Search Results: "jr"

17 March 2006

MJ Ray: The DPL Debate 2006

So, we get to the end of the DPL Debate (my logs), I revise my opinions and make a first draft of my vote. Thoughts here are given with grouping people as I see similarities (3 collaboration-centrics, 2 I don't like and the 2 unusual).
Bill Allombert
a moderate, a change, a reluctant candidate. Maintainer of an important, widely-used but unfashionable package. Someone questioned status and charisma, but from watching the FOSDEM video, I think there's the stage presence. Needs work on presenting. How much does that matter, though? It can be learnt. Above NOTA for sure. Just not sure where.
Andreas Schuldei
Seems to have done both good and bad work in the DPL team, which I guess is to be expected. I am uncomforable with some of his opinions and I think he's made poor judgement calls like signing this hate campaign - but I don't think he'd try to impose those opinions and all DPLs goof sometimes. I still think the small teams aim has many benefits. Above NOTA.
Jeroen van Wolffelaar
I'm not clear what he did in the DPL team during the year. I've listened to the FOSDEM talk, but still not clear. I am also uncomfortable with some opinions and judgements, even more so than Andreas. In debate, brazenly said he supported the first expulsion request. Gives a fairly good analysis of the problem, but: Physician! Heal Thyself! Placing unsure.
Anthony Towns
Lost my vote on Wed, 17 Aug 2005. Below NOTA.
Steve McIntyre
Commercialising debian on an ugly footing with DUS. It's wrong to try to call Debian Developers members of a retail business without asking them. Did something else I dislike a lot. Below NOTA.
Ari Pollack
If this was comedy, it needed to be funnier. Did something I dislike a lot. Below NOTA.
Ted Walther
Learned some things from last year. Heart seems to be in the right place. The interview with Aigarius suggests views not as simple as painted. Still a political disaster zone in internal debian matters (see platform, debate, ...). May be above NOTA in my vote this year.
Update: I slept well. Thanks for caring. Martin F. Krafft asked what's the point of this type of post, why we don't stand for DPL or "use the time to get some work done on Debian". For me, I'm trying to bias the vote outcome by persuading voters or candidates and draw attention to things that may have slipped past. There's no way I'd be elected DPL this year - mostly because of misperceptions I think, but mid-Feb to mid-March is always a bad time for me to explain myself - and I'm working on Debian things but I'm happy to spend extra time trying to identify a good leader. I never decide for sure until I fill out the ballot: some things can change in the last few days. If you don't find my ideas thought-provoking, sorry. I know some do.

16 March 2006

MJ Ray: Google Bugs: Desktop Non-Privacy

There's a more obvious privacy problem in Google Desktop on Microsoft Windows. Unless you stop it, it will send your hard drive contents to Google's servers. This is the sort of thing I would like to see made "Massive Computer Misuse" in any updates to English law (as mentioned in my submission to the All-party Parliamentary Internet Group DRM enquiry). I'm sure it was in subsection 275 of the terms and conditions, but I'm also pretty sure that it was presented so that most of its victims didn't see or understand it.

MJ Ray: debian-legal Package Lists

Just realised I've not actually posted this yet. Oops. If you're interested in these packages, check and maybe improve the discussions and bugs:
February
autoconf digikam gnome-vfs2 libgsm mysource-cms php-netcheckip portaudio python-web shishi sl-modem-source
January
adodb asterisk-prompt-es darcsweb datamatrix digikam display-dhammapada fglrx-driver kernel-image latex-mk libecw libpreludedb libqt4 Matrix3D openoffice.org oracle-instant-client php-net-smtp php-net-socket php-pear php-xml-parser [+ many more php-*] php-net-imap tailor sed shishi ttf-bitstream-vera ttf-gentium uddi4j yics fetchyahoo

15 March 2006

MJ Ray: Other Views of the DPL 06 Platforms: Update 2

MJ Ray: FDL: What, no explanation?

