Calendar

Author sightings, partner events, and other notable happenings.

Ruby Events

In keeping with the Ruby focus of this issue, let’s start off with a couple of big upcoming Ruby events. Note: this calendar only looks three months ahead. To see what Ruby events are coming up later in 2011, take a look at ruby there or railsevents.com.

  • Jan 12–14, CodeMash, Sandusky, OH
    Code Mash: “CodeMash is a unique event that will educate developers on current practices, methodologies and technology trends in variety of platforms and development languages such as Java, .NET, Ruby and PHP. Attendees will be treated to an impressive set of keynote addresses from industry luminaries. CodeMash 2010 had keynotes from Mary Poppendeick, Andy Hunt, and Hank Janssen.” Note: CodeMash 2011 sold out (in just four days).
  • Feb 4–5, Magic Ruby, Orlando, FL
    Magic Ruby at the Magic Kingdom: Bring the kids! (Or the kid in you.) Chad Fowler will deliver the keynote here as well as at Code Mash. Other Magic Ruby speakers will cover topics from developing Cocoa apps with MacRuby to getting started with cloud computing.

Author Appearances

O’Reilly Events

As publishers who think of ourselves as being on the cutting edge, we’re always interested in O’Reilly’s Tools of Change conference.

  • Feb 1–3, Strata, Santa Clara, CA
    O’Reilly Strata Conference: “Get control of the new data opportunity at Strata—immerse yourself in three full days of hands-on training, information-rich sessions, and a sponsor pavilion filled with the key players and products. This new O’Reilly conference brings together the people, tools, and technologies you need to make data work.”
  • Feb 14–16, TOC, New York, NY
    O’Reilly Tools of Change Conference: “Join us as we explore this new world of ‘Publishing Without Boundaries’ at the fifth annual O’Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing Conference.... This premiere event provides an unparalleled opportunity for stakeholders from across the book publishing and tech industries to network, share ideas, engage in lively debate, and consider the many issues we face individually and collectively.”

USENIX Events

What’s coming from our USENIX friends.

  • Feb 15–18, FAST ’11, San Jose, CA
    9th USENIX Conference on File and Storage Technologies: “FAST ’11 brings together storage system researchers and practitioners to explore new directions in the design, implementation, evaluation, and deployment of storage systems.”

Other Happenings

  • Dec 3
    John Backus would have been 86.
  • Dec 4
    Eric Raymond, aka ESR, is 53.
  • Dec 9
    Grace Hopper’s 104th birthday.
  • Dec 10
    Ada Lovelace’s 195th birthday.
  • Dec 10
    Ada, the programming language, is 30 today.
  • Dec 10
    PragPub’s editor’s having a birthday today. He’s younger than Ada and older than Ada.
  • Dec 16
    John Bardeen and Walter Brattain created the first transistor on this day in 1947.
  • Dec 17
    Ken Iverson, creator of APL, would have been 90 today.
  • Dec 17
    Les Earnest, inventor of first spell checker and of the finger protocol, is 80.
  • Dec 23
    Birthday of Bob Miner, who wrote Oracle’s original database software.
  • Dec 25
    Richard Greenblat, famed MIT hacker, is 66.
  • Dec 26
    Charles Babbage’s 219th birthday.
  • Dec 28
    Linus Torvalds is 41.
  • Dec 30
    Bjarne Stroustrup is 60.
  • Dec 31
    Leonard Adleman, the A in RSA encryption, is 65.
  • Jan 10
    MUD co-creator Richard Bartle is 51.
  • Jan 10
    Donald Knuth, who continues to inspire authors who are having trouble finishing that book, is 73.
  • Jan 11
    Tony Hoare, author of Quicksort, is 77.
  • Jan 20
    Sims creator Will Wright is 51.
  • Jan 21
    Paul Allen is 58.
  • Jan 22
    On this day in 1984, Superbowl viewers watched a woman with a hammer smash Big Brother.
  • Jan 24
    Alain Colmerauer, Prolog’s creator, is 70.
  • Jan 25
    Pac-Man creator Toru Iwatani is 56.
  • Jan 31
    Guido van Rossum, author of Python and possessor of an excellent last name for a programmer (Google “R.U.R.”), is 55.
  • February
    In February, 1986, Richard Stallman published the first official definition of Free Software. In February, 1992, Linus Torvalds first placed Linux under the Gnu Public License. In February, 1998, the Open Source Initiative was founded. And in February, 2001, at The Lodge at Snowbird ski resort in the Wasatch mountains of Utah, seventeen people wrote the Agile Software Development Manifesto.
  • Feb 4
    Ken Thompson is 68.
  • Feb 5
    Brad Fitzpatrick, author of memcached, is 31.
  • Feb 7
    Leslie Lamport, creator of LaTeX, is 70.
  • Feb 8
    MIT professor Gerald Jay Sussman is 64. Among his other accomplishments, he is a bonded locksmith, so he can stay out till quarter to three and not worry about anyone locking the door.
  • Feb 12
    Phil Zimmerman, author of PGP, is 57.
  • Feb 15
    Niklaus Wirth is 77.
  • Feb 16
    Ward Christensen created the first Computer Bulletin Board System on this date in 1978.
  • Feb 19
    CGDA Hall of Fame game developer Danielle Bunten would have been 62 today.
  • Feb 22
    Bill Jolitz is 54.
  • Feb 24
    The Ruby programming language was conceived on this date in 1993.
  • Feb 27
    Grady Booch is 56.
  • Feb 29
    Seymour Papert would be 83 this year if it were a leap year.