Aigarius Blog (Posts about meme)http://aigarius.com/categories/meme.atom2021-06-30T20:20:30ZAigars MahinovsNikolaDPLhttp://aigarius.com/blog/2007/02/09/dpl/2007-02-09T22:02:53Z2007-02-09T22:02:53ZAigars Mahinovs<p>Because something mangled my <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-vote/2007/02/msg00037.html">signature</a> along the way (I suspect it was GMail), I also post it here along with a <a href="http://www.aigarius.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/1.txt" title="GPG signed text">GPG signed text file</a>:<br>I hereby nominate myself for the position of Debian Project Leader in the DPL elections of 2007.</p>Debian artworkhttp://aigarius.com/blog/2006/08/15/debian-artwork/2006-08-15T01:08:57Z2006-08-15T01:08:57ZAigars Mahinovs<p></p><p>Artwork is a matter of taste, style and consistency. Design by committee does not work.</p><p><br>If we really want to get a consistent, stylish and professional Debian style trough the whole Debian (and I think we should), we need to have an appointed <strong>Debian artwork czar</strong> - a professional designer or graphic artist, who would agree to dedicate some of his time on continuous basis to creation and improvement of Debian artwork and refinement of the old artwork from release to release. In exchange he would get to show of his elite design skillz via Debian to a lot of users across the world.</p><p><br>Formally he would have to be a DPL deputy and have the ultimate say about all artwork and colour related matters. I think the DPL should organise this.</p>For those who care about flamewars!http://aigarius.com/blog/2006/06/28/for-those-who-care-about-flamewars/2006-06-28T22:06:40Z2006-06-28T22:06:40ZAigars Mahinovs<p></p><p><a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-curiosa/2006/06/msg00075.html">This</a> MUST stop now! If every DD would express his opinion and anger and frustration on the thread, then it would be the mother of all flamewars and it will suck the life out of all other Debian lists and stop the development outright. Flames shall not pass!</p><br><p style="font-size: 2px;">In case someone did not get the joke - it is fun. Join the fun. Display all the traditional flamewar tactics and frases in absurd and hyper overstated ways. Let off some steam in a fictional debate about nothing. Have a bit of fun. It is curiose after all.</p>DPL platform runthroughhttp://aigarius.com/blog/2006/02/28/dpl-platform-runthrough/2006-02-28T14:02:23Z2006-02-28T14:02:23ZAigars Mahinovs<p></p><p> </p><p>I think more people should just publish their thoughts about <a href="http://www.debian.org/vote/2006/platforms/">platforms</a> of our DPL <a href="http://www.debian.org/vote/2006/vote_002">candidates</a> so that we can have more visibility and insight (and a reason to actually read those platform statements). Thanks go to <a href="http://mjr.towers.org.uk/blog/2006/debian#dpl06">MJRay</a> for the idea, however I will try to be a bit more biased so that this post conveys more of my opinions then just a plain summary of the platforms.</p> <div> <h1> <a name="jeroen-van-wolffelaar">Jeroen van Wolffelaar</a></h1> <ul> <li>ftp-team for a year, looks good</li> <li>dpl-team as a good idea, wants team decisions to take less responsibility on his own. Might be wise, but could be un-leaderish.</li> <li>pushes for smooth communication, I am not sure how that will work out - smooth communication means sanding off the edges, but we all know that the best development is always on the edge.</li> <li>pushes for code of conduct. While the idea might be quite popular it also states that bad behavior in our community is becoming so widespread that a special code is needed to compensate for that. I do not feel that we are at such a bad state now - more flamewars are raised about the code of conduct then about the conduct itself. I feel this is were simple and decisive action by the DPL should be done and not a birocratic procedure to spread the blame of failure.</li> <li>"insider reports" - good idea, like an internal Debian News Station (see Howard 100 News)</li> <li>encouraging wiki, forums and IRC as official channels of external communication. Several questions arise here: as a user with specific question - where must I go? to which media? to which list, channel or forum category? It must not be too complex. Also there is the question of spreading knowledgeable users and developers too thin across multiple channels of voluntary support.