[Debtags-devel] OT: airfare to debconf

[Enrico Zini]

--adJ1OR3c6QgCpb/j
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
Content-Disposition: inline

On Fri, Mar 11, 2005 at 05:46:15PM +0000, Thaddeus H. Black wrote:

> 1.  Do I infer correctly that one need not find, reserve
> or pay for a hotel room; that lodging, conference
> registration and basic meals are fully paid for by the
> generous corporate sponsors?  (Are we all staying
> together in the summer-vacated university dormitories,
> at corporate sponsors' expense?  Or we are we each
> paying some unspecified rent for the week?  Or is there
> gratis dormitory room only for some; others must
> independently pay and stay in various hotels?  The
> website does not seem quite clear on this.)
> 2.  Are there any major expenses one should plan on,
> except airfare?

In the past confs, you could make it so that the only expenses were the
traveling ones.  However, you want some extra for the fun, such as going
out to a pub.  Even if, considering how expensive is Finland, I'd guess
that's not going to happen that often.  Bring wiskey from home ;)


> 3.  In North America, which is familiar to me, it is
> usual to travel with a plastic credit card (Visa or
> MasterCard, for example), and to use the card to pay for
> almost everything.

Credit card is generally accepted (Visa and Mastercard at least), and I
bet in Finland it's accepted almost everywhere.  However, you want to
have a bit of change, as small payments with credit card are unwelcome.

You can also withdraw money from ATMs using your credit card, although
you want to ask about the service fee for that.

Sometimes I do tricks such as "I pay for everyone using my credit card,
then you give me the change" to get a no-service-fee withdrawal;
however, you can't rely too much on that :)

> 4.  Besides a passport, clothing, a towel, personal
> effects (such as a toothbrush), a credit card and
> perhaps a few paper euros, what should one bring?  (A
> mattress, as Erich asks?

I don't know how the lodging will be organised.  In Oslo it was "floor
space".  In Porto Alegre it was "full-service hotel".  In Helsinki,
I still don't know.


> 5.  Lest my imagination run too far afield, is there
> anything else you think that I should know about
> Debconf, before I come?

Most important things:
 - Your laptop (if you have one), your wireless lan card (or longish
   network cable), your valid passport, many copies of the output of
   "gpg --fingerprint <your key id>" printed on small pieces of paper to
   do keysigning.
 - Local alcohol and other things you like to share

Less important, but still important things:
 - Underwear and socks as needed ;)

I don't think there's anything else that's specially needed.


Ciao,

Enrico

--
GPG key: 1024D/797EBFAB 2000-12-05 Enrico Zini <enrico@debian.org>

--adJ1OR3c6QgCpb/j
Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name="signature.asc"
Content-Description: Digital signature
Content-Disposition: inline

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.0 (GNU/Linux)

iD8DBQFCUYgw9LSwzHl+v6sRApazAKCFW/JNC8q1C7HXN9eZ/MKUfexhPQCdHiUD
m7M0CxPfZRrBfqfp25bg7iI=
=o0cJ
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

--adJ1OR3c6QgCpb/j--