hpr-knowledge-base/hpr_transcripts/hpr2235.txt

Episode: 2235
Title: HPR2235: linux.conf.au 2017: First timers interviews
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr2235/hpr2235.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-18 16:20:15

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This is HBR episode 2,235 entitled Linux.com.0 2017, first time an interview and in part
on the series, Interview. It is posted by Clinton Roy and in about 37 minutes long and
Karina Cleanflag. The summary is, Clinton speaks to 3 Linux.com.0 first time.
This episode of HBR is brought to you by an honesthost.com. Get 15% discount on all shared
hosting with the offer code HBR15. That's HBR15. Better web hosting that's honest and
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Here we are at the afternoon tee session of the final day of Linuxulf.0.0.0.0.0 prosecutors
This is the final chance that I have, to talk with someone. All my previous interviews
have been with old hands at Linuxulf.0.0, alright. So I thought it would be really good
get a try and get the opinion of someone who hasn't been to Linux for a year before.
Well, that is in fact the case, yes, my first Linux comp file.
So I'm joined by York, who's actually sharing some accommodation with back at the student dorms.
So just to try and get a little bit of context, have you been to other conferences before?
No, I don't think I've been to a while, essentially any conference.
Certainly not professionally oriented up.
Well, as much as Linux is...
Well, there's a component of professional, I guess.
It's also a component of hobbyist, which is the ticket I'm here under.
Cool.
So how are you finding it?
It's been quite enjoyable.
I mean, also a bit intense. It's been two days at least.
I've gone, I actually have to go back and have a nap sort of thing.
Right.
Used up all of the brain power.
It's not even, that's even after getting plenty of sleep, because I'm pretty insistent getting my sleep.
So I can say with fair confidence that it is actually pretty draining.
Yes, yes.
Only five days.
And I think it depends on how deeply dove into these things where if you go to talks that are outside of your wheelhouse,
which is frankly most of them, it's very easy to go to a lot of talks that are very detailed
on a topic that you're doing nothing about.
And because you're not comfortable in that area, you just end up spending a lot more brain power trying to catch up to it.
Well, as much as I can, of course, there's a lot of blanks to be like,
I actually have no reference in to my head and I can't really go and look it up right now.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You can do it when you're in a private space and you're going to get the computer in front of you,
but when you get the talk in front of you, you have neither the time nor really the classes to do that,
unless you want to miss the talk.
So did you manage the company, the entire company?
So I think you've...
Yeah.
Yeah, I was.
Cool.
So both the mini-conferences and the main part of the event.
I mean, well, actually, to be honest, I think I found out even possible with some more value on the mini-comps and the main ones to be honest.
Okay.
Maybe because the mini-comps are a little bit more experimental, I guess.
Yep.
The main conferences did have quite a lot of technical detail, which I wasn't really able to grasp.
Right.
Okay.
So I particularly enjoyed the first one I went to, which was the one on...
How do you deal with machines that are on the customer's site, but it's your job to administer?
Right.
That was all called the opposite to cloud.
The on-premise solution is the other buzzword that we use for that sort of thing.
So what made you sort of decide to come to the mini-comp for you?
And that expectation and that reason for joining, has that been... has that been mentioned?
Well, I had been meaning to go to the mini-comp for the last two years or so and didn't get around to it.
I think that actually took me over.
It's the fact that it's in Tasmania.
I have family here.
I love Tasmania.
It's nice and cool.
It's very hot.
I have not the case here, especially considering the rain and the cloud outside.
Yep.
Well, it hasn't been like that all this week, but yep.
Yep.
You know, it looks like the final day, so...
Right.
There's hope up.
Yeah.
I come from Brisbane.
So it is very rare for the conference to be anywhere where the weather is hotter and worse.
So I do see Linuxcon for you in January.
It's a very good way of escaping some of the worst, the hottest muggiest weather, for sure.
And a lot of people, like a lot of people, use Linuxcon for use is a bit of a trip.
