Two people turned up - we just had a bit of trouble finding each other. I wonder what happened to PuZZleDucK. Going by the turnout in this one and attendance in meet ups in other states, I guess the slashdot community in Australia is getting smaller.

By the way bscott, the SSID idea didn't work that well - probably due to limited range and/or interference inside the pub. Next time lets try either a big sign or waking around with the Vucan salute to see who responds.

Great to hear you're coming bscott.

The "Slashdot" SSID is a good idea. Or you could just keep an eye out for any of these ugly people from the last gathering :)

By the way Cryacin, I hope you are bringing the t-shirts!

Cryacin, how will we find other? I prefer no to be wondering around asking people if they've heard of Slashdot. Perhaps you suggest a corner of the pub we can all meet at?

You can meet us for a drink until 6:30pm and still get to IGDA on time.

Sounds good - count me in.

The place is fine - I think the issue is the day of the week - Saturdays tend to be bad for most people. If its any consolation, the only other Australian party is in Canberra and only the organiser (brindafella) has responded. Maybe we can video conference in brindafella to the Melbourne party if we need to boost numbers :)

As I said before, the last event five years ago was on a Tuesday and the turnout was pretty good. How about Tuesday 16/10 or Tuesday 23/10 from around 5:30pm at PJ O'Brien's?

Thanks for organising Cryacin. I have been meaning to put up an event myself but I travel a bit for work so there is a chance that I won't be in Melbourne and that is why I can't be a host.

One minor point - the 20 Oct is a Saturday, so it might e difficult for people to make. Also the pub might be crowded so it might be difficult to find each other and chat - plus geeks may not like crowds. I attended the 10 year anniversary in Melbourne a few years back and I think it was on a weekday (Tuesday?). Around 10 people showed by memory and more than a few of those attending were working in the city.

(and may I add - FP :)

It has already happened in an article by Emil Protalinski (the guy in the headline photo):
Facebook is suing Mark Zuckerberg

You make an interesting point. That article you linked to is Fiona Patten, the leader of the Australian Sex Party and the Eros Association so you have to admit that she’s not purely objective/independent in this situation. Also, I think both censorship and refugees have to do with civil liberties.

For the record, I agree with your position against that censorship, but I don’t see how you can conclude that it is the main issue in this election.

From my understanding, censorship in the context of the filtering Refused Classification (RC) rated internet content is impractical for a variety of reasons, will reduce internet speeds and could be a slippery slope to more draconian censorship. Australian’s treatment of refuges and the demonisation of the boat people already leads to pain, suffering and death of a very vulnerable group of people that Australia has already agreed to protect through international conventions.

When I look at it this way, I don’t see how you could conclude that censorship is a more important issue and voting should be made along censorship.

Here is the BBC story if anyone is interested: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/10514367.stm

Governments using modern technology to support/educate users should be encouraged - it will assist the UK IT industry employment, grow UK IT capabilities and give citizens the information they need when they need it. But at the same time, a government should be careful not strongly benefit one closed source platform over other platforms. Of course this doesn't mean that the UK government should build applications in all mobile platforms - just that they should build at lease some software application on another platform - preferably an open source one.