Sorry for my English

Every time i see someone post at the bottom of an email "sorry for my english", i always feel like this person is apologizing for speaking english on an english speaking list. It's a very strange way to say it.

CLT - Catering-Tage mit Linux-Vorträge

After traveling 1300+ kilometers, running around for two days heavily caffeinated and pleasantly fed, and talking non stop, i'm finally caught up from the Chemnitzer Linux-Tage. I have to say, the entire event was by far miles beyond the Linuxtag event in Berlin. I'm glad we made our choice to focus more on this event in the future.

To start, from the moment we arrived in Chemnitz, despite the drab post industrial post communist palor, the experience was nothing but friendly. The hotel staff at the Mercure hotel were genuinely cheerful and pleasant and the atmosphere at the event was incredibly relaxed and open. It was a bit more challenging to communicate because naturally English isn't spoken as well in Chemnitz as in Berlin, but sometimes a smile on your face is more important than your fluency of language.

Like i said, the atmosphere was great. It didn't feel in the slightest way commercialised or business oriented, although there were business present, of course. Instead it had more of that open fair feeling, with whole families wandering around, a place for the kids to play, areas to socialise in, and even a magician at the social event. Even the floor was open, with a minimum of security, even at 2 in the morning, rather than closing down exactly at 6pm. The staff provided constant food for the booth staff, volunteers, and everyone else involved; it almost felt like a lan party rather than a serious conference.

At the same time, the attitude there was very professional. It was a great opportunity to sit down and talk about all sorts of business with people i don't see that often. The entire setup was very well organised, down to the germanically precise tape and cabling on the floor between the booths, smooth working internet, and large screens announcing the current and upcoming presentations. It's only a shame i was busy with meetings that i didn't have a chance to see any lectures.

I really hope i will be able to go next year. This is not an event to miss. That, nor the giant 10 meter tall bust of Karl Marx around the corner from the hotel.

The four F's: Friends

Did you know that we run a pretty sweet Asterisk server in Fedora Infrastructure? It's simple to connect to it via nearly any SIP client. When i mean nearly any, this means not just your computer, but your SIP phone, your Android, your Maemo, and pretty much any device with a speaker and microphone that lets you run your own software. There are also dial in numbers so you can reach the system from some countries, like the US. You can even use it to have friendly chats with other Fedora contributors without racking up expensive long distance phone bills. It's not just there to look pretty, but it's really part of the Friends bit of Fedora. (And well, it's also free, full of features, and i don't know of any other open source community offhand that has Asterisk set up.)

My thanks to Fedora Infrastructure for the great job they do and all the hard work.