./techtipsy — Ramblings of a tech fanatic.

I lastly went to FOSDEM. I’m sleep-deprived, fully exhausted, however extremely excited
about the entire expertise.

I’ve cut up this publish into three separate sections.

FOSDEM (Free and Open source Software Developers’ European Meeting) is a big non-profit,
volunteer-organized convention that’s freed from cost to attend because of sponsors and donations. It came about in
Brussels, Belgium on the ULB campus.

I heard about this convention from a good friend who went there years in the past, and after listening to in regards to the expertise and the
content material there I knew I needed to be there at the very least as soon as in my life. However then a pandemic occurred, so it was form of within the
backlog for some time.

My current employer gives a perk that enables builders to attend technical conferences. After
the FOSDEM 2024 schedule was obtainable I put collectively an
preliminary set of talks to attend, introduced it to my employer, and acquired a inexperienced gentle to attend (and
travelling/lodging paid for).

The town

To be sure that I’m well-rested, I arrived the night time earlier than FOSDEM with my good friend. After dropping my stuff off on the
lodge, we went to get one thing to eat and continued on the Delirium Beer Backyard to pattern a few of the most interesting Belgian
beers. It was very crowded, however after the primary beers and a few strolling across the many flooring we discovered a spot to relax.

We ended up with sampling a meter of beer which was a choice of ten small beers, laid out on a plank. It was a pleasant
strategy to attempt completely different tastes and actually all of them have been both good or nice. Cherry, raspberry and the inexperienced cactus
choice have been the sweetest, like some good lemonade that has the potential to trigger hangovers.

Free tech tip: don’t underestimate the power of Belgian beer. You received’t style it, however that 8-9% alcohol per
quantity actually hits within the morning.

Brussels is allegedly very good, nevertheless I’m not a giant fan of the best way trash is dealt with, there are luggage all over the place and
a few of them are damaged, leaving small items of trash all over the place. You would additionally scent the shortage of public restrooms
when strolling down the streets within the metropolis middle.

There are some glimpses of fine bicycle infrastructure, however they typically don’t join properly or are merely strains on the
floor which doesn’t defend that properly from vehicles. Based mostly on the honks and the variety of instances they didn’t cease at
crosswalks, I can solely assume that drivers in Brussels are each very aggressive and really incompetent at driving. In a
approach it felt like residence, particularly since my hometown of Tallinn additionally makes use of purple paint on some bicycle paths.

The dos and don’ts of FOSDEM

I went to the ULB campus utilizing a tram. If you happen to’re unsure which one to take, then take the one with probably the most builders
headed in direction of it. Realizing when to get off can be straightforward as you may merely comply with the gang.

I arrived roughly quarter-hour earlier than the keynote session. At the moment there was loads of room within the auditorium. By the
time the keynote began there have been no seats obtainable, so that you would possibly wish to do the identical and arrive a bit early.

There have been quite a bit of individuals attending FOSDEM. Maintain a map helpful, as a result of your subsequent session would possibly happen in a room
that is perhaps difficult to seek out, particularly as a
first-timer. The FOSDEM Companion app is nice for that, click on
on the session you’re involved in and the room title, and also you’ll have a good suggestion on the place it’s happening.

This FOSDEM was the twenty fourth FOSDEM to happen, which is vital as a result of the twenty fifth one is occurring subsequent 12 months. If you happen to’ve
been to any earlier ones and are attending subsequent 12 months, then convey the oldest FOSDEM shirt with you, there might be a
particular photoshoot happening.

If you happen to’re going to attend FOSDEM in-person, then positively
learn the FOSDEM survival guide. All of the factors there are nonetheless
related and helped me out tremendously throughout my journey.

In brief:

• take an earlier bus/tram to get to FOSDEM to keep away from crowds and get there on time

• if you wish to assure getting a seat in a session, think about becoming a member of an earlier session in the identical room

  • you may also study one thing about an space you had no clue about, which is a superb bonus!

• don’t underestimate the power of Belgian beer

• meals strains can get very lengthy, convey some gentle snacks and loads of water with you

  • some locations had water bottle refilling stations, such because the U constructing, however I had a tough time discovering one in
    others

  • there was loads of Club-Mate for sale and based mostly on the variety of empty
    bottles it was a crowd favorite

There have been 879 occasions happening at FOSDEM 2024. That’s a number of talks to undergo. My advice is to take an
night at the very least per week from the occasion and undergo the checklist of talks beginning with most important tracks and lightning talks,
and following it up with devrooms that align along with your pursuits.

