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dabbott 09/07/30 18:16:08 |
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|
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Modified: 20090724-robbat2-interview.xml |
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Log: |
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converted to regular GuideXML version |
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|
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Revision Changes Path |
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1.2 xml/htdocs/proj/en/pr/20090724-robbat2-interview.xml |
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|
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file : http://sources.gentoo.org/viewcvs.py/gentoo/xml/htdocs/proj/en/pr/20090724-robbat2-interview.xml?rev=1.2&view=markup |
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plain: http://sources.gentoo.org/viewcvs.py/gentoo/xml/htdocs/proj/en/pr/20090724-robbat2-interview.xml?rev=1.2&content-type=text/plain |
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diff : http://sources.gentoo.org/viewcvs.py/gentoo/xml/htdocs/proj/en/pr/20090724-robbat2-interview.xml?r1=1.1&r2=1.2 |
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Index: 20090724-robbat2-interview.xml |
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=================================================================== |
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RCS file: /var/cvsroot/gentoo/xml/htdocs/proj/en/pr/20090724-robbat2-interview.xml,v |
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retrieving revision 1.1 |
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retrieving revision 1.2 |
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diff -u -r1.1 -r1.2 |
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--- 20090724-robbat2-interview.xml 30 Jul 2009 12:54:32 -0000 1.1 |
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+++ 20090724-robbat2-interview.xml 30 Jul 2009 18:16:08 -0000 1.2 |
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@@ -1,26 +1,31 @@ |
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-<?xml version='1.0'?> |
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+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> |
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|
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-<!DOCTYPE news SYSTEM "/dtd/guide.dtd"> |
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- |
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-<news gentoo="yes" category="gentoo"> |
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- |
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-<!-- Enter your name here --> |
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-<poster>dabbott</poster> |
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- |
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-<!-- Date to be displayed --> |
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-<date>2009-07-24</date> |
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- |
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-<!-- Title of the news item - don't forget to change the date --> |
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+<!DOCTYPE guide SYSTEM "/dtd/guide.dtd"> |
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+<!-- $HEADER: $ --> |
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+<guide> |
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<title>Interview Gentoo Developer Robin H. Johnson (robbat2)</title> |
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|
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-<body> |
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- |
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-<!-- Alter to your liking --> |
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- |
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-<p> |
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-<b>Introduction:</b> |
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-</p> |
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+<author title="Author"> |
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+ <mail link="dabbott"/> |
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+</author> |
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+ |
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+<abstract> |
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+Interview with Robin H. Johnson (robbat2) |
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+</abstract> |
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+ |
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+<!-- The content of this document is licensed under the CC-BY-SA license --> |
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+<!-- See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5 --> |
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+<license/> |
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+ |
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+<version>1</version> |
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+<date>2009-07-30</date> |
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+ |
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+<chapter> |
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+<title>Interview with Robin H. Johnson (robbat2)</title> |
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+<section> |
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+<title>Introduction</title> |
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|
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+<body> |
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<p> |
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Today I have the pleasure of introducing to all of you, Robin H. Johnson |
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(robbat2) Gentoo Developer, Gentoo Trustee board member, head of the |
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@@ -28,7 +33,13 @@ |
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know it. Robin is also involved with helping out MySQL, LDAP, base-system, and |
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lots more. |
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</p> |
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+</body> |
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+</section> |
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|
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+<section> |
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+<title>Robin's Interview</title> |
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+ |
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+<body> |
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<p> |
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Hi Robin, thanks for the interview. |
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</p> |
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@@ -37,27 +48,34 @@ |
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Hi David, Thanks for asking me. |
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</p> |
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|
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-<dl><dt> |
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+<dl> |
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+<dt> |
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1) Is Gentoo your first open source project? |
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-</dt> <dd> |
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+</dt> |
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+<dd> |
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No, my first full-scale involvement was as one of the phpMyAdmin developers, |
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starting in May 2001,about 2 months after it first moved onto SourceForge. |
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Prior to that it was just the occasional patches submitted back to projects I |
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was using as a Slackware user. |
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-</dd><dt> |
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+</dd> |
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+<dt> |
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2) How long have you been a Gentoo user? </dt> <dd> According to bugzilla, my |
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first ever bug/comment was bug 14397, complaining that PHP was detecting GCC2 |
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as a cross-compiler, on 2003-02-25. I wasn't a dev yet then, but it already |
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shows the debug path. |
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-</dd><dt> |
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+</dd> |
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+<dt> |
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3) How did you come up with the nick (robbat2)? |
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-</dt> <dd> |
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+</dt> |
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+<dd> |
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That comes down to an overly long and complicated story for this podcast, but |
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it involves multiplayer LAN flight sims, writing Quake 1 mods, a namespace |
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conflict on my older nick, and abusing DOS ASCII art. |
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-</dd><dt> |
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+</dd> |
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+<dt> |
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4) What has your journey been like with Linux, and how did it start? |
