Majic

My last year's impressions from the <a href="http://www.fosdem.org/2011/">FOSDEM</a> were quite positive, and the entire trip to Brussels and staying there has been very pleasurable. I was really enjoying the change and the chance to find myself amongst people who share similar views on software development like I do. Thus, it comes to no surprise that I've promised myself back then to go to FOSDEM the next year as well.

Although I wish I were attending FOSDEM this year as presenter, I'm once again going as a plain user. Not too shabby either, but this time next year (kudos to Dell-boy) I intend to attend the conference to showcase a project I have been planning for some time.

Currently I'm in preparations for the trip, trying to get everything I need sorted out, buying some useful things for myself. I've already purchased an Acer Aspire One D255-N55 (yes, the model with the dual-core Atom) as part of the preparations. Last year I carried with myself the Dell Inspiron 6400, which proved to be quite heavy. As a contrast, this little netbook weights only 1.33kg. I intend to write a small review about the netbook once I get back from the trip. I've already played with it a bit, and mostly had a nice time running it.

Anyway, back to the FOSDEM, I <em>still</em> haven't actually had a proper look at the conference schedule, but I know I'll be attending at least two events - <a href="http://www.lpi.org/">LPI</a> certification exams 101 and 102. We'll see how I fare on that, since I didn't actually spend enough time preparing myself (but it'll be a useful experience nevertheless). When it comes down to the talks, I'm still unsure what I'll be attending. I've noticed that due to the schedule I picked-up for LPI 101, I'll probably be missing on the <a href="http://www.ejbca.org/">EJBCA</a>/<a href="http://www.opensc-project.org/opensc">OpenSC</a> talks, which I would find very interesting (currently I'm working on implementing a completely Free X.509-infrastructure and services as a home-project, and it's revolving around EJBCA as the CA of choice). Hopefully there's not many other things I'll miss on due to scheduling. I've actually wanted to attend LPI certification at FOSDEM <em>last</em> year, but I tried to register for it too late (this time I registered quite a bit in advance).

All in all, I look forward to this year's FOSDEM, and I do plan to organise my choices of talks I'll attend a bit better (despite not having done it already, but I do plan to do it in the next 2-3 days).

Aside from the conference, I'm looking forward to the traditional <a href="http://www.fosdem.org/2011/beerevent">Friday Beer Event</a> as well as Belgian beer in general. Last year I've tried some excellent beers, and Belgians sure have a wide variety of beers.