Nithin Kamath's Weblog

Atul Chitnis introducing Philip Tellis at FOSS.in 2009

The 2009 edition of FOSS.in came to an end yesterday and this was my first experience attending such a big conference. So how was my experince? All I can say is that I was totally blown away by the spirit, dedication and enthusiasm of the people who were a part of FOSS.in. I salute all the people who made FOSS.in such a memorable experience.

For a first timer like me being at such a event can be a bit overwhelming, but thanks to Laxminarayana Kamath I got to meet up with lot of people right from Baiju, Santosh, Debayan, Sham, Tony, Ankur, Deepak, Anil, Hardik, Vignesh and lots more…sorry folks I am not able to mention all your names but I sure remember you.

FOSS.in has lots of talks and workouts, I attended a few of them and to sum them all up I would quote what Philip Tellis had quoted in his ‘Shut up and hack’ keynote “Have Itch, Scratch”, that is what the conference is all about and the tag line of the event ‘Show me the code’ is justified. If you were at the workouts and seen the number of them this year you could have understood what the Itch can do.

One more thing that made this years FOSS.in special and convinient was that it was held at NIMHANS Convention Center with three auditoriums for talks, one whole floor for the workouts – WOW! Thats how it should be.

So I will wrapup this quick writeup on FOSS.in 2009 with a BIG Thank You to the Team FOSS.in for organising such a big event in such a smooth manner.

Recession Card! Yes, Recession is over but the cards are still around. In case you are wondering what I am talking about, don’t strain you head or trouble Google, let me explain.

At my work place for any occasion like Birthday, Send off, etc. out team used to give Greeting Cards, but with the onset on recession at the start of the year, the team size came down rapidly and so did the funds collected, so a new concept of Recession Card came into picture where we used to give hand drawn card, it came with advantage of customisation and it helps to have an artist in the team who can actually implement it.

Last friday was my final day in the company, and surprise! surprise! Along with the normal card I got a Recession Card too! So what does it look like, see below.

Thanks for the card guys. It is totally a unique piece, but still I am unsure who is this ‘Trisha’ and ‘Pooja’, and what are they doing in my card. Please clarify.

Couple of weeks back on a Sunday evening I and Harish were sitting in the BSK IInd stage park chatting about how tough the life of a software engineer has become. Suddenly a thin and untidy looking man came up to us and started begging for a single Idli saying he had not had food for a day or so and was feeling very hungry, but by looking at him we could make out he was a bit drunk.

So we told him to go away but he was persistent and kept on asking, after a couple of minutes we felt it was wise to give this fellow the benefit of the doubt, after all he may not have had food for sometime which is resulting him in being a bit shaky. So we asked him to come along with us and we proceed toward the park exit.

The moment we reached the exit of the park the man stopped in his tracks, we called him telling the hotel is just a few yards away, but he stood still. Finally he opened his mouth and told us he does not want anything. We insisted, but he did not listen. So we went back to the park, meanwhile he had found someone else to beg for a Idli (Never knew Idli was the codename for Liquor!!)