The first alt.net Canada conference is come and gone and as Doc went through the rules of engagement for Open Spaces on Friday evening, the one that stuck out for me this time was "Whatever happens is the only thing that could have".

As he listed it, I couldn't help thinking of State and Main, written by my favorite screenwriter, David Mamet. In it, the star of the movie they are shooting, played by Alec Baldwin, gets into a spectacular car crash (no wait, that's not the analogy I was thinking of). He walks away unscathed, looks around, and says quietly to himself, "So...that happened."

It's the way he says it so blithely that triggered the memory during alt.net. He says it as if it is the only thing that possibly could have happened. Which is the essence of principle three of Open Spaces. And it would be an awesome quote to start the retrospective had I been more on the ball.

I don't have a decent segue into the real point of this post but I love working movies into my posts, especially ones by David Mamet.

The event was, in my humbilly opinion, better than I hoped it would be. Which shouldn't have happened had I heeded Doc's advice to "be prepared to be surprised" but there it is nonetheless. A good turnout. Minimal logistic issues, thanks to a very good-natured group. Bil Simser has done a pretty phenomenal job so far videographing the event. Here is my brief take on some of the talks I attended:

Which presentation technology should you use?
It depends

Telecommuniting, or "Don't you hate pants?"
This was a topic after my own heart but I have more to say on it than I can cover here. Coming soon...

Command/Query Separation and Occasionally connected applications
I blipped back and forth 'twixt these two because they were similar...yet different. Seems to me that command/query separation would be a good way to build an occasionally-connected app. Tucked a bit of info away for the day when I eventually need to build one.

Volunteering our skills to more than just OSS
Convened by Donald Belcham and one of my favorite topics of the conference, primarily because it is the epitome of what I love about this event. You'll never see a similar topic discussed at your average code camp or likely even at a major conference. In it, we talked about projects people have done to benefit the community at large, not just other developers and we talked about how to volunteer for similar projects. I'm hoping details will be forthcoming on the Proceedings page but if they aren't in a few days, I'll elaborate.

Convention over configuration
Discussed existing uses of the principle in things like StructureMap and NHibernate, as well as recent implementations of it in MVC and Fluent NHibernate. Also talked about potential pitfalls, when its appropriate, and how convention compares with tooling. Again, I can elaborate if there is interest.

How do you choose the right framework?
There was just a little too much focus on "What is Microsoft doing wrong?" that I made some attempts to steer people away from but all in all, I got my questions answered. The answer to the title question I gathered was "hone your instincts and use them."

As I mentioned in the wrap-up, my major goal was to re-connect with old friends and start making new ones. I find the social aspect of alt.net to be the most beneficial as it fits well with the nature of Open Spaces. Despite my closing remarks, there almost certainly *will* be another event and discussions have already begun on possible locations and dates. And early indications are very positive.

Thanks all for a great weekend and especially to Doc for facilitating both the event and the conversation on the way back to the hotel Saturday night with Lyle and Osie (and I sure hope I spelled your name reasonably).

Kyle the Alternative

Well, Canada turns 141 years old today and as we all know, 141 is the Conference anniversary. So in keeping with that, registration is now open for the alt.net Canada Open Spaces Extravaganza. Get your requests in early because only the first 100 will be allowed in and at the time of writing, over 10% of those are filled already. After that, you'll have to do what all Canadians do and try to cozy up to the bouncer.

I will personally guarantee satisfaction at *any* cost for all who attend so don't delay. It will be held in the future capital of West Canada: Calgary, Alberta at the University of Calgary. Full details on the site.

Organizing, and in attendance, will be a gaggle of good Canucks, including (in alphabetical order by first name): Bil Simser, D'Arcy Lussier, Dave Woods, Donald Belcham, Greg Young, James Kovacs, Justice Gray, and Terry Thibodeau. And facilitating will be facilitator extraordinaire, Doc List, which was a bit of a coup for us.

So if you haven't been able to make it to one of the previous events in Seattle or Austin because of "border troubles", no more excuses.

Kyle the Hyped

Many thanks to Sebastian Lambla for inviting me to the alt.net London beers this past Tuesday evening. It was a fun evening and if you are in the London area, I'd recommend checking out future meetings. This was the second night out and they have plans to run it every month in the second or third week.

You can watch for it on the alt.net list but if, like me, you're stepping back from the list, Sebastian's blog is probably your best bet. He's a good resource to have in your blogroll in any case.

As it was only the second one, the format is still in flux but I like what I heard. Future meetings will including a period of tech talk on a pre-determined topic followed by much socializing. And in my experience, few places on earth are as amenable to that as central London.

Also thanks to the local community leaders, Zi Makki and Craig Murphy, as well as the eight or ten others I met briefly but didn't get to talk to as much as I would have liked. For a hillbilly working on his own in the .net frontier that is the Caribbean, it was a much-needed burst of geek socializing.

Kyle the Consorted

I have a little secret. Well, more than one, but there is only one that I'm going to share today. By day, I'm an average (below average some would say) C# coder from the Great White North. Like most Canadians, I'm pretty quiet, and relatively polite.

I spend my days consulting for local companies. I take the odd trip to code camps (Victoria, Calgary, Phoenix to name a few) and user groups to speak about various things - TDD and Mono in particular. I even blog occasionally about various things related to .NET developing, but nothing to offensive because that wouldn't be... Canadian (eh).

And yet, by night, after the samoyed has been walked and the kids are put in to bed, I fire up my RSS feed aggregator and start making notes on so me of the things I read. All kinds of notes. Not always nice notes. Some of these notes get blogged. Now, how can I blog these not-nice things and still maintain the facade of a nice, quiet Canadian? Why, I use a nom-de-plume (yes, here in Canada we have French too). Yes, today I confess to the greatest mystery in modern times.

No, I was not on the grassy knoll on November 22, 1963.

Even more diabolical: I am the Alt.Net Pursefight blogger. Yes, I am claiming to be the diabolical genius behind that blog. For those who were/are offended by the blog, you now can now Blame Canada for your displeasure.

Apologizes to Scott Bellware, who I understand is living in fear now due to everybody thinking it's him. The next time I see him I shall have to make amends with a bottle of Laphroaig. I'm sure that the presence of this single-malt will cause the Igloo Coder to crawl out of the woodwork, but this is the price of penance.