Wake up earlier tomorrow. When I got here (about 7:30am) they actively grabbed me to give me the "special present" (4 port USB hub), I couldn't have avoided it if I'd tried. Now however there are constantly long lines of people lining up to get their present and every so often they're turned away because they're "temporarily out of stock, but don't worry you'll all get one".

You don't have to wake up very early to beat the geek rush, and it does pay off really well.

I fly out tomorrow to the US for JavaOne and after that a week working with the team in our US office. I'll be arriving Monday afternoon US time and fly out Friday the 18th. Being based in Australia (and worse, Brisbane) I don't get a lot of opportunities to meet tech people so I'm pretty keen to take the opportunity to talk with as many people as I can. So if you'll be around San Francisco in the next couple of weeks give me a yell. You can email or phone on +1 (650) 292 9659 x717.

I've also been trying to find out what all the fuss is about Twitter without seeing any benefit so far. I'll give it one last shot at JavaOne so feel free to add ajsutton.

Compatibility Matters

Funny, funny, funny.

I’m currently wearing one of the shirts that James Gosling hurled into the crowd by various means which depicts Duke aiming a rocket launcher at a weird looking demon with four arms labeled complexity. Earlier today I was accosted by a very young man who asked what that was on my shirt. When I pointed to Duke and said “this guy’s called Duke” the response was: “he’s crap. I like this guy ’cause he has four arms”. I’m not sure that’s the reaction the designer was after….

So I’m on my way home from JavaOne and thought I’d take the final opportunity to use my T-Mobile wifi account. The coverage in SF airport was great until the whole network suddenly disappeared. So much for that. Now I’m in LA airport and the coverage is awful. My flight leaves from one end of the terminal and the wireless access is at the other end. Oh well, I have another 45 mins to kill before boarding so I can sit here and rant a while longer yet….