Windmill
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

I’ve been tilting at windmills, recently.

Windmill, actually.

It’s a Python program that lets your computer drive a web browser, without any human interference. We use it at Akoha to run tests that make sure that our website works with Firefox.

We use it to help us test our site with Internet Explorer. So I dutifully set up a Windows machine and tried to get it to run our test suite. I quickly realized that our software was going to need something more Unix-like.

Cygwin is the answer to that problem. It provides a full POSIX environment inside Windows. I built all our software and tried to fire up Windmill.

ImportError: No module named _winreg

Uh oh! Windmill needs to access the Windows Registry. According to the winreg documentation, it’s only available for Windows. Apparently, Cygwin doesn’t count as Windows. So I spent the weekend writing a library that fills in the gap.

cygwinreg allows you to read, write, and explore the Windows Registry from inside Cygwin. Whenever you want to use winreg, use cygwinreg instead.

import sys
if sys.platform == "win32":
    try:
        import winreg
    except ImportError:
        import _winreg as winreg
elif sys.platform == "cygwin":
    import cygwinreg as winreg

After I did that, I plugged it in, stepped back and ran my tests. They worked!

Download cygwinreg
or install it with
easy_install cygwinreg

Green Tree Python
Originally uploaded by nasmac.

Akoha’s sister company, Standout Jobs, has been hosting Montreal on Rails for quite a while. We figured we’d get into the act.

So we’re sponsoring the first Montréal Python gathering tomorrow. Sadly, we don’t really have enough space for everyone, so we’re commandeering the Standout Jobs offices upstairs. After all, what good are siblings if you can’t ask them for favours?

I will actually be on a train to Toronto, so I’m going to miss David Goodger talking about crazy awesome stuff he does in Python. But you should go!

Intimidated? Don't think that Python is for you? Worry not! Python programmers are friendly, charming, and helpful.

Montréal Python 1
Thursday, 7 February 2008
18:30 – 21:00
Standout Jobs
3981 boul. St-Laurent #615
Free admission

( Website | Facebook | Google Maps )

Audience
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

It’s been a long time since I’ve written about our local unconferences, but a neat one coming up is DemoCamp CUSEC 2. It’s attached to the Canadian Undergraduate Software Engineering Conference, which is being held in Montréal again.

Last year, I did a demonstration on how to cook an omelette, with it being a metaphor for software engineering. This year, I’m going to do something more prosaic and run a round of Powerpoint karaoke, under the guise of getting people to practise their presentation skills.

Or it will be a convincing argument against its use.

Show up if you can! Present something you’ve been working on! (There are still some slots left.) It’ll be exciting.

DemoCamp CUSEC 2
Thursday, 17 January 2008
19:00 – 21:00
Centre Mont-Royal
2200 rue Mansfield
Free admission

( Sign up | Google Maps )

Sylvain and Daniel
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

DemoCamp Montréal 3 is happening tomorrow. We're going to be at the SAT from 18:30 to 20:30, holding demonstrations on a whole range of different topics.

Why DemoCamp? Well, Montrealers are some of the most creative people I know and they've got plenty of things to show and tell. DemoCamp is like a big gathering of creative minds who get to watch fifteen-minute presentations on anything. And since all you can do is demo: no slides, no gimmicks, then you actually get to see real stuff doing real things.

I'm going to be there to show you how to make a counterclock. You know, the opposite of a clock that goes clockwise. Along the way, I'll do a little explaining of electricity, timekeeping, and motors. I just have to remember to buy a clock today. :P

Come on, it'll be fun!

DmoCamp Montréal 3
Tuesday, 24 July 2007
18:30 – 20:30
Societé des arts technologiques
1195 boul. St-Laurent
Free admission

( Sign up | Facebook | Upcoming | Google Maps )

Evan Prodromou
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

Tomorrow is the beginning of RoCoCo Montréal 2007, a three-day unconference held right here in Montréal. It starts at 9:30 on Friday at the SAT and runs until Sunday evening. It's for all who are interested in wikis, weblogs, and creators interested in collaborating in on-line spaces.

