Search Results: "bolo"

26 April 2020

Enrico Zini: Some Italian women

Artemisia Gentileschi - Wikipedia
art history people archive.org
Artemisia Lomi or Artemisia Gentileschi (US: / d nt l ski, -ti -/, Italian: [arte mi zja d enti leski]; July 8, 1593 c. 1656) was an Italian Baroque painter, now considered one of the most accomplished seventeenth-century artists working in the dramatic style of Caravaggio. In an era when women had few opportunities to pursue artistic training or work as professional artists, Artemisia was the first woman to become a member of the Accademia di Arte del Disegno in Florence and had an international clientele.
Maria Pellegrina Amoretti (1756 1787), was an Italian lawyer. She is referred to as the first woman to graduate in law in Italy, and the third woman to earn a degree.
Laura Maria Caterina Bassi (October 1711 20 February 1778) was an Italian physicist and academic. She received a doctoral degree in Philosophy from the University of Bologna in May 1732. She was the first woman to earn a professorship in physics at a university. She is recognized as the first woman in the world to be appointed a university chair in a scientific field of studies. Bassi contributed immensely to the field of science while also helping to spread the study of Newtonian mechanics through Italy.
Maria Gaetana Agnesi (UK: / n je zi/ an-YAY-zee,[1] US: / n -/ ahn-,[2][3] Italian: [ma ri a ae ta na a zi, - e z-];[4] 16 May 1718 9 January 1799) was an Italian mathematician, philosopher, theologian, and humanitarian. She was the first woman to write a mathematics handbook and the first woman appointed as a mathematics professor at a university.[5]
Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia (US: /k r n ro p sko pi /,[4] Italian: [ lena lu kr ttsja kor na ro pi sk pja]) or Elena Lucrezia Corner (Italian: [kor n r]; 5 June 1646 26 July 1684), also known in English as Helen Cornaro, was a Venetian philosopher of noble descent who in 1678 became one of the first women to receive an academic degree from a university, and the first to receive a Doctor of Philosophy degree.
Maria Tecla Artemisia Montessori (/ m nt s ri/ MON-tiss-OR-ee, Italian: [ma ri a montes s ri]; August 31, 1870 May 6, 1952) was an Italian physician and educator best known for the philosophy of education that bears her name, and her writing on scientific pedagogy. At an early age, Montessori broke gender barriers and expectations when she enrolled in classes at an all-boys technical school, with hopes of becoming an engineer. She soon had a change of heart and began medical school at the Sapienza University of Rome, where she graduated with honors in 1896. Her educational method is still in use today in many public and private schools throughout the world.
Rita Levi-Montalcini OMRI OMCA (US: / le vi mo nt l t i ni, l v-, li vi m nt l -/, Italian: [ ri ta l vi montal t i ni]; 22 April 1909 30 December 2012) was an Italian Nobel laureate, honored for her work in neurobiology. She was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with colleague Stanley Cohen for the discovery of nerve growth factor (NGF). From 2001 until her death, she also served in the Italian Senate as a Senator for Life. This honor was given due to her significant scientific contributions. On 22 April 2009, she became the first Nobel laureate ever to reach the age of 100, and the event was feted with a party at Rome's City Hall. At the time of her death, she was the oldest living Nobel laureate.
Margherita Hack Knight Grand Cross OMRI (Italian: [mar e ri ta (h)ak]; 12 June 1922 29 June 2013) was an Italian astrophysicist and scientific disseminator. The asteroid 8558 Hack, discovered in 1995, was named in her honour.
Samantha Cristoforetti (Italian pronunciation: [sa manta kristofo retti]; born 26 April 1977, in Milan) is an Italian European Space Agency astronaut, former Italian Air Force pilot and engineer. She holds the record for the longest uninterrupted spaceflight by a European astronaut (199 days, 16 hours), and until June 2017 held the record for the longest single space flight by a woman until this was broken by Peggy Whitson and later by Christina Koch. She is also the first Italian woman in space. Samantha Cristoforetti is also known as the first person who brewed an espresso in space.

5 October 2017

Ross Gammon: My FOSS activities for August & September 2017

I am writing this from my hotel room in Bologna, Italy before going out for a pizza. After a successful Factory Acceptance Test today, I might also allow myself to celebrate with a beer. But anyway, here is what I have been up to in the FLOSS world for the last month and a bit. Debian
  • Uploaded gramps (4.2.6) to stretch-backports & jessie-backports-sloppy.
  • Started working on the latest release of node-tmp. It needs further work due to new documentation being included etc.
  • Started working on packaging the latest goocanvas-2.0 package. Everything is ready except for producing some autopkgtests.
  • Moved node-coffeeify experimental to unstable.
  • Updated the Multimedia Blends Tasks with all the latest ITPs etc.
  • Reviewed doris for Antonio Valentino, and sponsored it for him.
  • Reviewed pyresample for Antonio Valentino, and sponsored it for him.
  • Reviewed a new parlatype package for Gabor Karsay, and sponsored it for him.
Ubuntu
  • Successfully did my first merge using git-ubuntu for the Qjackctl package. Thanks to Nish for patiently answering my questions, reviewing my work, and sponsoring the upload.
  • Refreshed the gramps backport request to 4.2.6. Still no willing sponsor.
  • Tested Len s rewrite of ubuntustudio-controls, adding a CPU governor option in particular. There are a couple of minor things to tidy up, but we have probably missed the chance to get it finalised for Artful.
  • Tested the First Beta release of Ubuntu Studio 17.10 Artful and wrote the release notes. Also drafted my first release announcement on the Ubunti Studio website which Eylul reviewed and published.
  • Refreshed the ubuntustudio-meta package and requested sponsorship. This was done by Steve Langasek. Thanks Steve.
  • Tested the Final Beta release of Ubuntu Studio 17.10 Artful and wrote the release notes.
  • Started working on a new Carla package, starting from where V ctor Cuadrado Juan left it (ITP in Debian).

