REAL World 2008, Day Zero

Another year, another REAL World. David picked me up just after six o’clock this morning. We headed to Philadelphia, and from there we flew to Chicago. Our connecting flight was delayed due to weather conditions in Chicago, but we eventually got on our flight to Austin. Our flight to Austin took longer than anticipated because of a storm in Austin. The pilot suggested we might have to land in San Antonio instead, but the weather broke, and we made it to Austin.

All in all, not bad. I could have done with the delays, but it could have been so much worse.

After checking into the hotel, David and I went down to Stubb’s for a quick dinner, then we headed back to the hotel so we could pre-register for the conference. They gave us some really nice stuff this year, including a 1 Gb flash drive with PDF versions of all of the conference sessions. They used to give out CDs, but I think the flash drives are much more practical. No shirt this year, though. Oh well, I have four REALbasic shirts in my collection already.

Apparently Bud Cort, who played Harold in Harold and Maude, was in the hotel at this time. Pretty random, eh?

While David did his sound check for his part of tomorrow’s keynote, I chatted briefly with Marco Bambini about REAL SQL Server, and I must say I’m looking forward to his sessions, especially the one about packaging REAL SQL Server into your application. That should be really interesting.

Then I had to find a drugstore, because I’m an idiot. I forgot toothpaste and I forgot my Zyrtec and I brought along a razor blade that I’m afraid will shred my scalp if I try to use it (note to other folks at REAL World 2008: if you see me bleeding profusely from the head, I’m probably okay). Also, my deodorant exploded en route.

So tomorrow kicks off with the keynote, which is part Geoff Perlman, part Jay Jennings, part Paul Lefebvre, and part David Mancuso. It should be a very interesting and entertaining keynote. Personally, I’m really hoping for some information on Cocoa or on Swordfish, but I’m not holding my breath this year.

I would imagine there will be some sort of group-edited play by play of the keynote. If that happens, I’ll do my best to save it and post it here.

I also teach two sessions tomorrow: Understanding SQL and Cross-Platform Interface Tips and Tricks. Understanding SQL is a slimmed down version of the database session I did last year, which will focus just on the SQL language itself. Cross-Platform Interface Tips and Tricks is mostly the same as the session I did last year, but updated to reflect some changes in REALbasic since then. I teach one more session, All About Toolbars, on Thursday.

Here’s Paul’s rundown on Day Zero.

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