kaberett | Entries tagged with dreamwidth

... I've announced the next contributor weekend, which is running on the 14th and 15th of May!

If you have requests for specific flavours of cake, now is a good time to make them :-)

Folk, I've stuck a poll in

dw_dev to choose dates for a May contributor event (holding them quarterly seems to be working out quite well). Please do let me know when you'd be available!

(The implementation for a run-off option in polls hasn't quite finished being implemented yet, so you're going to have to indicate strength of preference in comments to that post or, if you'd rather, this one. ;) Here's some quick stats for the February event just finished!)

1. Apply all the changes in this pull request to your develop branch (with thanks to

sophie). (Do not commit these changes!)

2. Add the line $DISABLED{loggedout_support_requests} = 1; to your file ~/dw/ext/local/etc/config-local.pl.

3. It should now be impossible to submit support requests on your Dreamhack instance while logged out. You care about this mainly because there is a risk that otherwise you will get 5000 Undelivered Mail Returned To Sender messages coz the spambots faked their e-mail addresses.

These changes will all want to be overwritten as and when that pull request Happens in a code push, but for the purposes of testing stuff over the contributor weekend it might be nice to be able to do so without spam!

cesy is hosting a contributor event the 20th and the 21st of February, the weekend after this one just starting. People are welcome locally and remotely -- I'm looking forward to getting things done in company, and I do hope you'll join us!

Pull requests made: 13 16 18 (with a few more probably to come)

Attendees: twelve I think (in addition to general hanging out in IRC)

Other bug progress:

hunningham and

pseudomonas did loads of work on big projects,

shortcipher has done a lot of testing,

cesy has made serious headway on an automated test suite, and

me_and has written a feature spec

Longest telecommutes:

swaldman had this one cornered (at ~725 miles) until the Australian contingent rocked up (thereby neatly overtaking the San Franciscans and Seattlites); video calls worked, eventually.

Wiki pages edited: SEVERAL.

Issues filed: five (#1604, #1608, #1609, #1612, #1613)

Naps taken: three

Wheelchair tyres changed: two

Slightly suspect soldering jobs: one

Food made: white bean dip & smitten kitchen's chickpea thing, macaroni cheese, sweet potato chilli, couscous, rice, parsley-tomato-cucumber-preserved lemon-pomegranate salad, apple-honey cake, gingerbread-apple upside-down cake (recipe via smitten kitchen; nb you can substitute yoghurt + a little water for the buttermilk), Apfelstrudel (family recipe I should probably write up), lemon meringue pie (with more reasonable meringue)

State of the kitchen: astonishingly non-wrecked.

Next (in-person) event: Saturday 20th February & surrounding, probably. Watch this space for details! (With an option on having me do something virtual or less over-catered sooner if folk are in favour.)

Thank you all so, so much. <3

Hello folk!

A reminder that I am running a Dreamwidth contributor weekend this Saturday.

If you need my address and I haven't sent it you by tomorrow, please comment here or PM me and I'll send it + instructions on finding the place.

If you'd like to attend remotely, find us on IRC or add me on Skype (ekabrett): I'm intending to have a spare machine running a video Skype call to interested folk from the corner of one of the rooms from about 10.30am on the Saturday (i.e. if you're attending in person and would rather not participate in the Skype call this will be avoidable).

( More logistics! )

I am currently slightly discombobulated, so may well have missed things; please do ask questions if you have any!

The thing I enjoy most about Dreamwidth-goes-to-conferences is, honestly, the part where I get to hang out in hotel rooms with a group of people working on making the site better and more fun, one way or another, and I'd really like to have more of that in my life. As such, I'm trying out hosting a Dreamwidth contributor event at the beginning of November.

In terms of what will be going on: I'd never written code before I got stuck into Dreamwidth development, and honestly I'm still very much a beginner at Perl, but I know roughly where things are and there'll be several people who're fluent in Perl present who can help out with specifics. I'm also pretty invested in documentation (both for developers and for end users), Support Board work, and misc organisational stuff. I've got lists of things that could do with being worked on from introductory bugs to specced-out features, and from minor site copy tweaks to entire new FAQs that need writing. I'm happy to mentor & cheerlead in any of these areas from any starting point, and I'll probably bake you a cake while you're getting things shipshape.

