haeksen miniconf @ linuxconf au part 3

& so nancy arrived, which was very exciting - we hadn't seen each other since isea in belfast, where we had many an adventure ... but that's another story! (nancy was also in haiti a couple of weeks ago at the ghetto biennale, so last week's earthquake has had a direct personal impact - more here and sign the petition to drop haiti's debt).

but back to haeksen: joh clarke (also the organiser of the miniconf) gave an entertaining super-geeky presentation entitled "hackers, crackers and things that go bump in the night", assisted by her lovely black cat who had posed for illustrative photos, evocatively demonstrating the nasties entering your box and lurking in dark corners. i learned what 0day means & i think i have an idea of what a snort flood might be ... joh's conclusion was that pretty much any computer is vulnerable to attack, you can be prepared but you can't always avoid it. happily the next speaker, karen liesenfeld, spoke about email security.

then it was nancy's turn, & after talking about the hackspace she's initiated in tasmania, she turned to genderchangers & the eclectic tech carnival, & called me up to add my 2 cents worth. by this time it was after 5pm & the audience had thinned right down, & when we got to question time i think everyone was just hanging out to get out into the sunshine & have a drink.

overall it was a very good day; the talks were all well presented & generally very interesting; thanks a lot to joh & also charlie for excellent time-keeping & mic-passing skills (and more, i'm sure). i'll go back tomorrow for a look at some of the multimedia & education miniconfs.