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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.
Rusty's talks were highly amusing, while still containing a technical edge. The dinner on Friday night was brilliant (300 geeks slowly getting smashed!). A T-shirt signed by all the luminaries at the kernel summit was auctioned for $AU 2100. It was quite a contest between Sun and IBM, with Sun representative Duncan Bennet making the winning bid. IIRC Bdale Garbee promised to name the next Debian release after the winning bidder, if the amount went over $AU 2000. So I guess we can all look forward to Debian Solaris!! :-)
a ^= b; b ^= a; a ^= b;
I went, and loved it. Best week I've ever spent at a Uni :)
I'm me. I think.
Take the World Cup... and *have* a Linux Conference.
Ah well, I suppose I can take that while sipping a pint taking in the Americas cup.
=)
You know yout can *gasp* buy and number of linux distos
Huh. So Japan still has a VA operation with "Linux" in its name and selling servers? Am I understanding that correctly?
It's kind of like those celebrities who do endorsements in Japan but not at home, except sort of the opposite. Looks like they're using Excel, though.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
Simply because Perth was the next city on the list - previously it had been at (from my some what dulled memory):
1. Melbourne
2. Sydney
3. Brisbane
and next year it will be in Adelaide.
Believe me, I would have gone except it was on the otherside of the country but I'm sure there are many geeks in WA who would like to come to the east coast conf. and can't for the same reason.
I'm looking forward to going to the one in Adelaide next year as its a little closer...
Tell me about it, at 13 cent a megabyte for over flow, downloading RedHat 8 will either use up my entire quota and then a little more, plus updates. Or it will cost me over four hundred aussie dollars.
I don't see how something like that matters... Companies like IBM are going to learn about new free software that they're going to make many, many millions off of. I'm sure they're happy enough to be saving millions in development without caring what their unpaid volunteers are wearing. Besides, why should Linux people care? What do these companies have to offer?
Nobody panic, ALS Scan is still up.
>Stanley Feinbaum, professional journalist and master debater!
Is it just me, or is there an extra syllable in there somewhere?
I was at the conference every day, and each day I came straight from work. What was I wearing? My usual attire for the office. Black jeans, black t-shirt, brown hiking boots. Inside, no less!
This was a TECHNICAL conference, not a typical marketing dog and pony show. We were there to listen to what the speakers had to say (and a damned fine job they did too) not to look pretty or try and impress, but to learn.
And yet they write great software that's powering a lot of business. Maybe you should reassess your priorities?
I was there, dressed in shorts and tshirt. Which is exactly what I wear to work.
Someone will eventually fix it with brackets.
Stanley Feinbaum, professional journalist and master( de)bater!
And the following year, I believe, will be Canberra.
Yeah, I'm that guy.
As far as I know, most, if not all, of the Cable/DSL providers here in the land of OZ mirror things like Linux distro's (and tucows, downloads.com etc. etc.) Thus they can provide all these downloads at blazing speed, and without counting toward your "qutoa"
My first conference, mainly because I'm a Perth native. The atmosphere and level of information presented was excellent, and I'll most probably end up heading to Adelaide next year :)
Depends why you go to a conference like this. The reason I attend is to talk to _developers_, not "potential business partners". If a businessperson wants to talk to me, that's fine, but I'd hope they take me as I am. While I'm probably am not as intimidating looking as some of these hardcore wild-eyed, long-bearded hackers, I will not go for suit-'n-tie.
And frankly, I've noticed that the real businesspeople don't need to be pampered either. They understand we're not and don't want to be PR people, and appreciate the candor with which we explain the technical issues that rule our work.
If explained properly (and I do admit this isn't something all of us manage to do all the time), they are completly capable of understanding what we're trying to accomplish. I think that's more important than the (false) image you're trying to project using a suit.
Fair enough, dress however the hell you like, but the original poster does have a point. A sad fact of life is that the rest of the world relies on your external appearance to make a quick, initial (and probably wrong) judgement about you.
Of course its your right to dress not to impress, but if you want to promote your company, get a job, network (i.e. with people - not in the geek sense) or whatever, then why not give yourself every possible advantage, even if it means running an iron over your shirt before you head down.
