[tpm] Damian Conway talk details! Tue 6 and Thu 8 August, 2013

[Richard Dice]

*Good news, everyone!*

Dr. Damian Conway will be coming to visit the computer tech community of
Toronto during the first week of August 2013.  Damian is a Master Hacker
and fantastic, entertaining presenter.  The Perl community has known and
loved him for decades but he has something to offer anyone who is
interested in programming and computer science regardless of your language
of choice.  His talks are both educational and entertaining!  And, they're
free.  *(But we are taking donations.  See details below.)*

*Tuesday Aug 6 @ 7pm (please enter the room approx. 6:45pm)*
*Mozilla Offices, Suite 500, 366 Adelaide Street West (just east of Spadina)
*
*"Fun With Dead Languages" --
http://damian.conway.org/Seminars/DeadLanguages.html*

Watch in mesmerized terror as Damian hacks code in several unrelated
programming languages (none of them Perl). Along the way, you'll also
discover what's wrong with modern CS education, why programmers shouldn't
frequent casinos, the power of Thor's Law, the language of moisture
vaporators, C++ mysticism, how to use the three shells, state machines on
steroids, programming without variables or subroutines, a cheap and
eco-friendly alternative for distributed persistent computation, what the
Romans used instead of braces, the ancient probabilistic wisdom of bodkins,
and the price of fish.


(Ed.: This is going to be the more outlandish of his talks this year.  It
is a new-and-improved version of a talk Damian last gave in Toronto seven
years ago where he demonstrates his virtuosity -- and insanity -- in many
programming languages and paradigms.  Computer geeks from all language
backgrounds should enjoy this thoroughly.)


*Thursday Aug 8 @ 7pm (please enter the room approx. 6:45pm)*
*University of Toronto, St. George Campus (downtown), Bahen Centre for IT
(40 St. George Street, just north of College St.), Room # BA-1160*
*Talk # 1 - "A Few Of My Favorite Things"--
http://damian.conway.org/Seminars/FavoriteThings.html*

(Go to the URL, read the description.  It will be Perl 5 Madness, Damian
style.)


*Talk #2 - "Sex and Violence: Social and Technical Lessons from the Perl 6
Project" -- http://damian.conway.org/Seminars/SexViolence.html*

In June 2000, Larry Wall announced a new four-month Open Source development
effort: the reinvention of Perl. In this keynote, Damian Conway will unfold
the twisting and sordid tale of what happened over the next ten years of
the project, highlighting the sexy new language that has been created, the
extreme violence that was sometimes necessary to make it happen, and the
dozen or so harsh-but-invaluable lessons that the development team learned
along the way.



*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 13
years I am organizing a community pass-'round-the-hat donation to help
cover the expenses (i.e. a plane ticket, 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.

Please circulate this email announcement!  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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