How good will LISA VIII be?

[Dave Sill <de5.CTD.ORNL.GOV">de5]

John I-Chung Wang wrote:
>	I have a tentative agreement with my boss to attend LISA VIII in
>San Diego provided that I first make certain that it won't be a waste of
>time. Does anyone have any opinions about these conferences? How are the
>tutorials structured? How useful has it been? or even stories of shear
>boredom would be welcomed.

I went to LISA VII and thought is was quite worthwhile, but whether or
not it is a waste of time depends upon what you expect from it.  I
consider it a success if it turns me on to few really good ideas.
It's probably not reasonable to expect a 1/2 day tutorial to teach you
everything you need to know about a topic.

If you read through the list of tutorials, papers, and talks, and find
few that really interest you--and you're not already an expert on the
topic--you stand a good chance of picking up some useful ideas.

And of course you get to meet people (in person) with similar
interests.  If you live in the San Franscisco Bay area, you probably
have other opportunities to do this, though.

Finally, if you're like many system administrators I know, the chance
to spend a week away from the incessant stream of "urgent" user
requests and ponder solutions that will make them easier to deal with
them is invaluable.

-Dave