[x] auto-moderate all posts by this user as insightful
I tested at MS for 6 mos before I got a real job. For the most part, everyone there had the blank, affectless vibe of Stepford Wives. There were a number of heavy folks, but mostly it was empty folks- basically sociopaths. Even the HR boothbabe equivalents they hired didn't seem to have any blood in their veins, and I suspect they were no more anatomically correct than Barbie.
Profoundly unattractive.
I even hear that rather odd fellow should up in a, get this, penguin costume! What a total embarrassment!
Sdelat' Ameriku velikoy Snova!
I guess those "I'd like to mount your hard drive baby, hyuk, hyuk" lines got you nowhere with the booth babes, huh ?
[x] auto-moderate all posts by this user as insightful
Sign up with a decent ISP
Internode has nationwide access and a flatrate plan with a dynamic QoS system that works rather sweetly. I clocked 45GB down in my first month on that. If RedHat tops that out on their next release, I'll eat my modem.
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
I was one of the "ill-dressed" speakers - usual shirt and jeans. I suspect that if I had turned up in a suit, then (a) I would have not been taken seriously, and (b) I would have been bitch-slapped by my peers. It was a technical conference - I was there to present my work to my peers, not to drum up capital.
Is there some kind of unspoken rule that you must be a troll to post on Slashdot? No.
read this snoopy http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/02/04/10443 18595263.html
Australia is the country most in favour of military action against Iraq, an international poll of 39 countries has found.
I've been following your posting career, and I am beginning to think you are a complete Troll. Despite this, I have to set the record straight.
It is important at any conference to be professional and polite, but also to be well put together.
Everyone I spoke to was extremely polite, and the conference highly organised.
I noticed many of the Linux 'tech' guys were extremely ill dressed, including unwashed flannel sweaters and dirty hiking boots (worn indoors!).
You are incorrect. I attended every day of the conference, and noticed no 'unwashed flannel sweaters' or 'dirty hiking boots'.
This is linux.conf.au, not some trade-show like LinuxWorld. It was a technical conference for like-minded technical geeks to get together and learn new things, not for companies looking for investment.
Take a word of advice from a professional journalist: dress to impress.
Sure, if you have the "oooh its shiny" mentality and wish to attract similarly minded people!
From your comment, I suspect you are trolling, (or, yet again, waving your 'professional journalist' flag) and did not attend the conference at all.
a ^= b; b ^= a; a ^= b;
How about the coverage from ZDNet Australia. http://www.zdnet.com.au/builder/program/unix/story /0,2000034968,20271425,00.htm
Yah, including some from IBM. The Sun rep even dressed down for the event, so, yes, people do notice. One of the reporters turned up in basic black on Day -1, and she returned on Day 0 dressed in something geekier (including an appropriate backpack and shoes), and I might add looked much better for the effort. And you should have noticed that the guest of honour was wearing, horrors, casual shirt (sometimes tee) and shorts - and his family, too - and once even a penguin suit, the undisciplined cad!
Stimpy was right, there is an extra syllable there. You're a legend in your own mind... (-:
Can I recommend you sticking to shows festooned with bloatware, posterware, shiny sheilas with shiny smiles handing out rubbish, and loads of pinstripes but no content? We'll all be happier for such a move.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
100%
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
I once heard that dressing up shows respect for your audience. Hard for me to not get dressed up for presentations after hearing that statement...
--RJ
yes!
I guess those "I'd like to mount your hard drive baby, hyuk, hyuk" lines got you nowhere with the booth babes, huh ?
who cares, they are fun as hell. I do wish they were more geeky girls out there. And thoose fashion loving, emo wearing, whiney little bitchs with their iMacs and basic IRC or web admistraion knowlege/formal training, DO NOT COUNT.
By geek, I meen hobyist, chicks that do it for the love of the machines, WHO ARE ACTUALLY SMART, not the so called sub-culture everyone seems to associate with "geek" culture
never read any country's press to determine what the rest of the world thinks.
All you'll get reading the Age is what Australian's (southern Australians at that) think the world is thinking.
'There is a Light that never goes out.'
