Steve Evatt, one of the technology gurus behind Chron.com, the high-traffic, high-profile Houston newspaper site, will join me to add to the conversation.

I hope to run into many of you at this and other conferences, and I hope you’ll take the time to register and vote for our session before voting ends at 11:59pm CDT on Friday, August 27. I’d love to share what I’ve learned in my years with Linux Journal, as well as highlight the open source tools in my web arsenal.

Linux Journal and The Houston Chronicle both depend on significant web presence to ensure the long-term success of their brands. Learn how we take advantage of web technologies to compliment our print publications. We’ll discuss our preferred platforms, such as Drupal and Ruby on Rails, information architecture strategies, and scaling challenges, while also highlighting some of our success stories and pitfalls. Additionally, we’ll offer perspectives on the different challenges of niche publications versus large, general audience publications. With the possibilities available via the web, we must focus on the content delivery and audience engagement solutions that are appropriate to our audiences. We’ll cover hits and misses we’ve experienced, and the technology behind them. We’ll also discuss how to handle the inevitable bouts of phenomenal success, while not crumbling under heavy traffic. The web counterpart to a print publication will inevitably develop a slightly different audience, as well as its own flavor. We will discuss ways in which these can and should diverge, and the areas where they should not. There is much discussion about the future of publishing, and we will give a practical peek behind the scenes at what’s working, what’s not, and what the future holds.

Questions Answered
How should print publications take advantage of web technologies to enhance or extend their content?

What are the preferred platforms, tools, and methodologies used by medium and large publishers in their online products?

Where have Linux Journal and Chron.com succeeded most in engaging their online audiences?

How can a web publisher handle periods of exceptionally high traffic due to a high-profile media event?

How does an online publication develop its own identity while still complementing its print counterpart? should it?

Please visit the panel picker and vote!

As a die hard night owl, I am ridiculously excited that Yelapa, one of my favorite local haunts, is staying open until 2am on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

While Houston has a few great late night options, the new Yelapa hours will provide a slightly more sophisticated option for satisying cravings in the wee hours.

I am particularly happy to see the pineapple cebiche on the menu. It’s one of my favorites, and raw(ish) fish til late is going to be awesome!

Chef LJ’s famous ‘real’ guacamole is also available on the late night menu, as well as the usual tacos, a new take on fried calamari, tempura rock shrimp with highly addictive lime aoli, and several other options.

Throw in some tasty cocktail options like a blackberry mojito, Japanese style Blue Moon, some creative micheladas, and a badass margarita, and it’s gonna be a good night.

So now you know where to find me late on a Friday night!

It’s (almost) time for me to go to some more conferences!  SCaLE was February, SXSWi was March, and April is all about Texas Linux Fest and DrupalCon.

If you’re in or around Austin on April 10, come to Texas Linux Fest to see me talk about wrangling internets for Linux Journal in my talk The One Woman Web Team, which will be quite similar to the talk I gave at SCaLE.  You can also hear some other kick-ass speakers, and talk to Mark and Carlie at the Linux Journal booth.

On the other hand, if you use Drupal, you MUST go to DrupalCon.  You should also go to Do It With Drupal, but since they haven’t announced 2010 dates, I’ll leave that for another time.   This year’s US DrupalCon is going to be HUGE.  I can’t emphasize that enough.  In fact, go read my post about it over at Linux Journal.  HUGE.  Think MacWorld keynote huge.  Moscone huge.

The Drupal community’s biannual conference, held April 19-21, 2010, at San Francisco’s Moscone Center will be by far the largest DrupalCon held to date. With 2430 attendees currently registered, and a little more than two more weeks to go, the event is likely to hit 3000 attendees. Truth be told, I’m a little overwhelmed.

Ok, so it’s not SXSWi huge (thank god), but you get the idea.

I recently spoke with John Faber of AF83 and SFDUG, who is heading marketing efforts for this spring’s DrupalCon, and he pointed out to me that there were more sessions submitted to this event than there were attendees for the first two DrupalCons. The smallest of the conference rooms will hold 300 people.

Read the full post

Fun bit of triva.  Makes me wish I attended some of the early ones. *sigh* I’ll always have Paris…

See you there?

]]> http://www.katherinedruckman.com/2010/04/02/upcoming-texas-linux-fest-and-drupalcon-san-francisco/feed/ 1 http://www.katherinedruckman.com/2010/03/07/ode-to-ensui-uni/ http://www.katherinedruckman.com/2010/03/07/ode-to-ensui-uni/#comments Sun, 07 Mar 2010 07:12:19 +0000 Katherine http://www.katherinedruckman.com/?p=1230 Tonight I got my second shot at Kata Robata‘s Ensui Uni sashimi, and it was well worth the $14 for a wee bowl of the jiggly goodness.

I sampled a bit of this yellow-orange treasure a couple of weeks ago at Kata Robata, my favorite local Japanese restaurant.  Chef Hori introduced the uni, which is apparently quite popular in Japan recently, as uni that has not been preserved with the usual alum additive, but instead soaked only in a 3% (as I remember it) sea salt water solution.  The resulting uni (sea urchin roe for those who haven’t a clue what this is about), is like no other uni I have ever tasted.  While I enjoy the usual uni, alum and all, the ensui uni has a much milder, sweeter flavor that is heavenly.  It also seems to maintain it’s firmness a little better, which allows you to appreciate the texture of each tiny bead of roe as it falls apart against your tongue.  If I am getting a little porny with my description it’s because it IS that good.

