As Suanie Sees It

I’m just going to copy and paste most of what Colin already blogged about on the upcoming FOSS.MY 2008 happening this weekend, because

1) My brain is rather fried today
2) The post he wrote is awesome enough

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The sponsors
Well, the crunch time is here. In a month we’ve managed to pull some amazing things off. For starters, we’ve confirmed four great Gold Sponsors: mixi.jp, Novell, Mozilla, and Microsoft. We’ve also managed to get some local companies to be affiliate sponsors: bytecraft and inigo. And we must be gracious to get APIIT to sponsor the location, of course!

So, what do the sponsors do? They help pay for things. Like the speakers’ party, happening on Saturday evening at IZZI. Suanie, Aizat and I have already scooped out the location, and its a great place, with WiFi. Much thanks to Suanie for sorting this out, naturally. They help subsidise the cost of the event. They might even be helping pay for prizes for early registrants

If you’re unsure - RM50 will get you far
What inspired this blog post was @nazroll’s post. Running a conference isn’t cheap. RM30 for students, is actually a loss leader: you are getting 2 lunches, and 3 teas. Food in KL is surprisingly not so cheap, even if you go the Subway sandwich route. Early registration for non-students, with a t-shirt, is RM50. The t-shirt is actually pretty high quality, and sadly costs more than RM20 - surprisingly, making t-shirts isn’t cheap these days either. We could have gone the RM8-15 route, but it’s a t-shirt you wouldn’t be proud of owning, as after a few washes, the print comes off, and you’ll soon forget what a great time you had at foss.my 2008.

We’ll also sell the t-shirt, because if you’re not convinced pre-purchase, i.e. before registration, we want you to see it, touch it, feel it, and realise you probably want to be cool wearing it. So there.

The only way the event was going to be 100% free, was if we were going to not offer lunches, teas, a speaker party, t-shirts, etc… then you come to learn. But I hear this kind of event doesn’t work in Malaysia (or most parts of Asia, for the matter).

Don’t forget, the swag you’ll get. Bags, stickers, etc. The new friends you’ll make. So, the theme of “free & sharing of knowledge” is very much there. The culture is very much there.

The speakers
Have you seen the awesome speaker list? Open source conferences overseas typically costs hundreds of dollars, even for students. Less than RM50, is peanuts!

Speakers, I don’t know how to thank you enough. You are what’s going to help make the conference a great success. People are coming to see you. The speaker party reward on Saturday evening is so tiny in comparison to what you’ll be doing for the attendees.

The attendees
That’s you. You make the event a success. Register, pay up, come, have a good time, share, make new friends, hook up with people you’ve only chatted to via IRC. Thank you for taking time off from your busy weekend, to come enjoy the event.

Everything else
There are also Side Sessions. Birds of a Feather sessions, an Ubuntu Malaysia launch party, and much more.

All in all, pointing to a truly awesome event.

On thinking back, with regards to Rusty, CALU, and what is now LCA
The famous story goes that Rusty bootstrapped CALU on his credit card. I now realise that foss.my is no different. We’re bootstrapping everything on credit (or really, whatever cash there is in the bank - Malaysia and credit cards are still not there yet). CALU happened in 1999… foss.my is coming nearly a decade later.

Lets hope this event is as successful as LCA, and we have something to look forward to, on a yearly basis, in South East Asia. We’re not as far on yet as to have a howto, but we have ambitions to be the awesomest conference in S.E.A.

What are you waiting for? Register and pay up, already! And see you November 8-9, 2008.

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I won’t be able to make it because I am going to Singapore this weekend. You have NO idea how many awesome things I’m missing out for Singapore… AvenueQ better be more than good — it better be BLOODY BRILLIANT!

If you are interested, well go to the FOSS.my website for more info and sign up! The organisers pretty much pulled a bunny out of the magician’s hat to make this conference work, so yeah, total awesomeness!

What are you doing this Halloween? No plans yet? Hahhhh why not check out the SCREAM party at the Sunway Lagoon Theme Park this 31st October for some ghouly fun?

There will be:

* Live performances by One Buck Short, S.a.D., Y2K and Beat The System
* Dance music spun by DJ Joey G, DJ Ndroid and DJ Rob Nutek
* Camwhoring op with Freddy Krueger, Jason X and The Living Dead
* Screamtails (as opposed to cocktails) such as Scream Slime and SoCo Lava (I’ve seen the photos. They look gruesome but weirdly fascinating)
* Finger food such as Spooky Sandwiches, French Toes and Creepy Witches’ Fingers, and Brainy Cupcakes available, ranging from RM5-RM10
* RM1000 cash prize to winner of Best Costume

Sounds fun right? Heh I’ll be there as myself. That should be enough to scare anyone. You can purchase tickets to the event at Axcess - RM55 for pre-sale and RM65 for door-sale, inclusive of 2 beverages.

Or you can enter my SCREAM haiku contest to win a pair of tickets to the fun-filled party! I have 5 pairs of tickets to give away to readers who can come up with the most awesome Halloween-theme haiku. My example:

Gore, blood, ghosts, Reaper
Don’t scare the shit out of me
Only B.N. does

Hehehe. I’m sure you can do better than me! Bring forth the poet in you!