If you happen to do it within the FOSDEM Companion app, then you may bookmark
them and consider your preliminary schedule. The app will present you the place there are overlapping classes by coloring the
begin/finish instances purple. The app also can present you if a room is simply too full to attend. Don’t overlook that switching rooms would possibly
take about quarter-hour in some instances because of the measurement of the campus, so depart some room for strolling in your schedule.

In my expertise, probably the most gratifying FOSDEM expertise is one the place you attend at most 2-3 tracks throughout the day and
depart loads of time for consuming, resting and visiting all of the stands. It’s going to be exhausting both approach, so that you
would possibly as properly take advantage of the FOSDEM reside expertise. Talks are recorded and might be printed quickly after the occasion
so that you’re not going to overlook a lot in case you take issues straightforward (except there are points capturing the session).

Listed below are just a few easy pointers that I like to recommend following in order that listening to talks in FOSDEM reside is a superb
expertise for each you and people round you:

• attempt to get to your subsequent discuss quarter-hour earlier than it begins, that permits you to queue up early and never miss your
  session

• don’t discuss or whisper throughout the discuss and the Q&A session with the audio system

  • there have been so many instances the place the speaker couldn’t even hear the query being requested, which is disrespectful
    to the speaker and the viewers

• if you really want to depart early, then be as quiet as attainable

  • the previous desks on the seats make a number of noise in case you carelessly put them again up-right

• in case you actually didn’t have time for a snack, then don’t convey one thing that makes a number of noise or smells strongly to
  the auditorium

If you wish to get a FOSDEM t-shirt or hoodie in your favorite measurement, then the primary half of the primary day is the perfect
alternative for that. At FOSDEM 2024 the t-shirts price 25 EUR, hoodies price 50 EUR.

Most funds you’ll make will probably be with contactless funds by way of your card or cellphone, however positively convey some
money with you in smaller denominations as there have been just a few instances in the beginning of the convention the place the fee
methods weren’t working correctly, probably on account of community points. Someplace between 100-200 EUR will probably cowl
something you’d want on the convention itself.

With the meals vehicles I made an remark: the strains have been longer for the costlier and better high quality meals
choices. The cheaper ones are okay and are typically fairly quick to get. The extra “premium” vehicles weren’t a lot slower
although so ready in line would possibly repay.

Through the keynote it was emphasised that a few of the attendees will get sick because of this convention. They name
it the FOSDEM flu. I suppose it’s a factor that occurs at many massive conferences, however in any case in case you do go to FOSDEM
then please don’t do it whereas sick. If you happen to fall sick on the occasion, then relaxation on the lodge and watch it on a livestream
as a substitute. There’s at all times subsequent 12 months!

One sample I observed is that fairly just a few talks have been used as an amazing advertising instrument for highlighting points that the
speaker would really like some assist with fixing. What higher approach to enhance FOSS than to contain individuals who won’t even be
conscious of the problems however have the technical know-how to assist?

One of many highlights of the FOSDEM expertise are the varied stands in several buildings within the campus. You’ll discover
all types of various initiatives being represented, starting from massive, established ones (Fedora, Debian, Nextcloud,
PostgreSQL and so forth.) all the best way all the way down to small initiatives and organizations (postmarketOS, Ubuntu Contact, CalyxOS and lots of
extra).

Most stands provide free merch, comparable to stickers. Plenty of stands promote merch, most settle for card funds, some settle for
funds by way of on-line bank card funds, and some take money solely.

I visited most cubicles on the occasion and spoke briefly with lots of the folks current there. If you happen to’re simply interested by
what’s on show and haven’t any background information, then don’t be afraid to ask questions, irrespective of how easy you
assume they’re!

Listed below are my notes on the stands that I discovered probably the most fascinating

This stand had a easy and efficient demo of a tool monitoring the two.4 GHz spectrum, which can be the place older Wi-Fi
requirements function in. The individual internet hosting the sales space was completely happy to clarify what was happening, even bringing out particulars
comparable to alerts bouncing across the room and the way they present up on the spectrum visualizer.

Seems that you may obtain this by placing collectively two blocks in a visible editor in GNU Radio, and for this reason it’s
on my todo checklist now.

There’s also a video clip of the visualization running.