So, the position statement claims FDL-without-unmodifiables works can go into main. Sadly, the approved text says nothing about the anti-DRM or the source code problems. As I posted: "It just pulls a conclusion out of the project's backside without rationale. This leaves a huge gaping hole in the understanding of the FDL. Dumb." Others are trying to retcon past analyses to try to make the FDL PS make sense. I'd prefer to leave the ambiguity because that's what the project voted for, but the question is: can anyone explain how the no-security and format restrictions (like section 2 "technical measures" and section 3 "include a machine-readable Transparent copy along with each Opaque copy, or [a URL valid for a year]") follow the guidelines and are practically possible with the current archive? [debian-legal subthread on DRM]

9 March 2006

MJ Ray: Rank Further Discussion High

Yet again, someone posts a misunderstanding of Further Discussion to encourage more 2 and 3 preference votes for bad decisions. This time it's Raphael Hertzog. It could be insincerity, cluelessness, dislike of voting or something else motivating him and I don't mean to suggest any reason, but please don't rank FD below options that you dislike. Any compromise found from that insincere voting will not last long. Voting closes this weekend: if you have ranked FD below options you dislike, revote now if you want to find a real compromise. As you can find if you explore Jochen Voss's paper and references linked above this section on my blog page, the best way to get a good compromise decision is if there is a good spread of options. I don't think the three presented are a very high-granularity(?) range, so FD is the best outcome if we're really divided: try to get agreement again. If it goes to FD, I intend to propose a wide range of options after the DPL campaigns end (multiple votes being discussed at once are too much of a distraction, in my opinion).

6 March 2006

MJ Ray: About #debian-tech

And now, a break from the DPL platforms to look at #debian-telet^H^H^Hch. ;-) DPL 2006 candidate Anthony Towns defends #debian-tech, saying that the actions which frustrated joeyh were mentioned in another IRC channel. I don't IRC much any more, so I don't know: was joeyh online in that other IRC channel when the actions were mentioned, and did they ever reach a main discussion archive? I feel that one problem in debian development is that too many discussions loop and not enough people give or follow references/links. However, if the source material never reaches public archives, it's impossible for anyone outside the original discussion to do so. This is quite besides the discussion about how far charters and charter-admins should go. Selfbanning is a good move and I think it should stall most punishment processes, but it seems that some people keep on flaming long after a self-ban with a reasoning that seems to be: "they might hurt us later, so we should hurt them first." Myself, I won't go in #debian-tech because "respect and courtesy" often really means "respect mah autoriteh" (bad), "respect the majority" (almost as bad) or simply BOGU, in my experience of debian.

5 March 2006

MJ Ray: OtherWayUp listings

To be carried on OtherWayUp, my aggregator site, your blog should be:
  • Interesting and useful (see the tips above for some suggestions)
  • Mostly on a topic I'm willing to carry (make a category feed if needed)
  • Valid, preferably RDF Site Summary (RSS 1) - I drop broken feeds and wait for owners to report they're fixed
  • Under a sane copyright licence: at least free for non-commercial, but preferably free software, in case I stop subsidising the site in the future
  • Submitted to the site
Just now, I'm contemplating dropping Economics (no good feeds left) and downgrading/splitting Culture into Culture and Business Columns pages instead of a top-level page.

MJ Ray: More Other Views of the DPL 06 Platforms

4 March 2006

MJ Ray: Language Translation Software Discussion Panel chaired by Mark Shuttleworth

Seeing that headline in the latest edition of The Linguist made me do a double-take. It turned out to be a namespace collision. Also interesting was an A-level student's comments on (lack of) English grammar teaching holding back foreign language learning. I was lucky: I was taught grammar basics at primary school and it continued through most of my secondary school, but that was thanks to clever educators who ignored national guidelines.

3 March 2006

MJ Ray: Spammers Hall of Shame

IBM Rational spammed me on 1 March 2006. They invited me to "get on board with open source" (a forkinthehead to the copywriter for that gem) by sleeping through a presentation at IBM Bedfont Lakes (wherever that may be: the invite didn't say). The address used gave consent once for certain types of marketing, but not this. The address has not been verified accurate for years, so the message is spam and that address now gives an Unknown User error.

MJ Ray: Walks Management Forum

On 9 March 2006, the Walks Management Forum will discuss:
  • Gaywood River works;
  • Resurfacing of Broad Walk and Extension Walk;
  • Management building;
  • Basketball court and new playground.
If you have comments on these or wish any other issue to be raised, please email me. As far as I know, the public can't speak at these meetings.

MJ Ray: St Nicholas Tree Felling

"The Council has applied to the Diocese of Norwich for permission to remove six trees to the north of St Nicholas Chapel." -- BCKLWN Press Release
I've fought other fellings, but I'm not sure how I feel about this one. I know there's a new generation of trees waiting to take this line's place, the threatened trees are close to a wall and other buildings and I think they're far away from general public access, but it still worries me that trees are being killed off before their lives end naturally. To say that a tree may fall is like saying that a man may die: it can happen, but how healthy are they today? The main thing that's making me suspicious is the plans are on public view at Mintlyn. That's a few miles away from the chapel, out past the edge-of-town hospital and over the bypass. The main council offices are about 100m away from the trees and are the usual place for plans to be put on public deposit, so it looks rather like they'd use the the legendary locked filing cabinet in a disused basement lavatory for this one if they could. Why? Deadline for responses is 27 March 2005.

