Yesterday I arrived at TSSJS in Las Vegas. This being my first time in the city was already quite an experience. I didn't go out since I was quite tired after having traveled for 25 hours, but during my arrival the lights, the hotels, the super-mega-lets-blow-your-mind-everywhere-you-look had my jaw dropping for a few times.

I'm staying at the hotel of the conference (Caesars Palace) and the room that Tech Target booked is outstanding. It's huge and has two big king-sized beds, a couch with a table, dining area and amazing bathroom. It's a pity that Nathalie and the kids couldn't come along (not sure Vegas is a place for kids, but Nathalie would sure have had a nice time here).

I walked around a bit to try to get a feel of the layout of the hotel, since it's bigger than a shopping mall. After having registered at the conference desk, I took a shower and went looking for some toothpaste that I forget to bring along. It took me a while to find this in the midst of the fancy and expensive shops. The toothpast must have some special mixture since it's the first time this costs me $4 .

I ended up quickly eating a roast sandwich and going to bed around midnight. After having met Hani at the registration desk, I was supposed to meet up with him and some others a few hours later (I read Cameron was there already too), but the fatigue finally got the better of me and I decided to catch some sleep. Sadly, the jet lag reduced my night to only 5 hours, and I'm already sitting here wide awake, but tired, yearning for the breakfast coffee

I'm looking forward to the first day of the sessions, there are quite a number of interesting ones that I want to attend (Bob Lee - WebWork @ Google - Case Study, Chris Nelson - RAD That Ain't Bad: Domain Driven Development with Trails, Eugene Ciurana - The Mobile Java Application Continuum, and Kito Mann - Portlet Development with JSF). I'm talking myself about "Flow with continuations" at 2:30pm, but before that (during lunch) I'm meeting up with some people from Laszlo Systems to finally see each-other in real life and discuss some OpenLaszlo-related business opportunities.

Last week I had a very nice Skype conference call with the guys from Java Posse. They interviewed me about RIFE.

You can download the interview from their website as an MP3 or sign up (recommended!) to their podcast through iTunes or Odeo.

The result turned out quite nice, if I may say so myself, and I particularly want to underline the excellent work that Dick Wall, Tor Norbye, Carl Quinn and Joe Nuxoll are doing. I was very impressed with how loosely and friendly they approach the whole thing. It's clear that they do this for fun and they give it all they have.

Thanks a lot guys for your great podcast and Keep up the good work!