Scrawled in Wax

I could write a lot more about the 2008 Mesh Conference. Whether Mike Masnick‘s great talk on the Economics of Abundance – in which he went through 322 slides in 35 minutes and still made sense – or the intriguing panel on privacy that, perhaps inevitably, was all over the place, the conference has left me with a lot to think about. But I think the time for more reflection has now passed and, frankly, I’m getting a bit sick of looking at my notes. So, to wrap things up, here are some of the (not very serious) things I learned at Mesh 08:

• The only acceptable justification for using a Windows laptop is that “work won’t let me have a Mac”. Use this excuse even if you, like me, don’t have a job. And for the love of God, do not say “I just prefer Windows” – you will be ejected from the premises immediately.

• If you are diffident or suffer from some form of social phobia, you will get much less out of a conference. While others say you should just muster up some confidence or just go get some therapy, my personal suggestion is simply to do a lot of drugs before each day.

• A tech conference is the only place in the world where anyone not multitasking is considered strange. Now stop reading this and get typing on that Blackberry!

• A tech conference is also one of the few places where you can use the word ‘frag’ with an audience of adults and not have anyone be confused. In fact, it’s likely people will instead break out their latest story about playing Halo 3 online.

• When someone shows up late, proudly carrying a Wii Fit box that they just lined up for – and everyone’s reaction is envy rather than derision – you, my friend, are in a room full of nerds.

• If Leah Culver is any indication, developers are more fun and down-to-earth than their bosses.

• Twitter can be taken down by a small Canadian tech conference. That or 500 Canadian nerds twitter a lot.

• Power outlets are the new water coolers.

• “How’s the wi-fi?” is the new “How’s the coffee?”.

• Actually, when you’re in a room full of internet geeks, everything is the new something.

• When the Red Bull is free, it suddenly becomes quite easy to dismiss the ‘dosage’ instructions on the can. I’d say more, but my hands are still shaking…
  

• Mathew Ingram, Rob Hyndman, Stuart MacDonald, Mark Evans and Mike McDerment sure know how to put on a show

Can’t wait ’til next year. If your sense of humour is better than mine – which it almost undoubtedly is – feel free to leave a “I learned this…” comment and I’ll add it to the post.