hpr_transcripts/hpr1208.txt

Episode: 1208
Title: HPR1208: Northeast Linux Fest 2013 p1-3
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr1208/hpr1208.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-17 21:39:05

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Hey everybody, it's Bogey and N.Y. Bill and we're here at the Northeast Gnu Linux
Fest and we wish you were here but since you're not, we're going to talk to some people
so you can see kind of what's going on and we're here with the hammer. What's up
hammer? How are you doing? Hey, I'm doing well. I'm enjoying this the third annual
Northeast Linux Fest and at a new location at Harvard and it's pretty good. Have you been
having fun here so far? So far so good. There's been a few presentations and the vendors
have a lot of interesting things to look at. What were the presentations you've enjoyed
so far? Well, I've been looking at the human side of using a computer. Nice. Okay, that
I haven't had just a CD of the track so I'm of our time would follow up questions here but
yeah, it's cool. I mean, what are people missing here? The human side? Yeah, it was just showing
how geeks will often miss a human element where we tend to project well here. You should do this
and instead it teaches us how to be more responsive to the people's needs and look at that side
of the equation. Awesome. Awesome. And I remember seeing you here the first two years so you've been
back. You always liked it enough to come back. So I'm going to say to the folks who aren't here
that should be incentive enough to make it. If you're close enough that you could have been here
and aren't here, you should try next year. You really should. All right. Hey, thanks a lot for your
time, Amber. All right. Thank you much. I take it easy. We're absolutely going to go bomb
bar. Yeah, we should say what we're doing. I just plugged my microphone into the e and we're
going to record and just go up to people. Can found style. Could we say that? We're going to
say that. All right. Come on, Kazzie, interview.
Someone else. Okay. What?
What? It's hard to yell about the human side. No, I don't know. Okay. I just want to make sure.
You know, I, human sides, I want, I want people to think I think everybody is cold. There's
some light in the industry. You know, everybody is. That's why we have these to work people up.
Yeah, this is a great pleasure. Yeah, put the microphone in your face. Okay, we just recorded all that.
I think this is a directional mic. I think it doesn't pick me up this way and it'll pick me up
this way. Nice. I like a directional mic. How's it going? It's going well. What's your name? My name is
Paul. Paul, you are wearing a Northeast Gnu Linux Fest official shirt. Are you an official here?
No, I'm just a volunteer, but I wanted to sponsor the event. So I paid $30. It's got nice
official looking t-shirt. Right on. I work here at Harvard. Right on. Thank you very much for helping
us out. What kind of volunteer work have you been doing here so far? Directing people to where
the various rooms are, helping set up the folding programs, handing them out, and running and
grabbing lunch for some of the other volunteers. Okay, so folks, he is officially running the conference.
This is what he's doing here. Don't believe a word about him not doing it. This guy's running the
show. Are you having fun with our little community here? Yeah, this is great. I'm an IT manager on
campus, and so I used to doing with Harvard IT people, and here I'm meeting a whole different crowd
of people of, you know, a good group of good group of people. Awesome. Awesome. Have you been?
Very knowledgeable. Have you been to other IT conferences before? Oh, yes. You know,
the usual Microsoft stuff, and I'm a Fomaker developer, so Fomaker conference is a database.
And how does this compare to a Microsoft or a database conference? It's a shoestring budget.
A shoestring budget, but dedicated people. For sure, for sure, and how about how does it compare
smiles per dollar? What would you say? Oh, definitely, definitely. You're getting the maximum value,
maximum value. Right on, right on. Thank you so much for your time. Is there anything else you
wanted to say about the fast while we're here? No, just we're here tomorrow, so come on down.
There's still some great talks to be had. Right on. website and the program. Right on. Thank you so
much for your time. Don't let us interrupt. We are patient. We just loom. Nothing, nothing's going
on here. I know your voice. Who are you? I'm Russ Winder from the Techie Geek podcast.
This deserves a high five. Okay. Great to meet you, Russ. Cool. Yes, sir. And NY Bill is the
minute. Yeah, I'm recording the recording. Folks, sorry. We have a very directional mic here.