Minetest is an open supply sport engine and had a sales space current on the occasion. They’d the sport working on a laptop computer. A
Steam Deck with the official dock was additionally current. I’ve beforehand heard about this challenge a few years in the past, at that
time it was a easy Minecraft-like sport however a bit too fundamental for my part. The demo on the sales space jogged my memory of
one thing extra polished and but acquainted sufficient to remind me of Minecraft 1.8 Beta days.

Seems that over time the sport engine has seen a number of growth and there are numerous creators who’ve mades
video games based mostly on this engine. I used to be additionally delighted and shocked to listen to that Minetest has been utilized in academic
initiatives.

This was a pleasant and colourful nook of the occasion, and now I’m involved in giving Minetest a attempt once more.

Ah, Ubuntu Contact. I imagine the primary time I heard about Ubuntu Contact was once they launched the convergence thought.
Your cellphone is the one pc you’ve got, use it as a cellphone when out and about, and join it to a dock when at residence to
get a desktop expertise.

The sales space had all kinds of units current, together with Fairphone 4 and 5 (this isn’t the primary time you’ll see these
fashions talked about). On the sales space have been individuals who truly each day drive Ubuntu Contact, and one individual I talked to expressed
their curiosity in porting Ubuntu Contact to a Samsung foldable cellphone.

Ubuntu Contact isn’t most likely one thing I’d run full-time, however maybe it’s time to present it a go once more. My Nexus 5 nonetheless
has the boot brand that Ubuntu Contact installer creates, so that may function a reminder for me to test it out.

I knew of SailfishOS, however had by no means tried a tool out with that OS. At FOSDEM I lastly had the prospect to do it, and
out of all of the customized OS choices that aren’t Android-based, this one was the one with the smoothest and most polished
expertise. When talking to the individual internet hosting the sales space, I additionally discovered that it’s attainable to even run Android apps
on it, though after performing some analysis on their web site it looks like it’s a characteristic that you want to pay for.

The telephones laid out on the sales space have been varied Sony Xperia units. I’ve not used or seen these units, however they felt
actually nice in hand and have been tremendous small in comparison with trendy telephones. Looks like these fashions are additionally those which have
acquired probably the most polish and assist, based mostly on the supplies on the web site and my two minutes of fidgeting with them.

Out of all of the non-Android different working methods, this one has probably the most potential to be a each day driver. The
individual on the sales space makes use of theirs as a each day driver so there should be potential on it. The company backing is probably going what
permits the OS to really feel usable and hopefully that might be sufficient to maintain this challenge alive.

There have been a number of cubicles the place you might check out varied variations of Linux-based telephones that aren’t Android.

The telephones have been all types of older and newer units that initially shipped with Android. The expertise and assist
was a mix of the {hardware} and the state of the cellular Linux distribution and UI. Some have been fairly okay, some have been
tough, and a few have been simply gradual because of the age of the cellphone itself.

I actually recognize some of these efforts to present new life to previous units. Most Android units lose software program assist
after just a few years, however with initiatives that principally put Linux on a cellphone you may nonetheless discover methods to utilize the
units. They won’t be steady sufficient but to be thought-about a dependable each day driver as a smartphone, however you are able to do
all types of cool issues with them, like working internet servers or internet hosting encrypted distant backups of crucial knowledge.

One of many cubicles additionally had a Pinephone in a keyboard dock, which was neat as I’ve by no means seen a Pinephone in actual life,
nor had the chance to attempt one with a keyboard. It wasn’t ergonomic attempting to do it with two arms, however possibly I used to be
holding it unsuitable.

It was fascinating to see GNOME or KDE-based consumer interfaces on telephones. The gestures and navigating the UI was a bit
tough since there have been slight variations on every OS. Nonetheless cool although!

Oh, and there was a customer who had some cool gear with them. Apart from a GPD transportable pc, in addition they had a
mechanical keyboard with a large show hooked up to it.
They tried connecting it to a cellphone that was on show on the sales space, and it acknowledged it as a second show on the
first attempt. The mannequin of the keyboard is Ficihp K2 in case you’re involved in comparable gear.

I had by no means heard of this Android-based OS earlier than, however there they have been, showcasing it on a freaking Fairphone 5 (and
additionally another telephones)!

The folks on the sales space have been very pleasant and useful, answering any of the questions I had about app compatibility and
the OS itself.

The challenge appears to be backed by an US-based non-profit, the Calyx Institute.

