Confused why you're here? My name used to be Ben Balbo. I'm now Ben Dechrau (/bɛn dex-raɪ/).

StixCampNewstead – the next BarCampMelbourne – seeking sponsors

Published on January 27, 2009 in Random. 0 Comments

So, I promised to write some more on StixCamp this morning. StixCampNewstead will be the first StixCamp ever. It will be held in the sticks and they will be Victorian sticks!

So what is this StixCamp I speak of? The first ever BarCamp in Australia was BarCampMelbourne 2007, and it was held at Lake Eppalock. Given two people got lost and there were complaints that no GPS coordinates were supplied, this very definitely meets the requirements of “in the sticks”.

Last year’s BarCampMelbourne was held in the city, and very great it was too. 70+ participants who all thoroughly enjoyed themselves (or at least didn’t hate it enough to tell me).

This year, we’re returning to the sticks. StixCampNewstead will be held at a beautiful winery in Newstead, Victoria.

So, in addition to letting people know about this upcoming event, we’re also looking for sponsors. The event will cost around $50 per head, and there’s space for 60, so $3,000 we need. We already have one sponsor, but need plenty more. We’re looking for a number of sponsors for smaller amounts, rather than one for the whole lump. If you’re interested in supporting this awesome grass-roots event, please get in touch with the organisers. We’re also happy to take sponsorship in kind by way of prizes to give away, providing the catering or any other in kindness you can think of.

In return for supporting this event, you’ll have your logo and link on the StixCamp Victoria, Australia web site and the BarCampMelbourne web site, receive verbal thanks and recognition during the opening and closing speeches, and in any communication with reporters and be welcome to advertise your support in any way you like (we will assist wherever possible). You can also offer schwag/literature/etc for dissemination and signage for display at the event. See the Sponsor StixCamp Victoria, Australia page for full details.

3 months of news; has microblogging killed the blog?

Published on January 27, 2009 in Bogie Bush, Conference, Extra Curricula and Random. 2 Comments

I’ve just realised I haven’t written anything here for almost 3 months, and yet I don’t feel I’ve been out of touch or not been updating “followers” with my activities and news. The number of phone calls and emails I’ve made hasn’t increased dramatically, so what’s happened?

Could it be that more frequent microblogs on Identica and Twitter are to blame for the drop in frequency on this site? Or was it just a busy time of year? I’m not sure.

So what’s been happening with me in the last three months? Sandrine and I moved house for the third (and final?) time in one year, and are now finally living in Portarlington on the Belarine Peninsula, 8 minutes from the beach. I still live and work in Melbourne, but I also get a holiday every weekend now!

Sandrine and I also went to Strathbogie; as some of you know, we used to own a bush block up there. We helped them develop a requirements document for a new community web site and portal, and after a few teething issues, they finally went live in November. The Strathbogie Tableland web site describes itself as a new way for residents and landholders to stay in touch and communicate with each other, and has really taken off with residents and others alike. Their community message board is possibly the most used area of the site.

In other news, I went to both RUXCON and the 5th Open Source Developers’ Conference, presenting at the latter on mobile streaming solutions for the open source community.

I’ve also been trying to fit in work on a new community driven web site that I started in October, but have had little time to spend on lately. Hopefully I’ll have more about that soon. Then, of course, there’s the work on the next BarCampMelbourne, which will actually be a StixCamp – more on that in a soon-to-follow post.

I think that’s about it. Of course there have been other things, but perhaps to minor to mention. You could always follow me on Identica or Twitter to hear the day-to-day stuff. If you like. No pressure!

Dear Temptee: Beware of Microsoft’s BizSpark

Published on November 7, 2008 in Open Source and Rant. 5 Comments

There is devilry afoot in the Redmond offices. That tautology became stronger on the 5th of November with this press release:

SAN FRANCISCO, November 5

Microsoft Corp. today unveiled Microsoft BizSpark, a global program designed to help accelerate the success of entrepreneurs and early-stage startups. BizSpark provides startups and entrepreneurs with fast and easy access to current full-featured Microsoft development tools and production licenses of server products with no upfront costs and minimal requirements. BizSpark also provides technical support and market visibility. BizSpark is structured to take advantage of the resources and support of a global network of hundreds of organizations such as economic development agencies, university incubators, hosters and investors, including The National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE). These BizSpark Network Partners provide guidance, mentorship and resources to help drive startup success.

See full press release here.

You might consider this as a sign that Microsoft wants to support small and enterprising startups, but what’s the real story behind this?

The pessimist (or realist?) in me looks back at other Microsoft campaigns to build their customer base and assumed this is yet another attempt to lock people in to their proprietary formats and systems.

As someone who runs his own company based largely on only open source software, I find it hard to understand why people and organisations would opt for systems that lock you in even if it is cost-free. The problem here is the time-limit part of the deal. After the three years of cost-free access, you will be required to pay for the services you use, or migrate to another system.

Migrating is often an arduous task and most organisations will opt for lower short-term costs in licence fees over the cost of porting their systems to new infrastructure. The long term financial costs will keep adding up though, and over time the migration process will become more complex and less attractive. You will be heading down a spiral towards total dependence on Microsoft products!

