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Ottawa Linux Symposium 2000: Tech Rocks!
I arrived on Wednesday morning, and I was told that I wouldn't be able to check into my room until 3 p.m. No problems. I scanned the faces in the geek-filled lobby to see if there was anyone I recognized. I found San Mehat, VA Linux guy and Official Slashdot DJ. Quick acknowledgement and hello, and we were off to breakfast, joined about twenty minutes later by 'Hostile' Joe Arruda and Zac Sprackett, two angry young upstarts from VA. After breakfast and some Ottawa tech sightings, we headed to the show.
The common area of the show itself was a large hallway of the Ottawa Congress Center, connected by entryways to the Westin Hotel and to the Rideau Center, a huge mall. I scanned the room in an effort to find a machine connected to the Net. Passed a few friends Along the way, and finally sat down at a box running Red Hat and Helix GNOME. Good enough for me. Except for one thing: The network was nowhere to be found. This did not bode well. A little questioning later, I found that the network hadn't been completely set up yet, so it was going to be a little while before I could get online.
I went back up to the registration desk, and put down a deposit on a wireless networking card that I would use later. It was a pretty good deal. You sign in, drop a credit card number, and you get a card. Give the card back at the end of the week, and you get your deposit of $165 Canadian back. Again, not a bad idea. The good thing is that by the next day, the networking was up and running.
Except to get it to work, you needed to muck around with your system and find drivers for the thing. If I had the time, I would have done it, but I didn't. The Ottawa Linux Symposium shares one thing with the megashows like Linux World Expo -- the action is fast and furious, and you'll find yourself suddenly surrounded by interesting people you'll want to speak to. The Linux community makes friends fast. We're not talking about 'Oh, I met this guy' encounters, either. People like Alan Cox and Donald Becker. People like Miguel De Icaza and Dave Taylor.
Which brings me to another point. Accessibility. If you've got some kick-ass new code to add to Enlightenment, go talk to Rasterman. He's right over there. Want to discuss something you need added to the kernel, and want to show off your source to Alan Cox? He's sitting down hacking 2.4 while discussing Scooby-Doo. One of the great things about the Linux community is the ability to contact developers first-hand, especially though E-mail. Ottawa Linux Symposium is a testament to the fact that it works just as well in real life, too. Community building was in full force, and it was good to see it happen.
There's a little bit of a line of separation here. I was at the conference to write a story about it, not to attend the conference and glean knowledge from the presentations. So, I talked to someone who was: Julie Lavoie, systems administrator for Concordia University in Montreal.
"This year's OLS was less impeccably organized than last year's: registration was chaotic (splitting registration into people with last names beginning with A-M and N-Z does _not_ give you two equal lines!) and AV problems plagued many talks in the first few days, but Good Things Still Happened: the hardcore technical talks left me a wiser computer geek, Helix Code threw a smashing party and I found the mail client of my dreams."
"In another loopy tour through Miguel's hyperkinetic world, Miguel de Icaza opened the conference by telling a room full of hardcore Unix geeks how Unix sucks, what we can learn from Microsoft, and how GNOME will improve on all of this. Brave, brave.
Maddog shared wise 'everything old is new again' computing stories during the welcome reception. The FreeS/Wan project stood out as a shining example of security engineering done right during their talks: reduce complexity, make it possible for non-experts to configure your product safely, provide real security instead of marketing smoke. Rasterman demystified X programming. David Miller gave us a wacky, gossip-filled insider's view of kernel development in the past n years. The Helix Code folk introduced me to Evolution, the mail client of my dreams, which promises to displace my current mh/premail/procmail setup the second it's out of beta."
It's not exactly a Linux conference unless there's a few parties, right? I attended the Corel party at the Hard Rock for about an hour before I left in abject boredom. The Zero Knowledge party out at the ranch in Nepean, Ontario was a good one. Apparently, there was a problem with food there, but I didn't find out because I didn't eat any of it. I did enjoy throwing Linux enthusiasts off of the inflatable battle thing, and I won at least one Zero Knowledge T-shirt for it. Julie was at the parties, too.
"On the party scene: Corel's Hard Rock Cafe party was boring; the highlight was managing to get the Hard Rock to play techno. Zero-Knowledge's dude ranch party was good, and had cool party games like 'King of the Mountain' on top of a giant inflatable mushroom. Helixcode threw the best party of the conference, renting the cozy Black Thorn cafe, with unlimited drinks, live band, and awesome food. Helixcode also gave me a stuffed Bonobo monkey, so as far as I'm concerned they can do no wrong. A bunch of us went raving on Saturday night in the countryside of Ottawa. There's nothing like wrapping up a night of raving with a soak in the hotel hottub."