31 October 2016

Enrico Zini: Links for November 2016

So You Want To Learn Physics... [archive]
This post is a condensed version of what I've sent to people who have contacted me over the years, outlining what everyone needs to learn in order to really understand physics.
Operation Tamarisk [archive]
Operation Tamarisk was a Cold War-era operation run by the military intelligence services of the U.S., U.K., and France through their military liaison missions in East Germany, that gathered discarded paper, letters, and garbage from Soviet trash bins and military maneuvers, including used toilet paper.
Mortara case
Of how in Bologna, where I live, in the 1850s/1860s, when my grand-grand-granddad lived, the Papal State seized a child from a Jewish family on the basis of a former servant's testimony that she had administered emergency baptism to the boy when he fell sick as an infant.

28 March 2016

Lucy Wayland: Stuffed Butternut Squash

This is a fusion recipe from a rather bland just stuff it with ricotta recipe I saw, David Scott s The Peniless Vegetarian , and my own mutations on those themes. I can t give you exact quantities, just make a little more than you will make the hollowed mound (grin), and the rest will make an excellent pasta sauce. Ingredients For an average sized butternut squash, you will need:
1 onion (I prefer red)
3 cloves of garlic
1 capsicum pepper (I prefer green, my ex- preferred red)
Some red lentils
Optional green or brown lentils for texture and flavour. I used some puy
The lentil quantity is hard to estimate, but I ratio 4 red to 1 optional.
Roughly one handful of chopped mushrooms i.e. when chopped, it is one handful
1 tin tinned tomatoes
Some tomato puree
A generous amout of garam masala garam masala is what brings out the flavout in lentils
Some paprike
Optional chilli if using chilli, I recommend fresh of course.
Optional Balsamic vinegar
Optional Marmite Preperation of the Squash
1. Cut the butternut squash in half, length ways. This is very hard, you will need a good large knife, and may require you jumping up and down into the air. This is the second most hard of the procedure. 2. For each half, scoop out the seeds, and pare back the bowl till it is no longer overly fibrous. Discard this, or find a use for the seeds. 3. For each half, scoop a channel of the softer flesh up from the baisin up near the top. This has to be done by feel, is hard and thankless work. Also experimentation required. Reserve this flesh. Preperation of the Filling This is just basically a nice lentil sauce that can be used with pasta, rice, toast etc. Important: this is not a stir fry, but a largish, heavy bottom pan is recommended. 1. Finely peel then chopp the onions and the garlic. Chopp the chillis if used (I am a chilli gal). Please observe Chilli Protocol[0] 2. Wash and chop the pepper and mushrooms. Not finely diced, but not crudite-sized slices. Remember that peppers shrivel down a little, mushrooms a lot. 3. Start frying the onions for a while in some oil (I prefer olive, but others are acceptible), until they just about to go translucent. Then add the garlic and optional chillis until the garlic is just cooking nicely. 4. Add the spices, turn over until all the containts of the pan are covered, and cook for another 30 seconds or so. Then add the tinned tomato, and then add half a can of cold water water which rinsed the tin out with. Stir this around, and make sure it is now at just at a simmer or pre-simmer. 5. Add the lentils. You want 0.5-1 cm of water above the lentils when you have added and stirred. Let these cook and expand for about 5 mins, stirring all the while, all the lentils will stick to the bottom. 6. Add the pepper, mushroom, reserved squash flesh, and optional dash of balsamic vinegar, and half a tea spoon of marmite. Cook and stir until the pepper goes soft. This is the hard part. Add boiling water if really too thick, or some tomato puree if too thin. There is no hard science to this, you want at the end of 10 minutes or so something resembling the thickness in texture of a stiff bolognaise sauce. Assembly
1. Have a baking tray. Whether you prefer to grease, line with foil, or line with baking parchment is up to you. I prefer baking parchment. 2. Stuff those two halves of butternut squash with that sauce you made. It should make a mound of about 1cm about the level. If you feel extravagent, and are not vegan, sprinkle a little grated cheese on top. 3. Place in a pre-heated oven of 200oC. Cooking time should be about 20 mins, but larger ones take longer. The acid test is to briefly take them out, and prod the lower side with a fork. It should go through the skin with little resistance. When ready, serve. It s really a dish in itself, but some people might like a bit of salad, or maybe a light green risotto.

9 March 2015

Enrico Zini: free-as-in-facebook

Free as in Facebook Yesterday we were in an airport. We tried to connect to the airport "free" wifi. It had a captive portal that asked for a lot of personal information before one could maybe get on the internet, and we gave up. Bologna Airport, no matter what they do to pretend that they like you, it's always clear that they don't. I looked at the captive portal screen and I said: ah yes, "free" wifi. Free as in Facebook . We figured that we had an expression that will want to be reused.