We have an A0 whiteboard, a square metre of tea, and lots of things to sit on. I expect there'll be some sitting-around-in-groups-hashing-out-workflows and some one-to-one mentoring and some solo work; there will be a dedicated quiet room in which conversation/interaction Does Not Happen.

Interested? Please let me know if you're thinking of attending so I know how many to expect, but it's absolutely fine if you don't make it on the day.

Interested but can't make it in person? Come hang out in the IRC channel (instructions at the link): telecommuters welcome. <3

( Logistical details )

* offer is non-exclusive, not least because I know perfectly well that it's faster and cheaper to get to my house from Paris than it is from where

swaldman lives

I really enjoy the hanging-out-and-getting-shit-done that happens when I'm at Whatever The Dreamwidth Conference Is This Year. I would like to have more of that in my life. Ergo I propose to begin hosting volunteer parties, concentrated on a Saturday but with tendrils into the rest of the weekend.

I can mentor for documentation and support work. I can help people get started with dev work, from never-coded-before to getting-set-up-and-letting-you-run-with-it. I have a wishlist of problems that aren't yet sufficiently well defined to work out a solution to (and want help characterising), problems where the information necessary for a specification's been gathered but the spec hasn't been written yet, and problems from "three-character fix" to "please write me this feature I will bake you a cake while you're coding it up". I didn't code at all when I started working on DW, and I still mostly don't.

Might you be interested? And if so, how does the 7th-8th of November sound for round 1? (I will need to check with my housemate whether that's okay.)

We have a square metre of tea, three sofas, and I like feeding people. If a couple of you holler interest then I'll start working out how to sort out crashspace and will advertise a bit harder in

uk and shit. ;)

1. Counselling is just around the corner from the V&A.

aella_irene likes the V&A. Ergo we had lunch sat on the art installation You Know You Cannot See Yourself So Well as by Reflection, having spent the morning hanging out in the ironwork collection. (My plan for next time involves making friends with the glass gallery; wrought iron is something I just... find incredibly soothing, for reasons I haven't quite articulated but that include the fact that it's very stark in terms of colours involved, and has lots of nice bold lines and repeating patterns.)

2. Relatedly, plants: the hydrangeas up the sides of the central courtyard are currently fantastic, as are the other plantings, and

aella_irene very generously gave me a bag of her household's surplus raspberries, so that was a joy and a delight.

3. Our internet connection is unstable enough (and I'm undermedicated enough) that I don't particularly feel like coding; nonetheless I made lots of progress with my Dreamwidth todo list today.

4. ( Benefits-related discussion. )

5. Peak 90s Kid: my mum frantically facebook IMing me for tech support. I sort of provided it, ineffectually, and she actually sorted the problem out by herself, and that means there exist more photos on the internet of me & largest smallcousin.

6. We had tinned pineapple in the house; we now have pineapple upside-down cake.

7. Another batch of rosemary sourdough is rising on the side, to be breakfast-and-lunch food.

8. I have Steam installed on the new laptop and it was rapid and painless and completely unlike most of my other attempts to install Steam under Debian. This means that I now have a MOUNTAIN yes yes.

9. Every time I reread your blue-eyed boys I find more things in it, and they are comfort and they are in their fragmentary way moments of peace.

10. Externally-sourced self-worth: my comments on the MeFi thread are getting favourited by lots of people & positively engaged with. Hurrah for managing to say things that are useful to people.

( Read more... )

1. The toilets labelled "Men or those who identify" and "Women or those who identify": not perfect by quite a ways (I would prefer and rather than or...); and the very visible notice next to the lift detailing where in the building to find gender-neutral bathrooms (with the assurance that gender diversity is celebrated in the community), which are in turn labelled "all gender bathroom".

2. The dedicated quiet space with the comfortable chairs and the open windows and the greenery.

3. The incredible catering - which is vegan by default, with vegetarian and gluten-free stuff carefully labelled.

4. The con lanyards for badges, which are colour-coded according to your preferences in terms of being included in photographs ("no", "ask me first", "yes").

