[FOSE] [jerrywone@gmail.com: Re: [Novalug] My personal FOSE wrap up / tues and wed]

Wed Apr 9 10:34:22 EDT 2008

I noticed everyone getting tired/flakey by end of each day, but I don't 
think any of the booth visitors noticed which is awesome. Next year 
we'll do something fun after the close of show like dinner or at least 
happy hour or something.

I wish I knew how hot those XOs were to be, we could have done a whole 
booth theme around Linux making things possible or affordable or 
something and really showcased that aspect. And I'd have done a little 
more reading and learning. All I could do was point to you guys that 
owned them and smile since I knew NOTHING.

Gerald.K.Williams at verizon.net wrote:

> Here are some detailed comments from my experience at the booth
> Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday midday, Thursday 10 through strike to
> 'bitter' end...
> 
> Tuesday, kind of popped in early to orient myself to the booth, people
> (including Kevin hadn't seen in a year? with XO and my first XO
> meshing), situation (CDs, what are we saying, i.e. party line on
> various things), etcetera, and not sure people wanted me there as it
> was crowded, but tried to help out anyway.
> 
> Late break for lunch walked XO out and got questions while
> eating...Heard other XO saw me moving!...
> 
> I was giving Ubuntu CDs beyond the 'burn rate' as people  kept  asking
> for them and you never know how to forecast the next days.  Hard to
> say to people, yes we have them, (or lie?) but no you can't have one..
> (Raffle?) We went over the days allotment.
> 
> Much of my time was in the chair stuffing tux fliers into magazines
> (NOVALUG.tux.org better point to the newer novalug.com redesigned
> website, or /dev/nulled lots..)
> 
> Got a few pictures...
> 
> Wednesday:
> 
> I showed up unannounced around 10.30 am? with my XO because downtown
> anyway and no one seemed to have one that day.  Some more people saw
> XO that might not have otherwise..
> 
> Rather high level people that day, as I recall...
> 
> I was getting pretty flakey by 2 pm from lack of sleep, bordering on
> getting kicked out with some of my comments?
> But I mentioned I was tired, even laughed about it (yeah, the other 32
> bit Ubuntu...), and left around 1.45 pm for my downtown other
> stuff...
> 
> Thursday:
> 
> Showed up 10ish and got briefed by Roger.  No electrical power,
> someone asking about money ($100?) the day before, and Roger was 'out
> of pocket' providing blanks and coordinating burning..
> 
> Sarah showed up with 2 XOs later in the day, but we never really got
> time to mesh ;-(  Learning some XO from someone who presented at
> NovaLUG (hoping to get the lug video...)
> 
> Heard a fair amount about TV show 60 mins OLPC piece, but hadn't seen
> it, too busy...
> 
> Roger going after full day, and as first in... Hope you feel better too!
> 
> Phil showed up around end for strike?
> 
> Took a break to walk part of the floor and finally see some other FOSE
> booths after 3.15 pm and MacKensie was there when I returned...
> 
> Idea based on visitors: suggest creating a young person's SIG?
> Another younger person, or  mom looking for to improve their son's
> tech social environment... i generally mentioned our young board
> member's activities (Benji info from website, but haven't seen in
> person since  election? nudge nudge ;-} )
> 
> Strike:  people who assembled it were there and remembered how it went
> up YIPPIE!  packing.  Many Linux Journal mags lost, as could not carry
> out...
> 
> Out to eat nearby. Would have liked to  buy people food as thanks, but
> I'm too poor.  Did get some fun gadgety GPS, cooking and other
> comeraderie, feedback, FOSE show and tech techniques plus impressions
> discussion started...
> 
> Haul out backdrop and heavy stuff to rail... Offer old duffle to get
> heavy box out...
> 
> Luckily caught waiting time call taxi ride back (never  got a call
> that they arrived...) in heavy rain. Collapse, catch up on email, like
> this, and rest of life after busy week out..
> 
> Summary?:
> 
> Made my 5-6th? annual FOSE pilgrimage milestone this year when seemed