RoCoCo is organized with OpenSpace Technology, where we collectively decide on an agenda where everybody has a chance to speak. There's no artificial divide between speakers and audience, so you can lead your own session if you have something to say. Think of RoCoCo as a real-life wiki, where anybody can contribute.

A detailed explaination of what RoCoCo is about can be found on this invitation. I'm inviting you because I'm flying out on Saturday and can't make the whole conference, but I really hope you come.

There will be discussions on:

• What projects people are doing around the world
• Development of collaborative tools like wikis, free wifi networks, content management systems, etc.
• Techniques for building collaborative communities
• Best practises for inspiring self-managment and self-policing
• Starting up new projects
• Plans for future collaborations

So how can you attend? I thought you'd never ask!

RoCoCo Montréal 2007 Friday, 18 May 2007 at 9:30      until Sunday, 20 May 2007 at 18:00 Societé des arts technologiques      1195 boul. St-Laurent Free admission ( Sign up | Upcoming | Google Maps )

See you there!

CFP 2007
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

Tonight, I'm going to be attending an open panel discussion at Computers, Freedom, and Privacy 2007. It's completely open to the public and will be a discussion on freedom on the Internet.

There are going to be a number of famous people there, including Whit Diffie, Peter Neumann, Anita Allen, Bruce Schneier, and Ed Viltz. I'm not sure exactly what they're going to be talking about, but I bet it'll be thought-provoking.

At around 20:30, I'll be down at the CFP Welcome Party, which is basically a big fundraiser for Creative Commons and EPIC. You've probably heard me mention Creative Commons a few times, because they're a big proponent of having a healthy body of creative work that artists can draw from. Almost all of the art I produce is available under a Creative Commons license, which I've chosen so that you can share, copy, and modify it. So I'm more than happy to socialize with interesting people and to support a good cause.

Sounds interesting? You bet!

How do you get there?

Well, the panel is at Hotel Bonaventure, and starts at 18:30. Details here.

Then the welcome party is at 20:30, at Austin's place. Details here. For directions to Austin's house, send me an e-mail. Austin's address is on this flyer. If you're leaving from the Hilton, try these directions.

Hope to see you there!

Happy camper
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

BarCamp Montréal 2 is coming up soon. Yup, our second big full-day unconference is happening next Saturday at the SAT. We're bigger and better this time, and we'd love to have you show up.

What is BarCamp Montréal? It's an unconference. It's a gathering of active, interesting people who want to get together and share our experiences. It's for individuals and groups, artists and technologists, young and old. Nominally, there's an Internet-technology feel because that's what BarCamps around the world have traditionally done. But because Montréal has such a vibrant arts scene, we've also got talks that are about anything and everything.

So how do you participate? Well, you can't just be a spectator. Nope, unabashed consumption is not our way. Show up on Saturday and give a presentation on a project that you've been working on. Or show up a little early and help us set up. Or stay late and clean while chatting with the exciting people you've met. We want you to be part of our community.

We've got fifteen-minute presentations ranging on exciting topics like:

• Taking good photographs
• Building “Web 2.0” applications
• Online multi-player games
• Lasers
• East-asian culture
• Starting a company

Have you got something to say? Or something to show? I hope so.

Now that I have you convinced, you're going to want to know how you (and your interesting friends) can attend…

BarCamp Montréal 2
Saturday, 28 April 2007
9:30 – 18:00
Societé des arts technologiques
1195 boul. St-Laurent
Free admission

( Sign up | Upcoming | Google Maps )

I'm proud to announce the next DemoCamp that we're holding in Montréal. DemoCamp Montreal 2 (Français) is a gathering of people, both in high-tech and not, to see demonstrations given by people doing cool stuff. Anyone is welcome to show up and we've got some interesting talks lined up.

