IRC log of #europython for Tuesday, 2009-11-17

*** lenscape_ has quit IRC01:07
*** zeth has joined #europython01:48
*** matti has quit IRC10:00
*** _dboddie has quit IRC10:00
*** _dboddie has joined #europython10:00
*** matti has joined #europython10:03
*** ambv has joined #europython11:00
*** pedronis has joined #europython11:58
*** mgedmin has joined #europython13:21
*** Aiste has joined #europython18:00
*** lac_ has quit IRC18:29
*** jacob|home has quit IRC18:45
*** ambv has quit IRC18:46
*** lac has joined #europython18:53
*** jacob|home has joined #europython18:53
*** jacob|home is now known as jacob2218:55
*** jacob22 has quit IRC19:19
*** lac has quit IRC19:19
*** lac has joined #europython19:19
*** jacob22 has joined #europython19:20
*** pedronis has quit IRC19:52
*** lac has quit IRC20:27
*** lac has joined #europython20:30
*** ambv has joined #europython20:50
* matti hugs ambv 21:08
ambvcome on21:09
ambvwe're all adults here21:09
ambv:D21:09
matti:-p21:13
mattiI am sorry.21:13
mattiFree hugs are very #ubuntu-uk thing.21:13
matti;p21:13
ambvyup. admitting to use Ubuntu is somewhat similar to those AA meetings.21:15
ambvI'm matti and I'm an addict.21:15
ambvHi matti.21:15
mattiEmm.21:15
matti:(21:15
mattiambv: I am having a very bad day today ;/21:15
* mgedmin hugs matti21:15
mattiambv: I think, in the new year I'll quit RIM and find something else.21:15
* matti hugs mgedmin back21:16
ambvmatti: doesn't RIM log your chats?21:16
ambv:D21:16
mattiambv: No, but they now that I am unhappy.21:16
mattiambv: But as in every "corporate-alike" company, they don't give a monkey.21:17
ambvThey give an ape.21:17
mattiLOL21:17
mattiWell, we can swap :)21:18
ambvWho says we can?21:18
ambv:D21:18
mattiHeh.21:19
mattiI have had a huge argue with one of people working here.21:19
mattiHe does not like Ruby nor Python.21:19
mattiAnd he is about to ask me to re-write most of the software we have to Java.21:19
mattiIts like...21:20
mattiHe lost his mind.21:20
mattiThe time and effort is just ... this is not feasible.21:20
*** mgedmin has quit IRC21:20
ambvDoes it work properly?21:20
ambvI guess if it would, it wouldn't be a problem now would it.21:21
mattiIt does.21:21
ambvSo what is it? Maintenance issues?21:22
_dboddieTime to try Jython?21:22
mattiNo.21:22
mattiHe is an idiot.21:22
ambvNot enough Python code monkeys?21:22
mattiThat is the problem.21:22
mattiIf they ask me to write Java code I will quit.21:23
mattiThere is nothing on Earth which will make me to do this.21:23
ambvAs you know, we have a HUGE problem with hiring competent Python programmers.21:23
mattiambv: Bigger companies don't really care. They employ low quality developers as well.21:24
_dboddieI think it's generally difficult to hire good people right now.21:24
mattiambv: As there is this stong belief that "he will catch-up eventually".21:24
ambv_dboddie: which is absurd, it should be easy in this economy21:24
_dboddieambv: Sure, but remember that there are lots of people also looking for work who aren't all that good.21:25
mattiI have to work with two straight-from-university blokes.21:25
ambvI guess the reality is probably quite harsh: most "computing scientists" produced nowadays are idiots.21:25
mattiThey are nice people, but they know next to nothing about engineering.21:25
mattiambv: Agree.21:25
ambvI'm afraid of that.21:26
ambvRemember my words.21:26
ambvTwo or three major fuckups will happen.21:26
ambvBy major I mean lost lives or massive amounts of money.21:26
_dboddieWelcome to corporate life. You need lots of people to write Powerpoint slides and present them to each other in meetings.21:27
ambvAnd then some jerks will come in and say: "we have to standardise this career path".21:27
ambvAnd it will become yet another "architect", "lawyer", "doctor" like job.21:27