</li> <li>infrastructure transparency - good, but how? even tiny bits of paperwork there can slow the whole project to a crawl.</li> <li>mediator in flamewar situations - good, DPL should be doing that.</li> <li>media coverage - does Debian need more media coverage? I do not think so. I do believe that we need more coverage in more professional circles (even if in circles of professional psychiatrists) to attract more developers and make them understand us better, but I do not feel that attracting huge crowds of general public would do much good for the project.</li> <li>in my opinion team players make mediocre leaders</li> </ul> <p>Five word summary: transparent, wide, smooth, mediative, consensus</p> </div> <div> <h1> <a name="ari-pollak">Ari Pollak</a></h1> <ul> <li>whoa ... pictures, so sweet :)</li> <li>humor, so much needed in our project</li> <li>good point about half-DPL - it would be nice to have DPL delegate as much as they possibly can but be strict and easy with what is left</li> <li>Debian Police - sounds like a good substitute for Project Scud and the Finnish Inquisition :D</li> <li>good take on licences, however I would add to the Gnocchi licence the phrase "And you must remove any copies of this licence from your memory as soon as you have finished reading it." That will show them lawyers ...</li> </ul> <p>Five word summary: humor, half-*, police, anti-legalese, illustrations</p> </div> <div> <h1> <a name="steve-mcintyre">Steve McIntyre</a></h1> <ul> <li>got in cheap, but a long time ago</li> <li>The CD dude!</li> <li>not much new on internal communication, same old "will tell you even that I not doing anything"</li> <li>same stuff about the code of conduct, see above.</li> <li>social skill test within NM. Good idea, but not a good implementation - you will not get much social conditioning with mentoring inside teams. We need someone to get on the candidate and roast them good - test their asbestos suits. After he has made a package, schedule for time and either call the newbie or IRC with him. Grill him about his package. Must sure to slide into personal insults, religion bashing and political discourses. Watch the response. Evaluate. Post audio online :)</li> <li>open cabalish developments - there is little to be done beyond talking to cabal and making sure all semi-private developments use public Debian infrastructure for communication - draft on wiki and develop in svn, so that everyone can see.</li> <li>very good points about professionalism. we must be able to be proud about Debian and demand some level of standards from packages inside Debian. The idea of regular DD reexamination might be a very good fit here, see below.</li> <li>Steve looks like a good organizer to me</li> <li>however he might be a bit too soft on leadership or simply too diplomatically inclined in his platform statement</li> </ul> <p>Five word summary: professionalism, standards, MIA, tests, communication</p> </div> <div> <h1> <a name="anthony-towns">Anthony Towns</a></h1> <ul> <li>not wanting to win too much</li> <li>speed up! - release early, release often. Sounds good for the everyday processes, but not for The Release. I still want to see Debian as The Most Stable thing ever.</li> <li>recruiting - I would ask, recruit for what? People can not just get into the interesting parts of the project and recruiting for general run of the mill development does not sound too engaging to me. You'd better make a contest for new security team members or new ftp masters or any other position that one person or only a few persons hold now. Have clear requirements and tests and actually get those people into doing those critical jobs. After that we can think about ...</li> <li>... compulsory turnover. Now there is a good idea that I'd like other DPLs to consider, but only with in conjunction with the previous one. We might not need full rotation, but we could have a rotating ftp team leader post that would iterate among ftp team members. That would alleviate the "hit by a bus" problem a bit more.</li> <li>DPL as a discussion and direction leader is quite a nice and needed idea in my opinion.</li> <li>I do not agree with aj about compulsory kindness and the general idea of expulsion on social grounds. Currently it creates more problems then it could solve in a lifetime.</li> <li>Congrats on declassification thing, historians will surely thank us for that.</li> <li>nice legal disclaimer, I like those kind of things :)</li> </ul> <p>Five word summary: continuity, tempo, newbies, direction, bling</p> </div> <div> <h1> <a name="andreas-schuldei">Andreas Schuldei</a></h1> <p>Not online, to be put here when it appears.