LugRadio Live is coming to the US, and I’m not going.
You should.
I have a friend coming to my place that weekend, so I won’t make it to the very first LugRadio Live in the US of A.
You should. Seriously.
I’m more than a tad bit distraught about not being at the show that I practically invented. But I can’t make it.
You should.
I could go on and on, but that wouldn’t change the fact that I’m not going.
Nevertheless…you should.
(Does that suffice, Jono?)
SCaLE6 conference organizer, Orv Beach, interviewed me at this weekend’s big event in Los Angeles.
I speak in the interview about the switch from a large Linux distributor to working for a small startup, and some of what I have been doing at Bungee Labs over the past year.
Yes, indeedy, I’ll be there.
This seems to be the #3 question after my leaving Novell in April: “Will you still be at LugRadio Live this summer?”
Those who know me know that I cannot get enough of that warm, good ole Wolverhampton feeling. Wolverhampton! “City of Dreams.” Even now, from so far away, I can remember vividly the way it clings to the soles of the feet, the way its sweet air permeates the clothing and lingers for months. Aye, some might say that there will be too much Ted at LugRadio Live. Most, actually.
I will be presenting on Bungee Connect, a no-fee, on-demand development and deployment environment that my new company Bungee Labs provides. Also, I plan to provide the captive audience (mind you, not necessarily “captivated”) a humorous update on “My Winter of Discontent,” which involves my getting divorced, leaving Novell, finding a new job, and getting a new home, all while sporting my new glasses to correct my two astigmatic eyeballs. (A hell of a winter it was!)
If you want to meet up, hang out, jeer the Jono, drink beer, slap the Aq, shoot the shite, finger paint Ade’s head, etc., then drop a line to ted(Shift-2-on-a-US-keyboard)bungeelabs.com.
See you in Wolverhampton!
Tonight I will be arriving in Los Angeles to attend and present at, SCaLE5, also known as Socal Linux Expo. This is one of the great community-based Linux shows that I get to attend. While Linux vendors are there in force, the show is mostly free of the vendor bloat and overmarketing of the big LinuxWorld events. At SCALE, you can hang out and talk tech with people all day long in a refreshingly casual atmosphere.
My friend and Novell Open Audio cohost Erin Quill will be there to help me present a session on virtualization and virtual machine management. This is good, as apparently Erin has become known as “the smart one” on Novell Open Audio. (But at least people still tell me that I’m the one with a great face for radio.)
Also in attendance will be my good friend and Ubuntu community manager, Jono Bacon. I’m not sure what we should do to him this year, so please make suggestions. (Last year I learned that apparently IN-N-OUT does not kill the man. He’s like a damn cockroach!)
Google’s Chris DiBona will be there as well, and I look forward to seeing him again.
Tonight I present on how to /install/use/configure Desktop Effects (Xgl/Compiz) at Salt Lake Linux Users Group at the University of Utah.
Depending on his current post-surgery pain levels, Erin Quill may help me present.
The meeting is open to anyone, so if you are interested (and in the area), you can find meeting details here.
Novell created an install fest manual for SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10, featuring how to set up Desktop Effects (Xgl) using the SUSE Linux Enterprise driver download process.
It was an excellent final day of the UK LUG Tour.
Oxford-Brookes University
Jono and I presented at Oxford-Brookes University to a bunch of students and staff. There were maybe 35-40 people in the room The cool surprise was the guys who came down from 
Oxford University because they had heard that Novell was speaking there. One of them used to be the NetWare administrator at Oxford-Brookes, but fled to Oxford when OBU moved away from Novell. So, naturally he tossed out several set-up questions about Novell’s impressive technology history. They invited us to hit Oxford U. if we do another tour. We said that it would be a lock-in if they could get us a meeting with Richard Dawkins.
Gloucester
We had a big turn-out in Gloucester as well. Great gang of folks there. Based on the questions they asked, I’d say that they were probably the most technically savvy LUG we hit. That could have been because the event was hosted by Message Labs, and the crowd was suspiciously stacked with their people. They were cool enough to tell me to put on their SUSE caps for the photo, though.
