Canllaith.org

My last day in Dublin dawns bleak and uninviting. The rain suits my mood, with all the goodbyes I have before me.
This week has been one of revelations. I’ve discovered some amazing people that I feel privilaged to know and to collaborate with. I’ve realised my current direction in KDE is not one I’m happy with, and better still I’ve realised where I want to be.

It looks like this aKademy has been a catalyst for bringing the docs team back together, and I’m looking forward to getting home and starting some work on documentation and the website. The www-devel people have come up with a very good high level overview and I’m feeling very hopeful about making good progress on KDE.org.

Unfortunately, I have to go shopping for a new computer first. This week wasn’t without it’s downs as well as it’s ups, with my luggage going missing for the first few days and my laptop being stolen midweek.

I’m trying not to think of the data that is on my laptop. SSH keys. GPG key. Personal notes, articles, in progress KDE work. Photographs. Personal creative writing that is my soul in concrete form. The less I think about it the better. 12 hours in Sydney airport without any laptop at all is going to be rather uncomfortable. Lucky pencil and paper are easily found.

As I’m leaving, my only regrets are that I wasn’t able to meet those who couldn’t make it. Next year, guys? :)

My second day in Dublin, and I’m starting to get into the swing of things. The last two days have been a whirlwind of meeting people, seeing places, and arguing with the damn airline about my lost baggage that they still have not located.

It’s been really great to finally see people whom I’ve thought of as close friends for the last two years, although it’s disconcerting how many people recognise me when I don’t recognise them. KDE.nl guys obviously need to put more pictures of themselves online in particular!

I have already spent an insane amount of money on KDE merchandise, although I resisted the temptation to bring Konqi home with me. I shudder to think how much it would cost to ship him back to New Zealand.

Last night after dinner a group of us sauntered out in search of trouble and I had an absolute ball. Aaron and Mara were absolutely electric on the dancefloor and we found quite a few great irish pubs. I finally ended up falling into bed close to 4am.
Many people have said that KDE has some of open source’s best looking developers. Now I’ve met so many of the guys in person, I can definitely concur:

I also have some contenders for ‘KDE’s cutest couple’.

More serious press related blogging to follow when I am not hungover.

Oh, and I’m not the only person blogging from actually within a talk - I just glanced over to see Rainer also writing a post. Also in wordpress. Hosted on the same server.

It’s about 7 hours until I leave my house, and then somewhere around 9 before I leave the country to head to aKademy. So what does a geek girl pack to take to a kool konference when she has to go to the other side of the world and travel for over 24 hours to get there?

• thinkgeek tshirts & pink socks
• palm & wireless keyboard
• laptop & wireless mouse
• ogg player & headphones
• canon ixus55 camera & accessories
• lip gloss, soap, shampoo, et al
• Patricia Cornwell book for the plane
• ‘DNS & Bind’ also to read on plane
• jar of vegemite to traumatise Inge’s children with

Also pens, paper, and other items so I can write KDE promo material while in transit. Oh, and books and stuff so I can write the article that’s due in 3 days that I promise I’ll write on the plane. Um, honestly.

I am also taking a simply ridiculous amount of batteries and chargers. There is no such thing as owning too many gadgets, but my boyfriend remarked to me today that there was such a state as too many cables, and it is one I have reached.

Be prepared to see me fearlessly brandishing a small green mp3 player on ‘record’ mode as I hunt for interesting and amusing stories at aKademy to keep our users informed about what’s happening in KDE land.

Lets hope the travel goes smoothly, and I can find wireless internet and a powerpoint at various airports so that I can play World of Warcraft^W^W^W^Wwrite my article and study virtuously while waiting for my flights.

Kudos to my employer Catalyst IT, who are extremely awesome for letting me come.
See you all there!

There are now only 3 days left until I leave for Dublin, and last night the sinus infection I’ve been carrying for the last month flared up badly, bringing with it fever. I’m tucked up on the couch anxiously checking my temperature and hoping that a day or two of bed-rest will have me in fit form to travel by Friday.

I’m looking forward to finally meeting in the flesh KDE developers with whom I’ve collaborated on and off for the last 2 years. Even after most of my life spent involved with computers it still amazes and awes me that I can work, talk, sympathise, commiserate, and share joy with people whom I have never touched. The KDE community has become a constant, something that steadies me and provides me with direction and purpose when all else is in my life is in upheaval.

KDE is truly a way of life.

I’m also looking forward to buying a ridiculous amount of KDE tshirts and other merchandise to inflict on my friends back in New Zealand.

It wont all be about socialising and picking up cool loots though -  I’m also keen to be out there gathering interesting stories as part of the aKademy press team. This will be my first time attending a KDE event so I’ll be relying on sound advice on how to ferret out the newsworthy stories from KDE promotion veterans like Tom. A conference like aKademy provides a great opportunity to raise KDE’s visibility and profile.

If all goes well, I hope to see you all there!

After getting clee to add the RSS feed for the new blog to planetkde (you rock clee) I promised him I’d blog about something Real Soon Now. I was going to blog about the new crazy high resolution monitor I’d bought (2048×1536!) as well as some of the writing I’ve done over the last few weeks related to KDE promotion & marketing.

Then a friend pointed me to a comment on dot.kde.org. Now I’m going to rant about women in OSS again instead.

I really enjoy reading the ‘People Behind KDE’ series, particularly when the issue features contributers whom I’m not so familiar with. I was very interested to read about Celeste and her work in the most recent article, especially since we’ve only exchanged a few words. I did not enjoy reading the comments posted to the news story announcing the article.

This constant focus on the physical appearance of female contributers is absurd and more than a little offensive. Posting ‘zomg she is teh cutie’ on an article that focuses on a person’s technical contributions is always innapropriate, no matter how kindly it is meant. It demeans them when their technical acheivements and skill are ignored in favour of discussion about their attractiveness, as though that was the most important or interesting point about them. The gender of a contributer should be completely irrelevant in this context. Tom Chance, Sebastian Kugler, Kevin Ottens, and a multitude of other talented and forward thinking men have recently been interviewed and lifted up to community appreciation and commendation without being objectified in this way. Isn’t it reasonable for us girls to expect the same?