I’m currently thinking about going to FOSDEM 2009. Flight’s not too costly and a room for two persons in the Renaissance Brussels Hotels is available for a nice price during weekends.
But before I consider to go to Brussels, I’m looking for someone to share the room with. Who wants to volunteer?
Long time no post even though much happened. I had my right hand broken (actually only the ring finger, but that affected it’s neighbors and the whole hand was in plaster. But more to this later. I’ll write this post to summarize some things I wanted to write in the time since my last post but wasn’t really able to (writing continuous text without lots of typos is your enemy #2 with only your left hand – #1 is using any sort of email client since they need lots of changes between mouse and keyboard…unless you use a console based one or know _all_ shortcuts…I do neither).
I organized and conducted the FAD EMEA 2008 in November, together with the help of people like Andreas Rau and Max Spevack. I want to thank everyone who attended this event and made it a (in my eyes) huge success. It’s been a great chance to speak about important topics, see some new faces and have a good time together. Between all the work, we also had good (Chinese and Swiss) food – pretty much everyone loved the Raclette but many left the Vermicelle behind. I’m not sure if people were just stuffed or if they just didn’t like it. I’m sure it was worth the try and at least the table of the fellow Italian ambassadors made sure that their plates were empty to the last bit.
Unfortunately, I was stupid enough to fall down a stone stair on Friday evening during the FAD (i.e. just a few hours after it had begun). Andreas Rau left our working room just to fetch something…I think some cups. When he didn’t return for quite some time I started to wonder where he is or if something happened. So when I had a chance to sneak out (sorry wonderer that it was during your topic) I left the room to give Andi a call. Will it was still ringing on the other side, I made some steps in this and that direction – as I and many others always do in that situation. Unfortunately, the University of Basel does not feature automatic light activation and I was too lazy to look for a light switch because I saw no need for it. I figure I was mistaken in that thought. Taking 2-3 steps in that direction, I stepped onto nothing. Until my brain realized that this is a stair, it was too late to catch myself and so it came that I flew down the stairs (11 hard steps). I’m not sure if I passed out early on or if I have a blackout but between realizing that it’s a stair and getting up from the bottom I don’t remember anything (lucky me). Everything afterwards is a long story not worth telling in detail. I get up, got to a toilet, later called Andi to help me because I felt terrible and my nose wouldn’t stop bleeding, puzzled whether to go to the hospital or not (it’s now been after midnight), walked to the nearby hospital, got some x-ray done. Result: foot broken, finger broken, deep wound on the nose, experienced a major hit against my head. The fixed me up quickly in order to survive the weekend and told me to go to a hospital on Monday to see after my hand which might need an operation.
Next day, I continued with the normal FAD program which finished sometime Sunday afternoon. On Tuesday, I had an appointment with the doctor at the hospital. Monday the week after, I had my finger operated and 6 weeks later I was able to use my full hand again. Today, I hardly notice that I ever broke my foot or finger, where the latter is still a bit sensitive to big pressure.
In the time being at home (because I couldn’t properly do my $DAYJOB with only my left hand) I learnt to create SRPMs/RPMs and got some packages approved while others are still on their way to that point. Shortly before the accident, a friend of mine gave me a job advertisement from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ) he found in a newspaper. The ad was titled ‘Red Hat Linux Specialist’ and sure caught my attention (and my friend’s before, since he knew I was looking for a linux engineering related job and that I live in the Red Hat / Fedora world). I didn’t exactly meet what was asked from a applicant to the job but decided to give it a try anyway. I didn’t have anything to lose, right? So I sent them a small letter, accompanied only by my curriculum vitae (CV). I was then invited to a job interview which turned out not too bad in my eyes. I have no professional work experience in the Linux field yet and as I mentioned I didn’t fulfill what they looked for in an applicant. But a huge plus were my connections in the Fedora and with that also Red Hat community as well as my private interest and activity in Fedora/Linux.
Some time passed, until I heard anything new from the ETHZ. I was then invited to a day in their offices in order to get to know the team, see how good we blend, exchange some knowledge and ideas, see the job I’m applying for and so on. I was told they’re doing the same with other applicant as well so I did not yet have the job but at least, I was in step #2. Well, that day was lots of fun and the I liked the job I was applying for even better after seeing better what it involved than before.
About two weeks later, I was invited to step #3 – the final step, actually. I figure that meant I was their choice #1 but I didn’t have the job at that time. It’s been similar to the first interview, but with a bit more details on the important things between an employer and an employee. It went well, similar to the first one and less than 24h later I had the job.
They told me, that they want me no matter whether my current employer lets me go earlier than the contract says or not which was great since there was a huge chance that he would but there was no guarantee for it at that time. I spoke to my employer at the same day (we had a meeting that day anyway) and we agreed on ending it at the end of January (instead of March).
