Free Thursday, Thursday, October 11, at 18:00, bar
Teerenpeli in Kamppi. See also home page.

Today I started working for Canonical, on Ubuntu QA.

Interesting.
EFFI
correlates OOXML yes-votes with the Corruption Perceptions
Index scores. Result: corrupt countries were more likely
to support OOXML.

This thought just struck me: the GNOME "save file" icon
is still an image of a floppy (or it is at least in Gnumeric).
How many people still remember what a floppy looks like?

Every time I do a "Getting Things Done" weekly review,
I am amazed at how easy it is, and also how much it
energizes me. Yet every time it is time to start one, I
fear it, and procrastinate, sometimes for several weeks.

Obviously I have a deep-set fear of being productive.

One of the things that occasionally happens to me is that
I mistakenly commit too much. I use Bazaar (bzr) as my version
control tool of choice, and tend to do "microcommits": every
time I make a change that is a useful, if very small, step in
its own right, and "make check" still passes, I commit, even if
it is only a one line change.

This means that usually all the changed files need to be
committed. Sometimes, but rarely, I make unrelated changes
in several files at the same time, and then I need to commit
each change separately. But then I forget to specify the files
on the command line.

With CVS, I would just shrug and continue. With Bazaar,
I do "bzr uncommit", which removes the latest commit from
the branch, and then re-commit with the proper files.

This is a small, but important, change from CVS, for me.
It makes me happy. "Ha! Foiled you again,
you stupid over-eager Enter key."

I have no idea whether other modern version control tools
have the same thing; this entry is not to advertize Bazaar,
but share my joy in victory over Enter.

Free Thursday
today, at 18:00, at Teerenpeli in Kamppi.

Finns are going to be celebrating the tenth anniversary
of the Debian Social Contract on Thursday, July 5, with a
distributed pancake party. The co-ordination wiki page is SocialContractTenYears and everyone else is welcome
to join in on the fun as well.

Ten years ago today Debian ratified its
Social
Contract. It is one of three foundational
documents that have shaped the project and enabled its
phenomenal growth. The SC is a formulation
of what Debian is all about: in five short paragraphs
it gives the project purpose, scope, and direction.
Because of this, it keeps the project coherent: people
join and leave, but the project continues in the same
direction. Without the shared vision codified by the
SC, the project would falter, waver, and splinter.

The other two documents, the Constitution
and the Policy
Manual are of more practical influence in the day-to-day
operation of the project. One lets us manage hundreds of
people working together, the other lets us integrate tens
of thousands of programs into a working system. The SC
is more fundamentally import, though.

Happy birthday, SC.

While cleaning up the infinite mess that is my home
directory, I found the following:



ACHTUNG! ALLES LOOKENSPEEPERS!

Das Internet is nicht fuer gefingerclicken und
giffengrabben. Ist easy droppenpacket der routers und
overloaden der backbone mit der spammen unt der
me-tooen. Ist nicht fuer gewerken bei das dumpkopfen.
Das musclicken sichtseeren keepen das bandwit-spewin
hans in das pockets muss; relaxen und watchen das
cursorblinken.



This is, obviously, a play on the old blinkenlite
thing, which I also found:



A C H T U N G ! ! !

--Alles Touristen und Non Technischen
Lookens Peepers--

Das maschine control is nicht fur Gefingerpoken und
Mittengrabben. Oderwise is easy schnappen der
Schpriggenwerk, Blownfuse, und Poppencorken mit
Spitzensparken. Der Maschine is Diggen by Experten only.
Is nicht fur Geverken by das Dummkopfen. Das
Rubbernecken und Sightseeren keepen das Cottonpicken
Hands in das Pockets. So Relaxen und Watsch das
Blinkenlite.



If I ever have an actual machine room, these will go on the
wall.