[tpm] Damian Conway in Toronto the first week of August, presenting free public talks evenings of Aug 2 and Aug 4

[Richard Dice]

Good news, everyone!

Our favourite Mad Scientist of Perl, Dr. Damian Conway, will once again come
to Toronto to provide free public talks both educational and entertaining!

*Tuesday Aug 2 @ 7pm
University of Toronto, St. George Campus (downtown), Sanford Flemming
Building Room # 1105 ("The Blue Room")
"The Twilight Perl" -- http://damian.conway.org/Seminars/Twilight.html*

*“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.”*

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!

(Ed.: This is going to be the more outlandish of his two talks this year.)
*Thursday Aug 4 @ 7pm
University of Toronto, St. George Campus (downtown), Sanford Flemming
Building Room # 1105 ("The Blue Room")
"(Re)Developing in Perl 6" --
http://damian.conway.org/Seminars/ReDeveloping.html*

Now that Perl 6 is available in a usable form <http://www.rakudo.org/>, over
the past twelve months Damian has revisited some of his most popular Perl 5
modules and reimplemented them in "native" Perl 6.

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.

Info on the location of Sanford Flemming within St. George Campus, TTC info,
parking info can be found at:
http://osm.utoronto.ca/map/f?p=110:1:2092650610450120

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.

*About Damian
-------------------*
For those of you who don't already know...

  * http://damian.conway.org/About_us/Bio_formal.html
  * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damian_Conway
  * http://fyi.oreilly.com/2008/08/the-mind-of-damian-conway-scie.html

  * What the Internet thinks of him! --
http://www.googlism.com/who_is/d/damian_conway/

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.

*I can has donation plz?
-------------------------------
*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.

Damian is also available for corporate training during that week.  (His
offerings: http://damian.conway.org/Courses/)  Please get in touch with me
if you know any one / any company that might be interested.

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.

Did I omit any important information?  Please ask me, and when I send out
reminder emails I will include that info in them.

Looking forward to seeing you soon...

Cheers,
 - Richard

P.S. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1D1cap6yETA
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