I'll be there to take photographs again and to chat with people about the projects they've been tending. It should be an exciting and interesting evening.

How do you attend?

DemoCamp Montréal 2
Thursday, 29 March 2007
18:30 – 20:30
Societé des arts technologiques
1195 boul. St-Laurent
Free admission

( Sign up | Upcoming.org | Google Maps )

DemoCamp Montréal 1
Tuesday 27 February 2007
18:30 – 20:30
Societé des arts technologiques
1195 boul. St-Laurent
Free admission

( Sign up | Upcoming.org | Google Maps )

Playing
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

There's less than a week before Montréal's next little technology un-conference. DemoCamp Montreal 1 (Français) follows in the footsteps of Toronto's DemoCamp, bringing neat demonstrations to the spotlight.

What is DemoCamp? It's a mini-conference where you show up and get to see people present the cool things that they're doing. Be it some software they wrote, a robot they built, or even a live tutorial, there's always something interesting happening. And you need to know. All you have to do is show up.

We'll be at the Societé des arts technologiques which has been cool enough to donate their space for us. Just show up on Tuesday 27 February 2007 at 18:30, after putting your name down on the registration list. Don't be shy, it's free!

Demonstrations are short, sweet, and PowerPoint slides are forbidden. You get to actually see something happen, which is a much more exciting than your usual conference lecture. In addition, we'll hang out afterwards to shoot the breeze and discuss what we saw.

I'll be there with my camera, helping my friends gorbash_dragon and peaceful_dragon run the show. Jonathan Kopanas, who went to Concordia, is coming up to introduce the presenters and Austin Hill is drumming up publicity.

DemoCamp Montréal 1
Tuesday 27 February 2007
18:30 – 20:30
Societé des arts technologiques
1195 boul. St-Laurent
Free admission

( Sign up | Upcoming.org | Google Maps )

Day against DRM
Originally uploaded by Naufragio.

Today is the day against DRM.

Thousands of people around the world are spreading the word about Digital Restriction Management technologies. The interesting thing about the people building DRM systems is that they're doing evil. They may not think they're doing evil, after all they're generally good people, doing their jobs, feeding their families, and protecting their interests. It's not a big evil, but it is a subtle one. And that's why you shouldn't support them.

For decades, the music industry has been making money by selling records and tapes. This was a good business, because it was difficult to produce records, and it was difficult to get tapes into the hands of consumers. They made quite a tidy sum over production and distribution of art, which is a pretty decent living. But then came the Internet. And the Internet got big. Big enough that you're reading what I'm writing, even though we come from completely different backgrounds and are probably miles apart. The interesting thing about the Internet is that copying a song and sending it to someone else costs almost nothing. Zip, zero, zilch.

Now traditional media distribution houses are upset. The service they performed was valuable and the goods they sold were scarce. Nowadays, neither of those are true. People can record music in their garages, edit it on their computers, and publish it online. The digital medium has turned art from a scarce resource into an abundance.

So what do these companies do? They feel that they have to protect their existing business models so they try to push through laws that would make it illegal to provide abundance. That's like arresting farmers for planting seeds they've harvested from their own wheat. But this is wrong. People are now using the Internet to make and distribute art like we've never seen before. The proliferation of new songs, new pictures, new videos is just enormous. The creative community has exploded through sharing, some of it illegal, and we can all see what a vibe this has caused.

DRM is meant to put a stop to that. It's designed to have two components: one is the technology that monitors and restricts what you can do with the art that you've bought, the second is the legislation that makes it illegal to circumvent this technology. So only criminals will be able to give music to their friends. But criminals will do that anyway, laws won't prevent DVD duplication in Asia. They will, however, stop you from listening to music in ways some corporation doesn't want you to.

What can you do about it? Make it known that you're against DRM. Make it known that you're against proprietary systems that stifle the creative spirit. And only purchase open systems. Not just because it's the right thing to do, but also because they won't hold you hostage.