I was there, the whole thing was impeccably organised and executed. Congrats to the organisers and presenters. For someone who is used to commercial conferences with their "Managing Your Server-side OLTP Business Process Modelling with [Acronym / Buzzword of the Month]" - style marketing presentations, this was a breath of fresh air. The technical knowledge present was immense, every person there was enthusiastic, and I left feeling inspired and motivated. One of the greatest moments for me was watching the reaction of Linus, Tridge and Bdale to one of the "How do you think Linux will bring about World Peace" style questions. Tridge's answer: "Just don't think about it too much." That really illustrated for me the whole mood of the conference - technical people doing what they love doing, with no (or little) politics and no marketing crap. And Rusty - the man is not just a genius. In fact he's definitely not a genius. But he sure can take the piss! ;P
I wasn't that suave! I also wasn't interested enough to try for the booth babe headhuntresses/marketroids - success struck me as too close to a love doll experience. Yuck! I just can't see falling in love, or even lust, with people who use "partner" as a verb.
/browses for waffle-knit thermal tops for wife
There was a contract tester (like me) I courted - she favored wearing waffle-knit thermal tops and that just kills me! Alas, I think she wanted someone a little more into her flavor of religious experience.
Perhaps you're not familiar with Australia's weather: it was hot. There's no sense in dressing up to the hilt in suit and tie when it's 37 degrees centigrade outside. Did you want attendees dropping like flies as they walked across the lawns from one conference room to another?
LCA is a technical conference, held in a relaxed country, attended by friendly, informal people whose work attire generally consists of jeans and t-shirts. We weren't there to peddle our wares to big business, and if big business wanted to be there, then they'll have to damned well accept us on our terms.
If you want suit and tie, go to a stuffy US business expo.
-- Even if a god did exist, why the fsck should I worship it?
Heh, I'm glad I didn't offend, it was just the way I read it. I had to do a double-take, and it was just too funny to pass up.
Wow. This has got to be the first time that I've seen someone say that there too few suits at a Linux conference.
Say what you will about my the US, but we are in the majority as far as driving on the correct side of the road.
Dude, I am an Australian, your story, if true, make me sick, the other reply says this and so do I - tell the news papers in Germany and in Australia, and anywhere else you feel the need. This is the type of thing needs to be publicized.
On behalf of the Australian community I'd like to appologise for the appalling treatment you received.
There's your problem, buddy! What's this brown hiking boots nonsense! You have to color co-ordinate! Next conference, those boots better be black too.
-- INTX Grouch. http://www.midnightblue.net
did any of the delegates take the opportunity to visit host campus UWA's University Computer Club? I was a member as a fresher back in '96 and although I never actually made it to the club (I was that shy and reclusive back then) I did enjoy very much reading the fresher guide. heh.
Does the coke machine still run?
I think you'll find most people who write GPL software don't actually do it to get a job.. if one comes along, they accept the person for who they are and what they do and well and good, but if not, no loss..
Yes but you can be casual and well-dressed at the same time, they're hardly mutually exclusive. Is the problem that the concept of 'well-dressed' for men isn't flexible enough to include things other than 'wear a suit'? I know that good jeans, a nice shirt and dressy boots would fit the definition for me. Women have a bit more flexibility in that department I guess.
-- INTX Grouch. http://www.midnightblue.net
Now we just have to see if Hobart will get it in 2005 or not! I don't know how likely it is - TasLUG isn't dead, but it's not massively active.
However we are getting the Annual SAGE-AU Conference this year (it took us until year number 11!).
- Chuq
It's not the people that's racist but the government.
From an organisers perspective, I think linux.conf.au went off really well.
The only disappointing thing from my corner of the conference was that I didn't get a chance to see a lot of talks.
