Paul's travels in the United States

[M-Saunders]

Pedants: that's the United States of America. Yes, I know the United States of Mexico exists too

Seeing as nobody else has mentioned it, I thought I'd give a quick "mad propz" to Paul and Joby for their photos of open source nanocelebs and sights in the area.

Big post with some faces you may recognise:

http://www.linuxformat.co.uk/blog/?p=21

And snaps around the area:

http://www.linuxformat.co.uk/blog/?p=20

Of most note is Alcatraz. It's a special place for Paul, because when he escaped from there and swam to England, he ended up in the Bristol Channel and finally arrived here in Bath.

M

[mugstar]

Seeing as he blagged loadsa t-shirts and stuff, how bout a free draw for us poor forum members to get our hands on one?

/ *really* wants a Debian shirt...

[Erin]

Wish people wouldn't call the USA, America. It certainly isn't America, just a little part of it.

Oh, how do us perpetual resubscribers get a LXF t-shirt too? I want one -- well would dearly like one.

Erin

[Nigel]

Oh, how do us perpetual resubscribers get a LXF t-shirt too? I want one -- well would dearly like one.
Erin

Yes, I'd rather like an LXF T-shirt too... will we be offered them as an incentive to renew when our subscriptions become due ?
Or perhaps you would consider offering them to subscribers at a reasonable price ?

[Erin]

They are offered if you subscribe with direct debit for a year. I paid by Credit Card. @rse I say, @rse.

Erin

[Nigel]

Hmm, yes - I prefer to subscribe annually with my credit card as well.
I recall having a "discussion" with a representative of a.n.other Linux mag at the Linux Expo last year, when he was trying to get me to subscribe by continuous credit card authority and I told him "discrete annual credit card payment or nothing" - and stuck to it (I didn't subscribe).
I don't like Direct Debit subscription (or continuous credit card authorities) because the default is to renew the subscription every year and it's hassle to stop it. With a discrete credit card subscription I have to stop and think whether I really want to resubscribe every year.
It's the opt-in vs opt-out thing.

So far, LXF has proved worthy of my subscription every year, and I hope it stays that way. But it's my choice.

[Hudzilla]

I arrived back from the US today, and am now coping with 8 hours of jet lag. However, I couldn't let this slide...

<< Seeing as he blagged loadsa t-shirts and stuff, how bout a free draw for us poor forum members to get our hands on one? / *really* wants a Debian shirt... >>

The Debian shirts were being sold, and I bought two at the same price anyone else would. I also stumped up for a NetBSD shirt, for an EFF membership (and got the shirt free as a result), and for Gnome sponsorship (again, "free" t-shirt).

Maybe if I flashed my Media badge I could have gotten free t-shirts, but who would it have helped? For a lot of these guys their income is quite limited, and buying t-shirts/sponsorships means we can all contribute back to free software projects and make a difference that way.

If you don't get to go to conferences often, you can download the same Debian t-shirt logos as the ones I bought from http://www.paul.sladen.org/expo/lrlive- ... logos.html - it's the first two. But you can become a Friend of Gnome (for example) online, and still get the free t-shirt; check out http://www.gnome.org/friends/


Paul

[Nigel]

Maybe if I flashed my Media badge I could have gotten free t-shirts, but who would it have helped? For a lot of these guys their income is quite limited, and buying t-shirts/sponsorships means we can all contribute back to free software projects and make a difference that way.

If only more journalists thought this way... kudos, Paul

[Erin]

Too right Nigel. Does that mean however we will not get LXF t-shirts? After all we sponsor the same as DD subscribers so not trying to get a free item.

Erin

[Nigel]

I don't have any problem with paying for one (as long as they're not an outrageous price), even if the money does disappear into Future's coffers - it might keep Nick, Paul & co in jobs so they can afford to buy more Debian, Gnome etc T-shirts and support the projects. Yes, I could always buy a Debian T-shirt myself, but I don't want one of those...

I know why Future favour DD subscriptions - they generate regular, predictable income. But hey, I pay for a year at a time in advance - the interest on having that money up-front must surely cover the extra cost of processing the credit card (which is more than processing one DD - maybe not more than processing 4 quarterly ones, though)

[mugstar]

I had assumed they were freebies. Apologies to Paul if offence was caused, and fair play for paying for them.

[Rhakios]

Maybe new DD subscribers are offered a T-shirt, but those of who have merely supported the magazine from the beginning and switched to DD don't get offered anything. This seems to be the way with everything, companies will go that little bit further to get new customers, while ignoring the existing ones.

After all, if they wanted to they could offer the T-shirt generally, with a modest discount for existing subscribers.

[towy71]

Hey over here, I have every copy of the mag from LinuxAnswers onward, don't we get a long service medal
After all we've had to put up with monkey babble for soooooo long
Oh and, what ^he^ said

Muwhahaha

[nordle]

Paul, do you know what make+model of camera was used to take the pics, the clarity is excellent, was it a film based shooter?

[nelz]

I'd say that was more down to the professional holding the camera, especially for the low resolution of web images. The clarity is down to good lighting and exposure as much as anything else.