Just in case you’ve missed my many references to it, I have been struggling with an addiction. To a website. A website that has badges. No, it’s not facebook. It’s ServerFault.com.

Like any true addict, I defend my addiction. However, unlike most addicts, my addiction truly is productive! Also, unlike addicts, I CAN QUIT ANYTIME I WANT!! What’s so productive about the site is that I get to rub elbows with people who are way, way smarter than me. I get to watch them as they engage Deep Thought Mode over particularly snarled problems… as well as occasionally smacking their foreheads at some choice examples of silliness. People like Chopper3, JoeQwerty, Warner, MrDenny and of course Evan Anderson have some stellar technological skills and they amazingly share their expertise with others on ServerFault… for free.

As great of a resource as ServerFault is, every once in a while it’s productive to actually venture out into meatspace and talk with your colleagues face to face. There are plenty of great conferences already in existence for SysAdmins to attend, however ServerFault has teamed with the High Scalability blog and created a new one called the “High Scalability Conference“.

From the website:

Scalability, brought to you by Server Fault and High Scalability, is a one-day educational conference this October 14, 2011 in San Francisco, CA. Attend and learn how to create scalable systems.

Don’t miss these awesome sessions!
Ganeti Virtualzation Management: Improving the Utilization of Your Hardware and Your Time
Speaker:
Tom Limoncelli, Google

Three Scaling Directions, A Panel Discussion
Speakers:
Markus Frind, Plenty of Fish
Ben Kochie, Google
Jeff Atwood, Stack Exchange

Scalability in Network Visibility – Is your Network Too Complex to Know What’s Going On?
Speaker:
Loris Degioanni, Riverbed

The event is taking place for a single day on October 14, 2011 at The Concourse Exhibition Center in San Francisco and costs $299USD. However, if you use the promotional code ‘nubbyadmin’ you’ll recieve $100 off! Thanks Kyle!

The Scalability Conference is part of the San Francisco leg of the larger series of worldwide StackOverflow DevDays 2011 Conferences. In fact, you can attend both days of the SanFrancisco DevDays conference and the single day Scalability conference with a SuperPass for $748USD.

The presenters are top notch. The venue is class. The organizers are choice. The price is amazing. I hope you’ll sign up. While you may not get to meet the ServerFault members that I mentioned above (or maybe you will!) I’m sure you’ll meet someone that you’ve seen on ServerFault. If you do make it, make sure to take plenty of pictures! Especially if you see a Paddington Bear ride… (shameless ServerFault inside joke).