Good times. Eric, Jordan and myself drove to Columbus Ohio this on Saturday (Oct 11) for the Ohio Linux Festival.

Last year was my first year and to be honest my expectations weren't very high for this year. In 2007 the atmosphere was decidedly "counter culture" and off the main stream. Not that this was a bad thing but a great many of the attendees were the "I'm 17 and I wear all black all the time" type and there were old men with neck beards. My hopes weren't high.

2008 proved that things (and times) are changing for the FLOSS crowd. I was amazed at the diversity of people. The crowds average age was considerably more adult (think mid twenties). There was a fantastic racial mix. Black, white, asian, and whatever were well represented. There were also women there that were (at least by appearances) NOT drugged and placed in the trunk of the car for transport. Don't get me wrong, I saw several cases where it was obvious that at least some of the female attendees were humoring someone but they were in the minorty. There were also a good chunk of parents there with their kids. It was nice to see.

The conference vendors were dominated by HP. The HP OSS Community Manager well represented his company and he did a great job. Novell also did fantastic at bringing Suse (OpenSuse) to the table. Joe "Zonker" Brockmeier (Novell Community Manager) was a top notch presenter. Say what you want about Novell, they really are trying to do their part. IBM, well they showed up. Gale (IBM) was late getting set up because some of their display wasn't delivered until noon. Gale didn't have much to work with but at least she was there and very personable. There were quite a few other companies there, and I talked with nearly all of them.

Most of the mainstream distros were represented with Ubuntu being both the most popular booth and the most widely used distro among the surveyed attendees. This does not shock anyone.

The sessions that I attended were more professional and educational than the previous year. Check out the OLF2008 program guide at their website for any details you might want.

Jono Bacon's closing keynote was well delivered and entertaining.

I bought an iPod Touch about a month ago and my experience has been, well let's just say I haven't been healed of a debilitating disease while holding it.

I should have been patient and waited for the price of the N800 to come down, but I just couldn't. Anyway in an effort to make this short post even longer I decided to jail break the ipod touch today. The short of it? I love it. It still doesn't work with my beloved Gutsy install, and since I don't own a machine with windows I have to use it at work (which is okay with my employer). Want a buy recommendation? Get the N800 or if rumors are true wait for the N810. If you can't wait this thing is well worth the cash once its out of jail.

I'm bored. There are slashdot haters out there. The have mod points. This is MUCH fun!

Wow. It's been a while since I posted. Apparently I've made a few people angry with me (not that I care). Every time I make a comment that gets modded up, there is this mysterious 20% of the mods that are overrated. Kind of makes me think that I must be doing something right. 20% of the people that I've met in my life have been idiots, and if my theory holds true on Slashdot the same percentage of people would be found here :-)

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/story.html?id=c47c1209-233b-412c-b6d1-5c755457a8af

Read it. Read the whole series if you can. There is a conspiracy regarding climate change but that conspiracy isn't coming from the right it's coming from the far left.

Anti capatilist, anti growth, and anti poor policies from the left are destroying lives. DDT is a major example of stupid environmental policy. Millions died before DDT of malaria. DDT cut those deaths down to thousands. By the time DDT was banned the science was already showing that it was harmless when used correctly but it was too late and now we are back with millions of deaths. Who dies? The poor. Yay for the left. They might as well accept that they are practicing eugenics instead of love.

Quotes from the Global Warming Caused By Humans nuts.

"Because there is considerable uncertainty in current understanding of how the climate system varies naturally and reacts to emissions of greenhouse gases and aerosols, current estimates of the magnitude of future warming should be regarded as tentative and subject to future adjustments (either upward or downward)." -- Climate Change Science - An Analysis Of Some Key Questions, p1 (Committee on the Science of Climate Change, National Research Council) ISBN 0-309-07574-2.

"In sum, a strategy must recognize what is possible. In climate research and modeling, we should recognize that we are dealing with a coupled non-linear chaotic system, and therefore that the prediction of a specific future climate state is not possible." -- Final chapter, Draft TAR 2000 (Third Assessment Report), IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change).

"At this point in the debate, it is intellectually dishonest and borders on fraudulent to continue to maintain that there is any reasonable basis to fear a coming climate apocalypse. Yet the scientific establishment continues to grind out tortured "studies" to prove black is white. Those involved in this charade are doing lasting damage to science and the reputations of scientists. Hell, you are no different than the worst lawyers - you will say whatever people want you to say so long as you are paid." -- Fred Palmer, president of the Greening Earth Society.

Global warming is NOT caused by humans. If you believe it is your are factually impaired.