Mar
30
20

WordPress Party Tonight

Filed under: Events, Yahoo

Tonight (Monday March 30) at 7 PM we’re opening up the new Automattic space at Pier 38 for the first time because so many of our friends will be in town for Web 2.0 Expo and all their fun events. Come by our spot (on Embarcadero in between Brannan and Townsend) starting at 7 PM and enjoy good music, free booze, and geeky friends. We’re on the left corner and there’s a bunch of circles in the window and an Automattic sign over the door. (Sorry for the late announcement, if you could help us get the word out I’d appreciate it.) You can RSVP on Facebook here.

Nov
25
4

Entertainment Gathering 08

Filed under: Events

Tim said it better than I could, but I’m also very much looking forward to attending Entertainment Gathering this year. I was there covering the event last year and it was a huge creative recharge and very inspiring.

My favorite story from last year was at lunch I noticed this amazing looking device that was totally readable in broad LA daylight sitting on a table. I was gawking at it and a voice behind me said “Pick it up! You can play with it.” It was Jeff Bezos with his trademark laugh and the device was a Kindle. He gave a personal demo and I was sold, I pre-ordered one as soon as I got online and have loved it ever since. (Except it’s broken now, but that’s another story.) Registration is currently open here.

Oct
6
28

Berlin WordPress / Web 2.0 Expo Drinkup

Filed under: Events

Tags: ,

I’m in Germany for the first time and I’d love to meet some of the WordPress community here. With the help of Yamile Yemoonyah we have a venue and such for a get-together this Thursday. Since there’s an upcoming Web 2.0 Expo right here in Berlin we’re co-hosting with those folks to make the event extra-fun. Here are the deets:

Thursday, Oct 9th at 7 p.m.
“Dachkammer”
Simon-Dach-Str. 39
10245 Berlin
030 2961673

If you have a German blog or Twitter please help spread the word! Hope to see you there.

Update: Got a discount code from the conference, if you register here and enter the code webeu08gr99 you’ll get a 35% discount.

Mar
7
15

At SxSW

Filed under: Events

Tags: , ,

I’m at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas now. This is my fifth year at the conference, and I’m excited as ever to see what this year holds. I’m on two panels this year. If you’re a WordPress user and you spot me at the conference please introduce yourself! I’ll try to keep some WP stickers on me, so ask for one if you don’t have one on your laptop yet.

Nov
30
2

Even though I swore off conferences for the rest of the year, I’m going to be making one final exception for the Entertainment Gathering in Los Angeles, which will be going on December 2-4. I’ll be going outside my normal role and attending as the official blogger for the conference, covering all aspects of the sessions, speakers, and attendees armed with a laptop and camera. If it sounds like your cup of tea, I think there are a handful of seats left.

May
16
21

On Monday May 21 we’re having a WordPress party at Thee Parkside in San Francisco. It’s a cool dive-type bar across the street from a park at 17th and Wisconsin, and they have a free ping pong table. (You may want to bring your own paddle though.) The party will get started around 8 PM and go until they kick us out. What’s the occasion? Well, WordPress 2.2 is out, WordPress.com is about to pass a million blogs, and we’re coming up on our 4th birthday since WP’s first release.

Apr
3
24

I’m going to be in New York next week and it’d be great to meet some of the WordPress community there. How about we do a WordPress Wednesday on April the 11th, starting around 7 or 8. Any ideas for a good venue?

Mar
6
11

Just a quick reminder, I’m going to be in Austin at SxSW next week and if you see me please introduce yourself. I’ll have a stash of WordPress stickers at all times. :) There is also shaping up to be a little meetup on Saturday at Barcamp around 6, so block that out. Finally I’m speaking on Monday.

Nov
19
13

There has been a ton of media attention here at the blog conference in Spain. Friday and Saturday were a whirlwind of TV and newspaper interviews. The most in-depth, I believe, was from Pablo Fenandez in El Pais and is now available online in Spanish. There is something really special going on here in Spain with blogs, the people are full of such energy and passion that it’s definitely going to be a space to watch over the coming years.

Nov
13
12

I’m going to be in Spain this week for Evento Blog España. It will be my first time in Spain or Seville, so if you have any tips please leave them in the comments. I’ll be bringing a huge stack of WP stickers, and if there are any WordPress users in the area I’d love to get together, just drop me an email.

Nov
10
25

MySQL Camp Google Notes

Filed under: Events, Google

Tags:

After speaking at Yahoo earlier, I drove a few miles down the street to Google for MySQL Camp. I caught the last session of the day, by Googlers saying how they used MySQL internal to Google. (I assume for the Adwords application.) Here are the stream-of-talking notes I took. The most fascinating bits I took out of it is how they take a partitioning/sharding strategy similar (but notably different in some ways) to WordPress.com and that they use DNS to manage all load balancing, high availability, datacenter failover, etc. DNS is a pretty powerful building block.

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Nov
7
5

The Top 10 Lies of Web 2.0. I am in town, but I won’t be hanging around the Web 2.0 conference too much this week. However you can find me at Web 2.2 starting Thursday. (We’re a sponsor.) I’m giving a talk at Yahoo in Building B on Friday at 12 PM. (Bring food to throw.) Finally I’ll be at MySQL Camp this weekend. (Trying to figure out how to deal with thousands of queries a second across 50+ MySQL instances.) Update: Some folks thought this was a Web 2.0 diss, or an anti-Battelle/O’Reilly/etc statement. Not at all! I looped by the conference today and saw a lot of great folks, but it’s just not the best use of my time this year.

Oct
4
14

I’m still in Vienna, but this Saturday morning I’ll be at Silicon Valley CodeCamp speaking on How to say no. My Mom would be so proud. Extra: my keynote from Blogtalk is online at Google video. You may or may not be able to tell, but I was fighting keeping my eyes open (it was 5 AM for me). Next time I speak overseas I’m going to factor in an extra day ahead of time to adjust my sleep fully.

Oct
2
6

If you’re interested, the slides from my Blogtalk talk are online. The conference has a great program today that I’m looking forward to. I was hoping to get some Vienna pictures today, but right now there is the heaviest fog I’ve seen in my life. (Vienna is like the San Francisco of Europe.) Perhaps it will clear as the morning goes on.