If they're coming from overseas, it's a long way, so they'll whack on a few days beforehand and after hand to add out a bit of a trip.
So...
Yeah.
So how have you been enjoying the talks?
I mean, the method in which I've been enjoying, I can't.
I don't know.
I've mostly just listened, looked at the slides, thought about it a bit, you know.
It's kind of not really a thing that you can sort of do anything else because you just try to talk to your neighbor.
That's a rude to the person up front B.
You're not going to be able to hear what they're saying until you go and become some reference material.
It's the same sort of do, well, maybe not distracting, but...
Yeah.
You can't really hear what's going on.
Yeah.
Over the years, I've sort of gone through a few different phases, like I would try to take notes on the laptop.
And then I was the first couple, but then after that, I'm like, I can't bother.
Yeah.
I ended up teaching the laptop and I just used pencil and paper.
Oh.
And I would just take one or two sort of powerful notes, like if there was something that I definitely wanted to go back and look up later.
And it'd just be a particular project name or URL or something like that.
Yes.
But I do still find that some talks I get into and then it's like, yeah, there's no part of this talk that I'm going to be able to use.
It's interesting.
Yeah.
Well, I think I found that a lot too.
I get first three, like on the Monday, I started taking notes after that, very much reduced.
Did it actually, though, yesterday afternoon sort of sat down and thought to myself, okay, so what did I actually listen to?
And so I went through the list, go, I went to that and then wrote like a very quick one, two, maybe three cents in summary to myself.
Yeah.
I picked up there.
Yep.
For sure.
You know, hopefully so that if I go over, I can sort of job my memory a bit more about some of the other contents of it.
Yes.
For sure.
And, like, I have no idea what you're doing to trade.
So are you working or studying?
I'm working.
I have worked at the same company.
It's a little company.
So it was worked at all involved.
It's any use?
I did mention it too.
One of the guys asked, oh, yeah, if you possibly get to work, much.
I didn't really want to follow it up, but at that point, I'd actually already bought a ticket.
And, you know, the whole Tasmania thing and I thought it's new for me.
Yep.
I thought there was more for myself than for my company.
Yep.
Yeah, sure.
I thought I'd let it go.
Maybe next time I'll consider it more seriously going through the company, but.
Yep.
Yeah, sure.
So you also mentioned you did a little bit of volunteering before?
Yeah.
So I was a speaker in that last session.
I would not say speaker, no, I didn't need speaker.
I was a session chair.
A much less intensive thing.
I don't think coming as a speaker is necessarily something you'd want to do on your very first floor.
Yeah.
So session chair, so you're introducing the speaker, keeping them to time and handling the Q&A part after the tour.
Yeah.
Well, the first one didn't really get a lot of Q&A, we got one.
The rule, you know, the rule is always here for comments, here for questions.
Yes.
So the first guy I woke up to immediately goes and gives a comment and I'm like, that's not a question.
We actually have time for one question, which is the original premise.
So the second one at least was a question.
Cool.
So.
Yeah, no.
Thank you very much for volunteering, for doing that session chair.
I was probably also mentioned, I don't feel I did it very well.
It's like a sort of broken up speech, a bit stuttery, because it really has time to prepare, because it'll be totally fine.
The most important thing is keeping the speaker to time and not letting the speaker run over time.
So that's the main thing.
Yeah.
So, have any talks really grabbed you in a particular way, like things that you definitely want to go back and have a look at the particular project?
Yeah, it was actually one that was a bit more of a human one, but that's actually not so much for their human aspect more
because I'm sort of interested in doing it myself.
There was a pair from New Zealand who came around with, how do we make the humanity and temperature sensor really cheap,
where we can deploy it in people's houses where mold is a constant problem.
So, I myself, in my case, the sort of the opposite I think gets too hot, I wouldn't mind knowing, you know, how hot it actually gets and the humanity, etc.
And so, I don't know, they did actually register as a charity, I'm thinking maybe they do a two for one, like a one for the purchaser, one for the human and give it away.
Yeah, then I'd probably get into that, but yeah, so it was actually what it was, it was intended to be one for every room, not just for the house.