I just wanted to pass along the invitation.

Robin Millette is throwing a birthday party for Debian on Saturday, 19 August 2006. You can show up at 17:30 and apparently it will last until the wee hours of the morning. Just knock at 8655 rue Saint-Denis, Montréal. It's right by the Crémazie station.

I'm afraid I won't be able to attend as I will be far away. But do have fun celebrating!

Tall bike
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

What do you do with a sunny, summery Sunday in Ottawa? Biking and barbequing, of course.

It's traditional to hold the Hacker Bike Ride right after the Ottawa Linux Symposium. The local cycling enthusiasts are, by and large, also pretty geeky so many of them join in on this event. We gathered in the park across from the conference centre. People were milling about, so I had time to rent a bicycle, and soon we were off.

This year, I chose to take the long route with everyone else. Richard, on his tall bike, led the way through the streets of Ottawa and on to the bike paths. We went over some very scenic hills, had two people fall off their bikes, and enjoyed ourselves immensely.

OCLUG
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

I spent a lot of time riding quite dangerously, with camera in hand. The most challenging pictures were those taken over the shoulder, as I had to do that blind. A couple of them seemed to turn out. In the process of photographing things, I managed to get my wheels stuck in a rut. It sounded like someone falling over, which caused a few people to look around, but I managed to stay in control. This surprised me, as I haven't ridden a bike in about a year.

We finished one leg of our ride in Vincent Massey Park, where the local LUG was holding their annual picnic. I grabbed a hamburger, sat down on a blanket, and inhaled it. There's nothing like hot food after a good bike ride.

After lunch, we did a bit of exploring. That's how we found a cicada hiding under a picnic table. Then ostraya did nothing to prevent the penguin from viciously attacking me.

Terri blows bubbles
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

There were more silly antics, including penguins on heads and bubble-blowing. But then it was time to pack up and leave. We helped the organizers stow the picnic things away before riding off to Hogs Back Falls. I climbed around on the slick rocks while other people ate their ice cream. We crossed the bridge and then we rode alongside the canal on our way back.

This allowed me to see the canoe innovation of brilliance. A canoe with a hitch up front and bicycle wheels mounted on back. I waved to these people and told them they were geniuses. I think they might have thought me a tad weird.

By the time we reached the park, it was starting to get late. I returned my bike and said goodbye to people, which was good because I had postcards to send. There's nothing like sending postcards hours before you leave a city.

Penguin and his boy
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

The Ottawa Linux Symposium is arguably Canada's biggest conference about Linux and its associated technologies. It happens every year, right after the Kernel Summit, which virtually guarantees that some famous people stick around afterwards to attend OLS.

Now the Kernel Summit is a small gathering of Linux developers where they hash out big issues in the kernel. After all, it's a lot easier to get your point across when you're sitting in the same room as the person you're talking to. Mailing lists are just not the same. OLS, however, is a free-for-all. If you pay in time, you get to show up. This makes for an astoundingly large conference, about 850 people in total.

I brought along wlach, who had never been to OLS before. So I was doing my part in inflating the number of people there. I think he ended up in the right crowds. Which is difficult, because there are a lot of crowds there. People walk past in a blur and you can never quite remember if you've met someone before.

Bowtied
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

At the conference, there are four tracks of presentations, at any one time. Some of these are perennial talks, like the tutorial on writing your own kernel module. And others change as the years go by. The big topic this year was Xen, the free virtualization software that really got huge in the past two years. Xen allows people to run multiple copies of their operating system inside one computer, with very little overhead. This makes it attractive to a lot of people, be they system administrators, software developers, or people who like fiddling with their machine.

I met a consultant from Chicago that sells Xen-based solutions. She builds a big server and runs various virtual servers for small business inside that one box. It's very cost effective and is a good way to make server maintanance easy. Whenever I wanted to find her, I'd just pop into one of the ubiquitous Xen talks.

