Birmingham Perl Mongers - Latest News

Tour Photos Update

2008-05-12T08:00:03Z

I've been rather lax at getting all the photos sorted from the past few months, especially those taken during the current Birmingham Perl Mongers 2008 World Tour. So, I had a blast through them all and uploaded the best ones. Take a gander at the Latest Updates to see them all. Unfortunately I forgot to take any photos of the Coventry date, but as we're hoping to return there soon, we'll make up for it next time. in the meantime, enjoy :)

More BWT dates

2008-05-12T08:00:03Z

The Birmingham Perl Mongers 2008 World Tour continues on. This week JJ and I will be over in Leicester to meetup with Leicester LUG on Tuesday 8th April to present our Ajax and Selenium talks.On Tuesday 15th April we'll be down in Gloucester with Gloucester LUG and on Wednesday 23rd April we'll be visiting our friends over at Wolverhampton LUG. For further details of the tour see our article listing all the tour dates.

If your local user group would like us to come and visit you, either to present a technical talk or just have a beer, please get in touch.

UKUUG 2008 Spring Conference Photos

2008-05-12T08:00:03Z

The UKUUG Spring Conference is now over. Thanks to all the Perl speakers, including several Birmingham Perl Mongers. Although the conference was aiming to cover a variety of dynamic languages, it seemed only Perl and Python speakers were interested enough to get involved. As it turned out the comparison in many cases of the two main dynamic languages proved very eventful. It also proved that Perl and Python have a heathly interest in developing their own languages keeping an open mind as to what they can learn from the other.

Dave Cross presented a great tutorial session on Monday and 9 other Perl speakers presented shorter talks during the following two days. I personally really enjoyed Mike Whitaker's 'Perl Is' and hope that he is submitting it for the forthcoming YAPCs.

During the three days I took around 1600 photos, which I've distilled down to around 100 per day. In addition I videoed most of the Lightning Talks. See photo links below, and I'll keep you posted when I upload the videos.

Mapping Birmingham

2008-05-12T08:00:03Z

For those that might not have heard, there is a growing group of people who are helping to provide free mapping data. Called OpenStreetMap, initially the idea started due to the pricing, lock-in and licensing of mapping data in the UK by the Ordinance Survey. Now that GPS devices are more widely available, and even included in many mobile phones, such as the Nokia N95, individuals have taken it upon themselves to track large parts of the UK, and has now extended around the world.

If the idea of helping to track your local area sounds like fun, take a look at the OpenStreetMap Wiki, and follow the help and howtos to get familiar with how to do the tracking, how to store and transfer your data, and how to help make the maps themselves. As more and more people are getting involved in the project, a number of people have got together to organise mapping parties. These concentrate on one particular area over an evening or a weekend, and rather than several people covering the same routes several times, working together they can cover a wider area more quickly.

The next Birmingham Mapping Party will be April 12-13, and using the The Kitchen Garden Café in Kings Heath as a base, the mapping will focus on the centre/south of Birmingham. Future mapping parties are planned for the Black Country and Wolverhampton too.

To help promote the efforts of the trackers and mappers for OpenStreetMap, Andy Robinson (aka Blackadder), will be coming along to the March Technical Meeting for Birmingham Perl Mongers, and presenting a talk about what OpenStreetMap is about, how to get involved and hopefully encourage people to come along to the mapping party. Entry to the meeting is free and you are encouraged to invite friends and colleagues along to The Victoria, John Bright Street, Birmingham (5 minutes from New Street Station), on 26th March. See you there.

UKUUG Spring 2008 Conference

2008-05-12T08:00:03Z

The UKUUG Spring 2008 Conference will be held at the Birmingham Conservatoire (Birmingham, UK) from 31st March to 2nd April 2008. Monday features 3 full day tutorials, with Tuesday and Wednesday taken up by shorter technical presentations. You can see the current schedule here.

