I appear to have underestimated the remaining work needed to get xulrunner in a pleasant enough shape for an upload. Which means the package won’t be ready this week-end. It’s always when you come closer to the goal that it gets farther… And I still haven’t decided once and for all if I would still version the libxul library. The problem is the following: there are two different ways to link or load libxul: dependent glue or standalone glue. The first one dynamically links embedding applications to both libxpcom and libxul, while the second links to a static library (well, dynamic, in Debian, because there is no reason why we should need to binNMU all reverse dependencies whenever we fix something in the glue), which dlload()s libxul. From Mozilla POV, embedding applications are supposed to use the standalone glue. Considering we will more than probably have both schemes in use within reverse dependencies, I’m not sure I still want to bother diverging from upstream by keeping SO versioning on libxpcom and libxul… That unfortunately means that we will go back to the previously sucky situation where reverse dependencies have to put a dependency on the Gecko runtime themselves. A debhelper might help, though. I will keep SO versioning on libmozjs, though, because it has some reverse dependencies, and a changing ABI. The good news, anyways, is that I was able to build and run Iceweasel on top of the xulrunner pre-package. I also ran sunspider on both this Iceweasel 3.0b4 and Iceweasel 2.0 ; the difference is really impressive: 3.0b4 is almost 4 times as fast ! For reference, the Webkit currently in unstable (which is quite old, actually), gives these results. The one in experimental unfortunately crashes. By the way, I’m planning to package a new Webkit snapshot soon after I’m done with xulrunner and Iceweasel, we’ll see then how it performs. While speaking of tests, both Iceweasel 3.0b4 and Webkit from experimental pass the Acid 2 test (contrary to Iceweasel 2.0), and have both quite good results on the Acid 3 test: 61 for Webkit from experimental, when it doesn’t crash (but current trunk has been reported to score 91 !), and 67 for Iceweasel 3.0b4 (compared to 52 for Iceweasel 2.0). Update: Interestingly, built with upstream optimization flags (-Os-freorder-blocks -fno-reorder-functions) instead of -O2, it is slighly slower, though it might be better on some older hardware, or other architectures (I’m testing on x86-64).

Many of you have seen the net classic If Operating Systems Were Airlines. Today, let's consider what the world might be like if version control systems were airlines...

Before anyone gets mad, this is all in fun, OK?

RCS Airlines: One of the first airlines, from way back when this whole aviation thing was new and exciting. Each RCS flight carries exactly one passenger, which RCS believes is a superior way to fly. Although most RCS airplanes are rusty and battered today, RCS Airlines still retains its historic dedication to security. Each airplane is kept locked as much as possible for safety. Occasionally flights will be delayed for hours because the pilot can't open the locked plane. When this happens, the pilot will frantically try to get the cell phone number of whoever it is that has locked the plane. When the plane finally gets unlocked, you may be tempted to ask why it was locked for so long. Veteran RCS users have learned that the answer is usually disgusting, and never ask anymore. Main competitor: CP/M airlines.

CVS Airlines: Founded on the belief that they could be more efficient than RCS by carrying multiple passengers per flight. They still carry each passenger in a separate RCS-built airplane, but the airplanes fly in a goose-like ",V" formation. Watch out for layovers, though. It can take hours to merge new passengers into the formation properly, and it might take several attempts to take off afterwards.

CVS flights often feature fights over who gets to fly. CVS piloting fights are legendary; rumor has it that OpenBSD got started after CVS airlines refused to allow a passenger to board on the grounds that he had in the past refused to stow his tray table in the upright and locked position.

CVS airlines mostly counts as customers the "over-50" crowd who grew up using CVS and don't like change. Its in-flight magazine features advertisements for balding-reversal treatments and uuencode tools.

Main competitor: AIX airlines.

Subversion Airlines: Started by some grey-haired CVS executives with long, wispy beards, Subversion airlines got started by trying to be "CVS, but better". Subversion airlines was the first major airline to use planes that seat more than one passenger. Unlike CVS airlines, all passengers on a Subversion flight travel in the same plane.

Subversion airlines is famous for its Soviet-like centralized control. All operations must be approved by the Kremlin, and you are allowed, by the grace of the Party Leader, to gaze at the massive airplanes. Those that have served the Party and Airline well for many years are allowed to enter the Great Shrine of the First-Class Comitter, and actually make changes to the airplanes themselves. Plainclothes Subversion Airlines security agents lurk on every flight, and you should not be surprised to be thrown out an airplane window if you make a joke in bad taste about the pilot's flying skills.

Subversion airlines thrives on the concept that "photocopying is cheap". You are encouraged to make photocopies of your ticket, or to photocopy your photo ID, and give copies of each to as many people as you can. At checkin time at the gate, if more than one person arrives with a copy of the same ticket, they are ushered into the "merging room" and each person is given a brick. The door is closed, something magical occurs, and the one person that emerges still able to walk is allowed to board the plane.

