Early Fall Foliage

 It's been a pretty intense semester thus far.  Finding myself with a day in which the family was out of town and I didn't have any teaching obligations, I decided to go searching for the colors that define fall.  I also haven't had the motorcycle out, and felt I needed to rectify that situation.

After some loose planning, I defined my goals for the day:

1. Blow the cobwebs out of the FJR.
2. Find beautiful colors.
3. Be home before dark.

With those objectives in mind, Michigan provided the most promise in terms of places to explore that are close to home.  I know there are some beautiful forests north of Grand Rapids, and set Traverse City as an initial destination into the GPS.

It was just before 6 am when I backed quietly out of the garage.  Looking up, I was bathed in the most beautiful moonlight:

It was also a brisk 46 degrees, so I zipped up my suit, fired up my heated grips, and started rolling north.

I had almost forgotten how much I really enjoy riding at night.  The moon shadows were overwhelmed by headlights of the vehicles I passed as I flowed with the road.  The bite of the wind reinforced my perspective on the ability to control air flow.  For a long-distance ride, I simply don't want to go back to the world of static wind management.  

In the quest for perfecting airflow management, I put a California Scientific windshield on the FJR a couple of years ago.  It is a massive improvement over stock wind management.  Being tall, I got one roughly the size of a barn door, with a light grey tint.  

When it is all the way down, the airflow hits me right around the neck.  All the way up, I can tuck in behind the screen and I'm in a perfectly still pocket of calm air.  It's so still that I can flip up by Schuberth and take a drink.  It really is a great screen.

Anyway, on that cold, dark morning, the grips kept my hands toasty and with the shield up, I could focus on the interplay of the moon and headlight shadows as the miles quickly disappeared into the rearview mirrors.

By the time I got to Grand Rapids, the sun was rising, so I stopped for a quick picture:

Accelerating away from this picture stop, I was reminded that it was cold outside and the FJR doesn't have traction control.  I wasn't accelerating that hard, and I still spun up the rear tire.  The bike yawed slightly to the right, I backed off, and continued on my way.  It was a good reminder that you can never, ever stop paying attention when your on a powerful vehicle.  Riding (or driving, for that matter) a powerful machine requires respect of what the machine can do.  It also requires an understanding and an appreciation of the fact that cold temperatures and cold tires don't mix.  You just don't have the same grip as you do when the temperatures are high and the rubber is nice and hot.

Speaking of cold temperatures, I remember being at Lago di Garda on a chilly spring day.  There were groups of enthusiastic, leather-clad sportbike riders hanging out.  They mostly seemed to be in groups by manufacturer.  Anyway, one of the groups decided to roll out.  The lead rider revved up his bike, turned out, and hit the throttle.  The cold tire immediately spun up, tossed him off, and sent the bike spinning across the road.  He was most sheepish.

I think the modern electronics really are a great invention in terms of reducing risk due to a heavy throttle hand.  I recently spent some time on my brother's BMW K1600GT.  I cracked the throttle wide open in first, the front came up a bit, the power was reduced, the front came down, and I was on my way.  The intervention is more noticeable than on his Ducati Monster, where you can essentially dial in the amount of wheelie you want.  Really, modern electronics are truly amazing, and riding without them makes you acutely aware of the fact you're working without a net.

Riding north with the sun coming up, I started to find the gorgeous fall colors I was looking for:

I didn't really have an idea as to where I wanted to go, so I plugged in Elk Rapids as a little town north of Traverse City.  Once past Cadillac, I wound my way along delightfully deserted two-lane highways.  The road got more interesting, the sun was fully up and warm, and I was enjoying loafing along in fifth gear, with the occasional downshift to third for a spirited overtake.

Eventually, I rolled into Elk Rapids, and found this beautiful tree:

Looking at my watch and the sun, I figured I could do a little loop up to Northport before winding my way south on Michigan 22 and 109, past Sleeping Bear Dunes.

Rolling south from Elk Rapids, I picked up M22 and headed north.  I never get tired of looking at the beautiful, clean water around northern Michigan:

As I headed south on M22 towards 109, the scenery confirmed that I was a bit on the early side to capture fall in its full splendor:

My ride south was just gorgeous.  The temperature was in the mid-fifties and the sun was bright.  I love riding in that kind of weather, when you don't have to contend with excessive heat and it's warm enough that you don't feel cold.  It's just perfect - not too many bugs, a touch of heated grips, and nothing but miles stretching before me.

