Geek Generosity

You know you're at a geek conference when Little Bobby Tables makes an appearance during the charity auction:



Thanks to all who donated generously during LCA2010! The Life Flight people were extremely surprised that delegates would open their wallets so quickly with no other apparent reason than some silly competition between the Rusty and the Wenches supporters :)

Hacking LCA badges

It is an open secret that it is possible to "hack" the registration code which picks the random description printed at the bottom of your LCA name badge.

Here's a selection of this year's hacked badges:

• colonel hacker


• A society that gets rid of all its troublemakers goes downhill


• generic humanoid unit


• I know how to use sha1sum


• This badge built on Gentoo, I started with a pine forest.


• Yay, I cracked it!... Now what?


• You will be assimilated.


• coding WTFs since last millennium


• double shot espresso, no sugar


• echo -n "sysadmin at rimuhosting.com" | sha1sum


• ImportError: No module named dcoles


• Aaaarrrrgghghgh! Look behind you!


• [======================------] 95%


• Oops. Wrong Window (ask me)


• i beat the internet


• intentionally left blank

See if you can find them all during the week :)

Tips for International Guests coming to LCA2010

Here are some tips for our Australian and overseas guests:

• Bring some trousers/pants. Wellington can be cold at times so you might need something else than just shorts.


• Wellington can also be very windy, think about bringing a windproof jacket if you are planning to venture outside of the conference venue.


• When changing your money, make sure you ask for North Island money, few shops in Wellington accept the Southern Dollar.


• Your passport will be your only drinking license in NZ (foreign drivers licenses are typically not accepted in pubs).


• All of NZ is currently UTC+13. This is 2 hours ahead of HST (Hobart Standard Time).


• As you de-plane and recover your luggage, mind the sheep, they are a protected endangered species in New Zealand.


• You can bring heaps of duty free alcohol. Should you have more than you can safely drink, the organisers are happy to accept bribes can help you sort it out.

Disclaimer: as with respectable travel guides, none of these facts have been checked and this post may contain some slight inaccuracies.

If you have any other questions, feel free to join the LCA2010-chat list or the #linux.conf.au IRC channel on Freenode.

Safety first!

As part of getting the catering for LCA sorted, Susanne has been keeping track of everybody's allergies and dietary requirements. Some of the responses were truly helpful:

> Dietary Requirements
> ====================
>
> In registering, you have noted a dietary requirement of:
>
> Vegetarian
>
> For health and safety reasons, please let me know how you react when you eat
> the above foods, how severe the reaction is, and what medical attention you
> need, if any, should a reaction occur. If you have already told us this
> information, then please ignore this message.

When I eat vegetarian food I develop a warm glow of satisfaction,
severity depending on the deliciousness of said food. The best medical
treatment is to take in fluids; either water or malt-based drinks are
fine.

Philip R.

Thanks Phil, we'll keep that in mind! In case of emergency, you may collect said beverage at the rego desk.

LCA delegates are a helpful bunch

Organising linux.conf.au is a lot of fun, partly because we have such a great community. For example, someone took the time to point out how wrong we were in saying that New Zealand power is 240V:

> Technical
> =========
> Please note, the power in New Zealand is 240 volts. If you plan on
> bringing a power board with you, please do not bring one that is
> lower than this (ie: From the USA).

Actually, it is 230 volts +/-6% (ie anything within 216..244 is within
spec). 230V is also the standard in Australia and Europe. The change
from 240V was made in 1997.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mains_power_around_the_world

Russell S.

So there you have it, 230V +/- 6% since 1997, thanks Russell!

New Miniconf: Bridging the gap

A few people have noticed that a new Miniconf has made it to the LCA2010 programme: Bridging the gap.

Run by Tim Penhey, one of the Launchpad team leads, it's all about reducing friction between upstream projects and distributions by using the recently Open Sourced Launchpad platform.

If you are interested in proposing a talk, email Tim. And be sure to ask him when Launchpad will natively support git ;)

Note that this Miniconf replaces the "Free the Cloud" Miniconf which, for reasons outside of our control, will not happen this year. I'm really hoping that it makes it to LCA 2011 though!

Sysadmin miniconf open for early submissions

Following the Open Programming Languages miniconf, the sysadmin miniconf is now accepting early submissions for prospective presenters.

They have openings for:

• 45 minute double-length presentations
• 20 minute full presentations
• 10-15 minute "How we do things" presentations
• 5-10 minute "lightning talks"

For more information, visit the miniconf website.

If you are interested in presenting in one of the other miniconfs, watch the wiki for their announcements or get in touch with the organisers directly.