> like I was going to miss it last week.Thanks to 'booth captain' nick
> danger for organizing, all booth people for putting up with me (what
> was said at FOSE stays at FOSE!? ;-}, new FOSE show company for
> letting us in, and all the attendees who (mistakenly?) thought we were
> the Linux genius bar ;-} and definitely some booth mates are!
> 
> 
> On Thu, Apr 3, 2008 at 9:16 PM,  <nick at hackermonkey.com> wrote:
>> I always forget how much I liked DC, NoVA and the Linux guys down there. I had a
>>  great time at the booth. I love talking to people at the booth, both the workers
>>  and the people visiting. A few notes about things.
>>
>>  1) The visitors seemed more polarized this year. Usually we have a huge spectrum
>>  of people from experts to beginners, and people that want to try, people that
>>  refuse to try and maybe a few swag-baggers. This year seemed much more extreme.
>>  The experts seemed more expert, the haters more so, and the swag baggers even
>>  more blatent.
>>
>>  2) The longer I spend in the booth talking to people, the dumber I feel. Not bad
>>  dumb, I leave with a list of more things I need to learn and read up about. So
>>  its a good thing, a nice personal growth thing :-) I still dont quite understand
>>  64bit HW vs 32bit HW, but then I have all old HW and nothing remotely close to
>>  64 bit anyway.
>>
>>  3) I have a doppleganger that works for a VT based scanning company!
>>
>>  4) My personal low moment of the show was when I gentleman came up and asked
>>  "Which one of these is for Windows XP?" I explained what they were and he said
>>  no way he needed to "remain compatible. Goodbye" and waved off. I yelled
>>  something after him about "compatible with what?" and then I felt real bad
>>  about it, I should have been more polite. The more I think about it, the worse
>>  off I think the poor guy is. Not because he didn't listen to me, but simply
>>  because here is he running a horribly vulnerable OS and he wanted "the XP
>>  compatible" cd from me before he even knew what it is I had. So who knows what
>>  sort of condition his PC is even in.
>>
>>  5) We should have done something post show, gone to Fado or something? I would
>>  have liked to 'debrief' after each night. I dont think the wife cared much
>>  about my ramblings of the show and who I talked to about geeky things. (Did I
>>  know there was a DC chess group? NO! Wish I knew then, I STINK and would love
>>  to play with people and learn to play well!)
>>
>>  6) One of the USB encrypted key people told me their product worked with Windows
>>  and no plans for OSX or Linux, yet, but maybe. "We had to go after the biggest
>>  market." Ok, no problem. Thats a good company plan, but no plans for Linux yet?
>>  I actually said "if I buy one, and get drivers written for it, would you want
>>  them?" and he goes "No."  Fast foward to the other side of the show floor and I
>>  find IronKey. They were working on Linux drivers, I read about it. Not only are
>>  they excited that Im from tux.org and know about their product, they want me to
>>  review it and hand me a 1GB key. Unfortunately it had the old code and wasn't
>>  Linux ready, so they are sending me a new one in the mail. I can't wait to try
>>  it on every system I have (CentOS, Ubuntu, RedHat EL, Linux Mint and for the
>>  hell of it, OpenBSD :-) and just see what happens! I don't know why but lately
>>  I've been very crypto concious.
>>
>>  I think thats all I have for now, other then a HUUUGE thanks to everyone that
>>  showed up. If you helped or just stopped, you made the day go great and I can't
>>  wait to do it again. Next time I'll do the whole show, and show up for
>>  setup/breakdown, I forgot those were a fun time as well. Yes, Im weird like
>>  that...
>>
>>  Did anyone ever get the CDs burned on Thursday? We ran out sometime Wednesday
>>  afternoon and I know we had made some arrangements with MicroTech (?) to get
>>  some extras for Thursday. Looks like 300 just isn't enough. We could probably
>>  make due with 600 or so.
>>  Nick
>>
>>
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>>
> 
> 
> 