South of Cadillac, I decided to pull off and see how the trees were doing.  You could tell they were on their way:

When I got home, someone was very excited to see me:

All in all, a very nice day, with almost 630 miles in the rearview:

As usual, I kept a Spotwalla trace of my rambles, which you can see here.

Helpful, not autonomous, vehicles

A new van recently made its way into our garage.  It is loaded with Honda's latest suite of driver-assistive technologies called Honda Sensing.  I have to say, it's a great set of safety-related technology, and includes:

1. Collision Mitigation Braking System - designed to reduce impact when a collision is unavoidable.
2. Road Departure Mitigation System - designed to keep the vehicle in its late.  I like to think of it as "sneeze protection."
3. Adaptive Cruise Control - maintains a specified distance behind a vehicle.  So, set the cruise at 70 mph, and if a car slows down in front of me, the van slows down.  The car in front speeds up, the van speeds up.  Nifty for semi-urban or busy interstate environments.
4. Lane Keeping Assist System - applies subtle steering corrections to keep the van centered in its lane.
5. Blind Spot Information System - detects a car in my blind spot.
6. Cross Traffic Monitor - gives a warning in reverse when a vehicle is approaching from the side.
7. Auto High-Beam Headlights - Automatically manages high beams at night above a certain speed.

All of these are fantastic features, and are downright useful.  Driving back from Chicago, the Adaptive Cruise Control performed well.  The Cross Traffic Monitor is super helpful in parking lots - inching backwards, if a vehicle is approaching for either side, you get an audible alert and directional arrows on the center screen indicating where the vehicle is coming from.  The Blind Spot Information System does its job, and the Auto High-Beam Headlights are great at night on dark roads.

That said, as a human, I can see further ahead and anticipate better.  I turn off the bright lights a bit sooner than the automated high beams.  I rarely use the brakes on the interstate, while the ACC system brakes comparatively frequently.

And then, there is weather.

I recently completed a 300 mile drive in a winter storm, on snow-packed interstates.  The lane markings were just gone, with only relatively sparse road-side reflectors giving a visual indicator as to where the lane ended.

As I drove along, the following warning appeared on the dash:

That meant that anything relying on forward-looking radar was off duty.  Collision mitigation and adaptive cruise (which I would never use in this situation anyway) were on break.  When I stopped for gas, the reason for this warning became evident.  The front of the van was covered in a slushy, icy glaze:

Fortunately, I had mounted a set of Michelin winter tires before this trip:

The Michelins did their job admirably, providing traction and a clear indication, typically accompanied by a flashing traction control light, when traction was insufficient.

Which brings me to the end of the story:

Technology is a wonderful thing.  As a species, we have created systems that help improve our lives and help keep us safe.  However, it is naive to think of them as replacements for human judgement or attentiveness.

My moniker for the Lane Keep Assist and Road Departure Mitigation systems is "Sneeze Control."  Don't think that because these systems are in place and functioning that it gives you license to text, or otherwise divert your attention from the task at hand: driving.

While there is no doubt that Tesla's "Autopilot" is more complete, my perspective is the same: it's about helping the humans, not replacing what we do.  I believe "Autopilot" is a misnomer - it's much closer to "sneeze control," especially when the weather turns south.

Embrace technology as an assistant and tool, not as a colleague or friend.  I'm certainly not ready to trust it with my life, or the lives of my family.

The (Abrupt) End of the Road

It was a grey, damp morning in December of 2019.  I was taking three of the kids to school.  Nothing was out of the ordinary, just another normal school morning.

I was driving along State Road 23 in Granger.  The road has two lanes of travel in each direction with a central turning lane.  Since I knew I had to make a left turn to get to school, I was motoring along in the left lane.  There was a black Cadillac Escalade in the right lane, slowing down to turn right.

Suddenly, a Ford Excursion appeared in my path.  I went through a very abbreviated Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act loop.  Observing the situation, it was clear that making no change in vehicle operations was viable, so I oriented myself to three possible choices:

1. Avoidance swerve left.  This would have taken me into two lanes of oncoming traffic, and would not have ended well.
2. Avoidance swerve right.  This would have put the nose of the Passat into the driver's rear quarter panel of the Escalade.  That certainly would have spun the hapless Escalade, and possibly have caused a rollover.  That seemed like a bad idea.
3. Shed as much speed as possible and prepare for impact.

