DylanMccall
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| == Dylan Mc``Call == | || Launchpad || [[http://launchpad.net/~dylanmccall]] || || IRC || dylanmccall / picklesworth (irc.freenode.net) || || Jabber || dylanmccall@jabber.org || || Forums || [[http://ubuntuforums.org/member.php?u=68780]] || || Email || <<MailTo(dylanmccall@gmail.com)>> || || Web log || [[http://dylanmccall.blogspot.com]] || |
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| Email: [[MailTo(DylanMcCall@Gmail.com)]] MSN: Same as Email. (Yes, I'm using MSN. I should be an indeed ''am'' ashamed.) |
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| = About Me = | == About me == |
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| I have been working on the same central project for many years now, and luckily one of my tangential "side projects" led me to Ubuntu Linux. (Yay!). Something about it really hooked me in, and now I am excited to watch Ubuntu grow and to, some day, make contributions of my own. Ubuntu has shown me the power of the open software community, and I have made it my goal to become a part of it, at least to return the generosity which has been given to me. | Hi! My name is Dylan !McCall. I'm a student, 20 years old, living in Vancouver, Canada. I am working on my first year right now at Simon Fraser University, planning to go on to a degree program involving HCI or somewhere thereabouts with some robotics and fancy software development thrown into the mix. |
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| = Apologies in Advance = | I have been enamoured by Ubuntu and happily following its development since Dapper, led here by some kind folks on the DSLinux project's forum. I have spent a lot of that time just ''exploring'' the intricacies of the community, the reason and logic behind many facets of this project. I like to tinker with free software, exploring its strengths and weaknesses in a practical sense to get a feel for where things are and where they can go. |
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| There are a few things I should apologize for: * My inability to operate a Wiki. Sorry to the people subscribed to NoUsplashTimeout; I ended up sending all 6 of you emails when I merely removed a space in my own name. * My lack of understanding of Linux and Linux software. I tend to make suggestions that really are a lot more complicated than I think. I promise, I am learning! * My occasionally inflammatory statements regarding the development of Ubuntu, Linux and Linux software. I feel I should really explain this one. Ever since I discovered Ubuntu, how perfectly designed and beautifully presented it is, I have had a strong passion for Linux and all things free. I hate to see things go wrong, and I am a very picky person. If I see something that I feel is not good for the project, I get rather... upset. Don't take it personally, though; take it as a complement. If I am so excited about someone's work that I hate it when things go the wrong way, it means I consider it so important that even the most trivial imperfection is a huge problem. On the other hand, I realize that sometimes I do not spend enough time trying to figure out what exactly has gone wrong, or if anything actually has gone wrong. I should try harder to understand every side of the proverbial fence. * My lack of contributions thus far. I've made a lot of suggestions, but so far I have not done much to help make them reality. As I look around, I am getting a much better understanding of how all of this fits together, so some day I will hopefully have something to give back to this very worthy community. |
I have trouble claiming outstanding aptitude in a particular field (the more I know the more I realize I don't), but I have lots of experience in web design and programming. People also say I am good at writing. That is a good thing, I guess, because I seem to do a lot of it... |
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| = Things That I Have Done = | I am a big fan of the art and business of game development. It's always been a dream of mine. I hope to get back to it one of these days. When I do, I want to make free software a big part. |
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| I guess it wouldn't hurt to show you folks what I have accomplished and am particularly proud of. I've built a number of unimpressive pieces of software in the past that I hope to revise, and so I won't link to them or mention them... | ''“I didn't want to be a barber anyway. I wanted to be... a lumberjack! Leaping from tree to tree as they float down the mighty rivers of British Columbia!”'' |
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| Stuff that I actually am kind of pleased with: * A nuclear reactor simulator. Sadly, it is Windows software and only slightly works with Wine. It is quite interesting, though. [http://www.blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=61175 Here is its forum thread.] * The Charlotte Content Management System. It is still in early days, but I have applied its prototype to a working web site for a community organization called the [http://www.deltahumanesociety.org Delta Humane Society]. Charlotte was developed and tested with Ubuntu, by the way. |
== Ubuntu contributions in summary == |
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| ''Upon realizing that I should only have written 2-3 lines for my membership application'' I created (and am maintaining) the slideshow ([[https://launchpad.net/ubiquity-slideshow-ubuntu|ubiquity-slideshow-ubuntu]]) which plays during Ubuntu's installation. My goal is to give new users a friendly, reassuring introduction to Ubuntu. Ultimately, it should make Ubuntu more fun and more interesting by fixing the common misunderstandings in advance and showing people some of the great things they can do. == Ubuntu contributions == I post on the forums. I don't have a schedule or a particular objective (some people are really amazingly generous there!), but I think I am generally helpful and informative. When a web search gives me an old forum thread without an answer, I like to answer it if I can. Even if the year-later response won't help the asker, it helps anyone else who finds the same thread. ---- I came up with the [[https://code.edge.launchpad.net/~dylanmccall/+junk/day-of-ubuntu-wallpaper|Day of Ubuntu]] time-lapsed desktop background, a compilation of the beautiful Dawn of Ubuntu wallpaper and three variants, which has been virally spreading - slowly but surely - about the community. (Really, I keep seeing its name appear in weird places). Of course, the art itself is the best part, and the creators are credited appropriately (along with carefully checked licensing details). ---- I have lots of little patches scattered around the world. Most recent are [[https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/506539|this one for gnome-activity-journal]], and [[https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=606806|this one for Empathy]]. My patches aren't always perfect ideas. I like making my points with working code, and I think the presence of a running example can really help the flow of ideas. ---- I am maintaining the slideshow that runs during Ubuntu's desktop installation process, simply named [[https://launchpad.net/ubiquity-slideshow-ubuntu|ubiquity-slideshow-ubuntu]]. It