Folks, it has to swing around. People are people are and we're clipping it. We're terribly. I'm
terribly unprofessional holding a mic. I'm sorry. Yeah, great. Thanks. So how you doing the
fest? I'm loving it. It's my first time at the Northeast Linux Fest and it's been great.
Awesome. Awesome. What's what are you doing? That's fun here.
Everything I've been going to talks and stopping by all the tables and just geeking out with my friends.
It's been great. Nice, nice favorite talk so far. I think I just came out of a call at like the
last 10 minutes of a talk on tour. And it was really interesting. So I'm looking forward to
listening to the full recording later. Awesome. And favorite friends so far? You know I'm kidding.
Okay. Well, I'm actually staying in the same hotel with Jonathan Nado and Steve McLaughlin,
the door-to-door geek and super coop, Cody Cooper. So we had fun last night. We went out the
dinner, drank too much of course, but it's been fun. Loving it. I'm so jealous. I just couldn't
make it down here in time last night. I really, you guys invited me down and I really wanted to be
here for it and I blew it, but it's my own fault. But thanks for inviting me and I'm thrilled that
you guys are having a good time. Yeah, I went back to the room at 11 and they they went back out
after I went to bed. So I'm rested, but I was surprised they went back out, but they had a good time.
And I'll ask you about my own personal conference favorite. Any board gaming coming up,
anything on the radar that you've heard of? Board gaming? No, I haven't heard of that.
Okay. I like board gaming, but come on, friends, dudes, after out. What's your favorite board game?
The only thing I've ever played, and it was not actually a board game, it was a card game last year,
NJ, I'm Irfan NJ, had brought a game called Jungle Speed, which was incredibly easy to learn,
15 people sitting around the table, smashing knuckles, trying to grab the totems.
Yeah, my son and his friends got us playing a game called Settlers of Catan. Yes, Settlers of Catan.
Yeah, so I played that. That is addictive and a lot of fun too. That is the entry level drug of
board gaming. It's the perfect one to start with. Oh, awesome. That's good to know. Awesome.
Thank you so much for your time. Was there anything else you wanted to say about the Fest or
2HPR? Just, if you can get here next year, do it. This is awesome venue at Harvard University.
It's a growing conference, and it's wonderful, so hope to see you next year.
Yeah, same here. Awesome. Thanks so much for your time, Russ.
Hey everybody, it's Pokey. And we are here with? I don't really have a cool name.
You can use your real name if you want to. Oh, you can call you flashy devil, your
girl, devil horn girl from Google. No devil horns, just Mary from Google.
Mary from Google. And we wanted to get you on record. As earlier, we put words in your mouth,
and we said that HPR is bigger than Google and you didn't deny it. Is that true?
It is true. I want to go on record and say that absolutely HPR is more influential, bigger,
and better. And explain what you meant by that, because clearly HPR is not bigger than Google,
but what did you mean by that? Because it was kind of cool. I don't remember because we had a
better table than you and HPR sent more stuff than Google sent to you, even though you had better
looking people at your table. Let me rephrase that our table is very, very sad looking. Hacker
public radio table is super swanky, cool logos, cool table cloth. You have better swag. We
have stickers and stuff, but you have coffee cozies and pens and luggage handle cushions. Those
are actually pretty cool. We got stickers, but we have more people contributing. Yes, yes,
you do. I've had a lot of questions about these luggage handles. Someone thought it was a pen
cozy, and I said that's brilliant. It wouldn't make a magic marker cozy. You couldn't fit a pen,
you couldn't find a pen in that size. No, you could not. So, you know, we were just talking earlier
and you were telling me you were excited to do a Hacker public radio show with some Google folks.
Yes, we can't wait to talk about all our different programs, Google Summer of Code, Google Code
in, all our different open source initiatives. We got all sorts of things that we could talk about.
Cool. And were you talking about paid Google people? Are these volunteers and enthusiasts?
Volunteers and enthusiasts. We won't pay anyone to do this. We love that about. They're just going to
love it. Awesome. Awesome. I won't ask you to tip your hand. I probably haven't even given any
thought, but what do you think of the Northeast New Linux Fest so far? Awesome. So far,
lots of great questions, lots of great people. We're proud to be a part of it. Awesome. Thank you
very much. Have you, I lost my question. You say something? One thing I really need to do is
go see more of the sessions. I've only got to see the keynote part of the keynote this morning. So
next time I'm bringing a partner in crime so that we can switch off a little bit.
