Lev Lafayette's journal

It's been several years since we've been to Tasmania so the opportunity to present at the Open Source Developers Conference was readily accepted. My talk, Open Source Vocational Engineering with High Performance Computing included the key components of adult education theory, the context of HPCs, and development of such material for vocational engineering courses at RMIT. I have been very impressed by the quality of talks at this relatively small but enthusiastic conference, especially those of the keynote speakers Dr. Maia Sauren on open source government records, Mark Elwell on SecondLife and OpenSim, and Michael Cordover's talk on the evilness of the AEC in it's closed-source election counting system.

From our (late) arrival we took the opportunity for a trip to the Museum of Old and New Art. It's an absolutely great venue in a superb location and especially well-designed, so that one could spend an entire day or just a few hours. There was a handful of ancient Egypt pieces which were nicely contrasted with some modern pieces. There were some appalling installation art pieces as well. We've been staying in the pretty low-budget but charmingly old Brunswick Hotel. Whilst I have been conferencing, caseopaya has been visiting various record stores, bookstores, galleries and museums. Tonight we have dinner with my old friend (and once upon a time political opponent), Emeritus Professor Peter Boyce.

The conference dinner itself was held at The Apple Shed in the Huon Valley which was another great location and rustic venue, which recently won an award for the country's best cider. As is typical at such events there was preferred charity for fundraising; in this case the Refugee Legal Service of Tasmania, which I blurted out (and fulfilled) a pledge for $1000 which was used to encourage others to donate, and which has been matched by others. Yes, it is a tax-deductible which, correctly evaluated, is a donation of my time (time is money). Of course, the Tasmanian Refugee Legal Service doesn't need a Linux HPC sysadmin; but can spend the money on someone more specialised for their tasks - which does make me wonder a little why people with above average incomes do not donate even more to their preferred charities.