Enough fun and games! I also got a chance to talk to Craig Ross, who is the 'Token Canadian' at VA Linux and was one of the organizers of the show. Some of the differences between this year and last year was moving from the Westin Hotel to the larger Ottawa Congress Center. Also, this year's conference had a lot more attendees than last year. Take it away, Craig!
"Although I'm still attempting to recover from lack of sleep, I'm really quite pleased with the success of this year's conference. For those who attended last year, you probably noticed an increase in both the number of talks, as well as the attendees. Obviously we were excited about the increased interest in the event, though there was also the concern that the event would lose its intimacy."
"It was probably during the last night where I realized everything went as well as it did. It was almost as if I was walking around in a trance until that night, where everyone was coming up and commending us for putting on an excellent event, and how they were looking forward to next year. Or how Miguel changed his flight, just so he could stay. ;)"
"The talks were fascinating and informative, and we were really lucky to have Dave Miller, Miguel de Icaza, and Jon "Maddog" Hall for our keynote talks."
"As for next year, we're going to be making a lot of changes. Mostly to allow attendees, speakers and sponsors the ability to access their 'accounts' online, and submit papers, change information, etc. We're really excited about continuing to host this event, and appreciate all of the support from both our attendees, and sponsors. Thanks, and I look forward to seeing you all next year."
Ah, but you really couldn't tell a well-rounded account of the conference without having the perspective of one of the speakers, could you? Here's the word fron San 'NeTTwerk' Mehat, who gave a presentation of VACM, a new tool for administration in large server farm environments.
"I thought OLS itself in general was a great technical conference. The organizers had obviously thought ahead of time of the needs of the people who would be attending a pure technical conference; the wireless ethernet and ready availability of 'someone who knew what was going on' was a refreshing change from other less technical conferences. The speaker topics and presentations were informative, and in depth (even though the show was a little bit 'gnome heavy' in my opinion). As a presenter I found the experience very enjoyable. The usual last minute technical problems that might normally have me scrambling around for 'someone who knew what was going on' were quickly solved by show attendants. As far as the 'room-for-improvement' department, the actual scheduling of some of the various talks could use some improvement to avoid conflicts between talks which are equally interesting. Also, I believe the show could have been a little shorter. Four days of pure technical content is enough to melt my brain."
One of the biggest complaints I've heard about the show is that there were too many interesting talks scheduled in conflict with other interesting talks. In the Linux conference biz, those are the kinds of problems you like to have. It means more people will show up next year to check out the tracks they missed. Sure, it can be irritating to miss something, but the general consensus is that Ottawa Linux Symposium rocked, and everyone I spoke to looks forward to next year.
Dammit, you found my secret plan to overthrow western civilization. First, I start the GNude Programmers League (GPL for short), and eliminate the tech shirt giveaways through my sister group Ban Shirt Distributions (BSD for short). The resulting slump in the clothing industry, which is heavily subsidized by these companies and their computer shirt giveaways will cause a worldwide depression as insecure people are frightened to leave their homes without any vesturements. Within two years, we'll all be naked and happy again.
Marxism is the opiate of dumbasses
The view from here:
The sign-up was a bit rushed. but they seemed to have gotten everybody where they needed to be. It was great, we had a whole bunch of geeks in our house.
I had a nice brief little demonstration on the wireless network cards and what was entailed in getting it to work in the various laptops around the building. It seems that geeks are not the anti-social stereotypes that non-techs give to them. They like to share ideas and concepts. I heard that the earlier talks were sparsely attended as everyone was trying to get their networking up and running.
I did not hear much about the parties, mind you I wasn't expecting many coherent answers anyway 8)
I heard that most of the talks were very informative and cause for some debate at times. The best thing I think that these 'get-togethers' bring about is good mental stimulation and expanding the conciousness.
I heard a few debates on which talks some were going to attend as they wanted to attend a couple at the same time.
By the end of it though it seems that everyone was tired and over-stimulated (is that possible?. Maybe Saturday should have been a couple of discussion rooms and no talks. Give people a chance to wind down their brains.
I went briefly to the table at front with my boyfriend to return his network card, and the set up was very nice and open, well lit, with lots of computers and geeks around.
So all in all it sounded like a great conference and I hope I will be able to attend next years.
(maybe throw a rave afterwards? by invite only? geeks only apply?)
Astarte
"One brain for sale. Overly used. May need upgrading."
That argument would lead to having it in Vancouver, BC instead, which is closer to Redmond and allows us to invite all the MS people on their lunch break.
...
