Putting foot in mouth

[Kurt Cagle <cagle@olywa.net>]

A few months ago, I co-taught a conference on XML with Alex Homer, a man
who's opinions I respected and books I'd voraciously read. The course we
were teaching was a tutorial that went for about four hours, and about
halfway through, while he took his section, I felt the call of nature. So,
slipping off stage, I headed to the loo. We had been using wireless
microphones, one of which I had clipped to my lapel, and so when I left the
stage, well, so did the mic.

As I was walking out of the bathroom, the head of the conference came
running up to me with her staff behind her, yelling "Turn off your mike!
Turn off your mike!" Yes, they, and three hundred conference attendees, had
all heard everything.

To those people I have offended, keep in mind that I'm sometimes very
clueless about the little things, and understand that I do none of it with
malice. My apologies ... I'm going to go hide in a closet for awhile.

-- Kurt