So, that was really where they're targeting cheap, and that's the reason.
Yeah, because they were finding that there was actually quite a bit of difference, some rooms were more seriously more effective,
but not like the main speaker she was saying that her daughter was getting fairly serious asthma.
All right. She started monitoring this and noticing that the guest room was actually much better, so she ended up moving to the guest room.
So, is that like a post-earth plate thing, or is it just an old building sort of thing?
Well, yeah, there was a lot of old buildings, they said that there was a standard in 2007, but of course the majority is the long tail.
Yeah, all the buildings for that, it wasn't just very old ones, it was ones that still even just up to that cheap construction and all that.
There's nothing to do with the earth, like it's just New Zealand is cold and damp.
All right, okay. Much like Tasmania, which someone else mentioned.
Yeah, yeah, in Russia, yeah.
Coming from a hot climate, we don't suffer a lot of cold issues, so we don't really know.
I'm from Madeleine, which both warm and dry.
Yeah, right. So, yeah, there's a lot of these things we just don't really think about.
There's a lot of house renovation shows and stuff from the States and the UK,
and they're dealing with literally freezing conditions.
So, they've got to, you know, they've got to insulate their pipes and all that sort of stuff to stop and fraying,
and all of those things are completely out into this.
So, I'm very much in favour of insulation for housing.
Yeah, I'm sort of thinking to myself, if I do ever get into the property market, I want to build my own,
because I want to control all those aspects to make sure it's all insulated properly.
Yep, yep.
Of course, I think one of the things I was also mentioned at the same talk is that which is not measured,
is not maintained.
Yep.
And so, of course, I intend to also put in very smart home features.
Yep.
Monitoring.
Yep, for sure, very much.
So, like overall, have you liked your conference experience?
Would you be thinking of, would you like to return in future?
Yes, I would like to return in future.
It's been intense, but it only happens every now and then,
so you kind of have to be.
Yeah.
And is there anything that you think we could improve on?
I haven't thought that far ahead yet.
Maybe, after a second go, I might have a better idea,
and have a more critical mind once I've sort of had some expectations at some time to think about it.
Yeah, for sure.
And I mean, the conference does change every year,
because it's in a different city every year.
It's a different organising team every year.
Yeah.
So, you know, all of the details change from year to year.
So, little things that you might like this year,
they might not be around next year,
and there might be, you know, one year,
there might be something really interesting that happens,
but it only happens in that year.
Yeah.
For a bit.
And all the pens on the particular venues that they get
and a particular circumstances that come across this.
Oh, yeah.
Wonderful.
We actually ate on that this year,
and I thought that was kind of cool,
but now you mentioned that I'm thinking,
that's probably not something that's often the case this.
Do they also get good insight?
Yeah.
So, aren't it, aren't it has been a long-time sponsor?
Sort of historically, Linux.com.au has been held at or near universities.
Yeah.
So, we've had really strong links to academia,
and through that, through the internet network.
Okay.
So, they have actually been able to keep it up.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I suppose it's just as well,
especially these days, streaming them live.
Yeah.
I did actually, they set up the start,
it's not stream-wise here.
And I didn't actually bond,
I had to go away quickly.
So, as I put the bus service using my mobile internet,
streaming the keynote.
Cool?
Yeah.
Or at least part of it.
Yeah.
Yeah, I guess that's it.
Yeah.
And I think, I don't know anymore.
Like, I think it's a really nice thing that we've got all of the videos recorded.
And I think, based on what I see from videos from a lot of other conferences,
I do think our recordings are actually quite good.
Like, we have a hardware set up so that the slides are actually captured.
Like, it's not just a camera looking at the slides.
The slides are actually captured in midstream.
So, I think our recordings are actually really quite top-notch.
And I think that it makes it an interesting archive of information later on.
Yeah.
There were a couple that I missed that I wanted to go to,
but due to the concurrency issues and also,
there was one I wanted to see that I was chairing for a different one.
