Copyrighteous

I saw an advertisement for PubCon today. It merely listed their name and their slogan/motto/catchphrase: "We start where other conferences finish."

I thought about that for a second until I figured it out. Where do other conferences finish? Obviously, they finish at the pub! Hell, any decent conference will they finish in the pub not just once but every night. What a great idea! Why not just avoid the whole conference bit altogether and just go to the pub in big groups of like-minded people!

It turns out, it's just some gathering for anyone "involved in the production, marketing, or management of a internet web site."

Very disappointing. I will not go. You shouldn't either.

If I remember and have time when PubCon is Boston (unlikely, remind me if you like the idea) -- April 18-20, 2006 -- I will try to organize my own PubCon, which will actually start where other conferences (including PubCon it turns out) finish.

I submitted the following proposal for a talk at Debconf6:

This talk offers a "Debian Themed" quick tour through the academic, legal, and business worlds. It overs insight into what everyone outside of Debian is saying about, doing with, and learning from the Debian project.

In doing so, it hopes to give Debian participants some insight into fields and areas that they are largely unfamiliar with (e.g., management, sociology, anthropology, economics, computer supported collaborative work, etc.). It illuminates what others -- especially academics -- find useful or inspiring about the project and to facilitate self-reflection and self-improvement within Debian. It reflects on the impact that Debian has had in the world beyond the Debian project and, in particular, in those areas that many Debian developers may not be familiar with.

The good news is that the proposal was accepted. The bad news is that this means I actually have to finish doing the research to make the talk happen.

To make the talk excellent, I wanted to solicit examples from you, great Debian community. I've already got my own list but I'd like to hear what you think I should talk about?

What I'm not looking for is examples of people or organizations that use Debian. This talk is not about people who use the OS or the people who build it. This is about people who have learned from Debian as a community.

Primarily, I'm looking for academic publications on Debian. However, anyone who has learned and designed a system or community based on such a paper or from observation would be good as well. People who use or have learned from our voting structure might be a good example as would communities with a Debian-derived social contract. Software engineering research is fair game.

Be creative but remember that I've got a limited time on the podium and may be forced into the unpleasant position of being ruthlessly selective.

Please add examples to this wiki page or just email mako@debian.org.

That's if for now and I'll see you in... Umm... Oaxtepec.

I don't think I ever blogged about the time I saw an ambulance being jump-started by another ambulance.

I laughed at the time but the situation made me very uneasy. Nobody wants to see something they depend upon in crucial moments in such a pathetic state. In the future, I think they should do these sort of jump-starts indoors.

Of course, it did answer one question. An ambulance's ambulance is, it turns out, just another ambulance.

Who ever said that the rewards of free software hacking are immaterial?

Last summer, I described how Debian hackers traveling through 106 Haven in New York tended to leave leave with lighter bags than they arrived with.

After the GPLv3 kick-off a couple weeks ago, I can say the Acetarium's visitors have been no less generous. That said, Mika and I are not as confident in our ability to identify the owners of misplaced items. Perhaps you can help.

They say that the sum can be greater than its parts. Mika has discovered that this may, in fact, be the case with the Acetarium's lost and found.

If you recognize this man is or can lay claim to any of his parts or possessions, please contact me and help us get him home.

I just created a stub in Wikipedia for the Hydrodaktulopsychicharmonica. I will visit the Music Library today for more information on this wonderfuly named instrument. If you have more information already, please contribute to the page.

I've been spending what is increasingly clearly too much time reading the news lately and think it might have a negative impact on my intelligence.

Here's one example of why I think this, taken from local news:

A teenager accused of going on a rampage at a gay bar with a hatchet and a gun sometimes glorified Nazism and had a swastika tattoo but never previously expressed any prejudice toward gays, friends say.

I'm sure he was the tolerant, sensitive, pro-gay-rights, secure-in-his-own sexuality kind of Nazi. Thanks Forbes for filling us in. Even if his friends are in fact ignorant enough to believe this, I'm don't see how this is newsworthy.

Here's another bit from international news

The United States is expelling a Venezuelan diplomat after the Caracas government Thursday ordered an American naval attaché to depart for alleged spying.

...

State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack did not accuse Figueredo of any wrongdoing and did not explain why she was designated for expulsion other than to say she was the "most appropriate" choice.

McCormack said the United States does not like to engage in what he termed "tit-for-tat diplomatic games," but said that Venezuela initiated the action and U.S. officials were forced to respond.

Copyrighteous spokesman Benjamin Mako Hill reminds McCormack of the definition of "tit-for-tat diplomatic games."