So after years of almost going, seriously considering going and sort of thinking of going, I finally went and attended SCALE. It was wholly worthwhile. A bargain (to paraphrase conference Chair Ilan Rabinovich, “You’ll spend more on parking than on a pass for all three days to the show”) it had a lot of pros and very few cons:

Pros:

• Great speakers talking about pertinent topics (i.e. Brian Aker, Jono Bacon)
• Great conference layout (the Westin LAX was well suited for the logistics of such an expo)
• Great accommodations (the Westin LAX had nice rooms at a decent cost if you went with the conference promotional rate)
• Great food within short driving distance (the Missus and I scored with Derrick’s Jamaican Cuisine)
• Well organized expo floor, where commercial firms, public-sector entities and .org’s all were commingled instead of broken out into ghettoized segments.

Cons:

• The Westin LAX is otherwise not in the most awesome neck of the woods; there are no really decent eats within walking distance, unless you happen to be an avid fast food junkie (which I am not).
• It’s LA, which never entices me a whole lot.  Move the show to San Diego.
• Parking is extortionate, even for guests of the hotel, as was the wi-fi per diem costs if you were anywhere except the conference floors (which were free).
• The menu at the Westin is a tad limited.
• Too many sessions worth attending (an otherwise good problem to have) where two or more good talks would be going on at once.

To back up a bit, I started by opting to drive to the show, and take the 101 instead of Interstate 5.  While this adds up to an extra hour of drive time, it also means you have a much more scenic route and better opportunities for photo opportunities and dining options.

Case in point, I opted to stop on the way down at Avila Beach and have a  pit stop at Joe Momma’s, which had good coffee and also offered a rather odd item: King Crimsonade (Iced King Crimson Tea + Lemonade)

I arrived in LA, checked in, and meant to catch some of Friday afternoon sessions but ended up having lobby lounge discourse with Jono, Ilan and others into the wee hours.

Jono Bacon’s Engines of Revolution talk actually finally got me to really notice Quickly, which now very much has my interest.

Don Marti led a really useful panel on Git adoption and usage that I really found useful (especially since some developers at work are starting to use it in lieu of SVN, but others are balking, and getting some consensus is proving elusive).

Mark Stone gave a rather interesting view into aspects of corporate participation in FOSS that I think gets overlooked (particularly in how “tribal” versus “institutional” knowledge and what certain hierarchical organizations expect to achieve from a particular engagement).

I missed the keynote by Karsten Wade, which I sorely regret;  at least there are some decent notes.  I have known Karsten for years and his thoughtfulness and outlook are really well suited to what he does.  Bravo Karsten.  Sorry about the crossed signals about dinner though (even if we ended up in the same spot anyway).  heh

On the legal side, I managed to catch the tail end of Richard Fontana’s Improving the Open Source Legal System.  Sadly, that same session produced also some stellar verbal segfaults like Bradley Kuhn’s “Everything that can possibly be bad, you can find on SourceForge“.  Having seemingly inherited the diplomatic and interpersonal graces of RMS, all I can say is “stay classy, yo.”

I spent a decent amount of time speaking with Josh Berkus about everything from what makes for a good conference to the peculiarities of Bay Area public transit, including Epic Beard Man.  That is part of the reasons these shows are so superior to any of the IDG-style low signal to high noise schmooze-fests; shows like SCALE manage to keep things collegial and friendly instead of constantly getting the sense you are being given the marketing equivalent to copping a feel by some sleazy field rep.

Big ups to Don Marti, Jake Edge, Karsten, Gareth and everyone else who helped put the show on, or whose session I attended.  There were no bum notes in this concert.

The weekend was not all geekery however.

The Missus had arrived Saturday morning via LAX, and Sunday we ventured some 25 minutes from the Westin into Japantown to try a relatively new place, a place called The Lazy Ox Canteen.  Calling it a “canteen” seems oddly quaint for such an otherwise really exceptional gastropub, tucked away with no signage but clearly having already won over a clientele that likes quality food and libations.  Over the course of several hours K & I shared  salt cod fritters, charred octopus with white beans, flat-iron pork loin, salmon on a bed of black orzo, tapioca brulee, tiramisu trifle, and I got a bottle of Ozeno Yukidoke I.P.A.  A big win.

We also stopped by the Kinokuniya store in Japantown and picked up some items:

Other random bits done while hanging about include the above doodles of Chinese premier Hu Jintao and political commentator George Will.