Record number of visitors and record number of kids came to the show. Our volunteers had tough time entertaining the demanding kids! The kids waited on the queue for 5-10 minutes before they could sit on a computer. Around 350 kids learned how to use Edubuntu Linux!
Hartal and heavy rainfall dramatically reduced the number of visitors in computer show. Our dedicated volunteers still came over to help, and entertained the kids who came from the neighborhood. I’m sure that the kids learned a lot since each of them got a good amount time to see the workarounds of a Linux desktop!
Rony and I watched the planetarium show, which was quite amazing. I watched the same type of show in Birla Planetarium in Calcutta, but liked today’s one since it’s in Bengali. However I didn’t understand some Bengali terms… but still it was fun.
The second seminar co-organised by BLUA was held today. Mr. Nazrul Islam of Relief International delivered his keynote speech on Telecenters networks of Bangladesh. The seminar was entitled “ICT for Developement: Prospects of Telecenters in Bangladesh”.
Our member Raihanul Kabir Rony’s picture was published on Prothom-Alo, and he was very happy about it. I’m happy about it too! 
Our pavilion was super-hit by evening. We entertained more than 100 kids, all of whom were taught how to use an Edubuntu desktop, how to draw pictures on Tux Paint, and how to use the different educational tools. The kids absolutely loved it!
BLUA volunteers entertained numerous newbie Linux users as well, whom we gave suggestions and solutions to their OS problems.
A big day for me, as it was the first time I’ve ever spoken on a seminar. The seminar was entitled “Free and Open Source Software: Development Opportunities”, and was jointly organised by BCS and BLUA.
Sumon bhai from BDCOM, Kamal bhai from CSE department of Dhaka University, and Sami bhai from Maisha Technologies spoke at the seminar, and I delivered my keynote speech. Welcome speech was provided by BCS President as it was the inaugural seminar of the Computer Show.
Location: 1st floor, Bashani Novo Theater
Time: 13:00 BDT (+6 GMT)
State of mind: Annoying
When all the stalls and pavilions were selling or exhibiting their products, we were sitting idle on the floor of our empty pavilion. No chair to sit, no desk to keep our tech gadgets, and no electrical outlets to recharge ours laptops or the cell phones. HP’s pavilion was right in front of ours, and all we could do was to stare at two of their hot looking sales girls. Staring at the Samsung’s salesgirls was an option too, as two out of three girls were desperately trying to show their cleavage and their bra’s strap. Cream bra goes well with blue saari, I understood.
We kept on poking the BCS officials, and after one and half hour, our desks and the tables arrived. After waiting for another two more hours, the computers arrived. We didn’t had any other decoration piece on the stall, except for the hand drawn Tux replica that Shipar sent.
We started installing Edubuntu on the 700 MHz Toshiba computers, and it a took a long time to do so. Kubuntu refused to accept mouse clicks, and system continuously displayed busy error.
Zia bhai and his friend, Rafiq bhai, Muhib bhai, Farhan, and Rony helped enormously, and I thank them all for helping out.