I’m a bit cautious about utilizing this on my each day driver Fairphone 5 working Android 13 as I simply acquired it, but when I had a spare
one for testing
I’d positively try how properly it fares as a privacy-focused OS. The potential is there and hopefully CalyxOS will
have an opportunity to show itself as a long-term and steady challenge.

Aspect be aware: I’m planning on protecting my Fairphone 5 expertise as a separate publish sooner or later, however one
takeaway from FOSDEM is that I’ve by accident picked a tinkerer’s dream cellphone.

Like with many initiatives, I had by no means heard about this one earlier than FOSDEM.

This sales space was displaying varied interfaces designed for vehicles. There was a demo car dashboard which was simulating
a shifting automotive. Subsequent to it have been two larger shows that had infotainment and management panel performance with all types
of buttons on it.

Between these two setups was a small management board with 9 keys and two dials. A number of the buttons popped up warning
lights on the digital dashboard, comparable to passenger airbag failure. Different buttons had varied stickers on them: HTML5, Qt
and Flutter. Seems that the intotainment show demo was constructed on prime of containers and urgent a key would cease
the working one and begin up a distinct one based mostly on whichever button you clicked.

One of many infotainment shows was working off of a Raspberry Pi, which was cool. The remainder of the shows have been
working off of a stack of varied bits of {hardware}.

Based mostly on the advertising supplies on the sales space it looks like automotive grade Linux can be collaborating with some massive
names within the auto trade, which is neat!

I’ve often checked out Pine64 progress and units on-line, and at FOSDEM I lastly acquired round to mess around with
a few of them.

I first checked out the smartwatch named PineTime. It is available in a number of
variations, one for each day use (the sealed mannequin),
and one which is bulkier however simpler to open and flash in case you mess up your firmware. I’m at present utilizing a Casio
F105W and haven’t been a giant fan of smartwatches, however the
{hardware} on the sealed mannequin felt premium and one thing I’d
pay good cash for. The performance was fundamental, but it surely had every part you’d need from a fundamental watch, plus a coronary heart fee
monitor and even a Pong-like sport. I’m critically contemplating getting one now.

The PineTab-V, a RISC-V based mostly pill, was additionally current and working KDE Plasma.
The expertise was unstable on the time
as I had the settings app crash on me as soon as, however that’s probably all the way down to driver assist not being fairly there but. That’s
OK, since they promote the gadget as an experimental gadget proper now.

One thing I wasn’t even conscious of was the PineNote, a Linux pill with an e-ink
show. It was working an precise GNOME desktop on it so the interface was immediately acquainted to me. As a check case I
opened up my weblog on it and it labored simply tremendous. Scrolling the
web page to learn the weblog was a bit clunky because of the low refresh fee that an e-ink show has, that’s only a limitation
of the know-how. Here’s a clip demonstrating it.

Whereas I used to be testing the {hardware}, there was additionally an indication happening of the capabilities of
the Pinecil, a
small soldering iron that’s actually cool and will get fairly sizzling. I’m a bit shocked that it didn’t set off the smoke alarm
that was just a few meters away from the sales space.

Bytenight 2024 @ Hackerspace Brussels (HSBXL)

One of many many FOSDEM fringe occasions was a celebration hosted at Hackerspace Brussels, a hackerspace
positioned in an previous industrial constructing. The occasion had DJ-s enjoying music, a t-shirt making sales space, a elaborate projector
setup, a room with SuperTuxKart on a giant display and a small Raspberry Pi-based mini arcade field, and the room the place I
assume work will get finished because it had all of the electronics gear and workspaces.

The projector setup used within the occasion space was easy however elegant. It was positioned in a approach that allowed varied
surfaces to mirror the video at completely different ranges, making all of it really feel
three-dimensional. Here’s a video demonstrating it!

I liked how one of many hackerspace members was excited to point out off the insides of the mini arcade cupboard and clarify
the construct technique of it, together with the design of the bodily elements. It’s cool seeing folks get keen about
one thing they’ve constructed with their very own arms. Here they are, playing DOOM (SNES version)!

At one level me and my good friend ended up talking to a gaggle of individuals, one in every of whom was showcasing their Tamagochi and
providing it to others to work together with. I discovered from them that there exists a self-hostable Snapchat-like app
referred to as Piqchat. My good friend gave it a go on their occasion and after fidgeting with the sign-up
course of (we have been at the very least two beers in at this level) he acquired it working.

