Another bowl
Here's a bowl I made last weekend. My sister hurt herself at her Roller Derby match, so she ended up with the bowl of condolences. At first I thought this wood was ash, but its acutally catalpa. [icbm: home]
Juno TC Candidacy
Another email archived for historical reasons. I'd also like to announce my TC candidacy. I am currently a member of the TC, and I would like to continue to serve. I first started hacking on Nova during the Diablo release, with my first code contributions appearing in the Essex release. Since then I've hacked mostly on Nova and Oslo, although I have also contributed to many other projects as my travels have required. For example, I've tried hard to keep various projects in sync with their imports of parts of Oslo I maintain. I work full time on OpenStack at Rackspace, leading a team of developers who work solely on upstream open source OpenStack. I am a Nova and Oslo core reviewer and the Nova PTL. I have been serving on the TC for the last year, and in the Icehouse release started acting as the liaison for the board "defcore" committee along with Anne Gentle. "defcore" is the board effort to define what parts of OpenStack we require vendors to ship in order to be able to use the OpenStack trade mark, so it involves both the board and the TC. That liaison relationship is very new and only…
Thoughts from the PTL
I sent this through to the openstack-dev mailing list (you can see the thread here), but I want to put it here as well for people who don't actively follow the mailing list. First off, thanks for electing me as the Nova PTL for Juno. I find the outcome of the election both flattering and daunting. I'd like to thank Dan and John for running as PTL candidates as well -- I strongly believe that a solid democratic process is part of what makes OpenStack so successful, and that isn't possible without people being will to stand up during the election cycle. I'm hoping to send out regular emails to this list with my thoughts about our current position in the release process. Its early in the cycle, so the ideas here aren't fully formed yet -- however I'd rather get feedback early and often, in case I'm off on the wrong path. What am I thinking about at the moment? The following things: * a mid cycle meetup. I think the Icehouse meetup was a great success, and I'd like to see us do this again in Juno. I'd also like to get the location and venue nailed down…
Initial play with wood turning
I've been going to the ACT Woodcraft Guild for the last year or so learning to turn wood on a lathe. I'm by no means an expert, but here are some of my early efforts. [icbm: home]
Juno Nova PTL Candidacy
This is a repost of an email to the openstack-dev list, which is mostly here for historical reasons. Hi. I would like to run for the OpenStack Compute PTL position as well. I have been an active nova developer since late 2011, and have been a core reviewer for quite a while. I am currently serving on the Technical Committee, where I have recently been spending my time liaising with the board about how to define what software should be able to use the OpenStack trade mark. I've also served on the vulnerability management team, and as nova bug czar in the past. I have extensive experience running Open Source community groups, having served on the TC, been the Director for linux.conf.au 2013, as well as serving on the boards of various community groups over the years. In Icehouse I hired a team of nine software engineers who are all working 100% on OpenStack at Rackspace Australia, developed and deployed the turbo hipster third party CI system along with Joshua Hesketh, as well as writing nova code. I recognize that if I am successful I will need to rearrange my work responsibilities, and my management is supportive of that. The…
The Hot Gate
This book follows on from Live Free or Die and Citadel. This time we focus solely on Dana as she is transferred to a new unit. The story is interesting, although perhaps it focusses on the dysfunction of the Latin American countries a little more than is really necessary. More interestingly, the book ends the series (as best as I can tell) in an unusual manner for a book like this, with the humans not winning a simple out right victory -- moral or otherwise. Overall, a fun light read.
Citadel
This book follows on from Live Free or Die. I like the approach of this book, as it follows a couple of relatively normal people trying to get by, and how the main protagonist from the last book's actions affect them. Its an engaging read, while still progressing the overall arc of the series. I really enjoyed it.
The Runaway Jury
This is an older book now, and I read it many many years ago but re-read it this last couple of weeks. I enjoyed this book. Its believable (if a little dated now), and interesting. It certainly made me think more about the first amendment and how it affects dangerous products like cigarettes than I would have otherwise.
Live Free or Die
This book is useful. When the Earth is invaded by evil aliens intent on stripping us of our heavy metals, I now know how to fight back using just Maple Syrup and a Death Star I just happen to have hanging around. That's education right there. This book is delightfully not sexist compared with some of Ringo's other books, which makes me happy. It does lack strong female characters, but at least they're not being used for titillation (refer to Cally's War for an example of how this isn't always true). I enjoyed this book.
A Talent for War
This is my first McDevitt book, and it was a pleasant surprise. A bit of a mystery novel, but set in the far future. Well written, interesting and fun. I enjoyed it.