JavaOne, as expected, is a madhouse. Lots of news, lots of conversations, and, of course, lots of people. I started a post on JavaFX, but have decided to fold that into a larger conversation on Apollo, Silverlight, and so on. There’s too much to discuss, and too much context to tackle the issue in a single post. So instead you get the infamous: stay tuned.
In the meantime, a quick update for interested parties on my travel schedule, which has been decidedly amorphous of late. As an unfortunate consequence of an early bedtime last night (10 PM), I happened to find myself wide awake at 5 AM this morning and set about finalizing the details of my annual summer migration back east.
Many of you know that I elect to work out of my pseudo-homestate of Maine for the summer, braving the state birds for another summer on the water. I’m happy to report that I now have a reasonably firm migration schedule in place, after the final pieces of the puzzle – the dock hauling schedule, cat sitting availability, etc – fell into place yesterday.
Before I get to the logistics, however, let me reassure the Colorado contingent that I Shall Return. Cote, James and I ran into Bruce Snyder last night at Chevy’s, and apparently I’ve been less than clear on the point, so for the record the plan – subject to the Sox performance – is to return to Denver sometime after Labor Day.
Back on topic, my schedule is shaping up something like this:
Friday (5/11)
Will be gathering friends, acquaintances and enemies (I like to keep them close) at Cap City, say 7ish, for a (temporary) farewell dinner and beers. If you’re in the area, swing by and say hi.
Tuesday/Wednesday (5/15 – 5/16)
Az is about as good a cat as you’re going to find, and there are very few things she doesn’t do well. Regrettably, traveling is one of them. The prospect of two and a half days in the car listening to her horrible, plaintive mewling is decidedly unattractive. Not to mention that I’d like to keep her discomfort and misery to a minimum. Ergo, I make a special trip just to fly her out.
Wednesday’s the day for that. Technically, it’ll begin Tuesday night, I’m going to grab a flight back to Boston. But Wednesday is shaping up to be an all around terrible day. First, there’s the red eye. Second, there’s the fact that I’ll be accompanied on said red eye with a miserable and probably angry cat. Third, there’s the fact that I have to drive two and a half hours when I get in off said red eye. Fourth, there’s the fact that I’m flying back to Denver that same night, meaning that I’ll get into Maine, catch a couple hours of sleep, and then head right back down to Boston to catch my flight.
It’s going to be AWESOME.
Thursday/Friday (5/17 – 5/18)
The Long Drive commences. And for the wise asses in the audience, yes I will be sure that my registration is up to date before I set out. After sleeping in on Thursday morning, I’ll get up, cram my car full of a random assortment of fishing gear, workstations and monitors, and appropriate summer attire, and then make a right off Platte St onto I-25N. Two and a half days later or so, the Great Spirit willing, I’ll make a left off ME-127 onto Shipwreck Lane – AKA our driveway.
Sunday/Monday (5/20 – 5/21)
Just so that I don’t get out of practice traveling, I’ll be catching an afternoon flight out of Portland over to San Francisco (Jet Blue now flies in there in addition to OAK – great news) in order to attend Microsoft’s pre-OSBC show NXT. Oh, and I’ll be speaking there: more details on that shortly.
Connected Travel
Yet another subject deserving of more commentary later, I’ve been noodling on the impacts – both positive and negative – that connectivity has brought to our lives. Specifically in the context of my upcoming drive, there will be no less than three ways to track my progress (Flickr/Twitter/Wordpress – Dopplr, maybe?), and three ways to get in touch (cell/Grand Central/SMS).
You’d have to be bored – and I mean scary bored – to be interested in the mundane details of my trip, but I’m of the belief that there is nonetheless value in the annotation it provides. What if I didn’t make it? You’d at least have a partial record of where I might have gotten to. Or, more likely, what if you need to get a hold of me – you’ll be able to tell approximately where I am.
I haven’t thought through or digested all of the implications of the technology that’s increasingly available to us for free, but there’s little doubt in my mind that they’re profound.