9 December 2014

Enrico Zini: radicale-davdroid

Radicale and DAVDroid radicale and DAVdroid appeal to me. Let's try to make the whole thing work. A self-signed SSL certificate Generating the certificate:
    openssl req -nodes -x509 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout cal-key.pem -out cal-cert.pem -days 3650
    [...]
    Country Name (2 letter code) [AU]:IT
    State or Province Name (full name) [Some-State]:Bologna
    Locality Name (eg, city) []:
    Organization Name (eg, company) [Internet Widgits Pty Ltd]:enricozini.org
    Organizational Unit Name (eg, section) []:
    Common Name (e.g. server FQDN or YOUR name) []:cal.enricozini.org
    Email Address []:postmaster@enricozini.org
Installing it on my phone:
    openssl x509 -in cal-cert.pem -outform DER -out cal-cert.crt
    adb push cal-cert.crt /mnt/sdcard/
    enrico --follow-instructions http://davdroid.bitfire.at/faq/entry/importing-a-certificate
Installing radicale in my VPS An updated radicale package, with this patch to make it work with DAVDroid:
    apt-get source radicale
    # I reviewed 063f7de7a2c7c50de5fe3f8382358f9a1124fbb6
    git clone https://github.com/Kozea/Radicale.git
    Move the python code from git to the Debian source
    dch -v 0.10~enrico  "Pulled in the not yet released 0.10 work from upstream"
    debuild -us -uc -rfakeroot
Install the package:
    # dpkg -i python-radicale_0.10~enrico0-1_all.deb
    # dpkg -i radicale_0.10~enrico0-1_all.deb
Create a system user to run it:
    # adduser --system --disabled-password radicale
Configure it for mod_wsgi with auth done by Apache:
    # For brevity, this is my config file with comments removed
    [storage]
    # Storage backend
    # Value: filesystem   multifilesystem   database   custom
    type = filesystem
    # Folder for storing local collections, created if not present
    filesystem_folder = /var/lib/radicale/collections
    [logging]
    config = /etc/radicale/logging
Create the wsgi file to run it:
    # mkdir /srv/radicale
    # cat <<EOT > /srv/radicale/radicale.wsgi
    import radicale
    radicale.log.start()
    application = radicale.Application()
    EOT
    # chown radicale.radicale /srv/radicale/radicale.wsgi
    # chmod 0755 /srv/radicale/radicale.wsgi
Make radicale commit to git
    # apt-get install python-dulwich
    # cd /var/lib/radicale/collections
    # git init
    # chown radicale.radicale -R /var/lib/radicale/collections/.git
Apache configuration Add a new site to apache:
    $ cat /etc/apache2/sites-available/cal.conf
    # For brevity, this is my config file with comments removed
    <IfModule mod_ssl.c>
    <VirtualHost *:443>
            ServerName cal.enricozini.org
            ServerAdmin enrico@enricozini.org
            Alias /robots.txt /srv/radicale/robots.txt
            Alias /favicon.ico /srv/radicale/favicon.ico
            WSGIDaemonProcess radicale user=radicale group=radicale threads=1 umask=0027 display-name=% GROUP 
            WSGIProcessGroup radicale
            WSGIScriptAlias / /srv/radicale/radicale.wsgi
            <Directory /srv/radicale>
                    # WSGIProcessGroup radicale
                    # WSGIApplicationGroup radicale
                    # WSGIPassAuthorization On
                    AllowOverride None
                    Require all granted
            </Directory>
            <Location />
                    AuthType basic
                    AuthName "Enrico's Calendar"
                    AuthBasicProvider file
                    AuthUserFile /usr/local/etc/radicale/htpasswd
                    Require user enrico
            </Location>
            ErrorLog APACHE_LOG_DIR /cal-enricozini-org-error.log
            LogLevel warn
            CustomLog APACHE_LOG_DIR /cal-enricozini-org-access.log combined
            SSLEngine on
            SSLCertificateFile    /etc/ssl/certs/cal.pem
            SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/cal.key
    </VirtualHost>
    </IfModule>
Then enable it:
    # a2ensite cal.conf
    # service apache2 reload
Create collections DAVdroid seems to want to see existing collections on the server, so we create them:
    $ apt-get install cadaver
    $ cat <<EOT > /tmp/empty.ics
    BEGIN:VCALENDAR
    VERSION:2.0
    END:VCALENDAR
    EOT
    $ cat <<EOT > /tmp/empty.vcf
    BEGIN:VCARD
    VERSION:2.1
    END:VCARD
    EOT
    $ cadaver https://cal.enricozini.org
    WARNING: Untrusted server certificate presented for  cal.enricozini.org':
    [...]
    Do you wish to accept the certificate? (y/n) y
    Authentication required for Enrico's Calendar on server  cal.enricozini.org':
    Username: enrico
    Password: ****
    dav:/> cd enrico/contacts.vcf/
    dav:/> put /tmp/empty.vcf
    dav:/> cd ../calendar.ics/
    dav:/> put /tmp/empty.ics
    dav:/enrico/calendar.ics/> ^D
    Connection to  cal.enricozini.org' closed.
DAVdroid configuration
  1. Add a new DAVdroid sync account
  2. Use server/username configuration
  3. For server, use https:////
  4. Add username and password
It should work. Related links

