OSCon
A couple of nights ago I got a flyer for O’Reilly’s OSCon. It’s their Open Source Convention that they hold annually. Normally, I don’t even bother looking at these because I always want to go, but I never seem to be able to afford to go.
My company has a training budget, but I’m not sure if I can get them to part with the necessary cash to allow me to go. The conference normally costs $1690.00 (for early registration,) but since I’m a full-time student, I get 65% off of the fees. That drops the price to $591.50. I wonder if I can convince them to part with the $600 for the convention.
Of course, there is hotel ($109 a night for 5 nights [$545.00]), and airfare (which I have not checked into yet) to consider. These extra costs may drive the price up to high for my company to pay for, or I may have to cover those costs myself, which may preclude me from going.
There are all sorts of activities during the week. There are tons of tutorials (half-day classes) and sessions (1-3 hour classes) during the week. I made a list of the ones that I would like to attend in hopes that it will show to the Powers That Be in my company that it will help make me a better programmer, and, thus, a better employee.
I’ve had one company in the past send me to training, and I had to sign a contract saying that I would not voluntarily leave the company for a year. I was OK with that, and I’d be willing to do that again especially since I have zero intention of leaving my currently employer for many years to come.
Some of the classes that I’m interested in are:
- PHP Extending/Embedding Tutorial
- You Got JavaScript in My PHP! And…
- Advanced VIM Scripting
- Pro PostgreSQL
- Learning AJAX
- PHP and MySQL Best Practices
- Technical Management of Software Development
- Essential PHP Security
- Making Programs Faster
- Simple Ways To Be A Better Programmer
- Practical Design for Web Developers
- Performance Whack-a-Mole
- The Future of Rich Internet Applications with PHP
- PHP Security: Fact and Fiction
- How I learned to stop worrying and love my database: MySQL to PostgreSQL.
- PHP – Bigger and Faster
- Network Monitoring with Nagios
- High-Performance JavaScript: Why Everything You’ve Been Taught is Wrong
- High Performance Web Pages
- Improving Performance by Profiling PHP Applications
- Windmill — Automated Testing of Your Ajax Web Applications
- VIM for PHP Programmers
- Error Handling in Ajax
- AJAX and Web Services
- PDO: PHP Data Objects
- Offline AJAX – Taking large browser based applications off-line
- Security 2.0
- Accessibility for Web 2.0
- Prototype & Object.prototype: JavaScript Power Tools
- Untangling the Web: Dealing with Legacy PHP Code
- Introduction to PL/PHP
- OSS Amateur Robotics
Many of these classes overlap, or are held at the same time. I’ve got a prioritized list in a spreadsheet on which ones I would like to attend. Many of you may think that I’m sick in the head, but I think this would be a totally fun way to spend a week. Learning, meeting people, seeing new technologies, learning new ideas, and hob-nobbing with my fellow OSS (open source software) geeks sounds like a total blast.
Keep your fingers crossed, and let’s hope that I get to go. I should know by tomorrow if it’s in the budget to send me to this thing.
