FWD: San Fransisco trip.

[Joey Hess]

Here's Dale's take on his visit here. :-)

----- Forwarded message from Dale Scheetz <dwarf@polaris.net> -----

Date: Wed, 10 Feb 1999 14:29:26 -0500 (EST)
From: Dale Scheetz <dwarf@polaris.net>
To: debian-devel@lists.debian.org
Subject: San Fransisco trip.
X-Mailing-List: <debian-devel@lists.debian.org> archive/latest/27771

Well, I'm back from my trip to SF, and although it rained most of the
time, and I didn't get to do any sight seeing; it was GREAT to meet and
talk with a physical group of Debian developers; and the LSB meetings were
_very_ productive and enjoyed by all participants; and even the
discussion between Bruce P., Ian J., and myself went very well.

I would first like to thank Joey Hess _very_ much for organizing the
Saturday night party. I was supposed to arrive around 8:30 local time,
but, due to what are apparently common delays in air travel, arrived
around 2 hours later. I was met at the airport by Deerdra (the spelling is
almost certainly wrong, but I am pretty certain of her name ;-) and her
Debian cohort (I regret that I did not get your name, even though you told
me, I have a vague memory, but could not voice it with any degree of
certainty). They provided interesting conversation and a ride into town to
the CoffeeNet, where the rest of the crew had been assembled for quite
some time already. At least they had, by that time, drunk up almost all of
the wine ;-) but I did get a small taste, and since that is the only
reason I drink such beverage these days, that was just fine too.

Several of us exchanged keys, so now I have to find some time to figure
out how that works, and complete my portion of the signing. This is an
interesting exercise, because at this point, although I had several long
and interesting discussions with folks without being able to remember
their names, those who exchanged key signatures with me, showed me their
picture ID, solidifying the connection between name and face. This is
something that almost never happens in a "normal" introduction. As a
result, I will recognize Joey Hess, Tor Slettnes, and Ian Jackson, the
next time I meet them, as belonging to their respective names, while the
rest of you, whom I met, will probably have to remind me.

After several general discussions and a few one on one exchanges, Ian
managed to get me to the DaysInn by around 2:00 am Sunday morning, putting
me into bed at around 5:00 am by my clock. (In total, I think I got about
9 good hours of sleep between Saturday morning around 9:00 am and
Wednesday morning around 1:30 am {I was hyper, what can I say?})

The next morning Ian, Bruce, myself, and Christian Grafton, went to lunch
together. While the discussion ranged over many things, (like what are you
up to these days, and how has the world been treating you) much of the
time was spent discussing SPI/OSI issues. I'm sure this make Christian a
bit uncomfortable, but he was very gratious and let us yammer on at need.

I have the strong feeling that this meeting bore some less-than-bitter
fruit, and will be making a "formal" proposal to OSI as soon as I can get
my act together. Bruce has indicated that it would be acceptable. I must
not say more until a firm agreement has been reached, but I am extremely
optomistic.

The LSB meetings went very well. Asside from that I think I will let Ian
make his report to Debian (as I am an LSB "operative"). We covered a lot
of territory, in a mutual search for solutions, and while there were
arguments at times, it was clear to all that they were aimed at common
goals, and while I am certain that I enjoyed all of it, I got the feeling
that that enjoyment was had by all participants.

Ian J. and I had many "private" discussions over the time period, and I
learned a lot about things Debian from his point of view from those
discussions. If you see my position about such things seem to have changed
since this meeting, you can blame it all on Ian for presenting a good
rationale ;-)

I can truthfully say that I have been in the TransMeta building, but have
no knowledge of what they do inside those buildings, and even if I did,
could not tell you about it. Aside from "we make stuff" the company will
only say in public that it is a non-fabricating chip design company.

On the positive side, Monday's lunch included Linus among the rest of the
LSB meeting participants. Caldera, SuSE, and Red Had, as well as Debian,
had representatives at the table. With Dan Quinlan as the Chair, and
Stewart Anderson, Ralf Flaksa, and myself, as the three task leads
completing the group. Linus quickly became "one of the group" and lunch
was enjoyed by all. The food was wonderful, but this meal was no exception
for me, as I was able to eat little, probably caused by my rather hyper
state ;-)

After afternoon meetings and another good meal, some time was spent at
the bar next door, winding down, and even doing a bit of "venting", but
mostly just getting more comfortable with each other. Ian and I finally
extricated ourselves from an interesting conversation with Christian, and
eventually between ourselves and I finally tumbled into bed around 2:00 am
local time. 6:30 the next morning Ralf is kindly taking me to my flight. I
arrive home after what seems like a much longer trip because of the time
zones, than it did going out, even though the jet stream makes the return
flight time shorter.

I arrived home around 10:00 pm my local time, to find that my internet
account had "expired" and I couldn't get on the net. I still managed to
keep busy until 2:00 am, and, as you can probably guess, I got my account
re-instated this morning.

I have brought back many things to work on from this trip, and combined
with the work I put off to make the trip, I will probably be a bit busy
for a while, so if you don't hear from me...

Still spinning,

Dwarf
--
_-_-_-_-_-   Author of "The Debian Linux User's Guide"  _-_-_-_-_-_-

aka   Dale Scheetz                   Phone:   1 (850) 656-9769
      Flexible Software              11000 McCrackin Road
      e-mail:  dwarf@polaris.net     Tallahassee, FL  32308

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-- 
see shy jo