The last choice seemed like the one that would impact the fewest people, so that's what I did.  Traveling at about 45 mph, I got hard on the brakes.  By the time I impacted the Excursion in the driver's door, I would guess that I had brought the speed down to perhaps 20 mph.

Either way, the impact was strong enough that the airbags went off:

Of course, the cabin filled with airbag smoke.  Since I've met airbags before, I wasn't concerned that the car was on fire.  I wanted to make sure that everyone got out safely.  After verbal and visual confirmation that all the kids were shaken but fine, I had everyone exit the vehicle on the left, into the turning lane.  That would allow the morning traffic to continue on in the right lane.

The force was such that the rearview mirror came loose:

And the windshield was cracked:

Thank goodness for engineers and airbags!  My wife was able to come, pick up the three kids, and take them to school.  After getting my wrist x-rayed (thankfully not broken), I was able to teach in the afternoon, even with the car looking like this:

It's amazing how far car safety has come.  The front crumple zone took the impact and dissipated the energy, keeping us all safe.  Looking at the car, it was clear that the end of the road for the Passat had arrived:

The Passat had been a good and faithful companion since we bought it new in 1998.  The 150 hp, 150 torque stock 1.8 liter turbo had been chipped to deliver 195 hp and 210 torque.  The difference was immediately noticeable, especially in third-gear passing situations.

In the winter time, with the right tires, it gave sleigh rides around Chicago and South Bend:

Regardless of temperature,

it carried us confidently and safely over snow-packed roads

to Chicago.  On drives like this, the tail would be nicely frosted:

In the warmer months, it displayed a fair bit of grip and a touch of lift-throttle oversteer at the limit, rotating the tail nicely.  It even did a couple of laps at Ginger Man, feeling hooked up and balanced up hill in turn 8 and down hill in turn 9.  I think it cleaned up nicely, and its design was still compelling as it aged.

I will always remember the Passat as it was in the last picture.  A handsome sedan with a beautiful, clean design.  A comfortable cockpit with delightfully short rear doors, making it easy to get in and out in tight spaces.  It's massive trunk that swallowed everything from Christmas trees and mountain bikes with the rear seats down to suitcases and strollers with the seats up.

I also will remember the disaster that was the electrical system.  The cruise control went out the window, and the sunroof was possessed to the point that I pulled the fuse to keep it shut.

What I'll remember most is just the delightfully analog nature of the car.  The steering felt good with a composed, capable chassis.  People who rode with me probably tired of hearing me exclaim how much I liked that car.  Every drive brought a smile to my face.

So long old friend, gone, but not forgotten.

Anyday!

Anyday is, any day!
Anyday is, Wednesday!
Anyday is, Monday!
Anyday is, Thursday!
Anyday is, Sunday!
Anyday is, Tuesday!
Anyday is, Friday!
Anyday is, Saturday!
Anyday is the perfect day to get together with friends!
Anyday is the perfect day to make amends!
Anyday is fluid, not bound by rigidity or a day of the week!
Anyday can be wild, mild, or meek!
You can play Scrabble on Anyday!
You can babble on Anyday!
You can shoot pool on Anyday!
You can wildly drool on Anyday!
You can have Rum and Coke on Anyday!
You might even have a smoke on Anyday!
You can have Ben and Jerry's on Anyday!
You can even have a couple of berries on Anyday!
You can go for a walk on Anyday!
You can have a long talk on Anyday!
You can play with a dog on Anyday!
You can clear up mental fog on Anyday!
Anyday is a day for many, not one!
An Anyday requirement is to have fun!
Anyday is a day without care!
Anyday occurs as long as friends are there!

Another First

I'm not one to be pushy when it comes to exposing my kids to motorcycling.  They all know it's a standing offer - if it is something they have interest in, I'm happy to give them a ride.  If not, no big deal.

Out of the blue, I was talking with my oldest son and he decided that he really wanted to go for a ride.  Then, as we were getting closer to going, he balked.  Too worried/nervous/scared about something.

I talked him through things, saying that my primary goal when giving anyone a ride is to make them feel safe.  I pointed out the trunk on the back of my bike, which is something he could lean against.  We did a "dry sitting" on the bike with the engine off so he could learn how to mount/dismount, where to put his feet, and what not to touch.