Main competitor: Windows airlines with no Administrators allowed.

tla airlines: Founded by one of those eccentric British noblemen, Lord Tom's airline is the utopian philosopher's airline. Chafed by the heavy-handed control of Subversion Airlines, tla airlines wants every passenger to be created equal. As you approach the gate area in the terminal, you will find many philosophers occupying the gate area, extolling the virtues of tla airlines. They compare tla airlines to reaching out and touching the heavens, leaving behind the bonds of a ground-based life, actually merging with the stars. Oh, the gorgeous beauty of it all! The things we will see!

As you see people arriving from another flight, you observe that some of them have burn marks. One of them comments that "merging with the stars doesn't work." Immediately, a dozen philosophers get in a fight with him, claiming that he simply doesn't understand what it means to merge with the stars, and that if he gets his inner being in the proper state first, he'll have a much better experience.

As you board the tla airplane, you obvserve that the jetway is a mile long. The airplane itself reminds you of something of a cross between a gothic cathedral and a level of Doom. There are spectacular archways everywhere, sometimes where they don't really belong. Each archway is supported by ornate curly braces which you don't normally see on airplanes, and frankly, you'd rather not, because they look all pointy and confuse the kids.

As you arrive as your destination terminal, you see it too is full of philosophers, most of them dining.

Main competitor: VMS airlines.

Darcs Airlines: Unlike every other airline, this one uses physicists instead of engineers to design its airplanes. One brilliant Darcs physicist has finally come up with The Theory of Everything, and as such, Darcs knows where you want to go before even you do. Darcs airlines prides itself on customer service, and asks your preference for even the tiniest details about your trip.

Each seat pocket features a copy of the Theory of Everything for your reading enjoyment, but nobody actually understands it.

Occasionally, you will find that Darcs pilots get into angry conflicts with the control tower in mid-flight. This results in the control tower revoking your permission to land. Legend has it that one Darcs pilot of a plane with exceptionally large fuel tanks actually resolved his conflict with the tower and landed two weeks after taking off. Experienced Darcs users board with several parachutes: one for themselves, and a few more for the newbies.

The Darcs physicists claim that the Theory of Everything predicted the pilots would act this way, and that all pilots eventually act this way throughout the entire universe. They toil day and night finding a way to adjust the gravitational constant of the universe, thereby reducing the anger factor of the pilots.

Main competitor: OS/2 airlines.

bzr airlines: Founded by a South African who had been injured by a curly brace on tla airlines, bzr airlines aims to be "tla done right". They have shortened the jetway, gotten rid of the curly braces, chased out the philosophers, and no longer have a vision of merging with the stars. Many that were injured on tla airlines fly bzr airlines, and out of respect for tla airlines, bzr airlines will still honor tla tickets.

bzr passengers consider themselves part of an exclusive club because each flight takes off from a launchpad. They often can be seen standing in the terminal passing out bzr literature, trying to get passengers of other airlines to fly bzr, and can't understand how other airlines continue to exist while people keep walking past their airplanes.

Main competitor: BeOS Airlines.

Bitkeeper Airlines: One of the world's faster airlines, Bitkeeper airlines occupied that obscure gate for rich people at the end of the terminal for many years. Tickets on Bitkeeper Airlines were rumored to cost thousands of dollars, and were rare and jealously guarded. Then for awhile, Bitkeeper Airlines started giving away tickets for free, though they also kept around the expensive tickets for those with discriminating tastes. Free tickets were made widely available, but the 3-point type on the back of tickets said that you were never allowed to think about another airline before, after, or during your flight, and some people claimed they actually saw the small print morphing right before their eyes.

Bitkeeper flights often featured arguments over whether people were harboring secret thoughts of other airlines. If you were caught thinking about another airline, you were expected to scream vigorously while being thrown out the escape hatch without a parachute. All of this commotion tarnished the rarified air that the rich people paid to experience, so one day it was decided that there would be a Great Purge, because obviously all free ticket holders had harbored lustful thoughts of other airlines, so they were all thrown off the airplanes simultaneously. Today, people aren't exactly sure where the Bitkeeper gate is, but everyone suspects it still lurks somewhere.

Main competitor: SCO Airlines.

Mercurial Airlines: The "there's one right way to do it" airline, Mercurial is a sterile, agile, and shiny airline. Every Mercurial airplane looks identical to every other one, shiny and clean. You could swear that all the passengers look alike too, and as you approach the gate, it seems like you too look like everyone else. Mercurial passengers tend to be a happy bunch, who can't comprehend anybody that flies Git Airlines. Specks of dirt and dust confuse the pilots, so it is best to make sure you have showered before boarding. It is rumored that, through bolting on more engines, some Mercurial airlines can fly to as many places as Git airlines can, but most Mercurial passengers are content to not worry about that.

Main competitor: Python Airlines.