2 March 2006

MJ Ray: Blog moves: How not to antispam

How not to do it: The blog of Alexis Sukrieh not only uses broken letter image tests just now, but sends rude error messages when you fail and has a broken trackback system that returns 403 Forbidden. If that's the Spam Karma 2 mentioned in the footer, I suspect someone will be reincarnated as flame-roasted tinned meat soon. (Is this comment offensive? Report bad content.)

MJ Ray: Problems at lists.gnu.org

Some discussions are being slowed by a problem at lists.gnu.org, as explained by Savannah Hackers.

Raphaël Hertzog: Yes I do

I want to respond to jb’s cry, after all I’m his favorite teletubby and his message is full of references to events where I’m involved. I’m sure he’s honest in his message but still he misses some points. Julien says :
we never agreed to be nice to each other
That’s true I’m part of several other associations and I never had to sign a paper saying that I’ll be nice with others. Nevertheless, each time that someone misbehaved he was sanctionned. And nobody in the club took the defense of the faulty person in the name of “free speech”. Understand me, if we didn’t have any problem, I wouldn’t make efforts to define a “Code of conduct”. I’m not a fan of “Ubuntu’s love here, love there” and I certainly don’t want a world of friendly clones within Debian. I believe there’s room for a code of conduct that would let us work together in a friendly manner.
this project used to be open-minded
Being open-minded applies to people not to a project. Now it’s time that you discover that with 1000 people you have far more chance than with 200 to have several narrow-minded people in the set … and that everyone has his own definition of what open-minded means. That’s why we need to write down what’s acceptable and what’s not. I’ve heard you several times complain about the behaviour of other Debian developers, why not use the opportunity offered by a code of conduct to define how we should aim to work together ?
We are doing it all for fun
True again ! So how difficult is it to imagine that being insulted is not fun ? And since we’re all volunteers, there’s no good reason to let some people kill the fun out of it…
I don t use kill-files
That’s because you have the luck to have a thick skin. I avoid kill files as well. But look at Lars Wirzenius, look at Theodore Y. Ts’o, they all recognize that they can’t stand the level of unfriendliness that we sometimes reach. I want to be able to work with everyone and not only with those who have leather instead of skin.
Help tell those people to FOAD
Is that your way of being open minded ? Ok, it’s a bit out of context but nevertheless, there’s some truth in my criticism: And to finish this (long) post, let’s agree on something: yes we’re a technical community, yes we should put Debian’s interests first ! (By the way, on this subject it looks like I agree with MJ Ray. It doesn’t happen very often! ;-) )

MJ Ray: Other Views of the DPL 06 Platforms

  • Julien Blache gives crap reasons for a good conclusion, in my opinion. I'd like to see a list code adopted because debian is not a socially-consistent group, but they should be minimal standards that accept debian is not a monoculture, rather than a charter for cloneliness. FWIW, I don't like Ubuntu - but I have no strong opinion about it at the time of writing - and I agree about the inconsistent behaviour of some who want codes of conduct and expulsions for offensive emails: review the notorious August 2005 -private discussion and see who sent the most personally-insulting posts. That said, I don't understand the "raise your voice" call. Where was Julien Blache in the list discussions about social topics?
  • Aigars Mahinovs quotes a post from 2 years ago. How far back do you want to go? Best hope I never stand for DPL, as some stuff I posted in 1994 was really bad. Give him some rope and see if he hangs himself this year: yep, he already has, IMO.

1 March 2006

MJ Ray: Angry Radio Show

I was just listening to a radio show which claims to be for Linux users and it spent about 10 minutes at the start comparing Windows and MacOS. Who cares? Not all Linux users. That is the sort of silly discussion which irritated me at Cambridge LUG when I last visited it (years ago now): most of the conversation seemed to be about Python on Windows or similar. Those discussions have other places, other media. Don't clutter the Linux space with them too. The show redeemed itself with a strong interview with a flock web browser maintainer. One particularly good question asked why it doesn't work with many self-hosted applications and privacy-compromising web app service sites are supported first. I don't think the answer was brilliant, but it was OK: the services publish APIs more than self-hostable apps. Apparently, flock's default search is Yahoo. Although they share some of the google bugs like China and index manipulation, they also have a Creative Commons search which could fit well with flock's collaborative web ambitions (if CC 3.0 fixes the bugs). Rather irritating that the copyright licence (CC-by-nc-nd 2.0: yes, that's an old version) doesn't permit cutting the annoying Windows-MacOS guff off the front. That's why the show doesn't get a web link. I linked it from the blog last summer, if you really want to find it. Sadly, flock also contains non-free software by default, but you can cut them out. Update: later in the show, they comment about their strong free software beliefs (hahahaha, ulp!) and there's a bad interview too: should have quit while ahead. While writing this, I tried to find flock's web page without a search engine because of other projects and a C function sharing its name. From my bookmarks, W3C has no browser directory(wow!), browser.org seems dead, browserwatch.com seems an irrelevant redirect, vlib.org.uk hasn't a good link for this. I found it in the Open Directory. What's good for this any more? Is the web decomposing?