:-P
I'm sorry I missed it, seeing as I'm only 2 hours west of Ottawa
- Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
For my account, see July 20-22 in my online diary. I agree with Emmett; it was a superb techie conference, though I'd like to see more userspace-related topics.
The Northern Belle is long gone. We floated it down the river almost a year ago.
:)
The main casino is completely new. Lots of pretty lights, loud sounds, and a waterfall too.
And we don't have muggers lying in wait outside the casino, like the Detroit casinos do.
Heh. The first time I crossed the border into Detroit, the Customs officer asked me if I had any firearms. When I said "No" he said "Good God man! Here, take mine!"
Want to learn about race cars? Read my Book
Sure Ottawa's got all the older Canadian software companies, but there's no venture capital to speak of...
4 738.html] Ventures West, which has about $300 million under administration in several venture funds, has made 10 investments in Ottawa area companies, including participation in some high profile deals with Nu-Wave, Sedona Networks and ATMOS Co.
Hmmm...
I think that Ottawa has lots of venture capital. I quote from a recent article in the Ottawa Citizen:
[http://www.ottawacitizen.com/hightech/000728/452
"We view Ottawa as a world class centre," said Barry Gekiere, a Ventures West partner, "It is a hotbed for specific technologies especially in the telecom area, in optical networking and photonics and also semiconductor development."
Ottawa technology companies grabbed a record shattering $350 million in venture capital in just the second quarter of this year, far exceeding funding for all of 1999.
And this is for a city with a population of around 300,000. That's not too bad.
--pcb
'Men never commit evil so fully and joyfully as when they do it for religious convictions.' B. Pascal
You can read more on their homepage.
Gee guys, how about bringing the show to Windsor, Ontario next time through?
- We're right across the river from Detroit
- We've got this kick-ass casino, for those into flaunting probability
- 78% less gunfire than our cross-border neighbour!
- That world-famous kernel hacker Kid Rock may drop by
- Cuban cigars for everyone!
Seriously though, it'd be good to have a Linux Happening in my back yard for a change.
Please?
DG
Want to learn about race cars? Read my Book
This is going to seem off-topic, but the general tone of the posts thus far has been that Ottawa is a great Linux town. I'm sure it is. But when I moved out of Ottawa in 1996, I hadn't even heard of Linux.
Consider carefully before you move to Ottawa, if you get an offer from an Ottawa-based high-tech firm.
Speaking as an Ottawa refugee who now lives in Toronto, the thing that amazes me is that anyone voluntarily exposes him or herself to the climate.
Sure, the quiet solitude of Bank Street at 2:AM on a Saturday night is a lot nicer than the hustle and bustle of Yonge Street at 4 in the morning, but when it's -50c (well below 0F) on a January morning and your Toyota's engine ain't gonna turn over (let alone start), you'll see what I mean.
I spent my first 22 years in Ottawa and Montreal, both of which are insanely cold. I speak from experience; a Toronto/Detroit/Chicago winter is warm in comparison (the Great Lakes moderate the temperature).
I can fondly remember the winter of 1993. It was my first year living on my own, and I had a nice house in Bells Corners and a job downtown. Bus service is non-existant (OC Transpo really sucks), so if your car doesn't start, you're car-pooling, because those few taxis that did start are all full of people in the same situation. One morning, I woke up and looked out the window, which was solidly iced over from the inside (condensation had frozen to the glass). It was brilliantly sunny out - a sign that everyone who has lived in the subarctic knows to interpret as a message from God or Mother Nature or whoever, saying, it's way too fscking cold to go outside.
As I got dressed, the phone started ringing, and it was a few of my co-workers and neighbors calling me to ask if my car had started.
I went outside to my trusty little winter beater, a 1980 Chevette. Speaking from experience, only three car engines will start reliably in weather than cold, and only if they're very well maintained: a Chevette 1.6L I-4, a Lada (Russian) 2.0L I-4 or a Chrysler Slant-6. Forget your new Acura, even if it's been plugged in, you can't guarantee it'll run. Fuel injection systems have computers to run them, and if you look at the temperature ratings of electronic components, often they won't work when it's that cold.
Not only do they not have EFI (a good thing in this case), most of those older cars are rear-wheel-drive, so that when there's a foot of fresh snow on the ground, you at least know what the car is going to do when you hit the gas. (Fishtail, versus the pseudo-random behavior of a front-wheel-drive car with poor traction.)
