[GLLUG] Post-Penguicon precis

Tue Apr 22 00:27:08 EDT 2008

(Technically, a precis is a brief summary of a piece of writing, but, 
the alliteration is worth using a more generalized definition. :) And 
this won't be all that brief...been working on it on and off for the 
past 14 hours)

First of all, my thanks to you all, met and unmet, for dragging me 
kicking and screaming back into the stream of things both *nix and fen. 
I've been on the wrong side of the fence from both these camps for far 
too long, and being tossed out into the Penguicon fray as liason during 
my first visit to a meeting with y'all, and my subsequent embracing of 
the position has reminded me where my roots are.

Next year, I'll just have to make sure my handheld connection to the 
'net takes the time to update people on my location...well, if I persist 
in not being cellularly connected, at least. At least nobody used the 
Penguicon Contact List to try and get to me. :) <the only number on it 
was my Lansing one; any voice mail would have been emailed to me> Yeah, 
I said next year. Regardless of my personal situation, I'll be happy to 
continue on with this position for at least another year, and do my best 
to get us more organized on the con's side.

So, onto the Subject at hand: a precis of the con from my point of view. 
I'll just deal with things I experienced from start to end (well, at 
least the ones that will keep us to a PG rating), and then add in some 
info that was gathered that might be useful for the planning process to 
get us to next year.

Thursday, Con Day 0 - (Awake at 7:30 am, no sleep)
Cascade failure for getting things done BEFORE the con. Didn't exactly 
complete all my chores successfully. Left Lansing at Midnight.

Friday, Con Day 1 - (Other than a handful of 2-5 minute catnaps sitting 
and waiting for things, no sleep.)
One precon event from 10am to 2pm that included breakfast. Arranged for 
the donated monitors to be picked up; the pickup itself took MUCH longer 
than expected. Made sure we had a few spools of cat-5 for making cables, 
which was important for actually getting an Internet feed (or so it 
seemed for a while). Poked a bit at the LAN party guys as we got 
connected, but wasn't alone in doing so. Random visits to the 
consuite[1] to network and consume, and putting out random fires while 
travelling about. Mostly, spent the day helping Bo, our MythTV guy from 
the UK, configure an Ubuntu 7.10 machine to be a CCTV server for con 
event programming to the internal Hotel TV system, and tried to deal 
with the massive amount of monitors that arrived after they were really 
not needed. Sigh. At least the system was up and running just before 
midnight. Hit the GLLUG room party to fill my mug before heading off to 
install the system.

Saturday, Con Day 2 - (Sleep from 7am to noon)
Couldn't do the preliminary install the system at midnight; and an event 
was stopping us from getting access to the room to even do nominal 
testing. Event was a puppet show production of the musical "Shoggoth on 
the Roof", so I stopped to watch. AFTER it was over, was in no mental 
shape to get to the next stage of completion (we still needed a piece of 
hardware arriving around 10am), but it was all just 'hook it up to the 
hotel' so I vegged in the consuite till 7am, at which point I collapsed 
for a few hours. Got up around noon, performed what many con goers 
apparently think of as an unnatural act (no, you pervs, I showered), and 
headed out into the world. All seemed stable in the Lounge; I did some 
late GPG validation, looped around, noticed at 3, the Packaging Jam had 
the place packed!  Dropped a few things off in my Hotel room around 4pm, 
and it hadn't been made up yet. Front desk kowtowed when I mentioned it, 
so and went a-roving. Singing Tesla Coils concert at 8pm[2]  (not 
arriving till the morning), managed to get out there, and coming back 
in, I realized that the system was NOT broadcasting on Channel 13 yet.

Went to check on it, the Masquerade was in process, skirted around them. 
Found that the system was set up, all the pieces were in place, but, not 
hooked up to the hotel wiring. Hooked up the DVI monitor, got it 
playing, swapped to the VGA output, masquerade over, hooked up to the 
projection TV in Ballroom A, and it still displayed. Hooked up the 
wiring, (VGA to Video out converter, Video out to VCR to coax out, coax 
into wall to 'the hotel) and went to my room to check...nothing. Room 
hadn't been made up yet either, and it was now 10pm. More kowtowing, and 
by 10:15 or so, was talking with the hotel engineer. By 11:15, I had 
used a test TV to make it work. But the engineer went home at 11pm. Next 
guy was on duty...at 10am Sunday. Sigh. Stayed in the room for the rest 
of the Holy Grail script-along.