28 February 2006

Aigars Mahinovs: DPL platform runthrough

I think more people should just publish their thoughts about platforms of our DPL candidates so that we can have more visibility and insight (and a reason to actually read those platform statements). Thanks go to MJRay for the idea, however I will try to be a bit more biased so that this post conveys more of my opinions then just a plain summary of the platforms.
Jeroen van Wolffelaar
  • ftp-team for a year, looks good
  • dpl-team as a good idea, wants team decisions to take less responsibility on his own. Might be wise, but could be un-leaderish.
  • pushes for smooth communication, I am not sure how that will work out - smooth communication means sanding off the edges, but we all know that the best development is always on the edge.
  • pushes for code of conduct. While the idea might be quite popular it also states that bad behavior in our community is becoming so widespread that a special code is needed to compensate for that. I do not feel that we are at such a bad state now - more flamewars are raised about the code of conduct then about the conduct itself. I feel this is were simple and decisive action by the DPL should be done and not a birocratic procedure to spread the blame of failure.
  • "insider reports" - good idea, like an internal Debian News Station (see Howard 100 News)
  • encouraging wiki, forums and IRC as official channels of external communication. Several questions arise here: as a user with specific question - where must I go? to which media? to which list, channel or forum category? It must not be too complex. Also there is the question of spreading knowledgeable users and developers too thin across multiple channels of voluntary support.
  • infrastructure transparency - good, but how? even tiny bits of paperwork there can slow the whole project to a crawl.
  • mediator in flamewar situations - good, DPL should be doing that.
  • media coverage - does Debian need more media coverage? I do not think so. I do believe that we need more coverage in more professional circles (even if in circles of professional psychiatrists) to attract more developers and make them understand us better, but I do not feel that attracting huge crowds of general public would do much good for the project.
  • in my opinion team players make mediocre leaders
Five word summary: transparent, wide, smooth, mediative, consensus
Ari Pollak
  • whoa ... pictures, so sweet :)
  • humor, so much needed in our project
  • good point about half-DPL - it would be nice to have DPL delegate as much as they possibly can but be strict and easy with what is left
  • Debian Police - sounds like a good substitute for Project Scud and the Finnish Inquisition :D
  • good take on licences, however I would add to the Gnocchi licence the phrase "And you must remove any copies of this licence from your memory as soon as you have finished reading it." That will show them lawyers ...
Five word summary: humor, half-*, police, anti-legalese, illustrations
Steve McIntyre
  • got in cheap, but a long time ago
  • The CD dude!
  • not much new on internal communication, same old "will tell you even that I not doing anything"
  • same stuff about the code of conduct, see above.
  • social skill test within NM. Good idea, but not a good implementation - you will not get much social conditioning with mentoring inside teams. We need someone to get on the candidate and roast them good - test their asbestos suits. After he has made a package, schedule for time and either call the newbie or IRC with him. Grill him about his package. Must sure to slide into personal insults, religion bashing and political discourses. Watch the response. Evaluate. Post audio online :)
  • open cabalish developments - there is little to be done beyond talking to cabal and making sure all semi-private developments use public Debian infrastructure for communication - draft on wiki and develop in svn, so that everyone can see.
  • very good points about professionalism. we must be able to be proud about Debian and demand some level of standards from packages inside Debian. The idea of regular DD reexamination might be a very good fit here, see below.
  • Steve looks like a good organizer to me
  • however he might be a bit too soft on leadership or simply too diplomatically inclined in his platform statement
Five word summary: professionalism, standards, MIA, tests, communication
Anthony Towns
  • not wanting to win too much
  • speed up! - release early, release often. Sounds good for the everyday processes, but not for The Release. I still want to see Debian as The Most Stable thing ever.
  • recruiting - I would ask, recruit for what? People can not just get into the interesting parts of the project and recruiting for general run of the mill development does not sound too engaging to me. You'd better make a contest for new security team members or new ftp masters or any other position that one person or only a few persons hold now. Have clear requirements and tests and actually get those people into doing those critical jobs. After that we can think about ...
  • ... compulsory turnover. Now there is a good idea that I'd like other DPLs to consider, but only with in conjunction with the previous one. We might not need full rotation, but we could have a rotating ftp team leader post that would iterate among ftp team members. That would alleviate the "hit by a bus" problem a bit more.
  • DPL as a discussion and direction leader is quite a nice and needed idea in my opinion.
  • I do not agree with aj about compulsory kindness and the general idea of expulsion on social grounds. Currently it creates more problems then it could solve in a lifetime.
  • Congrats on declassification thing, historians will surely thank us for that.
  • nice legal disclaimer, I like those kind of things :)
Five word summary: continuity, tempo, newbies, direction, bling
Andreas Schuldei Not online, to be put here when it appears.
Jonathan (Ted) Walther
  • photo, nice touch.
  • speak your mind. sound essential to a DPL.
  • Ubuntu good. Good.
  • Make love (and code) and not Desktop. Let Ubuntu make Desktop if they want to.
  • We all are strange people, face it.
  • Kicking people out is more harm to the project then those people could ever do.
  • Kicking fun out of Debian.
  • Great points about improving NM process and worshiping James Troup - I fully agree.
  • The best idea here - recertification of all Debian Developers every X years (where X is proposed to be 3 currently). This will almost automatically solve many problems we have in Debian: NM frustration, MIA developers, standards of professionalism, reiteration of best practices, social reshuffling.
Five word summary: Here, goes, my, vote, period. Alternate summary: geek, love, tolerate, recertification, statue.
Bill Allombert
  • math Ph.D. and researcher.
  • wanted to vot for Lars, but as he stepped down saw no one else good enough, so put himself forward. brave words. I like Lars too, bet it's not like we do not have good candidates this year besides him.
  • summary on effect of voluntarism and respectful communication. Quite plain if you ask me. Got me a bit bored there. Not a good sign.
  • think globally
  • assist others
  • help Debian specific software
  • observers - sounds like that Debian Action News Team minus all the fun.
  • "I am very patient" - be patient when reading and enthusiastic while writing, otherwise people might not read patiently
Five word summary: filler, communicate, more filler, patience I hope this summary gave someone as much food for thought as it did for me. My favorite is very clear, but can you guess who is my second choice? Leave a comment and let me know what you think :)