Git Airlines: The "there's more than one way to do it" airline, Git flies the world's largest and fastest airplanes. Git Airlines was founded by some priests who were flying for free on Bitkeeper Airlines and survived the fall after the Great Purge. Git airplanes start as spartan, empty cabins, with no carpeting, chairs, or piloting controls. At the departure gate, each passenger is handed a bag containing 173 standard airplane components, accompanied by a 4x5" sheet of information on the theory of flight, written in 1950. Once onboard, the passengers use these components to finish out the airplane for flight: installing chairs, rudder controls, etc. Every flight results in a plane assembled in a different way, and passengers on each flight believe they are flying the world's best airplane. Arguments in the terminal after a flight are common, as passengers from different flights debate the merits of their particular design.

Despite all this, Git planes turn out to be safe, and Git passengers believe they get to their destinations in half the time it takes any other passengers, though sometimes they secretly wonder if the Mercurial flight got there faster. Occasionally, passengers on Git airlines build an airplane that appears to go into a tailspin. When that happens, they simply assemble a tool that lets them go back in time and change history so that it doesn't crash, although it is rumored that if you are a member of the public watching this happen from the ground, it will lead to seizures.

Git airlines takes special pride in the one piece that passengers don't have to assemble: the plumbing. Every Git lavatory is equipped with state-of-the-art never-fail plumbing, and the best porcelain washroom fixtures money can buy. None of these cheap plastic toilets like you get on every other airline. Here, we have fine porcelain fixtures.

During a flight, after passengers use the lavatory, they frequently get into arguments with each other about which style of porcelain toilet is the best. These arguments are only resolved by the Zen-like Git Priests, who insist that only inferior passengers need to use a toilet while in the air.

Main competition: Perl Airlines.

Here s an important lesson I learnt today: if you are in Thailand and still feel the effects of a not-so-recent knee and wrist injury, you should, before the massage, learn how to say in Thai: please, go easy on my knee and my wrist. The rest of my body likes brutal Thai massages (well, learnt to like them), but when the knee is bent and twisted and my face inadvertedly morphes in agony, the typical massagist will apologise furiously and take it easier from now on not what I want, at all. Three Thai hanging out on the street, asked individually, could not translate I like it rough but my knee does not. Instead, they just giggled and wanted to know where I was from and where I was going and whether I wanted a massage or attend porn shows or buy drugs or well, that about lists it all. No blame for the average Thai s broken English, it s still better than my command of their language.

For the last four years, I have left my life and home to return to my mother’s far more precarious and fragile life in Puerto Rico. I do so to visit. But I also do so to give her caretaker, Milagro, a much needed break. I returned on December 18th and found my mother nearly in the same state as she was in October. Far worse than a year ago, but she still struck me as my mother, if nothing else because she knew I was her daughter. Over the course of a week, all of that changed. After a series of howling fits, by the end of my first week there, she no longer knew she was my mother. While I knew this would eventually happen, I was still caught off guard. You see, prior to my arrival, and since my last visit in late October, she asked me on the phone, and my sister and Milagro in PR, *nearly everyday,* when I was coming back. So even though she asked when her daughter, who she knew lived and worked in the city of New York, was coming back over and over again for 8 weeks, this seemingly hard-wired thought quickly vaporized thanks to what is a disease of the brain, but what strikes experientially as a cruel disease of the soul and personality. So while 2007 was overall a pretty good year, it is also the year when in certain respects my mother died, at least for me in so far she has morphed into someone remarkably different from the person I once knew. Now she only remembers small scraps of her life. She knows she is from Russia, she knows that she lives in the Casa de Vera (which she thinks is her bed), she knows she loves the dog, she knows that she had parents (and she would like to return to them but does not know where they are), she knows she has a good friend who is a painter (I think she had a massive crush on him if she still remembers him and not me but otherwise, everything is so twisted, so jumbled or so gone, it is beyond stunning. She certainly knew I was around and helping for she got upset when she knew I was leaving, often bursting in tears, asking me to take her to New York. But she just knew me as Gabriella from Nueva York who brought her novio bueno to PR and not as anyone else. It is certainly not easy to see this, to experience it day in and out but it is what it is and there is no running from it. Logistically it is also beyond hard to take care of my mom. To get her to eat, to calm down after one of her morning fits (she always, always, always had a raging fit in the morning, the afternoon and evenings being far more calm periods), to convince her to wear her dentures (which is the only remedy to stop her from spitting all over the place), to dress her, to deal with her in the middle of the night, often twice, are all extraordinarily challenging. Very quickly, your waking hours fill up with seemingly endless tasks and this I guess is, in some respects, a hidden blessing; there is just a lot less time to ruminate over how all of this, frankly, sucks. It is only later, late at night, early in the morning, or on the plane ride home where the darkness of her life would set deeply into my own. It may be obvious why this state and experience is tough but there are two parts that I find particularly rough. If my mother’s state is one of near total chaos and entropy, there is one thing that is utterly clear. She knows she is suffering and she wants out. On particularly bad days, she would mutter or sometimes yell loudly that she wants to die and would ask for the medicine that would accomplish this. She would even sometimes call me mala for not giving her this medicine. It is certainly not the case that everyone with Alzheimers goes through what my mother does. Apparently, some experience the illness quietly and peacefully. This is so not the case for my mother, who lived a particularly hard yet vibrant life. Donning a difficult personality, she lived lived as fully as she could and it is clear that as life leaves her, she would rather not be around to experience what is a cruel exorcism of self. Thankfully, she is not constantly or not even mostly in a suicidal state. I think she at times forgets how lousy she feels and rather enjoys the rather limited life she has. And at this point, I just hope that she continues to have calm or even happy moments. The second surprise concerns my own memories. My mother has had this rare form of Alzheimers, Posterior Cortical Atrophy, for at least 6, possible 7 years now, though we only received the official diagnosis 2003, which is the year when when I first started to write the occasional post about my experiences with her. In 2003 and 2004, she was pretty functionally in tact and it has only been the last 2.5 years when the persistent decline has set in, whittling her capacities and memories to what seems to be a bare minimum. But because her presence and reality is nothing short of totally enveloping and drowning, I am starting to lose my own memory of my mother prior to her illness. If Alzheimers robs people of their memories, I have come to realize, that if you are not careful, it is a thief that can also rob your own memories. I think it is for this reason that I have become so attached to my mother’s stuff her furniture, her paintings some of which I have taken back with me. They are material vehicles that transport me back to the past when my mother was in a different state and place. Now it is clear that if the challenge is to deal with the emotional toll this illness causes, it as much summoning the will and performing the labor to retain and recall my older memories of her.

