• Attended an EFF panel on “Telecommuting: Ins & Outs”. I was actually able to contribute my thoughts in this discussion because I telecommute once or twice a week. One of the recommendations was to utilize an Instant Messaging system within the company network, such as Jabber or Office Communicator, and I think that’s an excellent idea.
• Attended a panel on “Getting a Job in the Gaming Industry”. The President of Epic Games, Mike Capps, hosted the panel. I didn’t realize that Epic Games is actually headquartered in Cary, North Carolina. For those who didn’t attend, the summary of the panel is this: It doesn’t matter how much you like video games; you need a four year degree from a good Engineering or Computer Science school and solid background in math, physics, graphics, and algorithms.
• The developers of Age of Canon made an appearance in this MMO panel from Funcom. Of particular interest was their discussion on the differences between European MMOs and US MMOs.
• “Q&A in Cryptic” featured a demo of Champions Online, an MMO featuring full customization.
• Finished the day with Dean Haglund performing improv comedy. This year, he improvised a show of the X-Files. You might remember Dean Haglund as one the Lone Gunmen, Langley, from the X-Files

• In “Meet the Stars of Harry Potter”, which should have really been named “Meet Just One Star of Harry Potter”, Matthew Lewis, who played Neville Longbottom in the movies made an appearance and talked about his experiences as an actor. No spoilers, but Matt does have a World of Warcraft character.
• Michael Rosenbaum played Lex Luthor, and in “Living in Smallville” talked about where he’s going after Smallville. This was one of the most entertaining panels as far as guest stars go this year, irrespective of whether or not you’re a fan of the show.
• We diverged from our normal routine and attended a panel in Hanover called “Monster in an Hour”, where a few budding artists attempt to draw a monster improv style in, not unexpectedly, under an hour.
• We made minimal effort in attending the Firefly panel, but had no luck getting in. Instead, Adam and I hopped over to the Evil Geniuses panel. I’d always been curious about it but never had the opportunity until now. It turns out that, yes, it really is about a bunch of mad scientists plotting to take over the world. Good luck.
• The day was concluded with “Hacking 101″. Randal Schwartz, author of Learning Perl, made an appearance here. Nothing too spectacular, but it was a good way to wind down the day.

Update: I arrived back home on Saturday. I left Friday from Orlando, but it got late and so I stayed at a hotel in Tiffton.

• Tara McPherson and William Stout competed head to head to win this year’s “7th Annual Iron Art Competition,” presented in a format similar to Iron Chef, but with art instead of food. In previous years, Adam and I attended the Digital Iron Artist competition, so we though it’d be interesting to see the competition applied to more traditional art forms. Hosted by Michael Winslow, an American actor and comedian known as the “Man of 10000 Sound Effects.”
• In “Fundamentals of Game Programming,” Dr. Jalal Raissi of DeVry University, discussed the various programming areas within the video game industry including: game play, graphics, input, network, physics, sound, tools, user Interface, lead programming and more.
• Met the guys behind the voices of Adult Swim, including Doc Hammer and Dana Snyder. The panel had provided some upcoming previews of Cartoon Network cartoons, as well as the Aqua Teen Hunger Force video game.
• The “Artificial Intelligence in Gaming” panel, also from DeVry University, presented several common undergraduate algorithms in AI, including the popular Dijkstra’s algorithm.
• In “Voice Acting,” the voices behind your favorite Anime shows congregate to discuss what it takes to become a voice actor. Members from Robotech, Full Metal Alchemist, Ghost in the Shell, Crusher Joe, and more. Michael Brady, C. Martin Croker, George Lowe, and Vic Mignogna were guest speakers for this panel.

Unfortunately, the event was unusually crowded this year, and we were surprised that we were unable to attend many of the panels because they had reached capacity. We also managed to once again miss James Phelps and Oliver Phelps, better known as the Weasley twins from Harry Potter, because of scheduling conflicts.

