Sofie and Ian's baby
Sofie and Ian are having a baby (in five or six months time), and I've finally been told I have permission to tell the world. ;) Congratulations to them both!

Semi-retirement is hard work
In my last entry I proudly proclaimed that due to sound lifestyle management, investments, and business decisions, I only really need to do about 15 days of work each year. I could finally sit back, relax, and enjoy a peaceful lifestyle without undue pressure of complications. Therefore it's ironic that my relaxing lifestyle should begin with three months of non-stop, high-stress work.

This coming week I'm conducting a training course. The week after I'm doing the same, for another client. The week after that I'm conducting a different training course for a different client again.

Finishing my three weeks of teaching, I then have four weeks of consulting, followed by anything from 1-3 weeks of training in Sydney, and then a week of training in Darwin. Oh yes, I also have a conference tutorial or two that I need to write.

While I certainly can't complain about having the good fortune of getting so much training into such a short period of time, I am certainly looking forward to taking a break at the end of it.

Min-maxing enjoyment
My leisure activity of choice has recently caused me some confusion. Traditionally all my leisure activities have taken time, and many have taken money. One can convert the money component into a time component using a number of different methods, and thereby obtain an overall score in enjoyment gained per unit of overall time. I would hope that most people do this unconciously to some degree, thereby choosing forms of leisure that are most appropriate for their lifestyle and financial situation.

My regular forms of entertainment have been fairly static throughout my life. Games of all sorts are high on the list, including RPGs, boardgames, on-line games, and regular computer games. Competitive games feature highly, and somehow whenever I find myself playing a MMORPG I often find myself exploiting economic holes for personal gain, often though resource speculation and control.

Social interactions with friends are also a mainstay, although an increasing number of friends have got themselves lives, some going as far as partners, jobs, houses, and even children. Diving has been my high-expense leisure activity for the last few years; it happens infrequently, but it's worth it.

In the last month of two I discovered yet another leisure activity, but one that's been generating money rather than consuming it. The amount that it generates is only a fraction of even my poorest consulting work, yet its entertainment value is moderately high, and the overall income I've been gaining is equal to about half my normalised expenditure.

The downside is that my new leisure activity is socially dull. There's no social interaction to speak of, and nothing in the terms of interesting anecdotes that can be told afterwards. There are also learning curves and sweet-spots that have a significant impact on return-on-investment, so the hobby itself requires a reasonable time commitment to be worthwhile. I'm concerned that it will turn me into a very dull person.

I'm planning to combat this by organising a number of very social, and very geeky, gaming events with my friends once I finish my current glut of work. I'm going to try and tempt them away from their jobs and loved ones to indulge in some really serious gaming. I'd really love to have friends over for long weekend LAN-parties, but I need a little more space for this to do this properly. Perhaps we'll need to do some renovating to provide for more space, our backyard is certainly large enough that we could easily extend onto it.

Sofie and Ian's baby
Sofie and Ian are having a baby (in five or six months time), and I've finally been told I have permission to tell the world. ;) Congratulations to them both!

Semi-retirement is hard work
In my last entry I proudly proclaimed that due to sound lifestyle management, investments, and business decisions, I only really need to do about 15 days of work each year. I could finally sit back, relax, and enjoy a peaceful lifestyle without undue pressure of complications. Therefore it's ironic that my relaxing lifestyle should begin with three months of non-stop, high-stress work.

This coming week I'm conducting a training course. The week after I'm doing the same, for another client. The week after that I'm conducting a different training course for a different client again.

Finishing my three weeks of teaching, I then have four weeks of consulting, followed by anything from 1-3 weeks of training in Sydney, and then a week of training in Darwin. Oh yes, I also have a conference tutorial or two that I need to write.

While I certainly can't complain about having the good fortune of getting so much training into such a short period of time, I am certainly looking forward to taking a break at the end of it.

Min-maxing enjoyment
My leisure activity of choice has recently caused me some confusion. Traditionally all my leisure activities have taken time, and many have taken money. One can convert the money component into a time component using a number of different methods, and thereby obtain an overall score in enjoyment gained per unit of overall time. I would hope that most people do this unconciously to some degree, thereby choosing forms of leisure that are most appropriate for their lifestyle and financial situation.