The presentation went a little bit long, and I missed the train out of Gloucester. So Barbie and Andy from Message Labs look us to the pub. (BTW: When you’re going to meet someone called “Barbie,” you expect a bit more of the “female, blonde, and buxom” rather than a mellow dude named is Paul.) Jono and I ravaged a plate of cheese, Jono dodging the bleu as if it were a salad.
The Return: Trains, Planes and Automobiles
Jono dropped me at New Street Station in Birmingham at around 1 a.m. I stayed in a tiny, cold hotel room–the kind of place sometimes referred to as a “stepover hotel.” The next morning, I was up at 6, but not awake. I caught a train back to Manchester and made the airport with comfortable spare time before the flight. I stayed awake working the whole 15+ hours. When I got home, I posted a couple emails and approved a couple blog comments, then made for the Land of Nod.
POWIS, Wales, Thursday, April 20, 2006
After a bullet ride over winding backroads into Wales in Jono’s micro 4×4, we arrived in Powis. Powis is a gorgeous town, the kind of place that would appear in a dictionary next to “idyllic.”
After a short wander about asking people where things were, we supped on curry (at long last! Curse you and your hidden mile-long row of curry houses, Manchester!), and then toddled over to the Powis LUG venue.
For being in a small town, the Powis LUG was a great bunch of folks, with almost 20 people filling the small room. Once again, a couple women were attended, which marks a difference from what I have seen of LUG’s back in the States.
Also, I was well pleased to see SUSE Linux 10.0 on all the machines in the PC training center where the LUG meets.
My favorite comment from one of the attendees after we finished and milled about the lobby was “I almost didn’t come, but I’m glad I did. I was extremely entertained.”
Goal met: extreme entertainment delivered. (Ted makes checkmark on list.)
Midnight, Rhayader, Powis, Wales
For the want of petrol, Jono and I followed terse instructions from Jono’s TomTom GPS unit to three different Texaco stations, each one progressively more shut than the previous. We ended up calling the British Automobile Association–something like AAA but for some reason they don’t call it American–and after an hour wait, “Frank” supplied us enough petrol to get out of Wales.
Hint taken, we departed, making Wolverhampton at nearly 3:00 AM. (At least this will offset the jetlag when I reach the Desktop Summit in California.)Petrol. I think we Americans need to look further into this alternative fuel source that seems to have taken over all of Europe. Perhaps it will work as an alternative to our American addiction to gasoline.
Last Hurrah
Today we head to Oxford Brookes Computer Society, and then off to Gloucester (apparently two syllables) for our final two matches.
Even if these go badly, dear Jono, we’ll always have Powis.
Uh, yeah…did I mention that I’m seriously ADD? I can’t recall…
Still over here, across the Atlantic sea touring the UK Linux User Groups. Last Night, Sir Jono Bacon and I drove from Wolverhampton to Manchester.
Wires got crossed somewhere and turnout was small. Oddly, three people travelled in from elswhere (over an hour drive in both cases) to attend, which meant that a full third of the audience were not even from Manchester.
Jono presented on “Building the UberDestktop,” to much delight. I flexed my new AppArmor knowledge for the first time. I think it went quite well, but I also get the idea that most of the attendees would have liked my “Desktop Innovation” presentation even more.
Jono nags me about needing to get on the road to Wales for our presentation to Powys (pronounced Pah-Wiss) LUG. Much joking about “Twavelling to Powis in the Spwingtime” to follow.
Great bunch of folks at the Greater London Linux User Group. And I say that not just because LUG leader Simon Morris bought me a pint after the show. I linked the headline of this post to Simon’s review of our presentations.
Jono delivered a solid talk about advocating open source effectively–a subject he and I discuss frequently.