Pretty soon, his nerves were calmed and we got ready to set off.  In stark contrast to how I learned, I made sure he was all geared up - riding pants, riding jacket, gloves, and a helmet:

Pre-ride walkthrough

I always get on first

Be careful to not touch the pipes!

Settling in

Ready to roll

Pretty soon, we were off:

Nice and easy

Second gear is just fine

I immediately noticed that he was very uneasy in the turns.  As people sometimes do when they first ride pillion, I could feel him fighting against the lean.  Beyond that, I just focused on being smooth and steady, not too fast.

We stopped 5 minutes later at my Mom's house.  He was thrilled to surprise her since we arrived on the motorcycle.  We discussed relaxing back there and not fighting the lean, then took a slightly longer way home.  I could tell he was much more at ease.

When I was tucking him into bed that evening, he said, "Dad, I don't understand why you ever drive a car.  I'm only going to have a motorcycle when I grow up!"

That made me smile.

We went for a slightly longer ride about a week later.  It was getting on towards evening, and we went for a 20 minute loop.  We saw a pair of buck deer and a doe, the sun setting in a fiery red ball, and enjoyed the cool evening breezes.  It was another wonderful ride.

I'm looking forward to many, many more opportunities to go 2-wheeled exploring with him!

First Encounter with Dragons

Digging through email archives, I thought I would post up my original reflection on riding the Dragon.  I somehow got it in my head that it would be fun to put wheels of my ancient, faithful CB700SC into Georgia.  This was a trip I took back in 2008 - pre-GPS, minimal planning, just getting out onto the open road with a loose understanding of where I was going and no particular timeframe in mind.

Here it goes:

CB700SC

I have an old warhorse for a motorcycle -- a 1985 Honda Nighthawk S, CB700.  700 cc, small bikini fairing.  I have about 32,000 miles on it.  It just hums along, requiring about as much maintenance as a shovel.  Designed as a technology showcase back in the 80s, it has some features (hydraulic valves, shaft drive, twin front disc brakes, fuel gauge/gear indicator, 6-speed transmission) which were a bit ahead of its time.  I particularly like the power hit between 8,500 and 10,250 rpm - it makes clicking down to third gear for two-lane passing fun.

From the Stagecoach Trail

It is definitely not designed to be a touring motorcycle, primarily because the gearing is so short.  I spin between 6 and 7,000 rpm on the highway, which has a predictable effect on gas mileage.  Personally, I like being out there in the air - it makes me feel like I'm on a motorcycle.  Eventually I will probably add another bike to the stable, but I don't think I could ever get rid of this one.

The one thing I would change is the location of the oil filter.  To get it out, you have to reach between the four headers.  The engine is so tightly packaged that it only fits out between the number 4 exhaust pipe and the frame.  It is a very tight fit, very un-Honda.  I'm a little surprised it is engineered that way.

Another point of interest - it is oil cooled.  To assist cooling, oil is stored in the frame.  As a consequence, there's a center drain plug, plus two smaller plugs on the left and right frame rails.  Patience (or multiple drain pans) is required when doing an oil change.

Reflections

This trip had everything.  Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia.  1,457 miles.  A cool early morning ride from Lexington to Knoxville, seeing multiple sunrises from my helmet as the terrain got hillier.  Cruising through the early morning fog as I wound my way towards Knoxville.  The luscious, non-stop curves of the Dragon.  Meandering roads, following rivers and rapids.  Curving, climbing, cooling roads as I passed 5000 feet of elevation.  Long, straight roads.  Serenity of making time on the interstate.  Sun so hot I needed to fill my shirt with ice.  Rain so cool that it pitter-pattered on my faceshield and helped lower my core temperature.  The ecstasy of no traffic and beautiful roads.  The challenge of being surrounded by cars on arrow-straight highways.

It made me run the gamut of emotions, but the two that come through the strongest are harmony and thankfulness.

What I am thankful for – my lovely wife, who tolerates and encourages me to do what I must.  My beautiful children, and the thought of sharing adventures big and small.  The truckers who are out there, sharing the roads, making my convenience-filled life possible.  Trees, and how wonderfully cool they make a summer's day.  Entering a glade or forest when you are hot and sweaty, there's no better feeling.  Except possibly for filling your shirt with ice and rinsing off your head.  The police, fire fighters, paramedics, and doctors who take care of us when bad things happen, when we make mistakes.  The depth of experience that travel by motorcycle allows.  Balance.  Harmony.  Slow, quiet stretches and interstate-speed running.

