I attended Bar Camp Atlanta this weekend.  The event was a blast, but unfortunately I was only able to attend Friday nite.  I missed the distributed version control talk, and got my noodle cooked on "Genetic Algorithms in Javascript."  I also missed coffee w/ @ivey and @sanjay's Pipes talk.  :\

I gave a talk on Erlang and why you should use it.  My over/under for attendees was four, but I packed in about 20 people standing room only...  not too bad.  My slides can be found here.

Poker was great, including the whiskey... although I could have done without a couple of the beats put on me.  My playing partners seemed so nice.  But put chips in front of them, and cards, and whiskey... they changed real fast.   I'll be ready next time.

The Metro Atlanta Erlang Users Group, some single digits strong, will meet for the first time on September 20, 2008 at the Brick Store Pub in Decatur, GA.  For now, we are planning on meeting at 7pm.

The Brick Store has a fairly amazing beer selection, and they're light on the TV's so we can hopefully avoid the rabid Tech and Dawg football fans.  Let's sit upstairs if possible.

Please throw out suggestions for what to talk about in the comments, or we can just get together and meet/drink.  I can talk about a project I've got cooking, and my trials with backends, including CouchDB vs. Mnesia.  Kevin Smith says he will be there, so we can possibly guide his pragpodcast direction :)

Wifi is a bit iffy.  Decatur is blanketed, but I'm not sure if it's free.  I believe you need to be a resident.  So, that means I'll be calling on my friend who lives over there.  Happily, he's at least heard of Erlang.

Oh, and in addition to Erlang, I try to indoctrinate as many as I run into about the hotness of the D Programming Language.  You have been warned.

I really dislike exercising.  Recently, I've found myself back in the gym, trying to shed my 'programmer physique' as noted in the video of my Startup Riot talk.  So I hop on an elliptical, treadmill, stationary bike, etc. and get going.  There are TV's if I want to watch the 'fair and unbiased' reporting of Fox News, or watch Emeril bulge out of his apron, talking about cooking something healthy.  But not much really takes the pain away from the mind-numbing, boring task at hand. 

A few weeks ago, I caught my first startuplounge.com podcast, their #27, with Mitch Free of mfg.com.  Scott Burkett and Michael Blake have managed to create something more painful than exercising, so that while listening, my mind is distracted from the physical exertion, profuse sweating, heavy breathing, and shredding of my knees.  Well done, gents.

Kidding aside, this is an excellent resource for entrepreneurs.  I have known about the podcasts for a while, but just now started listening, because Quantum XML is now seeking VC funding.  For those of you who don't know, Quantum is bringing the fastest XML parser on the planet to market.

I was able to knock off Episode #1 this morning on the treadmill.  They have a nice bit of comedy mixed in with sage advice.  I mean, Sanford and Son is worked in, along with anal glaucoma...  really, just listen.

I'm psyched to have 24 more to go (one is mysteriously missing, possibly under FCC investigation?) so that should be about 6 weeks or so of trips to the gym.  And I'm really looking forward to #28, due any day, with Sig Moseley.  So, keep up the good work, guys.  And keep them coming.  Because if you don't crank out 3-4 per week starting in the fall when I need them, I'll be a fat slob again, and you'll have that on your consciences.

So I delurked a bit and got into the Atlanta entrepreneur scene by attending David Ratajczak's Young and Restless meetup last nite.  I could only stay for the first part, but it seemed well-attended by, say, 25-30 people.

People are doing some interesting ventures right now.  Sanjay is just hanging out after Digital Envoy sold recently.  Trevor rents golf equipment across the country.  Sanjay (ATDC, Izenda) has made a very similar offering to my day job.  And David R. has many things in the hopper.

It was quite encouraging to have only 5-6 conversations (before I had to leave) and all of them were damn interesting.  It gives me hope that things get done outside of Boston and Silicon Valley...  Also, I'll stay for more of the next event for sure.  Also, this is a vote for keeping things ITP, but I'll venture outside for meetups of this caliber.

Cheers