So, I definitely will be utilizing those resources.
Yep, excellent.
All right.
Is there anything else you'd like to talk about?
Not especially.
Yep.
No, that's fine.
Just that I've discovered that Wargaming Sydney is not in fact a tabletop thing,
but in fact, they do actually development,
and we're involved in software for the world of tanks.
Oh, okay.
It's so surprised.
So, our coffee sponsor for this conference is Wargaming.net.
So, I'm really expecting to be like tabletop sort of Wargaming style.
I mentioned that, they're like, no, no, no, we didn't do that.
That's like, ah, sorry.
I haven't seen anyone win any of the prizes that they've been putting on offer.
So, I don't actually know what the prizes are.
So, I'll be very curious to find out what's going on there.
All right.
Well, I'm glad that you enjoyed your first LCA.
I hope that, and thank you for volunteering.
I hope that in future that you come back and you get more and more involved.
The many conferences are a big way of beginning to become a speaker.
And, you know, in a few years' time, you might be speaking.
You might be by the subject.
You might be helping to organise a conference in a few years' time.
So, you never know.
So, thank you very much.
Thanks for having me.
So, here we are again for what will probably be the final interview for Lenny's Coffee U.
For Hacker Public Radio this year.
It is a very noisy afternoon tea time.
And, straight after this, we'll go into our closing ceremony.
And, I'm here with Kat, who has been involved with the conference before.
But, this is at first time attending as a regular attendee.
Hi, Clinton. How are you going?
I'm going quite well.
So, I've done a number of interviews with a lot of old hands for the conference.
But, I thought it would be...
It sort of, I hope, me to do a couple of interviews with first-timers or...
Oilier people.
Yeah.
Because, I think, you know, we're...
You know, this is my 16th.
So, you know, I'm quite used to how things run.
And, there are probably a lot of rough edges that I'm quite used to.
And, I think, sometimes the only way to realize, to get an objective view of something
and figure out if somethings can be improved is to get an outside view.
Yep.
So, I guess, briefly, give us a little bit of backstory of how you have been involved with the conference before.
Okay, so, my partner has been involved with LCA's and Lenny's.
Since the very beginning, I think.
And, we started coming to the conference together in 2010.
And, in 2010, I came on the partners program.
And then, I think, 2012 and 2013, I volunteered.
And then, in 2015, again, I went on the partners program.
But this year, there was no partners program.
And, I've always kind of struggled that, you know, should I be on the partners program
or should I actually be, like, attending the conference?
So, I looked at the program this year, and I thought,
there's quite a few talks that I'd be interested in.
So, maybe I'll just come along and student it, because I'm studying a science degree.
Cool.
So, that's why I'm here.
Cool.
So, the partners program is something that has been won a number of years.
And, the idea is that, if a speaker and a whole family is coming,
make it an easy list of things to do for the partner to do,
while the speaker is at the conference.
So, generally, generally, there are a bunch of checklist,
touristy items that you kind of have to do when you're visiting a place.
Yeah.
And, yeah, you're right.
Like, I think, certainly a place like Hobart doesn't really need,
that sort of partners program, because most things are,
like, there's a lot of touristy things close to the city.
So, yeah, they just didn't think to run the partners program.
Yeah.
But, they are running child-lining programs and stuff.
Yeah.
So, we haven't abandoned the families at all.
I think it's just changing situations and thought about it.
Yeah.
So, what were some of the talks that sort of enticed you to get overline
and become a delegate?
So, I am a biologist and I use R a lot.
So, there was a talk on R here,
so that was directly relevant to stuff that I do.
So, that was kind of like the first thing that I thought was applicable to me.
And then, as I started browsing the program,
I actually realised that, like, the open-knowledge type of stuff and the open data,
that's all stuff I'm really interested in.
Again, relevant to me as a scientist who needs to use data.
Yep.
So, that doesn't want to have to pay through the teeth for data that the public has already paid for once before.
Exactly.
Yep.
Yep.
Cool.
So, how have you found it?
I've really, really enjoyed my week here.
