29-IV-2002.
The last evening in Indepedentze, i.e. the hotel out of town, where the convention was held. Again I'm clueless as to what went on during the day, it's now a continuous stream of lectures, lunches etc. Berix and I somehow fail to grab the next gig, and with Joe we're running thin with billable hours...
The main lecture, in the great hall, was held by Alan Cooper - about the design of user's side of application, on everything that's done wrong there. And the guy is right on just about everything, except... um, he's like the big dad of visual* basic. Yeah, right, I remember how easy it was to use, suicide. Makes a good case for the need for his books.
After the lecture I found myself in the group chatting with him, and of course I wielded the Agfa and shot. To that he says „it's a computer with a lens“. Well actually it is, what electronics was in the cameras twony-thirty years ago was helping with setting the exposure, and now can do ten more things, because it has a processor. Someone had a mobile in hand, these were already rather fashionable [to have] (eh, just like Hungary eight years ago), says „that's a computer which makes phone calls“, and on the mark again. Over time many things will turn out to be computers or to have them, even a bicycle light - anything with multifunction buttons is it.
In the hall where the beer was sold there were many tables, so at some moment Berix, I and Rick Strahl were sitting lined up, a laptop each. He I guess tried out tricks he learned from the lectures, or got ideas for some new of his own for his future lectures, and shee seemed to be trying to catch a gig, or was in an exchange about eHosp. Later I wrote to dad „there's a prospective job, for animal husbandry - for smaller farms. The big ones are already covered, but for smaller ones it didn't seem to be much of a market so the competition is sparse in that segment“, but nothing came of it.
Folks mostly sat and sipped beer, I stuck with the heineken, Berix the corona. The two makers of vfe weren't too friendly, just coolly polite, they stuck to the inner circle of those whom they meet on such events for years now. Of the missus I later heard that she was actually born in Poland, ummm, could it be the avoidance of the old ends? Like everyone wanted to be an Amer, don't remind me... Who can know that.
Next day, disperse. For shuttle we got limos again. The driver was some Russian, I'd say, but he didn't take the bait when I addressed him in russian, could be that he shouldn't be seen fraternizing much with his countrymen. Which I ain't, but by the time it takes to explain...
This time I knew the folks I sat with. The chubby next to me should be, if I remember right, Michele Cox, and the gray bearded guy is the editor of a fox magazine. He asked me why was I not lecturing, well I'm unspecialized, I do whatever comes along, and can't know what of all that is lecture stuff. Turned out there is some of that, now that he nudged me that way, but it never happened, I don't have the patience to insinuate myself into those circles and fulfill the formal demands, I'm not that school. But I did write a couple of articles on stuff I did, and he published them in the magazine, I even got paid some. When I explained the word 'glodur' (short for glavni i odgovorni urednik, head and responsible editor), he said „I get that a lot, they call me urednik“ (you redneck).
Landed at A-burg at night. Tried to shoot some before landing, but the Agfa wasn't up to the task.
Later, with dad.
On whose expense do such gatherings occur, i.e. does Berix refund your expenses, or is that on the organizers for marketing reasons ?
It's her advertising, so she pays the attendance fee (and does that quite early, while it's discounted). Actually, out of my pocket I gave just ten bucks for the beer and maybe a couple dollars of tip, everything else was on the firm - airfare, cab to the airport, attendance, hotel. I think the organizers also didn't come out shortsleeved - 350 attendees times 300-400 dollars, there you go. The hotel, though, came out quite cheap, room was about 80 dollars, find a roommate and you halved it. For comparison, on our first vacation it was 100 dollars a night (120 on weekends), on second 125, and where we stayed in the first week also around 120. The organizers get something from the merchants as well - usually there's sponsors who stage a minor fair, with stalls around the big dining hall. Plus, of course, the bar, where the hotel makes some.
I wore everything short-sleeved, and the denim jacket I wore just because of the pockets. Though, out there the spring is delayed (notice how small the leaves on trees) and I did have to wear an undershirt. On saturday there was an awful downpour, didn't stop until the afternoon, and for every smoke break my sleeves chilled. I took the undershirt off eventually at an airport during the return.
They drove us to the airport in long limouzines, and it seems to have been some local business which rents them out, so they'd grab a dime too, and which was veeeerrry less costly than cabs.
The first day emails in the evening after the return, from Berix, she got home faster:
And dont get lazy - test every stinking thing - you've only given me one build in all this work where you didnt break something that already worked (and that was the build you overwrote with this latest flaky one right before we left for KC). So the assumption should be everytime you make a change - assume something else got broken.
This was about time I taught myself testing. We never did it properly, now that I think about it, neither at home nor at Zero, I didn't have neither routine nor method.
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* back then I thought the word 'visual' meant 'something onscreen', but nope, there Go studies 'visual arts' and while they learn pixels and vectors, they also learn brushes and oils, so the word actually means what our word 'likovni', the likeness-wise means, period.
Mentions: 09-X-2009., Agfa, Annenburg (A-burg), Cecilia Roxbury (Berix), eHosp, fox, Gorana Sredljević (Go), Joe Dioballato, VFE, Zero Distance (Zero), in serbian
22-VIII-2026 - 22-VIII-2026