Sans Kscope

A few years ago I was lucky enough to attend Kscope15, and while I wasn't there this year, I have bizarre feeling of involvement.

The Buzz

I knew it was coming because the Twitter engine told me. I could have ignored Twitter for a week, or I could try garner some interesting information.

I could also live vicariously through all those Oracle fanatics sharing their Kscope experience on Twitter. I joke, but actually a lot of the gurus regularly share knowledge and interact in forums such as Twitter, Slack and OTN. If you're not involved in one of these feeds, you're probably missing out on a valueable source of contemporary tech information.

You may notice some of the most recent #Kscope17 tweets are from the after-party. It turns out this party is actually before the final 2 hour sessions on Thursday morning. Kudos to all those party animals that turned up to my jQuery deep dive in '15. 

Content

People share key slides. This gives us all a head's up for something photo worthy. Discussions start, interesting news and techniques get explored.

Key sessions were live streamed, and (I believe all) sessions will be available to ODTUG members as screen/voice recordings in September. For $99US a year, that's bargain training value. It's just setting aside an hour or so a week to knock off the relevant sessions.

Party

The Kscope party is amazing. I obviously wasn't there, but half a world away I experienced my own night out and I had a little epiphany, of sorts.

I was going to a music gig. No big name band, moreso a collaboration of local musicians performing a tribute to A Perfect Circle's Mer de Noms album. I know a few of you out there will have some clue as to what those words mean, or may like similar progressive rock. For me it was seeing a few mates perform an album I love live.

The gig was on at the same time as the Thursday morning live stream, but I wasn't missing this gig. It turned out to be an amazing gig. 

I've seen the singer (Dez) perform a number of times and he does a brilliant job emulating not only the original singer's voice, but also brings an amazing on stage presence. He smashed Tool's Aenima a few months ago at the same club, renowned for seasonal tribute gigs.
Another good friend was up there, pretending to know what to do with a six-string bass ;p, plus some other talented guys I've seen playing around before. And then out comes another dude up with an electric violin for a few songs!

Sea of Names - A Perfect Circle tribute

The sound was amazing, the small crowd was pumped, I had a lift to the gig so I actually enjoyed a few beers for a change. They did so well I had an early call of best gig ever, which is hard to judge & compare, but then I remembered seeing Roger Waters perform The Wall a few years ago and that will be hard to beat.

It ticked a lot of boxes, boys, well done. Encore.

Reflection

We're a long way from iconic music meccas like Seattle, but Perth kicks out some brilliant musicians, and I'm a grateful music lover.

For a few moments I thought about the Kscope attendees, having a fine time, letting off some steam after some solid days soaking up a lot of information.

I also thought about the dedication and skill required for people to learn a craft, then share it with others, be it music or code.

Congratulations ODTUG on creating an annual conference with such an impact.

Future

Many things afoot in this household at the moment, and if all goes smooth, we could find ourselves moved into a new home by the time abstracts close for Kscope18 in October.

That's the plan ;p