Entries for archive: 2008-09

Found 4 entries.

Software Freedom Day Happenings

On Saturday I spent a large part of it talking to other geeks and generally just hanging out.

At Software Freedom Day there was both a barcamp and a hackfest, though I only made it to the barcamp. I've been to hackfests before and just wanted to see what the unconference was like.

It turns out it was good. One of the sessions I went to wasn't quite so good, one was just chatting with a couple of others, in one I learnt alot about Xapian (which looks really good) and in another we talked about distributed source control and other things (but mainly focused around Git).

The setting in the town hall was pretty good though the layout of the rooms was such that there was always a 'front'. What I would have liked to have seen was more a 'circle' so (like I commented at the end of the day) everybody who turns up is on an equal footing with anyone already there.

I'm certainly not a fan of the rooms with projectors in them. Not only does this focus to the person in control of the projector but what should be an informal chat session gets hijacked by the people who were able to get in with slides beforehand. I understand that some of these people are sponsors of the event (for which we truly are grateful) but please, just say it's a presentation and not pretend that it isn't. At least that way we know what we're getting ourselves in for.

The hackfest area seemed to be really lively those couple of times I did go through though I suspect I'll still stay in the unconference next year (let's face it, I hack with people at SHDH once a month already).

So overall, a really enjoyable day and a great day to chat to random other people. Can't wait for next year already. Congrats. and thanks to the organisers for putting up the whole show.

Labels: open-source, planet-geek, planet-catalyst, software-freedom-day, linux, shdh

Inserted: 2008-09-22 21:31 (1 year, 10 months ago)

Fun Roller Dicso

Last week a friend of mine asked if I wanted to go to the Roller Disco in Kilbirnie which was on last night. At first I said 'no' but I knew I'd be going.

Glad I did in the end since it was superb entertainment and it lasted almost three hours.

I have my own inline skates which I bought way back in 1999 and probably used them 20 times over the next 2 years. Haven't used them since.

For ages I've been thinking of getting back on them and having a go up and down Oriental Parade - talk about the pressure of not falling - but I always just decided not to. Probably because of what other people think, which flies in the face of the fact that I usually don't care what other (strangers) think.

As it turns out, I'm actually OK on my feet so I'll definitely be 'hitting the streets', or whatever the funky term is these days, and having a bit more of a go.

Remember to say hi if you see me out and about when the weather's nice but please don't take the piss out of my knee, elbow and wrist guards :-)

Labels:

Inserted: 2008-09-14 10:12 (1 year, 10 months ago)

Long Term Plans

I'm hopeless when it comes to short-term plans. I never know what I'm going to have for tea, I don't have a diary to tell me what's happening next week (though I usually remember) and I have no-idea what I did last week.

However, my life has usually revolved around some quite long term plans, most of which happened almost exactly as I expected with some leeway here and there.

For example:

  • I knew when I started work that I would come back to New Zealand to work - it took 4 years instead of the original 2 I expected
  • I paid off my Graduate and Student loans before I travelled again - which took 2.5 years instead of the planned 4 years
  • I bought my house before I turned 30, two weeks before in fact
  • my next plan is to travel around NZ for 6-12 months in a campervan sometime between 2011-2014

Since I bought the house I've been saying to everyone that I planned to pay the house off by the time I was 40. Some people gave me interesting looks when I said that but seriously, that's what I'm planning.

In fact, I'm planning a lot more than that. Recently, I have decided to go from a normal five day working week to a four day week. I remember exactly when this idea came into my head - last Christmas/New Year - since it was a good time to work a couple of days, have a day off, work a couple more and have a couple more days off. It just felt right!

In January, I asked at work if I could do this magical four-day work week. Luckily for me they said yes though between us I delayed it twice due to curent project needs. Finally, 9 months later, it's now happening :-)

This has made me think though. Now that I'm earning less I need to spend less. It's something I've been thinking about for a while but finally I am having to do something about it. As I said, I cut down some expenses when I bought the house but now I'm earning less, I have to cut down more. Already I made changes earlier this year when I moved from Seatoun into town ... it's cheaper rent and I don't have to buy a bus ticket either. Already I'm saving a lot which offsets against my lower income.

But here's another twist to the tale. As well as still wanting to pay the house off by the time I'm 40 I also now want to retire at the same age AND at the same time as only working 4 days a week.

Crazy? Yes. A little bit mad? Of course. Unobtainable? Probably. But here's the interesting bit - if I aim for 40, I might just get there by the time I'm 45.

Financial independence by the time I'm 45, I suspect anyone would want that.

To help my on that road, to make it open so that people can see my progress, I shall be keeping a blog which will include my ideas, some facts and figures but mainly my tricks and techniques to making it happen. I'd been thinking of doing it for a while but now that I'm 4 days a week, the time is ripe.

I also know that having the support of another person also helps you along. Stephen and I have already discussed a couple of things to do with Frugality/Savings/Retirement Plan (call it what you will) so I thought it would be good to get my blog up and going too.

There are only two articles so far but please subscribe to the RSS Feed for further posts.

As I say in the intro: Wish me luck!

Labels:

Inserted: 2008-09-13 12:24 (1 year, 10 months ago)

Stuff to do for Cil

Whilst I was away, there were a number of things cropping up that people wanted for Cil.

The two most interesting requests that people have submitted are:

  • addition of UserName and UserEmail to the .cil config file
  • ability to have a cil work command

The 2nd idea strikes me as being really useful so thanks to Yanick for all of his ideas, keep them coming.

Both of the ideas above are good but there are just a few things I'll want to discuss with the authors. There were also some requests that I create a mailing list for Cil development - now done - so we can talk these things through.

Please join up if you are interested in Cil and where this little adventure might take us.

Finally, a big hello to everyone ... I'm back in the country so I'll see you all very soon.

Labels: cil, planet-catalyst

Inserted: 2008-09-05 00:45 (1 year, 10 months ago)