• This year we made an effort to attend the DragonCon Parade itself, where various costumed people marched around the block to show off their obsession with science fiction.
• I missed part of Grandmaster Musashi’s martial arts panel last year, and this year caught the whole thing. Grandmaster Musashi uses sword, walking stick, and empty hands to do some amazing things.
• Ron Glass and Mark Sheppard discussed their experiences as actors on the science fiction series Firefly and its sequel film Serenity.
• In “9/11 Conspiracy Theories and Other Internet Hoaxes”, Dr. Michael Shermer, founder of The Skeptics Society, surveys of some of the top hoaxes and conspiracy theories driven by bloggers and YouTube home documentaries. I found this panel to the most educational of the day.
• The “Star Trek Guest Stars” panel featured John de Lancie (Q) and Barbara Luna (Marlena) as they talked about their plans after Star Trek and answered questions from the audience.
• The “Stargate Guest Mega Panel” offered a free-wheeling hour with a whole bunch of Stargate actors, including Vanessa Angel, Alexis Cruz, Louis Gossett Jr., Christopher Judge, Paul McGillion, Jason Momoa, Corin Nemec, Robert Picardo, Michael Shanks, and Marcia Patterson.

• In “Mythbusters: What’s Next?”, Tory Belleci, Kari Byron, and Grant Imahara return to tell us about upcoming Mythbusters episodes, including episodes on “ninja myths” and other favorites.
• In “How I Learned to Stop Pirating Software & Love the GIMP”, Carey A. Oxler gave a tour of free resources for the digital artist, including software, books, tutorials, and communities. Featured products included GIMP and Inkscape. The panel also introduced me to ImagineFX, a fantasy and sci-fi digital art publication.
• Dean Haglund concluded the afternoon for Adam and I, where we learned about his Chill Pak product line, as well as a few other inventions up his sleeve. Unlike other actors, I’ve always found Dead to be down to earth and friendly with his fans.

• The “Star Wars Celebrity Hour” panel featured Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca), Kiran Shah (Ewok), and Matthew Wood (Voice of Grievous). Shah also starred in Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal.
• Joined Javier Grillo-Marxuach and Paul Dini as they talked about Lost stories and shared tales about the creative process in “Lost: Stories from the Story Room”.
• In “How Not to Get Published”, Bruce Gehweiler, Gary Hayes, Phil Nutman, Teri Nutman, and James Moore took a seriously lighthearted look at mistakes beginners make when working towards their first publication. Though the panel focused primarily on fiction writing, the topic covered echoed many of my own experiences while working on technical publications.
• The returning Webcomics panel brought with it Jennie Breeden, Bill Holbrook, Erin Lindsey, John P. Lotshaw, and Kara Knepton. New this year, the Webcomics panel presented the “Uncle Fred Awards”, in honor of Fred Lasswell, creator of “Snuffy Smith” and an early web comic pioneer.
• Ningage-ryu, a Japanese martial arts style with its roots in the early 1300’s, continues to live. Grandmaster Musashi used sword, walking stick, and his empty hands to do some amazing things.
• Obsidian Entertainment provided an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look at the upcoming sequel to one of the best-selling role-playing games of all time in this “Neverwinter Nights 2 Preview” panel. Chris Avellone, Shane DeFreest, and Josh Sawyer, walked fans through every aspect of the game’s progress.

