Perspectives of a Canadian in the Old/Deep/New/Geographic South: This is where I ramble on about nothing in particular and post a few nice pictures.
Random fun things
Just a little over a week to go before the 6th annual Southeast Linuxfest kicks off. The final schedule is now out and I’m looking forward to catching a few of them as I roam around being the photographer.
New this year is the Craft Beer Bottle Share (not an official part of SELF though). Bring a bunch of your favourite craft beers along, share them with other craft beer afficionados, and try the brews other people bring.
Still time to register, and as usual SELF is free to attend.
After much anticipation, registration for Southeast Linuxfest 2014 is now open!
As usual, SELF is free to attend (registration recommended). There’s also the supporting attendee package for $65 which gets you lunch, a shirt, drink tickets for the parties and the undying gratitude of the organizers.
There will also be ARRL VEs administering the amateur radio license tests (I’ll be one of them) so if you’ve been thinking about getting or upgrading your license, now’s your chance. You still have a month to study!
This year’s schedule includes Puppet training, an information security track put on by BSides Charlotte, BSDA and LPI certification exams in addition to the regular SELF tracks.
Book your hotel soon, because the $99/night SELF rate expires May 29.
Today we picked up a Spirograph on sale at Target.
I had one when I was a kid and spent many afternoons using it to make all kinds of neat patterns. Mine had ball point pens, but this one came with felt pens.
I played with it for a bit, and let me tell you, it can be just as frustrating as a big kid as it was when you were a little kid.
I didn’t really like the felt pen because of the blobbing and bleed through that happens when you get stuck. Pen or pencil was much better.
Still fun to play with, and I find the patterns you can create just as fascinating now as when I was a kid.
Southeast Linuxfest is coming up in a few months. This time around there’s a new website, new location and new date!
This year will be the sixth installment of SELF, and I’m pleased to have been part of it from the very first one. SELF2014 is happening June 20-22 this year, a couple of weeks later than previous SELFs have been. The Sheraton Charlotte Airport will be the location for SELF 2014, and rooms are already available for booking. The SELF2014 rate is $99/night and also includes internet access.
The call for talks is currently open. Deadline for submitting talk proposals is March 31.
Some particular areas we’re really looking for talks this year include desktop linux, gimp, inkscape, ruby, python, perl, java, security, drupal, wordpress, and bash. That being said, please don’t be discouraged from submitting a talk outside of those things listed. We will continue to look for, welcome, encourage, and accept talks pertaining to enterprise, BSD, and all things FOSS.
SELF 2014 is also looking for sponsors. If you’re interested in becoming a sponsor, check out the sponsor prospectus.
For all the latest updates, stay tuned to the website, hang out with us on irc.freenode.net/#southeastlinuxfest and/or follow @selinuxfest on Twitter.
Should be another exciting Linuxfest! Can’t wait!
Helping out with radio communication support during the Charleston Marathon was a lot of fun yesterday. The weather was on the chilly side with a breeze that didn’t help much. At least it was a sunny day which helped a bit.
I was assigned to the 23 mile mark which, for the marathon course, was also the 17.5ish mark too. It was a while before I saw the first marathon runner come by, about an hour and 40 minutes into the race. There were a few runners trickling by, and then a pretty steady flow of runners over the couple hours going one way, then coming back the other way towards the finish.
The runner in the Superman Underoos outfit gave me a chuckle as he ran by. There was another person wearing a Spiderman shirt, and a woman wearing a 1800s period dress complete with parasol. Probably the most impressive were the two firefighters walking the course dressed in full gear.
Fortunately there were no major incidents (not that I heard over the radio anyway). Had to call for some assistance when a runner broke down at my location but that’s about it. A few other runners broke down at other points in the course but nothing severe.
Just before 2:30PM, the net wrapped up operations and I secured my location. There were only a handful of stragglers walking the rest of the course by that point.
All in all, aside from the temperature, it was a lot of fun. I found out that my HT can reach the repeater on the Yorktown from 8 miles away and that even when broadcasting the time calling signal at max volume pretty much continuously for 4 hours, the battery held out for the entire time. Good things to know.