The Firefox party in fred's words
This is a small writeup by Fred on the firefox release party ..The rain gods threatened, and the Betim-Mapusa minibus almost ditched DP and friends. But they made it to Ajay's neat pad at one end of the village, that we sometimes refer to as the Beverly Hills of Saligao ;-)
After some hurried programming -- the Ponda guys had to be bussed in, and the winter months means sunset just after six pm in Goa -- a phone-less Ajay managed to play the role of the cool and casual host.One of the Khandola first year students got a special welcome, what with the alumni connection showing.In seconds, Ajay was casing out the youngsters, and both sides seemed suitably impressed. Before reaching, I had given a sufficient warning about Ajay and his multi-hued aptitude.Soon, the talk-shop started. But before we could make much progress, voices were heard outside. It was Ashley, who stays just nextdoor, but had SMSed earlier to say he would be late. Surprise, surprise. Mario Alvares was in too.More shop-talk. From Firefox (after all, a party in this product's name!) to the price of computers and peripherals at Lamington Road (Mumbai) and Nehru Palace (Delhi), to options about accessing the Net, Ajay's new job, why-it's-easy-to-get-a-distinction-but-not-a-job, and much more.Some parts of the party couldn't not be reported on for obvious reasons.
Ajay said his rock band has since disintegrated, but he would have brought in an amp and speakers if a more enthusiastic early response had greeted the idea.As agreed, we all adjourned to The Plaintain Leaf at Calangute, 3 kms away, for a quick meal. By the time it was over was a good 90 minutes later, spent more in talking and discussing and watching Firefox and clicking photographs... rather than gourging!We also almost managed to get Ashley along for a rare LUG attendance, but perhaps fearing he might be led into temptation his alibi was that of his grandmum being alone at home ;-)Blah, blah, blah. Working styles India and abroad. Why services don't get the respect due, and bills remain pending in Goa. How expecting computer students to work without a Net connection is like expecting Chemistry students to work without chemicals. Products versus services, the addictions of on-line shopping, and more.One after-dinner theme seemed to be the idea of working on an SMS-server that could dish out relevant information and jokes (why not!) All in all, an evening with a real difference. Specially as far as LUGgers go.
As DP pointed out, one of his friends was coming along for his first GNU/Linux meeting, and was also an overnight one, together with one that showed signs of going on for hours.
Soon it was time for phoning home and proferring excuses for not being able to make it back. If some programming ace out there could get the Sun and Goa's (anyway non-working) transport system to work at night, why do we need to have LUG meetings aka parties in the day at all?
posted by Blizzard of Oz @ 1:44:00 PM
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