As I didn’t have any talks early in the morning, (give them a break - it’s a geek conference. Nothing starts till about 10 - mostly because many people went to sleep around 8 am!) I had just enough time to transfer my pictures to my computer. I discussed certain issues with Aaron (ConChair for the event) - like for example having PlanMyCon type of thing. Let me explain what this means. Since the schedule is prepared and finalized at least a month in advance, it can be made online (it’s done) with a facility to select the talks/presentations that someone likes to attend, and the system would then produce a page with just those events. This is what’s popularly known as the Shopping Cart approach and has been used to great effect in APS March Meetings.

Coffee Ritual was probably the best way to start the day off. Like the name goes, it’s a ritual, something that’s done at every PenguiCon at least once - to honor the significance of Coffee in geeks’/nerds’ lives. The ritual started with a nice song, about Cappuccino, sung in a melodious tune by Andrea Dale, and that was followed by the actual ritual. I don’t have enough words in my vocabulary to explain how hilarious the proceedings were. Let me give you some hints: it was a church-sermon like ceremony with people walking in with their pillows, coffee-making procedure was explained in a sermon-like tone, coffee prepared earlier was distributed to the audience (coffee by one and sugar+cream by another), then everybody raises, faces east, sips the Holiest of the Holies and yells in unison, God, I needed this. I shot video (can be found here, along with other pictures) of the entire ceremony and if you end of laughing until your stomach hurts, don’t blame me.

The next mentionable event I attended was about Technical (or Technological Writing). I had known much of the presentation material but I did learn some tricks - especially about making end-users read the manual (popularly known as the RTFM approach, which will reduce the SysAdmin’s Popularity Quotient, PQ, drastically) and README files, reverse debugging mechanism and making some $$$ on technical material I have written so far. I am not quite sure how easily I can adopt the last one, owing to VISA related issues, but it’s still an idea worth keeping in mind.

While volunteering at the registration desk close to three hours, I met few interesting people - an elderly gentleman well acquainted with the UP, as well as the 2002 computing facility at Tech was one of them. It’s a much smaller world than one imagines… Next session that I attended was about Physics - Racing Light: Real Physics. The talk dealt with methods (fair and unfair alike) to beat light (photons) in a race. I thought it was a very well structured presentation and suprisingly, well attended too, by well-informed audience. If only music from the adjacent room was at lower volume, people would have enjoyed this talk lot better. After this one, I roamed around in the convention center for a while, bought few geeky/nerdy T-Shirts and started searching for a food court in the vicinity when hunger reminded its presence. Not being able to find any familiar food courts only added to my despair and it wasn’t long before my eyes caught a not-so-familiar (but always wanted-to-eat-at) place - Panera Bread There is one more reason I like this shop now - apart from the very tasty veggie soup and sandwiches, they also provide free WiFi access What more can I ask?

I guess I have got more than I hoped for by attending this convention - lot of new people, most of them very interesting, learnt new & efficient tricks and tips for solving problems, and experienced first-hand the interaction of science and technology - all while having plenty of fun. Though we are starting our return journey early tomorrow morning (owing to the remoteness of Houghton), I would definitely plan on attending subsequent versions of PenguiCon