2002-06-27 - 1:38

Living legend

The Linux Symposium started today, which means that instead of work, I have a few days of hanging out downtown and checking out some presentations. Two of the talks that I attended today were very well done, one needed a little pruning and organizing, and one was without merit.

It was cool seeing a lot of the same faces from last year's Symposium, although one guy did express disappointment at my un-freaky appearance. (It was during last year's show that I had a floppy mohawk, which I dyed green and blue, and a red goatee.) I'll have to try harder.

Oh, and I got to meet the living legend, Werner. At first glance, he doesn't look like he should be able to promote such terror in Dr. J; but you can quickly see why. The fact that the doctor is just getting over being sick and is on medication that precludes drinking kept him from being kidnapped by Werner tonight, at least.

All in all, it was a fun, friendly crowd--almost surprisingly so, for a collection of computer geeks. I guess that they (we?) are friendly to other geeks. Well, except for the guy who was at our table tonight, who apparently had gotten in an argument at another conference and slapped the presenter. That seems excessive, although having observed the guy, I can believe it.

Oh yes, Linus himself was even here today, which is kinda cool, although I'm not enough of a Linux geek to fully appreciate that fact. ("Zaphod's just this guy, you know?") His six and four year old daughters were cute, running circles around people (literally). (I'd say that the baby was cute; but I dunno . . . as long as they aren't yours, if you've seen one baby, you've seen 'em all, right?)

Today was a long one, since I woke up for the start of the soccer match (boo) and the afternoon presentations were followed by an opening night party. The next two days will be shorter--since the tech industry collapsed, companies have lost the budget for parties, so it'll just be presentations. The Symposium does conclude on Saturday with the traditional pub takeover, though.

The other bonus of being in downtown Ottawa today was that protestors were supposed to be out in full force. I only saw a few protesters; but I did find it strange seeing so many cops around. It's freaky seeing two busloads of police park across the street from you and march past in full riot gear. A lot of the buildings had extra security, as well. As for the protesters, we theorized that the anti-capitalism protesters got scared of the rain and decided to go to the mall, instead.

I'll have to take my camera tomorrow and get pictures of either the geeks, the hippies, or (if luck is on my side) the cops laying the smack-down on someone.

J.