apt https transport for etch?
Over the weekend Michael Vogt (mvo) and I produced a backport of the apt https transport to etch. In lenny and sid that functionality is in a seperate package (apt-transport-https), but for etch it seemed easier to just put it into the existing apt package and rebuild that. The advantage of not backporting all of testing's apt is of course the horrible intrusiveness with all its reverse dependencies because of the apt abi changes.
Since this cant go into backports.org because it is not a straight backport from testing to etch i wonder if it is worthwhile to make it publicly accessable in an alternative way.
A https transport is usefull in settings where sensitive packages (e.g. from a private repository) need to be accessed from accross unsecure networks.
Please tell me if you want to use this so I (and mvo for ubuntu perhaps?) can put the package up somewhere. Is there a standard place for non-standard backports yet?
Labels: Debian
Helping Debian
Regarding Lucas' points that he makes about helping debian, I think there is an important factor for people that was only mentioned between the lines: "Instant Gratification". It is much more gratifying for a contributor if his effords have immediate effects. (I guess that is one reason for the success of Wikis.) Things that slow down the effect usually dimish this gratification.
So what can people who want to help Debian do to achive more imminent gratification? Pick projects that let you help directly with direct svn/git/whatnot access (Security team, Debian Edu, Debian-Installer...).
On the other hand we should try to come up with ways to cut down on delays as much as possible and make it easier to rollback and repair if an error occures. (That is almost allways a good thing anyways.)
Labels: Debian
GTD software, Work meetings
Since I am on "maternity leave" now and basicly run the household and try to keep the children entertained, my time to get things done is randomly fragmented and I want to plan the things better that I have on the plate. Liw's blog post reminded me of GTD and today I was looking for planning tools. On
Wikipedia's GTD page they mention two: A
Firefox plugin to use with gmail (and therefor everywhere where I would have internet) and
ThinkingRock, a java app which aparently would fit on a USB key. Of course i wonder which one might be better? The ThinkingRock one seems to be a heavy weight GTD tool. Does that spoil GTD's light weight character? I watched the demos and it seems to be pretty feature complete. I would like to hear from people who use GTD and am interested in their oppinions. Thanks!
Debian Work Meetings - Extremadura evaluation8 people already managed to send in their evaluations or feedback mails to me regarding the Extremadura work meetings. That is surprisingly few, given the fact that we had 6 meetings with an average of 20 people. And so far I got only one reply from someone who could not attend eventhough she was very interested, explaining why (different continent, too far, too expensive) etc. I had expected more replies in that category, given that we had mostly europeans coming to Extremadura and I had intended to spread out future meetings over the globe more evenly. So I ask both those that attended and did not manage to send in some evaluation and also those that would have liked to come and could not to mail me!
Labels: Debian, GTD, workmeetings
Useful Improvements... any ideas?
I started a
Wiki Page about what could be improved in Debian. There are a few ideas already on that page, but I am curious what people come up with. I do hope that this page can serve at some point to pick a few key points that we can work towards for the next release (after etch). Note that these does not need to be features or cool software, but also stuff like the ultimate spam defense for list traffic or so...
Labels: Debian