In a single day, I experienced a half-moon and stars shining down on me, the sun come up, lovely, mountainous interstate passages, incredibly challenging non-stop curves, the cooling of elevation, the sweltering heat of mid-day Georgia sun, a rain shower just when I really needed to cool off, more delightful curves, another blissful interstate run in the cool evening hours as the sun set, hot and tasty barbeque with the sounds of live music in the background, and more rain.

I need to write more, but I am exhausted.  It was a blessed trip.  I have lived a lifetime in two days and an evening.  The pictures just don't do it justice – my mental movie cannot be shared.  I feel fulfilled, centered, happy, and so incredibly thankful.  I am at one with the universe.

The Facts:

	Moto Mileage	Trip Mileage	Gallons	Cost	Price	MPG
Starting Mileage	31430.8
Bakers Corner, IN	31559.9	129.1	2.923	$  11.86	4.057475197	44.16695176
1790 Airport Exch Erlanger, KY	31698.0	138.1	3.237	$  13.92	4.300278035	42.66295953
1970 Pleasant Ridg Lexington, KY	31777.9	79.9	2.179	$    8.98	4.121156494	36.66360716
1111 S Main St Jellico, TN	31888.5	110.6	2.994	$  12.18	4.068136273	36.94388778
??	31987.6	99.1	2.225	$    8.63	3.878651685	44.53932584
141 Bank St. Tellico Plains, TN	32098.5	110.9	2.183	$    8.71	3.989922126	50.80164911
4900 Appalachian Hwy Blue Ridge, GA	32162.1	63.6	1.292	$    5.22	4.040247678	49.22600619
2528 East 1st St Crossville, TN	32283.7	121.6	2.447	$    9.79	4.000817327	49.69350225
500 Main Nashville, TN	32401.0	117.3	3.054	$  12.21	3.998035363	38.4086444
553 Duntov Way Bowling Green, KY	32470.3	69.3	1.615	$    6.56	4.061919505	42.91021672
Scottsburg, IN	32611.7	141.4	3.25	$  13.16	4.049230769	43.50769231
4922 S Western Ave Marion IN	32768.6	156.9	3.355	$  13.75	4.098360656	46.76602086
Ironwood and 23 South Bend, IN	32885.3	116.7	2.811	$  11.55	4.108858058	41.51547492
Finishing Mileage	32888.5
Total	1457.7	1454.5	33.565	$136.52	4.059468397	43.33382988

And a few photos:

Approaching the Dragon

View from the Dragon Lookout

Goodbye Tennessee

Hello North Carolina

The old girl made it!

So did I...looking hot and fatigued

Somewhere in Tennessee

"Rollin' down a backwood, Tennessee byway..."

A rainy Sunday start in Nashville

Why not stop?

Love the Car and Driver Corvette

Somewhere in Indiana

A cool underpass/one lane road

A great trip all the way around - it was really enjoyable to head out with no real plan and explore.

Gluecon 2015

Gluecon

I had the good fortune of attending Gluecon this past week.  It is a short, intense conference held in Broomfield, Colorado, attended by some of the best and brightest folks in technology.  There was a lot of talk about microservices, APIs, DevOps, and containers - all the latest tech, with an eye towards 2018.

While the majority of slide decks are available here, this is a quick synopsis of what I took away.

Tweet early, tweet often

I'm a sporadic tweeter, but go into full-on microblogging mode when at a conference.  It's a great way to share information with the public, and a great way to make connections.  By adding a column in TweetDeck for #gluecon, the following image caught my eye:

Per @_nicolemargaret, "Doing some realtime analysis of hashtag co-occurrence among #gluecon tweets. #neo4j #rstats #d3 #nosql"

I love graphs, and the powerful way they communicate relationships.  Through that tweet, I had the opportunity to meet Nicole White.  Come to find out that she works for Neo Technology, the company behind neo4j.  While I have other friends at Neo, I had never heard of or met Nicole before (she is a relatively new hire).  I'm happy to have added her as a new node on my graph, as it were.  Very cool.

Tweeting is also a great way to reflect back on gems and tidbits - simply look at your own history to help organize your thoughts.  Like I'm doing now.