We arrived round 20:45ish on the location, and at that time the dancefloor was a bit empty, however after 23:00ish it
appeared like a correct occasion. I wasn’t within the temper to occasion a lot as a result of there was a complete second day of FOSDEM left and I
was already exhausted.

Attention-grabbing location, fascinating vibe and possibly an amazing place for raves.

And the remaining…

Listed below are some fast notes on different cubicles that I must throw on the market in order that I don’t find yourself forgetting them.

KDE: apart from stickers or merch, they’d small handmade plushies of the challenge mascot Konqi. I’m nonetheless a bit unhappy
that I didn’t get one on the first alternative as a result of they have been all bought out throughout the first day.

PostgreSQL: I acquired to play in a sport of Kahoot and whereas I crashed and burned within the remaining standings, I discovered quite a bit
in regards to the PostgreSQL challenge particulars within the course of. In addition they had cute hand-made (in Germany of all locations!) elephant
plushes in PostgreSQL-blue so after all I purchased one. Enjoyable truth: those bought there have been model 2 of the plush which
has the good characteristic of not falling over on a flat floor. See, making PostgreSQL steady isn’t that tough!

Firefox cookies: Mozilla handed out free cookies from a pink meals truck. No cookie banner included, however I suppose it’s
a pleasant strategy to remind everybody that Mozilla Firefox nonetheless exists. It blocks advertisements on desktop PC-s and Android, use it or
lose it!

ISRG and LetsEncrypt: I went to FOSDEM and all I acquired was this free cert. The individual on the sales space was
additionally handing them out in massive portions, similar to Let’s Encrypt servers.

Feeel
and wger: I do know that it doesn’t appear to be it (but) however I do go to
the gymnasium frequently and my present workflow
entails retaining notes in a Google Sheets file. I by no means knew {that a} FOSS resolution exists for monitoring my exercises. I
must attempt it.

FOSSASIA: these pretty folks have been promoting LED badges that you may program simply with
an Android app called Badge Magic. This was 100% nerd bait
and ranked excessive on the “I don’t want it but it surely’s so cool that I must get one”. Easy. Elegant. Superior!
Oh, and because of the transfers being Bluetooth Low-Power powered, I feel somebody by accident despatched their badge contents
to my
gadget. Whoops. Here’s mine in action!

Jenkins: they’d Roundernetes, a Kubernetes cluster fabricated from numerous Raspberry Pi-s, in a spherical body. I’d like to
construct one thing comparable at some point, simply because it’s neat!

Checkmk: it was the primary time I heard about this monitoring resolution, however after listening to
about their background and
their strategy to constructing Checkmk that concerned a number of cooperation with prospects, I’ll want to present this a correct
look. Oh, and so they had an air high quality sensor hooked as much as the sales space, the outcomes have been OK once I visited the sales space.

You’re most likely coming to FOSDEM for the vibe, the folks and all of the enjoyable stands, however there are additionally tons of of talks
that you may select to attend.

There have been many talks protecting fascinating matters, however I may solely attend a comparatively small variety of these reside.
There’s merely an excessive amount of fascinating content material on the market.

Listed below are my notes on those I attended reside.

This was a kind of classes I made a decision to sit down in on to catch one I actually wished to attend and it was resolution
because the room was packed.

This discuss gave a fast overview of a modified model of traceroute by Catchpoint and the enhancements they made to
it, involving QUIC assist, performance that bypasses firewalls and a few shenanigans in Linux setups on Azure (the
Microsoft cloud providers platform).

techtipsy ranking: 6/10, it was alright.

This discuss was initially meant for a 40 minute session however on account of limitations of the FOSDEM schedule, 20 minutes was all
he acquired.

This session was a rapid-fire presentation of curl growth and all types of issues that you might do with it. I’ve
used curl to date for easy requests, however after this session I do know that you are able to do all types of shenanigans,
together with parallel transfers and a number of JSON mangling. JSON, JSON, JSON!

I additionally discovered about trurl which is helpful for working with URL-s. Parse them, modify them, do
no matter you need with out re-implementing all that complexity your self. Neat!

techtipsy ranking: 10/10, quick, amusing and but helpful hear about curl, trying ahead to an extended model in
the
future!

I initially didn’t plan on sitting in for this one, however since one of many WiFi networks hosted by FOSDEM itself was IPv6
solely and I’m stricken by my ISP solely working over IPv4 (old-man-yells-at-Elisa.jpg), I made a decision to take heed to this one.

