Jonathan Oxer
[Blog]
>> Government enthusiasm for FOSS
Tue, Jun 21st 5:13pm 2005 >> Linux
This morning I attended an orientation session for the federal eResearch Coordination Committee Reference Group, which was interesting in itself but afterwards I was standing around chatting to a rep from OSIA when we were approached by Jane Treadwell, the new Victorian State Government CIO.
She was very enthusiastic about the use of FOSS in government, and in particular told us about a situation which arose while in her previous position as Centerlink CIO when they had a problem implementing a certain system based on a proprietary solution. When they started running into difficulties they turned to the FOSS community for assistance and received over 1000 responses. She was obviously impressed by the supportive nature of the FOSS community and seemed very enthusiastic about use of FOSS where possible / appropriate.
We had a brief discussion about the inroads Linux is making into the government sector and she indicated that it was happening quite broadly, generally in situations where a migration had a good benefit/risk ratio. She said she'd seen many cases of low-risk migrations taking place and it would no doubt continue to make inroads.
Overall a very interesting and positive conversation.
This morning I attended an orientation session for the federal eResearch Coordination Committee Reference Group, which was interesting in itself but afterwards I was standing around chatting to a rep from OSIA when we were approached by Jane Treadwell, the new Victorian State Government CIO.
She was very enthusiastic about the use of FOSS in government, and in particular told us about a situation which arose while in her previous position as Centerlink CIO when they had a problem implementing a certain system based on a proprietary solution. When they started running into difficulties they turned to the FOSS community for assistance and received over 1000 responses. She was obviously impressed by the supportive nature of the FOSS community and seemed very enthusiastic about use of FOSS where possible / appropriate.
We had a brief discussion about the inroads Linux is making into the government sector and she indicated that it was happening quite broadly, generally in situations where a migration had a good benefit/risk ratio. She said she'd seen many cases of low-risk migrations taking place and it would no doubt continue to make inroads.
Overall a very interesting and positive conversation.
>> The most appropriate bumper sticker ever
Mon, Jun 20th 5:06pm 2005 >> Misc
While walking to work this morning I noticed a beaten up old Datsun broken down and abandoned in the right turn lane of Bayswater Road. The road is divided at that point so it was basically sitting out there next to the divider all on its own, nobody in sight. As I got closer another driver coming down the road wanted to turn right so they drove right up behind it and sat waiting for it to turn, taking quite a few seconds to realise there wasn't anyone in the other car and eventually pulling out around it.
This all happened while I was approaching the intersection, and as I got closer I saw a sticker across the back window of the broken down car. I don't think it could have been much more appropriate:
"I may be slow, but you're still behind me"
While walking to work this morning I noticed a beaten up old Datsun broken down and abandoned in the right turn lane of Bayswater Road. The road is divided at that point so it was basically sitting out there next to the divider all on its own, nobody in sight. As I got closer another driver coming down the road wanted to turn right so they drove right up behind it and sat waiting for it to turn, taking quite a few seconds to realise there wasn't anyone in the other car and eventually pulling out around it.
This all happened while I was approaching the intersection, and as I got closer I saw a sticker across the back window of the broken down car. I don't think it could have been much more appropriate:
"I may be slow, but you're still behind me"
>> LA Committee face to face meeting
Fri, Jun 17th 2:06pm 2005 >> Linux
The Linux Australia executive committee will be meeting face to face this weekend in Adelaide to discuss a whole bunch of issues. So if you've got any burning issues that we really should talk about, make yourself heard!
We'll be meeting up for dinner somewhere on Saturday night so Adelaide people who want to come along for a chat should get in touch too.
The Linux Australia executive committee will be meeting face to face this weekend in Adelaide to discuss a whole bunch of issues. So if you've got any burning issues that we really should talk about, make yourself heard!
We'll be meeting up for dinner somewhere on Saturday night so Adelaide people who want to come along for a chat should get in touch too.
>> Hackergotchis and Michael the champion
Wed, Jun 15th 8:59pm 2005 >> Linux
Michael Davies asking for hackergotchi submissions for planet.linux.org.au prompted me to say something publicly I've thought for a while: Michael, thanks for taking the initiative to get p.l.o.a up and running. You're a champ.
