LinuxWorld 2003

final day -

Made it across the bridge and into Marin County. I love it. This is where I want to move right now. No if and or buts .. Pack up honey lets move .. well, OK maybe a few buts, the traffic is kinda bad (I've been told thats just because it is tourist season.), and housing prices are a bit outrageous .. ok, if we win the lottery THEN we'll think about moving out here. Sitting here at Muir Woods, it was packed and NOT very peaceful. But I can see where it might be, I tried to take a picture, but .. I just couldn't do it justice. I imagine if it wasnt 'high season' it would be a great place to come and spend time.

Drove the windy (curvy, not blustery) roads over to Fort Cronkhite, that was a great place, I am really surprised that it wasn't crowded with people, I think that it'd be one of my places to hang out if I lived in this area.

Some thoughts on the whole trip -

Took a ride on the cable cars finally this morning. I hadn't done it before now because the line outside the hotel was always amazingly long. This morning I got up and got going and caught it about 8am. I stood in the back on the way down to the wharf (Powell Hyde Line), then on the way back I rode in a seat right up front. Going down the hills you just have to NOT think about the braking mechanism, and how it's only a couple of blocks of wood pressing against the pavement that stops you.

Ya know, one good thing about living in a big city is the public transportation, if you lived in San Francisco I really do believe that you wouldn't need a car to do most anything inside the city. The public transportation thats available is great. From Bart and Muni, the cable cars and the trolleys to the taxi's there is always some way to get around without driving. Of course when you wanted to leave the city, that'd be another story.

The convention (the reason for the trip) was pretty cool, saw lots of new technology, was reminded of old technology that I had forgotten (Zenworks) and saw many things that were completely forgetable. Everyone there was trying to pitch their products as being the 'holy grail' of the Linux movement. Everyone claimed they could help you 'fix' any situation. Yet when I explained some situations we have that need 'fixing' I was given exasperated looks and explanations of, 'well, I'm not the guy you want to talk to, you need to talk to .... uhh ..Frank, and he's not here right now'. Yea, right .. that guy Frank was a busy guy. Of course I should have expected that and not really gotten my hopes up. Went to every conference I thought was of any value.

The hotel was old and trying hard to become modernized but it has a long way to go. Couldn't complain though, it was right in the middle of the city, with the cable car turn around right outside its door. It was very convienient to everything. It had regular rooms and apparently monthly rooms. I met a bike messenger that was living in the hotel. Either he gets paid awfully well, or the monthly rates are darned cheap.

My one big bitch about the hotel? There was No Internet access at the hotel. I know it's silly to complain about it but, darnit, I use the internet everyday as my method of communication with the world. I felt completely lost and out of touch the whole week. Yes, there were 'email' booths available at the convention, but remember, there was also 30,000 other geeks that wanted to use them also.So, I was only able to login, quickly check email and then logoff again without getting angry stares.

For the paying conference attendees there was a 'break room' where they had 3 (count 'em) 3 terminals setup. Luckily they had set them up on an 8 port hub, so there was availability if you bought a spare cable. Someone was generous enough to leave a few cables behind, so if brought your laptop (and who didn't, thats what I want to know), you could hook up and get some work done. But those connections were prized and few and far between. Innovative geeks actually went out and got some smaller 4 port hubs and added those on. I suggested to the guy in charge (he came up and chatted with me at one point) that more internet access would be advisable in the future. Once the trade show opened up, there was wireless access available if you went over near the show, many many geeks were lined up in the hallway outside the show, working on their laptops with their wireless cards plugged in.

This morning as I was riding the cable cars I noticed lots of old Asian grandfather types taking the babies out for walks. Honestly, I saw at least a dozen grandfathers carrying the kids in their arms, going on journeys somewhere .. whispering secrets in their ears as they were walking along.

When I told people that I was headed to San Francisco, everyone told be the same thing ... 'well, it'll be cold out there, remember to bring lots of long sleeved shirts and bring a jacket also'. They were lying out and out lying, I think it's a plan to discourage people from coming out here to this beautiful country. I'm pretty sure that it's a conspiracy and that once you've been here you get a visit from 'the men in paisley' they pay you x amount a year to discourage people from coming here. It has been sunny, breezy and wonderful the whole time I have been here...

I don't really want to make another trip like this alone. I can't believe how lonely I have been. I miss my family so much, The grumpiness of the pregnant wife, screams of hysterical laughter as Jacob and Sophie chase one of the cats down hall. I like being a husband and a father, I enjoy coming home to my family, and I really DONT need a week break from them. I know some people claim they need that break, but I don't.

Took the LPI101 test while I was at the conference, I'm not sure how I did. I am a terrible test taker, if you sit down and talk with me, you can see what I know, but ask me to choose between A,B,C? Oy, I'll make a Christmas tree everytime if I'm not careful. I took the pre-tests on line, and I bought the O'Reilly book and took all the pre-tests in it. But there were still many questions I had NO CLUE on. Now, I was usually able to disregard two just because of my general knowledge of Linux. But cutting it down at that point was a challenge. I'll get my results in about two weeks, we'll see how it goes. Of course then I have to start studying for my LPI102 test.

On my way to the airport this afternoon I got a bit turned around and ended up driving all over the place. I had met on the flight into San Francisco the Director of Adoption for the SF-SPCA and we chatted the whole flight about dogs and how they affect our lives. I told her as we de-barked (ha! Get it?) that I'd stop by and see the space. They have a very high adoption rate and apparantly every animal has their own room. How cool is that? But, by the time I finally found it, it was after 5, so I headed on towards the airport.

Got off on the wrong exit while heading to the airport and ended up in San Bruno, what a nice little town. I know its just one of those "bedroom communities" and everyone works someplace else, but it was still very charming, and peaceful.

This little VAIO I am using isn't such a bad little laptop, it's very light and nice to carry around. I am not overly pleased with the touchpad and the lack of a floppy or CD-Rom built in is a bit on the pain in the ass factor, But overall it's not bad. If I could get the 'special function' keys to work it would be cool, but thats a Linux thing (actually its a manufacturer thing, most laptops are built specifically for MS Windows still), and NOT specific to this laptop. I was told that there is a group that is writing better ATI video Drivers than what is being put out by the company. When I get home I'll have to download them and try them out on this laptop. If they work well I'll have to add them to my bag of tricks.

Dave ...