The Penguin’s Big Day Out: LCA writeup in Linux Magazine
April 21, 2008
My writeup of Linux.conf.au (LCA) 2008 has appeared in the international Linux Magazine. I googled and found it for your reading pleasure – you’ll need to open it in PDF format, but it’s a fun little read (if I do say so myself). The guys at Linux Mag did promise to send me a copy, but I haven’t received it as yet – the only reason I knew my story was out was through bumping into Paul Fenwick (of Perl Training Australia) at the launch of the Waugh Partner’s Australian Open Source Community and Industry Report the other week. So thanks, Paul!
Penguin’s Big Day Out [Linux Magazine]
One Laptop Per Child on its way to Australia
February 1, 2008
The One Laptop Per Child initiative, a charity which is attempting to create and distribute educational laptops to disadvantaged children, is on its way to Australia. OLPC Australia was unveiled at the Linux.conf.au open source conference this week.
The Australian group is still being put together, but organiser Pia Waugh said its goals will be to get the OLPC XO laptops out to disadvantaged children across Australia – particularly in remote and rural areas.
Although the OLPC’s XO laptop was designed to be used as a beginners computer, it has become a cool, low cost laptop favoured by geeks – as proved by the number of LCA attendees carrying them around this week.
The local OLPC chapter will be selling XOs to the public, although it’s expected they’ll be sold in small batches of five units or so, rather than one at a time.
The website for the group isn’t live yet, but should be up in about 2 weeks at www.olpc.org.au.
Python 3.0: Breaking the snake
February 1, 2008
Python release manager Anthony Baxter gave the only Australian keynote speech at Linux.conf.au this morning. He laid out the roadmap for Python leading up to the release of Python 3.0 which will be backwards *incompatible*. I wrote the story up for ITNews and you can read it here.
Google’s Summer of Code program heads down under
February 1, 2008
Some exciting news is on the way from Google – it looks like they’ll be announcing a southern hemisphere version of their Summer of Code program for uni students. This will mean that Australian uni students will have access to the program during their summer holidays. I wrote the story up for ITNews, and you can read it here.
In open source, money doesn’t always talk
January 31, 2008
OpenLogic’s director of community and partner programs, Stormy Peters, gave a keynote address at Linux.conf.au today, posing the question of whether paying open source developers changes their motivations. I wrote up the story for ITNews, you can read it here:
Hardware vendors will follow the money
January 31, 2008
Intel’s open source evangelist Dirk Hohndel presented to Linux.conf.au today on the subject of how to make hardware vendors love open source. I wrote the story up for ITnews, you can read it here:
Lifehacker AU interview with Linus Torvalds
January 30, 2008
I’ve just published an interview I did with Linus Torvalds yesterday for Lifehacker Australia. He is here in Melbourne attending Linux.conf.au. I spoke to Linus about how he organises his workday and the tools he prefers to work with on the desktop. You can read it here:
OLPC hands out XO laptops at LCA
January 29, 2008
The One Laptop Per Child association surprised attendees at Linux.conf.au this morning by handing out 10 of its XO laptops to attendees of the conference. The gift is hoped to encourage software engineers to contribute to the OLPC project by testing the laptops, particularly their group-computing abilities such as mesh networking.
The announcement was made by Jim Gettys, the vice president of software engineering for the One Laptop Per Child foundation. The names of the recipients were randomly selected from the attendee list.
Jim Gettys is speaking about the OLPC project at LCA today at 2.30pm.
Vox Pop: What are the LCA “must see” sessions?
January 28, 2008
As the second day of mini-Confs kicks off, attendees of Linux.conf.au 2008 are busily planning which talks and tuorials they’ll go to. We spoke to a few speakers and attendees to find out what was on their “must see” list.
Stormy Peters (OpenLogic)
“I’m looking forward to going to the One Laptop Per Child talk -I’m expecting mine any day now. I’m also looking forward to seeing everyone!”
Stormy Peters is keynoting on Thursday morning on the topic “Would You Do it Again for Free”. She’ll also be doing a less publicised talk at the Linux Chix mini-conf later today, on the subject “What does a community manager do”.
Pia Waugh (Waugh Partners)
“My picks (as a non developer, ex-sys-admin, consultant) are:
- Joining Second Life to the Real World presented by Jonathan Oxer – cutting edge, something that helps emphasise why openness needs to be the default platform.
- The Consumer View of Technology presented by Steven Ellis – Helpful in understanding what is happening in the market and what people are looking for.
- Free software development and localisation helper presented by Yang Li -Understanding the challenges facing various international communities in participating in FOSS.”
Pia Waugh is speaking about the Australian Open Source Industry and Community Census on Friday at 2.30pm with Jeff Waugh.
Jacinta Richardson (Perl Training Australia)
- “Stormy’s keynote. I’ve never seen Stormy talk before, but I think the topic is a really good one, and, well it’s good to see women up the front giving keynotes. It’s not as common as I feel it should be.
- “Create your own open source dance mat – Tamara Oliver. I love DDR and Step Mania, but dance mats are so finicky. I’d love to know more about how they work, how to fix them and even how to create them!
- Stop in the name of the law – Kimberlee Watherall. Kimberlee’s great at distilling complex legal stuff into something easily accessible for developers. With the current climate, knowing this stuff should be mandatory for all developers. Plus she has a wicked sense of humour.”
Jacinta Richardson is organising LCA’s second annual Open Day, which happens on Saturday 2 February.
Are you attending Linux.conf.au 2008? If so, share your “must see” sessions in comments please!
Shaky start to LCA 2008
January 27, 2008
Delegates arriving at the registration desk at Linux.conf.au this morning were greeted with the distressing news that due to the Australia Day public holiday there was no coffee available for purchase across the entire University of Melbourne campus (!).
To compound matters for the caffeine-deprived, the wireless network was also on the fritz.
Conference caterers had coffee up and running by the morning tea session, but the coffee outage marred the otherwise seamless registration process. 
Errant OLPC computer owners were blamed for the problems with the wireless network at the conference. computer owners who hadn’t updated their computers. Conference organisers had already notified OLPC XO-1 owners that they should update their software and firmware before LCA to avoid the multicast system the XOs use from breaking LCA’s wireless.
Here’s hoping for a more regular supply of coffee and wireless network for the rest of LCA 2008.