PyCon Australia 2012: Saturday

I’m currently at PyCon Australia in Hobart. As I write this, Saturday’s programme is over, and it’s been a great conference so far. A few highlights:

• Mark Ramm’s Keynote: Don’t waste your life on projects that are going to fail
• Ryan Kelly on testing Python web apps, I especially loved his interactive presentation
• Ryan Kelly’s lightning talk on Play It Again Sam – for recording and replaying console demos
• The lightning talk about coding the Victorian SES website so that, in the event of a natural disaster, it can go from zero load to incredibly high load and stand up to the stress. (I don’t recall the name of the speaker. Please comment if you know it.)
• Chatting with Nick Coghlan about all the amazing new stuff that Python 3.3 does
• Andy Fitzsimon on design – lots of insights into what makes good design, including tips on using border-radius correctly
• 15-year old Cody’s lightning talk demonstrating his terrain generation code – there’s room for improvement in his coding style, but it’s inspiring to see a 15-year-old get up in front of a room full of IT professionals and enthusiasts and show off software he’s written
• Aaron Iles, “A Most Unexpected Day” – amusing if somewhat contrived
• Chatting with a fellow conference-goer about what window manager I use
• The conference dinner at Peppermint Bay
• All my conversations with the varied and interesting conference-goers

I look forward to more highlights tomorrow.