5. The con badges themselves, which are little booklets that attach to the lanyard, containing (1) a copy of the schedule, (2) a map and (3) a copy of the awesome code of conduct.

6. Sufficient power points!

7. Lots of super, super friendly people: I have had pleasant discussions on a variety of topics with strangers, and we know what I'm like about People.

8. Enormous visibility of queer + trans people. (And at least 2 of 3 keynotes are being given by queer-identified women!)

9. Getting to actually put faces to a whole lot of names. :-) And concomitantly, the strangers and friends-of-friends I've been talking to looking at the two name tags I'm wearing (one "Alex", one "kaberett") and asking me which - if either - I prefer (and getting it when I say I don't at all mind, and both are my real name!)

10. Lots and lots of making sure that people stay hydrated, know where they're going, and are generally empowered to take care of themselves.

(if there is anything you are particularly wanting me to get around to wrt DW, now is a good time to ask!)

~~get to grips with github issues~~ (it's actually just shit)
~~sort out the babydev bait list~~ (???babydev-bait GHI tag?)
repo access?
~~???go to some talks~~
sort out sadserver
intro to mysql
write a patch???
~~SORT OUT THE WIKI~~ (made IRC webchat more prominently linked several ways over; removed some references to 'zilla)
~~spr0t~~
~~learn2vim~~ i.e. got myself over initial startup hump of "but what is thing how does thing" -- I am nowhere near proficient but I begin to understand how to find my way around (and to make customisations)

ridiculous hotel is ridiculous and full of nice rocks; pleasant flight was pleasant; I got to wave at Mt St Helens & Mt Rainier out the window of the Vancouver-->Portland leg; Portland is currently having a rose festival; pho for dinner; and for all I managed to sleep on the plane crashing out now yes yes.

[as we were coming in to land in Vancouver the pilot announced that Terminal 2 hadn't managed to get all hold baggage onto the plane. I was very pleased to be doing carry-on only...]

Okay, so several of you have at this point mentioned that you'd like to start learning to code/develop etc with Dreamwidth, or that you'd like to volunteer for Dreamwidth, but you're scared of getting started. I'm doing a lot of work trying to encourage new volunteers at the moment (largely because of the amount of joy I get out of this work!), so -- what would help you feel more comfortable with reaching out and poking around?

(For the record, yes, this is me volunteering to mentor any of you!)

I know that finding the time can be a major issue, and not necessarily something I can help with, but -- as I say, I can mentor; I can point you at people with the knowledge to handle the thing you're trying to deal with; I can introduce you to people in IRC, if you want to hang out there; I can give you a guided tour of the wiki, and make additions to it at your suggestion; I can help you get set up to develop and I can help you choose a bug to work on; I can talk to you about non-dev volunteering options. These are all things I actively want to do for you. So. What can I do? <3

My baby brother (all nineteen years and six foot something of him) dragged me out of bed this morning in order to make and feed me pancakes, in the kitchen with the back door open and the garden beautiful, and lectured me sternly about the fact that he was only doing this in order to use up the batter, and I wasn't to take away the message that he liked me. (This is how we express intense affection toward one another. My mother finds it quite distressing, bless her.)

( Read more... )

through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered, i have fought my way here to the castle beyond the goblin city. for my will is as strong as yours, and my kingdom as great.

you have no power over me.

My mum says this thing, "I am the spider" -- it's because once, early in her career, she mentioned to a colleague-cum-mentor that she felt rather as though she was trapped in a web with a spider pulling the strings. The mentor - who, by the way, is a fantastic bloke and I love him to bits - responded, "My dear, you are the spider." So: today I have Been The Spider relating to a lot of Dreamwidth stuff, including helping to file a bug report; filing a suggestion; and doing some substantial rummaging in

dw_dev_training. Plus, of course, That One Article. :-)

I've cooked a lot, too: two loaves of bread (okay, they were in the breadmaker, but still); two quiche cases, of which one turned into a quiche; and a dozen jam tarts from the trimmings.

