events
Organise
Follow The “Rule Of Three” When Entertaining
3:30AM Azadeh Ensha | Whether you’re planning an informal get-together or fancy sit-down meal, striking the right balance between too many and too little guests can make or break a party. Here’s a quick rule of thumb to follow. More »
Organise
Doodle Updates with Power Features, Facebook Integration
12:00AM Kevin Purdy | Doodle, the fast, free, and clean poll-maker/event-scheduler we last visited about two years ago, has updated with some helpful power-user features and web hook-ups that make organizing your parties and meetings easy. A new “Power Doodle” option appears when creating a meeting planner or poll, letting people answer with “If need be,” hiding certain poll options from certain respondents, and other tweaks. Doodle also has added exporting to Outlook, Google Calendar and other iCal-based calendars, and a Facebook app that lets you poll your friends without a separate URL—they don’t have to install the app, and non-Facebook-users can still be added. All in all, a pretty cool and non-spammy way to organize a party or meeting. Doodle [via Download Squad] More »
Get involved at the first OLPC Techfest in Sydney
8:00AM Sarah Stokely | Back in February, we broke the news that the One Laptop Per Child charity was set to come down under – which was great news for people interested in helping with the development of its uber cool open source laptop, the XO. OLPC Australia has just announced it will host its first OLPC Techfest in Sydney on Sunday, 1 June. It will include demonstrations, workshops about the OLPC hardware and software, and developer tutorials. If you’re at all interested in the OLPC, I strongly recommend you attend this event, as a lot of its very cool features are best demonstrated when you can network a bunch of the machines together, as will no doubt happen at this event.For full details, check out the OLPC website. [via]
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Geek Girl Dinners – Sydney
8:50PM Sarah Stokely | A new group has started in Sydney called Geek Girl Dinners. An offshoot of a group which started in London, the Sydney group organises through a Facebook group and has already held several events. The group exists to get girl geeks together for technical discussion, a meal and some laughs.If you are a woman geek you are welcome and encouraged to come along – it makes no difference what kind of a geek you are or how small or large your level of technical knowledge. The intention is to learn & share some technical fu, have fun and connect with other women in IT. If you’re a guy geeks who has a female geek friend willing to escort you are also welcome to attend.I noticed that this month’s Sydney dinner is already booked out but if you watch the blog or join the Facebook group you can go to the next one.
And for Melbourne girl geeks – well, watch this space. :) More » Tools for DIY Wedding Planning?
2:30AM Kevin Purdy | Reader Mike just got a “yes” from his girlfriend in reply to The Big Question, and now he’s looking ahead to The Big Event. Being a regular reader, a frugal guy, and an “addictive planner,” he writes seeking help: Do you have any suggestions for software (I use Windows, BlackBerry, and Windows Mobile platforms) that I can use to keep track of vendors, quotes, and other sundry details? Having tied the knot less than a year ago, I found some success using Google Docs for multi-user planning, but also spent a lot of time explaining its features to everybody—and ended up losing a few invitations to accidental deletions. So I turn to our wise readers and ask: What software or organizational tools would you/did you use to plan a wedding, covering as many aspects as possible? How would you keep on top of your tasks, decisions, and deadlines? Give Mike an early gift of advice in the comments. More »Bruce Schneier to speak at Linux.conf.au
12:13PM Sarah Stokely | Earlier this week we pointed you to an
interview with security guru Bruce
Schneier, who has previously advised Lifehacker readers on how to
pick secure passwords. Turns out he’ll be visiting our shores as a
keynote speaker at Linux.conf.au in January.
LCA is probably
Australia’s largest open source technical conference. I spoke with
conference organiser Donna Benjamin this week and she told me they’ve
closed early bird registrations and the conference is on track to
selling out, with 2/3 of the tickets already sold.The other keynote speakers are Stormy Peters,
Director of Community and Partner Programs at Open Logic and Anthony
Baxter, the release manager for the Python language.The main conference programme features an array of
speakers from different fields presenting on the Linux kernel, the X
Window System, media, applications, desktop, law, security and
usability.
LCA 2008 will take place at the University of
Melbourne from January 28 to February 2 at the University of
Melbourne. You can register online at http://linux.conf.au/register.
More information on the conference can be found at:
http://linux.conf.au/.
If you go, I’ll see you there. :)
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