mattiWhen I had a chat with them about how virtual machines work and mentioned at some point that CPU is a sort-of VM, as it executes 8086-compatible (MMX, SSE, SSE2, etc) instruction set on the top of an microcode.. they told me that it is impossible.21:27
ambvWith federal exams etc.21:27
mattiI was like "what do they teach them at universities nowadays?!".21:27
mattiambv: You are right.21:28
matti_dboddie: So are you.21:29
mattiMy next company will not be a corporate.21:29
mattiI hate such environment.21:29
_dboddieIt's the lack of imagination that's really disappointing.21:29
matti_dboddie: As in the corporate world?21:30
_dboddieYes, but not necessarily where you work. ;-)21:30
matti_dboddie: I would add "too much politics" to the list.21:30
_dboddieAlthough I think we're in the same "industry", unfortunately.21:31
mattibleh.21:31
_dboddie:-)21:31
ambvDreamers.21:32
ambv:D21:32
matti:-p21:32
mattiI wonder if the new year will be a good time to look for new job.21:33
*** Aiste has quit IRC21:33
_dboddieIt has to be better than the start of 2009.21:34
mattiI hope.21:35
zethjobs hey21:40
_dboddiezeth: Are you hiring?21:40
_dboddie;-)21:40
zethhardly21:41
zethit is like the fall of rome21:41
zeththe funding bodies are sitting on their hands21:41
zethwaiting out the recession21:41
zeththe public sector in UK is afraid of huge public spending cuts in future21:41
zethso the funding bodies are not giving research groups cash21:41
_dboddieI thought the fall of Rome involved lots of decadence!21:41
zethwhich means they are not giving me lots of cash21:42
_dboddieHmm. No decadence for you, then. :-(21:42
zethwell depends how expensive it is ;)21:42
*** lac has quit IRC21:42
_dboddieI see the PyCon organisers are living it up: http://pycon.blogspot.com/2009/11/behind-scenes-at-pycon-part-i-dessert.html21:43
zethwell we lived it up here I thought21:44
zethall the organisers alseep on each other at the after-conference crew party21:44
_dboddieWas there a pastry chef involved? ;-)21:45
zeth                   asleep21:45
zetherm21:45
zethlots of cakes21:45
_dboddieWhat happens in Vegas stays in Vegas...21:45
* matti hugs zeth 21:45
* zeth smiles21:45
_dboddieSounds like the fall of Rome to me, anyway. :-)21:46
ambvzeth: would you mind a question about "zeth"?21:47
zethNo I suppose not21:51
zethAsk away21:51
zethmatti, just been reading the trackback21:54
zethconverting your Python code to Java?21:54
zethI would go for constructive dismissal, or work related cruelty21:54
mattizeth: Its not only that.21:56
mattizeth: I am not enjoying what I do anymore :/21:56
zeththats bad21:57
zethI like what I do but there is not enough of it21:57
ambvzeth: I noticed during EuroPython that you're called zeth everywhere. Is that a serious action in order to divide between your community actions and personal life? Or is that something I don't understand?21:57
zethI finished one project and was due to start another but the legal office is holding it up, which has made a mess of my job21:58
mattiambv: He is a spy.21:58
ambvhe isn't21:58
ambvwe spies know each other21:58
zethambv: exactly as you described21:59
zethwell I don't tend to use my last name anywhere really21:59
zethI am like madonna, except without the pointy bra and legion of african babies21:59
ambvzeth: can you actually succeed in staying anonymous?22:00
zethit is not so much anonymous as having my last name not used22:00
zethwhich I fail at really22:00
zethbut I still try22:00
zethone problem is that when I first started doing open source stuff, I posted to mailing lists using an email address with my last name in22:01
zethso I had to take my lastname from all my email accounts22:01
*** lac has joined #europython22:01
zethAnother problem is that I put my last name in my GPG key22:01
zethand the biggest problem is other people putting my last name online22:01
ambvyup, I agree.22:02
ambvis there a story behind your decision or did you just come up with it?22:02
