Lars Wirzenius: September, 2006

Contents

Thursday, September 28, 2006

Random thought: Rockbox fonts

I installed some extra fonts to my Rockbox installation in my iPod, and now I have a nicer user experience. Happy now.

Rockbox really rocks.

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Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Random thought: *MY* iPod works with Linux

ESR famously claims that iPods don't work with Linux. I beg to differ: I bought a used one yesterday from a friend, and it worked the first time. I put in some MP3s on it with gtkpod, no problems. I don't know what the level of automatic desktop integration, playlist syncing, and so on is, but it was quite easy to put music onto the device.

I then put Rockbox on it. That process is not entirely streamlined; in fact, it is not something I'd encourage a normal user to attempt. It wasn't so difficult for me, I only managed to wipe out one other unrelated hard disk's first partition.

Having said that, the process was pretty straightforward. Rockbox is ugly, and the font is too small, but it seems to work well enough, and it doesn't require using any special software to add or remove audio files, it's just a USB mass storage device.

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Thursday, September 21, 2006

Debian Inquirer: Debian Inquirer is a failure

The Debian Inquirer admits defeat. Reality can't be parodied.

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Monday, September 18, 2006

Debian Inquirer: Debian and Diebold join forces

The Debian Project has chosen Diebold as its official preferred electronic voting provider. This move comes at an opportune moment since the project has several votes coming up.

"The double D partnership, as we like to call it, is going to change the shape of the Internet", says O. Fiend, the current Master of Voting of Debian. "We got tired of picking up paper ballots from all over the world, especially since flight security no longer allows locked steel containers handcuffed to the courier's wrist. Sea travel is so damn boring."

Diebold is the global leader in the electronic voting market segment. They will bring much needed experience and expertese to Debian's proceedings. "Yep, those guys didn't know anything about cheating until we showed up. Wait, I meant voting", adds the Diebold CEO.

Not everyone is happy, though. "Their stuff don't run onna m86k, dat's dumb, I wanna run it on my own-a box", claims Steve Vorlovski, one of the Debian Project's more prominent opposition members. "Stupid cabal, I hate them, hate, hate, hate." says another opposition member who prefers that we not reveal his identity, in fear of retaliation, so we'll just call him #808.

The project expects to use the Diebold machines as build daemons when a vote is not going on. "The Debian GNU/Windows port is really lacking in build daemons and porter machines right now", admits Lars Wirzenius. "We don't have any, in fact." The Debian Inquirer joins the crowd congratulating Debian on getting this defect fixed.

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Thursday, September 14, 2006

Random thought: Linux 15 years, in English

I made a quick and dirty translation of the text of my talk at the seminar for Linux 15th birthday. In fact, it is probably better for me if nobody reads it, I didn't have time to do any cleanup of the text.

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Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Random thought: The good stuff

The nice thing about keep track of when you watched a video (DVD) last is that you can fight of boredome by doing top twenty lists. Here's the twenty movies I've watched the most times.

  1. 2005-12, 8 times, Thin Blue Line
  2. 2006-03, 7 times, An Ideal Husband
  3. 2006-09, 6 times, Love actually
  4. 2006-03, 6 times, Roxanne
  5. 2006-02, 5 times, 'Allo 'Allo (1-2)
  6. 2005-08, 5 times, Tomb Raider
  7. 2005-08, 5 times, Groundhog Day
  8. 2005-08, 5 times, Charlie's Angels
  9. 2006-05, 4 times, The New Guy
  10. 2006-04, 4 times, Harvey
  11. 2006-01, 4 times, Wild Wild West
  12. 2006-01, 4 times, El Dorado
  13. 2006-01, 4 times, Dead men don't wear plaid
  14. 2005-11, 4 times, Ten things I hate about you
  15. 2005-09, 4 times, Lethal Weapon 3
  16. 2005-09, 4 times, Freaky Friday
  17. 2005-08, 4 times, You've Got Mail
  18. 2005-08, 4 times, When Harry Met Sally
  19. 2005-08, 4 times, A Knight's Tale
  20. 2005-07, 4 times, Shrek

Based on this, I conclude that Debian hackers born in the 1960s mostly watch romantic comedies (7/20), action comedies (4/20), plain comedies (4/20), or British TV series (2/20). Accordingly, we should try to get Nora Ephron or Richard Curtis to come to Debconf7 to give a BOF.

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Thursday, September 07, 2006

Random thought: Linux 15th birthday seminar

On Monday, there was a seminar in Helsinki in celebration of Linux's 15th birthday. I gave a talk about Linux's history. It's in Finnish, but if that doesn't deter you, see the paper and slides (which have very little text).

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Sunday, September 03, 2006

Debian: A code of conduct

I've been unsubscribed from the major Debian mailing lists for about a week now. I'm feeling withdrawal symptoms from not spending hours reading e-mail, but they are subsiding. I think I'm now in a brief phase of clarity and big picture view: it's been long enough that I don't only see the last fifty mails and react to any annoyances in them, but also not so long that I have forgotten what actually happens. I want to make use of this phase to formulate a suggestion for a new code of conduct for Debian mailing lists.

  1. Shut up, unless you have something important to say. Don't chatter. If you must say something, keep it brief, to the point, crystal clear, and give references to you claims.
  2. Shut up: don't repeat arguments, not your own and not other people's.
  3. Get a life: you don't need to decide every detail, not everything needs to be done your way. If someone wants to do things their way, let them. If it turns out to be a mistake, well, they've learned something.
  4. Shut up already: insinuations, insults, name calling, character assassinations, all these are fine for the school yard or in modern office politics, but we're supposed to be having fun here.

The above is intentionally not all nice and sweet. My doctor forbade me to have anything to do with sugar.

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Friday, September 01, 2006

Personal life: Prime

It's the last time I'm a prime before I'm 41. I wonder if I should something special.

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