Comments for Kyle Smith http://blog.infinitechaos.com No magic here Tue, 06 Jan 2009 01:27:12 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 Comment on It’s not where you came from by thecapacity http://blog.infinitechaos.com/2008/11/12/its-not-where-you-came-from/comment-page-1/#comment-456 thecapacity Thu, 13 Nov 2008 18:52:45 +0000 http://blog.infinitechaos.com/?p=234#comment-456 I absolutely agree with you. I've also noticed people look at what someone "did" as though it were a present situation not considering what the environment was at that time. For example looking at a leadership candidate and saying "well those examples weren't enough..." and ignoring the fact that they did them when they were new to their career. Or in my case, when applying for a "research" position I was told I worked on "existing" technologies. Which completely ignores the fact that none of those were established until long after I started with them. It's the spirit of the candidate not the school or the "tangible" accomplishments. I absolutely agree with you. I’ve also noticed people look at what someone “did” as though it were a present situation not considering what the environment was at that time.

For example looking at a leadership candidate and saying “well those examples weren’t enough…” and ignoring the fact that they did them when they were new to their career.

Or in my case, when applying for a “research” position I was told I worked on “existing” technologies. Which completely ignores the fact that none of those were established until long after I started with them.

It’s the spirit of the candidate not the school or the “tangible” accomplishments.

]]> Comment on Thoughts on Wii Fit and other Nintendo titles by thecapacity http://blog.infinitechaos.com/2008/05/31/thoughts-on-wii-fit-and-other-nintendo-titles/comment-page-1/#comment-455 thecapacity Thu, 17 Jul 2008 19:00:25 +0000 http://blog.infinitechaos.com/?p=223#comment-455 Saw this today and thought it was pretty relevant to your points; http://video.wired.com/?fr_story=FRdamp283268&rf=bm Saw this today and thought it was pretty relevant to your points;

http://video.wired.com/?fr_story=FRdamp283268&rf=bm

]]> Comment on Demand openness now by kyle http://blog.infinitechaos.com/2008/04/17/demand-openness-now/comment-page-1/#comment-454 kyle Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:57:32 +0000 http://infinitechaos.com/2008/04/17/demand-openness-now/#comment-454 I see why you made the connection. Sean's point is pretty good, and I also thought your mention of VMware as an anti-market is also dead on. Perhaps if VMware was more open and people knew the cool things we were working on (and why some things are the way they are) the anti-market may not have developed. I see why you made the connection. Sean’s point is pretty good, and I also thought your mention of VMware as an anti-market is also dead on.

Perhaps if VMware was more open and people knew the cool things we were working on (and why some things are the way they are) the anti-market may not have developed.

]]> Comment on Demand openness now by Todd Deshane http://blog.infinitechaos.com/2008/04/17/demand-openness-now/comment-page-1/#comment-453 Todd Deshane Thu, 17 Apr 2008 20:55:18 +0000 http://infinitechaos.com/2008/04/17/demand-openness-now/#comment-453 Hey Kyle, Although not completely related to your post, it reminds me of a blog post from Sean Dague from IBM regarding anti-markets: http://dague.net/2008/04/02/beware-the-anti-market/ Thought you might find it interesting... Hey Kyle,

Although not completely related to your post, it reminds me of a blog post from Sean Dague from IBM regarding anti-markets:

http://dague.net/2008/04/02/beware-the-anti-market/

Thought you might find it interesting…

]]> Comment on Score one for open source project docs by cantante http://blog.infinitechaos.com/2007/06/20/score-one-for-open-source-project-docs/comment-page-1/#comment-446 cantante Wed, 06 Feb 2008 20:12:12 +0000 http://infinitechaos.com/?p=207#comment-446 I got it to work. I initially had the same errors as cloud858rk, but replacing all the fancy single and double quotes with normal single and double quotes in the command line fixed it. I got it to work. I initially had the same errors as cloud858rk, but replacing all the fancy single and double quotes with normal single and double quotes in the command line fixed it.

