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Steven Hanley hackergotchi picture Steven
Hanley

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Mon, 11 Jul 2005

Don't whine about Debian, if you care, fix it. - 16:33
Again on p.d.n this morning I saw a post from David Nusinow, in semi rant mode suggesting anyone who whines about Debian should instead fix stuff. I wholeheartedly agree, if you want something fixed in Debian you can pretty much always get involved in some manner and get it fixed. Okay so sure it may take some effort to change such things as the entire release process or repository layout (ask AJ about the amount of work involved in that sort of thing I guess), however the point stands you can get involved and get stuff fixed.

Some of the comments to David's post suggest the NM holdups are the reason not many people stick around and help. I personally disagree with that, if you feel the need to be classified as a Debian developer to do useful work on Debian. I would look at that as some strange need for status or a dick swinging d.o email address for no apparent reason. At least from the perspective of doing useful work. If you want to create packages of software you use or need it is not particularly difficult to find a maintainer to look over them and officially upload them and all that. On the other hand if you want to do other things to help Debian there is a whole lot that can help with out need for maintainer status.

The biggest gripe a lot of people appear to have is how slow the release process is, there are ways to help with this, the biggest I would suggest is to attempt bug fixes and monitoring bugs.debian.org or better yet with the aim of assisting release readiness the release critical bugs page. If you see something you want to help on, or even if you are not sure, look though some bugs, see if you can duplicate them, work out a solution and provide a fix to the bug if you can. Anyone anywhere can help out with bugs or make an effort to fix things. Doing real helpful work if you care enough is oh so much better than sitting around on Debian Devel whining or arguing about stuff.

I am not really the best person to comment here as I am generally extremely happy with Debian, do not generally do much work toward bug fixes of random software (ie stuff I do not use), however I do not find there is much to complain about with Debian either.

[/comp/linux] link

Chinese extreme sport: Pushing the man strollers, or start a milk meme - 13:21
I noticed on p.d.n this morning that Alexander Schmehl appeared to think it a little strange that the first photo he took in Helsinki was of a milk carton. I personally do not see it as such a bad thing, heck he could get a meme going.


DCS Milk (full size)

So I took a photo of the department milk sitting on the stove top in the tearoom at work to help him along on his path to world domination via his new blog meme. I do not however get points for milk in an exotic location. Maybe someone else could, like the world travelling gnomes, maybe photos of milk cartons from the top of Mont Blanc, or while scuba diving in the Barrier Reef, or given the month get some photos of riders in the Tour with milk cartons. Mikal and Andrew should at least get the travelling milk carton photo thing going while they are in the US this week, heck Mikal even has a new camera he intends to stalk^W take lots of photos with.

A Metafilter post mentioning the recent successful skateboard jump over the Great Wall of China had an interesting item of information. I have not bothered researching to learn if this is accurate, however it appears China has a Minister for Extreme Sports. Neat, I am sure they have all the regular boring Ministers for Defence and Employment and whatever else, but in amongst them is a Minister for Extreme Sports, not just the Minister for Sport. I have no idea how effective it would be but would it be cool to have someone with dreadlocks skateboarding through the new parliament house to a cabinet meeting with Howard and his cronies. A minister who takes the weekend off to go snowboarding throughout winter and all manner of other fun things. So sure I am sort of applying a stereotype here with the dreads and the board riding, and yeah I know Ministers often do not have actual experience participating in the practices their department covers, but what the hey.

Hopefully the Minister for Extreme Sport will not be needed to preside over Lori's latest idea. Noticing that Pasi (like most blokes) did not enjoy shopping, and found it tiring and mind numbing (compared to say 3 ice hockey games a week or long mountain bike rides or whatever, which do not tire the guys out much at all) and yet feeling there is a need for some input from her boyfriend during shopping expeditions occasionally Lori thought up the idea of a Man Stroller.

One of the most important aspects of this idea of course (and the reason it should not need to be presided over by an extreme sports minister) is that the woman is in control of the stroller, the stroller is not motorised or controlled by the guy. The obvious reasoning is to avoid the stroller becoming another dick swinging contest, a V8 powered stroller that can do 0 to 60 in 5 seconds is not a useful addition to the shopping malls of the world. As Lori suggests, the guy can stay entertained by the dvds and beer and glance up for the occasional reassurance about clothes not making their partner look fat and all that. I do not know if it would work for me, I do not go in for TV much, or beer, however a laptop and a wireless connection, so umm okay if that were available it may just work....

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