It's been great.
There's been very few sessions where I haven't found something to go through.
Even if it's not directly relevant to what I'm studying or what I'm working on.
It's still interesting stuff that I can go and see.
Cool.
So, do you think you've come across anything that you'll be able to take back into your regular work
and maybe you've found a project on our live or something like that
that you want to look at later on?
I don't know.
Probably not, but it doesn't mean that it has kind of exposed my thinking to different ways of looking at stuff.
And have you been happy with your conference experiences that is there anything that you haven't liked
that something that we should look at quickly in the future or anything like that?
No, I've really enjoyed everything I've done here.
It was even a time at one of the breaks we had where I was just talking to some random people that we hear
and without getting into too much detail.
One of the implementations of other agencies at GUI,
and so I was explaining to them that I used this thing called RStudio, which is a GUI.
They didn't make fun of me, so...
Oh, right.
Yeah, yeah.
Okay, yeah.
Right.
Because we're all hardcore, manline.
Yeah, right.
Cool.
Excellent.
So, do you think you'll be thinking about attending again in future?
Yeah, quite possibly.
If the situation sort of line up?
Yeah.
Cool.
So, are remarks you want to make about the conference?
Or, yeah.
Just to say thank you to all the organizers and all the staff here.
It's been fabulous.
Like, we've been doing it without them.
Yeah, everything's run really smoothly.
You know, there's always stuff that goes on behind the scenes and they are dealing with issues and problems that come up.
But, you know, this year I'm a regular attendee.
I don't have any behind the screen knowledge.
And, I do have a little bit of grumbles about the lightning talks set up, but that's the only thing.
Yeah.
Apart from that, I haven't noticed any problems or issues.
So, yeah.
It's been really good to see it.
All right.
Well, thank you very much for the chat.
No, thanks.
Thank you, Clinton.
So, here I am for another afternoon teacher just before the closing session of Linux.conf.au.
I'm here with Nearage.
It's Nearage.
It's the first time at Linux.conf.au as well.
So, tell me a little bit about yourself and how you came to come with the confidence.
Yeah, sure.
So, hello.
I'm Nearage.
I come from Seek Limited.
Seek is an online business where we connect candidates with HiRos and we have a global search platform.
I came here because we started using a bunch of Linux and the tools and started with the Unix philosophy in my team.
One of my colleagues who is actually a user of Unix programming who used to be here before and he said he suggested last year that we should go.
And I'm very fortunate to be here.
So, work is up to you again here?
Yes.
Yes, cool.
So, were you interested in a particular talk or anything like that?
Were you looking forward to a particular speaker?
No.
To be honest, I just didn't know what to expect.
Okay.
Since it was my first time, I knew that from the previous talk with my colleague, he mentioned that, you know, it's just a bunch of people, humble people, talking about things.
It's not a sales conference or anything, which I really can see now.
Yeah, it was more to do with what people are doing on, what they're hacking on.
It's just, you know, projects and pubics and pieces from kernel, things like that.
Yeah.
Fundamentally, Linux software has always been a technical conference.
And we really do frown on talks that edge to the marketing side of things like we.
You always, like, you always get some talks that have a little bit of marketing in them.
But we tend to frown on that.
So, have you been to a lot of other conferences prior to this?
Or was this sort of your first conference experience?
No, this probably would be my third conference experience.
Yep.
So, I've been to a few from Elasticsearch and a YAL conference.
Yep, that's it.
Yep, yep.
Okay.
So, how have you found a fan Linux on for you?
Fantastic.
Like, I'm just terrified looking at what's going on outside my little world.
Right.
So, the whole talk about open source and open data and whatnot.
That just opened my mind.
Okay.
On the keynote to act quite good.
Excellent.
Excellent.
So, the thing that I look for at LCA is to try to come away with a few projects or libraries
or languages or toolkits that I can incorporate with my daily work.
Do you think you've come across a couple of things?
Yep.
I definitely have.
Yeah, one of the talks I went to was more to do with data and open data.
