I went to the OWASP (Open Wep Application Security Project) meeting here last night. The group was small about 9 people and varied from networkers, php, java, and me (what do I do again?). So it was cool to have a little group of varied talents.

What was not cool was the presentation. I think I might be used to the highly techinical EDMUG presentations. This was an overview of network security principals and practices from a 20,000 foot view. To me it lacked anything I can take back to my work at all. The presenter seemed to know his stuff but did not seem to share it. The meetings are only an hour long too which really limits how much you can talk about.

I am planning on attending again though as I think that some usefull information can be gained. They asked for a coder to give a presentation about securing the application side of things which would be nice to see. I might even do something on it. It seems so boring talking about xss and sql injection but they really are the things that affect us the most.

The fun part of the night was going out with Vlad Levin who is looking to start up an agile user group here in Edmonton. Its always nice to meet new coders and talk about our history and how we got to where we are now. Another great thing I found was that talking with programers who do other languages abstracts your ideas even a bit further away from code which is nice. I do have one word of caution though. If Vlad is driving...... stay off the sidewalks. :)