26 November 2014

Enrico Zini: calypso-davdroid

Calypso and DAVDroid calypso and DAVdroid appeal to me. Let's try to make the whole thing work. Update: radicale seems to also support git as a backend, and I plan to give it a try, too. A self-signed SSL certificate Generating the certificate:
$ openssl req -nodes -x509 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout cal-key.pem -out cal-cert.pem -days 3650
[...]
Country Name (2 letter code) [AU]:IT
State or Province Name (full name) [Some-State]:Bologna
Locality Name (eg, city) []:
Organization Name (eg, company) [Internet Widgits Pty Ltd]:enricozini.org
Organizational Unit Name (eg, section) []:
Common Name (e.g. server FQDN or YOUR name) []:cal.enricozini.org
Email Address []:postmaster@enricozini.org
Installing it on my phone:
$ openssl x509 -in cal-cert.pem -outform DER -out cal-cert.crt
$ adb push cal-cert.crt /mnt/sdcard/
$ enrico --follow-instructions http://davdroid.bitfire.at/faq/entry/importing-a-certificate
Installing calypso in my VPS An updated calypso package:
$ git clone git://keithp.com/git/calypso
$ git checkout debian -b enrico
$ git remote add chrysn  git://prometheus.amsuess.com/calypso-patches
$ git fetch chrysn
$ git merge chrysn/chrysn/integration
$ dch -v 1.4+enrico  "Merged with chrysn integration branch"
$ debuild -us -uc -rfakeroot
Install the package:
# dpkg -i calypso_1.4+enrico_all.deb
Create a system user to run it:
# adduser --system --disabled-password calypso
# chsh calypso  # /bin/dash
Make it run at boot time (based on calypso-init from the git repo):
# cat /etc/default/calypso
CALYPSO_OPTS="-d -P $PIDFILE"
# diff -Nau calypso-init calypso-init.enrico
--- calypso-init        2014-11-26 11:50:35.301001194 +0100
+++ calypso-init.enrico 2014-11-26 12:18:16.564138554 +0100
@@ -62,8 +62,8 @@
          return 1
    mkdir -p $(dirname $PIDFILE)
-       chown calypso:calypso $(dirname $PIDFILE)
-       start-stop-daemon --start -c $NAME --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON -- \
+       chown calypso:nogroup $(dirname $PIDFILE)
+       start-stop-daemon --start -c $NAME:nogroup --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON -- \
        $CALYPSO_OPTS \
          return 2
    # Add code here, if necessary, that waits for the process to be ready
# cp calypso-init.enrico /etc/init.d/calypso
# update-rc.d calypso defaults
Setting up the database
# su - calypso
Certificates and server setup:
$ mkdir .config/calypso/certs
$ mv cal-key.pem .config/calypso/certs/cal.key
$ mv cal-cert.pem .config/calypso/certs/cal.pem
$ chmod 0600 .config/calypso/certs/*
$ cat > .config/calypso/config << EOF
[server]
certificate=/home/calypso/.config/calypso/certs/cal.pem
key=/home/calypso/.config/calypso/certs/cal.key
[acl]
type=htpasswd
encryption=sha1
filename=/home/calypso/.config/calypso/htpasswd
    EOF
User passwords:
    $ htpasswd -s .config/calypso/htpasswd enrico
Database initialization:
$ mkdir -p .config/calypso/calendars
$ cd .config/calypso/calendars
$ git init
    $ cat > .calypso-collection << EOF
[collection]
is-calendar = True
is-addressbook = False
displayname = Test
description = Test calendar
EOF
    $ git add .calypso-collection
$ git commit --allow-empty -m'initialize new calendar'
Start the server
# /etc/init.d/calypso start
DAVdroid configuration
  1. Add a new DAVdroid sync account
  2. Use server/username configuration
  3. For server, use https://:5233
  4. Add username and password
It should work. Related links

10 February 2014

Mario Lang: Neurofunkcasts

I have always loved Drum and Bass. In 2013 I rediscovered my love for Darkstep and Neurofunk, and found that these genres have developed quite a lot in the recent years. Some labels like Black Sun Empire and Evol Intent produce mixes/sets on a regular basis as podcasts these days. This article aggregates some neurofunk podcasts I like a lot, most recent first. Enjoy 33 hours and 57 minutes of fun with dark and energizing beats. Thanks to BSE Contrax and Evol Intent for providing such high quality sets. You can also see the Python source for the program that was used to generate this page.

20 September 2013

Enrico Zini: Explanation of umarell

Explanation of umarell
Umarell /uma'r l/ (oo-mah-rell), n; pl. Umarells. People in a community who offer all sorts of comments to those who are trying to get some work done, but who are not doing any work themselves.
Etymology and further details Umarell is a word that entered Italian slang in Bologna and is spreading to nearby towns, occasionally even across Italy. It comes from the Bolognese for "cute/odd little man". "Umarells" are those people, usually retired men, who spend time watching construction works, often holding their hands behind their back, occasionally commenting on what is going on, sometimes trying to tell the workers what to do. It's easy to find examples on the internet; the word was popularised by a blog collecting photos, which has even been published into a book. With some Italian Debian friends, we realised that umarell is the perfect word to describe those people in a community, who offer all sorts of comments to those who are trying to get some work done, but who are not doing any work themselves. I think that it is a word that fits perfectly, and since I'm likely going to use it blissfully anywhere, here is a page that temporarily explains what it means until the Oxford English Dictionary picks it up.