It was with trepidation that I threw on my two jackets and stepped outside. Upon inhaling the first breath of that fabulously clear air, the mucous in my nose flash-froze, and I trudged to my car on snow that sounded like styrofoam underfoot. I opened the door, and the light inside the car lit dimly; a bad sign under any other circumstances, but a great sign of life in this case. The car wasn't plugged into a block heater, because my old Chevette had come from a warmer place (northern Massachusetts) where such things aren't needed. Besides, if you know what you're doing and take good care of your carbureted engine, you won't need it.
I sat in the worn vinyl seat and heard the trademark sounds of cracking that vinyl makes when subjected to insanely cold temperatures. Fumbling my key into the ignition (I was shivering), I turned the car on, and cranked it over. Slowly, gently, the engine spun over, and then caught on two cylinders. Pop-wheeze-pop-wheeze. After a few seconds, cylinders three and four joined in: pop-wheeze-wheeze-pop-wheeze-pop-pop-wheeze-pop-po p-pop-pop. After a few more seconds, the engine settled into a normal idle as the combustion chambers started to warm up, and the oil flowing through the motor started to thin out.
I revved her a few times. Since the old Chevette was a stickshift, I had held the clutch to start her up (you don't want the starter motor to be trying to turn a transmission full of lubricant that is as thick as tar when it's tough enough to start the engine!). The dashboard lights and the interior light were bright by this point, so I figured I was okay as I let my foot slowly off the clutch. The engine bogged down, and I thought it was going to stall, so I held the gas up and gently let off the clutch. Within a few moments, the transmission was spinning freely, and the oil inside it was starting to warm up.
I let her idle in neutral for ten minutes, watching the temperature gauge like a hawk (even with 70% antifreeze, at that temperatures, the engine coolant is like Jell-o in the radiator, and oftentimes the engine can't get the coolant flowing through the radiator, so, ironically enough, you overheat. Tempting as it may be, never exceed 70% antifreeze, you need the 30% water or the engine won't cool at all.). The needle came up fine, so I stuck her into reverse to see if I could get out of the driveway.
When I had parked the car the night before, it had been warmer outside, and the tires had been warm from driving. Since then, the tires had frozen into the snow on the driveway. With a popping noise from all four wheels, the car shuddered free from the ice, and rolled out of the driveway.
I was an hour late getting to work that day, but my boss didn't care. His brand new Chevy Blazer didn't start; he was one of the 6 people stuffed into my faithful old Chevette for the long and cold drive to the office.
Think carefully about how rugged you and your car are, before you even remotely consider living in Ottawa. Linux community be damned.
Fire and Meat. Yummy.
Benefits of Detroit over Windsor:
- We're right across the river from Windsor.
- We've got these three kick ass casinos, for those hoping to make REAL money.
- Over four times the stray bullets!
- Over five times the illegal drugs!
- Police? They don't give a shit!
- No nasty, invasive body-cavity searches at the border for all the long-hair US hacks.
- Camping at techno's place! 100T LAN and 110 to all the tents, 220 available upon request.
- Get to test your SUV under real off-road conditions - Detroit's streets!
- Have your Pentium-100 notebook computer stolen at gunpoint by an unemployed auto worker, get insurance company to buy you a new one.
- Only a quick jaunt down I-94 to Ann Arbor, home of fine academia and even finer dating circuit.
- Linux conference in Detroit would allow an opportunity to get Linux into automotive manufacturing computers, and strategically position the OS to take over the world through creative writing of the kernel in fuel injection computers.
Nah, seriously, I love Detroit. But it's not the place for a Linux conference.
Fire and Meat. Yummy.
Sure Nortel's HQ may be in Brampton, but they do the vast majority of their R&D in Ottawa. So there :)
I was there, and I thought it was the best Linux technical conference I've been to. Not that I've been to too many Linux-specific conferences, but it was certainly a great conference. Not like the conference track at Linux World Expo, which was mostly high-level talks, not detailed by-the-developer talks.
Almost every major Linux kernel developer was there, except for Linus, himself.
Sure, registration was a mess--this wasn't run by an experienced conference-running company--but it all worked out. 500 or so people, and all of the interesting.
Oh, and thanks for the ZeroKnowledge shirt, Emmett! (He gave me his when I lost a rock-paper-sizors tie-breaker.)
As a matter of fact, it did indeed get into the gory technical details. For instance, Andrew Tridgell who was giving the rsync speech discussed in detail the implementation and the reasons for the various aspects of the rsync algorithm, and why it was done that way. And Dave Taylor's Crusoe speech was all about how to and how not to write efficient applications for portables (a topic highly relevant to Crusoe), and was almost *too* technical.
The only problem with this is trying to fit a good technical discussion of a technology into a 75 minute discussion. It serves better as a whet-your-appetite to get more people interested and involved in the various projects. All in all a very successful conference imho
God Fucking Damnit