July 26, 2007
General
2 Comments
I remember the day that Michael Natterer (mitch) sent me a mail saying something to the effect of “I’m spending too much time committing your good patches, it’s time you got your own CVS access”. I was happy on so many levels. Happy because it meant that my work was being appreciated, that I was considered part of the team, and most of all because it showed that I was trusted.
That trust was tempered by the fact that the GIMP developers have a highly developed sense of code review – every commit which goes into the GIMP repository gets a good once-over from Sven, mitch and others, which keeps everyone honest.
But that day was still a key moment in my life as a free software developer. It is the first day I really truly felt like I was a part of the family.
Today, I just got my Subversion access for the OpenWengo svn repository. When I joined the company I said that I didn’t want the access because I was an employee, I wanted it because I’d earned it.
It took a while, partly because I haven’t been sending in many patches, partly because I had made a proposal some time ago for managing new committers which got delayed for a while, and so it was only revived a couple of weeks ago.
So today, along with another new committer Ludovico Cavedon, I finally feel like I’ve properly joined the OpenWengo family. Happiness 🙂
July 24, 2007
home
20 Comments
Before…
Just after…
A little later
I’m delighted to share that Sean Daniel Neary, the newest member of the Neary family, was born at 21:06 French time today, a healthy 4.1 kg (that’s just over 9lb for you imperialists out there) and 54 cm tall. Mother and child are well.
July 24, 2007
General
13 Comments
I don’t get Facebook. I’ve tried, but I don’t get it.
It doesn’t have the CV/business network thing going for it like LinkedIn does. It doesn’t have the “centralise your contacts” thing going for it like (say) Plaxo. It doesn’t have the usefulness of centralised bookmarks like del.icio.us or uploading photos or videos and sharing them (flickr, YouTube).
It appears to me to be a second Orkut, with some features taken away, and a bunch of useless stuff added.
I’m sure I’m missing something, but I’m definitely getting similar vibes to Matt Asay. That’s several hours of my life I’m never going to have again…
July 20, 2007
General
No Comments
A while back, I suggested that GNOME groups could organise something co-ordinated for Software Freedom Day on September 15th this year.
Now that GUADEC is over, it’s time to get moving!
I’ll be proposing to GNOME-fr that we get a few of us together with a computer club in France (maybe Lyon or Grenoble?) and have an information day on Free Software. It might be a little close to the JDLL to get co-operation from ALDIL, so I’m open to other suggested sites.
I propose having an information day a day early, on the 14th – a half-day (afternoon) with one presentation of GNOME (what is it, what can you do with it, how does it fit into the bigger picture, presentation of 3 or 4 GNOME programs) with a stand where people can take informational leaflets and stickers and try it out. We’ll also need an official photographer to record the whole thing for posterity, and someone who doesn’t have a newborn infant (!) to be the point man for the team organisation and registration.
Hurry, people! Only 2 weeks left to register teams if you want t-shirts & Live CDs.
July 16, 2007
General
2 Comments
I’ve been waiting all afternoon to hear how the football competition went – can someone in Birmingham let me know, please? How did the matches go?
July 16, 2007
General
1 Comment
Here’s the transcript of the mail I just sent to foundation-list:
Hi all,
As some of you have noticed, I’m not at GUADEC this year. The reason is a happy one – Anne is going to be giving birth sometime over the next couple of weeks (I’ll keep ye posted).
The combination of the arrival of a third child, and a change in role at work over the past few weeks, have meant that I’ve reevaluated the commitment I can make to the board of the foundation. In all honesty, I can’t guarantee that I will be able to do justice to my position as board member for the second half of the year, a period when the board is usually more effective than during the first part.
So I prefer to leave my place to someone with more energy & ideas, and to leave the board at a time when I am still relatively happy with how I’ve done. I hereby resign my seat on the board.
I have had a great two and a half years on the board, and I’d like to thank everyone with whom I’ve served – Owen Taylor, Luis Villa, Jody Goldberg, Daniel Veillard, Jonathan Blandford, Federico Mena-Quintero, Tim Ney, Miguel de Icaza, Murray Cumming, Christian Schaller, Jeff Waugh, Anne Oestergaard, Vincent Untz, Quim Gil, Glynn Foster, Behdad Esfahbod. Thanks also to everyone who has voted for me through the last 3 elections.
I’d like to wish all the best to the board for the rest of the year, and good luck to the person who replaces me.
Cheers,
Dave.
This hasn’t been an easy decision – I’m still commited to the board and to the foundation, but I just don’t have the availability needed to follow up on that commitment right now.
It’s not quite a coincidence that this has happened just before GUADEC – the board gets a chance at GUADEC to bond together, and is typically much more energised afterwards, this is a great time to co-opt a new board member.
I’m not going away, but I’ll be taking a break from all GNOME stuff over the Summer to concentrate on getting up at 4 in the morning to give bottles.
Have a great GUADEC!
July 13, 2007
freesoftware, General
13 Comments
Sucks.
Macintosh Operating System 10.3.x or earlier will only recognize FAT32 partitions that are smaller than 128-gigabytes. Multiple FAT32 partitions smaller than 128-gigabytes will need to be created in order for Macintosh Operating System 10.3.x or earlier to recognize the partitions.
Following on from my previous call for help on back-ups, anyone know of a filesystem I can use which is supported read-write by Linux, Windows and Mac OS X 10.3, and which will give me access to all of a 500GB disk?
Otherwise, out comes the partition editor…
July 13, 2007
freesoftware
15 Comments
Am I the only one bothered by the habit people in the free software community have to always use “females” or “female developers” when talking about women?
I can’t remember the last time I actually said “female” in conversation – it feels kind of like talking about one’s gluteus maximus instead of saying “arse” or “bum” – vaguely medical, and a little sterile.
