The Thoughts of Matt Palmer
I previously raved about the LCA 2006 hackfest, and how cool it was this year. Chris Yeoh has now put the questions which were attempted, along with the top 10 hackers online.
Holy Crap, I came 8th! Considering that there were something like 40 entries, from some very clever people, I'm blown away with my results. Getting pipped by one place by a Samba hacker, of all people, is a pretty major ego boost.
Again, to all the hackfest organisers: Thankyou. The hackfest rocked, which was completely in line with the rest of LCA this year.
posted at: 20:31 | category: /general/lca06 | permalink
I've just come out of Mark Shuttleworth's Saturday morning keynote, and I'm a bit irritated. His talk was fairly short, and so there was a long question time. I use the word "question" in a fairly general sense, as there seemed to be a lot of people who were keen on using their 15 seconds of fame to expel a long-winded monologue. A few notes for those people (and there were quite a number of them):
This has been a public service announcement sponsored by Opinionated Geeks for A Less Painful Session (OGALPS).
posted at: 12:34 | category: /general/lca06 | permalink
There's a fairly standard set of activities that go on at linux.conf.au each year -- keynotes, tutorials, seminars, miniconfs, BOFs, lightning talks, keysigning, etc. The hackfest is a standard part of the program, but one which (in the past) maybe hasn't gotten the attention it deserves. I think this is because, in 2004 and 2005, the hackfest was a fairly narrow task -- in Adelaide (2004) contestants had to write a tetrinet client (fairly complex), and in Canberra (2005) contestants had to write either a GUI or an AI for spellcast (a fairly esoteric game that nearly nobody has ever heard of).
Prior to this year, I'd never participated in a hackfest. I've never played tetrinet in my life, and I knew I had no hope of writing an AI for spellcast. Also, since the contest in both cases ran for most of the week, to be competitive I figured you had to spend all of your spare time working on your program, and there was beer to be drunk, so I decided it was a bad use of my time.
This year, though -- phwoar. A totally different problem set, a new way of running the hackfest. Far more approachable for a much broader collection of hackers, and since it was a 4-hour session, you knew how much time you had to invest up-front.
I really appreciated that there was something for pretty much every type of competent programmer. One task, for instance, was to build a config GUI for the ccontrol tool, another was to write a Sudoku puzzle generator. These aren't simple problems, but I'd say that most people I'd call a programmer could make a good showing at one (or both) of these problems.
At the same time, though, there were some really low-level problems (like optimising a C program or turning some PPC64 assembly code back into the original C function). These were interesting for me, as it's not something that I'd ever touch myself in the normal world, so it was nice to be able to submerge into something like this for a little while.
There were even a couple of problems that didn't require much programming skill -- fix a corrupted gzip archive, and fix a corrupted filesystem image. These are difficult problems, but don't (necessarily) require the production of reams of code to solve.
To be able to win the competition, though, you need to have a broad range of skills. This is entirely appropriate (although it rules me out of the running) as a true hacker is adaptable to new problems. With the previous competitions, if you happened to luck out and be a tetrinet or spellcast guru, you had the competition in the bag. This competition will slightly favour someone who is a PPC assembly expert over someone who doesn't know much about anything, for example, but your PPC guru (who can't do much else) is going to get 0wz0red by the problem-solving, google-loving generalist.
The time limit aspect was a very, very good move as well. It meant that I could accurately estimate, up front, my total time commitment to the game. I didn't have to worry about getting flogged by someone who dedicated themselves day and night to cracking the problems while I was out stonegrilling my dinner and emptying barmates. Now I only have to worry about getting flogged by people who are just Better Hackers -- which I have no problem with. It was also great to be able to switch on the iRiver and bury myself in the problem for a few hours, instead of putting it off all week and then bodging up a poor solution in the last few hours.
So, kudos to Chris and the rest of the team who ran this year's hackfest. I really enjoyed this year's competition, and I hope that next year will be equally interesting.
posted at: 10:07 | category: /general/lca06 | permalink
For anyone who's ever stayed in University dormitories, the words "luxurious" (or even "comfortable") and "dormitory" might seem to be polar opposites. They're typically tiny, old, and worn out, with strange smells and uncomfortable furnishings.
But mine eyes have seen the glory of the UniCol. My room, whilst not quite "suite" level, is certainly large enough to orbit a reference feline if you're a little careful, and everything is so damn new. The shower stalls are nice and big, so you don't have to be a contortionist to wield a towel, and everything is so new. Did I mention that everything is new? It's such an unfamiliar concept for a dorm. Apparently the older part of the building is a bit less shiny, but I don't have to venture there, so what do I care?
One part of the accomodation that is a "little slice of normality" is the dining hall. The chef is definitely a subscriber to "function over form" -- everything's edible, but it doesn't always necessarily look that way. But I've never let a little thing like inedibility slow me down, so I've been getting a giant sausage-bacon-egg-hashbrown breakfast every morning. Yum.
A common topic of conversation around the dorms is "how the hell do they ever get anyone to leave?". It's hard enough to get Uni students to leave for the real world at the best of times -- you'd need a crowbar to extract your average student from this place.
posted at: 09:12 | category: /general/lca06 | permalink
It's always worth catching a talk from Andrew Tridgell. He's very funny, informative, and always makes his topic accessable to the entire audience.
