CmdrTaco Speaking at MacHack in June

Apparently I'm Speaking at MacHack somewhere during the show- June 20-22. No clue what I'm speaking about yet. Never even been invited to speak at an Apple focused show, so it's certain to be interesting. It's in Dearborn, MI (near Detroit) if you feel the need to show up and flame me in person. I'm sure there will be time for Q&A about Slashdot stuff.

Yeh, I've got to say...

[liquide]

...Rob sure doesn't seem interested... Maybe it's his time of the month*1.5 [tripod.com]?

XServer

[tenman]

Have you picked a topic yet? Have you had a chance to put your hands on an XServer? What is the connection between you and the Mac croud (except that we read /. a ton)? Does anyone here want to recommend a topic for Taco?

Re:XServer

[larry bagina]

How about....

"I'll never buy a macintosh because it comes with a 1-button mouse"

You didn't know?

[Julius X]

CmdrTaco:

Are you saying you didn't know about this? Usually when someone is supposed to be at an event as a presenter/speaker, they are ASKED about it! It just seems odd, thats all.

I suppose the question should be...if you weren't asked...shouldn't you do something about that? You almost make it sound like you don't want to be there...

Adjustments

[blankmange]

Just make sure that you adjust your glasses in the same manner Steve Jobs does -- sure to be a hit..... Good Luck!

plug tags?

[jeffy124]

CT -- you forgot the <plug type="shameless"> and </plug> tags.

Hmm....

[gnovos]

I wonder how many mac users even know what you look like. I think I'll be going to that con as the "real" Malda and demanding my speech money...

Let me guess...

[zulux]

1) Single-button mice suck
2) PR0N on 23" HD display
3) OS-"EXX" vs OS-TEN
4) Software in a post-9/11 world.
5) Where's the SCSI, you bastards
6) Old NeXT cases can burn in fire!
7) Apple sold out to the man to get IE and Office.
8) Amiga is comming back! Watch out!

judging from the link

[jeffy124]

I think I know what you're supposed to talk about...

he'll join MacHack's crowd of developers for a lively discussion that will range from his adventures building the online community that Slashdot has become to open source issues and where ever else the freeform gathering might lead.

Then again, later on in the article ....
There is no agenda, no set plan, just Malda and the audience.

Seems like that instead of typing text for discussion, it's gonna be a verbal face-to-face style Slashdot!

Earn yourself some swag

[Otter]

A few years ago, at the peak of Linux hype, Eric Raymond gave a keynote [tidbits.com], advocating open source development to some extremely skeptical developers. He smoothed things over with enough "Hackers! My tribe!" manure that they Mac devs took up a collection to buy him an iBook, whereupon he vowed to maintain a connection with the MacOS community.

Several hundred dollars of VA stock price collapse later, that's the last anyone in the MacHack world has seen of him. So Taco, if you can butter them up enough, maybe you can leave with a new laptop too.

Re:Earn yourself some swag

[Drishmung]

Hey! Maybe he could bribe the developers with mod points.

How many mod points is an XServer worth I wonder?

Re:Earn yourself some swag

[boyko]

As the only Mac user in a meeting of Linux users, I had a chance to talk to Raymond when he spoke at our school. [rutgers.edu] I asked him what he thought about Darwin & OSX, and he kinda skirted the question - "Well, it sure looks pretty" was his response. My impression is that he didn't think that MacOSX/Darwin was relevant to his topic - Open Source advocacy. Grain of salt though, if this is what he means by keeping in contact with the Mac community, I would have appreciated a longer answer. Still, in general a nice guy.

Brian.

UNIX and public perception

[melquiades]

Linux and Mac OS X have in common that they both caused a major shift in the widespread perception of UNIX.

Linux changed the way developers saw UNIX. Instead of being exclusively a thing of the massive, expensive, big-iron world, UNIX became accessible -- an essential rite of passage for programmers, a domain for tinkerers, and a tool of professionals and hobbyists at all scales. And, perhaps for the first time, "UNIX" came vaguely onto the radar of the general public.

