The Open Source Convention (OSCON) is this week, up in Portland, OR, and underway; and Apress is exhibiting…

What’s a conference without food, drinks and laughs? Last night several of us took that sentiment to heart and ate dinner at a truly extraordinary restaurant on the 30th floor of the downtown US Bancorp building.

Braving the heat we first trekked over to Powell’s City of Books, where I managed to purchase a copy of Neal Stephenson’s Snowcrash for an upcoming vacation, a book on beginning piano (my new hobby), and a cool coffee mug to match the refrigerator magnet I picked up last year.

Then it was off to the Portland City Grill for a fabulous seafood dinner. Mike Herrick entertained us with impersonations from The Office while we put down calamari, sushi, and assorted ales.

Not surprisingly, tech occasionally came up. :-) We talked about the business-related dynamics of open source, Ruby, SQLite, ImageMagick, and various other topics of interest. Our barbequing skills were also a hot topic.

The Crew (left to right). Jason G, Greg Weinger, Mike Herrick, Ed Copony, Erik Onnen

If you’re at the show and are looking for a great place to eat, this is it.

Jason