So, before I was too busy for school, I took the opportunity to head down to this year’s Ohio LinuxFest. Columbus was an interesting city to visit and I had a blast hanging out with all the Linux geeks.
I had to do some emergency maintenance for the 400-mile journey through the mind-numbing Midwest. Corn and dirt and road for 8 hours. Time just sort of flew by until I reached the expressways around Columbus. I didn’t really know what to expect, but a lead foot and a strong sense of self-preservation are just as important there as they are here on the streets of Chicago. I eventually got to my hotel room, where the guys from the Linux Link Tech Show and some of their fans also stayed.
My hotel room at the Kozy Inn
I left early Friday morning to meet the guys at Barley’s, across from the convention center. It was cool to meet everyone and to hang out with guys like Ted Haeger from Novell or Chris DiBona from Google.
Some fans, Pat Davila and Ted Haeger doing an impromptu show at bd’s Mongolian BBQ
After everyone was rosy-cheeked, we walked down to this Mongolian BBQ restaurant, bd’s. I wasn’t terribly hungry, so I ordered the ‘Spicy Asian Buffalo Wings’. Absolutely delicious.
Dann taking a picture of me taking a picture of Dann outside bd’s Mongolian BBQ
After the place closed up, some headed back in a taxicab and I drove a car-full of drunk geeks back to their rooms.
The next morning, I woke up late and missed the first couple talks. I just sort of scanned through the aisles of exhibits from various Open Source companies. I had seen everything I was interested in, so I spent any spare time chatting with the guys I was hanging out with the night before.
After a couple people were located, we left to go find some lunch at this nearby market area. Vendors outside selling small items and foods like hot sauces and dips. Small band playing just outside the building which was full of small food vendors. Just about anything you wanted: Mexican, Chinese, American, Thai. Most of us went with Chinese. I had the greasiest chicken fried rice I’d ever seen.
The people in Columbus were extremely nice. If anyone came within a couple feet of you, a conversation just sort of sprouted. Nice old couple recommended we go check out the festivities at the nearby Italian Village. There was also an Oktoberfest going on at the German Village on the opposite side of town.
We got back in time for me to catch Ted Haeger’s talk on the cool things Novell is doing with SuSE. I wanted to catch ‘Linux and Law Enforcement: Open Source Digital Forensics’, but the Michigan State policeman didn’t show. Some of the other talks at that time sounded really boring, so I just sorta loitered around. Saw a couple of the impromptu interviews by Dann of the Linux Link Tech Show and Aaron Newcomb of the_source.
Dann Washko (TLLTS), Ted Haeger (Novell), and Aaron Newcomb (the_source)
The Linux Link Tech Show guys had a raffle for some geeky books. Linc had the crowd do a mighty chant. Funny (suspicious) that most of the winners were the guys who had hung out with them. Even I won a book, ‘Linux: Debugging and Performance Tuning’. Now I just have to write a Linux application so I can, you know, debug it. Really had my eye on that Ajax book. Stupid random chance.
Before the final keynote and closings, they had a couple penguins brought in from the Columbus Zoo. They assured us they were taken very good care of and told some touching stories.
Penguins
Caught the final talk by Jon “maddog” Hall, which was very interesting, before we headed off to this little Greek restaurant. It was just a few of us fans, the Tech Show guys and Aaron Newcomb. I never knew what ‘hummus’ was before, and it didn’t sound too appetizing when it was explained to me, but it was fantastic here. I think I ordered the ‘Spicy Chicken Argos’. Also delicious.
After that, we headed up to the LinuxFest after-party at a hotel down the street from the convention center. If you paid $65, you received a couple drink tickets, but one of the guys who organized the event was just handing them out. Good for anyone who had at a room there. They also had a keg, some cake, and some cookies. Beer and cake? Ugh.
The weekend flew right by as I had a blast hanging out with everyone. It was cool meeting people you usually only hear in a compressed audio format.
I’ll put up the rest of my pictures on a page, but there’s more of me than I’d like here (tall guy; blue, long-sleeve shirt).
*edit 20061213*
Put the pics up here: Ohio LinuxFest 2006