The amount of work that gets done at this conference is astounding. You'll see people sitting around at tables hashing out designs and beating out flaws. Hackers huddle around laptops in an attempt to get the C library building on PA-RISC again. That's because the bandwidth to communication is very high and the latency is inconsequential. There were times when I wanted to pull out my laptop and do some work. But then I remembered that I left it in the hotel. Because it's heavy.

There's actually a lot of space at OLS, because it's spread across the three floors of the Ottawa Congress Centre. It's really easy to miss someone for weeks before bumping into him at a party. Like opalmirror, for example, who I was very glad to meet in person. And are there ever parties.

Super balls
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

Ostensibly, you go there for the talks. And talks there are: some of them quite good and the vast majority are rather mediocre. They're the results of a year of hacking, months of academic research, or inspired observation. I have to admit that I get a bit lax when attending speakers. It reminds me too much of the classroom. And just like university, I buy the course notes to mitigate my guilt. They make for good reading when finals come along.

It's the conversation that you go there for. When you get to sit down with Alan and have a good laugh about geeky topics. Or buy Donald a drink for working on those ugly network cards all those years ago. You get to connect with people that you've only seen online, or read as their names flashed past in the boot messages. That's that kind of bonding that people yearn for.

I'm looking forward to next year already.

Forklift
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

I look forward to going to Ottawa every June for the GCC Summit. I've gone every year since it started in 2003 and have no intention of stopping. That's because it feels so much like a family reunion. Let me explain.

The core people who have worked on GCC have been doing it for years. They're people who used to work for Cygnus Solutions, back before they were bought out by Red Hat. They're people who work for CodeSourcery. And they're people working for Intel, HP, and IBM who are compiler writers first and employees second. And they all know each other like dysfunctional family.

When I first showed up at the first Summit, Jim and I were the new kids. We had just finished typesetting the Using GCC manual that was published by GNU Press. So I went around absorbing compiler technology by osmosis, and trying to get as many developers to sign by pre-press draft.

The nice thing about the GCC Summit is that there is only one track of talks. So you never have to choose between two talks that you're interested in. It's a little bad though, since you're always tempted to check your e-mail when there's a lull in the interestingness of the presentations.

This year, the focus seemed to be on profiler-driven optimizations. I'm not really sure those are very profitable, as they actually require developers to run their applications as part of the build system. And we all know that humans are lazy. But perhaps I underestimate the heroics that build-systems people will go through to squeeze out that extra ounce of performance.

Danny Berlin and Kenneth Zadeck talked about dataflow analysis and getting rid of the terrible implementation inside GCC. I had heard horror stories about flow.c before, but have yet to actually look inside it. Their talk has disuaded me even more.

The last thing that sticks in my mind is the GDB talk, which seemed to be the only toolchain talk this year. But these things wax and wane.

I skipped out on the afterparty this year, which meant that I couldn't help with the monumental challenge that awaits us after each summit. But I shall return.

Sheep in the streets
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

By Monday morning, it was my turn to get up ludicrously early. I managed to catch a hot shower, which was very welcome. You see, they turned off the hot water late at night, and didn't turn it on early in the morning. So if you kept hacker hours, you'd get a cold shower before going to bed. I bid goodbye to my sleeping companions as I rolled my suitcase out of the room and checked out at the Reception desk.

I sat on my suitcase with laptop in hand, as we waited for the others to show up. We were carpooling to town in some taxis, as I had an awful bus experience coming in to Oaxtepec. It was in this hour that I taught myself how to blend exposures in the Gimp. There was a lot of fiddling with alpha channels and masks, until I hit upon exactly the right solution.

By the time I was done, a rather large group of people had gathered about me. It was about then that four taxis pulled up and we threw all our luggage into little hatchbacks. Then Nattie, Ben, and I squeezed inside and we were off!