is an ongoing project, with lots of excitement and anticipation going in to Lucid. For this cycle, I am carrying out some changes so that derivatives (such as Kubuntu and UNR) can ship their own slideshows without needing to maintain different source packages. ---- I subscribe to a lot of mailing lists for a reason! I like to know what is going on, and I am known to drop in to discussions from time to time so I can present some sparkles of information about the outside world that were previously not considered. == Future plans == I will definitely be maintaining ubiquity-slideshow for the foreseeable future. After Lucid, the project should cool off a bit, although some new design ideas may pop up and I will definitely be keeping the slides up to date with the latest information. It has been an awesome learning experience so far about how to (with many hands-on lessons in how not to) run an open source project when contributors start appearing. At some point I hope to write about the experience and what I have learned. I am feeling very confident working in this environment now, so I am ready to branch out in some new directions! In particular, I intend to make bug fixing a routine, especially with things like the 100 Papercuts project. I have also been following the Mallard project, which looks like an awesome step towards bringing free software documentation to its full potential. I want to help move documentation over to Mallard, so remind me if I forget to. A big project I am going to blog about soon (once ubiquity-slideshow's deadlines are clear) is called Aether. It is my plan to fit applications' data together (in the GUI sense) over a natural common layer that goes beyond the file system. Simpler than it sounds, I promise; it's really very pretty :) I like the idea that tiny, powerful things, can be added together to make Ubuntu shine. It fits with the Unix philosophy and the amazingly diverse community of individuals that we have here. |
Launchpad |
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IRC |
dylanmccall / picklesworth (irc.freenode.net) |
Jabber |
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Forums |
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<dylanmccall@gmail.com> |
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Web log |
About me
Hi! My name is Dylan McCall. I'm a student, 20 years old, living in Vancouver, Canada. I am working on my first year right now at Simon Fraser University, planning to go on to a degree program involving HCI or somewhere thereabouts with some robotics and fancy software development thrown into the mix.
I have been enamoured by Ubuntu and happily following its development since Dapper, led here by some kind folks on the DSLinux project's forum. I have spent a lot of that time just exploring the intricacies of the community, the reason and logic behind many facets of this project. I like to tinker with free software, exploring its strengths and weaknesses in a practical sense to get a feel for where things are and where they can go.
I have trouble claiming outstanding aptitude in a particular field (the more I know the more I realize I don't), but I have lots of experience in web design and programming. People also say I am good at writing. That is a good thing, I guess, because I seem to do a lot of it...
I am a big fan of the art and business of game development. It's always been a dream of mine. I hope to get back to it one of these days. When I do, I want to make free software a big part.
“I didn't want to be a barber anyway. I wanted to be... a lumberjack! Leaping from tree to tree as they float down the mighty rivers of British Columbia!”
Ubuntu contributions in summary
Upon realizing that I should only have written 2-3 lines for my membership application
I created (and am maintaining) the slideshow (ubiquity-slideshow-ubuntu) which plays during Ubuntu's installation. My goal is to give new users a friendly, reassuring introduction to Ubuntu. Ultimately, it should make Ubuntu more fun and more interesting by fixing the common misunderstandings in advance and showing people some of the great things they can do.
Ubuntu contributions
I post on the forums. I don't have a schedule or a particular objective (some people are really amazingly generous there!), but I think I am generally helpful and informative. When a web search gives me an old forum thread without an answer, I like to answer it if I can. Even if the year-later response won't help the asker, it helps anyone else who finds the same thread.
I came up with the Day of Ubuntu time-lapsed desktop background, a compilation of the beautiful Dawn of Ubuntu wallpaper and three variants, which has been virally spreading - slowly but surely - about the community. (Really, I keep seeing its name appear in weird places). Of course, the art itself is the best part, and the creators are credited appropriately (along with carefully checked licensing details).
I have lots of little patches scattered around the world. Most recent are this one for gnome-activity-journal, and this one for Empathy. My patches aren't always perfect ideas. I like making my points with working code, and I think the presence of a running example can really help the flow of ideas.
I am maintaining the slideshow that runs during Ubuntu's desktop installation process, simply named ubiquity-slideshow-ubuntu. It is an ongoing project, with lots of excitement and anticipation going in to Lucid. For this cycle, I am carrying out some changes so that derivatives (such as Kubuntu and UNR) can ship their own slideshows without needing to maintain different source packages.
I subscribe to a lot of mailing lists for a reason! I like to know what is going on, and I am known to drop in to discussions from time to time so I can present some sparkles of information about the outside world that were previously not considered.
Future plans
I will definitely be maintaining ubiquity-slideshow for the foreseeable future. After Lucid, the project should cool off a bit, although some new design ideas may pop up and I will definitely be keeping the slides up to date with the latest information. It has been an awesome learning experience so far about how to (with many hands-on lessons in how not to) run an open source project when contributors start appearing. At some point I hope to write about the experience and what I have learned.
I am feeling very confident working in this environment now, so I am ready to branch out in some new directions! In particular, I intend to make bug fixing a routine, especially with things like the 100 Papercuts project. I have also been following the Mallard project, which looks like an awesome step towards bringing free software documentation to its full potential. I want to help move documentation over to Mallard, so remind me if I forget to.
A big project I am going to blog about soon (once ubiquity-slideshow's deadlines are clear) is called Aether. It is my plan to fit applications' data together (in the GUI sense) over a natural common layer that goes beyond the file system. Simpler than it sounds, I promise; it's really very pretty 
I like the idea that tiny, powerful things, can be added together to make Ubuntu shine. It fits with the Unix philosophy and the amazingly diverse community of individuals that we have here.
DylanMccall (last edited 2011-06-18 21:53:00 by d50-92-0-125)