[portland] in followup to May meeting...

[kirby urner]

Thx for a great mtg!  I learned a lot.

<meeting re="version control">

Although I told "border collie" michelle (good at herding!) I'd be
joining ya'll at Produce Row, when we dispersed to our motor vehicles
(aka "cars") I got the proverbial cell call -- actually, I was in that
Shell across from Cubespace, gassing up said Razz (her name).

I texted Jason about my sudden change, dunno if relevant (just tying
off loose ends).  Next time maybe?  I never know in advance it seems.

When still on the sidewalk with the first group outside, Michel asked
me what version control systems I'd used and I said mainly cvs for
Python.org (the website), which brought up this question:  is it just
the source tree for Python-the-language (CPython), or the whole
website (the proverbial kit and kaboodle) that's moving to hg?

I sought clarification about that just now and learned on good
authority that the website is still in svn.

My guess is it'll move to hg, but that hasn't happened yet.

Here's my write-up of last night's, where I fade in and out around
stuff, lots going on in my little world, distracting:

http://worldgame.blogspot.com/2009/05/ppug-2009512.html

</meeting>

<autobio>

Per my many autobiographical blog postings, I came up through the
ranks as an xBase programmer, meaning Visual FoxPro eventually, still
popular in Prague (liking Igal's allusions to Kafka's Castle as Friend
Hyzy went to Prague precisely to study said master, has been one of my
dear correspondents over the years).

FYI, before FOSS revolution I worked mostly for Greater Portland's
nonprofits using non-Mac solutions, though my organization (EMO/CUE)
had some of the first LaserWriters in town, slaved to PageMaker, and
we had classes for Portland Alliance, Rain Magazine, other proud dirt
worshipers, tree huggers and so on (CUE = Center for Urban Education,
tech support for NGOs, well before Free Geek's CollabTech experiment).

My move to Python was in connection with geometry research, testing
the waters in a few other languages along the way (starting with Fox)
before finding this pool of deep talent and true wonders:

http://www.4dsolutions.net/ocn/oop.html  (my transition from FoxPro to
Python, in multiple chapters)
http://www.4dsolutions.net/ocn/oopalgebra.html (lets make "dot
notation" part of everyday math)
http://www.4dsolutions.net/ocn/pyqvectors.html (yes, there's an
article on "quadrays" in FoxPro Advisor -- collectors' edition?)

I could give a more in-depth talk on this stuff sometime if people
wanna do mathy stuff (seems we're pretty heavy into CS already, so why
not?).

What I'd say my day job is about these days is trying to get nuns and
pirates (FOSS bosses) into the same room for cordial conversations
with an eye to doing some business together.  Have to work against
stereotypes.

Takes HR skills I maybe don't have, so I outsource to others in that
department sometimes, e.g. Mosaic Consulting has helped with Sisters
of Providence work etc..

On the geometry front, I was first web wrangler for Buckminster Fuller
Insitute, was promoting his stuff around Portland before Python was a
glimmer in our benevolent dicator's eye, even wound up in the
Oregonian a couple times, as a "local futurist" (sounds pretty retro),
here's a link to one of those articles, minus the picture which I've
mislaid someplace:

http://coffeeshopsnet.blogspot.com/2009/02/in-news.html  (no, Portland
didn't go with any stadium style global projection either, but this
was before Google Earth or Google Street Views).

</autobio>

More later, thanks again,

Kirby
4D