Carol Rutz’s Annexe

Met some friends from last year, mailed some books I’ve purchased from Powell’s. Heard negative feedback from convention-goers regarding the “People for Geeks” tutorial, mainly complaints that the tutorial was condescending. I will have to keep my ears open for any other feedback.

Heard Mark Shuttleworth last night as well as r0ml. Great speeches, and r0ml has pointed out about the parallels of software development to Quintillian’s five canons/stages of oratory. “There is no new thing under the sun.” I’m trying to remember the guy who gave that odd Perl/timespace humor talk.

Finally, a sad note: Estelle Getty, also known as Sophia from the Golden Girls, passed away yesterday. Watching the Golden Girls was part of my family’s television viewing, and we would get a kick out of Sophia’s tactless wiseacre tough Sicilian persona. She will be remembered and missed.

Yes, I’m in Portland right now, and 30 minutes from now, the Open Source Conference will begin at the Convention Center. And tonight, Ubuntu’s Mark Shuttleworth will be speaking at the Mission Theater.

BTW: If you can, drive down to Pine State Biscuits and get yourselves a Reggie sammich.

AND NO, IT’S NOT AN APRIL FOOL.

To me, it means that I will be making plans to head out. Hopefully, I’ll be there (barring anything different).

For me, there will be sessions and tutorials that I want to attend. For example, Akkana Peck will have a tutorial on the GIMP and how to do some magic with that. I want to learn how to use that better than before. And there is this TCP/IP troubleshooting tutorial by Darren Hoch. And of course, there is Zak Greant’s The Age of Literate Machines. He was the first guy who welcomed me into the Open Source community, when I first attended OSCON last year.

The Prediger is hoping that I would return with more pens and shirts for him.

Last night, I spent the evening looking at the Tiga scheme this blog is based upon. I want to add a picture promo for the OSCON coming up in July, so I made a “widget” to stick it on the sidebar, and it worked.

When I got word that OSCON is accepting proposals, I realized that soon, registration will open. I told the Prediger about it, and he shared in the joy. He knew that I will learn and network and meet new friends…and get new pens for his collection. And when I go to Portland, I’ll be more able to take part as I will know more Java than last time.

This is O’Reilly’s 10th Open Source Conference, and I’m sure it will be fun and packed with new ideas. It is interesting that Microsoft is sponsoring it as a platinum sponsor.

Also, I’m planning to register for Ubuntu Live as well. I’ve been using Ubuntu at home and trying to be more masterful at it.

At the Ohio LinuxFest, I had the pleasure of meeting Rev Don Parris of Blue GNU and author of Penguin in the Pew. Got into a great convo with him and a guy who is Greek Orthodox. (I forgot your name. If any of you know that guy, let me know in the comments section.)

Although Rev Parris is a National Baptist, he is aware of the historical aspects of the Reformation and in the Early Church. Ditto the Orthodox guy. Not only that, we have seen the wooly aspects of American Protestantism (from Wesley/Finney onwards)…and how those within FLOSS got burnt with it. One thing lead to another and we are thinking of setting up an unofficial Itinerarium service, to be held the day after LinuxFest 2008 [Sunday morning].

Very early and preliminary plans involve the Order of Matins. My point of reference is from the Lutheran Service Book of 2006. One thing about the order of service is that it is unfettered from recent innovations. As seen in the rubric, there is no sermon, so no one would feel weird if one guy would preach something squicky. This is not an “altar call”/”turn or burn” deal– this is strictly a organized prayer service for those journeying home. No one will be pushed nor foisted.

Suggestions are welcome.

Gregory Boehnlein of N2Net has announced a canned food drive to help the Salvation Army in Columbus replenish their food bank in time for Thanksgiving and Christmas (aka the Holiday Season).

And now, a public service message from your Friend of the Predigtamt:

Please give new cans of decent stuff, not the old cans of lima beans that were there since the first Bush Administration. When I was studying at the Seminary, students have their own food bank and we get food in exchange of working an hour a month. LCMS congregations would send canned goods every month and we have to sort it and inspect the cans for anything suspect. We get cans with way overdue expiry dates and we have to cull them out. On one shelf, we have our “Hall of Shame” exhibit in which we placed our worst examples. My favorite was the five-year-overdue jar of limburger cheese spread. Another Hall of Shame entry that I myself discovered was a 20-year old jar of spices. How did I know it was over 20 years old? It has the pre-1985 General Foods logo on it! If I ever find out who were the idiots who thought they got away with it, I’d head to their congregation with a hotdish and ask them to eat it…after I sprinkle the ancient spices on it.

So… when you are on the way to Columbus, stop by at a Meijer or a Kroger’s market and buy a fresh can there. I am sure that the Open Source guys are smart enough to do that. But one can never be too careful.

The Prediger and I are planning to head out to Columbus at the end of this month for Ohio LinuxFest 2007. The deal maker was that Drew Curtis will be there. There’s no party like a Fark Party! I will have to bring an bottle of Heineken.

I’m looking forward to learning more about Ubuntu and getting a better feel of it. (Although I’m more comfortable with the MEPIS distro…which is good because Warren Woodford will speak at the LinuxFest as well!)

Also of interest: Rev Donald Parris is presenting on marketing FOSS. He has been pushing the use of Free and Open Source software in the Christian Church. This is a Good Thing ™. If the Synod and its congregations can adopt the use of FOSS, imagine the innovation, the savings, and the increased use of technology. Instead of paying Microsoft Office licensing fees, schools and churches can use OpenOffice.org for bulletins and office administration. One can develop software materials for catechesis and enlightenment. How about an alternative to censorware “web filtering” that allows individual families and schools to set up what they want according to their morality instead of others imposing their standards? FOSS offers that ability and much more.