Tag: pyconuk2008

Here you can see a listing of all the posts tagged with pyconuk2008 on this website.

  • PyCon UK - Day 3

    Posted on Sept. 16, 2008 at 22:38 +0200 Tagged with , , , ,

    Bye, BirminghamNormally I've come to expect the last day of a conference to be more on the slow side. Only half of the people are there anymore and so on. But not in Birmingham, where the my 2nd conference day (3rd in total) was even more interesting than the first one, although all we could find on this not-so-sunny Sunday morning was some expensive McDonalds breakfast.

    [more ...]

    0 comments

  • PyCon UK 2008 - Day 2

    Posted on Sept. 14, 2008 at 15:25 +0200 Tagged with , , , ,

    DSC_6528.jpgSo yesterday was the first day on the PyCon UK and it was great :D The mix of topics and personalities was simply astonishing. But let's look at it from start to finish: My day basically started (at least it's the first thing I can remember right now) with a great breakfast right next to the conference venue with something called a "Traditional Breakfast". I guess this has been the weirdest combination of great stuff I've ever had for breakfast. It was some eggs, a sausage, half a tomato, bacon, and beans. More than enough for a whole day :D

    But now to the actual talks: First thing in the morning was a talk about using Python to facilitate working on embedded systems. Next came a talk about introducing students to Python as a first language. This was the time I was finally awakening for real and so I actually really enjoyed this one. "Now we are finally more popular than Maths courses" made my day :D

    [more ...]

    0 comments

  • First day in Birmingham ... rain

    Posted on Sept. 12, 2008 at 12:15 +0200 Tagged with , , , , ,

    The Mailbox OK, also the 2nd part of the journey to Birmingham was quite a success. About 15 minutes after landing in Stansted I managed to get a train ... and after about an hour even a seat with table :D But 43 pounds?! At least the train conductor was great, cracking one joke after another. At New Street Station I was greeted by Arne, Arthur, Fauke and Jannis and at least Arthur, Jannis and I enjoyed some beer at the social event later on thanks to Zeth ... although, I don't understand why they had to put extra sugar into that Monty Python beer ;-) The hotel is fine too. Nothing extra-ordinary but it's not like I was expecting much more when booking ETAP.

    The plan for today originally was to check out the Birmingham Botanical Garden, but British weather struck and we are currently all sitting in the conference venue enjoying the Wifi. Hopefully the sun will show its face later today so we can at least enjoy the channels and the ThinkTank as well as Selfridges. Let's see if I can restraint myself enough to not buy an iPod Touch ;-)

    0 comments

  • Last preparations for PyCon UK

    Posted on Sept. 10, 2008 at 16:50 +0200 Tagged with , , , ,

    Well, tomorrow it's finally time for me to depart to the UK. After, I guess, around 15 years, I've finally found with this years PyCon UK an excuse to get up there again. Flights are booked, stuff nearly packed. Now all I have to manage is getting to the airport in time and getting a train when arriving at Stansted ;-) The first part is easy but I have absolutely no clue how part 2 will work out. I really hope that it will be as easy as getting a train from Amsterdam Airport to Amsterdam Central 3 years ago ;-) At least according to the Cross Country website there is a direct connection departing at 19:16 from Stansted Airport which hopefully won't be extremely expensive :-(

    I'm really excited to be at the event this weekend with people like Jacob Kaplan-Moss, Simon Willison et al. giving Django-talks, Chris Withers explaining why Python Package Management sucks and much more. There will even be a Photo Competition held during the con. I've also planed to spend most of Friday for some sightseeing. Especially the ThinkTank and the Bothanical Gardens look like great places (to also take some great pictures at) :D The rest of the day should probably be spent finding my way around Birmingham as well as already showing up at the registration desk and taking a look at the local DVD stores ;-) Let's see, depending on how much fish'n chips I can take I might even spend the evening out, now that I've seen this ... I guess I really need more SD-Cards.

    0 comments