Posted by Skrud at Wednesday, June 1st 2005 at 12:37am
I actually got alerted to it minutes before reading it on Slashdot, thanks to Kevin. Google has officially launched it’s new project: Summer of Code. Aimed at students, Summer of Code is an opportunity to contribute to Open Source projects with Google offering up a bounty of $4500 for completing your project by the end of summer. There are a number of Open Source organizations signed up as “Mentor Organizations,” including the Python Software Foundation, Perl Foundation, Apache, Ubuntu Linux, Gnome and even Google itself.
The organizations provide ideas and projects, students can apply to do them (or with their own ideas specific to each organization), and the organization (I think) is supposed to have a supervisor to oversee your project and guide you along.
Well I’m already signed up to the discussion group about it and have begun looking at some of the project proposals. I’d love to cut my teeth on a few of these. Even if I don’t finish by the deadline, I’m sure the experience will be worthwhile. I’ve always wanted to just dive right in to Open Source code but never really found the motivation – I always felt intimidated by the process and high standards. And yet here comes Google, practically pairing up students and Open Source projects.
I don’t know if I’ll be able to get one of the $4500 stipends, but I’m definitely willing to give it a shot! Wish me luck!
Tags: code, geek, linux, news, tech | 3 comments
Posted by Skrud at Thursday, May 26th 2005 at 2:44pm
There’s a growing trend to switch to Apple these days… and here I thought it was just me (… and Harley … and Anton…)
Slashdot recently covered an article by a a network admin switching the whole company over to Macs because it’s safer and easier than dealing with Windows-based security flaws.
Tags: news, tech | no comments
Posted by Skrud at Wednesday, May 18th 2005 at 10:02am
Today my plan was to head to the ENCS Office of the Dean to harass them about our office (soon-to-be lack thereof). When I went up to the 10th floor (of the library building) last Friday there were notices that the office would be closed until Monday, May 16 (inclusive), because they’re moving to the new building.
As I was walking into the LB building, I ran into Paul, Mel, and Mel’s dad. Paul raised the question “If they were closed because they were moving, where are they now?”. That’s a very good question. Obviously, if they moved then they would no longer be on the 10th floor of the LB building. Lo and behold, on the 10th floor was a nice notice saying “We have moved!” and a listing of where most services can be found now. (Office of the Dean & Student Services - EV building 2nd floor; Computer Science & Software Engineering - EV building 3rd floor; etc).
I walked to the EV building, which looks pretty impressive from the exterior, even though the lobby floor isn’t finished yet (they’re working on it now - I think it’s the last bit). Well… the EV building is still closed for students. Yes, Student Services is located in a place that is inaccessible to students. Granted, this isn’t such a great hinderance as Student Services is about as useful as a magic 8-ball. (“Am I required to take Waves & Modern Physics?” - “Ask Again Later”).
Even the security guard was mystified, saying that they should’ve at least left someone at the old office to respond to students. He pointed out that they’re still moving their desks (as can be witnessed on the array of 8-10 LCD monitors). Apparently they’re supposed to open up tomorrow. Well that’s not terribly useful at all. I’ll have to run back there next Monday. Until then, I hope our office doesn’t get compressed into a cube and stored away in a basement somewhere.
Tags: concordia, news, rants | no comments
Posted by Skrud at Sunday, May 15th 2005 at 4:40pm
It seems that TD Bank donated that really nice old bank building on the corner of Guy and Ste-Catherine
to Concordia University. Pretty cool. I often head there to pick up cash for lunch.
With all this space they seem to have, I wonder why they can’t find us an office.
Tags: news, school | 2 comments
Posted by Skrud at Thursday, January 20th 2005 at 11:24am
(Most of the links in this post are to pictures…)
Well, we finally arrived at CUTC sometime last night, in a rented van with a DVD player in the back. Very handy, as Antitrust and Family Guy made excellent time-killers on the trip over from Montreal. There’s also a great picture of me passed out in the front seat.
Our first night adventure invovled checking into the Holiday Inn on King in Toronto. I think this is a particularly classy Holiday Inn, not to be confused with the “normal” Holiday Inn. Our bathrooms come complete with a rubber ducky for the sake of Sesame-Street style baths, and the sink in the rooms make excellent makeshift beer coolers when filled with ice. Weird promotions for 3-free-minutes of music allowed me to listen to the first part of Dokken’s Kiss of Death before the timer ran out…. and they gave us these burgundy/red t-shirts, violating my rule of black-only clothing. But I wore it anyway.
We wanted to go to the meet-and-greet Ice Breaker session, but we wanted to grab a beer (read: “3 beers”) first, and by the time we got back the Ice Breaker was over. We did see a meeting of volunteers and organizers, and apparently we werent supposed to actually be there. They wouldn’t buy us pizza either, so off to find some Chinese food… Now, I don’t know what’s up with Toronto, but everything is closed at 10:30pm on a Wednesday night. We were looking around for someplace to eat that wasn’t a pub costing $25 a meal, and eventually (after a lot of walking) we found a Hooters. And then Jakub violated the rubber ducky.
Eventually we ended up at a really awesome Chinese place and got too much food for Ahmed to finish (I’m not saying he’s any less of a man for not finishing his food… but… I mean, come on!). We’d very much like to thank the staff of the “Gold [somethingorother]” for taking a picture with us. :)
And now we’re here in the first keynote speech abou blackberry and other crazy wireless things. There’s no more coffee. Unless they refilled the pots and I didn’t notice. Let’s hope. Because I’m tired.
Tags: cutc, news, tech | 1 comment