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-</dt> <dd> |
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+</dt> |
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+<dd> |
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Being given a RH6.2 CD1 CD (not the entire set), back in 1997, prior to having |
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any internet connection, still living in South Africa, and having it |
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accidentally wipe out my DOS machine, that I did Pascal programming on at the |
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@@ -68,14 +86,17 @@ |
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possibilities. I was going to go with RedHat again, having bought real pressed |
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media for $5 at a local Linux festival, but it turned out to be defective, and |
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I just downloaded slackware ISOs instead. |
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-</dd><dt> |
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+</dd> |
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+<dt> |
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5) What motivated you to become a Gentoo Developer? </dt> <dd> Daniel Robbins |
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complained I was submitting too many patches and ideas, and that I might as |
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well join to commit them myself. |
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-</dd><dt> |
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+</dd> |
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+<dt> |
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6) What aspects of Gentoo do you feel the developers and maintainers have got |
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right? |
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-</dt> <dd> |
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+</dt> |
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+<dd> |
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This is interesting in the issue of the distribution vs. the |
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developers/maintainers. The distribution has got the degree of control down |
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very nicely, which is partly due to the developer demand to change stuff to be |
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@@ -83,25 +104,31 @@ |
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the binary distributions I feel. I remember looking for RPM specfiles in the |
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past, and not being able to find them, to see what patches were being used, or |
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configure flags were being passed. |
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-</dd><dt> |
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+</dd> |
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+<dt> |
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7) What is it about Gentoo you would like to see improved? |
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-</dt> <dd> |
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+</dt> |
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+<dd> |
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Transparency in projects that are going on, but also in users paying attention |
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to what we are doing. However, if there's one single area, it's how slow we |
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move stuff to stable. I've complained before, but recent presentation by Scott |
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Shawcroft from OSCON showed just how bad it is. Our unstable tree is in great |
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shape, but our stable tree is worse than many of the major distros, esp Ubuntu |
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and Fedora. |
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-</dd><dt> |
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+</dd> |
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+<dt> |
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8) What are some of the Projects within Gentoo that you enjoy contributing to? |
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-</dt> <dd> |
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+</dt> |
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+<dd> |
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The infrastructure project is the most fun, as I enjoy the challenge involved |
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in cohesively managing 40+ disparate servers, scattered in 12 locations around |
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the world. The requirements of unique development to automate the work is also |
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fun. |
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-</dd><dt> |
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+</dd> |
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+<dt> |
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9) Could you give me an overview of the Gentoo infrastructure? |
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-</dt> <dd> |
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+</dt> |
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+<dd> |
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Nearly 50 percent of the infrastructure hardware is taken up by web |
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applications, because we have a lot of separation between web applications that |
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have a high security exposure. Admittedly some of the web services are a very |
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@@ -113,16 +140,19 @@ |
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as fail-over in case we lose a machine would be nice, but I think the place |
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that'd we would benefit the most presently would be a newer mail server |
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infrastructure, so that we can deploy heavier spam filtering. |
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-</dd><dt> |
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+</dd> |
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+<dt> |
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10) Who helps you with the infrastructure? </dt> <dd> Lance (ramareth) was the |
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previous infrastructure lead, and Mike (kingtaco) is my present co-lead, but |
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he's a slacker most of the time. Shyam (fox2mike) started off in handling |
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mirrors, but is now up at handling some day-to-day infrastructure issues as |
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well. Solar helps out with stuff as well, but is mainly there in an advisory |
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role these days. |
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-</dd><dt> |
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+</dd> |
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+<dt> |
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11) What is the process for someone to donate a server or set up an rsync mirror? |
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-</dt> <dd> |
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+</dt> |
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+<dd> |
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If you'd like to set up your own rsync or source mirror, we offer complete |
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instructions linked from the very bottom of the Mirrors page on the website. |
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The 'gentoo-rsync-mirror' package also offers a sample configuration and |
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@@ -136,9 +166,11 @@ |
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hardware, running on a LiveCD so that we can perform our cfengine-powered |
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install of the hardened system. If you've got IPMI or remote console (serial or |
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KVM), that's extremely useful as well. |
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-</dd> <dt> |
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+</dd> |
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+<dt> |
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12) Is git in the future plans? |
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-</dt> <dd> |
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+</dt> |
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+<dd> |
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With more hours in the day, it'll come sooner, but it's not a high priority |
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item. I passed out a few of the TODO items on my last status post to the |
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gentoo-scm mailing list. Of them, only WilliamH has done anything. One of the |
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@@ -146,60 +178,76 @@ |
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improvements, but those aren't fully baked yet, he'd like to find some time to |
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finish them, and possibly some sponsorship so he can put aside his dayjob to |
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work on them. |
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-</dd><dt> |
