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The Ottawa conference was very good. Many of the Linux top coders gave
presentations. Most have not had training in giving presentations,
unfortunately. About 2 years ago most presentations at Linux conferences
were given with power point or viewgraphs. Any talk given from a linux
laptop would usually have problems. This time everyone gave their talk
from their own laptop, running magic point and all worked. Almost no-one
used viewgraphs.
The location of the conference was good, we were in the middle of the
tourist and restaurant area. These were too far to get to between talks
and there were no refreshments (other than coffee), such as bagels,
juice/soda, so you did without for most of the day. They were close enough
that you could do an express trip for lunch and be back for the afternoon
talks, but you had to keep your eye on the time. After hours was great
which some sponsored beer bash/food everynight.
The organisers did a great job (I didn't see any glitches). They provided
lots of terminals for people wanting their doese of e-mail or slashdot and
for the people with laptops, wireless lan cards so you could be online
through the talks. Everyone with laptop seemed to be online all day,
apparently editing, rebooting (from the beeps during the talks)
or on their favorite IRC. People seemed to be loath to go offline.
One thing that has changed is that most are a lot more flush than they
used to be. All except for Ratz and myself were staying in $100/night
hotels. Most had laptops which they carried around like waiters with
trays, with the laptop cover open at 45deg so as not to close the machine
down. In the darkened talk rooms, as people entered, you'd see the
silhouette of a person illuminated by an eiry blue coming from the half
opening and running laptop. In the area just outside the talk rooms,
people were sitting next to each other, all typing on their laptops and
making comments to each other. It looked like they were talking to each
other via IRC.
Joe
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Joseph Mack mack@xxxxxxxxxxx
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