Photo from Chroma Portratis
It's been long time since I attend my last conference as speaker or participant, my last conference was LibreOffice Conference Indonesia 2018 in Surabaya, Indonesia. It's not any other regular-ordinary conference, because the event held for both LibreOffice and Ubuntu conference in Asia, and I expect more people to come.
The Motivation
What motivated me to join this conference are to gather with my friend across Indonesia, they are passionated in Open Source movement and always inspired me, and of course to share my "side project" since pandemic era.
I submitted 3 (three) papers about Ubuntu Touch, Pi-Hole in Set Top Box device (Digital TV STB), and Mechanical Keyboard with KiCad. Fortunately, my last paper about designing Mechanical Keyboard with KiCad accepted and the other two are archived, it means I can share my project, my hobby since pandemic to broader audience.
Day 0
I live in Sleman City, Yogyakarta Province, ~60km from Surakarta City, or you can call it Solo City that can be very confusing (I asked what is difference between Surakarta and Solo to a friend who lives there, he is not sure). The plan is to depart at Friday evening, but my son already excited to do the trip early.
All packed, preparation are done, and prizes for all participants are ready to go!
Prize box contains
- Euis 40% Ergonomic Mechanical Keyboard kit
- Reviung 41 Ergonomic Mechanical Keyboard kit
- CRKBD Corne Split Ergonomic Mechanical Keyboard kit
- Mixi Mechanical Macropad kit
- 3 Cookpad Mechanical Macropad (switch and keycaps included)
- 1 T-Shirt from LibreOffice Conference ID 2018
- 1 T-Shirt from Tourism Department of Yogyakarta
- 2 Telkomsel Internet voucher
- 1 pair of lady shoes
- Stickers!
* kit means you need to buy the switches and keycaps by yourself
I hope people like the prizes, and I hope they will build their own keyboard and share it to the community.
Day 1
Photo by Siska Iskandar
The opening ceremony took venue at "Gedung F FKIP UNS", and my schedule was at 13:00 at 1G111 room with "Build Your Own Custom Mechanical Keyboard in Ubuntu" topic.
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The Conference
The conference opened 09:00 GMT+7 on a hot sunny day of Solo City, opening speech was given by Yudhi Satrio and Prof. Dr. Slamet Subiyantoro, M.Si. following as Deputy Dean for Academic, Research and Student Affairs.
We attend the conference with my son, he have his own ticket and he got his own T-Shirt! He is very excited about his oversized T-Shirt, the selfie properties, and backstand photobooth.
It was hot and humid, and we decided to take an Ice Cream party!
My Session
Photo by Chotibul Umam
The session took at G Building at 1G111 Room, it was hot with the current weather and the aircond in the class are not working as my expectation, however the show must go on.
I didn't prepare it enough, as many problem encountered during the session, such as I need to change my HDMI to VGA converter, and my KiCad app attempted to crash during the session.
My session is all about designing a custom mechanical keyboard with KiCad, and I brought my own keyboard as a prize, and I explained how to design the PCB, the schematic, the case, and firmware options.
The benefit of having an ergonomic mechanical keyboard is to reduce the risk of RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury) and it is fun to build your own keyboard. On the other hand, the firmware options are very flexible, you can use QMK, ZMK, or even your own firmware and you can create your own keymap depending on what you need.
Photo by Siska Iskandar
Probably the most interesting part in my session is when I gave away some keyboard kit, I brough 3 kits to my session to whoever raised any question, and also thanks to Piko who brought us a custom PCB as prize.
Photo by Siska Iskandar
The Dinner
Dinner room, Photo by Muhamad Irfan Fanani
The tradition remains, the dinnertime gather us to socialize for speakers, committee and volunteer. I didn't talk too much on this dinner as I need to play with Kaysan who play in front area of the restaurant.
Unfortunately the food was so-so, could be better.
Day 2
I got extra T-Shirt for the 2nd day of conference, it was special treat for speakers. I spent the 2nd day with Kaysan and his new friends, so not much I did in this day.
As more people came and bring their kids, we need to consider playroom for kids in our next conference.
Timor Leste bidding for UbuCon Asia Next Year!
The interesting part in 2nd day is we have people from Timor Leste, long story short, Timor Leste was part of Indonesia until they declare their independence and become a sovereign country. This is exciting because I never land to Timor Leste and people here are supporting them to host the same conference there.
Install Ubuntu Touch on Redmi Note 9 Pro by Ariq
Photo by Fadhil Yori Hibatullah
So, this is the most interesting session for me, I tried Ubuntu Touch in my Redmi Note 5 and it is buggy and drain battery fast. I use GSI ROM and it is not stable, meanwhile Ariq use supported device build from Ubuntu Touch page.
There is big difference between my installation result and what Ariq's showed us, a working locking screen animation, fast and responsive touch response.
The Dinner
2nd day dinner took in different restaurant, and we have better food here. Thank you!
The dinner was special, as we have two people had birthday, Siska Iskandar and Youngbin Han.
Day 3
It is Monday, most of people are going back to work, and the rest having a city tour. I knew we are going to have one day trip, so I booked a day off from the office.
The places we visited are
- Kampoeng Batik Kauman
- The Royal Palace (Keraton)
- Zayed Mosque
- Lunch at Adem Ayem Resto
- The Heritage Palace
- Javenir Gift shop
The trip is all about Solo and West Java culture, we learnt about batik making, some of us bought batik clothes for gift, we learnt about Solo Sultanate and the Royal Family, and so on.
The People I Met
Back to the objectives, meet new people and old friends.
Tonny Adhi Sabastian
First time I met with Tonny were in openSUSE Asia Summit 2017, Tokyo. We share common interest back then, Gundam model. He spoke about Steamdeck and you can find the slide here
Herpiko Dwi Aguno
Piko is the most talented programmer I ever know, a pure genius, the creator of UNK, or Ultimate Ngoprek Keyboard, a handwired split keyboard inspired from UHK. His first post in IMKG (Indonesia Mechanical Keyboard Group) made people start to explore custom mechanical keyboard.
Yudhi Satrio
Photo by Jordan Maulana
One of the most famous (Ex)Frontend Developer you will ever meet on Twitter! I follow him for almost a year on this social media platform, and it was our first meet.
Yudhi was the head of Local Committee and handle lots of committee and volunteer, and he is passionated in helping people all day long, respect to you, mas.
Iwan Tahari
Pak Iwan in the middle, Photo by Faruq Aziz Saputra
Pak Iwan, that is what we called him, always attends in every FOSS events in Indonesia, his support for the local communities are very valued. We can't thank him enough for his contributions to support us, with his signature gift "Sepatu Fans" always come with special edition for FOSS contributors.
The Rest . . .
Photo by Jordan Maulana
The list will be long to be posted here, but to summarize, Ahmad Haris, Pak Andika, Pak Sokibi, Rama (the infamous Mbak Rania Amina), Estu, Franklin, Naruhiko, and many other names that I can't list all of them here are part of my 'meeting list' for the day. The situation changed since I need to take care of Kaysan and took him to walk.
Photo by Ghozy Ghifari
Photo by Teguh Prasetyo
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