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News from ApacheCon US 2002

Posted by michael on from the over-99-billion-served dept.

pdw writes "Apache Week this week has a feature detailing the happenings at last week's ApacheCon in Vegas. Read up to find out what's new in the world of Apache."

47 comments

  1. Its all about the swag by EvilAlien · · Score: 4, Funny
    No doubt the highlight for many at this year's ApacheCon attendees was the Closing Session where Ken Coar raffled off a number of goodies supplied by the conference vendors including books, AMD processors and other wonderful swag.
    +1 Insightful

    I expect good swag for any conference or seminar, whether or not it is a simple day seminar or something more elaborate. If there isn't the possibility of vendor treats, most IT monkeys don't go.

    --
    perl -e 'print $i=pack(c5, (41*2), sqrt(7056), (unpack(c,H)-2), oct(115), 10)'
    1. Re:Its all about the swag by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      and this attitude are the exact reason why my company WON'T send any of us to conferences. They believe the only reason we're going (and spending their $$, since it can cost a few hundred just to get into some of these) is to pick up free shit for ourselves.

    2. Re:Its all about the swag by EvilAlien · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Are you saying they are wrong? Have you managed to articulate that in a meaningful way to your management?

      If IT people can't pick out a "haha only serious" comment and realize that it is only half true (yes, we expect swag, no it is not the only reason we go), then it is a good indication of the dilution of the industry. In other words, if you don't know better, how can you expect your management to? If you can't give them a good reason why you should go, then you shouldn't go. Simple as that.

      Vendors have marketing departments, and marketing people know that a key to getting market share is getting attention from consumers. This can be done with flashy ads, give-aways, informal dialogs over lunches, and other ways of getting mindshare previous to marketshare. Ultimately, vendors (usually) have to compete based on features, i.e., merit. However, getting someone to look at your product in more depth or showing a customer that you think of them often involves giving them a tshirt, a mug, or some other treat, whether that is pre- or post-sale.

      I assumed people still knew all this, but maybe the industry is in such a depression that it has been forgotten... or maybe it has always been different up here in Canada.

      --
      perl -e 'print $i=pack(c5, (41*2), sqrt(7056), (unpack(c,H)-2), oct(115), 10)'
  2. (P)raise-condition ;) by jki · · Score: 2
    Thieme also noted that, these projects and more importantly those that contribute and use open source technology, have become fluid individuals who's own identity is more modular, less ridged than of past generations, primarily because of the modular, distributed communication systems that are now are commonly used.

    This sounds like one of those cases where speakers start to praise something and that something which is in reality relatively simple and easy to understand becomes godlike wisdom from heaven. Well, maybe it is just easy to get carried away when standing in front of thousands of people...but that's just too thick. :)

  3. It's ironic... by Whatsthiswhatsthis · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Isn't it ironic that ApacheCon is held at one of the few non-indian gambling meccas of the world? Why not ApacheCon on some indian reservation?

    1. Re:It's ironic... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      semi-funny. slide parent some skin.

    2. Re:It's ironic... by aqua · · Score: 3
      Because Vegas is a cheap airline flight from most anywhere in the contential US, and the hotel hosting apachecon was five minutes by shuttle away from the airport. Your typical indian reservation would also feature three hours in a rental car to get to a hotel with no convention facilities.

      Secondarily, apachecon is hosted at a hotel with no casino -- definitely helpful, since the hotel is thus focused more on the needs of the convention and basic hospitality than steeering you into a gambling pit at every opportunity.

    3. Re:It's ironic... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Whoa! ApacheCon on an Indian reservation?!?

      w00t! Povertyville, here I come!

  4. Re:Advertising by stealth in Slashdot by flippet · · Score: 1, Offtopic
    Been like that for ages, mind...

    Usually it's selling computer hardware and the like, but still... does it really get in the way so bad?

    Phil, just me

    --
    "Cattle Prods solve most of life's little problems."
  5. Sun is helping Apache... but where is Sun going? by dagg · · Score: 5, Interesting

    From ApacheCon Day 3: "Fowler noted the major contributions Sun has made not only to Apache and related projects such as Tomcat, but also in non-Apache related projects such as the Gnome desktop and OpenOffice.org."

    I believe Sun is having a hard time finding a direction, right now. Hardware? Software? Work on free stuff? Beat Microsoft? I wonder where they are going to end up.

    --
    Sex on the server side
    --
    Sex - Find It
  6. Wanna see how apache holds up to /. effect?? by SuperDuG · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Well obviously by providing no real summary and an explanation for the link and including the name of a popular open source project, looks like we get to test!

    --
    Ignore the "p2p is theft" trolls, they're just uninformed
  7. Read All About it Last Week by No_Weak_Heart · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I enjoyed reading about this event last week. Thanks to Micheal Radwin's blog

    and hey, thanks for the tips!