The speaker gave an summary of the scenario with IPv6, which working methods deal with it properly and which don’t, and
how one can enhance the IPv6 compatibility by yourself machine.

In brief: Android works, Linux/Home windows largely work, however all of the Web of Issues rubbish (good every part) is
one thing it is best to merely keep away from in any respect prices since these rapidly thrown collectively items of crap solely work over IPv4.

The remainder of the session lined attainable options for ensuring that IPv4 and IPv6 each work properly in your machine.
Seems that there actually isn’t one excellent resolution for this downside, particularly since you may’t simply ignore that
a part of the Web that doesn’t assist IPv6, but.

This discuss was additionally a strategy to ask for assist from the FOSS group to assist give you an answer. If you happen to’re into this
subject, then go forward and attain out!

techtipsy ranking: 8/10, discovered quite a bit about IPv6 assist and what’s happening on this space.

Nice presentation that included helpful suggestions for rolling out Linux kernel upgrades and why you don’t wish to
wait a very long time to improve, backed up with knowledge and good visualisations, and memes.

Though this discuss was about Linux kernel upgrades, the primary thought could be very a lot relevant in software program growth as
properly. If you happen to don’t launch software program as typically as attainable however preserve making modifications on the identical tempo, then your change
delta (or
the variety of pending modifications) will increase, and so does the danger of one thing going unsuitable, both by releasing a buggy
change that’s now tougher to troubleshoot because of the massive variety of modifications deployed, or not releasing new variations of
software program with safety patches.

This discuss additionally defined the Linux kernel growth workflow, the which means behind model numbers (it’s not
semantic versioning!), and the way safety patches get merged into “long-term assist” variations.

In brief: replace typically, deploy typically, measure issues.

techtipsy ranking: 9/10, nice listening for software program builders and Linux newbies alike.

My day job makes use of Kubernetes for working our providers. Have some pods (containers) working on a number that you want to
replace? No downside, Kubernetes begins new pods on one other host, directs visitors to these and now you can replace that
host.

This discuss exhibits one other approach of updating your host working system and apparently this performance is already current
on most trendy Linux methods that run systemd.

In brief, in case your containers meet sure standards, then you may make the most of this delicate reboot performance to replace
and reboot your base system with none noticeable interruptions to your containers. Your
kernel will nonetheless be the identical model, so preserve that in thoughts. And sure, the irony of this resolution shouldn’t be misplaced to me after
listening
to the talk that emphasized the importance of updating your kernel as often as possible.

Though the customizations behind it are fairly easy in case you comply with the rules, this discuss nonetheless felt like magic to
me. I suppose that solely signifies that I ought to look into it additional.

techtipsy ranking: 9/10, fascinating idea that has actual world usages at massive tech firms and but felt like
one thing I may perceive with my small mind.

Quick however candy discuss how the speaker manages their residence server, together with a neat workaround that most individuals who
have labored with containers have confronted: permission points between containers and the host.

I’m truly combating an identical subject proper now in my residence server setup and I’ll positively must reference
this discuss as soon as I get round to attempting to repair it.

It was sort of odd how relatable this discuss was to me: it’s associated to self-hosting, the speaker has a house server
working, they talked about linuxserver.io photos, and so they care about working containers
rootless. Even my good friend made a
be aware in regards to the similarities.

techtipsy ranking: 10/10, extremely relatable and helpful to me, a self-hosting fanatic.

This was one other session that I made a decision to attend as a result of hey, I’ve already acquired seat and the session after that
is in the identical room.

I had little information about eBPF earlier than or what it does, however after listening to this one I’ve a
tough thought about it. In brief: small applications within the kernel which are used for networking, safety and
monitoring functions.

This discuss shed some gentle on deploying eBPF functions with bpfman and nuances round it.

techtipsy ranking: 6/10, flew a bit over my head on account of my information gaps in eBPF, but it surely did elevate my consciousness
about this space.

Throughout my self-hosting journey I’ve used varied setups, together with working containers with systemd-nspawn. If you happen to
don’t know what that entails, then it’s just about a container that acts extra like a digital machine if you work together
with it. I’ve additionally labored with old-fashioned software program initiatives so this one felt prefer it could possibly be related to my
pursuits.

This discuss was a fast overview of the troubles that the speaker confronted with a horrifically old-fashioned software program stack
that was nonetheless actively used at a college.

