upcoming conventions

As most readers of this little corner of the internet probably already know, today was the first day of the free-for-all that is Shmoocon ticket sales. Last year, I was insanely lucky, and managed to get three early bird tickets to the con--two on the first day, and one on the weird mid-December sale date that they had because the server had gone down on December 1. I'll admit it--I was tripped up, like several others on my Twitter feed, by the fact that the cart page said that the ticket sale was not online yet, although the link to the reservation page had been placed at the bottom of the page. That is something I would suggest they fix for the December sale date, and in future years--put the reservation link at the top of the page, not the bottom. I got frustrated the first time I saw a no-tickets-available page, but remembering the confusion and mixed messages from the website last year, I kept trying. Occasionally a ticket reservation page would pop up, although by the time I solved the captcha, it would tell me none were available.

Despite the initial frustration, this has a happy ending. I was not lucky enough to get an early bird, but did manage to get an Open Registration ticket. So, I'll be seeing you all at Shmoocon!

One side question about Shmoocon--has anyone who reads this done Shmoocon Labs before? I'm considering signing up for it.

That's not the only convention on the horizon, or even the one that's closest in time. I'm also planning on going to 26c3 in Berlin this December. I don't have my reservations yet, but that's only because I'm waiting for Hackers on a Plane plans to come out. Nick just confirmed on the HoaP 2.0 list that there's going to be a HoaP 3.0 to Berlin this December. I had such a great time on the trip to HAR that I want to do that again. I hope it comes out soon, though, so I can have the right dates and get decently cheap transportation to and from New York to meet up with the group. I know there's probably very little hope for that anyway, given that the trip is right between Christmas and New Year's, but it can't hurt to reserve it as soon as possible.