]]> Comment on Remember, there are plenty of FOSS fish in the sea by kyle http://blog.infinitechaos.com/2008/01/20/remember-there-are-plenty-of-foss-fish-in-the-sea/comment-page-1/#comment-443 kyle Wed, 23 Jan 2008 14:37:32 +0000 http://infinitechaos.com/2008/01/20/remember-there-are-plenty-of-foss-fish-in-the-sea/#comment-443 @Shaver: You are correct about my hardware; I've got a MacBook Pro for work. I also run Ubuntu everywhere else and don't recall it ever bringing up Talkback after a crash. Will have to check and see if Ubuntu disables/doesn't ship it and open a bug perhaps. Of course by the time they fix it Firefox 3 will probably be out. @Shaver: You are correct about my hardware; I’ve got a MacBook Pro for work. I also run Ubuntu everywhere else and don’t recall it ever bringing up Talkback after a crash. Will have to check and see if Ubuntu disables/doesn’t ship it and open a bug perhaps. Of course by the time they fix it Firefox 3 will probably be out.

]]> Comment on Remember, there are plenty of FOSS fish in the sea by Mike Shaver http://blog.infinitechaos.com/2008/01/20/remember-there-are-plenty-of-foss-fish-in-the-sea/comment-page-1/#comment-442 Mike Shaver Wed, 23 Jan 2008 09:55:10 +0000 http://infinitechaos.com/2008/01/20/remember-there-are-plenty-of-foss-fish-in-the-sea/#comment-442 Indeed, we've always been big believers in collecting automated crash reports at Mozilla. We actually ship Talkback in Firefox 2, even though it's not open source, because the data is so incredibly valuable in fixing bugs in our code, and in that of plugins and extensions. Unfortunately, Talkback doesn't support OS X on Intel processors, so I suspect that you're left out in the cold there. In Firefox 3, though, we will use Breakpad and collector software we wrote called Socorro, which works great on OS X on Intel, as well as giving us an open source solution, handling threads, and so forth. I understand that GNOME is using Socorro as well, which is great to see. The betas of Firefox 3 have the new breakpad-based crash reporting in them, and are generally a much improved experience on Mac. Nonetheless, those instructions should probably be updated to be a bit more friendly to the breadth of user that now comes to Mozilla to report problems, and should explain why those things are so valuable to us. Indeed, we’ve always been big believers in collecting automated crash reports at Mozilla. We actually ship Talkback in Firefox 2, even though it’s not open source, because the data is so incredibly valuable in fixing bugs in our code, and in that of plugins and extensions. Unfortunately, Talkback doesn’t support OS X on Intel processors, so I suspect that you’re left out in the cold there.

In Firefox 3, though, we will use Breakpad and collector software we wrote called Socorro, which works great on OS X on Intel, as well as giving us an open source solution, handling threads, and so forth. I understand that GNOME is using Socorro as well, which is great to see. The betas of Firefox 3 have the new breakpad-based crash reporting in them, and are generally a much improved experience on Mac.

Nonetheless, those instructions should probably be updated to be a bit more friendly to the breadth of user that now comes to Mozilla to report problems, and should explain why those things are so valuable to us.

]]> Comment on Remember, there are plenty of FOSS fish in the sea by Asa Dotzler http://blog.infinitechaos.com/2008/01/20/remember-there-are-plenty-of-foss-fish-in-the-sea/comment-page-1/#comment-441 Asa Dotzler Wed, 23 Jan 2008 01:21:54 +0000 http://infinitechaos.com/2008/01/20/remember-there-are-plenty-of-foss-fish-in-the-sea/#comment-441 I'd like to also add that we have several feedback mechanisms available, not just Bugzilla. First, for crashes, use the Firefox built-in crash reporter. It will provide a useful stack trace to Mozilla developers that can be aggregated with the tens of thousands of other crash reports so we can categorize, prioritize, and fix crash issues as quickly as possible. Second, there's Bugzilla -- the dev version, and a more user-friendly Bugzilla "Helper" that assists new bug reporters in filing the most useful possible bug reports. Third, there's Mozilla's Hendrix -- a simple feedback form that categorizes and submits your feedback to the Mozilla QA community. There are also other simple tools like the Report A Broken Website Wizard (available on the Help menu) that make submitting non-working sites a breeze. We've also got newsgroups and forums where you can take issues. - A I’d like to also add that we have several feedback mechanisms available, not just Bugzilla.