The steps taken concerned securing the system in opposition to fundamental assaults, then figuring out methods to containerize it and run it,
together with
ripping aside previous Debian Docker photos and having to work round such limitations as “there’s no systemd”.

Nice reference for anybody going through comparable conditions. Want the speaker had extra time to enter the entire different class
of points associated to the software program stack itself, together with the MySQL associated points they confronted throughout this migration.

techtipsy ranking: 8/10, nice subject and helpful suggestions, would have liked extra horror tales and footage.

This session was a sequel to a earlier discuss that the presenter gave so I used to be fearful a bit about having information gaps,
however fortunately that wasn’t that massive of an issue.

This discuss lined some widespread PostgreSQL queries and varied operations that go on behind the scenes, supported by
illustrations on how precisely PostgreSQL performs these operations.

There have been a number of examples proven and it was genuinely fascinating. At one level it turned tougher
to comply with alongside, however I’ll mark that all the way down to this being the primary session of the second day of FOSDEM. I feel my mind
stop on parallel hash be part of half. In a approach I felt like I used to be again in class.

Given the background of the speaker, it’s no shock that
they have lots of presentations and assets on PostgreSQL.
Will certainly must verify these out.

techtipsy ranking: 9/10, made my head harm however I’m now conscious of what to Google when coping with PostgreSQL, and I
know which supplies to reference to refresh my reminiscence on this subject.

This discuss began out properly: overlook what you understand about SQL requirements as a result of these are apparently not appropriate in trendy
SQL databases. Manner forward of you there, Mr. Pachot!

Seems that life earlier than MVCC (multi-version concurrency management) was tough and studying knowledge concerned locking it.
Unintentionally
locking tables is one thing that’s a standard downside at my day job with writes, so I can’t think about what sort of hell
life would
be if that was nonetheless the truth.

This discuss shed some gentle on how databases deal with transactions, reads and writes. Good useful resource to refer again to.

Made me awfully paranoid about databases and knowledge consistency now. Can I even belief databases any extra? Or my
information on this subject?

Sidenote on YugabyteDB: as somebody who has been shocked
by Amazon Aurora quirks at my day job (damaged indices after a
minor model improve, anybody?), I discover it fascinating that there are different firms that present an identical service
involving a PostgreSQL-compatible database with a customized knowledge storage resolution beneath it.

Author also has a blog on all things SQL, might be worth checking out.

techtipsy ranking: 8/10, made me really feel much more insecure about my database information, however at the very least I understand how to
repair that.

Fast overview of why Linux load common shouldn’t be an helpful metric to comply with, and could be extremely deceptive in some
situations, particularly in case you evaluate sync vs async I/O. I’ve been responsible of monitoring that metric religiously myself,
so… whoops.

Even the Linux kernel supply code calls it a foolish metric!

Take a look at Strain Stall Data as a substitute to grasp the place your system is bottlenecking.

techtipsy ranking: 7/10, good subject however the reside demo half may have used some polish.

This one was a run by means of varied high-level tech tricks to consider when confronted with the duty of shifting to a
on-premise cloud setup.

Throughout my very own skilled profession that formally begun in 2016, there has at all times been a push to maneuver workloads into the
cloud, for all types of causes, reliable or misguided. Seems that on-prem isn’t lifeless and a few organizations are
shifting again in that route on account of authorized or technical necessities.

Listed below are my takeaways:

• keep away from third occasion software program as a result of that’s often a supply of lock-in

• if confronted with purchase vs construct choices, want construct

• preserve issues tremendous easy

• if confronted with build-time or run-time complexity, want the previous, in any other case extra technical layers in run-time consequence
  in tougher troubleshooting on account of added complexity

• think about using Kubernetes (and an open supply distribution of it)

• model management your infrastructure

• in case you automate one thing, automate it 100% end-to-end, don’t half-ass it or embody handbook center steps

Plenty of concepts talked about listed below are additionally relevant to these working with cloud platforms in any massive firm. If you happen to
have competent engineers, then you definately’ll most likely haven’t any main issues in case you transfer to a personal cloud setup as a number of
the tooling and information ought to switch over.

techtipsy ranking: 7/10, would have liked to see case research of public -> personal cloud migrations as an example
the method and spotlight the ache factors.

This was a enjoyable one for me as a result of I care about how a lot energy my tech consumes, and the speaker put a brand new twist on it.
Ever puzzled how a lot vitality is spent loading your web site? Now you could find that out!