MJ Ray: How I read the DPL 2006 platforms

Bill Allombert
  • Lars Wirzenius had denominated himself
  • fully volunteer project implications
  • some rules for better communications
  • mediate
  • consider the distribution globally
  • "assistant" projects, Debian-specific projects
  • neutral observers
Jonathan (Ted) Walther
  • unpopular
  • GIANT ROBOTS sex JET PACKS sex CITIES ON THE MOON sex SPACE COLONIES sex FLYING CARS beer
  • Most of us are disfunctional in various ways
  • if a person tries to get another person kicked out of the Debian project, and they fail, they themselves will be kicked out. wiki
  • developers who didn't go through NM to go through it within the next year. From that point on, every developer would be required to renew their membership every three years, similar to drivers licenses [MJR: not English driving licences, it's not]
  • honor James Troup
Andreas Schuldei
  • not found on this server
Anthony Towns
  • a leadership hat
  • increasing its tempo
  • DPL and others actively and visibly recruit people on an ongoing basis
  • raise topics for discussion, and help guide them through
  • Gratuitous Song Parody
  • [seems to see the arbitrary expulsion and ban procedures as good developments?]
  • [title claims to be Ari Pollak's platform :) This is a good thing, will win votes.]
Steve McIntyre
  • [officer of the trader called "Debian-UK"]
  • regular status updates
  • agree a Debian code of conduct
  • more NM training can/should happen more within teams
  • more open discussion will happen naturally
  • Professionalism [(!) why not think of the children, too?]
  • detect [MIA] more quickly and more easily
Ari Pollak
  • half-joke candidate
  • half-DPL
  • Team Ari: Debian Police
  • who needs such complicated licenses, anyway?
Jeroen van Wolffelaar
  • DPL team
  • adoption of a code of conduct
  • insider reports
  • more use of the official wiki
  • Increase transparency of infrastructure teams
  • mediator/ombudsman ... team like the tech-ctte
  • actively approach the press
The above are in the reverse of the vote page order, in case you were wondering. I've not worked out my preference yet. Let's see what happens.

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