Here is something I wrote some while ago, hope this will be useful for some World of Warcraft p(l)ayers. Has no other relation to Linux or Debian, except it works on it flawlessly. Also note that 2.3.2 patch went live last week. It is not a secret anymore that mages of all talent specs will be getting a present when patch 2.3.2 hits the live realms - the Ice Block will be available from any friendly mage trainer for a nominal fee. Currently this spell requires a whopping 21 point investment into the Frost talent tree. With patch 2.3.2 Ice Block will become trainable to all mages, Ice Barrier will take it’s place in the talent tree and a new awesome talent - Icy Veins will take the place of the Ice Barrier, so that even frost mages have a new toy to gain in this 2.3.2 mage winterly fiesta. While there is a significant proportion of mages that are frost for PVP or grinding survival purposes, a large proportion of mage population have never used Ice Block or haven’t used it for a while. For that reason, the rest of this article (after the break) will explore all the great uses of Ice Block, that all of you can look forward when patch 2.3.2 hits the live realms (or sooner, if this article convinces you to re-spec frost :)). So, what does the Ice Block do? When you cast the Ice Block, it purges you from all debuffs and releases you from all snares, you get frozen solid into a large block of ice (same look as hunter’s ice trap) and for 10 seconds you are immune to all damage, but unable to do anything - no moving, casting anything, no bandages, nothing. Getting rid of: Ice Block is a buff, so you can get out of the Ice Block by right-clicking it off at any time. Another way for keyboard-addicted mages is to press Ice Block keybinding button again (after the global cooldown is done). Enemy shamans can purge it off you and priests can mass dispel your Ice Block in PVP. Cooldown: the Ice Block is on 5 minute cooldown, which can be ended early using the Cold Snap talent from the mage frost tree. To prevent mages casting two ice blocks back to back by using the Cold Snap, Blizzard added the Hypothermia debuff (in 2.1) that prevents you from casting the Ice Block 30 seconds after the last cast. The main use of Ice Block is to survive pulling aggro in groups. While we all know that “good mages don’t draw aggro”, experienced players can easily show situations when drawing aggro is not mages fault and surviving that can be the difference between a wipe and a win. When Ice Block is used, your threat is NOT reduced, so you need to stay inside the Ice Block at least until you are under 130% of the tanks threat. After you Ice Block, the mob will run to the next person on the threat list. If your tank is dead, Ice Block will send the mob to another DPS or healer giving you a couple seconds to nuke it when it will be running back to you again. I have seen a few bosses loose their last 2-3% of health running between mages with Ice Block and hunters with Feign Death after a unfortunate death of the main tank. Ice Block is a great way to get rid of almost all debuffs that exist in the game: warlock DoTs, stuns, snares, polymorph, mind control … Even boss debuffs go away in a snap - Garrote from Moroes, Demonic Chains from Illhoof and many more deadly debuffs are no threat to a mage with an Ice Block ready. Ice Block can be used as an alternative to Slow Fall if you’re out of Light Feathers. Just do not cast it too high in the air - if the 10 seconds tick by and you haven’t hit the land yet .. you could as well kiss 10% of your durability goodbye. When solo grinding there is noone to draw aggro from you, so the mobs will continue to beat on your personal icy sculpture, however during that time your Water Elemental or other battle pets could be dishing some damage, your cooldowns will tick down and also you will also regenerate some mana inside the Ice Block. The Ice Block could thus make the difference between your death and Frost Nova+Blink+Blizzard and their death. Have you had some fun experience with Ice Block? Leave a comment so that others could repeat it too!