That actually helps. But I'll tell you, it doesn't help enough because I've had help every year
and I've still had so much fun out in the hallway. I've been here three years and I've never seen a talk.
Three years. Never seen a talk. Three years. I've never seen a talk in person. Time to put down the
microphone and... This sends up being like a bit of a lug for us people that just hang out in
IRC's all the time. So it's nice to see face to face and we end up in the hallway just hanging out
all the time. Yeah, the talks are usually recorded and I can catch them on a recording or something.
I don't know if they're being recorded this year. I really need to find out, but they usually are,
but I can't record people and see them later. So I usually just talk to people.
That's true. And the coolest people do hang out in the hallway behind tables, so.
You are not... Well, not even just... Sure, the coolest people are behind tables, but the second
coolest people are in front of tables. I'll say that. Yeah, so one with the big 80s microphone for...
The game show microphone. I'm almost sad that you insulted Bill's microphone because it's
the best mic I've ever used and it's already my favorite. This is a microphone from about 1986
when I used to play in bands. So yes, this came out of a basement. How did you know?
If I can give you a visual, imagine Bob Barker with GoTis beers, lots of stickers and a big microphone.
And I can tell you from talking to this woman before, she probably was not...
Maybe a lot. She probably alive, but not conscious yet in the 80s, because she thought she invented and
knowing was half the battle. I never claimed to invent the phrase, but I did not know it was from G.I. Joe.
As a child of the 80s, that makes me very upset, but half the battle is knowing. So I'm halfway there.
Yeah, this is just the kind of awesome stuff that happens at the Northeast Linux Fest.
And you guys should be here. You should really be here next year. Did you have anything else you
wanted to say on behalf of Google or yourself or about the Fest? Thank you for having us again.
We're really proud to be here. We'll be back next year. Awesome. Thank you so much for your time.
Thank you guys. Enjoy the rest of the conference. I'm going to listen to the podcast.
And Matt Lee of all people just wandered by with a bag full of lollipops and
other dumb dumb. Are you calling me a dumb dumb? No, I'm calling myself a dumb dumb.
Right on. How you been Matt? I'm good. Yeah, I'm really good.
Cool. How are you enjoying the Fest this year? It's great. Third time. Third time speaking. So I should
get some kind of, you know, trophy at this point, I think, but I hear by present you with a questionable
dumb dumb. That's great flavor, I think. Mystery flavor. That's why it's questionable. It's got
question marks on. Well, that's what I meant by questionable. There's your trophy. Thank you very
much. You don't have a free hand there. So what's what's what's fun here for you today?
Well, I came. I want to hear Mad Dog Talk. I just had John Sullivan talk before lunch. I'm looking
forward to the talks, but also looking forward to the after party tonight. So I had been
dubiously given the honor of having to run that this year from being quite into the last two.
Now here in Boston or in Cambridge, I'm going to be running that tonight. So right on, where's
everybody going? It's Buck or JJ Foley's bar and grill downtown crossing in Boston on Kingston
Street 7 p.m. till late. Open bar. Open open, but I did not know that. I may have to make my son
wait in the car because they said he say free bar. I don't know that point, you know. Yeah, yeah,
no, I, well, this won't go up until after the event's done. So don't worry about it anyway, but
they said I called them yesterday and they said my son can't come in at that time. So I won't be
there, but I may make him wait in the car. I would do that. Yeah. I take advantage of a free bar
and run up maybe five or six of them before I drive home. I think it should be my plan.
Do not drive home drunk. What? Oh, this is a public service announcement on behalf of the
free stuff of community. They're not drive drunk, listeners.
Matt Lee, respectable upright citizen. There you have it folks. It's time your son learned how to drive.
Good point. The boys 13. It's about time. Are you 13? Yes, we're driving already. Come on. He's
probably smoking already. I mean, come on. You're now you're making me nervous. I gotta go take
care. You talk to Matt. I'm talking to my son. So anything, anything personal you've been doing
lately? I want to talk about it. I know you're a pretty big presence on the web. Yeah. So I left
the FSF about seven months ago now. Now I'm doing my own thing under under good terms. I hope
under good terms, under great terms. It's why me and John were here together, like you're not
fighting or anything. Under good terms, yeah. And I'm now working full-time as a developer.
