diff --git a/content/posts/2019-02-04-fosdem.md b/content/posts/2019-02-04-fosdem.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1fa6a55 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/posts/2019-02-04-fosdem.md @@ -0,0 +1,104 @@ +--- +title: FOSDEM +date: 2019-02-04 +author: James McDonald +type: post +categories: + - Tech +--- +It's big. Really big. Just looking at the timetable is daunting, let alone choosing +which talks to attend. + +People come to FOSDEM from everywhere. I don't think I've ever heard such a +wide selection of languages at the same place. It really brings home just how +big FOSS is, and how many people care about it. + +# Venue + +I've never been to Brussels before. If there's one regret about my FOSDEM trip, +it's that I didn't have more time to spend in this beautiful city full of fun, +friendly people. I would definitely recommend visiting with some time to spare; +I certainly will be again. + +Also, the beer. Oh my, the beer. + +FOSDEM itself is hosted by [Université Libre de Bruxelles +(ULB)](http://www.ulb.ac.be/). The event takes up a +[fair chunk](https://fosdem.org/2019/schedule/rooms/) of the campus. This was again quite daunting, but the organisers +took a lot of effort to make it easy to navigate from place to place with a lot +of clear signage and timetable information. + +PGDay (see below) was at the Marriott Grand Place, which was pretty much a +regular conference venue as far as the event was concerned. Free running coffee +and a chair is all I require. I can recommend their steak, though. + +# Stands + +There were many stands run by all the FOSS projects we know and love. The +stands were an odd experience compared to a "normal" conference. + +Generally speaking at conferences you have a few big corporations and a bunch +of smaller companies. Everyone wants to sell you something you've never heard +of and get your details so they can send you spammarketing information. + +Not at FOSDEM. Most of the time I found myself going up to these fantastic +projects like Debian, GitLab or Apache and the conversation was mostly limited +to "you guys are amazing, thanks for doing what you do". + +# Talks + +I managed to select a good few talks in the end. Sadly, some of them (looking at you, +HTTP/3) were so popular they weren't possible to get in to. Luckily, all of them are recorded and available to view at TODO. + +Here's a sample of those I attended. + +## Crazy Java Internals - Evgeny Mandrikov + +A talk I really enjoyed that I selected largely at random. Evgeny Mandrikov, +works on [JaCoCo](https://www.jacoco.org/jacoco/). They build code coverage +information by looking inside Java class files which allows them to work with +multiple JVM languages. Unfortunately, it turns out that `javac` outputs code +that... isn't quite what you'd expect. It can also be extremely different for +the same code depending on the target JVM version. The talk had a series of +interesting examples of compiler output bytecode demonstrating these issues and +proving that when you're reverse engineering, sometimes you just have to make a +guess. + +## PostgreSQL 11 - Magnus Hagander + +My colleague Magnus presented what's new and magical in PostgreSQL 11. + +## Netflix + +This was a slightly disappointing talk. He focussed a lot on the advantages of working +closely with upstream FreeBSD and of publishing their improvements. That's all very +true, but it's an odd pitch to a room full of people at an open source conference. + +There were some interesting details about the hardware Netflix use in their CDN +caches and the areas they have to focus on for performance. + +# Matrix France + +## maddog + +# PGDay + +I also attended the FOSDEM PGDay the day before. This was a great event in its own +right, with several great talks. + +Also I got a fluffy Slonik, so I feel I have formally joined the Postgres community +now. + +I was particularly interested by a couple of the talks. + +## Anonymisation + +## Encryption + +# Thanks + +I'd like to thank the fantastic people who take the time and effort to organise +this event. Having been marginally involved in running conventions, I've seen +how hard it can be to wrangle these things. And this event is *ridiculously huge* +(the statistics in the closing talk had us eating 200kg of waffles *alone*). +The effort involved must be herculean. So, yeah, thanks!