My regular forms of entertainment have been fairly static throughout my life. Games of all sorts are high on the list, including RPGs, boardgames, on-line games, and regular computer games. Competitive games feature highly, and somehow whenever I find myself playing a MMORPG I often find myself exploiting economic holes for personal gain, often though resource speculation and control.

Social interactions with friends are also a mainstay, although an increasing number of friends have got themselves lives, some going as far as partners, jobs, houses, and even children. Diving has been my high-expense leisure activity for the last few years; it happens infrequently, but it's worth it.

In the last month of two I discovered yet another leisure activity, but one that's been generating money rather than consuming it. The amount that it generates is only a fraction of even my poorest consulting work, yet its entertainment value is moderately high, and the overall income I've been gaining is equal to about half my normalised expenditure.

The downside is that my new leisure activity is socially dull. There's no social interaction to speak of, and nothing in the terms of interesting anecdotes that can be told afterwards. There are also learning curves and sweet-spots that have a significant impact on return-on-investment, so the hobby itself requires a reasonable time commitment to be worthwhile. I'm concerned that it will turn me into a very dull person.

I'm planning to combat this by organising a number of very social, and very geeky, gaming events with my friends once I finish my current glut of work. I'm going to try and tempt them away from their jobs and loved ones to indulge in some really serious gaming. I'd really love to have friends over for long weekend LAN-parties, but I need a little more space for this to do this properly. Perhaps we'll need to do some renovating to provide for more space, our backyard is certainly large enough that we could easily extend onto it.

Retirement by 30
I've been talking about early retirement for years. I'm sure this has been a source of great amusement for friends, family, and peers. Given that the start of my third decade of life will be happening later this year, I thought I should give a status update about how I'm going.

Retirement, in the sense of 'never need to work another day of my life', simply is not going to happen in the next six months. That's okay, because retirement in the sense of 'only need to work fifteen days a year' has already happened. Yes, that includes covering all our diving expenses and a modest amount of savings.

After many years of working insanely hard, I'm finally at the point where I can get some relaxation. The factors involved in this are simple. Sound investment plans, sound business management, and sound lifestyle management.

I'm expecting to continue to work more than my required 15 days/year, primarily as a form of insurance. However for the moment I'm mostly working on maximising my standard of living, rather than maximising my total income. It's a very, very satisfying state to be in.

Linux.conf.au
Having swiftly recovered from the dreaded Linux virus and having got most of my work back under control, I figure it's about time that I finished my thoughts on linux.conf.au (LCA) 2006.

Mini-confs
I've never been to an LCA before, and as such I'm unfamiliar with the idea of a mini-conf. The general idea is that time and facilities are set aside for a small, independent conferences to be held on particular topics. And I mean independent; the mini-confs have their own organisers, paper committees, webpages, timetables, and discussion topics.

The mini-conf idea is a good one to allow more content to be packed into the conference time, but without much extra work for the main organisers. Less work for the main organisers is a Very Good Thing.

The downside is that as the mini-confs are independent, they're not necessarily co-ordinated in any way. This is fine if you pick a mini-conf and stick to it, but it's more problematic if you wish to move between mini-confs. Talks may be scheduled into different timeslots, or run over- or under-time, making clean transitions difficult.

There was more than one occasion where I had to break conference etiquette by leaving a talk that was running over-time to try and reach another I was interested in. One of the more frustrating experiences was trying to figure out timetables; one has to check half a dozen different timetables on different sites to know what's being presented.

Despite my trying time at mini-confs, I think that organising a Perl mini-conf for LCA 2007 would indeed be a great idea. This year there were a few mumblings but a Perl mini-conf per se didn't happen (although we did have a Damian mini-conf).

Main Conference
I'm pleased to say that the conference got better as time went on. To my relief the main conference was much better co-ordinated than the mini-confs. However there are some faults that I kept spotting, although these are common to many conferences, not just LCA. My advice for anyone involved in a conference would be this:

Speakers: Control your audience. Don't let them interrupt you. Don't allow them to start long discussions on tangential topics. Everyone else in the audience is present to hear your talk, not the opinions of the person in the second row. Ask for questions to be left until the end.

