Tonight, I blog!

So this weekend, I've been going to the No Fluff, Just Stuff symposium and enjoying it greatly. Okay, more than greatly. I've been like a hyperactive puppy -- it's about all I can do to keep from peeing on the rug! That place is so very cool! It's my first time. Does it show?

Last night, the keynote address was on how to take charge of your career -- or "Career 2.0" by Jared Richardson. I had actually never heard of him I'm ashamed to say, but he was involved in a project that has made my life at work easier: CruiseControl.

Anyhow, one of the things he emphasized was that we should blog about this geeky business we're all in for a few reasons: for ourselves so we preserve information we've come across and for others, in case they're fighting with the same problem we just solved. That hit home with me because I've never participated in any open source projects, but like lots of people, I've certainly been the beneficiary of open source.

So, tonight, that changes. Tonight, I've blogged. Tonight, I turn over a new leaf and vow to participate instead of just leaching off the brilliance of others. I may not be the most powerful wizard on the mountain, but I can try to do something. There. I feel better already.

The coolest thing I've discovered so far is that I might actually like user interface work after all. For the longest time now, I've hated it. It didn't really help that I worked with a brilliant bunch of guys who could wield javascript like ginsu knife. I tried to like it. Scriptaclous. Prototype. They're cool, I admit. But deep in my soul, I just hate javascript and there's now getting around it.

But today, I saw David Geary's excellent presentation on Google Web Toolkit. Well, not just that one... I sort of followed him around and saw all his lectures. But I certainly wasn't the only Geary Groupie! Wow. It was darn near a religious experience. Either that or I did pee on the rug, I'm not sure. GWT is the most amazing thing in the universe because it allows me to do javascript without doing javascript. It's a cross-platform javascript compiler. Not only that, but it lets you brilliant create desktop-style applications that run inside the browser. His website is certainly worth a look, especially if you, like me, dislike getting javascript all over your hands.