21 July 2012

Enrico Zini: Giving away distromatch

Giving away distromatch at last year's Fosdem I tried to inject a lot of energy into distromatch but shortly afterwards I've had to urgently rewrite the nm.debian.org website. After Lars Wirzenius GTDFH talks in Bologna and Varese I wrote a tool which, among other things, is able to scan my home dir and list how many projects I'm working on. The output was scary. Like, they are too many. Like, I couldn't even recite the list out of memory. And since I couldn't do that, I had no idea there were so many. And I kept being stressful because I couldn't manage to take care of them all properly. Now that I became conscious of the situation, it's time to deal with it like a grown up, and politely back off from some of my irresponsible responsibilities. Distromatch is one of them. It had just started as a proof of concept prototype, and I had the vision that it could be the basis for a fantastic culture of sharing and exchange of information across distributions. I need to distinguish the vision from the responsibility. I still have that vision for distromatch, but I cannot take responsibility for making it happen. So I am giving it up to anyone who has the time and resources to pick up that responsibility. Current status It works well enough as a prototype. I believe it can successfully map a large enough slice of packages, that one can prototype stuff based on it. I have for example used it to export the Debtags categories for other distros, and the resulting file looked big enough to be used for prototyping category-based features on distributions that don't have them yet. I think it also works well enough to support a few common use cases, like sharing screenshots, or doing most of the work of converting dependency lists from a distro to another. And finally, anyone can deploy it, and work on it. Existing data sources Everything I index in the Debian distromatch deployment is available at http://dde.debian.net/exports/distromatch/. The rpm-based data in there comes from an export script I wrote that runs on Sophie, but which I cannot maintain properly. This is an experimental export of Fedora and OpenSUSE data: http://tmp.vuntz.net/misc/distromatch/distromatch-opensuse-fedora.tar All existing export scripts are found in distromatch git repo on gitorious. Contacts I gathered at Fosdem At Fosdem I devoted quite some work to get contacts from all possible distributions and software repositories, so that distromatch could be hooked into them. Here is a dump of what I have collected: Some of those contacts may have "expired" in the meantime: I wouldn't assume all of them still remember talking with me, although most probably still do. My commitment for the time being I am happy to commit, at the moment, to maintaining a working data export for Debian data. I can take responsibility for making it so that the Debian data for it stays up to date, and to fix it asap if it isn't the case. I hope that now someone can take distromatch over from me, and make it grow to achieve its great potential.

22 November 2011

Rapha&#235;l Hertzog: People behind Debian: Stefano Zacchiroli, Debian Project Leader

picture by Tiago Bortoletto Vaz, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0


