Linux Conference and Perth

[tcpip]

The past few days I've been in Perth at Linux Conf 2014. It's been several years since I've been in the city of my childhood and I have been much reminded of the key characteristics of this sprawling and hot city. The conference is being held in the old sandstone buildings of the University of Western Australia and I'm residing at St George's College, both of which have been quite suitable. As can imagined I've taken the opportunity to catch with a number of old Perth friends, both at the conference itself and a number at a dinner at the Himalayan Nepalese resturant, which was quite a great night to see some old faces and at a couple of new ones. A follow-up dinner, with mostly different people will be held on Friday night and a lunch on Saturday before I leave. The Conference dinner itself was held on the Hackett Driver river foreshore and prior to that I also attended a "flock of Kiwis" dinner for the trans-Tasman visitors. Yes, I am feeling quite well fed.

The conference itself has been a mostly good experience. The two mini-conferences I attended (Systems Administration and Open Programming) were notable for their excellent technical content. Each of the keynote speeches has had a decidely social orientation with Suelette Dreyfus and Matthew Garrett showing interest in current security and privacy concerns (NSA and Snowden revelations, Trans-Pacific Partnership, etc), with Kate Chapman illustrating the use of distributed community activism in disaster recovery. It is an interesting approach allowing for the more social and motivational talks to take up keynote positions, whilst the technical details have been handled in the streams; it's a good approach. In my own role as Community Liaison Officer, there's been a few minor issues to deal with, but no disasters. The emphasis of the conference organisers of the Code of Conduct a great deal of preventative maintenance has already been carried out. Overall, this conference seems to be running quite smoothly and I've been impressed with how organisers have dealt with the inevitably bumps that occur on the journey.

Comments

[iris]

When I first returned to my hometown, I was a bit leery of seeing anyone I knew. Now that I'm more happy with myself, I don't think it'd be so bad!

Enjoy the conference! It sounds really busy. I find this type of thing interesting to read about, even if I can't really relate.

[tcpip]

Well, feeling good about one's self is sort of a prerequisite for being truthfully gregarious.

Perth is a nice place to visit, but having spent 24 years of my life there, I really wouldn't want to move back. It has very nice beaches, and is so culturally sterile that alternative types actually can actually independently generate a great deal simply to save themselves from boredom. I am surprised by how many of my old friends seem to have settled there without much problem.

The conference is exhausting (I'm currently at the final session), but has been of a typically high quality and an real insight into future technologies.

[ratfan.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear you like Perth :-) Genghiscon, a small uni-based sf convention, has been held at St George's; one of the more striking colleges, I think. And you'll be here for the Saturday heatwave. I hope you won't have to walk far for that lunch on Saturday!

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Eh, livegerbil ate my response. So, from recollection.

At the dinner on Sunday ariaflame mentioned GenghisCon being held at St Georges. It does have a somewhat 19th century Hogwarts feel to it, so it would be a good place for a con.

Feel free to come along on Saturday if you desire. It's being held at La Patisserie in South Perth, a leafy street with the river on either side, so it should be a few degrees cooler.

[ariaflame.livejournal.com]

It was there for a couple of years, but we're back at Trinity now (though it appears they're doing some more remodelling that we're working around). It did have that sort of feel yes. Lots of stairways and so forth.