lca

T plus 896634

cafuego — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 18:04:38 +1100

After some more SQL, some pointing and clicking, some jiggery and a fair bit of pokery, some more useless graphs have appeared. The paper committee members rated all proposals on a scale of -2 to +2, and this of course lends itself to the creation of ~~lies~~ statistics.

This gives you an idea of the average rating assigned by day on which the rated proposal was submitted. This data is split out for all proposals, rejected proposals and accepted proposals. Note how a high rating does not mean an automatic place in the programme.

This chart gives you an indication of what score a reviewer is likely to assign a talk, depending on which day of the week it is. I've thrown in the standard deviation as well. Mainly, this is because I wanted to do a radar chart and haven't done one yet.

Note how reviewers will assign lower scores on a Monday (with a pronounced disagreement) and much higher scores (and more agreement) on Thursdays.

T plus 878931

cafuego — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 13:13:33 +1100

After doing some more poking around in the database and twiddling with Gnumeric, I have another pretty graph with usseless stats. This one shows the ratio of accepted versus rejected talk and tutorial proposals by date.

Offhand it seems your chances of having a proposal accepted are higher if you submit in the week just before or after the deadline.

No prizes for guessing when the submission deadline was.

T plus 810875

cafuego — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 18:14:42 +1100

After a few questions on IRC as to what the numbers were on the distro, editor and shell fields for linux.conf.au registrants and a tiny bit of egging on to make me do graphs, here is the first cut; DistroWars, EditorWars and ShellWars.

That's a hands down win for Ubuntu and deb based distros in general.

vim ftw. What else is there to say?

And this speaks for itself.

Note that on distros and editors, I've had to group a few single entries into 'Other', so that the graph was actually readable.

T plus 138371

cafuego — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 23:27:33 +1100

... not dead yet!

T minus 1022416

cafuego — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 13:09:44 +1100

Looming it is, this conference. We've nearly sold out of non-keynote tickets as well now - 5 left!

This means we can shift the focus of promotion to Open Day, on February 2. We're hoping to attract lots of interested people and have cool stuff to show them. Donna did some posters yesterday, which we will put up at libraries and other public places around town.

In other news, there is a silly competition for LCA-goers. If you're attending you should bring a pencil sharpener and upload a photo of this sharpener to Sharpenr!

All attendees get to vote on the best/silliest sharpener and the winner receives a prize - provided they can both produce the sharpener at the conference and use it to successfully sharpen a pencil in front of an audience.

T minus 1892880

cafuego — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 11:12:09 +1100

A mere three weeks from now we'll be in the middle of set-up for LCA.

Earlier this week the conference bags arrived at our storage facility (2 pallets!) and we've now organised a date and time to stuff the bags with conference shwag.

The badges and booklet designs are being finalised, so we can get them printed next week and we'll be confirming the various social events this coming week.

The planet is now live and the delegate wiki only needs linking in to the main site navigation.

Slowly but surely, things are taking shape :-)

linux.conf.au ticketing update

cafuego — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 16:07:11 +1100

Nearly one week ago tickets for linux.conf.au sold out, leaving a lot of people with a tentative (unpaid) registration - unable to attend the conference, as we have a hard limit of 600 on our keynote venue.

These people with tentative registrations are now on a waiting list, and as spaces are becoming available when we process cancellations, we will offer newly freed spaces to the people on this waiting list. Mini-conf speakers get priority, then we'll go in order of original registration date.

Don't despair though! In addition to processing cancellations, we've decided to make available a limited number (around 60) of non-keynote tickets. After all, we can fit more people into all the theatres combined than we can into the keynote venue.

Again, mini-conf speakers will be offered a ticket first, then the waiting list and if there are any left, we will open up registrations for these tix.

In addition, we will release a number of day-tickets for the mini-confs only. On one of these tickets you can attend a single day of mini-confs. They don't grant access to the penguin dinner or the main conference days and you won't get conference shwag (though you can of course order an extra t-shirt or dinner ticket).

If after all that you still miss out, consider volunteering. You'll be in the midst of things all week long :-)

you're about to miss out

cafuego — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 15:03:25 +1100

Nearly there.

With just on 38 days to go before linux.conf.au opens, we have 13 12 11 9 8 7 6 tickets left to sell, and they're going fast.

If you've registered - but not yet paid - you're probably missing out as you read this! Your place is not guaranteed until you've paid.

So, if you did miss out and you still want to go, consider volunteering. As a volunteer you won't be able to go to many talks, but you'll certainly be part of the buzz.

