The current GeekAustin free SQL class is about midway to completion. These are the upcoming free classes we are considering: 1) MySQL certification prep class, 2) SQL 102 (advanced joins and subqueries), 3) SQL performance tuning, and 4) Basic Unix/Linux skills. If you are interested in any of the above, send me a note at linearb@gmail.com.
Feels like 2001! Remember the last dip? I do. Hardly a day goes by that I don’t hear about a round of tech layoffs. Friends all over town are reporting hiring freezes and layoffs at their companies. Although Dell is asking employees to “take unpaid leave”, and offering severance packages to “those who qualify”, their goal of reducing operations costs almost certainly points to significant layoffs in the near future. What a bad time to be smacked with a discrimination lawsuit.
On a brighter note, whurley just confirmed BarCampAustin4. Don’t count on battlebots. Expect whurley to outdo himself yet again.
Finally, GeekAustin now hosts several “recruiter free” special interest groups on LinkedIn:
Austin Database Pros
Austin Electrical Engineers
Austin IT Security Pros
Austin Java Developers
Austin Linux Users
Austin QA Professionals
Have a good weekend!
-Lynn
I’ve noticed quite a bit of small layoffs in Austin tech over the last month. In most cases, it appears to be members of web teams that are getting laid off. Are local companies cutting back on web initiatives? I haven’t heard similar news among system/network admins.
The first of the free SQL classes that GeekAustin is hosting is full. We will most likely be doing a second class. If you haven’t received a reply yet, look for one later this week. Daniel and I will be putting the curriculum and reading list online.
There are 450+ recruiters on the GA mailing list. How many of them also sell real estate for Keller Williams? Should I be inviting these folks to the GA party? Do you know Java?
-Linear
Daniel and I have been planning this for a while, and are finally ready to launch. Beginning in September, GeekAustin will be hosting a series of free classes on various core skill sets for beginning tech pros. The classes will be held downtown, and will be free. The classes will vary in length, and will cover topics such as SQL, Java certification, and basic object-oriented design.
The first class will be on basic SQL, and will be team-taught by Daniel and myself. This is the same evening class that we taught at Data Junction and Pervasive. The SQL class will begin early in September, and will tentatively consist of one session a week, each Wednesday night, for eight weeks. All materials needed for the class, including sample database, will be supplied. So that attendees will not have to waste time on things they already know, we have a pre-class evaluation test to determine the right session at which to enter.
For more information, or to request a place in the class, send a note to linearb@gmail.com
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Joe Barr image courtesy of triple3ranch |
For years, Joe Barr (wikipedia entry) was a indefatigable Linux/open source advocate, ham radio operator, and fixture in the Austin tech community. Many of us came to know him though his Dweebspeak Primer which first appeared in ‘93. Joe later went on to write for Linux.com, News Forge, and a host of other folks. Even this year, he was still posting insightful articles — like his post on Nmap for linux.com
His biting rebukes were always entertaining and to the point. He wasn’t afraid to call a piece a slop-bucket full of self-serving hogwash and then to thoughtfully explain why it was. Those who didn’t know Joe personally might have been inclined to think him bitter. Once you met him, it was evident that he was more of a rascal who enjoyed his “J’accuse“.
Folks like Cujo, who are more eloquent, and Roblimo, who knew him better than I, have written notes of Joe’s passing. I first met Joe at a party I hosted for Tim O’Reilly and Eric Raymond back in 1999, and last saw him at the December ‘07 happy hour whurley and I hosted at Joe Dimaggio’s. Although I knew Joe mostly through his writing and appearances at the Austin Linux Group, he always found time to respond when I needed advice and personally reply — even if the answer was no — to every invitation I sent.
Rest in peace, Joe.
A sample of Joe’s writing for Linux.com can be found on Google.
Drink ‘n Think: Last week was the Semantic Web Austin Launch Party - the inaugural event in the GeekAustin Drink ‘n Think Series. Those of you who know me well know that I have been growing tired of anything that resembles the traditional tech happy hours. So it was a happy coincidence that John D’Oliviera and Juan Sequeda were in need of a proper send off at the same time I was looking for a partner to launch the Drink ‘n Think Series.
I couldn’t have asked for a better partner than Semantic Web Austin. Juan and John brought in a great group of presenters. Christopher St. John came down from Dallas to talk about Tessera, the Open Social API. Mike Kaply spoke about about Operator, Activities, and Microformats support in Firefox 3. Also speaking were Troy Williams, CEO of PeoplePad, and Robert Pettengill. Several folks, like John Eric Metcalf and Hayes Davis, had thoughtful write-ups of the event. Michelle Greer, armed with a flash she borrowed from Jay B. Sauceda, supplied some great photographic evidence at Flickr. As usual, half a dozen people whom I barely know blogged about the event as if they had something to do with organizing it.
Happy Hours: So why am I running away from the happy hour format? Even if I have a different co-host each time — to assure that there will always be new folks to meet — I know there are better ways to facilitate good conversation and valuable new connections. Morever, with Facebook, LinkedIn, and new social media tools popping up every week, anyone can put together a tech happy hour. There are multiple tech happy hours each week. Some of them — like Bryan Menell’s Austin Tech Happy Hour — are pretty good; but there are simply too many. I count four different Austin LinkedIn Happy Hours. Been there, done that.
Code Against Cancer: At the recent GA WordPress Fest (which was suspiciously close to a happy hour), David Neff and I were brainstorming about how we could enlist support of the Austin tech community in the fight against cancer. David is responsible for several several great web initiatives, like sharinghope.tv. I am excited to be working with him on this. Look for a formal announcement next week.