This discuss ties in with Mozilla’s imaginative and prescient for a greater web and their acknowledged sustainability objectives. Constructing new
computing {hardware} could be very useful resource and vitality intensive, and shoddy web sites inspire folks to improve before
obligatory.

The steps to take to measure the efficiency and energy consumption of your webpage are fairly easy. The ability
measurement assist is {hardware} and platform dependent, however even with out that you may get a fairly good thought of how properly
your web site performs. The entire course of was straightforward sufficient to do this I may comply with it alongside on my laptop computer throughout the
discuss.

The discuss was easy to comply with and but lined a number of particulars and nuance round energy profiling on varied platforms.
This must be necessary for anybody working in internet growth, particularly people who add animated full-page backgrounds
on web sites or load in megabytes of JavaScript.

Give this discuss a hear and begin measuring web site efficiency, I extremely encourage it!

techtipsy ranking: 10/10, I hate poorly performing web sites and love my machines working as effectively as
attainable, and this discuss brings these two matters collectively in a really good approach.

My expertise with internet hosting PostgreSQL has primarily been restricted to at least one occasion that’s utilized by Nextcloud, and through my
skilled profession I’ve solely noticed migrations away from ZFS-based self-hosted PostgreSQL situations, so I used to be actually
involved in seeing how completely different filesystems have an effect on PostgreSQL efficiency.

This discuss laid out some common pointers for anybody working PostgreSQL, comparable to retaining your kernel updated to get
the perfect efficiency and keep away from previous kernel bugs, and introduced numerous graphs detailing the behaviour of various
filesystems beneath heavy workloads simulated utilizing pgbench.

I like to recommend that you simply view the outcomes, they may shock you. As a btrfs consumer, they actually made me take into consideration
selecting it if I have been to ever construct a devoted database server on uncooked {hardware}.

Benchmarking could be very tough to get proper so I believe that there is perhaps different nuances at play right here with the
outcomes. Attention-grabbing presentation regardless.

Sidenote: the presenter was working QubesOS, which I’ve briefly performed round with within the
previous. I by no means anticipated to see anybody truly utilizing it as their each day driver. Very spectacular!

techtipsy ranking: 9/10, I now have an urge to do my very own benchmarks to confirm these outcomes (however my TODO checklist is
lengthy sufficient already).

I picked this one primarily on account of being irritated with Dependabot spam and the state of exams at my day job.

This discuss lined the promise of automated dependency upgrades and methods you may keep away from seemingly harmless upgrades
breaking issues in manufacturing, protecting instruments like PIT
and Uppdatera. In case your exams suck, then including mutation testing and/or static
evaluation to your challenge would possibly assist catch issues earlier than they make it to prod, discover unused dependencies and exams that
don’t correctly confirm that the service works.

The speaker additionally briefly mentions the age-old downside of balancing code reuse vs growing operational prices. Perhaps
don’t usher in hundreds of dependencies so that you could keep away from writing just a few strains of code?

There’s a complete analysis paper on this subject as properly (verify presentation for extra particulars).

techtipsy ranking: 8/10, possibly a challenge the place exams are in shambles could be improved in any case…

The talks I didn’t make it to

Resulting from scheduling conflicts, room capability limitations and the truth that I can’t teleport, I couldn’t attend every part
suddenly.

Listed below are talks that I plan to look at from a recording (as soon as the processing is finished). If I do find yourself watching them, I’ll
attempt to add my notes beneath each afterward.

If you happen to assume there are must-see FOSDEM 2024 talks lacking from this checklist, then do attain out to me and I’ll give them a
look!

I liked FOSDEM 2024.

My expectations have been excessive based mostly on what I heard earlier than, and it nonetheless exceeded them!
The occasional technical points weren’t a dealbreaker, there was typically loads of room within the classes
(at the very least these I went to), and each the content material and the folks have been nice.

I felt at residence, surrounded by folks with whom I’ve comparable pursuits. It’s not an setting I discover myself in
typically, even at work, which is why FOSDEM felt so particular.

Subsequent time I’ll attempt to participate in additional group occasions if attainable, discuss to folks and depart a while for sightseeing
in Brussels.

I’d prefer to thank my employer Concise Systems for paying for journey and lodging.

Particular thanks go to my friend Arti who launched me to FOSDEM within the first place and helped make
my
first FOSDEM a memorable one.

If you happen to’re not a spammer,
just send me an e-mail!

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