Good news, everyone!<br><br>Our favourite Mad Scientist of Perl, Dr. Damian Conway, will once again come to Toronto to provide free public talks both educational and entertaining!<br><br><b>Tuesday Aug 2 @ 7pm<br>University of Toronto, St. George Campus (downtown), Sanford Flemming Building Room # 1105 ("The Blue Room")<br>
"The Twilight Perl" -- <a href="http://damian.conway.org/Seminars/Twilight.html">http://damian.conway.org/Seminars/Twilight.html</a></b><br><p style="margin-left: 40px;"> <em>“You unlock this door with the key of a hash. Beyond it is another
dimension—a dimension of strange constructs, a dimension of
improbable behaviour. You're moving into a land of both weird syntax
and unlikely semantics, of unintended features and unexpected
beauty. You've just crossed over into...The Twilight Perl.”</em>
</p><p style="margin-left: 40px;"> Join Damian for a head-trip through a dozen or so arcane and
sinister “features” of Perl. Much of what you thought
was required...isn’t; some of what you thought was
impossible...is easy. Cast off your strictures and warnings and set
your programs free. Embrace the Dark Side of the Code. You have
nothing to lose—except your sanity!</p><p>(Ed.: This is going to be the more outlandish of his two talks this year.)</p><b>Thursday Aug 4 @ 7pm<br>
University of Toronto, St. George Campus (downtown), Sanford Flemming Building Room # 1105 ("The Blue Room")<br>
"(Re)Developing in Perl 6" -- <a href="http://damian.conway.org/Seminars/ReDeveloping.html">http://damian.conway.org/Seminars/ReDeveloping.html</a></b><br><br><div style="margin-left: 40px;">Now that Perl 6 is available in a <a href="http://www.rakudo.org/">usable
form</a>, over the past twelve months Damian has revisited some
of his most popular Perl 5 modules and reimplemented them in
"native" Perl 6.
</div><p style="margin-left: 40px;"> In this talk he will walk through the changes needed to port several
of those modules, a journey that gives a surprisingly thorough
overview of how the two languages differ, as well as insights into
the relative strengths of each.
</p><br>Info on the location of Sanford Flemming within St. George Campus, TTC info, parking info can be found at: <a href="http://osm.utoronto.ca/map/f?p=110:1:2092650610450120">http://osm.utoronto.ca/map/f?p=110:1:2092650610450120</a><br>
<br>The talks will start promptly at 7pm. We have the room booked earlier than that, so give yourself time to come in and take a seat. People who arrive at 6:59pm will NOT get good seats. If you are driving, please allow yourself LOTS of extra time for (a) traffic and (b) getting from whereever you parked your car to Sanford Flemming. U of T campus is pretty big.<br>
<br><b>About Damian<br>-------------------</b><br>For those of you who don't already know...<br><br> * <a href="http://damian.conway.org/About_us/Bio_formal.html">http://damian.conway.org/About_us/Bio_formal.html</a><br>
* <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damian_Conway">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damian_Conway</a><br> * <a href="http://fyi.oreilly.com/2008/08/the-mind-of-damian-conway-scie.html">http://fyi.oreilly.com/2008/08/the-mind-of-damian-conway-scie.html</a><br>
<br> * What the Internet thinks of him! -- <a href="http://www.googlism.com/who_is/d/damian_conway/">http://www.googlism.com/who_is/d/damian_conway/</a><br>
<br>Damian has given talks in Toronto most years since 2001 and they are widely enjoyed, even by IT people who don't normally "do the Perl thing." Think of it as the Toronto IT community's annual party.<br>
<br><b>I can has donation plz?<br>-------------------------------<br></b>Damian's trip to Toronto is un-funded... that is, as of right now it's coming out of his own pocketbook. However, as I have done for the past 10 years I am organizing a community pass-'round-the-hat donation to help cover the expenses (i.e. a plane ticket from the west coast, roughly a week of hotel rooms, and meals and other incidentals while he is here). If you would like to help out with these expenses, please get in touch with me off-list. Donations from companies are gladly welcomed, too! Any funds raised in excess of what is needed to cover his expenses will be given to him as an honorarium for his visit.<br>
<br>Damian is also available for corporate training during that week. (His offerings: <a href="http://damian.conway.org/Courses/">http://damian.conway.org/Courses/</a>) Please get in touch with me if you know any one / any company that might be interested.<br>
<br>Please circulate this email / annoucement! Forward to any one / any company you think might be interested. We always have a great crowd come out for Damian's events and getting the word out widely is a big part of that. <br>
<br>Did I omit any important information? Please ask me, and when I send out reminder emails I will include that info in them.<br><br>Looking forward to seeing you soon...<br><br>Cheers,<br> - Richard<br><br>P.S. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1D1cap6yETA" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1D1cap6yETA</a><br>
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