Kudos: Although I mentioned it previously, I want to think Michelle Greer for always photographing the GeekAustin events. If you have ever tried shooting in dark rooms (bars, etc), you’ll know that there is an art to this. Because she is in the process of starting her own company, she is being frugal and still borrowing a pro flash for each event. Instead of offering to buy her a drink at the next party, show some love and send a paypal contribution toward her flash at michelle@michellesblog.net.
* Omar Gallaga (twitter), from the Statesman, appeared as a correspondent for NPR’s story on the new 3G iPhone. Since his coverage of the Sarah Lacy trainwreck at SXSW, I’m happy to see that Omar is getting more national visibility.
* Bryan, Onramp, and Brandon are all hosting Tech events on Thursday. Weee!. If you want to hang out downtown with the Austin Ventures crowd, go to Bryan’s Austin High Tech Happy Hour. If you want to meet a bunch of kids with crazy ideas, go to Brandon’s Tech Night at Monkeywrench.
* Silona is postponing her codeathon until November, and moving it from Portland to Austin - to correspond with the Supercomputing Conference.
* Erica O’Grady and the Caroline Collective folks have scheduled their SuperHero Camp for October in Houston. Can someone please come up with a suffix other than camp? We’re wearing it out.
* Troy Lane Williams, of PeoplePad, will be speaking at Geek Austin’s Semantic Web Austin Launch Party next Tuesday at Union Park.
-Lynn
Courtesy of Omar: The Statesman just reported that Dell Inc. will close its Topfer Manufacturing Center in North Austin by Jan. 1, cutting 800 to 900 jobs. The Statesman goes on to say that the “move would be company’s largest area layoffs since 2001“. Largest since 2001? Anyone care to dispute that?
After the Mark Zuckerberg incident, the number two story last weekend was the battlebot that ran amok at BarCampAustin III. For those of you who sent me notes saying that you’re glad I wasn’t hurt, that is not me in the video, but none other than Josh Holmes of Microsoft. Apparently, the battlebot was unaware of Josh’s advocacy of open source.
The air conditioner did not fare so well. It was no match for the Class A battlebot. To help offset the cost of recovery, please help whurley with a digg
From whurley
All went well save one small incident involving a 340lbs BattleBot malfunctioning and then taking off as fast as it could for the closet Microsoft employees. Thankfully no one was hurt or injured and they were amazingly good sports afterwards:
Many thanks to the folks at Viewzi.tv for the amazing editing job. And, yes we still love Brady and TeamDX! Good luck in the new season on ESPN guys!
whurley present to receive city proclamation of March 8th as BarCampAustin Day.
BarCampAustin III will be held at GSD&M |Idea City.
Word is spreading pretty fast, but in case you hadn’t heard, Austin Ventures startup Pluck has just been purchased by Demand Media. Pluck CEO Dave Panos says the jobs of his 70 employees will remain untouched. Heh. It wasn’t but a few weeks ago that Pluck announced a major deal with Hearst Publishing. As you know, Hearst owns MySpace. and the CEO of Demand Media is none other than former MySpace Chairman Richard Rosenblatt. Raise your hands if you saw this one coming.
After 7 years on a pre-BrianAker version of SlashCode, GeekAustin has been converted to WordPress. The decision to go with WordPress was based on several things: 1) It’s beautiful code, 2) There is a tremendous amount of WordPress talent in town. 3) I didn’t want to spend months working on a heavyweight solution, and 4) I want to jam with Matt Mullenweg. I am getting pretty good at this jazz piano thing, and would love to back Matt up. What do you say, Matt?
A tremendous amount of thanks goes to Paul Menard for recreating the original GeekAustin template in WP.
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In the very near future, Cafe Medici, purveyors of the absolutely best espresso in town, will be opening a new location on the drag. Now all the campus needs is a decent bookstore. |
Many of you know that Lori Hawkins from the Statesman visited last week’s Austin on Rails meeting for the purpose of doing a feature store. Well, here is the article.
So I planned to go to the Refresh Austin website to leave a comment to the effect of “Hey, what’s up with this bunk wiki that’s been outdated for four months?” and what did I find? A lovely, revamped website! Very cool. If you are looking to meet up with a diverse group of tech professionals in the Austin area, I suggest checking it out. You will see the calendar of all upcoming events as well as photos from previous ones. If you are too lazy to periodically check the site, there is this lovely tool called the RSS feed that will allow you to keep up with Refresh Austin without even trying.
This just in from Jeff Smith: On behalf of the Austin area chapter of the Association of IT Professionals (or AITP) and the InnoTech CIO Summit, I would like to invite you to nominate the senior IT executive, technology executive, or both for the 2006 IT Executive of the Year Awards from your company or another firm you feel deserves recognition (such as a client, colleague in the field, etc.).
This is the 9th annual IT Executive Awards. Prior winners have included executives from DejaNews/Google [GOOG], Dell [DELL], Hoover’s/Dun & Bradstreet [DNB], Vignette [VIGN], Whole Security/Symantec [SYMC], Activant, Austin-Bergstrom Airport, Collective Technologies, the City of Austin, the State of Texas, Texas Mutual Insurance, Texas Medical Liability Trust, Triactive, Travis County, and United Devices,
Finalists and award recipients will be recognized at a CIO Summit reception at the InnoTech conference on November 2, at the Austin convention center. Nominations are open for: CTO of the Year, Public sector IT Executive / CIO of the Year (for local, state, or other public agencies), Private sector IT Executive / CIO of the Year (both private and publicly traded companies are eligible). Nomination forms and additional information are available here
NOMINATIONS close on September 30, so please act soon. If you have any questions regarding the event, the selection process, or other issues, contact: Steve Guengerich,Chairman at 512/507-4646, mobile or 512/437-7912, direct