It s been one year since the first People behind Debian interview. For this special occasion, I wanted a special guest and I m happy that our Debian Project Leader (DPL) Stefano Zacchiroli accepted my invitation. He has a difficult role in the community, but he s doing a really great job of it. He s a great mediator in difficult situations, but he s also opinionated and can push a discussion towards a conclusion. Read on to learn how he became a Debian developer and later DPL, what he s excited about in the next Debian release, and much more. Raphael: Who are you? Stefano: I m Stefano Zacchiroli, but I prefer to be called Zack, both on the Internet and in real life. I m 32, Italian, emigrated to France about 4 years ago. I live in Paris, and I find it to be one of the most gorgeous and exciting cities in the world. As my day job I m a Computer Science researcher and teacher at University Paris Diderot and IRILL. In my copious free time I contribute to Debian, and I m firmly convinced that doing so is an effective way to help the cause of Free Software. Besides, I find it to be a lot of fun! Raphael: How did you start contributing to Debian? Stefano: Flash back to 1999, when I was a 2nd year student in Computer Science at the University of Bologna. Back then in Italy it was uncommon for young geeks to get exposed to Free Software: Internet was way less pervasive than today and most computer magazines didn t pay much attention to GNU/Linux. Luckily for me, the professor in charge of the student lab was a Free Software enthusiast and all students machines there were running Debian. Not only that, but there was also a student program that allowed volunteers to become sysadmins after having shown their skills and convinced the director they were trustworthy. Becoming one of those volunteer Debian admins quickly became one of my top objectives for the year, and that is were I ve learned using Debian. The year after that, I got in touch with a research group that was to become the happy bunch of hackers with whom I would have done both my master and PhD theses. They were designing a new proof assistant. Most of the development was in OCaml and happened on Debian. OCaml was available in Debian, but many of the libraries we needed were not. So I approached the Debian OCaml Team offering to help. Before I realize what was going on I was (co-)maintainer of tens of OCaml-related packages. At some point I got told I think you should apply as a Debian Developer . So I did and in a couple of months I went through the New Member (NM) process, that was back then in its infancy. I still remember my happiness while reading the account created mail, the day after my 22nd birthday. I know the NM process went through some bad publicity in the past, but I m happy to see that nowadays the process can be as swift as it has been for me 10 years ago. Raphael: It s your second year as Debian Project Leader (DPL). Are you feeling more productive in the role? Do you fear to burn out? Stefano: I m feeling way more productive, no doubts. The task of the Debian Project Leader is not necessarily difficult, but it is a complex and scarcely documented one. It is also profoundly different from any other task that Debian people usually work on, so that experience doesn t help much in getting started. Before becoming effective as DPL one needs to get to know many people and mechanisms he is not familiar with. More importantly, one needs to set up a personal work-flow that allows to keep up with day-to-day DPL tasks (which are aplenty) as well as with urgencies (that tend to pop-up in the leader@debian.org INBOX at the least convenient time). Finally, one also needs to do proper traffic shaping and always retain enough motivation bandwidth to keep the Project informed about what is going on in DPL-land. Finding the right balance among all these ingredients can take some time. Once one is past it, everything goes way more smoothly. The above is why I m constantly encouraging people interested in running for DPL in the future to reach out to me and work on some tasks of the current DPL s TODO list. I swear it is not just a cheap attempt at slavery!. It is rather an attempt at DPL mentoring that could be beneficial: both to give future candidates more awareness of the task, and to reduce the potential downtime when handing over from one DPL to the next. Regarding burn out, I don t feel prone to its risk these days. If I look back, I can say that my contributions as DPL have been pretty constant in volume over time; my enthusiasm for the task, if anything, is on the rise. The effectiveness of my contributions as DPL are, on the other hand, not mine to judge. Raphael: If you had to single out two achievements where you were involved as DPL, what would they be? Stefano: I d go for the following two, in no particular order: OK, let me cheat and add a third one I m also proud of having been able to report to the Project my whereabouts as DPL, thoroughly and periodically, since the very beginning is first term. People annoyed by my reporting logorrhea now have all my sympathies. Raphael: Among the possible new features of Debian Wheezy, which one gets you excited most? Stefano: It s multi-arch, no doubt. Even though it is not a directly user visible change, it s a very far reaching one. It is also one of those changes that make me feel that moment of truth of coders, when you realize you are finally doing the right thing and ditching piles of ugly hacks.
It s multi-arch [ ] you realize you are finally doing the right thing and ditching piles of ugly hacks.
Raphael: If you were not DPL and could spend all your time on Debian, what project would you do? Stefano: I would sit down and do software development for Debian. It s impressive how many important and beneficial changes for Debian could be delivered by specific software improvements in various parts of our infrastructure. We tend to attract many packagers, but not so many people willing to maintain Debian infrastructure softwares like dak, britney, debbugs, the PTS, etc. Their maintenance burden then falls on the shoulders of the respective teams which are generally very busy with other important tasks. As a project, we seem to be more appealing to packagers than to software developers. That is a pity given the amount of exciting coding tasks that are everywhere in Debian. Part of the reason we are not appealing to developers is that we are not particularly good at collecting coding tasks in a place where interested developers could easily pick them up. It also takes quite a bit of inside knowledge to spot infrastructure bugs and understand how to fix them. I long for some spare hacking time to check if I m still good enough of a coder to hunt down longstanding bugs in our infrastructure, which have ended up being my pet peeves. I d also love to dive again into RCBW. It s less committing than package maintenance, more diverse and challenging, and also an immensely useful activity to get Debian releases done. Raphael: Martin Michlmayr is worried that there is so few paid opportunities around Debian. Do you agree with his sentiment, and if yes do you have ideas on how to improve this situation? Stefano: The idealistic me wishes Debian to be a community made only of volunteers that devote their free time to the Project. Oh, and that me also wishes Debian to be competitive with similar projects, no matter how many full-time employees others have! That is coherent with a view of society where everyone has a day job, but also engages in volunteering activities ensuring that public interest is pursued by people motivated by interests other than profit. But I do realize that for Free Software to succeed companies, employees, and salaries should all have a role. I admire projects that strike a good balance between volunteer and paid work. The Linux kernel is emblematic in that respect: many developers are paid by companies that have a commercial or strategic interest in Linux. Nevertheless volunteers contributions are aplenty and the Linux community gives a convincing impression that choices are driven by the community itself (or by its benevolent dictator) without money-driven impositions.
I do realize that for Free Software to succeed companies, employees, and salaries should all have a role.
Such an ecosystem does not exist around Debian. We do have a partner program that allows for it to happen, but we have very few partners with an interest in doing distribution development work. Like Martin, I m worried by this state of affairs, because it de facto means we lag behind in terms of available people power. In a community of volunteers, that might frustrate people and that is not good. To improve over the status quo the first step is to federate together small and medium companies that have a strategic interest in Debian and listen to their needs. I m already in touch with representatives of such companies that, in many cases, already employ Debian Developers to do some distribution work in Debian. We will be soon sending out a call to reach out to more such companies, but since we are discussing this, why waiting? If some of our readers here are representative of such companies, I encourage them to get in touch with me about this. Raphael: You know that the fundraising campaign for the Debian Administrator s Handbook is on good track but the liberation of the book is not yet assured. What do you think of this project? Stefano: I m happy about the project, to the point that I ve accepted writing a testimonial for it :-) . I m sad about the scarce availability of up to date and high quality (DFSG-)Free books about Debian and I welcome any initiative that might help closing that gap.
I m sad about the scarce availability of up to date and high quality (DFSG-)Free books about Debian.
Free Culture is a great offspring of Free Software and I m convinced we need to stand up against double standards in the two camps. Letting aside software-specific licensing details, the basic freedoms to be defended are the same. They are those freedoms that ensure that a reader is in full control of his book, pretty much as they ensure that a computer user is in full control of the software that runs on it. I m therefore proud that Debian has long resolved that the Debian Free Software Guidelines (DFSG) apply not only to software but also to books and other pieces of documentation. But the status quo implies that not only we have very few up to date, high quality books about Debian. It also implies that, at present, we have no such book that we can distribute in the Debian archive, showing off the Free Software (and Free Culture!) values we stand for.
Crowdfunding is considered to be a good mate for Free Culture, where the services model that applies to Free Software is more difficult to exploit. I so wish any luck to yours and Roland s initiative. A different matter is whether Debian, as a project, should endorse the initiative and actively campaign for it. As you know, I think it should not. While we do advertise general project donations, we don t do mission-specific fundraising campaign for Debian itself. Coherently with that, I don t think we should relay crowdfunding campaigns for 3rd parties, even when the result would be beneficial to Debian. Raphael: Is there someone in Debian that you admire for their contributions? Stefano: There are two classes of people that I particularly admire in Debian:
Thank you to Zack for the time spent answering my questions. I hope you enjoyed reading his answers as I did.

