Tag Archives: Canada

Ontario Linux Fest

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This past Saturday I spent the day at the Ontario Linux Fest which was held at the Toronto Congress Centre. Despite this being the inaugural year for the event it was very well organized and I think, well attended. The number I heard was approximately 350 attendees. The most enjoyable aspect of the event was that it had a really nice community feel. Everywhere you looked there were groups of people chatting and having a good time. The only negative thing I can say is that many of the presentations were very high level. Given the broad audience this is not necessarily a bad thing but personally I was hoping for more technical detail. I really hope the organizers are able to this again next year because I’ll definitely be there.

I didn’t have a real camera along so the best I can offer is this picture of Jon ‘maddog’ Hall‘s closing presentation taken with my N800.

Picture from the Ontario Linux Fest

Ottawa, OLS and the war museum

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Arrived in Ottawa today for OLS. Managed to get in early enough to make it over to the new (2005?) Canadian War Museum. Unfortunately, there was only two hours left before close. Two hours was not nearly long enough to do the museum justice. Even if you have been to the previous war museum you should go again. The new building is gorgeous and there is lot more stuff to look at. If you like to read everything in a museum, you need to budget a LOT more than two hours.

For those new to Ottawa, walking to the war museum from OLS will take under 30 minutes.

Photo 20060718-cwm-1.jpg from the Canadian war museum
Photo 20060718-cwm-2.jpg from the Canadian war museum
Photo 20060718-cwm-3.jpg from the Canadian war museum
Photo 20060718-cwm-4.jpg from the Canadian war museum
Photo 20060718-cwm-5.jpg from the Canadian war museum
Photo 20060718-cwm-6.jpg from the Canadian war museum
Photo 20060718-cwm-7.jpg from the Canadian war museum
Photo 20060718-cwm-8.jpg from the Canadian war museum
Photo 20060718-cwm-9.jpg from the Canadian war museum
Photo 20060718-cwm-10.jpg from the Canadian war museum

Science funding in Canada

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During the latest episode of CBC’s excellent national science program Quirks and Quarks (podcast) there was mention of www.sciencefunding.ca. There are some interesting documents available on that site which discuss how science is funded in Canada. The letter in this document (2005) gives some background.

Also, this week’s Quirks and Quarks is the 30th anniversary show. This would be a great show to listen to if you are new to Quirks and Quarks.

The copyright loby (more of the same)

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Just before the last federal election the world found out how cozy some federal politicians involved in copyright reform were with special interest groups. Despite the change of government, it appears little has changed.

Oda and the Copyright Pledge

CRIA’s Lobby Effort: The Untold Story

Michael Geist deserves a lot of credit for not letting this drop.

Transcripts and audio versions of Geist’s Hart House 2006 lecture entitled Our own creative land: Cultural Monopoly and the Trouble with Copyright are available if you are interested in Canadian copyright reform.

Dispatches

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CBC has recently made some of its excellent radio programming available as podcasts. You can see the list of podcasts here.

Of particular note is Dispatches. This program offers short radio documentaries from reporters all over the world. The perspectives offered in these documentaries form a sharp contrast with the simplistic reporting that usually constitutes news.