Linux.Conf.Au 2007 Conference

High-Availability Linux talk

Sat, 20 Jan 2007 04:19:32 GMT

So, about my http://linux-ha.org/HeartbeatTutorials";>talk...

It went really well. I think Jeff Waugh would have said "It Rocked" (because he says that a lot). The audience was great, and the room was pretty full (probably 50-75 people). About 2/3 of the people had done HA type things before, most of those same people had used release 1, and only 2 or 3 people had ever used release 2. A perfect audience for the talk!

When my 90 minutes was up, I only had 100 or so slides left to go ;-) . This was about as planned since the tutorial slot I had was about 4.5 hours short of enough time for a detailed tutorial. I had a hard time packing up and leaving afterwards - people who wanted to talk to me were between me and my stuff. Eventually, they kicked us out (a half-hour later), and I and my little entourage left. As we left the building, we went our own ways, and I went out to the pavilion outside to see how "Open Day" was going.

As I entered the pavilion, about 5 meters inside the entrance and a couple meters to the right was an Asian woman - who was going on and on about my talk - raving about how good it was and how much she'd enjoyed it. She spoke with an American accent and was dressed a lot better than the other attendees (about 2/3 of the way to a business suit). I really didn't know quite what how to react to this situation, but I was tired, so I decided I'd ignore her for the moment. I started to go on through, and she saw me as I went by. She grabbed her companion and told him "That's the guy I was telling you about" and then redirected her enthusiastic and effusive praise to me -- how great the talk was, and how much she'd enjoyed it and so on.

I told her I was really glad she'd enjoyed my talk, and that's why I give talks, and I have a great time giving them, have had fun on the project, and so on. When someone grabs me like this, I try and look for common ground based on their background. But, she wasn't wearing her conference badge. So, I said, "I see you're not wearing your badge. Who do you work for?". She paused for a second then replied a bit quieter - "Microsoft". I was a bit taken aback, and didn't know quite how to reply to that, so I said something like "That's OK. Glad to have you here." I told someone else this story later on and he said "Well, they've got to learn somewhere". [Not sure I agree with the tone of that remark, but it was funny anyway. And, if they learned something in the process, then I'm happy for that too. Maybe they'll sign up to do a Windows port ;-)].

I'm told there was a Microsoft employee taking copious notes during a talk on building communities - which wouldn't be at all surprising.

Back to the talk itself...
Lots of people did actually stop me later and say the talk had really gotten them fired up for installing release 2 and taking advantage of its cool features. Exactly what I had hoped!

Wednesday

Tue, 16 Jan 2007 22:19:54 GMT

Got up early this morning, and left an apology note for blowing the circuit breaker last night. Pleasant day, with a nice walk up the hill around outside the edge of campus.

While waiting for things to open, I met some guys from Colombia who are now working in Melbourne, and are also heartbeat customers. Seems like they're everywhere!

Tuesday

Tue, 16 Jan 2007 05:26:47 GMT

Trip over was uneventful. Lost power last night during the night in my room at New College. The speakers' dinner last night was fun, but got done a little late. I got up this morning tried to charge things, but no power. Took me a while to notice if I was doing it right. The speaker's adventure this morning came a bit early in the morning after getting to bed more like 1 AM, but it was fun.

It left me a bit tired, so I slept several hours in the afternoon. The Google event was fun, got to chat a bit and met some heartbeat customers I've talked to on IRC before. It had the usual social event problem of the music being so loud it drove most everyone outside. But, all in all, it was fun.

When I got back to New College, I ran into some more heartbeat customers while sitting and using the WiFi.

Also discovered that what I thought was a mere power strip was actually a surge suppressor. Power strips will plug nicely into 220V with the right adapter. But, as you'll see if you look at today's pictures, the same can't be said for a 120V surge suppressor. My apologies to the New College maintenance people who will have to reset my room's circuit breaker today.

Packing up

Sat, 13 Jan 2007 05:33:22 GMT

I'm getting ready to go - it's below zero Farenheit outside here at home, and I'm ready for some warm weather. I've never been to Australia, so it's an adventure all around. Things are mostly packed, but a few minor and last-minute things remain. I'm planning on posting pictures http://public.fotki.com/alanr-co/alan/lca-2007/";>here as the trip goes along. It's my first time to blog/journal things - so plenty of new experiences all around.

When I finish my presentation for the conference, you'll be able to find it on the http://linux-ha.org/HeartbeatTutorials";>Linux-HA web site.