Its been a couple of weeks since the Open Source Developers’ Conference in Brisbane, but it was only now that I’ve got the time to blog about it. This is due to some work that got piled in my backlog (I haven’t been lazy enough to have this work all automated yet :(). First off, my trip to Brisbane was a long one, due to the UNDP travel agency giving me a route taking me to Bangkok first, because of my exchange grant’s papers made in short notice. No matter: this being my first ever international trip, this meant that I would be visiting two different countries in just one shot. Bangkok was just an overnight stay though, so I didn’t see much, but their new airport was nevertheless impressive. Arriving there at almost midnight, the only bright places I saw were the big Suvarnabhumi airport and the Novotel where I had my layover. After some sleep, I had a pleasant morning, but only a short one at Bangkok, as my flight to Brisbane followed after: The Brisbane flight was long, and I arrived just an hour before midnight. Now, my next problem was getting a place to stay. I took an airport shuttle to the Royal on the Park, where the conference will be held, first to see if there are any free rooms, or barring that, some recommendation on nearby places to stay, even if only for the night. I was quite anxious because I wasn’t able to arrange for accommodation prior to this trip (short notice, remember?), so I decided to go directly to the venue to be the best way of trying my luck. And try my luck it was! First, I was greeted by a front desk manager who turned out to be a fellow Filipino, and he helped me get a room in the hotel. At the time though, he could not guarantee that I can stay there for the duration of the trip (only for the night) but he would help me to find alternate accommodation instead on the next day. I thought that was good enough, since it was already midnight by the time I reached the hotel, and just a bed to sleep on for the night would do great for me to worry about moving elsewhere later. And the next day: Day 1 of OSDC: I was up rather too early that day; the worrying about moving elsewhere settled in too early as well, and had made me check out very early so I can hopefully look for that alternate accommodation by lunchtime. One by one, the attendees came, and soon enough more than a couple of hundred people were filling the main conference room, waiting for OSDC to begin. And we began with a keynote from Rusty Russell on C, the humbling language and Ian Clatworthy’s talk on distributed version control systems. After the keynote, I was notified by the hotel management that instead of moving elsewhere, I can just remain there for the duration of the conference. I was quite relieved! For the remainder of the day, I listened in on the Perl stream of talks from Kirrily Robert, Josh Heumann, and Jacinta Richardson, on packaging Perl modules, Perl 6, and Perl code optimizations, respectively. Kirrily’s talk was timely since I am writing a couple of Perl modules to be released on the CPAN (one, Tie::Amazon::S3, is now up On the morning Day 2, I listened in on Mark Rees’ talk on testing web applications using twill and a scripting language, like Python. I then followed Adam Kennedy’s talk on the CPAN 1.5, learning about CPAN::Mini, the CPANPLUS (which IIRC will be standard in Perl 5.10) and the Tiny modules in the process. More on the Perl stream continued with another talk from Josh Heumann on intermediate Perl testing, providing a humorous yet informative strategies not really just for testing Perl scripts or modules but for software testing in general: Later in the afternoon was Paul King’s talk on agile developer practices for dynamic languages, covering Groovy and Ruby. That was later followed by Leslie Hawthorn’s talk about the Google Summer of Code and the announcement of the Highly Open Participation contest for the young geeks who are not yet in college or university but would like to work on open source projects just like the SoC-ers. After the day’s schedule of talks, there was a break before the conference dinner, allowing also for a short keysigning session and CACert identity check. Then, we had the conference dinner, sponsored by Google. There was also a game held: every table makes up a team who, given some Play-dohs and imagination, are to make up a bug’; the best bug’ wins a free book. Unfortunately, my table/team didn’t win any books, but that was beside the point anyway, as the bugs that were made up were quite something: On the last day, the morning talks I attended were all about Ruby and Rails. Nic Williams gave an introductory talk on Rails, then Paul King gave another talk, this time on Grails (the Java version of Rails,) and closing the morning session was Keith Pitty’s talk on Ruby for Java shops. For the afternoon, I followed Adam Kennedy’s talk on optimizing projects for wetware. For the closing keynote, Nat Torkington talked about the future of software: And with a day left before returning home, I went to sightseeing mode, bought a couple of books, and the mandatory pasalubong for the relatives. At midnight, my flight took me back to Bangkok, another long trip that touched down at the crack of dawn: After a few hours’ wait, I took the plane back to Manila, returning home just after lunchtime. This being my first international trip, making it alone seemed to be quite an adventure. But I wasn’t really alone in this endeavor: kudos goes to the UNDP International Open Source Network for their exchange grant program, to my relatives for their support, to Free and Open Source Software for really making things rock (and free ;), and to $DEITY for being there. Until the next trip!

