National Free and Open Source Week, Sri Lanka

<p>

On Tuesday, I briefly did some sightseeing in the morning and then I went
to the CodeFest.  It was coordinated by NIIBE Yutaka, who recently became a
Debian developer.  There was quite a bit of interest in Debian, and I hope
that the tutorial I gave on Wednesday helped people getting an idea as to
how to get started.  On Thursday, the LAMP conference started and I
presented an overview of the Debian project.

</p>

<p>

I had the impression that there were some really enthusiastic and competent
people in the audience and I hope this event will contribute to
establishing a stronger development community in Sri Lanka.  The LK LUG in
particular seems to have some competent members.  While they may become
good free developers, they had no chance though when we played two games of
laser quest one night.  I got the high score in both games!

</p>

<p>

<img src = "http://www.cyrius.com/images/baby-elephant.jpg"
 alt="A baby elephant" class="right" width="283" height="180" />

Apart from the conference itself, we had some really nice dinners.  Even
though the week was quite busy, I managed to get some sightseeing done.  On
Friday morning, I visited an elephant orphanage a few hours from Colombo
(seeing some cute elephant babies!) and I visited the most important sights
in Colombo.  I hope I'll have a chance to return so I can see more.

</p>

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