Marc's Public Blog - Trips to other locations

So the whole point about my being in Dunedin was to attend linux.conf.au, which happens to be in Dunedin this year, and since I was there a day early, I used it to rollerblade around the city, and took some pictures. It was a nice small city.
The funny thing is that I ran into several geek friends while roaming the city, people I hadn't seen in a year or so, and from different places in the world. It's always kind of funny when you do that, and get recognized by a foreign people in a yet other foreign city :)
All in all, since I've been attending linux conferences since 1996, which was one of the first ocnferences (UseLinux track at Usenix), and I've been to most major conferences since then, as well as have been speaking at them since 2001, I am now quite well known among regular attendees and major linux hackers (that's the original good sense of the term, not the journalist misuse of the term to mean cracker). I am actually quite thankful and humbled to be friends and peer with the smartest linux guys on the planet, and it's always a pleasure to catch up with my international linux friends around the world at those conferences.

Anyway, here are a few pictures from Dunedin

Dunedin has the steepest street in the world, almost a 45% grade

You can view the rest of the Dunedin Pictures , as well as the now posted pictures of Cairns, Australia (including the Rainforest tour)

I'm about ready to go on the boat for the week trip, so I'm loitering at an internet cafe in the meantime.
Yesterday, I did a rainforest tour (picts later), and had dinner at an aborigines location that puts on a show for tourists. Ok, I feel a bit bad for doing that, but the money does go to them, so it's for a good cause :)

bridges are for losers

I also just made plans for the few hours I'll have when I come back: since I have to go to the airport, I'll be going to the aeroclub and I've scheduled a flight with a local instructor. That will be a fun way to do a reef flight: flying the plane myself :)
I won't have a lot of time due to a bigger plane I can't miss afterwards, but I should be able to squeeze 60-90mn of flight in, and it'll be my first time flying in another country, so that sounded like a perfect plan :)

You can also now view the now posted pictures of Cairns, Australia (including the Rainforest tour)

My last few days in Paris were spent with Jen, being the tour-guide, and having a good time doing so. It was quite enjoyable for multiple reasons, like enjoying the view and other things at the top of the Sacré Coeur and the Eiffel Tower, as well as being a portable heat source :)
i'll admit that there were a couple of places I hadn't gone to before, and that were nice to see too, in addition to the places I had already seen, but not in a long time. I also figure out for the first time that the Eiffel tower only flashes its strobes at night between 0 and 10 minutes past each hour, and plays lighthouse after that.
We also did a picture contest, and I think I might have come slightly ahead, either by being more steady, or less greedy with my zoom :)
All in all, many pictures to show, but here's an excerpt below, and the other ones are here