I've been meaning to write this for weeks. Hopefully I can still remember everything. So Sarah had a c-section the day before we were scheduled to have our c-section class. We'd both read a bit though, so it wasn't like we were going in totally uninformed and unprepared.. Firstly, Stanford Hospital's operating room area is rather mind-blowing. Sarah was transferred from Lucille Packard Children's Hospital to Stanford because they could get an operating room there sooner. The transfer was trivial, just roll the whole bed down the corridor, through the magic double doors into the operating rooms. The doors in question have a whole heap of video cameras pointing straight down, so they see everyone that gets wheeled in and out, which I found interesting. Good for records of patient movements I guess. Anyway, through those doors is a maze of corridors. There was a light-up board hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the main corridor with lights for all of the ORs. I think there were about 20. The illuminated ones were available. We went down a corridor, and past a few ORs. Outside of each one is a big stainless-steel scrub area. We got to "our" OR, and they transferred Sarah onto the operating table. Because of her heart condition, they wanted to have an arterial line in her for the duration of the procedure. This is some sort of gadget that goes into an artery and monitors your blood pressure beat by beat. The "interesting" thing with the anaesthesiologist was the New Zealand woman that we'd seen when we had an anaesthesiologist months prior, but the appointment was with a different anaesthesiologist, and this New Zealand woman was "observing". At the time, the anaesthesiologist we had the appointment with told us that she was going to be on vacation at the time of the delivery, so she wouldn't be attending. So I don't know if the Kiwi woman got promoted out of "observing" to "doing" in that period, or what, but she reintroduced herself to us in LPCH prior to moving to Stanford as being our anaesthesiologist for the delivery. Anyway, in the OR, they handed her the arterial line, in it's plastic packaging, and the first thing she asked was whether it came with anything else to put it in. At this point I figured she hadn't put one of these in before. (The answer to her question, by the way, was "no") She then proceeded to have a terrible time getting the line into Sarah's arm. Normally intravenous lines go into a vein, but this has to go into an artery. Apparently when you go poking an artery, it spasms. It then becomes very hard to get it into a moving target. She had a few goes on one arm, then gave up, and had to move over to the other arm. Sarah doesn't like needles at the best of times, and getting this honking great big thing in was no picnic. The bruising on both her wrists afterwards was phenomenal. She tends to bruise fairly spectacularly whenever they stick a needle in her. I almost stepped in and asked if it was really necessary that she have it, because they were having so much trouble getting it in, and it was clearly hurting Sarah. I think someone else ended up getting it in, not the anaesthesiologist. Not "that" one anyway. There were heaps of people in the OR. Next, came the epidural. Again, we had the inexperienced anaesthesiologist. This time she said to someone else how she was so nervous because there were "too many eyes". Not really reassuring. They gave Sarah a numbing injection first, and then proceeded to poke her in back with the epidural catheter needle thing. Sarah was flinching when they did it, and they kept yelling at her not to move. Apparently it didn't hurt, but it caused discomfort every time they tried to get it in. Eventually the associate professor of anaesthesiology stepped in and got it in. Later, they said that Sarah had a slightly curved spine or something, and that had made it a bit more complicated. I'm not begrudging the obviously inexperienced anaesthesiologist for anything. Stanford is a teaching hospital, and doctors have to get their experience somehow, but I think that when the patient is conscious, it's important to come across a little more confident. So once they got all of that sorted out, they could get her lying down on the table and get down to business. Apparently one of the side-effects of the epidural is that it can cause your body to think it's got hypothermia. Part way through the procedure, Sarah started shaking uncontrollably. I can't remember whether she complained about feeling cold or not. She also got a really itchy face. Apparently that's a side-effect of morphine. Sarah also doesn't tolerate anaesthetics very well, and started feeling nauseous part way through the procedure. Sure enough, as has happened countless times previously post-operatively, she threw up. At least we had warning and I got a kidney dish in place in time. That was about all the eventful surgical stuff. They had the usual screen up from about her neck area, so I couldn't see what they were doing. After Joshua was delivered, one of the nurses asked me if I wanted to see him, and took me around from her left shoulder where I'd been sitting to around below her right foot, to where they had him in one of those perspex portable crib things. I could see a lot of red out of the corner of my eye, and I could have seen a lot more if I'd bothered to look, but I was more interested in seeing my son at that stage. They let me bring him back around to where I'd been sitting previously, to show Sarah, but it was hard getting him up to a point where she could see him properly, and she was partially out of it by this stage. I think she dozed off for a little bit not long after that. I forget what time we got into the OR, but they started the operation in earnest at about 10:00am, and we were out of there by 10:45am if memory serves. The nurse in charge of the recovery room really didn't want me there, so I went back to LPCH with one of the nurses to spend some time with him while he was weighed and measured, and I took some photos, and held him. This was good, because I got to have a good cry on my own with him. So overall, in my "I'll never be squeezing a watermelon out of my nether regions" blokey perspective, having seen what Sarah went through, and how much discomfort that it looked like she was going through, both in the OR and afterwards, I'm not convinced c-sections are any less painful than a vaginal birth (taking the average case of both). I think you're trading some "short term" (depends on how long your labour is I guess) pain for some "long term" pain while you recover from your incision. Granted, Sarah wasn't really laid up all that badly for all that long, but it still didn't look all that pleasant. I guess really only the women who have done both delivery methods can really comment. All I know is I found it very difficult watching Sarah go through so much pain. So much so that I'm not really looking forward to that again. Maybe, hopefully, after her aorta is repaired, they'll let her delivery vaginally next time. I'm not holding much hope though. The high-risk obstetricians are fairly paranoid. There's also the possibility the baby will make the decision very easy for everyone by being breech. Sarah raised an interesting point today. Why didn't they just knock her out with a general anaesthetic? There was no need for her to be conscious for the delivery. That would have spared her the pain and suffering of getting the arterial line in, and they wouldn't have needed to bother with an epidural. One for her to ask the obstetrician at her follow-up appointment.