Room monitors: Control your speaker. They will ramble on the end for as long as you allow them. Talks that go overtime are unfair to the next speaker, and are unfair to any audience members who wish to change streams.

The other thing which amazed me is that LCA doesn't have conference proceedings! I kept finding myself wanting to check the proceedings for references and details of a talk that I had just attended, or examine the proceedings to plan which talks I'd like to attend the next day. Proceedings are a wonderful thing; not only do they satisfy delegates' cravings, but they also help improve the quality of the speakers by making sure materials are prepared well in advance.

NZ Perl Mongers
The best part of the entire conference was being able to catch up with a great many New Zealand Perl Mongers. Apparently Wellington.PM is quite alive and active, and it seems that New Zealand is using Perl for all sorts of interesting things, including running their DNS and electoral roll.

Conference Dinner
The conference dinner was incredible. The food and venue weren't anything to write home about, but the auction was breathtaking. $10,000 AUD was raised towards the establishment of the John Lions Chair in Computer Science. This was matched by a further $10,000 from Linux Australia, and the whole bundle with be matched by another $20,000 from USENIX. $40,000 AUD is an impressive sum to raise at a single dinner.

Linux.conf.au
Having swiftly recovered from the dreaded Linux virus and having got most of my work back under control, I figure it's about time that I finished my thoughts on linux.conf.au (LCA) 2006.

Mini-confs
I've never been to an LCA before, and as such I'm unfamiliar with the idea of a mini-conf. The general idea is that time and facilities are set aside for a small, independent conferences to be held on particular topics. And I mean independent; the mini-confs have their own organisers, paper committees, webpages, timetables, and discussion topics.

The mini-conf idea is a good one to allow more content to be packed into the conference time, but without much extra work for the main organisers. Less work for the main organisers is a Very Good Thing.

The downside is that as the mini-confs are independent, they're not necessarily co-ordinated in any way. This is fine if you pick a mini-conf and stick to it, but it's more problematic if you wish to move between mini-confs. Talks may be scheduled into different timeslots, or run over- or under-time, making clean transitions difficult.

There was more than one occasion where I had to break conference etiquette by leaving a talk that was running over-time to try and reach another I was interested in. One of the more frustrating experiences was trying to figure out timetables; one has to check half a dozen different timetables on different sites to know what's being presented.

Despite my trying time at mini-confs, I think that organising a Perl mini-conf for LCA 2007 would indeed be a great idea. This year there were a few mumblings but a Perl mini-conf per se didn't happen (although we did have a Damian mini-conf).

Main Conference
I'm pleased to say that the conference got better as time went on. To my relief the main conference was much better co-ordinated than the mini-confs. However there are some faults that I kept spotting, although these are common to many conferences, not just LCA. My advice for anyone involved in a conference would be this:

Speakers: Control your audience. Don't let them interrupt you. Don't allow them to start long discussions on tangential topics. Everyone else in the audience is present to hear your talk, not the opinions of the person in the second row. Ask for questions to be left until the end.

Room monitors: Control your speaker. They will ramble on the end for as long as you allow them. Talks that go overtime are unfair to the next speaker, and are unfair to any audience members who wish to change streams.

The other thing which amazed me is that LCA doesn't have conference proceedings! I kept finding myself wanting to check the proceedings for references and details of a talk that I had just attended, or examine the proceedings to plan which talks I'd like to attend the next day. Proceedings are a wonderful thing; not only do they satisfy delegates' cravings, but they also help improve the quality of the speakers by making sure materials are prepared well in advance.

NZ Perl Mongers
The best part of the entire conference was being able to catch up with a great many New Zealand Perl Mongers. Apparently Wellington.PM is quite alive and active, and it seems that New Zealand is using Perl for all sorts of interesting things, including running their DNS and electoral roll.

Conference Dinner
The conference dinner was incredible. The food and venue weren't anything to write home about, but the auction was breathtaking. $10,000 AUD was raised towards the establishment of the John Lions Chair in Computer Science. This was matched by a further $10,000 from Linux Australia, and the whole bundle with be matched by another $20,000 from USENIX. $40,000 AUD is an impressive sum to raise at a single dinner.