A day or two ago, I donated to the atheist bus campaign. They have now nearly raised £100k, which is quite impressive.
To follow up, I have joined the BHA. I have asked them about starting a Humanist group in Rugby - as if I have surplus free time. I realise religion (or a lack thereof) can be a controversial issue, but I have considered and respect the BHA's position on these matters.
I have recently been summoned for jury service. I was interested to learn that I can choose to "affirm" rather than swear an oath on a holy book of my choice. I think this will be much more meaningful for me.
Posted: 24 Oct 2008 00:00 | | Comments (2)
I tried to look at an RC bug this evening: bug #502657 on netmaze. It looked so easy - a segmentation fault, a backtrace... no. The package doesn't even build on sid, doesn't support the 'nostrip' option, and hasn't had an upload for two years. When you get past those stumbling blocks, it's a 64-bit compatibility problem that would probably need quite a large patch.
So, in the end, I've increased the RC bug count by one this evening, in suggesting to the maintainer that netmaze should not be released with lenny.
I tried.
Posted: 22 Oct 2008 00:00 | | Comments (0)
As a brief diversion from Debian, I spent the evening learning about small-scale hydro power. Remember, kids, the power available at your site is proportional to the product of the effective pressure head and the volume flow rate.
I think at some point I promised the Rugby Friends of the Earth group that I would link to them. My PageRank, let me show you it. They have a social meeting tomorrow at the Alexandra Arms. (Interestingly my PageRank does seem to be pwning that of WUGLUG's page at the moment. I still haven't matched that of the front page of Warwick Blogs.)
Also this week I found out about the courses at the Percival Guildhouse. This is a building next to the library in Rugby - I have walked past it for years, but never investigated what went on there until now. Turns out I might actually be able to practise speaking German with people.
Posted: 22 Oct 2008 00:00 | | Comments (0)
I got a concerned phone call from my mother following my previous blog post, asking whether I owe Debian money. Fortunately, I believe I am fully paid up for all the T-shirts and BBQs that Steve McIntyre has given me.
I have decided that the interest payment on my outstanding debt to Debian must be made in the form of RC bug fixes. I suck at RC bug fixes. They are generally boring, but of great value to the community. It is because of all the lame people like me not fixing RC bugs that Debian doesn't release on time, ever. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
Posted: 21 Oct 2008 00:00 | | Comments (0)
Credit cards can be very useful, provided you pay off your outstanding balance at the end of each month. If you do not, the debt can pile up, and will be sticking with you for a very long time. Credit is a tool - it lubricates the economy. Without it, production would grind to a halt. However, it is very important that creditors lend only as much as debtors can afford to repay.
If we think of Debian as a gift economy, it is the community doing the lending, and ITPs and ITAs are a temporary extension of kudos to the potential maintainer.
Anyway, the point of this analogy is to note that while my financial overdraft is currently nonexistent, my debt to Debian needs to be repaid with interest.
Posted: 20 Oct 2008 00:00 | | Comments (0)
Ironically, the number of blog posts I make tends to be inversely proportional to the number of interesting things going on in my life.
Posted: 19 Oct 2008 00:00 | | Comments (2)
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Tim Retout tim@retout.co.uk
JabberID: tim@retout.co.uk