HN user
Conferences usually have a "Volunteer Coordinator" role, and if you can find that person then you can usually get in free by doing some easy work before/after/during the conference. I have attended several (4?) conferences this way without having to pay the fee. However, for Google I/O or Java One, I don't think they take volunteers.
Complaining about broken website conventions while simultaneously breaking them yourself is either ironic or hypocritical, depending on your mood.
The author's webpage has a "x Kudos" vibrating image on the right and side, and if you hover over the image then the page sends a "like" HTTP message to the server. So now hovering my mouse over an element just had me like the author's page. That is way worse than a link with a broken image.