OSCON 2008 – Schwag Count

I had an idea to do a daily schwag count during OSCON. I came home with lots of goodies last year, and I thought it would be neat to see what I came home with — broken down by day on when I picked up the item. I’m not going to do a separate post for the schwag, except for today since there’s nothing else going on that I know of…

I am now signed in and have my badge and initial bag o’ schwag plus extras that I snagged from a table near the entrance. This means the schwag count for registration day is:

  • 3 O’Reilly Pens. (I only took 2 extras because I found last year that I came home with more than a dozen pens from various sources. I’m a pen-whore, but I’m not that hard up for a massive count of pens!) I’ll probably hand out the duplicates at work to co-workers along with any extra t-shirts I get my grubby little hands on.
  • 2 pin-on buttons (1 Ubuntu and 1 Firefox)
  • 1 rubber-band launched Nerf dark from White Oak Technologies
  • 1 blue stress toy shaped like a beaker from Port 25
  • 1 small sheet of Ubuntu stickers [three of which are now on my laptop.])
  • 1 install CD for Druid which appears to be a CentOS 5 derivative for VOIP and other communications.
  • 1 DVD set (4 DVDs total) from IBM with sample software for a variety of their software packages.
  • 1 ThinkGeek catalog.
  • 4 brochures for events, magazines, and online information sources.
  • 1 mini-notebook (3×5) from Google with a built-in ribbon bookmark, and an elastic band to keep it closed when not in use or to keep it open when in use.
  • 10 flyers for “Please visit us at booth #XYZ.”
  • 8 different sample magazines from a variety of related industry publications.
  • 1 OSCON 2008 Who’s Who. (Yes, I’m in it, which means I checked the box for listing me when I registered. I’m not that special.)
  • 1 flyer from Yahoo! announcing various sessions that they have going on. I’ll need to check my schedule to see if I should swap out a planned session for one of theirs if the Yahoo! sessions are interesting enough.
  • 1 Expo Hall Passport. You get stickers from certain Expo Hall booths, and if you get them all, you get entered into a contest. This year the prizes are:
  • 1 OSCON 2008 Program Guide.
  • 1 OSCON 2008 bag (for the schwag!) This year’s bag is far superior to last year’s. Last year’s was a simple shoulder bag with a throw-over flap that had a zipper for a small pouch in the flap. There was a small velcro patch to hold the flap closed, but you had to have the just right amount of stuff in the bag to make the velcro patch line up. Don’t get me wrong. I like the bag, and I still have it. However, this year’s bag is a Masarati compared to the Porsche of last year. This year’s bag has a webbed pouch on the side that is just right for a 20 oz. soda/water bottle. There is an outer pocket that velcros closed (correctly) and in this outer pocket are pouches for 2 pens, a portable (1.8″) hard drive with cable, and 4 different business card slots that will hold multiple cards. The main section zippers closed with a good zipper and can hold quite a bit of stuff. The handles are the perfect length (for my body) as they can be held in the hand without dragging the bag on the ground, or they can be slung over the shoulder for a comfortable carry.

Schwag of the Day: It’s a close call between the OSCON bag or the Google mini-notebook, but I’m going to have to go with the mini-notebook since I’ve been wanting something like this for quite some time. It will easily fit in a back pocket. I just need to find a flat pen to slide into the notebook. I know I’ve seen them around on the ‘net somewhere. Now to find them again.

PS: Is it “schwag” or “swag”? I always put pronounce is shh-WAG instead of s-WAG because it’s more fun to say it that way. I did some searching, and found:

  • schwag:
    1. Free stuff competitors get at an event.
    2. A type of low-grade marijuana.
  • swag:
    1. Hanging cloth like a curtain of sorts.
    2. Booty stolen by a thief, but not necessarily a pirate.

Hrmm…. Looks like schwag is the right connotation here even though I’m really not a competitor, but I am at an event. I’m going to stick with schwag, but it’s not the smokable kind!!!

July 20th, 2008 | Beosig | Categories: OSCON 2008 | Comments: Comments Off

OSCON 2008 – In Portland

I made it to Portland, but barely…

I got up early because Kiara was heading to a cat show and taking Kiernan with her, and she had to leave the house at 7 AM. I was planning on getting up at 8:30 to get to the airport on time, but I wanted to spend at least a little time with my wife and son before leaving them for a week. When they left, it was really hard to say goodbye to them. I’m going to miss them terribly while I’m here in Portland.

After they left, I didn’t go back to bed, which is what I would usually do when Kiara heads off to a cat show for the day. Instead, I got up, double-checked my bags (I still managed to forget to pack my mouse.), watched some TV, checked some email (work and personal), and shuffled some daily Firefox bookmarks into the more efficient Google RSS Reader. By the time I finished all this, it was a few minutes after 8:30, and I had planned on walking out the door at 8:30. It wasn’t a big deal, and I made good time to Denver.

