The MySQL Con has done something amazingly intellegent. Taped down to the floors in all the session rooms and meetings rooms, there are power strips. No matter where you sit, there is a powerstrip within a couple of meters. So instead of spending time looking for power outlets and having clumps of people gathered around the few outlets around the walls, you can sit where you want, and take notes and do research while listening and speaking.

This is something that all other tech conferences would do well to emulate.

I've arrived safe, and mostly sound. My laptop battery is just a little bit shorter than the flight from SEA to SJC. The MySQL employees are being subjected to staff meetings and then Mandatory Party, while I get to putter around the hotel and conviention center. Also going on right now in the convention center is a meeting for people with dyslexia, a meeting for regional veterinarians, a "Coin Stamp and Collectables" show (sponsored by eBay), and a bird mart. Apparently, last year it was a convention of workworking hobbyests, which would have been pretty darn cool.

I finished my slides last night, then showed them to Sheeri, who promptly and properly critiqued them to heck and back. I had basically done every bad thing from every bad ppt presentation I had ever been forced to sit thru. So I stayed up and rewrote them into something much more lively. (The key rule of thumb is to but the …