Terms, Rules, The Fine Print, Whatever You Need To Know:

* Tickets are for the SCREAM party at the Sunway Lagoon Theme Park on 31st October 2008 (Friday). Party starts from 8.30 pm till late.
* Don’t be silly, tickets are not exchangeable for cash.
* Contest ends on 26th October 2008 (Sunday) at 11.59 p.m.
* You can either e-mail me or enter your haiku in the comment section. Please enter a valid e-mail address, else I wouldn’t be able to contact you.
* Only for those age 18 and above. Valid ID is required for entry to the party.

Pretty straightforward right?

Eyeris is so great, his world is a flood and he slowly becomes one with the mud.

Eyeris is so great, he lost his religion while in the corner and in the spotlight.

Eyeris is so great, he’s been drinking wine in Hotel California since 1969.

Eyeris is so great, he will try to fix you.

Eyeris is so great, his friends are so depressed and he feels the question of their loneliness.

Eyeris is so great, he started a revolution from his bed.

Eyeris is so great, he’s got a black magic woman.

Eyeris is so great, he burns down the highway skyline on the back of a hurricane.

Eyeris is so great, he’s got on hand in his pocket and the other giving a peace sign.

Eyeris is so great, he has no time to say goodbye.

Eyeris is so great, he’s halfway there and living on a prayer.

Eyeris is so great, he killed the radio star.

Eyeris is so great, he moved the refrigerators and colour TVs.

Eyeris is so great, he woke up before September ended.

Eyeris is so great, he shook his meat to the beat.

Eyeris is so great, he knows why Samson loved Delilah.

Eyeris is so great, he’s signed sealed delivered and yours.

Eyeris is so great, he sleeps with common people.

Eyeris is so great, he stopped a baby’s breath and a shoe full of rice.

Eyeris is so great, he found what he was looking for.

Eyeris is so great. I like Eyeris because he is so great.

Earlier this month, I blogged about JobsDB and 88DB’s Super 10 contest. Back then I was endorsing KY’s ad entry to win the weekly prize, a PSP. Well, I think I want a shot at that PSP this week

Please view my advertisement here

Yes, the service is for real. Go read it for more information.

And if they choose my ad to be in the running for the weekly contest, please vote for me yah Thanks!

Some things in life are hard to forget. The usual cliches are your first boy/girlfriend, your first kiss, your first most emotional moment, your first loss, first time you cried the hardest, etc. Or the first time you completed all levels of Super Mario Bros. Well, some people remember and cherish the strangest things what.

I have many of those, and I keep a lot of them locked up in my memory pool. You know the Pensieve in Harry Potter? I’ve no idea what JK Rowling was on when she made up the whole thing (which I don’t believe is anything strong, because I think she’s a glorified copycat) but to me, the wand that unlocks my memories can be as simple as a keyword.

The other day someone mentioned Jobsdb to me and it took me back to the year 2000.

It was after my STPM exams and I was lounging about at home with nothing much to do. Something came over me and I went on-line to look for a job. Back then the options were rather limited – both on-line and for me. I saw a few interesting positions on JobsDB Malaysia, submitted my application via the form on the site (which included a link to my then-website) and proceeded to forget all about it…

Until one fine morning when I was woken up by a phone call to attend an interview in KL. I should perhaps mention at this juncture that it was the only reply that I received from my various applications to assorted companies. That was why I went up to KL for that interview to see what it was about. I got hired on the spot and about a month or two later I made the move to the big city.

Since that day, I don’t think I’ve been back in Batu Pahat for more than a month.

Well, lots of things happened after that. But it’s interesting that Jobsdb sort of got me to where I am now. I guess that’s one way of looking at it.

Me pretending to be an advertiser offering my services

I’d known for some time that Jobsdb expanded their services to include advertisements for assorted stuff, under the brand name 88DB. A quick glance at the main page shows that they have a LOT of categories for you to advertise your goods or services, or for you to browse through whatever you need or do not need in life. I just spent about 20 minutes looking through the Food & Beverage section, heh

There’s an on-going contest by 88DB for the most creative ad, called the Super 10. From now till 29th October 2008, you stand a chance to win a 4D3N trip to Bali for 2, a Philips DVD player and even one of the 10 PSPs that they are giving out weekly. You just have to have something to sell and be creative about it, that’s all. For more information, clickety click on this link.

Now, I’ve been looking through my room to see if I have anything of value for sale. Myself excluded, I don’t. That’s because I have the habit of cleaning out my room every couple of months, and I’d throw out/ give away whatever that I do not need. Well, most of them anyway. Unless you are interested in some cough syrup or contact lens solution, then I don’t have anything for you.

And I really don’t want to part with my terribly awesome L figurine just yet.

So I hereby announce that I am endorsing KY and his quest to sell off his Kois. Even though his haiku was not a haiku, even though there’s sentimental value in those kois, even though I can’t stand his smug grin whenever he wins something (one too many times), well he’s my friend. Until I manage to rustle up something incredibly, ridiculously amazing for sale on 88DB, please go vote for KY’s entry here.

Or you can sign up as a member for free at 88DB and start selling stuff. Come show me, maybe I’ll vote for you too