The Blog From Hell

The rest of yesterday was …eventful to say the least. I first went into a talk by the French jeue-de-libre project (free software computer games project) where I got a list of some amazing games projects that I was hitherto unaware off – I reckon there are some definite possibilities for the next KARMAcd in there. Then I hooked up with Paul Rouget and his friends at the conference pub, where we spent the afternoon talking about firefox, linux and related ideas. Paul it turns out is a slackware user, so when I started telling him how OpenLab relates to slackware, he sounded very impressed – I reckon he may well be a convert . After that it was off to Nancy town hall in Place Stanislas where the conference delegates were invited for a cocktail party with the Mayor. I could not understand his speech, but I did pick up the word 'Africue' and Paul told me he was talking about how proud Nancy was to host an information technology conference with guest from as far afield as South Africa. Once more it seems that as much as I have that whole Kurt Cobain don't wanna be famous thing going on, I cannot help it.Once the cocktails were consumed, me and the firefox guys snuck away and went for dinner and beers. Which was when the soccer match started. After Paul et. all. went home, I met up with with Ana – meantime the match was in full swing and every bar in Nancy was spilling out onto the street with people wanting to watch on the big screens. When France defeated Portugal – Stanislas square exploded. This was my first experience of a European soccer party -and it's amazing. A giant crowd of people chanting, singing and cheering. Fireworks being shot into the sky, dancing in around the square, crazy people climbing Monseur Stanislas' statue, shouting – the biggest noise I have ever heard (and I like rock concerts)… my parents would have been aghast but I had the time of my life. I almost felt like an honorary Frenchman just for being there and I cheered as loudly as the locals.This morning I had some urgent things to deal with – most importantly was finalising my major talk (the one for the telecast with Taiwan), which deals with SchoolNet Namibia, Haiti and related successes within the overall African context.I will post the talk on this site after it is delivered for those who cannot read it.Please allow me to remind any European readers that the conference is free (as in speech and beer) so if you feel like dropping by and saying howzat , please feel free.Off now to go listen to a few talks, I have already developed enough of a French ear to mostly understand even the French talks (if they use presentations at least) – but I am still a far cry from holding a conversation in the language of course. Update:Right after I wrote this, I bumped into Wim Vandenput, an OpenBSD developer from Belgian, and we had a delightfull chat. I am ever more convinced that the classic story about Afrikaans being a primarilly Dutch language is simply not true. I spoke with him in Afrikaans, and he spoke in Flamish – and we could constantly understand one another without the slightest difficulty. I can understand Dutch if they speak slowly, and they can understand me if I speak slowly – but Flamish… well let me put it this way, it sounds to my ear like somebody speaking Afrikaans with a Dutch accent. Literally our accents differ, but for all practical matters we speak exactly the same language. Afrikaans may have come from a Dutch colony, but I am convinced the actual colonists must have been primarilly Flamish – it is the only way to explain the remarkable similiarity between the languages. Afrikaans is significantly more similiar both in vocabulary and pronounciation to Flamish than to Dutch.