More like in-house sort of bespoke stuff, but I'm also you know, I'm also developing again full-time.
So I'm looking back through my old code, my old like KUNFM code, and I'm wondering what the hell
I did, why, why did things that way the first time around. So I'm getting better as a developer,
which is, you know, I guess it's good for free software right at some point.
Where if you don't mind me asking, you can tell me you mind me asking, but how does the money come
in developing for yourself here? Well, I'm not developing for myself. I'm actually working for
a company. I'll tell you a full-time job. So yeah, I wish I was, you know, I mean like maybe at some
point I can be doing the thing for myself, but right now it's definitely like it's an agency model.
So it's like, you know, it's working with a lot of like marketing and like other departments and
stuff, but it's fun. Okay. All right. Well, and they're not handing out software. So they're not
necessarily handing out code. It's not a moral for the most part. And everything is developed with
free software. I'm using free software. I'm just up in the office. Of course. Of course, you know,
I'm the only person doing that, but I'm doing that. And so yeah, it's good. Awesome. Awesome.
Awesome. Glad to hear things going well for you. Anything else you wanted to say about the
conference or anything or anything that you're doing? Not really. I would say that this is a fantastic
event. And if you can't come today, you know, here's today, come next time. Hopefully it's going to
be here in Cambridge again for years to come. This is definitely a much better location than it is in
Worcester. And hopefully if Bruce and Jonathan configure this out again next year, it'll be great.
I want to see HPR here again next year. You know, we've got enough people here this year that I feel
confident, you know, guaranteeing that at least one guy, at least one person to come back.
Where is my HPR tote bag coming? Your HPR tote bag is that's at the $350 contribution level.
And you donated 345. That's why you got the that's why you got the pencil from Google.
I should have said, these dolly pops were actually $5 each. So I didn't take one.
Oh, you guys took like eight of them down there on that table.
Right on. Okay. We'll see about we'll see about getting you one of the tote bags.
Excellent. Thank you. Thanks a lot, Matt. You have a great day.
Thanks.
Thanks.
We're sticking Mike in your face.
When you don't chew on a lollipop.
Right. Oh, you want to talk in an hour?
Cool. All right.
Hey folks, it's Poke here again. And there's a dude with a Ubuntu shirt and some
devil's horns that we're flashing once they're not now. He looks like a conference goer to me.
So are you a conference goer?
I am a conference goer.
Are you enjoying going your conference?
I am enjoying the conference.
What are you liking about it?
Mostly getting together with other people, you know, like myself.
And seeing all of the aspects of the community that I'm not usually familiar with.
Folks sitting at home listening to this right now, it's funny how often that's the answer
that people give to that question, isn't it?
Used to people putting microphones in people's faces.
No, no, no, I'm completely ambushing people. Someone's going to punch me in my face pretty soon.
But I'm not going to say yes, but I'm really too slow to stop.
Yeah.
Have you seen any talks?
Yeah, I've been to a few of them.
What's your favorite so far?
So far, oh, Cooper's has been my favorite one in terms of dealing with people
on how to, you know, get them to use clinics.
Nice, nice, nice.
And when you looked at the schedule at first, what talks on there that you said,
that's the one I cannot miss?
Making my way through there, just the dealing with people, working with people.
You know, although I'm a Linux sort of person and a hardware sort of person,
my background is in, you know, in people in behavioral science.
Awesome, awesome, awesome. Are you going to the after party tonight?
No, there's another party, a private party that I'm going to that I got invited to.
No, it's just as good. I can totally understand that.
If it wasn't for that, I'd definitely be there.
Nice. Is there anything else you'd like to say to the hacker public radio audience about your
own personal stuff going on or about the conference?
Sure. What are you doing there? You should be here.
Right on. Thank you so much for your time. What was your name by the way? Did you want to give
you a name out? I'm John.
John, nice to meet you, John. Thank you so much for your time.
Because I've had trouble with the e running out of, you want to save it?
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