I spoke about “Desktop Innovation at Novell,” the basic theme of which is that much of the really cool new stuff happening in desktop Linux is happening at Novell. I always bear some apprehension about doing this talk, because I unapologetically extol Novell’s virtues. (I also show off a lot of SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10, like Beagle, Banshee, F-spot, Xgl, and several usability changes to the Gnome desktop interface. These things back up the discussion very well.) So, I was really pleased at how well the talk was received. During Q&A one guy actually called out how impressed he was with everything I had shown.
Tonight, we’re off to Manchester where I speak about AppArmor, something that will be much more challenging for me.
One of the people I wanted to call on my quest to find the mythical “Sandals and Ponytail set” was Google’s Chris DiBona. He is the only OSS guy I have met who actually may fit the “Sandals and Ponytail” mould. Unfortunately, I did not get around to making the call.
My friend Todd Dailey (at Apple) e-intorduced me to Chris via email, but Chris and I still don’t know each other really. I accosted him briefly before my presentation at Socal Linux Expo. Chris reacted to my sudden appearance with a confused mix of who-the-hell-are-you indifference and why-the-hell-are-bothering-me apprehension.
Note to self: Learn how to introduce myself without accosting people.
Anyhoodely-doodly, Chris finally got the Google podcast “FLOSS Weekly” online. I say “finally” with zero intent of deprecation. It took me several more months than I expected it to in order to bring Novell Open Audio to life. I just listened to the first show. It sounds like it will be an interesting tour of the tech terrain.
HOWEVER (said Ted, in a vain struggle to sound controversial), I’m still unsatisfied. What is Google’s real position on open source? I think that Novell has been pretty clear on their position. They endorse open source, but see a future that is based on a wise mixture of open source and proprietary. (To be clear, “wise” is not determined by Novell. Rather, it is determined by consumers. Businesses and individuals both will determine for themselves what their personal balance is to make a “wise” mixture. Meanwhile, Novell continues to extend its investment in people like David Reveman (Xgl), Jeremy Allison (Samba), Miguel de Icaza (Mono), and many others. Epic parentheticals are becoming my speciality. Meanwhile…) What I want to know from FLOSS is this: what’s Google’s real position on open source. Google, are you in, or are you out? Will we see future cool products like Google Earth as open source projects, or will they continue to be done as proprietary products that may be delivered for Windows only?
Last night I sat in with the LugRadio boys and “helped” them concoct their next batch of madness. Light thrown upon the production of LugRadio dispels any ideas that there is some well-planned method to their madness reveals the stark truth: these are just four blokes from the British midlands who just happen do what they do very well: they make talking about Linux and open source fun and entertaining. It’s extremely cool that they have managed to make such a mark from where they are located. (In case you’re not aware, I have found that the mere name of Wolverhamptom functions as a one-word punchineline that never seems to lose it’s funny.)
When I told my friend Jeff that I was going to sit in with the guys, he was dead set that I had to take video camera of the event in order to put it online later. I’m glad I didn’t. Jono’s modest studio is rather small, especially with four men and Aq in the room.
Nat Friedman stood us up on our interview. Naturally, we slandered him liberally.
Travels with Bacon
This morning I hung out with Jono on the train discussing and re-discussing the whole open source advocacy thing. It’s great to compare notes with Jono, since he does not have any built-in predisposition for a single vendor as I do.
Innovative Idioms from Brother Bacon:
Salad Dodger = one who actively avoids proper nutrition. e.g. “Most Linux User Gourp members seem to be salad dodgers.” –Bacon, 2006
Not really, but it feels like it because I should be packing right now, but I could not resist updating to beta 10 of SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop, which came out today, and then I noticed that Nvidia has released 8756 of their Linux driver, so I have to try to see whether it fixes a minor issue with Xgl I have been having, but these things seem to always cause me hellacious issues and yet I still cannot help but attempt the upgrade despite that every time it ends up causing me delays, near misses of flights and undue panic.
I say Bacon doesn’t make it past the second round!
Post-event Update:
Here are the blog posts that Jono and I did during the UK LUG Tour:
