After a bit of a hiatus due to my camera being in the shop, and me being somewhat disgrunted with the whole affair I have some new photos:

• Busan: Photos from my trip to Korea with Soyoung, Dave and Chiz. I only have photos of the Busan portion of the trip, as my camera broke.
• Kamakura: My mate Donny and his wife Sima are visiting Japan, and I took them down to Kamakura, which is just south of Yokohama, over the weekend. Lots of other photos of Kamakura and the rest of Japan are linked from my gallery.
• Nabe Party: I think Nabe is most easily described as a stew. Its made on a pot in the middle of the table, that sits on top of a gas burner. Everyone puts the bits they want to eat in, waits for a bit, then takes them out and eats. Kind of like fondu, but with soup instead of cheese. I had a nabe-party at my house. Partly because its a good thing to do in winter. But mostly because I couldn't find a resturant with spare seats for Donny and the rest of my mates on Friday night, its high-season for end of year parties over here.

Well, shame on me, this is again a meme I participated in, probably because Axel mentioned that this quizz gives more interesting results. It appears that I should be a Chemistry major, which I actually am (my career in computing began after a PhD in Materials Science and a the french equivalent of a Master in Chemistry).. I should also by graduated in Linguistics, what a surprise...:-) Also scored 75% for Theater which kind of a surprise as I'm sometimes a bit shy in public. Art and Dance scores are very low which is not a surprise at all as well. Quite an accurate quizz indeed.

You scored as Chemistry. You should be a Chemistry major! As if that isnt clear enough, you are deeply passionate about Chemistry, and every single chemical reaction and concept fascinates you. Pursue that! Chemistry 83% Linguistics 75% Theater 75% Engineering 58% English 58% Sociology 58% Biology 50% Journalism 50% Psychology 42% Philosophy 42% Mathematics 42% Anthropology 42% Art 33% Dance 17% What is your Perfect Major? (PLEASE RATE ME!!<3) created with QuizFarm.com

I usually try not to blog every meme I take (heay, that’s a line from “I’ll be blogging it”), but Alex’ positive view on this one made me interested. And indeed, this quiz seems to be relatively well done. So here it is:

You scored as Mathematics. You should be a Math major! Like Pythagoras, you are analytical, rational, and when are always ready to tackle the problem head-on! Mathematics 92% Theater 92% Philosophy 92% Engineering 67% Psychology 58% Biology 58% Journalism 50% Linguistics 50% Sociology 50% Dance 42% English 33% Anthropology 33% Chemistry 33% Art 25% What is your Perfect Major? created with QuizFarm.com

Nice result, so far, as I’m currently studying mathematics, and sometimes have a tendency to what we Germans call “Theater machen”. Personally, I’d expect Journalism a bit higher...PS, to the readers of planet.debian.org: I’m sorry for the random pop ups of old and/or German postings. I have no idea what causes them, and I’m glad to hear hints. The posts seem to actually come from the cache of the planet software itself, and something (me?) caused planet to dig them out again.

Although the recent Inner European quiz meme is currently much more popular on Planet Debian, the following quiz somehow shows how the result of such a quiz should look like and what the quiz system, which the Inner European quiz used, misses: Having more than only bit-like answers. With answers like this, neither I would have had to change answers to see how close I was to different answer nor would have Christian Perrier had to do the quiz with worst fitting answers.

You scored as Engineering. You should be an Engineering major! Engineering 100% Philosophy 92% Journalism 92% Art 83% Mathematics 75% English 75% Biology 75% Chemistry 75% Theater 75% Psychology 67% Sociology 67% Linguistics 50% Dance 42% Anthropology 25% What is your Perfect Major? created with QuizFarm.com

Since I always saw computer science more as an engineering discipline than a derivative of mathematics (at least the way I studied and like it ;-), I seem to have taken the right major. But also most of the other highscorers aren’t that unfamiliar:

Philosophy

Well, if you see how much philosophy is behind open source or politics, being engaged in open source software and interested in politics doesn’t seem to be that wrong. ;-)

Journalism

I like journalism somehow and I sometimes think about if this could have also been (or even be) a nice profession for me, especially since I managed to combine journalism and computer science in being an editor at Symlink.ch, a Swiss based and German written news and discussion site all around Open Source, IT politics and privacy. Sure, it’s no professional journalism and also not classical journalism, since it’s built on the same ideas (and software) as Slashdot.