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+</dd> |
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+<dt> |
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13) As a Gentoo Developer what are some of your accomplishments? |
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-</dt><dd> |
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+</dt> |
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+<dd> |
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Over my time as a developer, a lot of the things I do seem to be because it was |
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broken, and nobody else cared about it at the time. That's how I came to be |
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the maintainer of qmail, PHP and MySQL back in my early developer days. In all |
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3 cases, I started the teams to maintain them. The MySQL team is the only one |
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of those not still in existence. The developers that joined have retired |
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before me, and MySQL has come back to me. |
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-</dd><dt> |
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+</dd> |
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+<dt> |
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14) What applications would you like to see included within Gentoo? |
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-</dt><dd> |
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+</dt> |
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+<dd> |
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There are a couple of more complex applications I've run into, that I'd like |
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packaged, but after attempting to do so myself, I can see why nobody else has |
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yet either. Most recently, was the Evergreen Library System, after I met some |
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of the local implementors at an unconference last year. |
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-</dd><dt> |
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+</dd> |
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+<dt> |
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15) What are your thoughts on Sun acquiring Oracle and its effect on MySQL? |
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-</dt> <dd> |
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+</dt> |
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+<dd> |
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(assuming you meant Oracle acquiring Sun). My views on the matter are |
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reasonably positive for both Sun and MySQL, due to Oracle's dependence on Java, |
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along with the spread of the original core MySQL employees to no longer work |
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for any of the 3 companies, and MySQL AB's recently renewed commitment to |
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having a fully open MySQL - they got rid of the split between MySQL-community |
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and MySQL-enterprise. |
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-</dd><dt> |
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+</dd> |
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+<dt> |
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16) What open source software can you not live without at home and at work? |
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-</dt> <dd> |
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+</dt> |
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+<dd> |
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I'd have to put VIM first on the list, it does wonders for productivity. |
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Similarly, Gentoo itself belongs there, as we rely critically on it for work |
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and also my personal systems. |
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-</dd><dt> |
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+</dd> |
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+<dt> |
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17) Which open source programs would you like to see developed? |
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-</dt><dd> |
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+</dt> |
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+<dd> |
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Less reliance and imitation of windows, we need to come up with new concepts of |
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software more. The Evergreen Library system is making good inroads for that |
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field, but it's extremely complex. The Radeon and Nvidia open source drivers |
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are making good but slow progress. There's a couple of ideas I've had floating |
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in my head, mainly for reimplementing software where I don't like any of the |
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existing options, but none of them are really radically new. |
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-</dd><dt> |
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+</dd> |
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+<dt> |
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18) What resources have you found most helpful when troubleshooting within Gentoo? |
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-</dt> <dd> |
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+</dt> |
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+<dd> |
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Don't underestimate the ability to take any code apart and inspect it, combined |
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with some form of debugging, if not gdb, then simply putting in your own print |
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statements. |
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-</dd><dt> |
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+</dd> |
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+<dt> |
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19) Do you get to do much programming? |
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-</dt> <dd> |
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+</dt> |
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+<dd> |
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A lot less than I used to, but still probably on the order of 100 lines of |
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code/week. |
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-</dd><dt> |
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+</dd> |
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+<dt> |
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20) What would be your dream job? |
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-</dt> <dd> |
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+</dt> |
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+<dd> |
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In some ways I'm very close to it already, as the lead developer nee |
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development manager and deep-problem sysadmin for IsoHunt.com. Our ruby |
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developers are like herding cats at times however, and I'd like to get more |
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@@ -208,15 +256,19 @@ |
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servers. I'd certainly consider doing more Gentoo stuff on a consulting basis |
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as well if the opportunity was available, as it tends to focus more on solving |
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interesting problems. |
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-</dd><dt> |
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+</dd> |
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+<dt> |
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21) What can users do to improve Gentoo? |
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-</dt> <dd> |
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+</dt> |
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+<dd> |
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Read the documentation and source code, and ask intelligent questions, ideally |
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with patches to at least roughly implement your ideas. Filing stable requests |
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for stuff that's been around long enough would also help a lot. |
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-</dd><dt> |
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+</dd> |
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+<dt> |
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22) What are some of the ways LDAP is put to use in the real world. |
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-</dt><dd> |
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+</dt> |
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+<dd> |
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Is Gentoo not the real world? Outside of Gentoo, it's mainly good as a large |
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hierarchal database, most often used as an address book and directory service |
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for authentication and control. It's not always secured very well however, a |
