How smart is it anyway to register for a half marathon just three weeks after the Marathon of Rotterdam? That one was a real struggle, weather way too warm, no wind at all and to many elbow-pushing middle aged man annoying me. I like running, but to be honest, I don't like running in Europe too much. Everyone that runs there considers himself a real athlete and doesn't care at all about the people running before, behind or next to them. An with 22,000 registered participants in Rotterdam, of which 80% male and the majority in the ages between 40 and 45, well, the 26.2 miles track sometimes looked more like a battlefield than a running course where people want to be running just for the fun of it. That's what I like about running in the USA.

On March 17th, Open Horizons for the first time set foot on American soil with a local event in Indianapolis. After the success of what has been going on in EMEA and making initial contacts in the US at BrainShare 2010, it was no more than a logical consequence that this first event had to happen.

 

The initial idea was to fit in this event before BrainShare, which originally was scheduled to start on Sunday 20th. Unfortunately, BrainShare got postponed, but since Erno and myself wanted to run the Moab half marathon and actually got admitted through lottery (a chance of 1 in 10), we decided to proceed with this project and head West anyway.

There are many local Linux user groups. Most of them organize small-scale conferences that attract people from their own region. There's one local Linux conference that attracts attendees from all over the planet: linux.conf.au. Now what exactly is it that makes this conference the best one in its kind?
 
First and foremost, there's the organization behind it. Linux Australia is a well-functioning open source community that really has something to offer to its members. Just one example of this, is that on its website, the user group has current job offerings as well.

Excellent start of the day, my Internet-found buddy Mark joined joined me for a friendly run through the city at 6.30 this morning. As many people have learned recently, Brisbane has a river and on both sides of the river there is a river walk. Due to the damage from the recent floods, it still is partial closed, but all of the higher parts are open and it makes for an excellent run. Add to that the bridges that connect the city center to the south bank, and that makes all that you may wish for for a nice city run.

After the Dubai creek run, there was the 14 hour flight from Dubai to Brisbane. What a delight to arrive in Brisbane and get off the aircraft. It was 7.30 in the morning, a nice 23 degrees centigrade and it smelled like a tropical country, with the sound of birds everywhere. Quiet day today, to be ready for tomorrow because that's when most of the action will occur with two talks. So I picked up my red Mini Cooper convertible and drove to a beach, some 120 kilometers away from the airport. In the first town I found, I drove to the pharmacy (which they appear to call a chemist here), to buy some real sleeping pills. In the airplane I've slept about four hours, so it's time for a real night now, and they have real sleeping pills, with a warning sticker for sale here. Next stop was the energy drink, I took one and felt ready for the day.

Departure day, it all started with traditional crappy Schiphol airport total absence of service, followed by the delight of finding my business class seat in the Emirates 777. Beautiful 19 inch televisions, with a Nintendo-like device to serve as a remote control, and excellent service all the way long. Amazing to see that for half the price of the same journey with KLM, they can offer double the service. Just one inconvenience: Dubai airport is growing too fast, and therefore, the normal terminal was full and they have to park the airplanes, even the big ones, at a remote place, a twenty minute bus ride from the terminal.

It's a long, long trip from the Netherlands to Brisbane, Australia, but when I can afford it, I think it's worth going there for the annual Linux.conf.au conference. I've been there in 2009 and was exited about the quality of the conference, good in-depth sessions, with a strong community and that's why year after year, the conference attracts many people from all over the planet. Not the least of these was Linus Torvalds, whom I met there in 2009.