Consider now a business such as mine that is not reliant on any proprietary software or services. I’ve been using these systems for well over three years now and have paid nothing and will continue to pay nothing. Sure, there are costs such as hardware, power, Internet access; but these are common across all businesses. I might also have spent a little more time in setting up my infrastructure initially, but having been a Windows administrator in a previous life I can attest to the fact that maintaining my infrastructure after deployment is less intensive and demanding than the Microsoft alternatives.

I’m also freer than any business that runs Microsoft products. If I want to change the way OpenOffice.org works for me, I can change it, or pay someone to change it for me. You cannot change the way Microsoft Word works. If I want to recompile the Linux kernel to increase performance or hardware compatibility, I can do that. You cannot run Windows on any hardware you like. If I buy a new computer, I can copy all of my applications over and run them on both machines at the same time. You can also do this, but that would contravene the end user licence agreement you agreed to when installing the software.

So tell me now, why would you take up Microsoft’s BizSpark offer if the open source world can offer your business the same service with no lock-in, no cost and more freedom?

Making comments more accessible

Published on October 17, 2008 in Accessibility and Work Life. 2 Comments

I was just going through a list of sites that link here and stumbled back upon Russ Weakley’s Anatomy of a comment. Having wanted to try and tick all his boxes for a while, I think I’ve managed to make my comments section a little more accessible.

Russ identifies these attributes of a comment:

  1. Author name – who wrote the comment
  2. Authors url – the authors website
  3. Authors avatar – the digital representation of the author
  4. Permalink – a permanent link to the specific comment
  5. Number – A reference number for the specific comment
  6. Date – date of comment
  7. Time – time of comment
  8. Comment – the actual comment
  9. Edit this comment – allows authors to edit their comments
  10. Other comments by this person – see example
  11. Site owner flagging – some sort of visual distinction to shows comments from the site owner/s

At the time of his post (9th Feb 2008) my site showed the author’s name, comment date and time and the comment itself. That’s essentially the bare minimum.

If you check out any of my posts that have comments today, you’ll find the author’s name, their web site url, avatar (the little picture), a permalink to the comment, the comment number for that post, date, time, comment and site owner flagging. I might add an “other comments by this author” feature at some point.

Russ also discovered there are many ways in which permalinks are offered:

  1. Date
  2. Time
  3. Date and time (by far the most common option)
  4. A graphic icon
  5. The # symbol
  6. The word “permalink”
  7. Comment title

My site used the date and time version, but I’ve now also linked the comment number and added the text (permalink) after the date.

So what’s the point of all this? I’m not sure!

Perhaps I felt I had to fill in the gaps that Russ had identified. Perhaps my pedantic nature won’t allow me not to make this site as accessible as possible. Perhaps I shouldn’t have said that last sentence which will no doubt bite me in the backside when people point out obvious omissions in accessibility on my site.

Russ was looking at this from a developer’s point of view. I’d like to hear the readers opinion.

So tell me, do you care? Do you ever bookmark comments or just the whole post? What about emails to friends and colleagues? Do you care that it’s comment number 45? Does it help or distract when the author’s posts are highlighted? Do avatars annoy you or do you like them?

Mothers will do anything to help their kids

Published on October 15, 2008 in Random. 6 Comments

This email came to the Melbourne PHP Users Group today:

Hello Ben
I am trying to urgently locate someone who could assist my son with a web programming Uni assignment, which needs to be finished by Friday. The person would be well remunerated.

I look forward to your reply.

Annette

To which I responded:

Hi Annette,

As a former University tutor, I’m abhorred by your request. Please don’t take this the wrong way, I’m not trying to be rude or insulting, but your son’s University project is designed to test his ability to meet the requirements of his course, and I cannot condone offering assistance in this regard.

Please note that my views might not reflect those of the Melbourne PHP Users Group, but, as a group that promotes learning, I doubt any member would feel differently.

I wish your son the best of luck with his assignment.

Ben Balbo

Outrageous!

Update: 2008-10-16 16:16

Reply from Annette:

Hi Ben, thanks for your email. But, as you should have seen, I was asking for assistance ­ tutoring and mentoring ­ not asking for someone to do his assignment for him. There are times when we all need help, and while he left it a little late to seek assistance, I am trying to help him. Don’t kids get outside tutoring at all ages these days, from primary school to university level…

My Response:

[Re: misunderstanding the request]

I’m afraid your original email didn’t carry the sentiment you were
striving for. Asking for someone to:

Assist [your] son with a web programming Uni assignment, which needs
to be finished by Friday

sounds very different to asking for someone to tutor your son in PHP.

[Re: extra tuition and running out of time]

Absolutely, extra tuition is not uncommon. I think the problem here is the lateness, as you point out. I don’t begrudge you trying to help your son, but if he’s not able to make adequate use of the, in my experience, extremely accommodating support network of his lecturers and tutors and identify issues in his time management then there are larger issues at stake.

University courses are not solely designed to teach skills to students; there is as much of an emphasis on self learning, time management, communication skills, issue resolution, risk analysis, and so on. Universities teach people how to operate in a working environment. Employers consider University degrees to denote a person has the ability to work independently (whether by themselves or in teams) – something that is not assumed of high school graduates that enter the workforce without a degree.

I say all of this not to assume some position of authority or to be condescending, but to hopefully assist your son in completing his degree and benefit to the fullest extent possible. On a more personal note, I didn’t discover or fully comprehend any of this until the final year of my University degree and believe it would have helped me enormously if I had worked on the non-academic skills I should have developed in the previous years.

Regards,
Ben Balbo