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+# linux.conf.au 2018
+
+## Making Technology More Inclusive Through Papercraft and Sound
+
+By Andrew Huang.
+
+I like how the talk goes over a range of cross-domain topics:
+
+- high-level motivations
+
+Improving inclusiveness is necessary to make open-source actually
+empower people; right now a very small subset of the population is
+computer-savvy enough to take advantage of it.  If the situation does
+not improve, a handful of developers will hold a lot of power over
+lots of alienated users, and lawmakers may resort to "preposterous"
+solutions to attempt to regain control, e.g. license bonds for
+software developments.
+
+- Kickstarter campaign management
+- design choices & rationale
+    - "China-ready"
+    - "patience of a child" constraint
+- gory hardware details
+- the end result
+
+## QUIC: Replacing TCP for the Web
+
+By Jana Iyengar.
+
+Starts by introducing impressive application performance improvements,
+although where were those measured?  E.g. rural areas?
+
+Advantage that can already be inferred from the layer view: QUIC needs
+fewer handshakes than TCP+TLS.
+
+Achieves 0-RTT when the server's cryptographic credentials are known.
+
+Supports "stream multiplexing": the upper layer (e.g. HTTP) can
+transfer multiple objects independently in a single connection.
+Losing part of one object does not block the others: retransmission is
+managed at the stream level, not at the connection level.
+
+On top of UDP: allows userspace (Chrome) implementation.
+
+> If you think of layers as a set of functions, things that you want
+> done, UDP is not a transport protocol.
+
+I.e. UDP does not provide reliability, same-order delivery…
+
+Jana was "in the SCTP bandwagon".
+
+They actually have *better performance improvements* for *bigger
+latencies*?  Nice.
+
+> § QUIC improvements by country
+
+👏
+
+(Of course the end goal is probably to make sure regions with poor
+connections do not miss out on the adfest; still, these remain welcome
+technical improvements)
+
+Transport headers are encrypted to prevent "middlebox ossification".
+They left a *single* byte unencrypted (the flags byte): this allowed
+middleboxes to observe that it kinda had the same value on most
+connections, assume that this was a "nominal" value, and block traffic
+when this value differed.
+
+## You Can't Unit Test C, Right?
+
+By Benno Rice.
+
+- Mentions [Check](https://libcheck.github.io/check/) and
+  [Kyua](https://github.com/jmmv/kyua).
+- Factor your boilerplate into libraries, especially the ugly hacks.
+- Keep `main` small so that you don't need to test it so much.
+
+## Changing the world through (fan-)fiction
+
+By Paul Fenwick.
+
+Reading fiction is a convenient way to get us to think through
+concepts we had not considered before.  By re-purposing a familiar
+setting, *fan*fiction lowers the barrier to entry to the writing
+exercise: it makes it easier for the writer to get their point across
+and to reach their audience.
+
+Some recommendations:
+
+- The Last Ringbearer
+- [My Little Pony: Friendship is Optimal]
+- [Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality]
+
+Our media teaches us what is normal.  Hence fiction opens up ways to
+improve the status quo by acquainting us to new ideas.
+
+Another recommendation: Steven Universe.
+
+Mainstream and folklore stories feature a fair amount of unhealthy
+relationships; this is problematic because repeated exposure helps
+normalization[^I find that SMBC is a positive example of this effect:
+it regularly (and, AFAICT, fairly randomly) features gay couples in
+comics where the joke is *not* about homosexuality].
+
+In Japan, doujinshi is considered normal and "adding value to the
+brand", whereas similar things are flagged as "copyright infringement"
+in other countries.
+
+[My Little Pony: Friendship is Optimal]: https://www.fimfiction.net/story/62074/Friendship-is-Optimal
+[Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality]: http://www.hpmor.com/
+
+## Lessons from three years of volunteering to teach students code
+
+By David Tulloh.
+
+Takeways:
+
+1. Volunteering in schools is easy and fun.
+2. We should care about what is taught in schools.
+3. We should get involved and support schools teaching IT.
+
+CSIRO: Australian program to get professional developers to teach in
+schools.
+
+[Pixees](https://pixees.fr/) seems to be a French equivalent.
+
+Tried to move students from "programmers" to "developers" by evoking:
+
+- automated testing
+- version control
+- bug tracking
+- code review
+
+An audience member noted that while programs ala CSIRO are helpful,
+this should be organized at the government policy level.
+