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@@ -224,17 +276,21 @@ |
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field for on the address book server at the main campus wasn't restricted at |
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all, you could query it from the public internet, even with Netscape's address |
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book functionality. They have since fixed it. |
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-</dd><dt> |
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+</dd> |
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+<dt> |
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23) What users would you like to recruit to become Gentoo Developers? |
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-</dt> <dd> |
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+</dt> |
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+<dd> |
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More developers focused on small sets of packages. Look at the Debian |
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maintainer system, they have more than a thousand maintainers, and their |
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bleeding edge stuff actually isn't that far behind. Some with interest in |
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backup applications or MySQL would go a long way to start. |
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-</dd><dt> |
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+</dd> |
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+<dt> |
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24) Is the biggest hurdle in getting the users and developers working more |
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closely, the time it takes to build trust? |
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-</dt> <dd> |
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+</dt> |
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+<dd> |
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Not the time that it takes to build trust, but the degree to which users don't |
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realize why their proposed (crazy) solutions won't work out as nicely as they |
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want. They say simply "re-enable FOO" that was disabled in the latest version |
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@@ -243,38 +299,48 @@ |
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information is highly useful as well. If it's a segfault, provide a backtrace |
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with debugging, and figure out what conditions you need to reproduce a problem, |
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not just your set of conditions, but what simple subset of changes trigger it. |
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-</dd> <dt> |
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+</dd> |
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+<dt> |
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25) What are the specs of your current boxes? |
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-</dt> <dd> |
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+</dt> |
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+<dd> |
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The 4 machines at home that run the most often: |
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-</dd> <dt> |
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+</dd> |
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+<dt> |
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<b>curie</b> |
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-</dt> <dd> |
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+</dt> |
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+<dd> |
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<ul> |
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<li>old old web and mail server</li> |
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<li>AMD Athlon w/ 1GB RAM</li> |
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<li>200GiB RAID1 disk</li> |
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</ul> |
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-</dd> <dt> |
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+</dd> |
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+<dt> |
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<b>grubbs</b> |
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-</dt> <dd> |
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+</dt> |
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+<dd> |
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<ul> |
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<li>development and testing server, will ultimately replace curie.</li> |
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<li>Core2 Q6600 w/ 5.8 GiB of RAM (odd number due to BIOS MTRR issues)</li> |
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<li>1.7TiB RAID5 disk</li> |
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<li>3TiB external eSATA RAID5 enclosure</li> |
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<li>LTO3 backup tape</li> </ul> |
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-</dd> <dt> |
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+</dd> |
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+<dt> |
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<b>bohr</b> |
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-</dt> <dd> |
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+</dt> |
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+<dd> |
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<ul> |
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<li>desktop machine</li> |
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<li>Core2 Q9550 w/ 16GiB RAM</li> |
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<li>1.3TiB RAID10 disk</li> |
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</ul> |
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-</dd><dt> |
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+</dd> |
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+<dt> |
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<b>speedracer</b> |
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-</dt> <dd> |
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+</dt> |
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+<dd> |
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<ul> |
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<li>1U server, in a local colocation facility</li> |
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<li>Asus RS120-E4/PA4</li> |
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@@ -282,31 +348,41 @@ |
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<li>2TiB RAID5 disk</li> |
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<li>Runs the Willikins bot for all of the Gentoo channels</li> |
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</ul> |
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-</dd> <dt> |
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+</dd> |
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+<dt> |
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<b>ebadi</b> |
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-</dt><dd> |
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+</dt> |
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+<dd> |
| 438 |
<ul> |
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<li>old Asus W5F laptop</li> |
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<li>Core1 w/ 1.5GiB RAM</li> |
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<li>200GiB disk</li> |
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</ul> |
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-</dd> <dd> |
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+</dd> |
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+<dd> |
| 446 |
3ware RAID controllers on the non-laptop systems. Beyond these machines that |
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run most of the time, I've also got half a dozen embedded systems of different |
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architectures. |
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-</dd><dt> |
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+</dd> |
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+<dt> |
| 452 |
26) Did the Gentoo Developers played any tricks on you when you were a rookie, |
| 453 |
new to the developer pool? |
| 454 |
-</dt><dd> None that I can recall, I wasn't on IRC a lot in the early days. |
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-</dd><dt> |
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+</dt> |
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+<dd> |
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+None that I can recall, I wasn't on IRC a lot in the early days. |
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+</dd> |
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+<dt> |
| 461 |
27) What gives you the most enjoyment within the Gentoo community? |
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-</dt><dd> |
| 463 |
+</dt> |
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+<dd> |
| 465 |
Definitely the Infrastructure project. |
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-</dd></dl> |
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+</dd> |
| 468 |
+</dl> |
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|
| 470 |
<p> <e><mail link="dabbott"/> contributed the draft for this announcement.</e> |
| 471 |
</p> |
| 472 |
|
| 473 |
</body> |
| 474 |
- |
| 475 |
-</news> |
| 476 |
+</section> |
| 477 |
+</chapter> |
| 478 |
+</guide> |
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