• Kevin Sorbo (Captain Dylan Hunt), Steve Bacic (Telemachus Rhade), and Brandy Ledford (Doyle) kicked off Saturday with Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda Cast Reunion. The actors talked about their experiences on the show, future projects and endeavors, as well as some of the politics that led the eventual cancellation of the series.
• The developers of Anarchy Online shared their thoughts with a loyal online community in this well-received panel. Anarchy Online is published by FunCom, makers of The Longest Journey.
• In “Mythbusting for Fun and Profit”, Tory Belleci of the MythBusters tells the story of how he ended up on the popular science series. Tory also wanted to let everyone know that most of his IMDB profile is entirely fabricated. This panel was sponsored by the Space & Science programming track, and I hope to see more from this track in the coming years at DragonCon.
• The Babylon 5: Cast Q&A became full quite quickly, and as a result, Adam and I hopped next door to listen to performances by Lisa Furukawa. Lisa Furukawa Ray is a Japanese-American pianist, singer, and songwriter. Utilizing her talents in contemporary and classical music, Lisa’s performances and recordings display a fusion of Japanese folk, alternative pop, and electronica.
• I had so much fun with Dean Haglund and Gary Jones at last year’s DragonCon, that attending this panel was a no-brainer. Boldly going where no comedians have gone before. Gary and Dean traveled the universe in this “Improv Enterprise”, with the help of audience suggestions and the occasional doomed audience member in a red shirt, to make the universe a safer and dare we say, more hilarious place for all mankind.
• Just days before the event, I had the opportunity to watch Serenity, the conclusion of the cancelled Firefly science fiction television series, often described as “cowboys in space”. Alan Tudyk (Wash) and Summer Glau (River) of the series joined us in this Q&A session.

• LeVar Burton let us know about his upcoming ventures, including his upcoming superhero movies with Spike Lee.
• Marina Sirtis heads with her two dogs and husband to England to pursue acting, and recounted interesting tidbits from her times on the Star Trek set.
• Peter David, best known for his Star Trek novels, ventured from the path and read from the pre-release of his upcoming Fallen Angel comic, a preview of which is available on Newsarama.
• Chris Nuccio of Leo Ticheli Productions and Hunter Cressall of the well-known Mac Parody gives us the nitty-gritty details on Digital Video Compression and Manipulation. Discussions ranged from digital rights management, to video encoding techniques and video ripping, to BitTorrent and the legality of web sites like the Pirate Bay and Torrent Reactor.

While I didn’t actually take any photos myself, Slinderdoo has posted some nice costume shots of DragonCon attendees. CyanBane and Mark Lusher also made an attendance, though I didn’t have a chance to personally meet them.

• Joined in on the morning panel on The Many Faces of Batman, where many of the writers of the Batman comics series brought their thoughts to the table. Discussions ranged from the history of Batman to the latest Batman movie.
• The appearance of Carmen Argenziano, Alexis Cruz, Gary Jones, and Paul McGillion brought with it a renewed interest in the Stargate television series.
• Star Trek’s Enterprises’ Connor Trinneer talked about his experiences on the show in this one hour panel.
• Can you be fired for blogging? Panel members Amy MystrysCam and Cherie Priest led the Blogger’s Rights panel, and generated some interesting discussions on bloggers, online journalism, and fair use.
• In a Nuts and Bolts of Producing a Webcomic, successful web-based comic strip authors and artists showed us how it’s done. Featured Jennie Breeden, Robert Balder, Jeffrey Darlington, Bill Holbrook, and Erin Lindsey.
• I love Dad’s Garage. So you can imagine my surprise when Dean Haglund, of Lone Gunman Extraordinaire fame, and Gary Jones joined forces to unexpectedly present a complete hour of improv comedy.

• Spent an hour with some of the creative minds at RedStorm Entertainment, makers of the popular Tom Clancy video games Rainbox Six and Ghost Recon. Discussions turned to difficulties in console development for the upcoming Xbox 360, differences between PC and console development, and future directions for the company.
• Gigi Edgley (Chiana), Virginia Hey (Pa’u Zotoh Zhaan), and Raelee Hill (Sikozu Svala Shanti Sugaysi Shanu) from Jim Henson’s Farscape described their experiences when working on and off the set in this Q&A session.
• The cast of Serenity, one of the most anticipated science fiction movies of the year, joined us to talk about their experiences in the filming of the Firefly series and the upcoming film, stories from the set, and their disappointments in the premature cancellation of this western in space. Featured Morena Baccarin (Inara Serra), Adam Baldwin (Jayne Cobb), Ron Glass (Shepherd Derrial Book), and Jewel Staite (Kaylee Frye).
• There can’t be a DragonCon without Star Trek. Robin Curtis (Saavik) from The Search for Spock and The Voyage Home, LeVar Burton (Geordi LaForge) and Marina Sirtis from The Next Generation, Max Grodenchik (Rom) from Deep Space Nine, and Connor Trinneer (Trip Tucker) from Enterprise appeared in this StarTrek Celebrity Cavalcade, with guest stars featured from every Star Trek series.
• This year brought with a fair amount of digital and computer art. In a Fantasy Art Session with Photoshop CS2, Claudia McGuire with Adobe Systems presented some of the new features of Photoshop CS2, such as the spot healing tool. Adobe features a fully functional 30-day trial of Photoshop CS2.
• Digital Iron Artist brings the tradition into the 21st Century by pitting two digital artists against each other using only a computer. Despite the numerous technical difficulties, the panel was quite entertaining. Featured Joshua Strickland and Philip Straiger.

