13th
RubyKaigi 2011 status for attendees overseas
Radioactive situations
In short, right now, you are safe to visit Tokyo.
You should really understand the basic simple fact that no scientists, no power companies or no governments can cover up radiations. In case of nuclear accidents, radiation increase must be observed by any monitoring system elsewhere. So you can detect your safeness from those systems. At the time I write this, environmental radioactivities in Tokyo are about 0.08 μSv / h = 700 μSv / yr, which is below alert level.
- About the numbers: http://blog.xkcd.com/2011/03/19/radiation-chart/
- Realtime monitors: http://www.mext.go.jp/english/radioactivity_level/index.htm
Earthquakes
Yes it sometimes quakes. So what?
Don’t be afraid. Luckily Tokyo was not that damaged by the big earthquake and has already been restored. Its public systems including connectivity to the Internet and Caffeine supply chains like the Starbucks, are all normally operated now. Programmers should have no problem. When you visit here, you can see how robust the city is made. Remember Japan has been a land of earthquakes since long before humans started living in the island. We get used to.
RubyKaigi itself
For RubyKaigi, it will be held as planned.
I heard from Masayoshi Takahashi of Ruby-no-kai that the Kaigi venue says it is OK to have the kaigi. He also told us that his Ruby-no-kai members are smoothly preparing to the Kaigi. If there can be any possibility of abortion, that would be due to power supply related(*1). But even on a blackout, I think the Kaigi itself can still be OK, because the venue is equipped with private power facilities.
Masayoshi says that when situation changes he will immediately notice us via any channels. It seems announcements in English are first posted to @rubykaigi twitter account. You would be better follwing it. I have not seen any announcements about their schedules so right now it seems everything is as planned.
Hope seeing you at the Kaigi.
(*1): As reactors stop after the quake, power supply in Tokyo area is a bit cranky. Unlike those frequent earthquakes, power shortages are really rare in Japan. People are not that used to them. There might perhaps be some pitfalls.
