Today's a beautiful, warm, sunny spring day in Ottawa. Outside, the birds are chirping, cyclists cycling, children screaming. The Byward Market is bustling with young folks, happy to have left their coats at home. Everything is right with the world...
Montreal Linux Expo was interesting, if a little sparsely attended. I certainly didn't feel that it was all that well marketed. (I mean, when you find out about these things at work...) Linux Expo Hippest of Show Award: ZeroKnowledge, hands-down!
Enjoyed finally seeing rms speak, but was hoping for a talk with a little more, well, insight. I don't believe he said much that I haven't read in the philosophy section of the GNU site.
Just for yuks, I'll submit my position on a recent article regarding the Advogato certification system. Maybe "Dimwit" is cute, but I think that "Outcast" is a bad call. A couple of reasons, neither of which I believe is original here:
- A community is about inclusion. "Outcast" is about
exclusion. What's the point of allowing someone to log in
with an "Outcast" sign hanging around their neck? If you to
cast someone out, you cast them out; ie. take their
login away. Or is "Outcast" just a way for the rest of the
community to have someone to look down on? This is
dangerous...
- More importantly: the original certifications were
based
on a whole different dimension: (roughly) the value of the
person's
contribution to the open source community (whatever that
is). "Outcast" (and "Dimwit" too, I suppose) are based on a
different axis: (roughly) the person's behaviour on
Advogato. So what happens when
a really productive (Master, even) contributor is an
obnoxious jerk?
I've been my usual voyeuristic self here on Advogato, and so am very happy with being an "Observer." I really enjoy reading Advogato, but I worry a little bit that the some of us get a little too uptight about the "trust metric/certification" thing.
In other news, I turned 30 today. How did that happen so quickly? Sneaks up when you're not looking, I guess...
Other questions:
- Does C++ need to be that large?
- Why does a peaceful Canadian guy like me become agitated and uneasy when he sees someone driving a Lincoln Navigator?
- How much coffee can I drink in one day?
More questions later...