VENUEThe corporate offices of 724support.com, longtime geekhack supporter, and chief hohogged by samwisekoi -- who we all owe a HUGE THANKS to for letting us use his offices for this gathering!
The address of the KeyCon West 2014 meeting plate at 724support corporate is:
724support.com
Stand Sure Systems
1077B Independence Ave
Mountain View, CA 94043
650-967-9070
Mountain View is between San Jose and San Francisco, on what is commonly known as the South Bay Area, or 'The Peninsula'. Sunnyvale, Palo Alto, Redwood City, San Jose, Saratoga and so on are all close by (except in traffic -- yeeurgh).
AIR TRAVEL:There are three airports you can fly into: San Jose International (closest to the venue), San Francisco International (the only one of the three airports with a BART/medium rail station), and Oakland Airport (there is a shuttle service to the closest BART station). Oakland is slightly further than the rest of the airports from the venue, but traffic is the main determinant in travel time (although note that San Jose and San Francisco are an hour away in good traffic).
GROUND TRANSPORTATION:There will be an undetermined number of cars, and it's difficult to get a count on cars before the day of, since we encourage people to carpool whenever possible, etc. so _most_ activities involved in the con -- eating, gawking at keyboards, chatting, more eating, etc. -- will be in walking distance from the venue.
However, IF you need a ride from or to the airport, please post in this thread, so that we can arrange for you to get from and to home. I will have my car, but it only seats one.
724support.com VAN IS AVAILABLE FOR MASS TRANSIT. NOTE: public transportation in the south bay is spotty. BART only covers the east bay, and san francisco. The furthest south it goes is millbrae, which is still quite a ways from the venue.
Here is a map of the BART routes:
https://www.bart.gov/stationsTo get further south on public transportation, you need to take Caltrain:
http://www.caltrain.com/stations/systemmap.htmlNote that while BART is considered medium rail and runs fairly often, Caltrain is a commuter heavy rail system, and has much more limited weekend service:
http://www.caltrain.com/schedules/weekendtimetable.htmlAnother great way to make short trips in the Bay Area is Uber. If you're not familiar with Uber, it is a crowdsourced taxi service based on a smartphone app. You simply request a ride, and the nearest system car is routed to you. Be prepared to be on the ball with the driver on getting where you want to go. Uber is less expensive than a taxi service because its drivers are laypeople who contract as drivers for short periods of time that are wholly determined by their desire to drive people around.
ROLL CALL!Who is attending Keycon West?
LIST:
CptBadAss
dorkvader
HOFFMAN, MAN OF MYSTERY
Input Nirvana
samwisekoi (well, it's his office)
vibex
haata
jdcarpe
HASHBAZ
acantha
kurplop + ic07
jacobolus (+2)
hcry4
Smasher816 (+2)
spopepro
nuclearsandwich +1
WASDkeyboards (sunday, afraid of loud noises and bright lights)
ebacho
lingj
sonicrevolution w/ qwerky
evilHMB +3
V1ral + (2-5)
yicaoyimu
massdrop (2)
clacktalk
CM Storm Nurumu
damieng?
keyboard.io?
YOU?
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TENTATIVE ITINERARY:
FRIDAY JULY 11: at most a nighttime happy hour thing for people to go from the airport to to meet fellow nerds before the festivities start and to relax somewhere after potentially long flights. and by happy hour i don't necessarily mean some thingamajig at a bar, but really anywhere we can hang out for a while that is accessible to people getting in
DINNER STARTING 6-7PM AT EITHER A LITTLE STAR PIZZA OR ZACHARY'S PIZZA LOCATION IN BERKELEY/OAKLAND/ALBANYSATURDAY JULY 12: the meetup will start in the morning, potentially as early as 8-9am, and we'll probably close up and leave the venue by 5pm. after that, we'll try to give people some time to either wander around or clean up at their hotels/other places they're staying, and then do a large dinner at someplace than can accommodate gigantic parties of nerds. lunch on saturday will probably be delivered or eaten at a nearby strip mall, but expect fast food.
KEYCON SATURDAY: 9A-5P AT VENUE. LUNCH WILL BE COSTCO PIZZA AND/OR COSTCO FOOD COURT SPECIAL ORDER, DELIVERED TO VENUE.
PRESENTATION TIMES: START @ 1pm with PROJECT RAVELLO
LIVE STREAM: MULTIPLE CAMERAS, INCLUDING CPTBA HEADKENDAMACAM, PRESENTATIONS + SHOW FLOOR
DINNER: MOUNTAIN VIEW, TBDexpect presentations to start at about 11:30am and last until the early afternoon. there is a separate conference room in which the presentations will be given (some remotely even!), so you can wander and chat even during the presentations
SUNDAY JULY 13: Same deal as Saturday, except the dinner will probably be much smaller, and the afternoon more hectic as we try to get people who are flying out to their respective airports.
KEYCON SUNDAY: 9A-5P AT VENUE. LUNCH WILL BE A WALKING TREK OUT TO LOCAL FOOD COURT. POSSIBLE PRESENTATION SPILLOVER
DINNER: SMALL, TBD.------------
POSSIBLE OUTINGS:
computer history museum
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PRESENTATIONS: 1-1:30PM techkeys.us
PROJECT RAVELLO ANNOUNCEMENT1:30pm-2pm haata
ON THE VARIETY OF ELECTROMECHANICAL SWITCHING MECHANISMS2-2:30pm dorkvader
SENOR HALL AND HIS A/EFFECT2:30pm-3pm cptbadass
METALS: PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY AND PROCESSING aka iiiII HAVE hooOOKS FOR HANDS OH MY GOD I'M A MONSTER
3pm-3:30pm hoffman
POLYMERS: CHEMISTRY AND PROCESSING3:30pm-3:35pm mkawa
THE SMALLFRY KEYBOARD PROTOTYPE3:45-4:15pm haata
MASSDROP CO-PRESENTATION