It's always the people

There were quite a few sessions talking about the importance of culture and talent in making for productive, healthy organizations.  Salesforce did a good keynote, illustrating the gap between available technology jobs and qualified candidates.

A challenge for us all

This theme continued through the very last keynote session:

Is this clear?

Almost every session I attended had a subtle undertone of "we need talent."  Most messages were not subtle.

Talking about microservices, Adrian Cockroft made a great cultural point.  When operating microservices, organizations need to fully embrace the DevOps model with a clear escalation chain.

Culture Win: the VP of Engineering volunteers to be on call while expecting never to get called.

Tools?  What tools?

Building on the importance of people, let's talk about tools.  Specifically, let's talk orchestration tools - Ansible, Puppet, and Chef.  I happen to think agentless Ansible is the way to go, but ultimately, it's what you and your organization are capable of doing with the tools, not the tools you pick.  Brian Coca illustrated many possible ways in which Ansible can be used...because he deeply understands how to use Ansible!

You can do this with Ansible...should you?

One of my favorite one-liners from the conference sums up the tools discussion: "Rather than teach everyone to code, let's teach them to think. The coding can come later; it's easier."

Right on - pick a tool that can be successfully adopted by you/your organization, and stick with it.  Stay focused, and don't get distracted.

APIs still rule...and enterprise software still lags behind

APIs have been a thing for years now.  I remember writing the customer profile master data store for a major airline in the late 90s.  As a master data source, many internal systems wanted to access/update said data.  Instead of giving each system direct access to our database, we surrounded it with a cloud of services.  At the time, these were written in C, using Tuxedo.

What has changed in the last 20 years?  The utter ubiquity of APIs in the form of web services.  The concept is the same - encapsulate business logic, publish a defined interface, and let the data flow quickly and easily.  And yes, it is much, much easier to get going with a RESTful API than a Tuxedo service.

Table stakes for software vendors

What else has changed?  Organizations simply expect data to be available via APIs.  If you are an enterprise software vendor and your data/business logic is locked up in a proprietary monolithic application, start opening up or face customer defection.

What a Wonderful World

In his presentation, Runscope CEO and co-founder John Sheehan put this slide up.

Can you imagine life without these tools?

Think for a moment about how remarkably powerful any one of the concepts listed in his slide is.  We live in a world where all of them are simply available for use.  With the remarkably rich tools which are out there, there is simply no excuse for a poorly performing web site or API.  If an organization is running into scale issues, the technology is not likely to be at fault - it's how that technology is implemented.

Talk with Adrian

If you get the chance, spend some time talking with Adrian Cockroft.  I was fortunate enough to spend 20 or 30 minutes talking with him over lunch.  First off, he is a genuinely friendly and kind person.  Second, he likes interesting cars (Tesla Roadster, Lotus Elise, among others).  Finally, he's flat brilliant with loads of experience.

I was able to glean useful tidbits about containers, tertiary data storage, and autocrossing.

Talking cars and tech with the incomparable Adrian Cockroft

One thing Adrian mentioned that stuck with me concerned the current state of containers.  They are mutating so fast that even companies who are working with them full time have difficulty keeping up.  That said, the speed at which this space moves makes for a high degree of agility.  However, every organization has finite limits on what new/emerging technologies can be pursued.  Containerize if you wish, but you should have a clearly defined objective in mind with palpable benefits.

Serious about automation? Take away SSH access.

One of my favorite tidbits was to remove SSH access from servers.  If no individual has SSH access, it forces them to automate everything.  At that point, servers truly become disposable.

Get beyond the tech

I was pretty fried by the afternoon of day two of the conference.  I took the opportunity to skip a couple of sessions and spend some time with Kin Lane.  His dedication to understanding and explaining APIs earned him a Presidential Innovation Fellowship in 2013.

Yes, we talked tech...and proceeded to go beyond.  Kin likes motorcycles.  He was a former VW mechanic.  He's gone through a material purge and enjoys the mobility his work affords him.  Yes, he strives to be all things API, but that's only one facet to his very interesting personality.

Opting to hang with Kin Lane instead of attending a session

Repeat attendance?

So, would I go to Gluecon again?  Most definitely.  It was a worthy spend of time, providing insight into the leading edge of technology in the context of microservices, devops, containers, and APIs.  Not too long, and not too big.

I came away from the conference with a better understanding of trends in technology.  With that knowledge, I am better prepared to work with, ask questions of, and assess potential vendors.