Alternatives to Powerpoint - My Favorite

OpenSource.com just sent me a mailing this morning entitled: 3 open source alternatives to PowerPoint.  I immediately thought to myself "Ok, LibreOffice, CalligraOffice ... I wonder what the 3rd is?".  I was really surprised it was MY personal favorite: Reveal.js.  I've been using that since Perltricks.com had an article on it.  I've seen several presentations done using it at YAPCs and Ohio Linuxfest (coming up soon, btw).

Despite the headline, OpenSource.com goes beyond 3 alternatives and also discusses using your console for slide shows with Vimdeck.  Very interesting!

The article didn't explain how to use (my favorite) Reveal.js though so if you're curious, check out the Perltricks link above.  I think you'll be glad you did.

Excellent YAPC::NA (for me)

Wow!  A lot has changed since last year.  It seems like this year was an emphasis on Perl 5 (which is fine by me).  It looks like developement on Perl 5 has really picked up.  There is a 6th edition of Learning Perl out which emphasizes Perl 5.14!  (I'm waiting on the Kindle Edition)  I found out that most people are using Perl 5.12.  My old Solaris systems have 5.8 and I'm not even using any of the cool stuff from 5.10 yet.  I'm excited to start after seeing so many examples of things I've been missing out on.  PerlBrew should help with this and I need to start using cpanm.

Notes and reminders: Look into Test::More, Mouse, cpanm, PerlBrew, ZeroMQ, Plack, Dancer, Starman, Mongrel2, Catalyst and, as usual, make a point to spend more time on #perl and PerlMonks.

The interesting thing was Larry Wall's handling of the Perl 6 and the pumpkings.  I have a feeling this year's State of the Onion will be jaw dropping.

Really good conference - even better than last year (for me).  I'm loving the Perl 5 emphasis!

Looking forward to YAPC::NA

I am really looking forward to YAPC::NA.  Looks like it'll be another good one.  I was especially interested in the Plack and Dancer talks (which are not yet confirmed according to the site).  If you see Tatsuhiko Miyagawa or Mark Allen - tell them I'm counting on them!