[CDBUG-talk] The next NYCBSDCon

[George Rosamond]

Brian Callahan:
> Hey CDBUG --
> 
> I'm going to inline two emails sent to the NYC*BUG talk list earlier
> this morning.
> 
> Just because the con is in NYC doesn't mean we can't have Capital
> District people involved! It would be a great opportunity to have some
> upstate people (besides me) at/with the con.
> 

+1 BC.

Yes... CDBUG should play a role with this con, and I mean input and also
being actively involved.

Feel free to dump in comments inline below.

g

> ~Brian
> 
> (1/2)
> Informally, there has been a lot of discussions about our next
> NYCBSDCon. Normally, this type of discussion would start on admin@, but
> we need to break that routine.
> 
> Conferences are lot of work, and that needs to be understood. It's
> essentially a second (uncompensated) job to carry for a number of
> people, and it's exhausting.  Yes, the rewards are great, and we are
> proud of what we've done, but that point needs to be comprehended.
> 
> On that note, the last one in February 2014 was easier than in the past
> for a few reasons. A lot of people took on responsibility for the event.
> In particular, Patrick M and Mike N completely dealt with a/v to the
> extent that everyone else was out of the loop.  Additionally, doing a
> day-long event focused on the NYC area, and avoiding the hassles of
> coordinating hotels, etc., was an enormous relief.
> 
> So arrive today in August 2015.  It's been a year and a half since our
> last con.
> 
> There are a few spots I've looked at recently that could be ideal. And
> yesterday, I looked at a new space at 150 Broadway that just opened
> called LMHQ, which is one of those privately funded startup/hangout tech
> spaces.  NYI is a founding member, and they are happy to enable us to
> use the space.
> 
> LMHQ's main area fits up to 140 people with two screens, plus has a
> bunch of conference rooms.  It's an ideal spot and right next to the new
> Fulton Street station downtown.
> 
> At this point, it's worth considering something, say, at the end of
> February, assuming all the pieces can move into place.  That includes a
> lot of people engaged in making it happen and taking responsibility for
> it as in the past.
> 
> The next email will be about content...
> 
> g
> 
> (2/2)
> February 2014's con was focused on the "BSDs in Production" and was
> themed broad enough to allow us to choose content while feeling
> consistent
> 
> And like last con, our audience is not the BSD scene local and remote,
> but rather the non-BSD people in the metropolitan area. No one can take
> anything away from the current BSDCons' importance, but we are doing
> something different here, again. Our con is not an opportunity for the
> 'usual suspects' to meet at different cities around the world. Rather,
> our con is about talking to the broader community around NYC.
> 
> There are two theme ideas I'm personally thinking about that have been
> discussed.  Yes, the term "beyond" is purposeful.
> 
> 1. The BSDs Beyond x86: ARM, MIPS
> 
> The obvious connection for people on this topic is the Raspberry Pi, but
> I can imagine that will barely be mentioned.
> 
> There is very significant work happening on armv7 and what is now known
> as aarch64 (64-bit ARM). It's not just about small hardware, but about
> powerful, low-energy consuming hardware that should begin creeping into
> data centers soon. The big firms are working on it, and even Amazon
> acquired an ARM hardware firm a while back.
> 
> There are other angles. There is some *really* cheap hardware that is
> useful for testing network drivers, porting to the Chromebook, etc.
> 
> Ideally, we'd get some hardware manufacturers to bring in some gear to
> make this a more hands-on event.
> 
> 2. The BSDs and Security: Beyond the Obvious
> 
> IMHO the security angle is way overplayed, and we should be angling this
> outside the box.
> 
> There are a few topics that come to mind.
> 
> OCAML being one. Capsicum/tame (fbsd/obsd, respectively). ASLR.
> Interesting lessons in porting Tor Browser (essentially Linux software)
> to OpenBSD in regards to portability, footprints (er, bloat).
> Upstreaming portable BSD code, specifically thinking about OBSD's
> arc4random and libressl (libretls now? .
> 
> Another topic might be on entropy. In light of the FBSD breakage in the
> fall in -current and the critiques of Linux RNG, how do we know it's
> working?  What is good entropy? How do we know it's good? How many
> stupid ways do bad non-crypto developers try to replace a system's RNG?
> 
> Finally, as always, we are going to work hard to keep the event as "BSD
> agnostic" as possible. All the BSDs should be represented, but also
> having more general speakers not tied to one project or another is a
> positive.
> 
> Anyways, please feel free to jump into this topic.
> 
> g
> 
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