</p> </div> <div> <h1> <a name="jonathan-ted-walther">Jonathan (Ted) Walther</a></h1> <ul> <li>photo, nice touch.</li> <li>speak your mind. sound essential to a DPL.</li> <li>Ubuntu good. Good.</li> <li>Make love (and code) and not Desktop. Let Ubuntu make Desktop if they want to.</li> <li>We all are strange people, face it.</li> <li>Kicking people out is more harm to the project then those people could ever do.</li> <li>Kicking fun out of Debian.</li> <li>Great points about improving NM process and worshiping James Troup - I fully agree.</li> <li>The best idea here - recertification of all Debian Developers every X years (where X is proposed to be 3 currently). This will almost automatically solve many problems we have in Debian: NM frustration, MIA developers, standards of professionalism, reiteration of best practices, social reshuffling.</li> </ul> <p>Five word summary: Here, goes, my, vote, period. Alternate summary: geek, love, tolerate, recertification, statue.</p> </div> <div> <h1> <a name="bill-allombert">Bill Allombert</a></h1> <ul> <li>math Ph.D. and researcher.</li> <li>wanted to vot for Lars, but as he stepped down saw no one else good enough, so put himself forward. brave words. I like Lars too, bet it's not like we do not have good candidates this year besides him.</li> <li>summary on effect of voluntarism and respectful communication. Quite plain if you ask me. Got me a bit bored there. Not a good sign.</li> <li>think globally</li> <li>assist others</li> <li>help Debian specific software</li> <li>observers - sounds like that Debian Action News Team minus all the fun.</li> <li>"I am very patient" - be patient when reading and enthusiastic while writing, otherwise people might not read patiently</li> </ul> <p>Five word summary: filler, communicate, more filler, patience</p> <p>I hope this summary gave someone as much food for thought as it did for me. My favorite is very clear, but can you guess who is my second choice? Leave a comment and let me know what you think :)</p> </div>New Year's Eve. No party to go to. Lots ...http://aigarius.com/blog/2005/12/31/new-years-eve-no-party-to-go-to-lots/2005-12-31T15:12:00Z2005-12-31T15:12:00ZAigars Mahinovs<p></p><p> </p><div> <p>New Year's Eve. No party to go to. Lots of time to spend reading up on my mailbox and working towards 1.0 release of sbackup.<br><br>However I will stop for a moment for a meme from my friend, <a href="http://www.livejournal.com/users/bazilis/74119.html">Yume</a><br><br>The idea is to put all of your music collection into a player, put it on shuffle, ask a question and press next. "Me" is myself, "PL" is the player with my interpretation of results on the next line.<br><br>Me: What do I think about myself?<br>PL: Aqualung - Strange and beautiful<br>I like that, nice start! :)<br><br>Me: What do my friends think about me?<br>PL: Rammstein - Moskau<br>Old, yet new. Known, yet strange. Open, yet with lots more to explore. Money uber ales.<br><br>Me: What does my family think of me?<br>PL: Weezer - Buddy Holly<br>"...I don't care what they say about us anyway..." :)<br><br>Me: How will the next year be for me?<br>PL: Gloria Estefan - Turn the beat around<br>dynamic and revolutionary?<br><br>Me: Hmm, nothing comes to mind ...<br>PL: Madonna - Secret<br>"...Happiness lies in your own hands..." or "..my baby's got a secret.." ?<br><br>Me: Will this year be more romantic then the last?<br>PL: Jackson Browne - Sky Blue and Black<br>??? strange love song about the edge between lovers and friends<br><br>Me: Do I have a bright future?<br>PL: Roxette - Dangerous<br>lol. "Hold on tight...", "...You pack your bag, you take control..." sounds nice even if "a little bit dangerous" :)<br><br>Me: Will I become a President (or at least a MEP)?<br>PL: Celine Dion - If you asked me to<br>so it is possible, if I want it to and ask for it<br><br>Me: Will I get my Master's degree?<br>PL: Shiro Sagisu - Destiny avaits (From "Bleach" OST)<br>Good, so that is my destiny :)<br><br>Me: When will I buy myself an apartment or a house?<br>PL: Dream Academy - Life in a Northern Town<br>Not positive - "all the work shut down" and mentions of the Salvation Army and "they sat on the stoney ground", but "everyone else came down". On the other hand, living outside Riga in some more northern towns is much cheaper, so that's an option.<br><br>Me: What about renting, I hear that is more reasonable now, ne?