Author: Eugene

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Southeast Linuxfest 2012 in the bag

Another successful Southeast Linuxfest wrapped up yesterday. Came back with a little over 450 photos to go through which dropped to around 410 after a quick first pass.

Saw a fair number of people go through the conference and a bunch of familiar faces. This year ended up pretty database heavy as far as topics went and I managed to catch a fair number of good talks. Learned a few things about MySQL DBA, much of which I will probably never need, but there were some handy little nuggets to learn.

SELF stretched over three full days this year in a new venue which I think worked out pretty well. Aside from Time-Warner Cable not being able to provide the Internet service as originally promised, the rest of the meeting seemed to go pretty smoothly. Instead, this was where the Internets came from.

SELF 2012 Internet source

I spent most of it wandering around taking photos (in an “official” capacity this time), sitting in sessions and manning video cameras. Seemed like a pretty sizable crowd this year, with some early estimates putting numbers at around 500 people or so. Pretty respectable I think.

The Charlotte DrupalCamp put on by CharDUG went off pretty well with a good turnout. With three tracks, there was a little bit for everybody.

Already looking forward to next year’s SELF, June 7-9 at the same location.

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0x1FBD0 miles

Hit 0x1FBD0 miles on the car just outside Columbia on my way back from Southeast Linuxfest this weekend. Car is still running well, especially with the new struts. It’s developed an odd noise though that I need to investigate. Sounds almost like there’s some metal on metal rubbing going on somewhere around the wheels. Last time I made it go away by tightening the lug nuts.

Otherwise still going strong.

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Southeast Linuxfest: T-2 days

Two days left until another Southeast Linuxfest!

There’s a lot of stuff packed into this year’s SELF and it should be a fun time.

I’ll be hitting the road for Charlotte tomorrow to help with getting things set up. This year I’ve been given the Official Photographer duties so my new Speedlite will get its first real workout.

There is also an official SELF ham radio frequency, 147.555, and the 6600 Net on 145.190 at 9PM Saturday. I have no idea what the 6600 Net is, but with my new call sign I’m hoping to find out.

There will also be ham radio licensing tests given at SELF this year, on Saturday I think. I’m planning on trying for Extra again, but I’m not sure I’ll be much more prepared for it this time than I was last Saturday. There’s still much reading left to do. Well, I still have 3 days left.

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KK4JRP

My new call sign just showed up in the FCC database. Now I am an official ham radio guy!

All I need now is a radio.

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Newly minted ham

The Atlanta Hamfest today was pretty cool. A pretty decent number of people, and lots of radio related gear up for sale. So many gadgets. I’ve always wanted an oscilloscope to play with, and there were lots of them up for sale.

Sat in on Connie’s forum on the social side of ham radio, which went pretty well. Some pretty good discussion and participation from the people that attended.

After that it was ham licensing exam time. I managed to pass the General exam so now I am a licensed ham radio guy (once it goes through the FCC). I took the Extra exam because I could, but didn’t really expect to pass it since I went into it pretty much cold and with no prep. I figured I was prepared enough to get General, and that’s what I ended up with so I’m pretty pleased with that.

Connie took this picture of me with my CSCE (Certificate of Successful Completion of Exam) showing that I passed the General test.

Now to see if some of my ham radio friends will let me hang out with them and see how it works. Will probably find out sometime next week what my call sign is. If there are enough examiners at Southeast Linuxfest next weekend, I’ll try to do the Extra exam there (and hopefully be more prepared for it).