Torsten Curdt’s weblog

Now let’s make it public… a few days ago I’ve resigned my job at ManageSoft and will be heading back to Europe at the end of August. Bang!!

I’ve had a really good time at ManageSoft. Especially working with Marcus and Michael -the time in Frankfurt- was just great fun. We worked on some interesting and challenging projects. But with a few of the recent changes in the company and also some changes in my personal life I had the feeling I should move on. It’s a bit unfortunate that I’ve now just got settled and all the hassle of moving turned out to be only for a 8 months stay down here. But I’ve enjoyed it! Melbourne is a nice city – I will come back. At least to visit some friends a spend some vacation down here. But I am also looking forward to what’s coming next…

Only a few weeks left and still so much to do. I still want to go for a beer with a few Apache/OSS locals. And still so many things I need to get rid of. (Need a car? A guitar or an apartment?)

So after 4 weeks in good old Europe I am now back in Melbourne. After Dublin I have been busy catching up with family and friends and was working remote for two weeks. No wonder blog post were queuing up as I was just in time for the great summer weather (up to 37°C!!). Although I am not a big soccer fan I am also glad I was able to catch at least some of the worldcup feeling during the finals. I had a really good time. Now it’s kind of strange to go back to the australian winter. People never realize that it does get cold down here. Although I am naturally used to the cold as a German we usually also have a proper heating – which is not that common in Australia *shiver*

So everyone has already posted their summaries and surveys of this past event. From the speakers point of view I was bitten by a pretty bad organization of the travel arrangements. But other than that it was a nice show. Nothing compares to the one London in 2000 but… ;-) My two sessions went reasonable well. I’ve now finally put the final slides online:

• Jakarta Commons – Don’t re-invent the wheel
• Java Byte Code Engineering – No black magic

Attendance was a bit of a surprise. I’ve talked to the conference organizer and IIUC the byte code engineering session had the most attendees of the whole conference sessions! I would have never expected this huge interest! A few people even have suggested a byte code engineering tutorial. Was a bit too late for the next ApacheCon US though. Maybe next year?

Wow, that’s great news: my session about jakarta commons has also been accepted for Austin. So as my fellow Cocooners like Andrew and Carsten I will be heading off to Texas in October. Frankly speaking I never really had the urge to see that part of the USA just yet. Too much thick and red accents …but Austin is supposed to be nice. We’ll see – hope to see you there.

Sitting on Melbourne airport. Just staring at one of these screens. Some soccer match on. Worldcup. Not that exciting. Slightly bored. Guy walks past. “Hmmm, looks familiar.” He carries a strange case. A few seconds later: “Could fit a guitar.” A few more seconds later: “Looks a bit like…” Too late: “Xavier Rudd!!”
Awesome! Would have been nice to say g’day …but I was a bit too slow …and I really hate fan-like behavior. But would still have been nice to thank him for that great show he played in Melbourne lately.