Even though it's not a military site these days, apparently the Alamo still sees some action. A colleague and I noticed the helicopters hovering overhead during our lunch break yesterday. Advice to conference attendees: don't leave your pleather conference satchel unattended in a public place, lest the local authorities detonate it.

Meanwhile, our customers are enjoying an explosion of technology with SAS 9.2! I've been working in the SAS demo room -- it has been very busy, which makes for quick days here.

People are excited about futures, but they also love to learn what they can do today with the stuff that they've got. Susan and Lora, of Little SAS Book fame, presented a hands-on workshop on "SAS coding with Enterprise Guide". It was full -- 125 participants, following along with their scripted tutorial on the conference machines.

Last night I attended the prestigious SAS Press author's dinner with about 30 or so folks who have written books for SAS. Most of them are SAS customers or consultants -- and all of them are very smart. Even though I felt like the "dummy" in the room, I enjoyed listening to their real-world stories of using and teaching SAS.