For years the local FOSS community has been planning to host a FOSS conference in Malaysia. A real proper good one, by the technical people for the technical people. No marketing.
Come 2008, interested parties have gathered together to make the dream a reality.
FOSS.my 2008
Introducing FOSS.my 2008 (The World is Just Awesome), a 2 day FOSS Conference on Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th November. So make sure your weekend is free.
APIIT has kindly sponsored their premises as the Venue for the event.
At the moment we are polishing the website, but its completely usable, plus we are already taking in registration. Payment details are being finalized.
Schedule:
At the moment the schedule is a bit empty, but which upcoming event isn’t? Maybe you can help fill it out for us as a speaker?
Speakers:
We have a pending list of speakers we are contacting, but don’t be afraid to submit a topic. We have 26 slots to give up, so come one come all!
Volunteering:
We need volunteers for the event, please contact us if you are interested in participating.
Various resources:
Last weekend, Sunday August 24th 2008, I participated in the Very Important Programmer (VIP) PHP Programming Contest, sponsored by the people of e-Melaka, Bahagian K-Ekonomi
JKM Melaka, aist, Zend, Jaticom and training.org.my.
More photos available.
Lots of familiar faces from the local PHP scene.
Alwin Chan, and Raj Kissu and myself teamed up as team “Paamayim Nekudotayim”, which I had no idea how to spell (and pronounce) throughout the competition.
Though the event had some hiccups, I believe it ran quite well. Having been to other programming competitions, I believe this one had to be one of the most accommodating. Food and drinks were readily available throughout the competition, though they might not be suitable for you vegesaurs out there. The selection of food, went from proper meals to snacks, and the drinks were nicely chilled in a fridge, which was nicely positioned near us.
Support the organizers! I believe they did a great job!
Congrats goes out to Alwin Chan and Raj Kissu as well.
Team Paamayim Nekudotayim FTW!
Hypothesis
What would happen if hackers were subjected to fresh air? If they were taken out of their natural environment, and placed into the wild.
But being humane, we thought we let them keep the sanctity that they refer to as “the Internet”, to ensure their sanity.
Experiment
We decided to leave a few hours before working hour, to ensure that wet go to the Fathers Guest House at Cameron Highlands before their reception closes at 10.
Five surveyors began the journey.
After reaching the toll booth to go up camerons, you can already smell the fresh air. We were in the wild.
Arriving at night around 9pm, we weren’t able to get a good view of the estate. If you had visited the website, you would have noticed that the rooms were actually old bunkers left behind by the british. Those are the cheapest rooms, but if you’d like to live in a bit more luxury, rooms in the house were also available.
After receiving our room keys, and placing our bags, it was time for our first fix. Laptops, whipped out. Packets, transferred. Facebook invites, ignored. It seemed the world was able to survive another few hours without us.
As it was already night time, we took a short ten minute stroll down to the town for some dinner. Stretched our legs, breathed in the fresh air, and start being climatized to the cool weather.
No coding was done on friday, though thanks to Khailee we were getting accustomed to playing jim rummy.
Come morning, and after executing the daily morning rituals. We set up base at the canteen and whipped out our laptops. The other travelers largely looked like backpackers, and must have found it very awkward for these geeks to siege the canteen with their technobabble.
Not to soon, we got word that Arzumy had to leave early.
Four surveyors remained.
The weather couldn’t decide whether to continue raining or to stop. So most of the day it was on and off. This contributed to the extremely cold night, and made it difficult to sleep.
By morning, Khalid had gone missing. He left early due to certain arrangements.
Three surveyors remained.
On the final day we finally decided to drive further down the road, passed a strawberry farm or two, and ended up at the market. Bought some strawberries, and flowers for the ladies waiting for us back home. Hence concluding our surveying, and headed back home.
Our long road to freedom was over.
Had a great time at Camerons with the gang, hopefully next time more people will join us.