  8. Re:Advertising by stealth in Slashdot by EvilAlien · · Score: 2
    Gawd... "Compare the best prices on: Software/Programming Development".

    That is lame, placed right at the top of the related links. On one hand, that is pretty sneaky way to sucker people into looking at products, not as honest as a good ol' banner. On the other hand, it costs money to run the site, pay for bandwidth, etc.

    I suppose we could support /. and click the everliving FSCK out of those links... I'm sure not buying any whateverthehell they want to advertise, I'm immune to that ad brainwashing... oh look, a nice pretty banner for a Netgear access point! I'm going to the computer store, bbl...

    --
    perl -e 'print $i=pack(c5, (41*2), sqrt(7056), (unpack(c,H)-2), oct(115), 10)'
  9. Migrating to Apache 2.x by Hilleh · · Score: 5, Interesting

    A nice read, if a bit light, but I still have to wonder how the "Migrating to Apache 2.0" seminar went. I mean, I started my webserving hobby at the 2.0 stage, but I actually reverted back to 1.3.7 because most of the side projects that make Apache so versataile just aren't there yet. I am eager to upgrade to a 2.x series (technology for technology's sake...I love upgrading things just because), but at this time for a small website, I'm just not seeing the necessity.

    My point being, although I am coming to it in a roundabout fashion...what are the benefits for the average (or even above average) website migrating over to 2.0 at this time? Just seems sorta pointless to me right now.

    Of course, that also goes back to the "Alpha Geeks" thing O'Reilly talked about. Hopefully the fully usable apache 2 goodness will filter down to my level sometime :).

    1. Re:Migrating to Apache 2.x by endrek · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The useability and benifits will come as more people migrate. If I am a developer, will I develope my package fro the 1.3.* or 2.0.* series. Right now, possible the 1.3.* series because that's where most of the people are. But if more people start using the 2.* series, than I'd have a large target audiancs (and a larger demand in general) so I might consider it.

      Sometimes you simply have to start using something to make it viable.

      Again, consider if some one introduces a new language. At first no one will learn it because no one else uses it. But as more people start to use it, more will want to use it because it is more viable.

      (For referance, I am currently using apache 2.0.43 for my site. Had some dificulty getting php working, but it does, and so does perl, and thats about all I need so I'm good). :)
    2. Re:Migrating to Apache 2.x by aqua · · Score: 5, Informative
      It wasn't that interactive of a session, but it went pretty well. The only two major reasons not to upgrade are that (1) most distros haven't adopted it as the stable-default yet, so you have to do the install by hand, and (2) using a threaded MPM you'll hit trouble if your CGIs depend on non-threadsafe libraries.

      This latter is still the major obstacle, since the number of third-party libraries used by (say) PHP is pretty large. You can eliminate the threaded-MPM obstacles by using the process-based prefork MPM, but you don't get some of apache2's performance improvements, especially on operating systems with slow, expensive forks (Solaris, Win32).

    3. Re:Migrating to Apache 2.x by 1110110001 · · Score: 2

      I'm wondering how PHP on Win32's Apache works if the libaries aren't thread safe. Apache on Win32 use two processes - some kind of watchdog and the multithreaded webserver - and it runs fine with PHP.

      To speak for PHP and Apache 2 support: IMHO the currently need their time to get to PHP 5/Zend 2.

      b4n

  10. Days 2,3,4 by yozzle · · Score: 0

    What happened to Day 1? Does ApacheCon count in reverse? Did absolutely nothing interesting happen?

  11. Re:Sun is helping Apache... but where is Sun going by silvaran · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I believe Sun is having a hard time finding a direction, right now.

    Maybe Sun has found their direction. I'm only speculating, but when Microsoft wants to improve their PR, they dump $100 million into India to fight AIDS. I look at Sun in a different light given their contributions to open source. Granted, their may be genuine interest by their employees to donate work and code to the open source community, which leads me to believe that this may not be simply a PR stunt. It's advantageous to Sun to be able to place their mark in software that they believe will eventually be in use by a great number of people (is that a run-on sentence?). I say bring it on. Whatever benefits us as a community benefits the whole, whether it's a group of individuals, or a giant corporation, donating their time and effort.

  12. Other ApacheCon 2002 blogs by MarkMac · · Score: 1
    The ApacheWeek report on ApacheCon is a bit skimpy - there were always several concurrent sessions during the day which sometimes made it difficult to choose a session to attend. Some presentations were just so-so (more basic tutorial but with no particularly insight info) while many were quite good (I liked the Tomcat performance/security talks). Same with the keynotes (I got the impression that Sun isn't really sure where it is going ...). Of even more interest were some of the BOFs held in the evening or early morning which were a better forum for meeting and discussing different projects (along with the state of the Apache world!). There wasn't much to the vendor/exhibit area although it was a good place to hang out between sessions. Particular kudos to Apple for the computer and wireless support at ApacheCon! (It did seem as if half of the laptops at the conference were iBooks or PowerBooks :-) All in all a good conference and the Las Vegas location wasn't too bad.