I seriously lack originality on that title above. Nevertheless, that gives some clues on what I’m up to: I rode my first airplane flight ever to Cebu with Jerome last Sunday to meet up with the rest of the pioneering team of Winston’s new startup, Morph Labs. Since it was a Sunday, there wasn’t much talk about work, but we did get to play with some of the new stuff we will be using, like Macbooks, iPhones, Airports, and a Mac Mini. Hint-hint indeed Thus began the first day, on a Monday. We got up to speed (from a 3-to-7 AM hibernate,) configuring the rest of the Macbooks, getting the HSDPA modems to work, laying out an ad-hoc WiFi net for the moment, and starting to plan out the directions the company will take. So far, so good. More to come, on Second Life Morphs. (I seriously need to express myself better.)

I’ve been away from blogging. I’ve been away from doing Debian and Ubuntu work (although there has been a few package updates, as well as a new one.) I’ve been away from a lot of happenings (like how the excellent Knightlust got to convince my fellow townsfolk at Lourdes College Foundation to use FOSS,) but that’s fine, since I know there will be others who can keep up the flame burning. I’ve been away because I’ve been looking at stuff. Lots of stuff. Various stuff. Stuff like Plan 9 from Bell Labs, and Inferno, and dabbling into distributed computing, working on an implementation of Plan 9’s file protocol. Stuff like thinking about programming, meditating upon it as an art, exercising a discipline of simplicity, clarity and frugality. All that stuff. I first looked at Plan 9 last March, when I was wanting to go another round at the Google Summer of Code. While I was not selected, just getting Plan 9 to run on my machines (first as a qemu terminal, then as standalone CPU server replacing my old Ubuntu dapper install on my desktop) exposed me to that other side,’ and that got me thinking about how software ought to be good. Of course, I could have just chosen to drop it all (after all, I wasn’t selected, so…) but I knew that if I stick long enough, I might just learn something. And yes, I am learning something. Like how a lot of software isn’t really simple, just appearing to be. Or how sophisticated software development methodologies rob the clear picture gained from a well-thought, clear, and simple analysis of problems. Or when push comes to shove, I will have to make a choice, between tolerating software complexity and status quo, or facing it and attempt to simplify it. Well, there’s much to tell, but I’m lazy, and I’d rather tell stories in bits. Anyway, I think I’ll have some time to spare, especially as I have accepted a new job at an up-and-coming company that, I hope and endeavor, will rock the local and international tech scene. And, while doing that, get around to make great tools to get my job done, and other people’s jobs too. I’m getting back to the action.

The multitouch system legend Jeff Han released another demo recently, which I saw on MacRumours. As usual it's a combination the usual gestures to move around a map and dragging objects around with basic physics, but then I was surprised to see a RHEL desktop appear. Watch the demo and look out for the morphing demo near the end. Chances are this is using MPX, which is being integrated into XInput 2 as we speak. NP: Dreaming Wide Awake, Lizz Wright

So last monday, the F1 team Vodafone McLaren Mercedes <youraddhere> unveiled their new car, new drivers and all the stuff in Val ncia. Many Valencians are still wanki^Wexcited about the event. Our Great Leader Paco Camps and his Great Team of Consellers prepared a urban racing circuit emulating Monaco, so people could enjoy Fernando Alonso's driving skillz right next to their homes. To accomplish this, one of the most important arteries of the city was closed during 8 or more hours, during a working day, when transit is busiest. And better yet, 1,200,000 of public money, our money, was spent to set up a show which basically was a huge advertisement of a private team. This is Val ncia though, the land of mosatros, m s! , and Valencians are pretty much happy with how their taxes are used, or how the city is quickly becoming a huge circus, after 12 (soon to be extended to 16) years of Partido Popular. I can't wait for the 32nd America's Cup! If anything positive, this show may change the name of the bridge where the Pope did his stuff last Summer (at the time, it was closed to transit during 3 months). Until now popularly called El Puente del Papa , hopefully it'll morph to El Puente de Alonso , at least until the next show. If I need to choose between Ratzinger and Alonso, hey, give me Alonsomania!