Michael Davies asking for hackergotchi submissions for planet.linux.org.au prompted me to say something publicly I've thought for a while: Michael, thanks for taking the initiative to get p.l.o.a up and running. You're a champ.
>> Long work hours and mental impairment
Wed, Jun 15th 8:53pm 2005 >> Misc
Stephen responded to my post about exhaustion with a very good point about the effect of tiredeness on mental capacity. I've heard elsewhere that being awake for 24 hours straight impairs reactions and mental capacity equivalent to a blood alcohol content of 0.10% or somesuch, so it's definitely a pretty serious side effect. Often in the early stages of exhaustion the sufferer isn't even aware of the effect it has on them - no doubt like someone who has had a couple of drinks and still thinks they're fine to drive, and it's only when something goes wrong that it feels like their brain has turned to mush and they can't react fast enough.
You're right Steven: working those sorts of hours is in the past. I still work much longer hours than would be considered normal, but nothing close to what I used to.
Stephen responded to my post about exhaustion with a very good point about the effect of tiredeness on mental capacity. I've heard elsewhere that being awake for 24 hours straight impairs reactions and mental capacity equivalent to a blood alcohol content of 0.10% or somesuch, so it's definitely a pretty serious side effect. Often in the early stages of exhaustion the sufferer isn't even aware of the effect it has on them - no doubt like someone who has had a couple of drinks and still thinks they're fine to drive, and it's only when something goes wrong that it feels like their brain has turned to mush and they can't react fast enough.
You're right Steven: working those sorts of hours is in the past. I still work much longer hours than would be considered normal, but nothing close to what I used to.
>> Exhaustion
Mon, Jun 13th 9:20am 2005 >> Misc
Sleep deprivation can be so debilitating. I feel so bone-tired I can't think straight, sometimes have trouble walking in a straight line, and am probably even more conversationally incoherent than normal.
I don't mean just having a few late nights: I mean long-term lack of sleep and, even more than that, *interrupted* sleep.
A few years ago just before and when Mission Internet became Internet Vision Technologies I went through a period of about 2 and a half years when I worked an average of 100 to 120 hours per week, 52 weeks / year. If you do the math that doesn't leave much time for sleeping.
But even that doesn't compare with how I feel now. Maybe it's because I was younger and could handle it better, but I think it's also about sleep interruption not just duration. Last night was a classic example: I probably had about 6 hours sleep altogether, which is a reasonable amount, but it was broken up into little blocks with the longest being maybe 90 minutes. Thomas just wouldn't stay asleep, and to make it even worse his nappy leaked and wet his bed not once, not twice, but thrice: which meant stripping off his clothes, stripping off his cot ("crib" for you Americans!), finding clean/dry bedding, making up his bed again, and getting him back to sleep. Then Ann and I going back to sleep ourselves. Then being woken again an hour later and doing it all over again. Then again another hour after that. Arrrrg!
It's not like we're putting the nappies on wrong, either. After something like that happens you're *really* careful next time you put on a nappy! Doesn't matter what we do though, his bed still ends up wet.
After ten months of highly interrupted sleep it all starts to add up.
Sigh. Long, uninterrupted sleep would be *sooo* nice. Maybe then the dancing black spots in my eyes would go away and I'd stop hearing the voices.
Sleep deprivation can be so debilitating. I feel so bone-tired I can't think straight, sometimes have trouble walking in a straight line, and am probably even more conversationally incoherent than normal.
I don't mean just having a few late nights: I mean long-term lack of sleep and, even more than that, *interrupted* sleep.
A few years ago just before and when Mission Internet became Internet Vision Technologies I went through a period of about 2 and a half years when I worked an average of 100 to 120 hours per week, 52 weeks / year. If you do the math that doesn't leave much time for sleeping.
But even that doesn't compare with how I feel now. Maybe it's because I was younger and could handle it better, but I think it's also about sleep interruption not just duration. Last night was a classic example: I probably had about 6 hours sleep altogether, which is a reasonable amount, but it was broken up into little blocks with the longest being maybe 90 minutes. Thomas just wouldn't stay asleep, and to make it even worse his nappy leaked and wet his bed not once, not twice, but thrice: which meant stripping off his clothes, stripping off his cot ("crib" for you Americans!), finding clean/dry bedding, making up his bed again, and getting him back to sleep. Then Ann and I going back to sleep ourselves. Then being woken again an hour later and doing it all over again. Then again another hour after that. Arrrrg!