Starting on February, I’ll be an employee of the ETHZ and be part of a Red Hat Linux team. I hope I can bring in some more Fedora things (like EPEL) and also give the community something back (maybe a Fedora install event or a FUDCon or something like that). Apparently, they’ll also send me to the yearly Red Hat Summit in the USA which I wanted to go to for such a long time already.
On another note, this also means that I’ll move from Bern to Zurich – as soon as I find a flat there that suits me and my wallet well.
3 days to go and from the organizational point of view all’s done! Well, some tasks I delegated just this week are not yet completed, but they’re minor, less important and nearly done, too!
It seems everyone’s pretty much ready for his journey too which is just fantastic. Looks, like we’ll have a great even and much fun. I’m really looking forward to see those highly motivated ambassadors and friends this very weekend.
People who’re watching the FAmSCo 2008 nominations wiki page may have noticed that the dates for the nomination period were changed recently – and that the nomination period has begun already. Unfortunately, everyone who wasn’t watching that page was not informed about this. I asked Max Spevack if I missed something but he confirmed the dates for the nomination period and that there’s been no announcement for this on the list. He then agreed to write an announcement and all ambassadors should have received it by now. The important dates:
The other important facts:
Yes, it’s that simple! So, if you’re an ambassador, why don’t you nominate yourself? It doesn’t matter whether you think you can win it or not. It doesn’t matter if you’re only a Linux or Fedora user for some months. It doesn’t matter if your only ambassador for a bit over a month. It doesn’t matter at how many events you’ve been giving a talk or running a booth. It doesn’t matter where you live or how many ambassadors live in your region.
The voters will then decide if you’re ready and the right person for FAmSCo or not. You should only think about whether you’d like to do the job or not.
If you’d like to run for FAmSCo, do it! Nominate yourself! There’s no need to hesitate on that matter.
Oh, and don’t forget to vote once the election period has begun. Every ambassador’s vote is important and counts (I understand it, that the US citizens finally learned that…lately).
Another update, even though the last one was only 5 days ago. Based on the last TODO list.
DONE
IN PROGRESS
TODO
Things IN PROGRESS are mostly things I delegated to the right person and who won’t need much more action from my side. Things on the TODO list are fast done and there’s no need to hurry.
So the organization and preparation is nearly finished and we can now start to look forward to this years FAD EMEA. I’m surely looking forward to see lots of ambassadors there!
Okay, today in 2 weeks it’s FAD time in Europe. Time for yet another update. Based on last week’s TODO list.
DONE
TODO
Well, doesn’t look too bad. I figure in the worst case, where nothing more is done in those last 14 days, we’d still be fine with what we currently have. Hooray!
Should be no problem to get the final TODOs done in time. I hope all attendees are ready for the FAD too. If you still have issues, questions or anything else – leave a comment or drop me a mail!
In 22 days, the FAD EMEA 2008 is taking place in Basel. Let me give you a quick update on the current status.
DONE
TODO
Well, looks like I’ve got pretty much DONE. Everything important/critical is set up and the TODO list mostly consists of quickly-done, not-so-important items.
While I had no time to write a preview or daily reports for OpenExpo 2008 Zurich – which actually took place in Winterthur, Switzerland – I’ll give a review on that event.
It’s been my third OpenExpo but the first one on a business booth. At the two OpenExpo in 2007 in Bern and Zurich, I was staffing the Fedora booth, presenting that great linux distribution and the project behind as well as trying to get new contributors to help us make Fedora even better. This year was all different, I was presenting mainly Android and some my company’s work in general but also the company itself, Noser Engineering AG. I was not looking for contributors but for customers and new employees.
Did I say all was different? Well, that’s only true for the topics I spoke and discussed about. After all, it’s still the OpenExpo with its great competitive (in a positive way) and cooperative atmosphere – and it looks like it doesn’t matter whether you’re on the community or the business ’side’ (or off/on the carpet, as attendees of the OpenExpo might have noticed) to be part of the fun.
It’s once again been a great experience and I learned lots from discussion with visitors, staff of business as well as community booths and my colleagues at our own booth. I guess there weren’t as many visitors as the OpenExpo guys hoped for, but there’s not been a single boring minute. Always someone to have a talk with and I was thankful to be able to visit two presentations in the conference tracks, too. We were able to establish some very interesting and hopefully beneficiary business contacts, to get us into the minds of students (regarding their first employment after graduation) and to improve/extend some of our Android-centric ideas we had. Speaking about contacts, some time the other staff at our booth (booth pretty new in the opensource world) said to me “Do you know everyone here? There’s always someone stopping by to talk with you like you’re good old friends. How comes you know all this people? Is that related to the Fedora related work you do in the evenings after $dayjob?” Truth was, that 98% of the persons I spoke with (not counting new business contacts/business related) I knew from the previous two OpenExpos, only! The other 2% were people I know from LinuxTag or from my study program I graduated at in Winterthur. But myself, I only recognized that I really know lots of people there when they told me I do. And that’s exactly the amazing thing about the work in a community!
