Oxford 
As I mentioned in more detail earlier in this blog, Alan and I attended the annual ACCU conference in Oxford about 3 weeks ago. It was a pleasant and interesting week away from the usual responsibilities and aggro. The speakers were consistently excellent and interesting. I become interested enough in Python thanks to Anna Ravenscroft to pick up an excellent book on learning Python, it's listed on my book list in the left hand column here. I spent a reasonable amount of time wandering the streets taking photos, visiting the Ashmoleon museum, and poking about the old covered market.

It was interesting to note that almost all the speakers at the conference came with a wife/girlfriend, the few female speakers were all partners of male speakers. The attendees generally didn't but spent a lot of time looking longingly at any female.

ALan proposed that at next year's conference ACCU include a panal on Women in Programming. This was enthusiastically welcomed and approved. I spoke with Anna Ravenscroft, Jutta Eckstein, and a few other of the female speakers who agreed to be on the proposed panal. I think this will be a real winner on next year's schedule.