSA and WCRE.

WICSA is the Working Conf on Software Architecture - architects are a twitchy breed, I've decided. They have this lofty view of their job and position that doesn't quite jibe with reality in some ways. They kind of have fallen prey to the 'we're newer so we're better' that the software design community went through a decade ago, the OO community a decade before that, the structured programming folks the previous decade... you'd think someone would notice this and learn, don't you? Naw.

WCRE is the Working Conf on Reverse Engineering - these guys are so focused on the details that they can't see the big picture, and half of what they produce is, while not trivial, utterly without context and therefore about meaningless for most of the goals that most people want.

I loved it. These two groups were at the opposite ends of the spectrum, and I sat in the middle grinning like a madman because I got to be the outsider with *both* groups, and act like the crazy loon from The Other Side that extended an olive branch. I can't tell you how many times I sat in a working group, or a presentation Q&A, or a dinner, and acted as the translator between these folks. It was GREAT.

The friction between these two groups sparked off *SO* many damned new research directions that I can't stand it. I just added a decade's worth of ideas to my plate, I swear. To be honest, I loved both communities, and the folks in them. Great people doing great work all around, just with this bad habit of talking past each other. (I still think the SA side is headed for a reality check in the next couple of years, and I'm seriously tempted to lead the charge on that with a little revolution I have cooking. Watch this space for the Manifesto. Muahahahaha.)

To top it off, I ended up making insanely important contacts on both sides: Grady Booch and Mary Shaw on the SA side, and Eliot Chikovsky and Philip Newcomb on the RE side. I also, completely randomly, happened to run into the lead researcher today for what can be considered my 'competition' in the field, and we compared notes like mad for over an hour, before he had to run to the airport. (It's FUJABA/RE, btw - good work... but I so totally p0wn on the fundamentals it isn't funny. :D They have the better tool right now though, go check it out if you're using Java, it looks incredibly useful.) I'm hoping we can combine resources in a couple of areas, and provide two platforms for folks to play with in others.

Just a fucking amazing week all around.

Train home leaves at 4:15am, and until then, I'm going to be hanging in the lobby again. Whoo. :}

As for the conference...

This has been, hands down, the best conference I've ever attended. Period. Bar none. It was actually two conferences meeting at the same time: WICSA and WCRE.

WICSA is the Working Conf on Software Architecture - architects are a twitchy breed, I've decided. They have this lofty view of their job and position that doesn't quite jibe with reality in some ways. They kind of have fallen prey to the 'we're newer so we're better' that the software design community went through a decade ago, the OO community a decade before that, the structured programming folks the previous decade... you'd think someone would notice this and learn, don't you? Naw.

WCRE is the Working Conf on Reverse Engineering - these guys are so focused on the details that they can't see the big picture, and half of what they produce is, while not trivial, utterly without context and therefore about meaningless for most of the goals that most people want.

I loved it. These two groups were at the opposite ends of the spectrum, and I sat in the middle grinning like a madman because I got to be the outsider with *both* groups, and act like the crazy loon from The Other Side that extended an olive branch. I can't tell you how many times I sat in a working group, or a presentation Q&A, or a dinner, and acted as the translator between these folks. It was GREAT.

The friction between these two groups sparked off *SO* many damned new research directions that I can't stand it. I just added a decade's worth of ideas to my plate, I swear. To be honest, I loved both communities, and the folks in them. Great people doing great work all around, just with this bad habit of talking past each other. (I still think the SA side is headed for a reality check in the next couple of years, and I'm seriously tempted to lead the charge on that with a little revolution I have cooking. Watch this space for the Manifesto. Muahahahaha.)

To top it off, I ended up making insanely important contacts on both sides: Grady Booch and Mary Shaw on the SA side, and Eliot Chikovsky and Philip Newcomb on the RE side. I also, completely randomly, happened to run into the lead researcher today for what can be considered my 'competition' in the field, and we compared notes like mad for over an hour, before he had to run to the airport. (It's FUJABA/RE, btw - good work... but I so totally p0wn on the fundamentals it isn't funny. :D They have the better tool right now though, go check it out if you're using Java, it looks incredibly useful.) I'm hoping we can combine resources in a couple of areas, and provide two platforms for folks to play with in others.

Just a fucking amazing week all around.

Train home leaves at 4:15am, and until then, I'm going to be hanging in the lobby again. Whoo. :}