For some reason I was daydreaming when I came to I-225 to get to the airport, and I missed the turnoff. As a matter of fact, the sign stating “I-70 – 2 Miles” popped up before I realized my mistake. Oh well. I hopped on 70 and cruised towards DIA. When I saw a sign saying “Chambers – 1 Mile”, I recalled that Kiara said her cat show was off of 70 and Chambers. It was only 9:45, so I had about 25 minutes to kill before I would be “behind schedule” for getting to my flight. I called her up, and got quick directions to the convention center where the cat show was at. It was good to spend almost half an hour with my family that I didn’t think I was going to get. With all three of us fully awake (instead of half-groggy at 7 AM) we made the most of the time. Alas, I had to say goodbye to my loved ones again in the same day, and made my way to the airport.

It took forever to find an open spot (even in the far corners of the lot that are halfway to Kansas!) I finally found a place for my car, secured things as best I could without setting booby traps, caught the shuttle and got into the airport. I managed to pick up my boarding pass and get through security in record time. From the time I got in line for my boarding pass to the time I finished tying my shoes after security, a mere 15 minutes had passed. This included the walking distance from the airline counter to the security line. I managed to get through security with almost an hour and a half to spare before boarding started. This is fairly normal for me. I’d rather sit at the gate and read a good book than race through the terminal trying not to kill small children and little old ladies in my mad dash through the airport.

Since I had time to kill (and I was starving,) I snagged some food and drink at The Cowboy Bar. While eating at the rather full restaurant/bar, another fella asked if he could join me at my table since it was the only empty chair. I told him that he could, and we ended up talking for a little over an hour over our food. Oddly enough, I found out a bit about his family, him, where he lives (NY City), and a few other things, but I never did catch his name. He learned about the same amount of stuff about me, but I never gave him my name either. The term from the great movie Fight Club is “single serving friend.” That pretty sums up the “relationship” I had with this very nice New Yorker.

Unfortunately, I was so wrapped up in absorbing my “single serving” of friendship, I lost track of time and my bladder. I finally realized that boarding for my flight had started ten minutes ago, and it was going to take me about five minutes to get to my gate. On the way to the gate, my bladder spoke up and demanded a pit stop. Urgh. There went a few minutes that I didn’t have to spare. Fortunately, there was a bathroom along the way, and I still managed to make it on to my plane. I was one of the last people to board. As a matter of fact, they were calling up the standby passengers as I checked into the plane.

The flight went very well (psychologically for me [I really dislike flying] and physically for everyone) even though there were tons of toddlers and infants on the flight. There were nine of them that I could see walking around the plane, and I think there were a few more further up in the front of the plane. Even with all those little ones on the plane, there was little crying and fussing. Each time a cry or fuss went up, my “daddy instinct” kicked in, and I started looking for Kiernan. It made leaving him home (he’s with Kiara, so not alone!) instead of bringing him with me even harder. It’s best that he stays home since Kiara has the “food supply” with her, and I’m going to be way too busy to keep an eight month old baby happy.

Once in PDX, I snagged my bags, hopped on the MAX (light rail), and got right to my hotel. It’s a different one from last year. Last year’s hotel is cheaper and right across the street from the convention center. They were full by the time I received authorization from work to do the trip, so I had to go to the second choice. It’s not much more expensive, but it’s about two blocks away. I don’t care about the two blocks so long as it’s not raining. What I do care about are the room accommodations. Last year’s hotel was nicely put together and well done, though the Internet connection sucked rotten eggs. This year’s hotel has less walking space in the room than the quad-cube that I share with three other people (and a spare table) at work. The desk is nice, the bathroom looks nice, and the bed will be long enough for my to sleep on so long as I lie a bit diagonally. There are only two spare outlets, and I need three for my gadgets, so I had to unplug the TV, which I won’t be using anyways. I’m not sure if there is any surge protection available in the room’s outlets. I hope things are fine, but I’ll be watching for storms. I just hope the Internet connection (which currently rocks) holds up through the week as more geeks show up to crush the network. If it doesn’t hold up, I always have my AT&T air card for slower connectivity.

The registration desk for the event will be opening up in a few minutes, so I’m going to start my “arduous” (overheard in the lobby from another OSCON attendee who is in my hotel) two block walk to the convention center to get my paperwork, books, bag, pens, schwag, name badge, and other goodies.

You may get another post from me later on tonight. It depends on how bored I get while here in the “hotel room of claustrophobia.”

July 20th, 2008 | Beosig | Categories: OSCON 2008 | Comments: Comments Off