Art

If I would have more time and leisure, I probably would also try to draw, paint or sculpture more again as I did during my school time. And since my brother and my mother are both active artists I expect that the results wouldn’t be that bad either. ;-) On the other hand, I also like to design CSS styles which IMHO can also satisfy my artistic bone…

Mathematics

Although I see more the engineering than the mathematics in computer science, mathematics still was one of my two majors in school (the other was physics) and in comparison to many other people I can say that I like maths.

English

That’s the only thing IMHO not fitting in here in such a high position since I’m neither good at foreign languages (see my English in the blog… ;-) nor do I like studying languages. And even if I should see that as “Literature” or “German” (my mother tongue) instead, it just doesn’t seem to fit. (Ok, journalism also has to do with language(s)…)

Biology

Biology was the voluntary science course at school I took until I finished school. At university it became my minor subject. I wonder why it’s that deep down in the statistics?

Chemistry

That was my second voluntary science course at school, but I dropped it before I finished school.

Theater

Well, no, I don’t think that actor would be good idea for me…

Psychology

I’m not sure, if sometimes being glad not to understand how my brain works is a good base for diving into psychology. (On the other hand: Would I write so much text about this quiz, if I’m not at least a little bit interested in psychology? ;-)

Sociology

That’s again more interesting.

Linguistics

If this can include computer linguistics, than it’s definitely something interesting for me, since it usually involves artifical intelligence and I wrote my diploma thesis about an AI subject and our research group did work a lot in the area of computer linguistics.

Dance

No. I’m glad it’s that far down there. Just wonder how it got even 42%.

Anthropology

Well, that’s again an interesting subject, but probably not a subject I would work in. So being that far down is completely ok.

So in general, I think the quiz works mostly fine as well as I probably did choose the right subjects for me. *grin* Only thing I missed in this quiz was Physics as a possible result since I don’t think, it’s impossible (especially compared to the rest of the result) that I haven’t scored for anything typical for physicians.

Now Playing: Falco — Mutter, der Mann mit dem Koks ist da!

Well, sort of. I've now finally signed all the keys from DebConf5. My poor little OpenPGP smartcard is toasty warm. Well, not really, but it's got quite a work out. If haven't signed your key then:

• I don't think I've met you.
• I'm not sure I've seen proper ID that you are who you say you are.
• I lost my piece of paper that would confirm I've met you and have seen id/verified your fingerprint.
• master ate my mail to you, complaining about 8bit headers (this is something I should fix in signkey).
• Your mail server ate my mail, claiming it was spam.
• You use an idiot blacklist that there's no hope of me ever getting off because you're insane.
• You've greylisted me, and it'll get to you eventually.

Kudos to grep.be, progsoc.org, aurel32.net and linux.it, who all managed to have IPv6 MXes. Quite a low count for several hundreds mails to geeks I thought.

Your Inner European is Dutch!

Open minded and tolerant. You're up for just about anything.

Funny thing is I look like that some mornings.

