Mike Clark

If hallway talk and evaluation forms are any indication, this weekend's No Fluff, Just Stuff symposium in Reston, VA was a smashing success. You could almost feel the energy in the air throughout the weekend. As a result, I came back fully recharged.

Just a few highlights from the weekend:

• Friday night I met Dave Astels and Erik Wenberg for dinner. One of the great things about traveling is meeting new folks and hearing what they're up to, and I really enjoyed exchanging ideas with Dave and Erik. While listening to them, I couldn't help but think that their team is fortunate to have them both. Good developers are hard to find, even in this economy.


• Uncle Bob made his first appearance on the symposium tour. I had just finished helping a client start using FitNesse, so this was an excellent opportunity to chat with Bob about how he and Micah are building it. We need more applications like this that are developed with simplicity as a design goal.


• Patrick Linksey, fellow co-author of Bitter EJB and VP of Engineering for SolarMetric, treated a few of us hungry speakers to an outstanding dinner on Saturday night in downtown DC.


• After dinner on Saturday night, we walked around the Tidal Pool visiting all the monuments and memorials. I've toured DC many times, but this was my first look at the mall after dark. I was struck by how it takes on a different kind of beauty with the illuminations contrasting the night sky. Jason helped me hone my nighttime photography skills and discover the value of inanimate objects as tripods. I thought this picture captured the mood of the nation. It's taken looking across the Korean War Veterans Memorial with the Lincoln Memorial in the background.