zethWell lots of reasons I suppose22:02
zethfirstly as a child and teenager, no one ever bothered to use my last name, wherever I have been I have always been the only Zeth22:03
zethSo my last name sounds a bit weird22:03
zethI suppose also that my last name is the most boring thing in the world22:03
ambvZeth "Dancing With The Stars"22:04
zethyeah, that is more fun22:05
zethon facebook I change my name every so often22:05
zethcompletely confuses all the non geeks22:05
zeththey think I have really changed my name22:05
zethas if facebook authenticates your name in any way22:05
ambvAnd this privacy thing puzzles me a bit. How do you feel does the lack of your last name strengthen your privacy? What actual hazards does it protect you from?22:07
ambvI'm curious because this approach is radical and fairly uncommon.22:08
zethI suppose it doesn't really strengthen my privacy against a concerted attacker22:09
zethI suppose I just prefer to brand myself as 'zeth', branding is probably the wrong word22:10
ambv"image" may be better22:10
zethIf I was called 'Bob' I probably wouldn't do this22:10
zethbut since zeth is farily unique22:10
ambvSo "Zeth" is actually your first name?22:10
zethI don't need other names22:10
zethyeah22:11
ambvcool.22:11
zethso it is not as innovate as you thought22:12
ambvmy approach is radically different.22:12
ambvI'm fairly open in terms of what personal info I put online. Most of the time I fill every possible form box.22:12
zethreally innovatative would be to call myself something that is not my name22:12
zethand insist on being called that22:12
zethwell I know someone that does that22:13
zetha perl hacker who calls himself barbie22:13
ambvI know about "Why The Lucky Stiff".22:13
ambvHe didn't actually succeed in hiding his privacy. In the end, some asshole dug through e-mail archives and connected his posts with other posts from the same IP addresses.22:14
ambv*hiding his identity22:15
zethWell at EuroPython I was one of the main organisers, I wrote a lot of the website code and had access to the badge software22:16
zethSo my last name was easily omitted22:16
zethalthough there is a patch in the speakers software that still puts me in the right place22:17
zethsince it was alphabetical by last name22:17
ambvLOL22:17
zethWhen I first started on the internet, in the late 1990s, I had a proper alias22:18
zethwhich I used everywhere22:18
zethbut eventually I dropped it22:18
zethI thought it sounded too 'teenager-myspace-wannabee'22:19
ambvYup, same with mine.22:19
zethwindows visual basic hacker22:19
ambvIt was embarassing enough to be the phonetic version of Luke in Polish written from a (quasi-)English perspective.22:20
ambvI just dropped the vowels and it started to be just ksh.22:20
ambvBut it turns out this is somewhat popular on every other place I needed a login at.22:21
ambvI also used Ambivalence or Ambivalent at times.22:21
zethyeah, when I was first on IRC, it was under my alias, but some friend in the freenode staff reassigned zeth to me22:21
zethit was taken by someone else22:21
zethbut someone perhaps dormant22:22
ambv:)22:22
ambvAnd so after yet another failure to register somewhere I just shortened it to ambv.22:22
ambvAnd still it is another unpronouncable nickname.22:22
ambvlike ksh was.22:22
ambvespecially in Polish communities.22:22
zeththat is pretty good, it is short and sounds natural-ish, at least until you get to the v22:22
zethI would have considered ambi or ambe or suchlike22:23
ambvso how would you pronounce it?22:23
zethambu22:23
zethambi22:23
zethamb-v22:23
zethamb-vi22:23
ambvamb-vi LOL22:23
zethI would pronounce it amb-vi22:23
ambvthat touches my vi ninja spot.22:23
zeththe ambi was just a suggestion for a name22:23
ambvcool.22:23
zethI would pronouce ambv as amb-vi22:23
ambvyup, ambi is actually more straight-forward but it looks kind of childish.22:24