College is not the launching pad for a job. It's the launching pad for the rest of your life. High school is a mini-jail with strict standards that everyone must live up to. College is when you get to make your own choices. This is the sentiment behind this article. I agree with it on principle, but not completely on content. Computer Science in the past 7 years has gone through an evil transition - almost all of the Colleges out there shifted to a Technical style curriculum because that was what was in demand. While TAing the introductory classes here at the U of M, the most common complaint was that they weren't learning things which will be useful in the future. The classes are taught in Scheme, for reasons that I completely agree with - the students would rather have them taught in Java, because that would be useful in the market when they leave college. What were they missing? The knowledge that programming concepts are what make good programmers, not language skills. Students want cookie cutter code which solves the problems that they are given. That is why people are lambasting the teaching of Java: people aren't learning hard thinking concepts. In my opinion, college is not supposed to teach you the skills you need for your job - instead, you are there to learn your specific learning style. This will allow you to learn anything you need for your job. Most jobs which exist in the Real World™ aren't looking for people from a specific major, they're looking for experience. I also share the views that you don't need to get perfect grades - the effort required to get an A over a B+ or a B is not worth it for the slight bump in your GPA, and you will have much more fun in college. Meeting friends in college is just as important as your actual classes. The Real World ™ calls this "networking". Choosing your major in order to get a job is also such a crap shoot otherwise - you're betting that in 4 years, the market will need the skills that you learn in a major.

...Guido is Italian from head to toe (thanks Erinn). And, of course, I'm definitely French. Those who I've met with already know this. B r t and baguette, wine and cheese, and of course translate everything...as well as giving lessons to everybody. Another interesting way to use the meme is choosing the answers that one definitely would never choose, to discover which European you are definitely *not*. It then appear that I'm definitely not Spanish. Too bad for my many Spanish friends in this project..:-)

When I loaded Planet Debian today, the first story was «Pardon my French…ness?» by Antti-Juhani Kaijanaho. There seems to be a new meme going on, trying to find out «Who’s Your Inner European?» Antti-Juhani’s Inner European is French: «Smart and sophisticated. You have the best of everything - at least, *you* think so.» Well, since I’m quite francophile in many ways (cars, food, laissez-faire, etc.), I expected to get a similar result, but it was quite different:

Your Inner European is Irish!

Sprited and boisterous! You drink everyone under the table. Who’s Your Inner European?

Well, I like what I read or saw of the Irish countryside in books or on tv, but drinking? Alcohol? Sorry, that’s just plain wrong. Doesn’t choosing the cute classic Citroën (They wrote it without diaeresis! Philistines!) suffice? Well, maybe I shouldn’t have chosen «Those damn British - they really get under your skin», but the newest idea of the British government to sponsor voyeurs with access to public surveillance cameras to enforce their Respect Action Plan (German written Telepolis article about — BTW: Has Telepolis no more english translations?) really really goes under my skin. (Although stories about implanted RFID chips even go deeper under my skin…) One annotator of the Symlink article (German, too) about that British government programme associated their ideas with the concept of the Blockwart (“block warden” or “wonk” in English according to the dict.leo.org forum, Wikipedia also mentions “block leader” and “block attendant”) during the Nazi régime in Germany: They were the lowest officials in the NSDAP and the local contact persons to SS and Gestapo. I wouldn’t wonder if the British government gets a Big Brother Award for giving this “respect” to privacy and human rights. But back to the quiz: Well, let’s see with which of the questions I wasn’t sure what to answer. If I change Tiramisu (yeah, I know, that there is alcohol in it, and I only like it with nearly no alcohol in) to Apple pie, nothing changed. Same after switching Pasta to Seafood and vegetables. Hmmm, well let’s try one of the obvious but not really wrong answers: Mousse au chocolat instead of Tiramisu. Et voilá! La France! :-) Oh, and yes, the ideas of the French government to make open source software, the web and other cultural achievements illegal aren’t my French favourites either… Update, 21:03: Christian Perrier suggested that the quiz could also be used to find out, which Inner European you’re definitely not. Well, somehow I hoped, it would tell me, I’m not German (I also marked Mercedes in that round ;-), but it told me, I’m not Russian, which is also fine since the quiz seems to focus the prejudices about Russians on alcohol consumption.

Now playing: Europe — The Final Countdown

Your Inner European is Irish!

Sprited and boisterous! You drink everyone under the table.

Who'd have guessed? Hic!