• Inside Star Wars Characters. Jeremy Bulloch talked about his small part in The Empire Strikes Back as Boba Fett and the rising popularity of this minor character after the re-release of Star Wars in 1997. Aaron Allston, science fiction and fantasy writer, discussed his novels in Star Wars as well the Star Wars Expanded Universe. His favorite characters are Wedge Antilles and Wes Janson.
• In this familiar but nevertheless interesting panel, Cryptanalyist Elonka Dunin discussed Famous Solved and Unsolved Codes, with particular emphasis on the Beale, Voynich Manuscript, Dorabella, and Zodiac Killer ciphers. After leading a team that cracked the famous Cyrillic Projector cipher in 2003, her interest lies now in the CIA Kryptos sculpture. Fascinating.
• Garrett Wang, Voyager’s Harry Kim, spoke about his acting career start for Burger King commercials and the entertaining chain of events that eventually led to his role in this popular Star Trek series. He’s also a hilarious guy.

I wanted to see Dean Haglund of the cult classics X-Files and the The Lone Gunmen but was unable to due to a scheduling conflict. Perhaps next year. DragonCon is a fabulous experience and my only regret is that I didn’t know about it sooner.

• Graham Watkins provided an interesting lecture on the science and speculation of Cryptozoology to start off the day. Creatures discussed include the Loch Ness Monster, Unicorns, Yeti the Abominable Snowman, Dragons, and more.
• Sadly, the presentation on Fighting MPAA Lawsuits was cancelled as a result of Hurricane Frances. Better luck next time.
• Georgia Tech Information Security Center Director Ralph Merkle covered topics in Un-Trusted Computing, including security threats such as viruses, worms, and spam, and secure hardware through the use of virtual machines and hash functions. I’m waiting on his presentation slides before writing more about this track.
• Of course, no Science Fiction convention would be complete without a dicussion on time travel. In Back to the Future, Sci-Fi author Davey Beauchamp and the participants discussed the possibility of time travel, time travel fiction and non-fiction, and the paradoxes of this fascinating genre. A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury was one of the more interesting short stories mentioned.
• Dennis O’Neil is one of the most renowned comic writers, having heavily influenced Wonder Woman, Justice League of America, as well as returning the dark tone to Batman. In How Comic Book Characters Evolve, O’Neil discussed the history of comics from the Yellow Kid to Dick Tracy to Superman, and the influence of comics on modern television and movies, such as CSI.
• The FCC Takes a Stand in the Copyright Wars. Paul Scheele, an FCC-licensed broadcast engineer, talked about the controversial FCC broadcast flag rules and its effect on digital television (DTV). Currently waiting on his presentation slides.
• My So-Called LiveJournal. Panel moderators and LiveJournal users Mystrys, sohma g. dawling, el Gorgo, and Zeppo discussed the stories and social phenomenon of this blogging community. Frankly, I was a bit disappointed. Reputation in the LiveJournal world is seemingly governed by such trivialities as Quizilla! and nonsensical memes. Perhaps it’s my elitism, but no thanks. I think I’ll stick with the real weblogs.

An amazing atmosphere overall. And scantily-dressed attractive women dressed as fairies – always a nice touch. I’m greatly looking forward to tomorrow’s presentations. See you on the flip side.