Today was the first day that I had a talk, but that didn’t make me any less lazy than normal. I dragged myself out of bed around 9:30am so that I could get down to the grand ballroom for the lightning talks. I thought this was a cool idea, having a bunch of people do five-minute presentations back-to-back. It went really well with only minor technical glitches here and there. Among those presenting were Yahoos Nicole Sullivan and Stoyan Stefanov who showed off their really cool new tool Smush.It which is an uber-image compression tool. Also involved was former Yahoo Bill Scott who showed some of the new Netflix APIs. It was a fun hour in a typically frigid ballroom.

After that, I went on a trek to find the nearest 7-11 to pick up some things I forgot to pack. It was a coolish day in Boston but it was a nice five minute walk around the waterfront. I then proceeded back to my room to work on my presentation before the talk. I’m glad I did this sanity check because I realized some of the examples weren’t quite formatted in an optimal way. I was able to change them and then take a nap (woohoo!) before my talk.

The talk, Test-Driven Development with YUI Test, was reasonably well attended and the crowd was pretty good. There were a lot of questions throughout, which is always good. Somehow I managed to keep proper time, both starting and finishing on time. For those who want the presentation and examples from the talk, you can download them here.

After a brief conversation with Doug Crockford, Nicole Sullivan, Bill Scott, and Steve Souders, I headed back to my room to crash. All this traveling and excitement has really worn me out. Tonight will likely be low-key, dinner in the hotel and then probably a bit of time in the lounge before turning in. Can’t believe it’s almost over!

Disclaimer: Any viewpoints and opinions expressed in this article are those of Nicholas C. Zakas and do not, in any way, reflect those of my employer, my colleagues, Wrox Publishing, O'Reilly Publishing, or anyone else. I speak only for myself, not for them.