Re: Questions after talks at DebConf (idea)

[Bdale Garbee]

Gunnar Wolf  writes:

> I really disliked the voting part of this tool, though. I don't want
> people to refrain from asking something because they think they will
> be downvoted.

I like the idea of people being able to "up vote" to indicate that a
question already asked is one they'd like to hear the answer to also.
The alternative to that is many similar-ish questions being asked and
the speaker having to parse the list in real time to figure out what to
answer... it's a lot easier to just take the ones off the top, skipping
any you really aren't prepared to handle.

Bdale


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Re: English-speaking taxi number?

[Bdale Garbee]

林博仁  writes:

> I'm not a member of the local team though, just FYI while I edit the
> page for good.

For what it's worth, I had good success using Uber last night to get
to/from a restaurant in town. 

Bdale


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Re: DC18 - Currency

[Bdale Garbee]

John Paul Adrian Glaubitz  writes:

>> Expect no help from the counter.
> Just find an ATM with the VISA logo.

As someone with extensive travel experience, I can say it's not quite
that simple.  In a number of countries I've visited, there have been
ATMs with the VISA logo that would not work with a card issued in some
other country.  My experience is that most hotel and restaurant
reception personnel can tell you where and how to find the nearest ATM
that can handle international cards.  The ATMs in places like airports
and train stations are good bets if you don't have someone handy to ask,
and it's often a clue if there is extensive alternate language support
in the user interface, but I've learned that even in some EU countries,
not all ATMs in all train stations will take VISA cards from the USA.

Regards,

Bdale


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Re: "Breaking Cliques at Events"

[Bdale Garbee]

Chris Lamb  writes:

> I am therefore somewhat taken aback that so many people could think I
> would — or even could — enforce this as a concrete plan. I certainly
> always interpreted "rule" here in the loose sense of "as a rule, I have
> coffee in the morning..."

As long as you *strictly* adhere to the long-standing rule that, as a
DPL, you must drink your coffee black, from a container holding exactly
291 ml, and said cup must be finished before the contents fall to a
temperature 5 degrees C above ambient.

  ...

Unless, of course, you'd prefer it some other way.  ;-)

Bdale

ps: Yay!  Now I have a good question to use the next time we key-sign...
"what's your preferred first beverage of the morning?"


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Re: "Breaking Cliques at Events"

[Bdale Garbee]

Daniel Kahn Gillmor  writes:

> At the IETF (another technical conference, quite different from debconf
> but with some similarities), there are "newcomer meet-and-greet" events
> at the start of the conference.

Linux Conf Australia also has a long tradition of a session for
newcomers the evening before the conference starts that is usually well
attended, with multiple long-timers providing advice on how to not be
overwhelmed and how to feel good about joining and/or starting
conversations.

> one of the things i've liked about past debconfs is being exposed to
> stuff i didn't know about at all that is also going on in the project.

Yep, me too!

Bdale


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