The FreeBSD Diary

BSDCan 2004 was a great success. Although I am not the only who shares this viewpoint. There are many others who agree with me. There are a number of articles you can read. There is also some unsolicited comments.

To be fair, I was the person who organized BSDCan. That makes me only slightly biased in my views.

There were a number of people who helped make BSDCan a success. I know that if I name people I will miss someone out. There were so many. People worked at the registration desk, set up the network, printed out invoices and badges, sold t-shirts and drinks. People helped to move gear to and from the conference venue. I'm even sure I've forgotten to mention some of the help I got.

The speakers were good. The talks were high calibre and technical. Technical is good. Even the non-technical people learned things they didn't know. Technical talks help spread knowledge and foster new ideas. There was something for everyone at BSDCan. Even non-techies.

Most of my photos were taken outside the main conference. When I was there, I was busy. One of my goals for 2005 is to get to see more of the conference!

The room

I stayed in residence on the University of Ottawa campus. This was a 5 minute walk from the conference venue. The picture at right shows the kitchen after the conference closed on Saturday. I was fortunate enough to have an extra fridge (for the drinks etc) for my stay.

I was staying in a two bedroom suite. These are very good value. The second picture shows my room. Yes, that's my now-missing laptop sitting on the desk.

The room - views

Not that I was in the rooom for much other than sleeping, but here are the views I had. My window faced north, towards the Ottawa River.

View - North West

This is the view north west out of my room. The Parliament buildings are obscured by the building at center, but you can see part of the Peace Tower just behind the lower section of that building. The bridge you see is Laurier Avenue, and the Rideau Canal is below it.

View - North

This is the view north out of my room. Les Suites Hotels are the tall brick building at center. Beyond that is The Market, which is where we spent Friday and Saturday evenings. All of the foreground buildings are part of the campus.

View - North East

This is the view north east out of my room. The conference building is at the right hand edge of the photo. You can also find the pub we used for Registration and for Saturday lunch. The building in the center of the photo has two skylights on top of its flat roof. The right hand skylight is light, the left one is dark. Directly above the right hand edge of the right hand skylight is a multi-story brick house with a peaked roof. That's the Royal Oak on Laurier. To the left of the pub is a multi-story brick building with the top story in a lighter colour.