I've neglected this blog for a really long time, but it's not like I haven't been writing publicly. A few links to my post 2010 writing: medium: robla - a lot of my recent writing, which has skewed political. Sign of the times, I guess... DailyKos: robla - this has been where I've posted most… Continue reading 2017 update
New gig: Wikimedia Foundation
As of last week, I'm officially an employee of the Wikimedia Foundation. Here's the the official announcement of WMF hiring me. I've been working there as a contractor for the past couple of months, and it's been a great experience so far. I'm working with a lot of really smart people that I stand to… Continue reading New gig: Wikimedia Foundation
On Diaspora
There's been a lot of hubbub about Facebook's ongoing tone-deafness regarding privacy. As a result, there has also been a lot of hubbub about the Diaspora project, with both wildly optimistic projections of their success, as well as more skeptical assessments. I'm skeptical about Diaspora specifically, because it reminds me a lot of an effort… Continue reading On Diaspora
Pronouncing Eyjafjallajökull
I got curious if there was a pronunciation on Wikipedia of "Eyjafjallajökull", which of course there was. In the really helpful IPA alphabet, which is: "ˈɛɪjaˌfjatlaˌjœːkʏtl̥". I got about halfway through deciphering this when I gave up. Fortunately, there's a recording of a native speaker. Did you catch that? Me neither. Finally, looking on the… Continue reading Pronouncing Eyjafjallajökull
Doing the conferency talky thing
I didn't do much in the way of public speaking last year, but I'm starting to make up for it this year. Here's a few things I've got coming up: April 13 - Lighting talk at the Seattle Django Users Group - this will be about jsonwidget, which is shaping up nicely. I'm toying with… Continue reading Doing the conferency talky thing
Thoughts on dual licensing and contrib agreements
photo by kwc There's been a lot of chatter lately about dual licensing in open source and its much-maligned companion the contributor license agreement. Since my last two community management gigs involved dual licensing and CLAs, I have a few thoughts on the subject. These tools certainly make it harder to build a community. As… Continue reading Thoughts on dual licensing and contrib agreements
Easy form building for terminal windows: jsonwidget-python
I've been working on a project to make building forms really simple. My latest work is "jsonwidget-python" for terminal-based applications (like you would use via SSH or local terminal on Linux and Mac). It's all very retro, but terminal windows are still very much in use for buzzword-compliant activities like configuring virtual machines for cloud… Continue reading Easy form building for terminal windows: jsonwidget-python
Sorry about the NASCAR-looking comment area
As you may have noticed if you visited blog.robla.net directly, the comment area is handled via Intense Debate. I did that to get myself out of the account management business while still maintaining a modicum of control over my site. Other than then weird blue flaming logo and the name "intense debate" on a blog… Continue reading Sorry about the NASCAR-looking comment area
Python’s simpleparse module
I'm working on a project that required a bit more from the JSON parser than the stock JSON parser with Python allowed for. After doing some hunting around, I came to the unfortunate conclusion that I'd probably need to write my own. Thankfully, Python's simpleparse module lived up to its billing (thanks in large part… Continue reading Python’s simpleparse module
Matthew Yglesias » Who’s “Ideological” in the Health Care Debate?
Great insight from Matthew Yglesias: The habit of insisting that only the right and the left have “ideologies” and that people in the center don’t is one of the absolute most frustrating elements of conventional political discussion in the United States. The fact of the matter is that “centrist” ideological taboos have been the big… Continue reading Matthew Yglesias » Who’s “Ideological” in the Health Care Debate?
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