We're pleased to have two speakers this evening:



Mike Friedman: "Perl API for the Mortally Terrified" Damian Conway: "Instantly Better Presentations" Space is limited, so register early! But please be courteous to fellow NY.pm members and only RSVP if you are sure you can attend.



Perl API for the Mortally Terrified



Have you ever wanted to contribute to a Perl module, but were dismayed to find parts of it written in C? Do you want to optimize some slow code, but the letters XS make you tremble in fear? Maybe you just want to find out how Perl works under the hood, so you can sound smart when people start talking about HV *'s and mortalisation.



This presentation has just enough to get you started on your way to Perl guts hackery. Don't know any C? Don't worry. We'll have a quick crash course to get you up to speed with what you need to know, then go over Perl's internal type system, the main API endpoints you'll need to understand, and the resources available to learn more.



About the speaker:



Mike Friedman is a Perl Engineer & Evangelist at 10gen, the MongoDB company. Mike is the current maintainer of the Perl MongoDB driver and is the author of a number of other CPAN modules, including Redis::Client. Prior to 10gen, Mike has hacked Perl at a number of New York-based high-tech startups, as well as media and educational services companies.



Instantly Better Presentations



The best, most effective technical presentations capture the audience quickly, hold their interest effortlessly, educate and entertain them in equal measure, and sometimes even inspire them. This talk explores seven simple and effective techniques to help you achieve those goals in your own presentations.



About the speaker:



Damian Conway is an internationally renowned speaker, author, and trainer, and a prominent contributor to the Perl community. Currently he runs Thoughtstream (http://damian.conway.org), an international IT training company that provides programmer training from beginner to masterclass level throughout Europe, North America, and Australasia. Most of his spare time over the past decade has been spent working with Larry Wall on the design and explication of the Perl 6 programming language (http://dev.perl.org/perl6). He has a PhD in Computer Science and was until recently an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Faculty of Information Technology at Monash University, Australia.



About the venue and logistics



This meetup is hosted at 10gen's New York City offices. You must have your full name on your RSVP so we can provide a list of attendees to security. If you have guests, please provide their names in the comments for the meeting.