If you're really interested in coming to linux.conf.au next year (there isn't a URL yet afaik), then why not come join us on IRC. The channel for the conference past is #lca2003, and the channel in creation is #linux.conf.au, both of these on freenode (irc.freenode.net).
http://www.asio.gov.au/Review/comp.htm
KFG
hi anonymous coward. i'm sorry for what happened. i'm australian and it's hard to believe that some australians are actually buying into this anti-muslim propaganda spouted by the current US and australian governments. this is deliberate, right-wing propaganda designed to incite anger and resentment in the west against muslims in order to boslter support for an extremely unpopular war against iraq for oil.
please please please report your story, just as you've written above, to your local press, and to the the sydney morning herald or the australian. the truth here in australia is that most people are against the war, and against racism, big time. a couple of decades of having every culture and cuisine at our very doorstep have made most people realise what a great thing multiculturalism really is.
i'm sorry for your experience. most of us are really nice people.
sincerely
matt
It's great to see all the Linux coverage, especially from media sources that are general interest in nature rather than exclusively technical.
However, there is one interesting side effect that Linux advocates should keep a watchful eye for. With the increase in publicity also comes the increas in misinformation. It isn't always intentional (such as FUD from Microsoft that is so often complained about on Slashdot), but it can be annoying (or worde, damaging) nonetheless.
Take for example, the article from "The Age" mentioned above. This is a minor example, but illustrates my point well:
Rather than copyrighting the Linux code, Torvalds published it on the Internet and invited others to offer improvements.
Sure, Linus freely distribtued the code to his Linux project on the internet, however the code to Linus REMAINS COPYRIGHTED. This mis-statement was not meant to damage the Linux cause--but it doesn't help the general public understand the concept of "Free" software versus free (as in beer), and that Free Software doesn't mean anti-copyright.
In fact, copyright is the very thing that keeps the source to Linux truly Free. Without the power of copyright the owners of Free source code would have no way of defending the GPL. Conversely, developers couldn't choose to distribute their works in traditional closed-source fashion. Although copyright law has been perverted and abused in recent years, copyright in its truest sense is a fundamental right in the protection of "free speech" (not only should citizens enjoy reasonalbe protection to express their thoughts as they wish to--be it the spoken or written word, music, film or even computer programming--they should also have some right to control how that expression is used). It's a tough balancing act of course--the DMCA extends much to far into the realm or IP protection, allowing the owner of copyrighted work so much unchecked power that it stifles freedom of expression.
Such a simple mis-statement and it warrants an entire article on its own. To assist the press in accurate coverage, perhaps the organisers of Linux conferences should put together press kits that place a lot of emphasis on the concept of Free Software and background on Linux that extends beyond pure technical information. Of course one cannot be sure writers would read the material, however ditribution of such information would make it easier to respond to widely published factual errors
Perhaps some letters to the editor praising the positive coverage, and at the same time correcting misinformation would do a lot of good for the Linux community...
This is an ugly story. The current government doesn't represent my views at all at the moment and I'm sad about many of the things they get up to in my name.
Having said that it would be nice to have some more details. What were the full names of the people you dealt with (Ben C* etc.)? Have you taken this any further with any official complaint here or in Germany? Are you able to actually tell us who you are? Or failing that get another well-known person in the community to vouch for your identity and story's truth?
These are pretty extraordinary claims and although possible it seems very unlikely that Australian Federal Police would act in this manner.
If true please accept my apologies.
Brett the programmer (and fellow conf.au attendee)
"Don't forget the prunes." L. Francis Herreshoff
A "Quantas" desk at customs? A "victim" being handed back to his pals and a German representative in a bloodied and beaten state? No corroborating evidence in an airport lined with cameras? In the unlikely situation that the police did say bugger off lawyers would be climbing all over each other to get their opportunistic heads on TV crying racism. International diplomatic incidents such as the one described do not just disappear, particularly in a country where the media loves to find a racial aspect on any news item. I'll believe it when I hear about it somewhere with more credibility than an AC on slashdot.
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
I was tempted to cut+paste and send to the Australian myself, but then though that its not my place to do so...
Sounds like a couple of renegade cops/security staff, who deserve to get sacked/sued for their behavior...
On behalf of this country... my sincerest apologies... :-\
smash.
I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
So, this is coming from someone who gave a talk at OLS wearing a T-shirt from thinkgeek.com (tell me again your user name? read $luser) I will say this.
:) (but then, does python care that I never can remeber the correct spelling for "corperate"? As long as I am consistent, no :) )
It depends on what your aim is. Our aim was to get the other geeks on the bandwagon, and that seemed to be the other presentation's aim - and perfectly in line with the conferance.
