Jeff's Austin Blues

SxSWi Day 5 – Bruce Sterling

Jeff — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 23:51:49 +0000

Another amazing, dense, rich monologue from Bruce Sterling. A great way to end SxSWi. Hopefully a full video will eventually make its way onto the Internet. Most of the great lines are on Twitter, #brucesterling. Time to rest and start working through the backlog of URLs I e-mailed to myself, Twitter hashtags for sessions, and my notes.

SxSWi Day 4 – Exhaustion Sets In

Jeff — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 23:46:17 +0000

The first sessions of the day aren’t crowded any more. And none of the sessions I attended had a waiting line. Today I did not dawdle in the hall recharging the laptop, tweeting, etc. March from one session to the next to get a seat and try and find a plug within reach. Generally there wasn’t one. The laptop stayed off most of the time, except when I had two sessions that I really wanted to attend at the same time. I watched the tweetstream of the other, ready to bail if the other looked better. None did.

SxSWi Day 4 – Sexist Remark ;)

Jeff — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 20:36:23 +0000

Interesting, frequently the women on panels are the numbers/metrics geeks.

SxSWi Day 4 – Fun Tweet from Results Only Work Environment

Jeff — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 20:12:56 +0000

robert1er: Managers are attached to presence of staff more than performance of staff. We need teddy bears for when employees are gone.

SxSWi Day 4 – Suit Shock

Jeff — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 18:22:16 +0000

After three days of hip T-shirts, in your face metal and black, it is a bit of a jolt to see someone in a suit.

SxSW – Atitude

Jeff — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 21:55:17 +0000

A person with a clipboard and a don’t f*ck with me walk or f*ck off clothes, probably has a film or platinum badge. Interactive folk generally don’t have an attitude that precedes them. We’ll see how the music folk move when they start arriving this coming week.

SxSWi Day 3 – More Tech, Less Culture

Jeff — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 18:34:59 +0000

Last year’s SxSWi was more about culture and inspiration. I attended most sessions on developer’s technology and almost always could get in a panel even though they were in meeting rooms (50-100 people). This year I’m attending the same subjects in ballrooms (200-400 people) and have been shut out of at least one panel each day.

I guess last year’s sessions inspired people. Then they discovered that inspiration was not enough so this year they are back to learn how to build it.

SxSWi Day 3 – 2nd Hand Caffeine Rush

Jeff — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 17:26:49 +0000

Walking down the hall in the wake of the crowd with Starbucks/coffee cup in hand mainlines caffeine straight through your nasal passages.

SxSWi Day 3 – Why You Aren’t Done Yet (DHH)

Jeff — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 17:24:54 +0000

Some great ideas, some egotistical BS. And not always obvious, except possibly in hindsight, which is which. But always worth listening to, if only to figure what you believe because you disagree with him.

Whatever I’m most annoyed about, that’s what I’m working on.
Company culture is not something you make, it is created by consistent actions.
Saying “it will be done friday” is a guess at best but is taken as a promise. doesn’t need to be.

SxSWi Day 2 – More Smartphones, Fewer Laptops; More Moleskines

Jeff — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 20:22:24 +0000

A lot more smart phones this year than last, possibly more than the number of laptops. Also more people taking notes on paper: notepads, backs of cards, Moleskines and other bound notebooks. On-paper note takers are usually but not always older folk (like me, a yellow lined pad user).