Sydney F2F February 2015

Meeting Minutes

Monday, 9 February:

Tuesday, 10 February:

Wednesday, 11 February:

Place

Google Sydney: Level 5, 48 Pirrama Road, Pyrmont (WP6) and Level 2, 1 Darling Island Road, Pyrmont (ODI). The two buildings are directly across the park from each other.

This map might help.

Meeting Room:

Instructions for arrival:

Please come directly up to level 4. A security guard will let you in and I will have a badge for you.

If you arrive after 9:30am, please either:

Parking: If you think you’d like to drive to the meeting, please let Shane know and he will try and book parking for you at Google. Parking is limited. There are also parking stations nearby, particularly Harbourside.

Weather

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Contacts

Participants

Please, put your name in this table if you plan to participate (alphabetical order):

Name Arrival Departure Hotel Flight info and notes
Tab Atkins ??? ??? airbnb ???
L. David Baron 5 Feb 14 Feb Travelodge Hotel Sydney ANZ 7/101, ANZ 104
Rick Byers 3 Feb 12 Feb Novotel UA 863, UA 870
Tantek Çelik 8 Feb 12 Feb airbnb UA 863, UA 870
Dave Cramer 7 Feb 12 Feb airbnb QF 8 / QF 7, also Project Houdini
fantasai 8 Feb 15 Feb airbnb NZ9791+NZ5+NZ103 / NZ102+NZ14+NZ9005
Daniel Glazman 4 Feb 12 Feb 1888 KE121 / QF021, also Project Houdini
Dean Jackson ??? ??? ??? Probably via land not air
Toru Kawakubo 7 Feb 12 Feb Ibis Sydney Darling Harbor QF 22 / QF 21
Ian Kilpatrick - - - -
Chris Lilley 6 Feb 15 Feb Y Hyde Park BA 345/CX 254/CX 111, CX 100/CX 237/BA 346
Peter Linss 5 Feb 15 Feb Novotel Sydney Darling Harbor UA 863 / UA 870
Shinyu Murakami 7 Feb 12 Feb Ibis Sydney Darling Harbor QF 22 / QF 21
Robert O’Callahan ? ? ? Observer from Mozilla (Houdini, CSS, SVG)
Xidorn Quan ??? ??? ??? Observer from Mozilla
Florian Rivoal 8 Feb 12 Feb airbnb AY0656+AY5811+KE704+KE121, KE122+KE721
Simon Sapin 3 Feb 16 Feb Novotel Sydney Darling Harbor EK 414 / EK 415
Alan Stearns 6 Feb 16 Feb ??? DL 17 / DL 16
Shane Stephens - - - -
Simon Pieters 8 Feb 10 Feb ibis Sydney Darling Harbour QF 8414 / QF 8413
Jet Villegas ??? ??? ??? ???
Ian Vollick ??? ??? ??? ???
Greg Whitworth 6 Feb 15 Feb ??? DL
Cameron McCormack ??? ??? ??? Observer from Mozilla
Rossen Atanassov 6 Feb 19 Feb airbnb DL
Andrey Rybka 6 Feb 15 Feb Novotel Sydney Darling Harbour UA
Johannes Wilm 7 Feb 12 Feb Sydney Darling Harbour Hotel KL 1132/KL 0809/KL 4079, KL 4104/KL 0810/KL 1125
Steve Zilles 6 Feb 11 Feb Meriton Serviced Apartments Kent Street VA 992, JL0772
Hyojin Song 8 Feb 12 Feb Novotel Rockford Darling Harbour KE121 / KE122 (LG Electronics)

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Visa Requirements

A visa is required for US Citizens to enter Australia (citizens of other countries please check with the appropriate authorities), a visa may be obtained electronically from the Electronic Travel Authority web site.

Travel to/from airport

A taxi from the airport to the meeting venue or any of the listed hotels will cost between $30 and $50, depending on traffic. There’s generally only a short wait to get a taxi, and a fairly orderly queue. This is probably the most convenient, and also the cheapest if you share with others…

If staying in Chinatown, the airport train line is reasonably convenient. A one-way ticket is $16.40. If you’re staying in Pyrmont, you can still take the train, then jump on the light rail from ‘Central’ to ‘the Star’. You’ll need to pay $4.60 (in cash) after boarding the train.

Some hotels offer complimentary bus transfers to/from the airport - check with your hotel when booking.

Hotels

Please note that I don’t have any direct experience of these hotels! If you’ve stayed in one before (looking at you, Tab), chime in and recommend.

There are some close but expensive hotels:

There are also a number of decent cheaper hotels in China town. These are further away (~20 minute walk from the office) - note that there is a light rail line from this area to the office. Services depart every 10 minutes during peak and a return ticket (which can be purchased on the train) is $6.40.

I had a reasonable amount of success looking for cheaper rates (in many cases at these same hotels) on booking.com.

Airbnb

It can host 6 people, and 6 people have expressed interest.

Other

Network

The GoogleGuest network will be available throughout the building. No password is required.

Money

Its plastic. No, not that sort of plastic. Being able to swim and paper money are fundamentally incompatible. Side note: do not iron the money

More seriously, it’s the Australian dollar (AUD). See exchange rates.

You should be able to use your credit card pretty much everywhere (especially Mastercard and Visa). Diners Club cards tend to attract a fee or not be accepted. Checks are not generally accepted.

Electricity

230V, 50Hz, 10A flat, angled awesome pins

Notice the small switch on the side. Unless you flip it on, don’t expect the power socket to do much for you.

Via the magic of pliers, Australian and US power plugs are somewhat interoperable (I don’t recommend you actually do this).

Tourism

Far too many tourists, especially in winter^H^H^H^H^H^Hsummer

Food

We have both kinds: pies and ..

actually, just pies.

IRC Logs

Agenda

Mon

AM
PM

Tue

AM
PM

Wed

AM
Lunch
PM

Overflow

Proposed Agenda Topics