Perl developer Fenwick joins keynote speakers for LCA 2012

Sam Varghese
Tuesday, 08 November 2011 10:57

Opinion and Analysis

Every year, the Australian national Linux conference tries to have one local speaker among those who present the keynotes.

Some years that doesn't quite work out. Next year, however, there will be a local individual of note, namely Melbourne's Paul Fenwick, among the four keynote speakers.

Fenwick is a Perl developer and trainer with Perl Training Australia. He has been teaching computer science for a decade.

Rather than purely technical presentations, Fenwick is known for his wacky, humorous talks.

That will, no doubt, be in evidence at the LCA next year, as his keynote will be about known bugs and exploits in the human brain.

As he put it in the LCA media release: "Humans - as a species, we suck! The only real evolutionary advantage we have is our brains, and by using them we've become the dominant species on the planet.

"Our brains are superbly adapted for our survival and success in the environment in which they evolved - the African savanna 200,000 years ago. Our brains are not at all suited for modern life, and are plagued by a raft of bugs and unwanted features that we've been unable to remove."

LCA 2012 will be held at the University of Ballarat from January 16 to 20 next year.