Entries from November 2006 ↓

I went to the GPLv3 Conference in Tokyo today. Well, part of it. Today was only my second day in my new job, and I couldn’t really spend the whole day at the conference. But I really wanted to be at the conference in the afternoon since they asked me to participate in the panel for ” International coordination of Free Software Movement”.

I expected the panel to be a question and answer setup, where the panel members responded to questions from the audience. But that isn’t what happened. Instead the panel chairman talked for 30 minutes, and then handed the mike over to me!

That wasn’t what I was expecting, but it wasn’t a problem either. I spent fifteen minutes saying my bit, then passed the mike on to the next guy.

The following panelists had interesting things to say, and I learnt a few things too. I didn’t know that pharmaceutical companies spend more on marketing than they do on research, although I wasn’t surprised to hear that. I was amused to hear that all maize (corn) was effectively genetically engineered millennia ago in South America.

But the quote that stood out the most was not a new fact, but it was a nice opinion: “education is not just about skills; it is about building values and building a citizen”. Somebody needs to start repeating that back in the UK.

I went to meet Ciarán this evening.  He was staying at the Annex Katsutaro Ryokan, where I stayed a few times before.  We had some noodles and then headed for Akihabara to meet Niibe Yutaka, RMS, and other Free Software hackers.

On the train Ciarán held up his ticket and asked “What happens if you lose this?”, and the ticket vanished.  There wasn’t a flash of light or a puff of smoke, but that was the last we ever saw of the ticket.  When we arrived at Akihabara Ciarán searched his bag and all his pockets, but no ticket was found.  We then discovered what does happen if you lose your ticket: you go to the guy at the ticket gate and tell him you don’t have a ticket.  He asks where you came from then sells you a new ticket.  Not a big surprise.

Then Ciarán tried to phone Niibe.  Niibe’s phone number was on a card that Ciarán was carrying.  Ciarán dialed the number, but nothing happened: the phone seemed to be broken.  Then the card vanished, just like the ticket!

So, if you meet Ciarán, don’t ever give him anything important

I’m starting a new job on Monday that is a bit further away than normal: Tokyo.  That’s one reason why you need a Japanese font to read the title and some other parts of this post.

Karen and I have just arrived at our temporary apartment in 六本木ヒルス where we’ll be staying until we find our own place.  This apartment is very close to my new office, but I don’t think I want to live in this area for the long term.  I don’t really know where we want to live yet.  The last time I lived in Japan I stayed in a company dormitory, so I’ve never had to find an apartment.  Sometime over the next few days we will start looking around.

For the rest of today, though, I think we’ll do nothing.