Sunday, Con Day 3 - (No sleep till Lansing!)
Midnight, and off to troll the room parties. Gave up on them around 
3ish, headed back and forth between the consuites. At about 5:30, found 
a pair of enterprising individuals who had started up an Early Bitching 
Session in one of the function room hallways. An Intelligent one, even. 
Much information gathered there, as one of the two was someone who 
volunteers for NotACon, as well as a member of the company that 
installed the Wireless in what will be the hotel for next year. Had 
another concom member join us along the way. It broke up about 8, and 
after breakfast, headed to find the new engineer on Duty. Not around at 
10. Not around at 11. Not around at 12. (Inbetween? Spot checks on the 
Lounge and various spots, and a Filk concert, and a Vim panel) Gave up. 
Spent from 1 to 2 cleaning out the room. Checked out at 2, mostly filled 
the car, headed to the Lounge to help with breakdown. Got told *I* 
needed to be issuing Whuffies[3] to the Lounge volunteers. D'oh, I 
should have realized this. Spent the next hour and a half signing my 
name and 'computer lounge' to 125 or so little squares of paper, then 
the next hour and a half in deployment of same, overlapped with getting 
my (mostly unused) equipment retrieved from Ballroom A, and the 
debriefing meeting we had on our own in the Lounge. The majority of 
GLLUG headed back to Lansing, and I spent the next three hours or so 
making sure the 'refund' and 'next year' redemptions were taken care of, 
and then needed the Dead Dog party[3] to finish things up. Was relaxed 
enough by 8pm, at which point I was TOO relaxed, and napped a few times 
to make it home by midnight and was asleep by 12:15. Ten hours later, I 
got up and started this message. :)

I still have to compile the information that the Sunday morning EBS 
granted me, as well as the GLLUG debriefing session, and put another 
post on the list for people who want to be better informed for the 
future about the con, but  that's all for now. The 'wrap up and transfer 
to 7.0' meeting is going to be on Saturday, May 3rd, taking up most of 
the afternoon, and will serve Brazillian Beef. :) That will mark the 
'end' of the 6.0 version of the con. Perhaps we should pool our way to it?

Hey, I just found out http://wiki.penguicon.org/doku.php/computerlounge 
exists! In fact, the whole Wiki is brand new to me, and all because I 
wandered to wikipedia to not have to self-define references [1] and [3], 
found a link to Penguicon, and found a link to it from there. Amazing. 
There's even an Installfest blurb I could have used. :) Course, it's all 
from last year (wikipedia which I'm updating now, and the wiki at 
penguicon.org), but, it would have been useful information. :)
---
Peter Smith

Footnotes:

[1]The Convention Hospitality Suite or /Consuite/ is often provided as a 
room reserved for light refreshments, a quiet conversation, and a place 
to briefly rest. The refreshments typically include coffee, tea, juice 
or soda, and light meals appropriate for the time of day. Depending on 
local liquor distribution and liability laws 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dram_Shop>, the suite may serve alcohol. 
At conventions in the United Kingdom 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom>, the provision of cask ale 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cask_ale> is generally considered 
essential. (wikipedia)

[2]The Tesla coils stand 7 feet tall and are each capable of putting out 
over 12 foot of spark in calm air. The sound pressure level is well over 
110dB. The coils are powered by 240 volts and can draw over 40 amps 
each. Video of the same coils at another event: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5UZV88Z0eA

[3]Many conventions have a /dead dog party/ in the evening of the last 
day of the convention, after closing ceremonies, usually in the con 
suite. This is the traditional winding-down party where few of the 
attendees are likely to have huge amounts of energy. This party is an 
attempt to ease people back into the real world outside of the 
convention and can be an effective method of warding off the depression, 
which is often associated with the end of a major event. A dead dog 
party can last until the following morning. (wikipedia)
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