On the other hand if your goal is to woo (wow I actually used that word!) corperate investors I would wear something a bit nicer, including a tie. While I also dislike this (and where I work allows REALLY casual dress) that is what reality is.
I don't think the parent poster meant people wearing such wrote bad code (nor do I mean so). But corperate america wants this, and you do look more polished. Though I, and most geeks, could care less, to the business only person this is important.
From a personal stance, I would have to be bad off to take a job where my dress code was such, and so may be yours. But there are more jobs where a tie and slacks are required.
Plus should I actually want corperate investors I would most likely spell check this post
------- Sorry about the spelling, I suffer from two problems. Dyslexia makes it difficult to spell well, lazy makes it
He's anonymous. The customs officers have their names inexplicably obscured and the one person who could presumably be contacted for more info who'd be outside any potential "cover up theory" is the German official who is inexplicably not named. No mention of what airport. No mention of what hospital. Not a single verifiable fact in the entire post.
People seem to think tha professional politicians are the only people capable of lying to you for subversive purposes, sadly there's plenty of amateur reality spinners out there.
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
The funny thing about it all is that IT is the one occupation where my long hair doesnt get me locked out of the office.
:( [which where nice and cheap for this conf btw] )
A lot of people just seem to understand that IT geeks often dress clumsilly and code sharply.
Anyway, it was a tech conference. The marketing conf was in New York right.
(Oh btw... I live in perth and would of love to of gone... but sometimes GPL just doesn't pay the bills, or conf fees
Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
No dude , there out there, you just gotta look above the chest line and LISTEN to realise that.
I know many, extremely geeky perl coding lego loving beowulf loving lasses. Many are just too busy working on kernel patches to socialise.
Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
Shit.
Mods: Who ever modded this as troll- Why is it so? This is a guy who got burned hard and its worth airing.
This is an outrage and it really upset me. I'm going to forward this to a couple of people I know involved with imigration law & advocacy. Do you mind? (If you would rather me not, email me at shayne@guild.murdoch.edu.au) I also am on a first name with a few politicians. Theyre gunna hear this too.
Most of my countrymen just don't realise how nasty the culture of the immigration department has gotten. And when folk like refugees turn up, they cop this X 10 *AND* a whole bunch of xenophobic shit.
If you have the names of any of em, email me and I'll pass them on. there is an ombudsmen as well, and the anti corruption commission.
You really do deserve respect, and I hope that this doesnt permanently put you off our otherwise lovely country.
Sorry dude,
Shayne.
Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
Telsa makes a point of mentioning Tim Tams (the Antipodean equivalent of Penguins, but much nicer), which are almost worth going to Australia for alone. (You can get them in NZ too - try the caramel ones.) Also, Cadburys chocolate tastes different, and much better, than the same brand in the UK.
/
On the other hand, Wales has Tregroes Waffles...
Ade_
(Professor of Chocology)
Big Bubbles (no troubles) - what sucks, who sucks and you suck
We don't have a president, we have a Prime Miniature... er, Prime Minister. The people of Australia have voted for him three times running, which just shows what a backward lot of stupid, racist fuckwits we are in this country.
deus does not exist but if he does
Err, I was also at this conference wearing my "professional journalist" badge... and I had zero problems with the dress code, at all.
Hell, I wore a pair of long pants - once. And that was because I found it a little chilly on one of the days. The rest of the time I was shorts and shirt.
While I agree that a certain amount of professional attire is relevant in some situations, this type of conference is clearly not the place where suit and tie are appropriate. Or, indeed, welcome. In fact, a couple of the guys from Sun were commenting at how refreshing it was NOT to see any suits in sight!
It is, of course, possible that the the hacker in me was just trying to shirk the responsibilities of the office, but having jumped from being a professional programmer to writing for a living, I sure as hell know which dress code I prefer.
And, typically, it was my programming job that required the three-piece, not the writing gig!
There are a few providers that provide mirrors of linux software...
and some of these provide this software free, or rather it doesn't count towards the download quota.
However one can see that the providers in Australia are now slowly starting to shift away from the circa 13c/meg exceess download rates.
