Ionrock Dot Org

I was thinking in the shower today about different kinds of usability studies. The obvious is testing general users for how they use different applications or deal with the overall desktop. I was thinking it might be interesting to test how GNOME works for someone like a Windows Sysadmin or a VS .NET developer. I realize these are corner cases but what keeps making me think of why it could be helpful falls back to the beginnings of the software industry. The killer detail in the debate between Mac and Windows ended up being the mass amounts of software available for the PC. Bill Gates specifically made sure the development tools were better than anyone elses in order to help make Windows the best platform. The result is probably more crappy software than people know what to do with but the idea still seems relevant. If developers and system administrators like the platform, it becomes an option that is exposed to people like managers and higher ups who trust these power user's judgement. With this in mind, there are some interesting usability issues regarding things like documentation that power users would be more apt to appreciate. Who knows... it was just a thought ;)

I got my occasional libranet newsletter today and it said that Jon Danzig, the founder of Libranet, passed away. While I didn't know him or anything, I will always have a space in my heart for his work creating Libranet. Libranet was very helpful in exposing me to Debian when the installer was just too much for me. I eventually started to use Debian, but whenever someone asks me what is a good distro, Libranet is always a top choice.

Libranet was one of the first distros to really make Debian accessible to people new to Linux. They made recompiling a kernel trivial as well, which I have no other distro reproduce. Jon's son (who has been working on the Libranet team for a long time) will take over his father's place on the team. I wish them the best and thank them for all their hard work.

The irony here is that I really would like folks to read my blog and I consistently ignore it when things are probably the most lax. Anyway...

Since I have been doing a real 9 to 5 lifestyle for a few weeks now I realize that I require my time to jammed packed with commitments. I have been getting up at 8 and wanting to sleep around 10:30pm! This has been totally crazy to me because during the school year I have to get up around 7:00pm only to get to bed around 3:00am while working the whole time. Is any of this healthy probably not but at the very least I have tried to watch my eating a bit more. No more enormous "Texas Sized" portions for me.

With working taking up the vast majority of the day, I can say that I have been having a pretty good time. It is so odd to build a legend of sorts around some GNOME hackers and then in meeting and working with them, their personalities become obvious and a real relationship springs forth so naturally. This of course includes annoyances and moments of genious along with everything else you might come in contact with regarding friends. In other words, having a chance to really get to know these people that impact so many with their work has been a great time because I have become nothing more than part of the team. I am treated with respect and I have a chance to give my input on the future of the GNOME desktop and it is pretty great.

As for my project, I am not at liberty to say what I am working on (I don't think). But I can say that it is web based so it is familiar to me and my skills. It involves databases which is another interest of mine. It has a research slant on it, which is again of interest and finally it does involved usability and the GNOME community. So all and all, a dream come true! Hopefully I can blog more soon and eventually get my thoughts read by others but we'll see. For now I will be working hard and long and going to bed early.

So, I have been back from tour for about almost a week. I figured now would be a good time to blog a bit about it along with anything else in life that has slipped through the cracks. I nice moment of reflection should be nice.

Tour

The tour went really well. Lauren once again did an amazing job booking shows and I can't say how thankful I am. Our show in Houston went really well and set us up for breaking very even financially. I know talking about money and how much we made is pretty unpunk but it is nice to know you can go out for two weeks and play every night and not come back in huge debt. The Chicago show was really cool. We met the singer/guitarist of Hum in his new bane Centaur. Centaur was really good live and if you liked Hum at all, you would like Centaur. The biggest difference b/w this tour and others is that we played really great clubs almost every night. It was really great to roll into town and drive up to a club a feel like you are playing someplace that should be nice to sit in for a few hours. Some notables would be the Triple Rock, Bottom Lounge, Vaudeville Mews, the Setlist and the Blue something in Bloomington. We also got to meet a ton of great people which is really what touring is all about.

The Goat

Every tour probably has one store that typifies the touring experience. On our west coast tour we had our numerous van break downs only to come home to a few hours of traffic, sans air conditioning, and animal waste on the freeway. Another tour again involved a convenient van breakdown (thanks AAA) and two cars getting towed in NYC. The spring break tour was full of 10 degree weather and a 10 hour drive from Boston to NYC. So, this tour we had the goat.

We had stopped to get gas in Iowa. I got out of the van to pump our life savings into the tank and I heard a loud "meaaa" sound coming from the truck in front of me. To be honest I thought it was retarded child yelling for his/her mom (meaaa kind of sounds like mom). I glanced in the cab and didn't see any kids and realized that this sound just kept coming. The owner of the truck had started talking to a guy about whatever was in the truck which was rather shocking because I still thought it might be a person. I eventually see the goat in the back, get a couple warm fuzzys for the little guy and top off the tank.

I went inside to pay and then came out and got in the van. Our friend with the goat wanted to calm down the animal in the back of the truck. He crawled inside the goat was not very happy. He started freaking out pretty bad and kicking. He randomly chose to run toward the window the man had just came through (this could have been intentional of course) and hit the window open with his head. Seeing a means of escape he jumps out of the truck with the man following commenting in explatives. Jeff and I look at each other and wondering if we should get out. The man solved this mystery with the Physical Education remark, "need a little help."

Jeff and I get out of van and go after the goat. The good thing is he did not head for the highway. That might have made for a really sad story I would rather forget. The goat kept going around the gas station building with an accumulating mass of people trying to catch it. Lauren, the keen photographer she is, realized this is an amazing photo opportunity and got the camera. We tried to corner the goat a few times with it resulting in either a mad dash or leap by the goat slipping through our fingers. One thing to note is that goats can jump like crazy. This goat would jump and get around twice his height. Eventually, we cornered the goat between some cars. The goat took a chance and went toward Jeff. Jeff immediately bent his knees and opened his arms like a good goat grabber would. The goat sped up and jumped...

Mid flight, Jeff reveals the "Barrera Grip" and grabs the goat in the air! My jaw dropped. It was a pretty impressive feat. The man came over and it looked like he stuck in fingers in the goat's behind which I would assume is similar to grabbing a cat by the back of the neck only more gross. He led the goat back into the truck and we all went our separate ways. I thought the guy could have given Jeff a buck or something but I guess Jeff was ok with a sweet tour story to tell other bands about being on the road.

Work

Last but not least I finally made it to Boston and have started working. I am having to use a crappy computer at the moment and I am missing debian pretty bad but hopefully things will get a bit better. I am having fun and I have a pretty slick badge so no complaints.