When I mentioned that I'd be attending SODEC in Tokyo last year, I was surprised that someone actually took me up on the offer for some beers. Actually, about a dozen of you did, and a small group of us went out to Shibuya (you know, this place) and we all had an absolute blast.

This year, I'll be speaking at QCon Tokyo and QCon Beijing. If you haven't heard of the QCon conferences before, they're definitely worth checking out. From the (English-language) site:

QCon is the enterprise software development conference designed for team leads, architects, and project management and is organized by the community, for the community. As software developers and architects ourselves, we wanted to craft the ultimate conference.

The result is a high quality conference experience where a tremendous amount of attention and investment has gone into having the best content on the most important topics presented by the leaders in our community, staged in an intimate environment with the best food and comforts needed to support as much learning and networking as possible.

Here's the talks I'll be giving...

CI++: Going Beyond Continuous Integration (Beijing Only)

Continuous Integration has become a proven practice for improving software quality by ensuring that the codebase is _integrated_ (validated, compiled, and unit tested) on a _continuous_ (on check-in or scheduled) basis. It’s a great first step on the road to quality production code, but it’s just that: a first step. Beyond the gates of continuous integration lies a path filled with quality quagmires, from countless configuration files to database script disasters to deployment automation. While many developers will shrug their shoulders and say that it’s not their problem, the true professionals will not only take an interest in how their code makes it through production, but advocate for an end product that reflects the quality of their work. In this technology-neutral talk, we’ll explore how to take the foundation laid by continuous integration all the way through production, discuss how to deal with both the technical challenges and the people challenges (management, operations, etc), and show how a single developer can make a huge impact on the software development organization.

Ugly Code: Beauty is in The Eye of the Beholder (Tokyo and Beijing)

It's said that without evil there can be no good and that without darkness, there can be no light. Is the same true of ugly and beautiful code? Maybe... but that's certainly not a question I'll be answering in this talk. Instead, we'll talk about ugly code, where it comes from, how to avoid it, and how to rid your codebase of it. And of course, I'll share some of my favorite anti-examples from The Daily WTF.

If you're planning on attending either QCon, or you're in Tokyo or Beijing, I’d love to hear from you. We can grab a whiskey, beer, whatever – I'll even try to bring over a TDWTF mug for you.

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