[Linux-aus] LCA: stuff you liked!

[Paul Wayper]

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On 29/08/12 09:36, Mary Gardiner wrote:
> A *thoroughly non-exhaustive* list of things I have liked about LCAs I
> attended.
> 

Because I can't resist anecdoting :-)

LCA2005 - my first - Tridge's talk on multitasking was great but his rebuttal
of the "bitkeeper hacking" fiasco was beyond price.  Running an Electronic
Music BOF and then taking some out-of-towners to Woodstock Pizza (sadly no
longer around).  Missing Eben Moglen's keynote - he's just some lawyer, right?
 Wrong!

LCA2006 - I love travelling for LCA, and I love the fact that (relatively
small) Dunedin pulled this one off so well.  And OMG, if you stay on campus
you get to talk to cool people ALL THE TIME!  Having two delegates help me get
my laptop on the conference wireless, including lending me a PCMCIA card.  And
Damian Conway - excellent in so many ways, from his one-liner solution to
Maddog's programming challenge to his keynote to his presentation on how to
give good presentations.  And Van Jacobson's talk on speeding up networking by
moving it out of the kernel - having "best-of" talks was worth it here.

LCA2007 - Steve Walsh's wifi hat.  Having it pointed out to me in the first
ever LinuxChix miniconf that all the people asking questions (including me)
were male... and having a big 6'4" guy come up to me several days later, point
to my "stand out from the crowd" LinuxChix T-shirt and say "That is a cool
shirt!".  Kathy Sierra's keynote.  The Open Day, with the Lua "Constellation"
demo.  Dan Black assembling the Gentoo couch.

LCA2008.  Bruce Schneier's keynote.  Being in air conditioning.  Playing Go.
Learning awesome stuff about NFS and XFS.  The conference dinner.  Giving a
Lightning Talk about making a wooden laptop cover.  The Open Day,
demonstrating LMMS.

LCA2009.  First trip to Tasmania.  Was selected to be a speaker, and
discovered it's terribly addictive to be treated like a rockstar.  Tuz logo
and plush toy.  First use of a slogan IIRC - "March South".  Steve Walsh
setting up IPv6 on the conference network with a couple of commands.

LCA2010.  The amazing organisation of the LCA team.  The CC-licensed music
played while the main hall was filling.  Nate Torkington's four keynotes.
Since I had money, I shouted beer for the LCA Newbies, and helped Rusty take
the LCA team their morning coffee.

LCA2011.  Pulling off LCA when your city has been flooded a week before; the
Canberra 2013 team plans to set fire to Black Mountain, the ANU Campus and
finally most of the delegates in order to better this.  Geoff Huston's
keynote.  Helping my brother set up in the days beforehand, and helping crimp
network cables on the first day.

LCA2012.  The first time I'd realised that you can have a theme to the keynote
talks - and they all resonated with the "Freedom" in FOSS.  Senator Ludlam as
the keynote at the dinner - have seriously considered moving to live in his
electorate but it would involve moving to Western Australia.  First time I'd
had my partner at the conference - a different process.  Being part of the
team to stand up and be known that we're running the conference next year...

There are lots of other, smaller things that I loved about the conferences,
that's the things I can think of relatively quickly.  There are a few bitter
times, but mostly they've been personal things rather than problems with the
conference per se.

Have fun,

Paul

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