<br>PL: Anastacia - Pretty Little Dum Dum<br>"illusion and deceit" mostly about self illusion, sounds like you want to say that I myself will not be satisfied with a rented place.<br><br>Me: Ok, that brings another question - if I start a company, will it be successful enough for me to buy/build a house without taking a mortage?<br>PL: Diana King - Shy Guy<br>song says that shy guys are sexy, is that a potential marketing pitch :$<br>Me: I didn't quite get it, could you a bit more clear about that?<br>PL: Anastacia - Time<br>"one day at a time", "timing is everything". now that is better.<br><br>Me: Now, should I really publish this blog post?<br>PL: Avril Lavigne - Not the only one<br>If you do it, do it now.<br><br>So I will. </p> </div>A few hours ago I went trough the third ...http://aigarius.com/blog/2005/10/12/a-few-hours-ago-i-went-trough-the-third/2005-10-12T02:10:00Z2005-10-12T02:10:00ZAigars Mahinovs<p></p><p> </p><div> <p>A few hours ago I went trough the third Google job interview. In many ways it was very similar to the second one - the difficulty level was almost the same, the questions were similar in nature and detail. The only problem is that I stumbled twice on this interview. First of all I needed a tiny reminder to do a bit of strace'ing before diving into source to debug a problem. However that was tiny compared to the fact that could not remember some details about the physical layout of a file system, specifically the structure of inodes was a bit under my radar.<br>I must say that I am really enjoying the questions - deep, insightful and satisfyingly complex. It is a pleasure to see my knowledge (or lack of it, sometimes) exposed in a professional way. :)<br>Many have asked me what to expect from a Google job interview. I must say - expect good questions. Ask yourself, if you would need to uncover as much of your relevant knowledge over a phone line, how would you do it? Expect factual questions about powers of two, programming algorithms and data structures, learn everything that goes on on all OSI levels, practise debugging problems, be inquisitive.<br>You can only be a true geek if you always want to know how exactly every thing works. You are a true geek, when you do know and understand it. You are a true hacker, when you can use it to your advantage.<br>If you are a true hacker, then you will have no problems on the interviews. <br>(Just being a geek also might just cut it ;))<br><br>P.S. I tried to follow the latest meme, but according to Google, I need <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=%22aigarius+needs%22">nothing</a>. I wish it was so :D </p> </div>Lets start a new meme - a useful one thi...http://aigarius.com/blog/2005/09/06/lets-start-a-new-meme-a-useful-one-thi/2005-09-06T02:09:00Z2005-09-06T02:09:00ZAigars Mahinovs<p></p><p> </p><div> <p>Lets start a new meme - a useful one this time.<br><a href="http://www.highiqsociety.org/noflash/nonmembers/iqtests.htm">http://www.highiqsociety.org/noflash/nonmembers/iqtests.htm</a><br>This page has 5 IQ tests with a very good content.<br><br>I got 136 on the first test.<br>Now I am trying the "Test for exceptional intelligence". The crack that authors of this stuff were smoking is so strong that it qualifies under weapons of mass destruction. After two hours I tried to work trough 14 of 25 questions and only managed to answer <b>4</b>. I wonder how long will it take for me to acctually finish the test :P<br><br>Once again - be prepared, this is not for the weak of mind or the short of time. </p> </div>Must ... resist ... latest meme ... Failed.http://aigarius.com/blog/2005/08/25/must-resist-latest-meme-failed/2005-08-25T21:08:00Z2005-08-25T21:08:00ZAigars Mahinovs<p></p><p> </p><div> <p>Must ... resist ... latest meme ... Failed.<br><a href="http://www.cyborgname.com"><br><img src="http://www.cyborgname.com/webimages/governor2k3-AIGARIUS.png"></a><br><br>Hmm, nice. :D </p> </div>Nerd Quizhttp://aigarius.com/blog/2005/08/13/nerd-quiz/2005-08-13T22:08:00Z2005-08-13T22:08:00ZAigars Mahinovs<p></p><p> </p><div> <p> <a href="http://www.nerdtests.com/ft_cg.php">NerdTests.com Fun Tests - Computer Geek / Nerd Quiz</a>: "<a href="http://www.nerdtests.com/ft_cg.php?im"> <br> <img alt="My computer geek score is greater than 99% of all people in the world! How do you compare? Click here to find out!" src="http://www.nerdtests.com/images/ft/cg.php?val=6844"> </a>" <br>Didn't expect to score that high after aswering some of the questions in thuthful and not geeky way, but ... :D </p> </div>