From The New York Times:

CARACAS, Venezuela, Jan. 10 President Hugo Ch vez was sworn in to a new six-year term at a ceremony here on Wednesday in which he described Jesus as “the greatest socialist in history” and pledged to speed Venezuela s metamorphosis into a Socialist country. “Fatherland! Socialism or death, I swear it!” Mr. Ch vez yelled as he was sworn in and given the presidential sash and a golden key to the tomb where the remains of Sim n Bol var, the South American liberator, are interred.

/me cheers

Marc, I disagree. Solving every issue and whim that every user files against a popular package, while not letting the package degenerate into a mess, is hard. Taking some time to gather opinions and produce a well-designed fix that strikes to the core of an issue, rather than treating symptoms, is a good thing for many classes of bugs. (Other classes should instead be fixed immediately.) The existence of many open bugs against a package in Debian is not an indication that it's of lower quality than the corresponding package in Ubuntu -- which in fact probably has 99% of the same bugs anyway. As a user, I also regard a BTS as perhaps the best form of documentation there is about real-life problems that I might encounter while using the package, the general quality of the code in the package, etc. It's the first thing I look at when installing some new peice of software. It's also a good way to gauge how well the package is maintained -- not by counting bugs, but by reading how the maintainer responds to bugs. What I look for in a BTS is an indication that the maintainers care about a bug. The fact that bug #725 took ten years to get fixed doesn't mean that X's maintainers suck, it means that for ten years, we were able to document a minor problem to the few users who cared about it, and that we were able to keep track of it until someone finally figured out how to fix it. That's quite an accomplishment. Another example, to keep picking on X, the fact that bug #216933 is marked wontfix is not an indication that the bug is worthless; in fact the bug documents a quite subtle issue in the Crusoe's code morphing software, and has been an invaluable reference to a lot of Crusoe users. I'm much more concerned about all our users who don't know about the BTS and are unwilling to bother to file bugs than I am about the total number of unfixed bugs in the BTS. Getting 100% of our users to file good bugs on every issue they run into would do much more to increase the overall quality of Debian than fixing every > 1 year old bug in the BTS would.

Hah! Targetted memes have hit again - Arareko decided I should talk about myself. I will do this, but I won't point the finger at five others - Lets see just who bites ;-) Besides, having left this post rot as a draft for over a week already, it got a bit more interesting: The meme bit from two sides. Arareko (as well as Ion) was bitten by Cicloid, from the mx.planetalinux.org-derived side of reality, and then Hanna bit Wouter on Planet Debian. Ok, time to get this message out from the freezer...
So... Five not very well known things about me? Ok, here I go.

1. Many people inquire me routinely about my name, specially when reading it off an official document where it appears with both names and both family names (Gunnar Eyal Wolf Iszaevich). As many Jewish families, mine comes from all over Europe: My mother-side grandparents were both born in Poland (hence the Iszajewicz, morphed into the slightly more writable Iszaevich). My father-side grandmother was born in Vienna, Austria (I still have some family in Graz), and my father-side grandfather was a proud child of the Austro-Hungarian empire - His family probably was originally Austriac (Wolf is a German name), but became Hungarian and Hungarian was their home language. He was born in Felszoviso, Transilvania (the part of Hungary that later became Northern Romania). And, yes, I mentioned my family is Jewish, so having the Hebrew name Eyal (my second given name) is no surprise. Now, about Gunnar? Well, I still don't know :) It's a Scandinavian name. My family has no (upwards) relation to Scandinavia, but both of my parents (although merely by coincidence, and with over 30 years between periods) lived in Western Sweden - My father, 1970-1972, and my mother, 2003-2006. Oh, and people usually expect them to carry strange foreign names as well - No, they are Bernardo and Ofelia.
2. I like to think started my journey into Free Software very early in my life. No, I didn't use Linux until 1994 (and only installed it in 1996), I'm not talking about such a modern piece of free software. I first touched computers around 1983-1984, when my father used to take me on Friday nights to his institute, to play with the computer. This computer was a Foonly F2, administered by La Mancha. What did I use to play on such a beast? Why, of course, I used Emacs to write TeX! Rumors say that this Foonly had the first TeX installation outside of Stanford (I guess this fact derives from Donald Knuth's visit to UNAM in 1977 - But of course I don't remember that!)
3. My family is bitterly split in two camps: Those who love eggplant and those who hate it. At least my parents, my aunt and I are known to love it. At least my wife (Nadezhda), my brother and two of my cousins are known to hate it. The feelings towards this noble plant are really strong, but out of respect for the other party of the family, we practically never cook with it.
4. Now that we mention food-related strangeness, I was a vegetarian for almost my first 20 years of life. My father is still a vegetarian (for over 35 years already). Nadezhda became a vegetarian almost a year ago. I still think I have saved enough karma during those 20 years to endure some more meat eating, but who knows... I might switch back just to be on the safe side ;-)
5. Often, memes can absorb too much energy from me. Even having left this entry not responded for over a week, I've been thinking (and forgetting) on and off what to write in it. So, Mauricio, thanks for making me waste my time this way! ;-) I hope this fact counts as a legal fifth thing.