Instead of choosing the toll highway, our driver decided to take the country roads. This was not such a poor idea, since we got a good look at the countryside. I had never seen fields of cactus before, but I suppose that makes sense. After all, it is edible and requires very little irrigation.

Popocatepetl
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

We drove along the winding roads and passed through town after town. In one, we had to stop momentarily. That's because a herder was driving his flock of sheep through town. We saw them turn a corner, and then our car was surrounded by a sea of bleating wooly sheep. Then, as quickly as they appeared, they were gone.

As we neared Mexico City, we noticed a rather large mountain in the distance. A mountain that spewed smoke. Our driver informed us that it's Popocatepetl, a local active volcano. He pulled over by the side of the road and let Nattie hop out to take photographs. The taxi behind us pulled over as well, and they spent a few minutes snapping shots. I noted that where we had stopped was rather hazy, so I just snapped a few photographs when it appeared in my window. I lucked out, I suppose.

You could tell when we approached the city, as the traffic got heavier and things got louder. I awoke from my brief nap to see us pull through a toll-booth and on to a six-lane highway. We managed to get to the international gates at the aeroport, have our luggage unloaded, and paid our driver for his troubles.

Then we checked in. My luggage tested positive for explosives about four times. The security guard for Mexicana kept swabbing away with test strips, each time coming up with a different result. Eventually, he printed up a chart, stared at the squiggly lines, and let me put it on the conveyor belt. Then, I met up with Nattie and Ben, and we also bumped into Peter.

Over New York
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

We bought some postcards and sat in a restaurant. There, we ate overpriced American food and wrote back home. Or rather, Nattie and Ben wrote charming postcards and I dashed off twenty-three hastily worded missives. Then, we hugged goodbye and it was time for me to board my flight. Ben graciously offered to post my mail, because I had run out of time.

Liftoff was quite exciting. The wind was gusting so as we took off, I got to see the engine shake furiously in its housing. And we did a little hop as we pulled off the ground. A little girl, sitting behind me, shrieked in distress when we did that. I really don't blame her.

Landing in Montréal was a lot safer. Even though we had to go through layers and layers of clouds to do it. It was sort of depressing, actually, flying from gorgeous blue skies into a city covered by grey. But I had brought the sunshine back with me!

Tree climbing
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

I awoke to a very early alarum clock, which I shut off quickly. I dragged myself out of bed to see ze_dinosaur off, but he was far more prepared than I was. I waved goodbye and then collapsed back into bed. Sunday morning was pretty difficult for me. In fact, I only got up in the afternoon.

I ate some bananas and showed up to the HackLab where I socialized for a good while. Then we realized that lunch would be smart, so we went to the market. Instead of tortilla based food, we managed to get some stewed meat and deep-fried vegetables. That was rather tasty and I had to waddle back. I spent the rest of the day touching up photographs instead of going on the waterslides.

I'm now wondering if that was wise. But at the time, it seemed like a lot of fun.

What wasn't so wise was trying an iced treat when I didn't want one. I got some money out of an automated teller and saw a shop across the street that sold iced things. Well, I crossed into the shop and ordered one. They scooped out some ground ice, topped it with mango syrup, splashed it with lime juice, and topped it with salt and chili powder. Now that I think of it, it would be tasty and refreshing if you drank lots of water all day.

The end of the road
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

Somewhere along the line, we got the idea that our last meal in town should be wonderful. So I rounded up a rather large group of people who wanted to go out for dinner, expressed that we'd be going all fancy, and generally herded them into the fanciest restaurant in town. Some people initially complained about the potential cost, but the convival atmosphere and cloth napkins overruled this. So did the tasty platters of beef.

We were all quite happily stuffed.

Afterwards, a few of us strolled through a park attached to a local historic site. There were plenty of benches to sit upon and we contemplated the night air. I'll have to say that Mexico's nights are a lot less chilly than Montréal's. But the resort had all the lights on, so you couldn't see any stars at all.