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19 September 2010

Iustin Pop: Debian Thanks

There are many ways that people express their thanks to Debian: mails, nice comments in a bug report, patches, so on. But to receive them in person is one of the most pleasing ones. I recently visited Bologna at the invitation of another DD (hi Guido!). The trip was nice, my first trip to this city, and a significant part of it was devoted to the local food (of course!). One evening, after a late dinner which included an absolutely fantastic Mascarpone desert, as we were paying at the cashier, one of the guys from the restaurant came forward and shook my hand while telling me something. I was tired and the few Italian I know didn't help at all, so I was at a loss on what's happening. Now, if you've ever been in a foreign country without knowing the language, you know this feeling: there is something strange going on, people are talking in a language you don't understand, and you might have just made a very big social mistake without realising it. Or it's just a silly, harmless misunderstanding. The only question is whether staying silent and just smiling is the right thing to do. In other words, you're at a complete loss. This all happens usually in just one or two seconds, before someone (if anyone, that is) manages to translate for you. In this particular case, the translation initially didn't make any sense at all: It's your t-shirt ; I usually wear t-shirts, and people never congratulate me for it. Then I realised: I was wearing one of my Debian t-shirts. My companions told him that I'm indeed involved with Debian, and he was extending his thanks. So, from a bolognese fan whose name I unfortunately didn't catch, to the Debian Project: thanks!

26 August 2010

Benjamin Mako Hill: Italian Travel Update

Due to a variety of people and places we want to see, Mika and I have regrouped around a more ambitious travel schedule in Italy for the next week or so. Our new plan is: I know we'll have an organized LUG meeting in Siena. The rest of the period is a little more open. As always, if other free software, wikimedian, or like-minded folks are around and would like to meet up in any of those places, don't hesitate to get in contact. In related news, inspired by Florence and by Mika's domo-kun purse, I made a duomo-kun today. /copyrighteous/images/duomo-kun-small.png

5 August 2010

Benjamin Mako Hill: My August

I've got a pretty packed August. I just wrapped the Open and User Innovation Conference at MIT -- the academic conference on user and open innovation connected to my research. I organized the program and was MC for the 120+(!) talks and research updates on the program so it's a huge relief to see it come off successfully. On Thursday, August 5th (at 14:30 UTC) I'll be giving a talk on antifeatures at DebConf (the Annual Debian conference). It was accidentally listed as "Revealing Errors" until a few minutes ago -- sorry about that! It will be streamed live (details on the DC site) for those outside of New York City who might want to follow it. As soon as DebConf is done on August 8th, I'm going to head to Kor ula in Croatia to relax, read, and hopefully get a bit of research done, before I head off to Outlaws and Inlaws in Split on the 19th, a sort of piracy and (vs?) free software summit put on by mi2 connected to the recurring Nothing Will Happen where, from what I hear, quite a lot does. I'm going to have to leave Nothing Will Happen a little early to head to FrOSCon on the 21st where I'll be doing an antifeatures keynote again on the 22nd. I tend not to like to do the same talk too many times, or for more than a year, so this might be one of the last times I present on antifeatures in this form. After that, I'm going to head to Italy where I'll be between the 23rd and the 3rd of September. I'll fly and in and out of Rome and plan to spend some time in Rome, Tuscany, and Florence, but don't have a lot of set plans and might travel to Bologna or elsewhere. My schedule is pretty open. As always, I'm interested in meeting up for coffee or a drink with like-minded hackers, Wikipedians, researchers, activists, etc. If folks are interested in organizing talks or presentations, that sounds fun too. I'm keeping a brief description of my schedule updated alongside a bunch of ways to get in touch with me on my contact page. Don't hesitate to drop me a line!