First, for crashes, use the Firefox built-in crash reporter. It will provide a useful stack trace to Mozilla developers that can be aggregated with the tens of thousands of other crash reports so we can categorize, prioritize, and fix crash issues as quickly as possible.

Second, there’s Bugzilla — the dev version, and a more user-friendly Bugzilla “Helper” that assists new bug reporters in filing the most useful possible bug reports.

Third, there’s Mozilla’s Hendrix — a simple feedback form that categorizes and submits your feedback to the Mozilla QA community.

There are also other simple tools like the Report A Broken Website Wizard (available on the Help menu) that make submitting non-working sites a breeze. We’ve also got newsgroups and forums where you can take issues.

- A

]]> Comment on Remember, there are plenty of FOSS fish in the sea by Jay http://blog.infinitechaos.com/2008/01/20/remember-there-are-plenty-of-foss-fish-in-the-sea/comment-page-1/#comment-440 Jay Mon, 21 Jan 2008 13:38:26 +0000 http://infinitechaos.com/2008/01/20/remember-there-are-plenty-of-foss-fish-in-the-sea/#comment-440 Haha, Well I can sympathize. I've had multiple encounters with bug buddy. My Terminals will crash (usually when I'm in a completely different window) and about 95% of the time I'll fill out the bug report and bug buddy will come back with "Error 999: Not accepting reports". So even automated systems are only good if they're used. Haha,
Well I can sympathize. I’ve had multiple encounters with bug buddy. My Terminals will crash (usually when I’m in a completely different window) and about 95% of the time I’ll fill out the bug report and bug buddy will come back with “Error 999: Not accepting reports”.

So even automated systems are only good if they’re used.

]]> Comment on Remember, there are plenty of FOSS fish in the sea by Gavin Sharp http://blog.infinitechaos.com/2008/01/20/remember-there-are-plenty-of-foss-fish-in-the-sea/comment-page-1/#comment-437 Gavin Sharp Mon, 21 Jan 2008 03:00:15 +0000 http://infinitechaos.com/2008/01/20/remember-there-are-plenty-of-foss-fish-in-the-sea/#comment-437 Sorry you got put off by the bug submission guidelines - they're meant to be suggestions on how to write "the ideal bug report", not strict rules about which bugs will be accepted. The Mozilla project gets a very large number of bug reports daily, and there just aren't enough people to sort through them all, so encouraging users to do a bit of work on their own before filing a bug report is an attempt to improve the situation - avoiding duplicate bug reports, giving clear steps to reproduce, and providing as much information as possible are all actions that will significantly improve the odds that real bugs get seen by the right people, and fixed. That being said, many people submit bug reports that are not "ideal", and that's OK. There are many volunteer bug triagers that attempt to weed out the real bugs, work with reporters to get extra information, and try to get the right eyes on the report. I've seen very little "treating users like guinea pigs" in my experience as a bug triager and developer in the Mozilla project, so it sounds to me like the problem you've outlined in this blog post should be addressed by clarifying the bug writing guidelines and improving the bug submission process in general. I would be happy to hear more by email if you think I'm missing something. Sorry you got put off by the bug submission guidelines - they’re meant to be suggestions on how to write “the ideal bug report”, not strict rules about which bugs will be accepted.

The Mozilla project gets a very large number of bug reports daily, and there just aren’t enough people to sort through them all, so encouraging users to do a bit of work on their own before filing a bug report is an attempt to improve the situation - avoiding duplicate bug reports, giving clear steps to reproduce, and providing as much information as possible are all actions that will significantly improve the odds that real bugs get seen by the right people, and fixed.

That being said, many people submit bug reports that are not “ideal”, and that’s OK. There are many volunteer bug triagers that attempt to weed out the real bugs, work with reporters to get extra information, and try to get the right eyes on the report.

I’ve seen very little “treating users like guinea pigs” in my experience as a bug triager and developer in the Mozilla project, so it sounds to me like the problem you’ve outlined in this blog post should be addressed by clarifying the bug writing guidelines and improving the bug submission process in general. I would be happy to hear more by email if you think I’m missing something.

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