I haven't been writing so much recently - only one blog post for January, and I didn't even find the time to finish all the things I did in December. This is because I'm busy. Honest. So, before it gets too far into February, I'd better summarize things a little.

Projects I worked on recently:

  • f-spot - Near the end of December, I joined the Debian Mono packaging team, and helped clear up a few bugs in the photo management application I use. However, it turns out that f-spot could really use more help upstream - the number of forwarded Debian bugs is quite high, and there are some pretty nasty bugs outstanding. In fact, the upload we made has been synced to Ubuntu Hardy, so a bunch of users are going to run into horrible problems unless we fix them before the release. Oh dear.
  • enscript - I finally started to write some code for GNU Enscript. Recently I fixed the build system so that it didn't fail `make distcheck', for the first time in over a decade. Win. I'm trying to work towards a maintenance release, rather like the new maintainer of a2ps has done.
  • gnu-standards - the GNU maintainers' information document was under a license that didn't allow modifications, so it had to be packaged in Debian's non-free section. I asked about it, and it got relicensed. So now I'm trying to get the Debian package updated and moved back into `main'.
  • postgresql-autodoc - this was a random package I picked up, adopted, and got uploaded sometime in December. I haven't heard any complaints yet, but then my fixes were mostly for typos.

Projects on whose sidelines I sat, while watching aspiringly:

  • gnash - I tried it. It more or less works for YouTube videos, and the next release (due in a few days) should be even better. I want to spend more time supporting gnash this year.
  • gnu pdf - a new high-priority project to produce a PDF library better than libpoppler. I joined the mailing list, and provided some input. Eventually I want to see PDF output support in Enscript or its successor.

Things that resemble a social life:

  • The Wise Guys had a concert in London in January. (They're a German a cappella group who are quite funny. It helps if you speak German.) So that was fun.
  • The Rugby LUG had its second meeting, with ten people attending. I asked O'Reilly for some books to review, and the LUG now has four... but I'm wondering whether Josette really meant to send us a second welcome pack. No matter, I'll deal with it next week.

Oh, and work is going well - credativ Ltd. now has a coffee machine. Oh, and a new office.