It's not like we're putting the nappies on wrong, either. After something like that happens you're *really* careful next time you put on a nappy! Doesn't matter what we do though, his bed still ends up wet.
After ten months of highly interrupted sleep it all starts to add up.
Sigh. Long, uninterrupted sleep would be *sooo* nice. Maybe then the dancing black spots in my eyes would go away and I'd stop hearing the voices.
>> Linux Desktop Hacks
Sun, Jun 5th 10:26am 2005 >> Writing
During the week I got a couple of advance copies of "Linux Desktop Hacks" from O'Reilly, which was very nice of them. Kyle Rankin and I were the tech reviewers for it but I hadn't seen any manuscript revisions since sending in my recommendations, so it was rather interesting (and somewhat surprising!) to receive the final version and see that some things had actually been changed in accordance with my suggestions. Seems they listened to me after all!
During the week I got a couple of advance copies of "Linux Desktop Hacks" from O'Reilly, which was very nice of them. Kyle Rankin and I were the tech reviewers for it but I hadn't seen any manuscript revisions since sending in my recommendations, so it was rather interesting (and somewhat surprising!) to receive the final version and see that some things had actually been changed in accordance with my suggestions. Seems they listened to me after all!
>> Ghosts of Conferences Past
Sun, Jun 5th 10:25am 2005 >> Conferences
Yes yes, I know, Ghosts was about 3 years ago and I haven't blogged anything since. After the Ghosts weekend I stayed on in beautiful Dunedin for a week with my family doing the tourist thing and didn't have much net access, then the morning after I got home I was thrown into several days of chaos while recovering a server from a compromise - built a whole new replacement machine, and had *that* compromised within 12 hours. Gah. And in the middle of that discovering I'd been nominated to present a talk at phpMelb on Thursday night, so I was doing talk preparation in the middle of everything else. I think the talk ended up going OK in the end, I managed to turn it from a 1-to-many presentation into a quite interesting many-to-many discussion so the audience ended up doing much of my work for me ;-)
But it's all sorted now, so the daily stress levels are almost back down to normal.
Anyway, back to Ghosts!
Personally I think it went very well. The Dunedin team seem to be pretty tight - they've been good mates for a long time, they get on well, and they seem to "get" what LCA is all about. Since this was the first Ghosts I've attended I can't compare it, but the format seemed to work well. We started with a rough outline of topics to discuss and a Wiki for note-taking, and over the space of the 2 days lots of notes were added. A couple of times we split into 2 groups to discuss specific topics, with the groups reporting back a summary of the outcome.
So by the end of the weekend the organising team had a pretty well sorted guide for what they need to cover.
All up it looks like this is going to be a totally rockin LCA, and I can't wait :-)
Go Mike!
Yes yes, I know, Ghosts was about 3 years ago and I haven't blogged anything since. After the Ghosts weekend I stayed on in beautiful Dunedin for a week with my family doing the tourist thing and didn't have much net access, then the morning after I got home I was thrown into several days of chaos while recovering a server from a compromise - built a whole new replacement machine, and had *that* compromised within 12 hours. Gah. And in the middle of that discovering I'd been nominated to present a talk at phpMelb on Thursday night, so I was doing talk preparation in the middle of everything else. I think the talk ended up going OK in the end, I managed to turn it from a 1-to-many presentation into a quite interesting many-to-many discussion so the audience ended up doing much of my work for me ;-)
But it's all sorted now, so the daily stress levels are almost back down to normal.
Anyway, back to Ghosts!
Personally I think it went very well. The Dunedin team seem to be pretty tight - they've been good mates for a long time, they get on well, and they seem to "get" what LCA is all about. Since this was the first Ghosts I've attended I can't compare it, but the format seemed to work well. We started with a rough outline of topics to discuss and a Wiki for note-taking, and over the space of the 2 days lots of notes were added. A couple of times we split into 2 groups to discuss specific topics, with the groups reporting back a summary of the outcome.
So by the end of the weekend the organising team had a pretty well sorted guide for what they need to cover.
All up it looks like this is going to be a totally rockin LCA, and I can't wait :-)
Go Mike!
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