Plus a lot of other self-care: three meals, hair-washing, and arranging social time over the next week. Also: dealing with e-mail as it came in; sitting outside in the sun reading my current book; helping my tiny cousin settle in; and so on.

Just for the record, this is way more than I typically manage to get done. Today? Today can stay.

( I'm attempting to establish whether there is a Dreamwidth bug relating to unflagged character limits in cut text. Hence writing a really, really long cut message, with nothing useful behind it at all. You're all great, so thank you for tolerating this, which is a gently amusing thing to say as I'm intending to not have this show on your reading pages anyway. )

write a feature just for me.

Thank you,

exor674 ♥

This is the last question from finch's list of Three Weeks for Dreamwidth prompts.

The sense of community, and of family.

That we look out for each other - because we do: I made

signalboost not because I'd had a brilliant idea for something we should do, but because I thought structure might help with something we already do - and that we encourage each other (to think, to code, to dream...) makes me happy. That we are so welcoming makes me happy. That I am meeting so many fantastic people makes me happy.

<3 to all.

All of them! To quote myself, languishing in a drafts folder elsewhere:

kaberett is not my wallet name - the name in my passport, on my Prescription Pre-payment Certificate, on my various institutional ID cards - but it is no less real for that. I am the only person using "kaberett" as a name; search the Internet and you'll get me, and a bunch of German-speakers using non-standard spellings.

My wallet name isn't the name under which I perform; it's not the name under which I write; it's not the name under which I have formed countless close friendships; it's not the name under which I provide sex education and health advice; but: it is no less real for that. There are two other people with my wallet name living in my area (one has a private pilot's licence; one spends a lot of time on student theatre), and I have at least one relative who (superficially) shares it.

Both names are real. Both names are equally real.

Both names are chosen.

Neither is the name I was given at birth.

I chose "kaberett" before I had settled on "Alex"; I decided on "Alex" because "kaberett" felt right.

Both names are patchwork: of who I am; of who I was; of who I hope to be. They started out too large: I echoed inside them and looked over my shoulder, unable to tell who was calling me. And then: I grew into my names, settled them on my shoulders like a coat, and I got out my scissors and my needles and my thread and I took them in where they were still too large; added in another stripe - another layer of nuance - where they constricted.

And I have worked for these names - for these identities - and they are consistent, solid, whole. I refuse to do either of them a disservice by relegating them to the status of "pseudonym" or "fake"; I refuse to countenance the question "Ah, but what is your real name?" - as if I could, should, have only one; as if my name should not be context-dependent; as if the name chosen for me by people who didn't yet know me is more real than my names.

We are fond of these distinctions, though: between "real life" and "online", as though they can be meaningfully separated; as though through the mediation of technology our actions become fantasy, our selves fantastical. Yes, online we can fly - but the communities we build are no less valid for that.

So then, predictably: we go the other way: with "meatspace", for example, a graphic and unpleasant image. And, yes, for some of us - and I do here include myself - our bodies make unpleasant roommates; and yet - the mind is not purer than the flesh. Embodiment neither corrupts nor tempts me.

And so, in the end, to neutrality: my real name is what I say it is. My real life is what I say it is.

I am here, and I am real - and so are you. So are we all.

who only by moving can balance

only by balancing move

In the event that you read me but not dw_dev and are interested...

May Dreamwidth contributor event

Spam-proofing Dreamhack Support Boards (before the fix goes generally live)

Dreamwidth Contributor Weekend: London, 20th February

Dreamwidth contributor weekend: quick stats

[reminder] Dreamwidth contributor weekend: this Saturday!

Dreamwidth contributor weekend: London, 7th November

UK-BASED* DREAMWIDTH VOLUNTEERS (AND VOLUNTEERS IN POTENTIA)

ten good things // {I stand and stare when I should run}

notes-to-self: Dreamwidth todo

Things I am enjoying about #osb2014, a partial list

TODO for OSBridge

arrived

Learning to code with Dreamwidth

ten good things//never have i had a mohawk to show you how i feel

ten good things

feel free to ignore

superb ways to make me feel loved

[3W4DW] 21. What's your favorite thing about Dreamwidth?

[3W4DW] 17. How many people on your reading list do you know IRL?

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