Birmingham Perl Mongers are helping to coordinate the event, with several Perl Mongers from around the UK offering to present talks. Dave Cross will be holding a one-day Perl tutorial of his Teach-In session, with Matt S Trout, Tom Hukins, Mike Whitaker, Daniel Giribet, Barnabas Aspray, Mark Gledhill, Robin Doran, Brian McCauley, Jon Allen and Barbie presenting technical talks discussing Perl.

The event is a UKUUG event and there are discounted rates for UKUUG members. You can attend just a tutorial, just the technical talk days or the whole 3 days. See Payment Details for all the options and prices. For those travelling from further afield who would like to know of some local hotels, the Accommodation page lists several nearby hotels. The conference venue is situated at the west end of New Street and is within 5-10 minutes walk of several hotels, including all those available during YAPC::Europe in 2006. Both GUADEC and PyConUK were held there in 2007, and it proved a very suitable venue.

The Early Bird rates for the event are due to end on March 10th, so if you're thinking of coming along, please book soon to take advantage of the reduced rates.

Monotone and Perl/GTk

2008-05-12T08:00:03Z

The next Birmingham.pm technical meeting is to feature a guest presenter for the night. Tony Cooper from Gloucestershire LUG, is coming along to present two talks. The first is an introduction to the Monotone version control system, and the second is a quick guide to using Perl/GTk to create GUI apps.

As always everyone is welocme along, and entry is FREE, so please don't be shy about attending.

LUGRadio Live Dates

2008-05-12T08:00:03Z

Dates for LUGRadio Live 2008 (original UK version) have been announced as the weekend of July 19th - 20th. The gang are returning to the Wolverhampton University venue, scene of the 2006 event, and promise lots of exciting surprises for the UK event. Expect more details to be forthcoming in the coming months, after the USA event takes place.

Expect JJ and Barbie to be there at the very least, and plenty of Wolverhampton and Birmingham LUG members too. Make a note in your diaries.

The 2008 BWT Begins

2008-05-12T08:00:03Z

Once again Birmingham Perl Mongers are embarking on a World Tour, and on Tuesday 29th January, we will be starting the tour by paying a visit to Milton Keynes Perl Mongers. The venue is the Wetherspoon pub located on the left, walking up Midsummer Boulevard from the central train and bus station.

Several Birmingham.pm'ers are planning on attending, including Barbie, JJ, Alan and Phil, and we'd be delighted to have even more along. The meeting is a joint social with MiltonKeynes.pm and Milton Keynes Linux User Group, so we're sort of doing a double hit on the first night ;) See our current itinery for further dates on the tour.

The 2008 UKUUG Conference

2008-05-12T08:00:03Z

From Monday 31st March to Wednesday 2nd April, the annual UKUUG Spring Conference will take place in Birmingham city centre at The Birmingham Conservatoire. The conference theme is "Dynamic Languages", which obviously will be featuring Perl among that, as well as Python and other languages.

However, the schedule is looking a little light on Perl talks at the moment, so the organisers have asked if we can help to get some more Perl presentations lined up. If you are willing to present a tutorial (Monday) or a regular talk (Tuesday and Wednesday), please email Barbie as soon as possible. Tutorials are typically half day or full day presentations, with regular talks being 30, 45 or 60 minutes in length. We are also keen to get some lightning talks (5 minute slots) too, if you have a quick promotion for a project or idea.

More news will be forthcoming here as well as on the official conference website, so even if you are not planning to speak, we will hopefully be able to interest you in coming along.

2008 Birmingham Perl Mongers World Tour

2008-05-12T08:00:03Z

Following our successful trips over the last 2 years, we're planning to do it all again. Birmingham Perl Mongers plan to venture around the British Isles, with hopefully one or two international destinations too. We have had interest from several UK Perl Monger groups and Linux User Groups, and have a few already lined up. This time around we are quite happy to come along to either a social or technical meeting, so please let us know if you would like us to visit you.

If you would like us to speak at a technical meeting or other event you are organising, please note time slots you would like us to fill. There are several members of Birmingham.pm who are willing to present, so we do have a range of subjects available.

See the current itinery for exact dates, but currently we have MiltonKeynes.pm, Leicester LUG and Coventry LUG down for visits. Hopefully many more to come :)