Stuart Herbert | Gentoo

A big “thank you” to Daniel, George, Tim and Rob for putting together a stand (and, in Tim’s case, a new talk on Gentoo) with just two weeks’ notice. Although it was a small conference, it’s the first time (that we know of) that Gentoo was represented in the UK outside of our own annual event. Speaking of which …

We liked the venue used by the AFFS for their conference. It’s two stops from Kings Cross on the tube, just a couple of minutes walk from Holloway Road tube station, and it has a pub which serves cheap pints and affordable bar meals right next door. What more could we want?

Reuben was the first to suggest that we should hold two Gentoo UK conferences each year, one in the north and one in the south of the UK. If we can convince its owners to install wireless internet access in time, we’re very interested in holding a Gentoo UK 2006 conference at The Resource Centre in London.

The two things I always enjoy about visiting London are vegetarian sushi and Foyles bookshop on Charing Cross Road. I was amazed to find that the other guys had never even heard of Foyles (how many bookshops do you know which keep pirhana fish in the Children’s section? :-), so of course I was compelled to drag them along

I went there looking for a book on Exim. (I’ve used Sendmail for the last eleven years, and figured it was time to see what another MTA can offer). Sure enough, Foyles didn’t disappoint, and I was able to pick up a copy of the official book for Exim 4. Now all I need are a few quiet hours to learn Exim and switch over to it. I guess I’m going to end up paying the horrendous wireless access fees in Starbucks after all - the hour I spend in there before work every morning is about the only quiet time I get these days.