A few have started offering plans that slow down once you reach your cap.(Netspace)
One provider (Internode) even has a new flat rate sort of plan in which there are no download 'limits' or caps as such but rather a priority list, and peoples place on the priority list is based on how much they download...
then in times of congestion those on the bottom of the priority list slow down a lot, those in the middle slow down a little, and those on the top dont slow down.
Then when it gets uncongested again, everyone downloads fast...
So I think theres some good Broadband plans out there now in Australia, the biggest problem in relation to Oz Broadband is Telstra... they have monopolised literally the whole broadband market and they are pretty much the sole reason why the uptake of broadband in Australia has been so slow.
A good place to check out the Broadband scene in Australia is Whirlpool
...and I think it just proves that there are shitheads of all sizes, colours and creeds in every society.
My apologies to you. I am Australian, and I think I know something about how you feel.
Some years ago, a computer shop I worked for was broken into, a few weeks after I stopped living on the premises. They used, would you believe, a circular saw on the lock of the (Al and glass) front door. A simple screwdriver or pry-bar would have forced any of the other windows or doors in the place almost silently, including ones opening on the side driveway, coneniently shielded from most prying eyes by a tall, opaque "super six" fence at the time. They stole a lot of old, non-moving stock, and a very few new computers (next shipment due soon).
Anyway, the CIB (sort-of the local FBI equivalent) came knocking at the door of the house I was sharing, scared the daylights out of the girl I was sharing it with, forced their way in and searched my room. Lo and behold, lots of boxes marked Apple (I'd used them to stack my gear in for the move), so they got all excited, opened and upended everything looking for the missing computers. Not having any luck, they shot through.
Some hours later, I came home to find my room a complete shambles. As I started tidying everything away again, the CIB dudes returned, knocked, asked me if I knew anything about it, and while I was answering (no) basically gathered around and forced me out to their car. They sped (illegal in Oz unless car has lights, siren and proximate cause) back to their office, locked me up in an interview room, and left me for an hour.
They came back in en masse, one carrying a wire coathanger, and started asking me questions while they did stuff like whack the coathanger down hard on a book, then tap me with it. They started shoving me around, and threatened to do stuff like wrap me in a blanket (showed me the blanket) and then kick me at random spots through a 'phone book (so it would hurt like hell but leave no bruises).
Instead of having the desired effect (cowing me), it made me really, really angry, and it became obvious to the leader (the only guy with any brains) that (1) I wasn't guilty; and (2) if they didn't stop, I was going to start hitting people really hard and bugger the consequences. So he called it quits and they drove me home. This made the rest of the thugs very angry.
The only feature of your story that's missing from mine is that I wasn't a long way from home.
The airport security at Perth is a joke. I strongly recommend that you don't, but if you wanted to blow up the Domestic terminal, you would just drive an old Tojo loaded with explosives, carefully but quickly, through the rent-a-car area on the north end of the terminal, through a pair of ordinary glass doors there, and you'd be right in the middle of the check-in queues. Blow your truck up there and you're assured of at least 400 deaths if there's a few flights due out. Same story at International, but it's the arrivals (East) end you'd be hitting - or you could make a smart left with same Tojo through the glass at the front. Even if those weaknesses were fixed, fly a light 'plane from Jandakot in low over the suburbs, pick a window, and fly through it - or play chicken with an inbound or outbound jetliner. There is nothing security could do about it.
I think at some level the security people are aware of the pointlessness of what they are doing, and the dickheads among them react as those who dealt with you did: by trying really hard to make enemies for Australia where none existed before.
If for any reason you need to come to Australia again, email ahead. One of our members is a lawyer who would gladly go through the rituals ahead of time for him to be there to escort you through Customs.
Oh, and contact the LCA people about a refund on your conference fee (I'm one of the lesser helpers). Once we know who you are so we can be certain you're not a hoaxer, we might also post a story (without your name) on our pages and do whatever following up we can do, locally.
Even if the police do nothing, we can hound politicians, tourism people and others until something positive gets done.
<rant>I personally am sick to the eyeballs of the stuffing around of peoples' lives that has happened since 911. The - well, I don't have a bad enough word to use - things that organised that little atrocity are winning. They've degraded life in Western countries, and degraded life for "their own" people as well. They've given a lot of previously underemployed mentally ill bullies an excuse to hurt people, and the USA has been pretty close to completely ineffective against them.