You scored as Engineering. You should be an Engineering major! Engineering 92% Chemistry 75% Mathematics 75% Philosophy 67% Linguistics 67% Psychology 67% Sociology 58% Biology 58% Theater 42% English 42% Anthropology 33% Art 33% Journalism 25% Dance 17%

What is your Perfect Major?
created with QuizFarm.com

Your Inner European is French!

Smart and sophisticated. You have the best of everything - at least, *you* think so.

Your Inner European is Irish!

Sprited and boisterous! You drink everyone under the table.

Your Inner European is Italian!

Passionate and colorful.You show the world what culture really is.

I usually refrain from publishing test results, but this time I couldn’t resist, since the result was kind of interesting: it seems in fact that my inner european is Italian… Of course I’m actually Italian, so that may have something to do with it! ;) Update: It seems me and Christian are similar: Answering the european test with reverted answers as he does the result is the same: I’m definitely not spanish too… Probably because of my allergy to dances and too-loud parties! :)

I always knew I had the best of everything.

Your Inner European is French!

Smart and sophisticated. You have the best of everything - at least, *you* think so.

Your Inner European is French!

Smart and sophisticated. You have the best of everything - at least, *you* think so.

Via Ihan kiva el m

Whee! After some 10 hours on the road, avoiding landslides, fighting torrents, and bearing with cramped spaces, I finally got home. /me catches up…

So previously, if you were stalking me for some reason and tried to track my hacking activity, there was a hole of a few months between finishing pydance and going back to more Debian work. Not anymore. Two years later than expected, I m announcing Angry, Drunken Dwarves, an insanely fun block-dropping game that plays a lot like Puzzle Fighter, at least at first. It has seven playable characters, six levels of AI, secret game modes and characters, and an original soundtrack. Unfortunately, one of the things that held up the release and never got solved was the lack of Windows packages. I m really sorry, especially to the people who helped design it and use Windows. Hopefully someone steps up to provide those soon. I m not providing Debian packages either, until I can get other things related to Debian finished. Anyone can feel free to hijack my ITP and upload it if they want. I apologize for the code. It spans two or three Python minor revisions, and for about the last 1/6 of development the Pygame community was falling apart and it was hard to care much. (P.S. Due to a last minute incredible stupidity by the Numeric developers, the release was actually delayed another 20 minutes. This project is cursed.)

Dato^[1] has blogged about his reaction about the current positions agains GFDL in debian currently. My concern wrt GFDL is simple :

• documentation is vital for unexperienced users
• we, fellow Debian Devellopers are NOT unexperienced users, and often either know where to find that documentation (like the GCC one) or don't really need it (for the KDE/GNOME apps manuals, we just know or guess how to use them^[2]).

As a KDE packager, I would feel really sorry to have to prune any application manual, even ones without Invariants Sections. I'd like to remind some DD's that for some manuals, authors are not going to be found because they are not interested in Free Software anymore, or simply because they are dead. I know that discussions with the FSF are really going nowhere (at least not fast enough). But still, I really think there is some possibility to have a new version of the GFDL where the DRM and transparent copies problems would be gone. If we can have that, then since a lot of Authors use the classical licensed under the GFDL version 1.2 or (at your option) any later version we could accept in main any documentation that has no Invariant parts. Free Software is about giving to *every* users more freedom. This GFDL story looks like taking documentation away from the users that needs it the most. It's :

• an unfair choice
• made by people that can live without those docs (I don't have any GFDL doc installed on my system that I've used. those that may be installed, are here because of some dependencies, not because I requested them to be here)
• taking away the ability for some users to use their computer better, thus restricting their freedom^[3].

It's not about a firmware here, or any hardware driver problem that you can work around by buying supported hardware. it's about having or having no documentation at all.

My Debian automatic installer works pretty well now. I still have to clean the code, because it's full of printf("sarass\n"); and printf("%s %s\n", foo, bar); everywhere. Hard to debug a program with 1.44M of disk space :) It's 8pm and I'm still at the office... When I'm back home I won't have much time to hack on videolan. Blah, there's so little time, and so much to be done. raph: any chance to get a tt><project> tag ? :)