This year's Tridge Talk was on Samba 4, which has just released it's first technology preview. As always, the room was packed -- I really feel for any speaker who's in a parallel session against Tridge, because he's always such a big drawcard, no matter what the topic.
The technology in Samba 4 is quite impressive. They've built their own LDAP server, since OpenLDAP is quite strict in it's standards compliance, and that's the last thing you want when you're trying to interoperate with Microsoft. They needed a Kerberos server as well, but in this case Heimdal Kerberos is suitable and nicely integrated. There's also some very strange stuff inside -- for example, there's an embedded JavaScript engine inside, to drive the all-new, hypercool, AJAX-enabled SWAT. Yes, you read that right, parts of Samba 4 are powered by JavaScript.
But of course, a talk is always so much more impressive with a demo. The chosen feature was the entertainingly named "Vampire tap" functionality -- "now with longer fangs". You take a Win2k3 domain controller, a Windows XP workstation joined to that domain, and a Samba 4 server. Point the Samba server's fangs at the Win2k3 box, wait a few seconds, shut down the Win2k3 server, change a couple of settings in Samba, restart the Samba service, and then log in again on the Windows XP machine.
It all Just Worked.
I avoid supporting Windows machines wherever possible, but when such an eventuality is unavoidable, it looks like Samba 4 will make the process significantly less painful.
posted at: 08:36 | category: /general/lca06 | permalink
So, I've arrived at LCA (linux.conf.au) 2006, in Dunedin, New Zealand. You're going to be getting a lot of these blog posts over the next few days, from me and other people, but it's only a week-long conference, so weather the storm.
Plane trip over was... well, it was a plane trip. I can be thankful that I didn't lose my luggage (as one bloke has already had done to him). Beyond that, all aircraft interiors are identical, so no need to discuss that.
At the stopover in Christchurch, we all headed for the bar (as geeks tend to do). I handed over a brightly coloured note in the local currency in exchange for my beer, and I get my change. What is part of my change? An Australian 10c piece. <sigh>
Mad props to the conference organisers so far -- one of the organisers was at the gate (the only gate) at Dunedin airport to pick up speakers, but he gladly took us ruffian attendees into town, saving us all a few bucks in shuttle bus fairs. It was a nice guided tour in, as well, showing us all of the useful sights (like the pubs, 24 hour minimart, and eateries). He also dropped us off at the registration desk, so I got my conference schwag already (see my separate review of the schwag).
Dinner involved walking into the octagon (a loop street with, unsurprisingly, 8 sides) and finding a place that serves you raw steak and a hot rock. It's like a portable BBQ construction kit. Amazingly tasty. We're going back tomorrow night for more of the same, as it's so tasty and fun -- you are legitimately allowed, even encouraged to play with your food. I also got a "barmate" (don't mispronounce that in front of your significant other) -- a yard-high glass cylinder with a tap at the bottom, filled with your choice of beer. Much merriment ensued amongst the assembled geeks, as we all plied ourselves with Speight's Gold Ale. I think it's about 8-10 pints worth of beer all up. Value.
No Internet access yet, as they're still working out the kinks with the special conference network. I hope it's all up and running by tomorrow morning -- my mail queue is starting to seriously bulge with all of this outgoing mail.
posted at: 06:01 | category: /general/lca06 | permalink
It's a conference tradition that you get a pile of schwag at registration -- some sort of collection of toys, brochures, and other miscellania to remember the conference by. Or something.
LCA is typically characterised by a pretty good schwag haul -- I can't think of an LCA I've been to (all 2 of them up 'til now) where I've been disappointed with the schwag.
This year is no exception. The organisers have clearly gone to a lot of effort to dredge up all sorts of geek-friendly gear to dish out. For example, the conference bag -- it's a laptop-friendly backpack-type apparatus. Lots of pockets, shoulder strap, the whole kaboodle. Very tidy. It's a pity I've already got my Targus carry-everything-including-the-kitchen-sink model, because this bag would make a very nice alternative to that.
The stuff inside the bag is just as impressive. There's another retractable network cable, like last year (a bit of a pity, perhaps, but this one is Cat-6 rated, for extra... something), as well as a tiny little 1-AAA torch. There's the usual pad/pen, tourist detritus, and conference program. More interestingly, there's a very shiny yo-yo (puppy dogs, beware!) and (possibly most importantly) a keyring-mountable bottle opener. There's also what is possibly the world's smallest frisbee (less than two inches in diameter -- as one of the organisers said, "Throw it at a speaker you don't like, because it sure as hell doesn't fly"), a laser-cut placemat (tres cool), and a chunk of chocolate (because we're about 5 minutes walk from the local cadbury's factory).
Finally, there is the T-shirt. Loved ones will be pleased to hear that the T-shirt this year is basic black, meaning that you won't have to worry about being seen in public with a red-clad Matt. (For those of you watching at home, my wife isn't keen on red coloured clothing for some reason, so last year's conference T-shirt was not a big hit).
The speakers are going to have to work hard to top the schwag pile. I await their response with baited breath.
posted at: 06:01 | category: /general/lca06 | permalink