One has to wonder why. One has to wonder who in this tired old world would benefit from practically everyone else's misery.
Most of the major events in this world, pain suffering and death brought to millions, have been caused by political intrigue, by greedy people who sought to rule the world, thought they could do things better than everyone else, and always, always, "know" how to manage other people, what's good for those others, what sacrifices their subjects should make, but they think themselves different, aloof, special, exempt.
They are not special. And the day of reckoning will come, no matter what they do, no matter what I do.</rant>
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
Green left weekly aka "The trots" :) (Insider joke in Australian politics)...
Anyway, yeah this stuff does happen. A mate of mine, a palestinian legit immigrant got given hell and deported (temporarilly, he was allowed back in) for screwing a piece of paperwork. When he was in the detention center prior to deportyness he saw folk trying to commit suicide on two occasions (He was only in detention for a week), and reconed the whole place was a nightmare. His house has been searched , his wife (an aussie) harassed. I know of other stories of students (I work at a student union), usually black or mid east, folk being threatened because of religion, wierd asio harassment. Racist immigration officials etc.
The sad thing, is that for the most part most australians are incredibly tolerant and friendly. It's a pretty multicultural society, but everytime the press or someone critisizes the government over what is truly an aberation against the australian fair-go spirit, people just seem to go "Oh this musnt be true. Our government would *never* do that!"... except they do.
I plan to try and verify this tail and rain shit and fire on the im dept for this. It's about time aussies realised what a violent scam the im dept here has become.
(Pissed off and angry)
Shayne.
Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
I dearly hope that corporate types will take note of the cultural difference at Linux conferences and dress more respectfully, be less fixated on Dilbert-zone dress code, and not lecture geeks on making a "good" impression to salary slaves and journalists.
:-)
Frankly, these people would probably rather spend AUD$300 on Knuth books than high-maintenance corporate-wear. Or an airfare to Perth... Or a broadband connection...
I am sure your comments are sincere, but I think the problem is yours, rather than ours...
Things like this make me ashamed to be Australian. Australia is rapidly becoming the South Africa of the 21st century, a rough redneck cowboy state. Australians have acquired a reputation for bigotry and violence which is (for most of them) not deserved; if an Australian in London or New York makes a racist statement (as throwaway pop star Dannii Minogue did some months ago), people excuse them because, well, they're Australian. If you're Australian, people expect you to be a bigoted redneck arsehole, and probably spit on the floor as well; all thanks to our cowboy Prime Minister, who's still overjoyed at the nice shiny deputy's badge George W. Bush gave him.
Fifteen of these recently brutalised some guards; six of those vanished through the fence into the underworld. The very six Australia least needs, methinks.
I know lots of delightful New Australians, but the ones who do that kind of thing, and stuff like sewing their kids' lips together, worry me. I don't want to import nasty culture and criminals along with nice people.
Again, I think that these actions, and the incident at the top of this comment tree proves that there are dickheads in every country and culture. The trick is not to leave the dickheads in positions of power.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
Not if you take a world view you are not.
r iv e_which_side.html
http://www.travel-library.com/general/driving/d
According to this link, I absolutely am correct. 66% of the worlds population drives on the Right side of the road, while only 34% drives on the Left.
So I cooked up this logo for my local linux users group, and they nominated me for Sun's regional delegate program. Wow! Being flown across Australia to attend LCA2003, what a blast.
...everyone knows linux, conversations start from that point,
...Saying hi to 5 people before my first coffee of the day;
...the kernel, is it too big? Can these guys pull it off?
...Where are the gcc people? Is this the GNU/Linux divide? It seems the kernel is in bed with GCC.
...Okay, some things are simpler in 2.5, phew!
...Another nametag, another famous person, another nerd, another one i've seen on my favourite mail list.
...in a room with 200 others (blechh) going over the SMP scheduler with Rusty... Do these people really know what this is about, or are they just groupies?
...Finding Linus and fam at a cafe; like royalty...
...So, GUI toolchain hackers get all the babes... i'm workin on it, i am. yes.