I’d like to thank the OpenExpo organizational staff for their great work, the Fedora Ambassadors who were staffing the booth this time (Fabian Affolter, Timea Rusz, Max Spevack and Joerg Simon) for understanding that I wasn’t able to help them out this time, Carlos Diener from Kubuntu/Openmoko and others for arranging a cheap accommodation for the community and everyone who I spoke with either business- or community-wise. Special thanks goes to my employer, Noser Engineering AG, and particularly to Daniel Bruengger and Hansjuerg Born who allowed me to staff the company’s booth, even though there’s been the most important company-internal event at the same time. Let me also thank Joerg Pleumann who was staffing the booth together with Daniel and me and helped me to most of my knowledge on Android I have.
(I feel a bit like if I’d won an Oscar or something after so many ‘ thank you’ saying, sorry for that).
I hope I can make it to OpenExpo 2009 in Bern which will take place on April 1/2. As well as all future OpenExpos too.
Dear Lazyweb,
I have 3 laptops and I use both for pretty much the same tasks but in different environments (home office, at school/work or everywhere else). I’d want most of my things synchronized (i.e. 99% of my ~). What is the best idea to synchronize them?
Some facts that might matter to choose a solution:
Who can help me? What solution would you choose and why? Anything special I should think off?
So far, I could only thing about setting up a SVN server but I hope there’s a better solution.
Thanks for the help! Any idea is welcome!
As you may know, there’s pretty many ways to represent a date. For global communication, this might be a problem. Therefore, I ask the Fedora contributor community to react NOW, because I see mis-interpretable dates in the wiki, on the planet, on the mailing lists, on IRC and in other places all the time.
Let me try to explain why this is a problem and how we could solve it.
Problem
Little Endian (DD-MM-YYYY)
For today, you’d write 06.08.2008 in Germany, 06-08-2008 in Denmark and 06/08/2008 in India.
So far, no problem. We should be able to read the date no matter how the three parts are separated.
Middle Endian (MM-DD-YYYY)
This is used mainly in the USA. So, the date would read 08/06/2008.
Unfortunately, most people outside of the USA would read this as if it’s in little endian, i.e. 8th june 2008 – which is wrong and where the problem begins. Particularly, if you think about the wiki being dominated by the middle endian format, but a big share of the contributors coming from places where the little endian format is used (e.g. Europe, South America, India).
In both of these formats, the year can also be written as YY instead of YYYY, so we could also end up with 06/08/08 and 08/06/08 – even more possible confusion!
Big Endian (YYYY-MM-DD)
Of course, there’s also a third writing. Used in places like China, Japan and the Middle East.
The good thing here is, that the year is always 4 numbers long and therefore easy to identify. Even better is, that no-one on the world uses YYYY-DD-MM, meaning that dates starting with the year can’t be misinterpreted.
And there’s more to it: dates in big endian can be easily sorted in chronological order, if leading zeros are used (i.e. 2008-08-06 instead of 2008-8-6).
Solution
That’s also been the thought of the ISO, when they defined the standard ISO 8601. Well, the Wikipedia article about the standard explains it all. It’s pretty simple, but because it gives several options (e.g. YYYYMMDD or YYYY-MM-DD) I’d suggest to declare what to use within the Fedora contributor community.
My recommendations
Exact date: YYYY-MM-DD
Month: YYYY-MM
Year: YYYY
Time: hh:mm or hh:mm:ss or hh:mm:ss.zz
Date and time: YYYY-MM-DDThh:mmZ (or YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm UTC)
Date interval: YYYY-MM-DD/YYYY-MM-DD or YYYY-MM-DDThh:mmZ/YYYY-MM-DDThh:mmZ
Date list: YYYY-MM-DD, YYYY-MM-DD, YYYY-MM-DD
Important
Benefits
Except for the benefit of everyone being able to correctly read and understand all dates, it would be possible to automatically link dates in the wiki in YYYY-MM-DDThh:mmZ format to that world clock thingy that is used for most meetings. So the wiki would read e.g. 2008-08-06T14:20Z – and everyone’s just one click away of his local time, without any thinking or confusion. Well, I didn’t check this possibility with Fedora Infrastructur, but it should be easily possible for them since the date/time is perfectly parseable and easy to identify (always looks like *-*-*T*:*Z and has a fixed length for every *).
Conclusion
I hope I’ve been able to explain this in a way that everyone understands the issue and the proposed solution to it. If you have questions, feel free to ask (or read Wikipedia’s entry on the ISO standard).
NOW: Feel free to discuss this in the comments, on the planet, on IRC, anywhere. As long as there’s some effort going on, we’re on a good way.
I’d also ask the Fedora Board to consider this suggestion and maybe give me/all of us feedback on this.
Note: If my information about the date format used in a certain country is wrong, blame my source: Wikipedia.