OS X changed the way the general public saw UNIX. Instead of being exclusively a mysterious thing of the geek elite, it was suddenly the foundation of a major consumer OS. Check the records, and you can see the wave of consumer tech columnists praticing saying "UNIX" without flinching. And it changed public perception about Linux, too -- suddenly, UNIX (and thus Linux) on the desktop is not just a pipe dream in the public eye. While Microsoft is trying to discredit UNIX in general and Linux in particular, both have more credibility than ever before.

Who would have imagined the current state of UNIX 20 years ago?

As both a Linux proponent, a developer walking all these lines of professional/hobbyist small, shop/big iron, etc. -- and as somebody at the center of the biggest geek watering hole -- it seems like you (CmdrTaco that is) might have some special insight into the changing public perception of UNIX, and how Apple fits in to it all.

flame vs. stalk

[chipotle_pickle]

If someone jumps on your posts to say mean things about you or your ideas, they are flaming or maybe trolling. If they travel to a conference to flame you in person, that's stalking. Have fun Taco.

Question for CmdrTaco

[elliotj]

I won't be able to attend in person, so maybe you could answer this online.

Do you actually even use a Mac? If so, which one and what do you do with it?

And, do you like it?

MacHack

[omnislash]

If you had announced this AT MacHack, you would have been greeted with cries of "Marketing!"

I love MacHack because it's usually got a number of great speakers. Last year we had Woz and the entire original Mac development team.

"It's a show about nothing." Nothing? "Nothing."

[tswinzig]

Only $525 to see a webmaster talk about nothing?

Whaddadeal!

Tips

[E-Tray]

And if somebody asks you too hard questions, use your right to correct your glasses [slashdot.org], like Steve Jobs...

Your agenda, CmdrTaco

[FattMattP]

If only you had read the article, CmdrTaco. According to http://www.mactech.com/news/mt-news-detail.mgi?id= 0000064bb918b85d [mactech.com] (which is the link you gave):

In this rare public appearance, he'll join MacHack's crowd of developers for a lively discussion that will range from his adventures building the online community that Slashdot has become to open source issues and where ever else the freeform gathering might lead.

I know you guys don't follow links to stories but this is a little ridiculous. But, now you know what to do.

Yay!

[Link-chan]

I'm attending Machack. I hope to see you all there! Thanks CmdrTaco.

Nuclear Physics?

[gcondon]

Quoth the announcement:

"Malda's achievements have spanned a variety of fields from computer
programming to nuclear physics."

I must have been dozing off but what exactly was that contribution again?

Re:Nuclear Physics?

[VRisaMetaphor]

I believe that particular contribution was Duckpins [cmdrtaco.net].

Hmmm.. perhaps...

[paradesign]

perhaps you should talk about open source development and its new correlation to the Mac platform, OSX, underage developers, freedoms(beer and speech), life, liberty, and the persuit of happyness [slashdot.org]

Go for it Rob

[theolein]

Spread the word about the /. system to the faithful. You could make many points alone with your experience in developing, implementing and observing the social processes of the /code user moderated system and how the system tends to be self controlling. I'm not sure whether there are parallels to be seen in software licencing and the whole DRM agony, but if there ever was a truly democratic forum system /. is it.

Please...

[digital_freedom]

don't say what another speaker said a few minutes before you go up. I'm sure the conference attendees will appreciate a repost free conference.

Grumble grumble grumble ;-)

[ollie_ob]

* 2002-05-28 09:53:04 CmdrTaco at MacHack 2002! (articles,apple) (rejected)

Oh well. Anyway, MacHack, for those that don't know, is a pretty kick-ass conference. Some of the mini-program 'hacks' they produce at the contest duing the show are pretty damn impressive. One that sticks in my mind is MacJive, which turns 'translates' all the text displayed in any program, into 'underground New York speak.' Well I was impressed...

A related question

[jimmu]

Has anyone even been able to get slash to run on OS X? I recall having read about it, but there wasn't much success. Any info?

-1, Troll

[jaseman21]

"I'm Speaking at MacHack...I'm sure there will be time for Q&A about Slashdot stuff."

hmmmm......