By the time we had strolled back to the HackLab, people were disassembling the network. I lugged a big server into a van and brought a few more boxes of things there. After the heavy lifting, I took a few more photographs of people, wonderful people, before deciding to retire. But the camera never does capture the fleeting moments.

Funicular
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

After the morning talks were over, ze_dinosaur and I decided that Saturday afternoon should be devoted to fun. We rounded up Jesus, Anabelle, Ben and Nattie. And then we set off for the water park.

You see, we were actually staying at a huge playground, except we never saw very much of it. Determined to see more, we hike over to the Tower, found the funicular and took a trip down. As we passed over a small wood, I instantly regretted leaving my camera at the hotel. I suppose, however, that I'd regret it more if my camera had taken a swim.

We arrived at the bottom and found a flock of geese. This is where I really wanted my camera, because the goslings were oh-so-adorable. Nattie got some photographs while the mother goose hissed furiously at her. We left, found the front gates of the water park, and were told that it was closed.

Well, we were quite disappointed. The others went back to the resort, but Ben, Nattie, and I refused to have our afternoon ruined. Instead, we found a washroom, got changed and waded off to the sulphur pools. There's a large spring underneath a big glass dome, which happens to spew out some rather foul smelling water. Much like rotten eggs, really. There, it fed into a series of swimming pools in which vacationers soaked.

Swimming
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

We waded in to the very cold water and swam a while for a bit. We got used to the smell and temperature, and started having a marvellous time. Then we saw the waterfall. A man was standing beneath a small torrent of water, that beat about his neck and back. In order to stand in place, he hung on to a knotted rope which was tied to the retaining wall. After watching him for a bit, we three decided to give it a go. Swimming up to the fall was the most difficult part, then it was quite relaxing to have water pouring over you like that. I need a bathtub and shower like this, when I build a house.

Soon after, we went back to the resort where we dove in the pool and swam a bit. We managed to corrupt Tore's mind and scar him forever. Just then, we were kicked out by the lifeguards because it was 18:00. The air was still scalding and they closed the pool. What are these people thinking?

I took a nice shower and then a nap in the front lobby. Since lots of people were leaving on Sunday morning, this was the last night for them to party. So lots of people got quite drunk, including one poor fellow who passed out on the grass. I found a towel for him, so he wasn't so cold. Then, I took plenty of pictures of people, while simultaneously convincing them to wear hats. No really! There are many benefits to hats. And people look great when they have a hat on. I highly encourage you to get one yourself.

I stayed up very, very late. Until about 5:00. Then, Eric and I couldn't take it any more and we went to bed.

High jump
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

I missed most of Friday's talks due to some sleeping in. At conferences, I try really, really hard not to succumb to exhaustion, but all those late nights eventually take a toll on me. By the time I got up, people had already left, so I took a leisurely shower and padded off to the Tower. I caught Meike's talk on giving good presentations and wondered if I should do something similar at some other conference?

After lunch, we gathered on the grass to take a group photograph. Aigars Mahinovs then climbed up the stairs to the top of the ten metre diving platform, and stared down at us with his borrowed lens. I attempted to convince people to participate in a group hug, but this was fairly difficult. If you look closely, you can see a small island of us. It actually took quite a few shots for Aigars to get a picture, but the results turned out quite well. At least for me. I was wearing a hat, you see, so I didn't have to squint.

Rain started to fall again, so people rapidly ran for cover. I ducked into a covered walkway, where we were starting our GnuPG keysigning. I went through a lot of passports and met a lot of people. Venezuelans have the best passport photographs, bar none. And I got to see a non-national identity card. I have to get me one of those.

Hotel Zacatepec
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

Dinner was held at a restaurant with live music, which we had to ask be turned down. That's because a bunch of us had gotten together for a brainstorming session. I think we came up with some useful things we could do, on both sides, to improve co-operation between Debian and Ubuntu. So I was pretty happy about that.