With this in mind, I have to back up for a moment and describe my experience with uni up to this point.  I was 12 years old the first time I tried uni.  I was on a trip to San Francisco with my dad when we ventured into a run-of-the-mill Japanese restaurant as we were prone to do when travelling, as Japanese cuisine, and sushi in particular,  has been a favorite of mine ever since my dad thought it would be fun to see if he could get his 7 year-old to try a taste of his tekka maki at the old Tokyo Gardens.  He would go on to remind me constantly into my adulthood how he regretted creating that monster.

I digress.  So we ordered some uni at this San Francisco sushi joint.  Neither of us had ever tried uni before even though my Dad had spent some time in Japan, and we were regulars at the few sushi spots that I was aware of in Houston in the 80s.  Uni was not readily available in Houston at the time as far as I can remember, and if it was it was off my 12-year-old radar.  Ever the adventurous eater, perhaps in spite of my age, I was eager to try it.  However, when it arrived, my dad and I both noted its resemblance to cat poop both in smell and appearance.  After tasting it, I imagined it must also taste like cat poop, though I could not confirm that for obvious reasons.  It made such an impression on me that I did not taste a bit of uni until one of Randy Rucker‘s tenacity dinners last year, which had a delicious uni and cauliflower puree.  I have since seen the error of my ways and learned that I should not assume that my tastes are the same as they were when I was 12.  I also assume that the uni I tried then was utter crap, thus ruining my taste for it for over 20 years.

What a strange turn of events.  Until sometime last year I consistently listed uni as one of things I would not likely eat ever, and now I have found bliss in its unadulterated form.  Go figure.

If you love flavors of the ocean, seek out some ensui uni, and please don’t be a stubborn idiot like me and miss out on something wonderful for 20 years.  I will admit that uni is not for everyone, and its strong flavor is off-putting to many, but even if you think you don’t like uni you might love ensui uni.

There is not a lot of information about ensui uni around the interwebs, but this Japanese site has some nice photos and a little text that can be translated with google (why must websites use images for text? ugh).

For your viewing pleasure, some other dishes we enjoyed at Kata Robata:

After a long weekend at SCaLE 8x with some of my favorite people, Linux Journal‘s Kyle Rankin, Bill Childers and Shawn Powers, I have officially become a huge fan of the annual Southern California Linux Expo. Shawn, Kyle and I had the opportunity to give talks at the conference, and were able to talk with many readers and meet lots of fellow open source enthusiasts. It is always gratifying to hear positive feedback from so many readers in person, and it is fun to see people all over the conference kicking back with a Linux Journal in hand.

Read the rest of my post over at Linux Journal.

While at SCaLE I had the opportunity to give a talk about being a one woman web team for Linux Journal, and my slides are below.  I thoroughly enjoyed the chance to not only share what I do, but also to get feedback and field questions on issues that I may not have given much thought to.  This is incredibly valuable, and I am very glad to have had the benefit of the Women In Open Source conference audience to engage in conversation.

I’d like to personally thank Gareth Greenaway, one of the conference organizers, for encouraging me to submit a talk.  Additionally, I must also say that I was very impressed with the event as a whole, and Gareth, Ilan Rabinovitch, and everyone else involved deserve a big thanks!

Also, Wil Wheaton and John Scalzi blogged about Shawn’s fire.  They have far greater reach than most of us, and I am so glad they also know how awesome Shawn is.

UPDATE: Here’s a status update from Shawn’s blog. http://www.brainofshawn.com/2010/01/17/an-update-on-our-house/

Today, Shawn Powers, one of the best people know, lost his house and pets to a fire.  My heart is broken for him, his wonderful wife Donna and their three daughters.  I can’t imagine how they feel right now, but can only hope that it will get better soon.

Shawn has brought a lot of joy to me and to everyone at Linux Journal as well as the tens of thousands of people enjoy his work.  To that end, his friends have created this chipin page to help his family in the near term.  We are all waiting for details, but we can assume it will take a while for insurance claims to be filed, necessities to be replaced, and for their life to be rebuilt.  At the very least this should make things a little easier over the next few days.

Read more here: http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/urgent-help-shawn-powers-family

In case anyone needs to be reminded why we all love Shawn (though I have no idea why that would be the case):

Marianne Masculino

Angie Byron

Liza Kindred

Maria Webster

Carlie Fairchild

Marla Trevino

Carrie Pacini

All of these women are building things, making noise, improving the world and kicking ass, so go check them out.  If you have the opportunity to meet them, do it.

There are so many other women I’d also like to list here, but I’ll have to save a few for next year’s post.

P.S. You get to hear him sing at the end

This is Tech Tip Video Contest Week (March 9 – 13) at LinuxJournal.com!

Want a free 1-year digital subscription to Linux Journal? This is your lucky week. Watch the daily Tech Tip videos this week and collect the secret letters hosts Shawn Powers and/or Mitch Frazier announce during the videos each day. Come this Friday, unscramble the letters to reveal the secret word(s). Everyone with the correct answer who responds by 11:59:59PM U.S. Eastern Standard Time March, Friday 13th, 2009 wins a free digital subscription to Linux Journal — it’s that easy!

Follow this link for further contest details, and good luck!