zethor I suppose amb-vee22:24
ambvbambi stuff.22:24
ambv:D22:24
zethno I don't think so22:24
ambvamb-vee is actually neat.22:24
ambvhttp://www.google.pl/search?q=ambvee22:25
ambvLOL, and it doesn't exist22:25
ambvunfortunately, "ambv" is more common.22:26
zethambvee is also backwardly compatible with ambv22:27
ambvstill, nowadays I just tend to use llanga for usernames which is L. Langa22:27
zethwell so is ambvi22:27
ambvllanga is for me yet another pronunciation puzzle22:27
zethyeah22:28
ambvbut it is practically only used by me everywhere22:28
zethquite hard22:28
ambvFacebook was the first hit22:28
ambvwhere actually someone used that username22:28
zethhow about lukanga ?22:28
ambvcouldn't believe it22:28
ambvhttp://www.facebook.com/llanga22:29
zethI think ambvi is better than lukanga22:29
ambvand she's a babe22:29
zethfacebook requires six letters I think is it?22:29
zethzeth was gone on twitter before I got there22:29
zethand on launchpad22:30
ambvambv too22:30
zethso I went for zeth022:30
ambvTheRealZeth22:30
zethlol22:30
zeththat would be good22:30
ambvTheZethYoureLookingFor22:30
ambvgenerally I guess the username namespace problem for every portal is somewhat stupid.22:31
ambvI have quite a variety of usernames and still try to remain cohesive at that. most people dont.22:32
zethI have not set a permalink for facebook22:32
ambvwhich is why I most often provide as much information as I can, and search engines do like that as I've noticed.22:32
mattiFacebook--22:32
zethindeed22:33
zethdel(Facebook)22:33
zethI think Facebook sucks22:33
zethI just keep my account open in case I every need to sell something22:33
zethif I ever have a business selling things, I can help pimp it on facebook22:34
zethI personally just like blogging22:34
zethand IRC22:34
zethIRC is better than facebook by far22:34
zethexcept for this channel22:34
zethsince it has public logs22:34
zethso one can't let their hair down completely, since this will end up in Google22:35
* ambv waves to the camera22:35
ambvor should I say "at the camera"?22:35
zethEither I suppose22:35
ambvenlighten me22:36
ambv:)22:36
zethso the RIM executives can find matti ;)22:36
zethI am not sure if it is always logged or just when IRC meeting is on22:36
ambv#europython may be safer than #python I guess22:36
zethI am banned from #python22:40
zethOne of the moderators was being extreme, so I questioned his actions, and he banned me too22:40
zeththey don't seem to keep reasons for banning or anyway to get unbanned22:40
zethprobably for the best, since I used to spent countless hours helping people with Python22:41
zethand not getting anything else done22:41
zethI'll sort it out once I become chairman of the PSF ;)22:42
ambvyeah, the problem is that while I have much respect for those helping on #python, I tend to really hate those being helped.22:42
zethif I really wanted to go in there I would go as zeth0, but it is too busy to read it22:44
zethI prefer smaller channels like this where you an get to know people22:44
lacthis channel is always logged.22:45
zethHi lac!22:46
zethhow are you?22:46
lactired, with new product just released.22:46
zethoh cool22:46
lacIf you can find me a zillion users, I can hire all of you. :-)22:46
zethlol22:46
zethThen I would have to move to sweden, then my wife would never let me escape from there again22:47
mattilac: :)22:47
lacsome of us think that would be a _feature_ :-)22:48
lacnew website here: http://www.eutaxia.se/ film arrives tomorrow.22:49
lacits in Swedish, but you can see the pictures ...22:49
zethmaybe, just don't let mrs zeth know there is any python programming up north ;)22:54
zethotherwise I would be dragged there tomorrow22:54
zethAnd I would miss all the benefits of living in a big city: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/8361023.stm22:55
zethlac I like the colour scheme22:56
