Like any self-respecting Open Source conference, we have an exhibition space with commercial sponsors and “dot org” groups. Starting with the orgs, we’ll have tables for some of the BSD projects.  The peeps over at iXsystems have their usual display of FreeBSD and PC-BSD goodies.  The OpenBSD project is shipping out merchandise for the conference.  They always have a nice selection of t-shirts and CDs for sale.  The DragonFlyBSD project is working to send out free install media, we’re crossing our fingers.  Matt Dillon and the team at DragonFly have been doing some exciting things with cluster technologies.

Rumor is that Beastie will make a surprise appearance, so bring your cameras.  I’ll buy anyone a few rounds of stout if they manage to sneak in a Segway.

Of course, none of this would be possible without the generous contributions from our sponsors.  Even under normal circumstances, it can be challenging to procure sufficient funding to host a large conference.  During a global recession,  executives everywhere are pressured to cut costs and hunker down.  Fortunately for us (and one could argue, the entire economy), these companies and organizations recognize that such a stance is self-defeating and serves only to worsen an already difficult recession.  They understand that spending, not just for the sake of meeting operational requirements, but to further stimulize the markets, benefits everyone.  Cheers to our sponsors over at Message Systems, iXsystems, the FreeBSD Foundation, Freedom Technologies, MatrixGroup, ShmooCon, OmniTI and Google!

And I’ll be tipping back a pint for every single one of them.

News Beastie, dot-org, DragonFlyBSD, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, PC-BSD, sponsors

Sounds like a recipe for Witches Brew.  No, the title of this post refers to the last few talks to be announced for DCBSDCon 2009.  We have a lot of stuff to cover today, so I’ll cut to the chase and introduce our last group of speakers.

George Neville-Neil is the other half of the dynamic duo that brought us The Design and Implementation of the FreeBSD Operating System and that will also be speaking at DCBSDCon.  George will be presenting his talk on FreeBSD’s Hardware Performance Monitoring Counters (HWPMC).

FreeBSD has included support for Hardware Performance Monitoring Counters for several years now.  The hwpmc system provides access to counters that are present in all modern Intel and AMD CPUs, as well as other chipsets, and which give the programmer the ability to understand the low level performance issues that may effect their code.  This talk will cover the motivation behind and basic usage of HWPMC.

I had the pleasure of meeting George in NYC this past year while we attempted to install PC-BSD on my MacBook Pro.  He’s quite a bit of fun and has a great wealth of FreeBSD knowledge.

Robert Luciani comes to us all the way from Sweden.  Robert is studying for his Masters degree in Algorithms and Logic at the University of Chalmers.  He’s been working actively with DragonFly BSD since 2006, and with BSD in general since 2001.  Robert’s research into M:N threading for DragonFly provides us with a unique look at the performance issues affecting SMP.

Ineffective concurrency mechanisms in an operating system can lead to low performance in both single and multiprocessor environments.  Practical setbacks involved with attempting overly invasive kernel changes have made it difficult in the past to implement new and innovative concurrency systems.  This paper describes the rationale behind interfaces in the DragonFly BSD operating system intended to provide high performance and scalability on multiprocessor architectures.  Using a lock-free processor centric approach, DragonFly BSD has developed a unique thread system with the potential for excellent scalability.

Last but not least, I mentioned weeks ago that we would have someone from ShmooCon speak at DCBSDCon.  Each year, organizers of the ShmooCon hacker conference recruit a team of volunteers to design and deploy their secure conference network.  The event is known as ShmooCon Labs.  Ken Caruso has kindly volunteered himself to sneak away for a few minutes this year to give us a short talk about how they utilize BSD in their conference infrastructure.  As a former volunteer from the 2006 ShmooCon Labs, I’m interested to see how their network has expanded in two years to support this year’s 1200 attendees.

This winds up the formal announcements for speakers and talks at DCBSDCon 2009.  Make sure to keep reading the blog as we will continue to have stories and announcements over the coming weeks.  If you missed the earlier post, make sure you make your hotel reservations very soon.  The group discount code expires this Friday!  And of course, don’t forget to register for the conference.

News DragonFlyBSD, FreeBSD, George Neville-Neil, HWPMC, Ken Caruso, 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