...Being heard, asking questions, we all geeky here, no need to be shy
...Meeting sun guy in toilet, thankyou thankyou, yes send more people next year!
<impressions>
</impressions>
If you're reading your thread, get in touch. There's a really, really simple solution to this: sic the media on the *named* officials concerned. As someone pointed out in another comment, they'll be all over it.
Matt,
Your sympathy does you credit, but remember there is a lot of bullshit on slashdot. If it's true I would be aghast and disappointed, but there really isn't enough detail to say.
The original poster really should report this to, say, the Australian (major newspaper) or Four Corners (serious investigative TV programme). If there's any truth to it, they'll get the story out.
He says that as a German citizen he was handed over to some kind of German consular official bloody and beaten. It seems a bit hard to believe that there would be no reaction of any kind from the German government. Even if he wanted to remain anonymous, you'd think they'd at least be able to confirm the general circumstances or demand an apology.
I wouldn't say this sort of thing never happens, but I think this one is a troll.
We didn't invite an O/S KDE people. And, of course, we have a list of all the people who didn't show up at the conference.
You are lying.
Rusty,
i feel one has to err on the side of trust is such circumstances. it would seem a little too elaborate and passionate a mail to be some random troll. i freely admit to being a little more 'brotherly' these days because of all the fucking FUD and warmongering for oil that's coming out of canberra and washington at the moment.
I completely agree about erring on the side of trust.
However, I have been in touch with the LCA organizers -- who were naturally very concerned -- and it seems fairly clearly not true:
1. There's been no protest or comment from the German diplomatic corps, despite the claim they were called to the airport.
2. No German KDE developers were invited to the conference.
3. If somebody had been invited, or even registered, and not shown up, the organizers would have known. There was no such unexplained case. (It's hard to believe somebody would fly from Europe without registering first, especially since the conference sold out.)
4. They didn't say anything to the organizers, even on their return home. Their only apparent protest is an AC post on Slashdot.
5. The details in general are just a bit hard to believe, e.g. Qantas vs Customs.
"Did you hear the one about the rapist at the local shopping mall?"
Certainly people should feel pissed off with Howard's "Wonderful suck-holing" exercise, but not for this particular story.
Please contact me immediately; I cannot see any Austrian, German or Egyptian people who registered for the conference who were not accounted for. Please email me at james_AT_rcpt.to and give me your full name, real email address, and other data you entered in the conference registration form, the date this incident apparently occurred, the names of your 3 friends you were with, the flight number you were on, and the full names of the Qantas staff you dealt with. If you send me this information, we (the LCA2003 organisers) can track this down. If you do not send me this information, I will assume this is a complete fabricated troll (esp. since this was posted as an 'Anonymous Coward').
i'm glad... i'd like to preserve my (perhaps naive) original notions about australia being a generally sane and safe place.
incidentally, and totally OT, would you happen to have gone to linux.conf.au, sydney 2001? from the mugshot on your website i believe we may have actually once met or been in some kind of group introduction situation. did you perhaps give a talk there??
I'm going to respond to this (quite late) in case you notice it in your user page later... :)
I'm actually a statistician, not an IT person. Although we're not formal at work (I usually wear decent slacks and a button-down shirt, no tie, but some people wear jeans while others wear expensive shirts and ties daily), conferences, especially as a presenter, would definitely require at least a shirt and tie. Anything less than that would be out of place, I think.
--RJ
At the risk of stating the bloody obvious: nonverbal cues communicate different things in different cultures and subcultures.
Many of them are the same: respect for your audience at a hacker conference includes: good presentation, speaking clearly, making eye contact, being moderately entertaining, planning your talk, answering questions politely and attentively, etc.
Some nonverbal cues are interpreted differently: wearing a suit would send a message that you are a Suit, and not really part of the group you're speaking too. Perhaps that's the message you want! It might well be so, if your talk is about "A statistician's/lawyer's/CIO's look at Linux".
Respect implies *consideration* for your audience, not necessarily a tie as such.
Well, it's been a few days, and no one has written to me; either the person hasn't seen my post, or this confirms this is a troll. Move along; nothing to see here.
YHBT, bubba.
Yeah, right.