zethwhite with a little blue22:56
zethnice and light but not too clinical22:57
lacalso some red sometimes.22:57
lacthank you.22:57
zethI have made 9p so far today on google adsense!22:59
zeththis is exponential growth23:00
zethnothing on sunday, 2p on monday23:00
ambvwait for next month!23:01
ambvlac: an iMac with WinXP on it. argh!23:01
lacambv: ??  we're showing FireFox, no?23:02
ambvwhy not do that on a proper Mac OS X?23:03
ambvI can provide you with screenshots if you're lacking the hardware23:03
ambv:D23:03
* ambv is just kidding23:03
zethIf it increases by 4.5 times a day, I will have £5.97472654344916e+25 by Christmas23:04
zethwhich is probably more money than exists in the world23:04
zethI would own Google23:04
zethThough I might retire after 24 days23:05
zethon that day I would earn £9,508,901,009,186,80623:05
ambvhttp://21.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_krdfjoLN7u1qa0in8o1_500.jpg23:06
zethor it might stay on 9p23:06
lacI think that some of the screenshots were done by our media agency, and while I know they have macs all over their place, I am not sure what they run on them.23:06
lacright now we work with ff and ie only, though safari ought to not be that hard to do.23:06
zethambv: I remember watching the video of that gates and jobs panel23:06
zethit is very uncomfortable viewing23:07
zethgates is not graceful or easy in his skin23:07
zethit was a bit like watching Gordon Brown and President Obama together23:07
zethnew dynamic president and clapped out British mumbler with giant bags under his eyes23:08
ambvhehe23:10
zethof course we wouldn't have it any other way, we like to poke fun at our leaders23:10
zeththe bigger the Clown the better23:10
ambvyou have no idea.23:10
ambvw23:10
zethWhat is going on in polish politics?23:11
ambvwe went with such absurd in Poland in last 5 years that 2 years ago we actually went with a reasonable and boring party just to have some time off from the loonies.23:12
ambvwe actually had twins being the president and prime minister. you might have heard about it, it was quite popular.23:12
zethNo I didn't hear that23:13
ambvyup, you're a geek alright ;)23:13
lachow difficult was it to tell one twin from the other?23:14
zethI remember Blair (B-lair) claimed he was going to build an alliance between UK and central and eastern europe to counterbalance France and German influence in the EU, not sure where that went, must have been binned to get us into Iraq23:14
zethYeah I see what you mean about this picture: http://www.eutaxia.se/images/stories/bg_handledning.jpg23:14
zethlooks rather wrong23:14
zethat least to a geek23:15
zethI don't think it is real anyway23:15
zethI think it may be using more than the visible area of the screen23:15
zethAnyhow, I have no idea what the product is, so I doubt the real customers will care about suck geek-stuff23:16
lacIt's a real screenshot.  But not sure that the hardware is real ...23:16
lacThis is a task tracker.23:17
zethI think it is probably a stock monitor graphic with the screenshot cleverly bent on using photoshop23:17
zethmeant to look like an iMac but not actually one23:17
laczeth: that's what I think happened, as well.23:17
zethi.e. there are not power cables23:18
zethIt is an aspirational image, I have never seen such a nice looking Windows machine23:18
lac:-)23:19
ambvlac: usually it was quite tricky to differentiate between the twins but after a year or so a regular Pole became proficient at it23:19
zethWindows monitor looks like the one on the left here: http://commandline.org.uk/images/posts/other/bulk-items.jpg23:19
lacambv: I can see some interesting diplomatic possibilities here.23:20
*** lac has quit IRC23:21
*** jacob22 has quit IRC23:21
*** lac has joined #europython23:22
*** jacob22 has joined #europython23:22

Generated by irclog2html.py 2.15.1 by Marius Gedminas - find it at mg.pov.lt!