Afterwards, the rain was coming down hard so we rushed back to the hotel room to change. I remember walking on to the HackLab veranda and seeing a bunch of people standing against the walls looking uncomfortable. Aha! It was good that I was wearing my dancing shoes, as we were obviously attending the second anuual Debconf ball.

Wolfgang taught me the steps to Argentine tango, but I really couldn't find a partner. So I danced by myself, drawing glances from everyone, until I found some people to dance with. Sadly, many attendees were too shy, or claimed that they were clueless. Of course, I didn't know what I was doing, so they couldn't possibly do any worse.

Perhaps next year, they can be convinced. It really is fun, you know.

Gorditas
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

After a very tasty breakfast of gorditas in the market, I sat through talks all of Thursday morning, which were all quite good. They were visionary talks, talks about where Debian was going to go, and what we can do to get it there. After a brief lunch, we returned for the talk of debugging debian-installer.

I've been lugging around my laptop, jamaica, through the entire conference. It's an old A20m, which means that it's a rather bulky looking thing, that is quite heavy. What makes it noticable is that it's been epoxied together, after having been dropped one too many times. People marvel that GNOME runs reasonably on it. Anyway, during the talks, my wireless card decided it didn't want to work any more. Pulling it out and letting it cool down seemed to get it responsible again. Strange.

After the afternoon talk on how to find security problems within Debian, I went back to the hotel to change. You see, we were going to a Formal Dinner. I had not packed for a formal dinner, thinking that all functions would be casual at the very most. Still, I pulled out a pair of pressed slacks, an ironed shirt and a colourful tie. When I left my room, it became apparent that Formal actually meant "clothes without any holes".

Mariachi band
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

We all packed into the coach buses from yesterday and drove into town. This was actually quite difficult for the drivers, because the streets were very narrow and the buses were incapable of turning around corners. I think it took us fifteen minutes to park, which mostly consisted of doing a 30-point turn. We disembarked and walked into a large building. Two of the walls were made of stone, the rest were made of stucco. There was a small stage presiding over a floor full of fold-up tables which were arranged in a Debianesque spiral.

I decided that I was going to be at the nexus of activity, so I sat down at the central table and reserved a seat for AJ. As people seated themselves and started talking, there was a sudden commotion. Holger was running towards AJ with a plastic crown, deposited it unceremoniously on his head, and continued sprinting past. This drew applause and photographs, along some cheering of "Long Live the DPL!"

AJ looked decidedly uncomfortable. It's probably for the best that Debian isn't a monarchy.

Indoor waterfall
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

Our evening got more and more interesting. A mariachi band came in the door and started playing. Soon after they started singing, rain began to fall. This made lovely sounds on the tin roof above, which made me a little sleepy.

Right about now, a brawl sprang up near the front door. There was some shoving involved and quite a bit of yelling. Soon, the combatants were separated and some of them left the building in anger.

All this time, the musicians were playing louder and louder. As the music crescendoed, the rain fell harder and the wind blew stronger, until we had to close up the shutters to keep the water from blowing in. And the band kept trying to play over the rain. Then, slowly, the roof began to spring leaks.

We were lining up for food then, and by the time I got to the buffet table, water was pouring into the trays. I managed to get something reasonably dry and scurried back to my seat. Which was wet.

After I got some food inside of me, I experience the final act that capped our evening. We were chatting a bit about the strange weather we were having indoors when suddenly, water started cascading down one of the walls. It made a tremendous roar and the floor of the building quickly flooded. As I was photographing the events, the lights suddenly went out with a pop. We were plunged into darkness.

I made my way back to my seat and someone eventually found the fusebox. The lights were restored, one by one, and it was soon time to leave. I don't know how the organizers of next year's Debconf are going to be able to top this: ceremony, live music, fisticuffs over a woman, an indoor waterfall, and drama.

This was a night we're all going to remember.