To volunteer, email v o l u n t e e r i n g @ m e l 8 o u r n e . o r g and we'll take it from there.

early bird - sold out

cafuego — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 17:14:57 +1100

It's official! As of 17 minutes ago, early bird tickets for linux.conf.au are no longer available. They sold out less than a day before EB would have closed otherwise.

I would say we had estimated it very well, but we all know everyone leaves these things to the last second ;-)

Next milestone, here we come!

In other news, your tax invoice is now available as PDF from your registration status page too.

eating in mel8ourne

cafuego — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 12:15:15 +1100

You're attending linux.conf.au, the sessions have finished for the day, the food court is closed and now you and your friends are in desperate need of food, but you don't know where to go.

This should be a problem no more. Melbourne has thousands of restaurants, many of which are only a short walk from our conference venue. The main restaurant strips are marked in purple on the map page, but a purple line isn't helpful in finding out what is available.

Lygon Street (South)

All things Italian! Hundreds of restaurants and cafés for all budgetary levels, just a short walk from the University of Melbourne. Leave the university on the Swanston Street side and walk for one block along Elgin, Faraday or Grattan streets. There is also a supermarket in the shopping center here (down the escalators).

The many ice creameries are open late.

Sydney Road

Eateries are not quite as thick on the ground as along Lygon street, but there are plenty of places from the end of Royal Parade. As you go further along, you'll find more middle eastern restaurants. Leave the university on the Royal Parade side and take tram 19 going north. There are supermarkets in the shopping center on the corner of Sydney Road and Barkly Street.

Brunswick Street

Melbourne's eclectic mix. Cafés, restaurants, shops. There is something here for everyone. Noodles, pizza, modern australian, middle eastern, greek, italian, coffee, beer, cocktails, you name it. Joes Garage has free wifi (and excellent cakes). Leave the university at the Swanston Street side and walk along Elgin and Johnston streets for four blocks. (Melbourne blocks are approximately 200 metres).

Johnston Street

On the way to Brunswick street you'll pass through "little spain" in between Nicholson and Brunswick streets. Here you'll find spanish and mexican restaurants, as well as pubs and the occasional bar. A bit further along you'll find Jims Greek tavern, which is well worth the walk. Buses 200, 201, 203, 205 and 207 will take you from Lygon street along Johnston Street.

Chinatown

If you feel like chinese food, this is where you need to be, but you will also find Thai and Japanese restaurants. Chinatown is situated in the CBD, along Little Bourke Street in between Exhibition and Swanston Streets. The best places are hidden in the small side streets and occasional blind alley ways, so make sure you explore these too! Any south bound tram on Swanston Street will take you directly from the university into the CBD. Get off on the corner of Lonsdale or Bourke street.

Lonsdale Street

In between Swanston and Russell streets is where you need to go for greek food. Take any city bound tram on Swanston Street or Royal Parade and walk north along Londale street. On the corner of Lonsdale and Russell you'll find Stalactites, a 24h eatery.

Victoria Street

Trams 24 and 109 and will take you along the center of Victoria Parade into Victoria Street, which is where you need to be if you want Vietnamese food. If you prefer travelling by train, use the Epping or Hurstbridge lines and get off at Collingwood Station.

Lygon Street (North)

Somewhat more diverse than the southern end, there are still plenty of italian restaurants, but here they are interspersed with indian and south east asian cuisine. Grab tram 1 or 8 heading north on Swanston Street.

Docklands

Take a free City Circle tram and ride it to Docklands. You will find waterfront restaurants, a small food court and the occasional brewhouse here. Cuisines vary from italian to chinese to indian to fish & chips.

Southbank

Take any southbound tram into the CBD or hop on the free City Circle tram, cross the Yarra River and you find yourself in Southbank. Restaurants aplenty and food courts for the more budget conscious. A bit further downstream you'll find the Crown entertainment complex, which also contains a food court, cinemas and sports the occasional fireball (on the hour, after dark :-)

Vegetarian and Vegan

Although most restaurants have one or two vegetarian of vegan items on the menu, it's nice to have more choice. Melbourne has a few specialist eateries that will see you sorted.

The Vegie Bar (378 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy)

The White Lotus (185 Victoria St, West Melbourne)

Mr Natural Vegetarian Pizza (Cnr Brunswick St & Alexandra Pde, Fitzroy)

Tofu Shop International (78 Bridge Road, Richmond)

Crossways (123 Swanston Street, Melbourne)

In Short

Melbourne is the food capital of Australia and has something to offer for everyone. A lot of good eateries (and bars) are located down alleys or laneways, so don't be afraid to explore.

If it looks uninviting, you can bet there is good food to be had :-)