Month: May 2024

The first official BSDCan 2024 event — the Goat BoF — takes place two weeks from today. The Goat BoF is an informal gathering for early arrivals and yes, there is a goat.

The University of Ottawa guest network restricts outbound traffic to TCP ports 80 and 443. We have requested they open the network for us. Some years our request is granted, sometimes not. Like many folks who travel frequently, you might consider running an SSH server on port 80 and 443.

We are seeking volunteers to help staff the registration desk! Most everyone should have registered before the conference, but someone has to mark names off the list and help haul T-shirts and bags into the event. We need help:

• Thursday afternoon and evening in the Hacker Lounge (U90 Lobby Lounge), 3PM-7PM. This includes sorting out T-shirts and putting sponsor materials in the swag bags, as well as handling early registration, so this needs 5-6 people.
• Friday morning, 2 people in the DMS lobby, 8AM-10AM.
• Saturday morning, 1 person in the DMS lobby, 9AM-11AM.

If you’re interested, please reply to this message.

We also have a newcomers orientation and membership session Thursday night at 6PM, in the same Hacker Lounge. If you’ve never been to BSDCan before, our fifteen-minute talk will help orient you and give you a chance to meet old hands who are volunteering to help ease you into the community.

Finally, you should know that UO has active protestors encamped near the conference. We strongly urge you to leave them alone. Interfering with a protest is a great way to attract police attention. As a general rule, BSDCan staff cannot help you in legal matters.

Two weeks. See you soon!
Michael W Lucas
BSDCan 2024 Chair

Twenty-two days! If you are coming from a country other than the USA, you should start thinking about getting your eTA Real Soon Now(tm) – they’re quite backed up right now.

https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/visit-canada/eta/apply.html While the committee’s goal is to keep BSDCan largely traditional, you should be aware of a few changes.

Most everyone goes for shwarma at some point, so we might as well bring it to you. For Friday lunch! If you registered a guest, they are welcome to join us for lunches and snacks.

Speaking of guests, if you register them they get a shirt and badge as well as lunch. If the guest shirt option wasn’t on the form when you registered, contact registration@bsdcan.org with their size. Fitted shirts are available.

If this is your first BSDCan, try to come to the newcomers session at 6PM Thursday in the Hacker Lounge (in the lobby lounge of the U90 Residence Hall). It’s only ten minutes long, and at the end experienced volunteers can guide you to the people you want to meet and the places you want to see.

If this isn’t your first BSDCan, and you want to welcome newcomers and help ease them into our community, please come to the Hacker Lounge at 6PM Thursday for the newcomers session.

Tutorial attendees are sharing a lunch buffet with the FreeBSD Developer Summit rather than the traditional boxed lunches.

If you haven’t seen the schedule, take a look at https://indico.bsdcan.org/event/1/timetable/#all.detailed. Five tutorials, four talk tracks, and on Tuesday night: a goat.

We look forward to seeing you all in Ottawa!