Q&A with Beer && Code creator Andy Peters
There's a new meetup happening in Omaha these days, it's called Beer && Code. "So I accidentally started an event called: Beer && Code," wrote organizer Andy Peters on his company's blog, Ninth Division. "I was bored earlier at Scooters and didn’t want to go home. So I figure, I like a tasty beer, needed to continue to code and wanted some friendly company. I posted on twitter and sent a IM to a few friends and so was born: Beer && Code."
Tonight, the second Beer && Code takes place at Rock Bottom (1101 Harney Street) at 4 p.m. It'll run for at least a couple hours, most likely more.
I conducted an email interview with Peters, the creator of Beer && Code, to learn more about the new meetup.
Silicon Prairie News: What is Beer && Code?
Andy Peters: Beer && Code is a time for programmers to either socialize about programming or actually conduct the act of programing; while having a tasty drink. Preferably both, but some people can't do both. If you don't drink alcohol, no problem most places have N/A beers, Root Beers, soda, etc.
Inspiration? I figured, I'm not the only programmer out there who likes a tasty beer while working from time to time. So I put out a ping to the twitter world and got a great response.
Photo from Big Omaha, by Malone & Company.
Who should come and what should they bring?
Beer && Code is intended to be half "meetup" and half "co-work" session. Wether you socialize or program most of the time, expect to feel productive. If you bring something to work on, I encourage you to bring something that isn't boring or something you do for your day job. Bring something new and challenging.
Should you expect to get work done at Beer && Code?
Use this time to work on a pet project or learn a new language. Everyone at this event has a diverse background, ask them questions. If it solves your biggest problem buy them a drink to say thank you…you get the idea.
Where you inspired by other existing meetups, such as Beer & Blog?
The only inspiration from other events, is that programming "user groups" are boring. This is supposed to be fun, productive and informational.
Where will you be posting future meetup times?
New meetups will be posted on our Ninth Division blog and twitter.com/beercodeomaha. We will likely do them every two weeks (give or take holidays and stuff).
We will pick a new location every time we get together. Each place has to have both tasty beers and wifi.
Why the two ampersands?
The two ampersands are programmer for a logical operator… i.e. "are these two things true or not" or "do they go together is more or less the joke." You'd usually see something like this in Ruby…
Anything else you'd like to add?
if (beer && code)
puts "hurray, i got stuff done and had a tasty drink"
else
puts "uh oh, no work done and hangover."
end
To read more about Beer & Code, see Andy's initial blog post on Ninth Division: Beer && Code.
ARCHIVED COMMENTS
Hey Andy, you should come to the Omaha Linux User Group meetings, they are not boring :) And we almost always end up at Bishop's Bar afterwards.
I like the bash shell definition of && better:
command1 && command2
command2 is executed if, and only if, command1 returns an exit status of zero.
Then, in the case of "beer && code", it would be: unless beer is true, don't do code. I like that one better :)
I was thinking something along the lines of:
int awesomeTime = Beer | Code | Fun | Friends | Food
This looks like a great event!
How about: Beer( && Code)?
Or if you're a true minimalist: Beer ^ Code