I first met Ted Unangst at the c2k7 hackathon in Calgary.  He immediately struck me as your atypical OpenBSD developer.  While he’s obviously a very smart cookie with an interest in crypto and code security, he looks like someone who just traded in his skateboard for a keyboard.  Fortunately for the BSD community, Ted has an active interest in SMP and kernel threading.  His work on rthreads is ongoing within OpenBSD and should result in solid improvements in future releases.

I will discuss the current status of kernel SMP support, the rthreads thread library, and relevant future developments.  Over the years, we have accumulated several concurrency primitives in the kernel, causing some confusion amongst developers, so I will lay out the origin and correct usage for each.  The talk is primarily targeted at the budding OpenBSD kernel developer, but I will also describe the end-user effects of each topic.

This should be a very interesting discussion, particularly for users who are starting to dabble in kernel hacking.  Ted is an approachable guy who understands how to translate advanced topics for average Joes like myself.

If you haven’t already noticed, registration is open.  Tickets are selling at a brisk pace, so don’t get caught empty-handed by waiting until the last day!

News BSD, hacking, kernel, OpenBSD, registration, SMP, Ted Unangst, threads

Online registration for DCBSDCon 2009 is officially open for business.  We’ve outsourced the registration process to EventBrite, which makes it really easy on us to focus on the important stuff.  Event fees are only $75 until the first day of the conference ($125 onsite).  But we’re limiting our attendance to 150, so get your tickets now!

The ShmooCon hacker conference has been like a “big brother” (or sister, as it were) to DCBSDCon with organizational guidance along the way.  Thanks to this affiliation, we benefit in a number of intangible ways.  Fortunately, we now have some tangible goodies thrown our way too.  DCBSDCon attendees get the same hotel discount that ShmooCon hackers enjoy.  Just use the code shoshoa when you book your room at the Marriott Wardman and bask in the inexpensivenessinity.

If I haven’t mentioned it already (and I think I have), we’re continuing to announce speakers and talks at a regular clip.  We introduced Chris Buechler just yesterday and will pace ourselves to reveal a new speaker every Monday and Thursday.  Subscribe to our RSS feed if you havent’ already.

See you in February!

News BSD, registration, ShmooCon

Now I understand why speaking and attending at conferences is so much fun.  Because I’ve never had to organize one.  Some of the drudgery of the daily organization is rewarded when the Call for Papers ends and you get to start voting on the speakers and talks that will comprise the conference agenda.  It’s not entirely dissimilar from choosing your best lineup for a fantasy sports league.

If I take the creator of FFS that leaves me weak at RAID Drivers and IPv6!  Can I trade down for more picks?

Thankfully we had a wealth of great submissions to choose from.  As a BSD user and advocate, I’m geeked out about the final lineup we have to offer.  I think you’ll be really pleased with the speakers and talks we’ll be presenting in February.  But it wouldn’t be any fun if I just announced the entire schedule Tout de suite, now would it?

We’re going to reveal a new speaker every few days, starting this Thursday.  Check back here for the formal announcement which will appear shortly thereafter on the official website.  If you haven’t already, take advantage of the RSS feed so you’ll be always be up-to-date on the latest conference tidbits.

We’ve had a lot of folks ask about the event registration.  This will be opening up very soon.  Please be patient while we iron out a few more details.  As always, it will be published here first.

I’m really looking forward to DCBSDCon 2009, and by the response we’ve been getting, a lot of you are too.  Don’t forget to register for ShmooCon if you’re planning to attend both (uber geek).  See you in February!

News BSD, DragonFlyBSD, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, ShmooCon

Despite my inability to form a coherent thought, Will Backman saw fit to invite me on BSDTalk to discuss DCBSDCon 2009 (mp3, ogg). We covered the usual points, but this also gave us a chance to announce two of our confirmed speakers.

Dr. Marshall Kirk McKusick is a pioneer in the BSD movement. He designed the original Fast File System (and UFS2… and softupdates… you get the point) and is one of the authors of the Design and Implementation series of books.

Henning Brauer is an OpenBSD developer and one of the major forces behind PF, OpenBSD’s packet filter subsystem. He is also the creator of OpenNTPD and OpenBGPD.

We also touched on the SysAdmin Challenge. I think that participants will really have a fun time with this event. If you have suggestions for any of the challenge goals, please add them as a comment below.

Oh yeah, and registration will be open very soon. Don’t blink or you might miss it.

News BSD, bsdtalk, DragonFlyBSD, FreeBSD, Henning Brauer, Kirk McKusick, NetBSD, OpenBSD, security

Welcome to the official blog for DCBSDCon, the shiniest BSD conference in North America. We’re looking forward to our inaugural event and hope you can attend. We’ve got an incredible lineup of speakers for a first-year conference. Details about the speakers and their talks will be revealed in the coming weeks. Consider this blog your bendie-straw for slurping in the BSD conference goodness.

Besides all the brilliant talks you’ll find at DCBSDCon 2009, the BSD Certification Group will be in attendance to hold a pair of exams. The BSDA has made tremendous strides in putting together a professional certification that covers all of the major BSD projects. You can find more details at their FAQ or brush up on the exam criteria on the study page.

The 2009 Call for Papers ended this week with a flurry of last-minute submissions. We’ve already started stirring them up to see which topics rise to the top. Many of these are brand new talks from established developers, but we should have some fresh BSD talent to showcase as well. Keep an eye on this blog as we unveil the speakers and their topics.

If you’ve been to Washington D.C. before, you know what an exciting place it is. If you haven’t been, this is your chance to experience our nation’s capital city and BSD at the same time! On top of everything else, we’re kicking off a fun week that culminates in the annual ShmooCon hacker convention. Bruce Potter, founder of the Shmoo Group, is a big BSD fan and has offered up one of his own ShmooLabs team for sacrifice at the DCBSDCon altar! Attendees will be treated to an overview of the ShmooCon architecture and how BSD plays a critical role in their network infrastructure.

Oops, guess I just announced our first speaker!

Registration for DCBSDCon will open up very soon. We’re announcing it in a few very public places. If you’re a BSD fan it should be very hard to miss. But rest assured we’ll mention it here too. Mark it on your schedule now, see you all in February 2009!

News BSD, BSDA, FreeBSD, NetBSD, networks, OpenBSD, security, ShmooCon, sysadmin, unix