    There were actually a number of bloggers at ApacheCon aside from Michael Radwin - each with their own independent views/opinions (!) of what they saw/heard ;-) They provide a alternative perspective to Mr. Radwin's own blog. Here are a couple of others:
    [you may have to skip to the dated entries Nov 19-22 - the conference really started with the first keynote on that Tuesday, there were tutorials only (extra $) on Monday]

    Andy Oliver

    Ugo Cei

    Peter Royal

  13. You know it's all skewed when... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    ...more people reply to the MS no-settlement article than to the beloved and much worshipped Apache article.

    It's a slow-news-day for sure and, yes, news about a conference for apache geeks is about as thrilling as a barium enema. Go figure..

  14. OT: How best to handle advertising on /. by Scareduck · · Score: 2, Informative

    Offtopic, I know. You're right, it's definitely hard to see. Allow me to introduce myself: I actually work for pricegrabber.com. OSDN cobrands our site, but we have exactly zero to do with where links go on /. -- that's all up to whomsoever at OSDN. My question to the audience -- assuming anyone is listening -- is simply this: what should we do? Slashdot needs money to operate, we need traffic, it seems simple, but there's a lot of folks here who don't like the idea of advertising, especially when it gets in the way of site navigation. Fair enough. Something's gotta give, though -- how can we all just get along? (Please be aware I'm just a humble geek-behind-the-scenes. I don't do business. At best I can run any comments up the flagpole and see who salutes, to use Madison Avenue parlance.)

    --

    Dog is my co-pilot.

    1. Re:OT: How best to handle advertising on /. by EvilAlien · · Score: 3, Informative
      My opinion?

      Like I suggested before, I like the banners. They are honest advertising.

      I'm not naive, nor do I wear a tinfoil hat, nor do I live life with my head stuck in the sand. Websites cost money to operate, business needs to be transacted. Without the commercial influence this Internet that we all thrive on would not exist as we know it. It would still be an obscure network for academics, which isn't to say quality of information wouldn't be better, but it sure wouldn't be as empowering for the general population.

      Banners are honest advertising, they are visible, they do the job. Popups are evil, so don't let your company use them. The insidious little links at the sides of the stories are sneaky and I don't like them. By all means, get in my face with your products, but do it with some respect.

      Those who can't handle a little bit of advertising are hippocrats. They need to stop trying to live in 1991 and let the last 10 years help them mature.... in other words, suck it up, buttercup!

      Slashdot can't exist without generating some revenue. If you don't like it, hit the smaller less professional sites and see how that works out for you. Build another Slashdot so you can discover that eventually you either stagnate or you general revenue to grow. Money is not inherently evil, people trying to transact business are not inherently evil, and there is nothing wrong with an information portal trying to generate the resources (i.e., money to pay for other resources) so they can survive.

      --
      perl -e 'print $i=pack(c5, (41*2), sqrt(7056), (unpack(c,H)-2), oct(115), 10)'
  15. Re:Sun is helping Apache... but where is Sun going by stefanlasiewski · · Score: 3

    "Fowler noted the major contributions Sun has made not only to Apache and related projects such as Tomcat, but also in non-Apache related projects such as the Gnome desktop and OpenOffice.org."

    Well, all three of these projects relate to existing Sun software:

    - If Tomcat is successful, then Sun Java and J2EE products benefit.
    - Solaris needs a GUI to replace CDE. Gnome and OpenOffice run on Solaris. If Gnome and OpenOffice are successful, then Solaris as a desktop UI also benefits.

    --
    "Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
  16. Online Material? by illusion_2K · · Score: 2

    Not to sound like a leech or anything, but I'm curious if anyone knows anything about ApacheCon material being posted somewhere online. While a couple of sessions seem particularily useful to the stuff I'm looking at right now, they all are to some extent.

    I would have loved to have gone, but being a poor starving student and doing apache stuff for a student run organization (non-profit), that was kind of out of the question this year.

  17. Re:Sun is helping Apache... but where is Sun going by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Dude, ApacheCon is sooo last weekend...

  18. Report at apacheweek.com by Annerson · · Score: 1

    Well, the boys may be OK at the prose part of reporting; but, the event photos ....... well, it's just not a very good idea to post a pic of a guy at the lectern that weighs in at 1850.91 KB (coar.png) for a 450x338 image! "American Beauty" is all done and "Workingman's Dead" is just about to give up and the page still isn't completely rendered. Yikes!

  19. Is sitting bull making a speech? by [cx] · · Score: 1

    Crowd boos!

    Aww...

  20. And the best thing about this article is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The quote about good and evil being placed directly under the photo of the Windows .NET pavillion ;-).

  21. Last Post! by jellomizer · · Score: 2

    I Hope I made the Last Post!

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.