Debianhas always been filled with people who want to make the world a better place. We consider the social implications of our actions. Many are involved in work that focuses on changing the world. I’ been hesitant to think too closely about how that applies to me: I fear being powerless to bring about the world in which I would like to live ( Read more... )

I'm getting married this June. (For the Debian folks, the Ghillie shirt and vest just arrived to go with the kilt. My thanks go out to the lunch table at Debconf that made that suggestion. formal Scottish dress would not have fit, but I wanted something to go with the kilt ( Read more... )

From my spiritual blog I have been quiet lately. My life has been filled with gentle happiness, work, and less gentle wedding planning. How do you write about quiet happiness without sounding like the least contemplative aspects of Facebook? How do I share this part of the journey in a way that others can learn from? I was offering thanks the ( Read more... )

Recently, when asked to engage with the Debian Technical Committee, a maintainer chose to orphan their package rather than discuss the issue brought before the committee. In another decision earlier this year, a maintainer orphaned their package indicating a lack of respect for the approach being taken and the process. Unfortunately, this joins ( Read more... )

I recently returned from Debconf. This year at Debconf, Matthew Garrett gave a talk about the next twenty years in free software. In his talk he raised concerns that Debian might not be relevant in that ecosystem and talked about some of the trends that contribute to his concerns ( Read more... )

A new programmer asked on a work chat room how timezones are handled in databases. He asked if it was a good idea to store things in UTC. The senior programmers all laughed as we told some of our horror stories with timezones. Yes, UTC is great; if only it were that simple ( Read more... )

Previously, I wrote about my project to create an audio depiction of network traffic. In this second post, I explore how I model aspects of the network that will be captured in the audio representation. Before getting started, I'll pass along a link. This is not the first time someone has tried to put sound to packets flying through the ether: I ( Read more... )

I recently diagnosed a problem in Debian's pam-p11 package. This package allegedly permits logging into a computer using a smart card or USB security token containing an ssh key. If you know the PIN and have the token, then your login attempt is authorized against the ssh authorized keys file. This seems like a great way to permit console ( Read more... )

I've been working on a fun holiday project in my spare time lately. It all started innocently enough. The office construction was nearing its end, and it was time for my workspace to be set up. Our deployment wizard and I were discussing. Normally we stick two high-end monitors on a desk. I'm blind; that seemed silly. He wanted to do ( Read more... )