I returned from Germany a week ago. I am flying back there tonight, to bury the only man I ever looked up to. This morning, I received the news that my mother’s only brother, and my only uncle, Lutz Barthel, had died in an accident. Just 2 weeks ago, I sat with him in his [...]

Our Linux Workshop successfully happened yesterday. Ran a bit longer than we expected, but we gave the participants solid value. I am sure they will take days to catch up with everything. Luckily they have our extremely detailed slideshows and tons of documentation (along with the Fedora Core 2 CDs), so they should be OK. [...]

My first column can now be read in DataQuest (May 15th issue). The layout is still a bit raw, but that should change when the next appears. Reader feedback was amazingly positive. I especially likes this one: “I loved the complete change of pace for a mag like dq — it was refreshing to read [...]

I have been invited to speak at the Wizards of OS conference, to be held in June in Berlin, Germany. This is a biggie for me. Apart from the fact that this is the first conference I will be speaking at in my home town (for those who came in late ), this conference has [...]

My company will be conducting a one day course for people who need to learn how to set up comprehensive network services using Linux. We have held this course before, with great success. People keep asking us when the next one is, so here we go. It is extremely practical in nature (as you can [...]

I will be speaking at NIE, Mysore tomorrow (Saturday, 8th May) as part of their Ankura ’04 Techfest. My topic is “Open Source and Innovation”, and I hope to make it interesting enough for everyone. I am on at 1:30pm (looks like the organisers want me to wake up everyone after lunch . If I [...]

Some news for those of you who have been wondering why I haven’t been updating COMversations: DataQuest has acquired the rights to publish my articles, starting from the May 2004 issue (whether May 1st or May 15th I am not sure about), and you will able to read my articles in their printed issue twice [...]

I am alone. Wife and kid left for Ooty this morning, for a summer vacation. Thanks to too many things that need doing at work and elsewhere, I was unable to go. Arranged for the neighbours’ kids to go along – so now we have 5 women heading for Ooty for a 5 star vacation, [...]

Microsoft just acquired the dubious distinction of being a formally indicted monopolist across the (commercially) two most important continents on planet Earth. After being indicted for similar offences in its homeland (the USA) earlier, the European Union just slammed Microsoft for being an “abusive monopolist”, and a monster penalty of more than $600 million. While [...]

Am back from Goa, where both events I spoke at were great successes. Time for a diary update. Read the rest of this entry…