5 March 2010

Enrico Zini: Global trends

Global trends For some time I have been trying to pinpoint what it is that is brewing in Italy and risks spreading elsewhere, like it happened in the past. I don't need to be decent to stay in power While following a train of thought during a political/philosophical lecture I figured that a current growing trend is to have public figures that are more and more indecent. In Italy it is very hard to find a public figure you can look up to. It is hard to name a politician that is not involved in some shady exchange of favours or some abues of their powers, and we got used to seeing people in power implicated in major corruption scandals, perverted prostitution affairs, or dealings with international criminal organisations. They do not normally end up in jail, and in fact they keep being very firmly in power, because they manage to stretch or change the laws to get away, or at least to delay trials in order to trigger some statute of limitations. Is there a pattern here that, although maybe not as clearly defined as in Italy, can be found more or less globally? Yesterday I thought that this could be such a pattern:
I don't need to be decent to stay in power
If I think of it like that, then it is most definitely not just an Italian phenomenon. If you tell "one doesn't need to be decent to stay in power" to a British, or to a French, I would not expect them to see anything strange with it. We all find it depressing, but we are all used to it. It is a pattern with repercussions, though: once that becomes normal in a society, it means that people who get to be in power are free to abuse their power much as they want, as long as they are careful enough not to end up in jail. Because, well, nowadays one doesn't need to be decent to stay in power. I don't need to follow the law to stay in power That first pattern is already quite well accepted in Italy. So much well accepted, that I think we are starting to see what comes next. At the end of March we are going to have elections for some regional governors. Funnily enough, in Lazio, the very important region around Rome, the centre-right coalition failed to submit the paperwork on time, and is out of the elections. It is not just red tape: at some point someone will have to print out the ballots and dispatch them to the voting booths, so one expects to have the coalition logos and the names of the candidates submitted in time, together with signatures supporting the candidates and whatever else the election process needs. Well, they missed the deadline, they got there after closing time and the building was, well, closed. It was a fantastic opportunity for a laugh. Memes blossomed on the Italian intarwebs and we now have 2 or 3 new expressions to mean "stupid". However, now it's hard to tell what is going to happen. On one hand, you can't exclude one of the two major coalitions because of some bureaucratic detail like an office closing time. But on the other hand, several minor coalitions have been excluded in all sorts of past elections because of similar things, and it really would not be fair to start making exceptions now. But Lombardia, the region around Milan and Emilia Romagna, the one around Bologna, both very, very important, are having similar kinds of problems. In both regions the previous governors are running again, for the 3rd time in a row, and most likely they legally can't do it, and if elected one can sue and force them to resign, because they have been in power long enough. Lots of paper is being shuffled at the moment to figure if they can get away with it or not. Oh, and the lawyers of the candidate for the Milan region also managed to get to the tribunal after closing time, but apparently there was still someone inside and they managed to shout loud enough, or somesuch. Anyway, the situation is getting hot. The Lazio coalition that has been excluded because of their incompetence is now hard at work pushing their potential voters to mount a fracas. Chances are that eventually they'll get away with it, and manage to take part to the election. If that happens, they will likely get close to winning it. So this seems to be a new pattern that is emerging:
I don't need to follow the law to stay in power
Which, again, is a pattern with quite some repercussions. It is something much more radical than just an issue with morality: it means feudalism, it means we are culturally ready to accept dictatorship. So, please do me a favour: do not think for a moment that Italy is just a funny place with lemons and tomatoes, and watch out for these patterns emerging around you.

16 September 2009

Filippo Giunchedi: new /home

Its been quite some time since my last entry but this time is well worth writing. Back in September when Italian Debconf took place, Zack offered me a room in his place in Bologna, I happily accepted and since 19 October there's an house packed with DDs (yes, actually two). Are there any other experiences about DDs sharing the same flat? This is going to productive for both, the first product in fact is a nice trick to add a little automation if you are versioning /etc with bzr, see Zack's post for more infos.

29 March 2008

Enrico Zini: OpenStreetMap party at Kaohsiung, Taiwan

OpenStreetMap party at Kaohsiung, Taiwan Apparently, yesterday we had the first OpenStreetMap event in Taiwan! We met in a caf /restaurant equipped with power plug, wireless network and overhead projector and we had a bit of an introduction, chat and lunch. Then we split in groups and exploited the fact that the newly built underground (KMRT) system is still free of charge, to spread around and map around the stations. Finally, we reconvened at someone's house to see how to put the data together, draw roads, tag and upload. Highlights of the day: Technical bits: Issues to address:

8 January 2008

Stefano Zacchiroli: crappy hardware and debctrl stats

debian/control field stats moved i.e.: crappy hardware and the virtual hosting panacea sockmel.bononia.it is a machine hosted in a galaxy far far away from me (Rome, about 400 km from Bologna). It is also a machine whose hardware is getting worst each passing day. Hence, it is an unreliable machine. That's why I've just moved the Homepage and Vcs-XXX field statistics to upsilon.cc, which at least is a virtual hosting where other people is dealing for me with crappy hardware. It's also a personal domain of mine, which will stay with me even if I will change again location. Here are the new stat URLs: The links to them I was aware of have already been fixed, let me know if you are aware of others. Uff ...

17 April 2007

Stefano Zacchiroli: phd over

Successful Mission, Captain Kirk In 1998, as an undergrad, I encountered what I remember to be my first real university challenge: write a MIPS kernel which had to run on the appropriate emulator. An acceptably decent running kernel should have made the emulator output in the end the Star Trek quote in the title. Now, a lot time after (wow, 10 years, has it been that long?), it's over. Yesterday I defended my PhD thesis. I feel a bit emptied now ...

6 February 2007

Stefano Zacchiroli: do you want my debconf7 ticket

SPAM: do you want my DebConf7 plane ticket? This is (arguably) SPAM. Yes: I've already bought a plane ticket for DebConf7. But, unfortunately, yes: Gismo's proposal is terrific. So, again, yes: I would like to go to Edinburgh by motorbike traveling as few as 2200 km on my ass just to meet you, bunch of geeks, at the next DebConf7. Hence, to conclude this unsolicited blog post, here it comes the dangerous monetary proposal: are you traveling from Italy to DebConf7, Edinburgh airport? maybe from Milan Malpensa on June 14th 2006 (12:50), going back there on June 24th 2006 (14:45 from Edinburgh airport)? Then buy my plane ticket, it's cheap! Only 50 !!

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