And I did not know about that.
So, I did a bunch of research on how a student government is giving away,
not giving away, but opening up all these data assets.
And, like, I came across this hack go, which is...
Go hack, yep.
Yep.
So, I was just doing some research on there.
And I think I have an idea where can I use the data for barbecues and try to overlay on a map
using all the open source records I can just to see what I can do with it.
So, for our international listeners, Go hack is sort of similar to the coding for America initiative.
Okay.
So, they have a fairly similar goal where governments or city councils have spent the money
to collect a certain amount of data and they're trying to make it available in an open format
so that external organisations, they can be profit driven or community driven
to reuse that data and get more value out of it.
And because it's either a government or a city council has paid for it,
it's like the public already owns it in a certain sense,
because it's our rate for our taxes is already paid for it.
Yep.
So, in Australia, we've got the Go hack competition, which is a yearly competition,
where all the councils and state governments around Australia
they will highlight the new data sets that they've made available during the year
and they run a weekend hacking competition to over a weekend or three or four days
come up with an app or a website that makes use of that data.
And some of these are just for community good and some of these are actually trying to come up with business models
and business plans around that.
So, Go hack was started by a peer war who gave the second keynote here.
And she started that which was working for the Australian government at federal level.
So, that's been run for a number of years and now Go hack has been sort of like it's run under the auspices of Linux Australia.
So, that has been sort of transferred from government to Linux Australia.
So, Go hack is run like it's a conference run under Linux Australia.
I don't understand the details exactly, but the same umbrella organisation that makes Linux not by you
and hikon are you run?
Yeah, also runs Go hack.
Oh, OK.
So, that's good to know.
There's a continuity of oversight there.
Yeah, I mean, it's just one of the projects that I think that, you know, inspired me.
There are like, my hit right now is just exploding.
Yeah, especially with today's keynote, I just go ahead.
OK, well, I'm going to have to watch that one at like half speed, I think.
Yeah, and just to digest the information in that talk.
Yeah, I just have to do that.
Like, even the internet of things I never found myself interacting with electronics for some reason before.
And all of a sudden, I'm so much interested that I started.
Yeah.
I got already bought Raspberry Pi, it's sitting at my office desk now.
And, yeah, the whole internet of things and the small hardware devices or the small things, they're just inspiring.
Yeah.
I've got a couple of ideas around them.
Yeah.
A couple of ideas to work to implement.
I'm very glad to hear that you've been inspired.
Like that.
So, has there been any parts of the conference that you haven't enjoyed or that you think could you could use them improving?
To be honest, I enjoyed most part of it, but there were times where I couldn't find something that impressed me.
I think that's just normal, you know, not everything would impress you.
Although I pushed myself out of my comfort zone and I ended up going to CPU architectures and kernels,
which is a core part of Linux, anyway.
So, I ended up going there and again, there was an inspiration there where I was thinking to start contributing in freeBSD.
Like, just to see what's out there, how does it work with the kernel?
I don't know about kernel, but just to contribute and see how the merges and what it is for maintenance.
What does it mean for them?
How hard it is or how simple it is and things like that.
Because most of the talks were concentrated enough on maintenance and they don't scale and those sort of things.
So, yeah, I just want to understand more of them.
Cool.
I mean, overall, the conference is probably managed.
Yeah, I can't see any clause clearly.
Excellent. Cool.
Well, it sounds like you'll be interested in coming back in future years.
Definitely.
Excellent.
Definitely.
Cool. Well, what I would suggest to you is you're inspired now.
I would work on some projects and think about submitting a talk for next year.
You might not feel that you're confident enough to try and submit a talk to the main part of the conference.
But we've got the many conferences that can be easy to get a talk into.
So, take that inspiration that you're feeling now.
See if you can turn that into a presentation for next year and submit a talk for next year.
Definitely. I'd probably do that. Excellent.
Cool.
Is there anything else that you'd like to add?
No, cool.
Okay. Well, hopefully I'll see you next year.
Thank you very much.
You will.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Cheers.
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