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Linux Conference Australia Write-Up
I was actually invited to come to present the hacker survey that OSDN had done in conjunction with the Boston Consulting Group. However, upon looking at the conference plans, it was quickly apparent that that would be one of the few non-technical presentations, which was a pleasant change from my normal conference regime, in which the technical stuff seems crammed into one half day. I've heard that OLS is quite similar, but have not had a chance to attend. Nonethless, obviously my work withstanding *grin* the presentations were excellent - read the program to see for yourself.
I was able to attend Tridge's keynote, having only arrived Wednesday morning, a ARQuake presentation done by Wayne Pierkarski (we've mentioned it before). The afternoon was spent at Conrad's presentation on sweep, which is a hella cool audio app. Finally, the Q&A was Rusty, BDale, Tridge and Linus. Some of the typcial questions were asked, but there were some other questions 'round about DRM, IPv6 and some of the more social questions that were interesting. I think the DRM issues is one of the areas that some people are greatly concerned about, while other people have adopted a more Pollyana approach to it.
Unfortunately, on Friday, while I was presenting, there were two other presentations that I wanted to attend, but alas, had to speak myself. Rasmus, as usual, did a number of talks, and I was able to catch part of PHP printing with PDF, which was informative. Alex Reeder, part of VA Linux Japan also did a presentation on his work with bioauthentication, and my final piece of the show was Horms' presentation on Perdition, a mail retrieval proxy he's been working on.
But presentations aside, which were as a rule exceptional, I think one of the best parts was the relaxed feel, and the amount of interchange between just about everybody here. Almost every one that you talked to was fluent in Linux, programming or what not, which made for easy conversation with everyone there. The Perthites who really managed to put this together also did an exceptional job. To be frank, this is the only show I'd ever consider travelling 13,500 miles for.
I'd encourage anyone who attended or was part of it to post below -- and here's to looking forward to next year. One of the most amusing pictures though has to be the Linus in the penguin suit. The hats are off to the organizing team for their hard work -- and the speakers who traveled afar to be part of this. And from the wonderful uses of pizza box - yet more zaniness.
You can also check out some of photo round ups from Leon, Noel, and, of course, Marc Merlin's done a great round-up, as well as group round-up and one final one.
Overall, I highly highly recommend this show -- probably one of the best on the planet -- and for those in know, 23 will fall.
I never thought I would see the day when I would be ashamed of my fellow Australians. The recent election campaign was the most disgusting display of bigotry and intolerance I have ever seen. I used to think this was the best country in the world but no more. The best country in the world would be full of decent, tolerant, caring people not the raving xenephobics we seem to be in Australia at the moment.
It wasn't always like this. I remember the seventies when we had numerous boatloads of "reffoes" from south east asia, and although we made fun of them and called them names we still accepted them happily and they have on the whole made our country a much better place to live, much more diverse,interesting and I think, until recently, content society. What happened to us??
What is wrong with Australia??
How many refugees are we talking about here 20,000? 50,000? 100,000?
NO!!! Less than 10,000!!!!!
And here we all are freaking out that we are being overrun and taken over by illegal refugees. WHAT UTTER CRAP!!!
So after a marathon journey with no possessions and no real idea where they will end up what do we do to these people? Us wonderful , kind , caring Aussies?
We send in armed troops and forcibly transport them to some speck of bird shit in the middle of the Pacific!!!
How kind and compassionate of us!!!
Australia's newly re-elected government is racist and divisive and has used the Tampa crisis, and the september 11 terrorist attacks to scare and divide an ignorant public in a sleazy and patronising manner. As a re-election ploy it will have to go down in history as one of the most evil of them all. The right wing coalition have once again shown their true colours of intolerance and bigotry and how antisocial they really are. They don't care about people. All they care about is power and money and greed. To use these sad, downcast people to scare the Australian population into thinking that there was an invasion in progress just shows how easy they find it to lie and cheat the Australian public. And just how gullible and ignorant are Australians really?? What other bullshit are we capable of swallowing? If they do this now what is next????
If this is the way most Australians want to be then it is no wonder other countries see us as backward yokels who live thirty or forty years behind the rest of the world. All Australians should hang their heads in shame and it will be no suprise if our neighbors in Asia shun us for the way we have acted and the mean and nasty attitude we show towards our fellow human beings.
Where is the Australian spirit of giving everyone a fair go? Where is the good old Aussie "mateship"? How did we let Johnny Howard steal them from us? How can we let him turn us into bigots like him? Come on Australia! We can do better. We can set an example for the world. We don't have to be like the rest of the western countries. Corrupt and uncaring about anything but our own interests. We have always been well liked by every country and race around the world. Do we want to lose that?? We will very soon if we act like all the other repressive overbearing western countries do towards poverty stricken people from other parts of the world. We should help people if we can and we should share what we have. We should be friends with our neighbors not have the state of antagonism this government seems to deliberately aim for.
We are still a very lucky country and by trying to be elitist and exclusive will only show the rest of the world that we are immature and nasty people who havn't learned the basics of human decency and civility. If we keep going in the same direction of ignorance and intolerance then I can see a day when Australia will have race riots and maybe even civil war. Already we are seeing a rise in crime amongst young people belonging to ethnic minorities due to the lack of integration into the community and because the community treats them as second class citizens and subjects them to racist treatment and attitudes.
COME ON Australia!!!! Think about how we want to be.
A happy, inclusive, friendly sort of a place or a nasty, fortress, restrictive sort of a place??? If people around the world like and respect Australia and its people then wouldn't that make us more secure than anything else??? On the other hand if we antagonise and dislike our neighbors dosn't that put us in more danger than we have ever been before??????
(from google)
That article was rather badly written with the apparent intent of making the facts look worse than they really are. "The Gallup International survey, released today, found 68 per cent of Australians backed military action against Iraq, with 56 per cent in favour only if the United Nations supported it." "In Australia, levels of support for war outstripped even the US, where the poll showed 67 per cent supported military action." Wooo 1% more than the US. Thats really statistically significant that is. Pillocks.