Happy new year, everyone! I was away over the weekend, working hard on Ignition 2006, and I missed the big day here in front of the computer. Instead I was out under the stars with Montreal Burners, having Burning Man fun out in the Eastern Townships.
I'm not sure if it happened this year, but I think next year it would be great to have a BSP in Black Rock City. OK, sure, it'd be super-nerdy, and the connectivity is pretty spotty, but there are some long, hot afternoons out there and I know that there are at least two DDs that are on the Playa pretty regularly (me and Don Armstrong). I wonder if there are more? I wonder if we had a BSP, if lots more would show up?
tags: debian don armstrong bruleurs new year french revolutionary calendar
Usability
So, my current computer usability problem has to do with the rockin' secure shell program OpenSSH. Here's what happens: I'm on a box and I have a new login goin' on. And I have to ssh to another box, and I get the message:
Enter passphrase for /home/evan/.ssh/id_rsa:
This happens because I haven't run ssh-add when I logged in, to store the passphrase for the key with the current ssh-agent. So now I have two options:
- enter my password and then possibly forget to run ssh-add before running ssh again
- kill the current ssh instance, run ssh-add, then run ssh again
Both options suck. What would be nice is if I could enter my passphrase, and have that count as if I had run ssh-add. Like, after I enter it, the ssh client could say:
Add this key to your current ssh-agent session [Y/n]?
...and then ssh would add the key, like ssh-add does, and continue with the login. Wouldn't that be great?
I think this is the biggest usability problem I run up against in my daily work life. Which, y'know, is pretty good.
[You might want to look into libpam-ssh] [See also http://advogato.org/person/mbrubeck/diary.html?start=90] (from Matt Brubeck)
Wikimania 2007 in Taipei
I have to say that I'm a little wistful that Alexandria wasn't chosen for Wikimania 2007. We had a really good bid to hold the event in Alexandria at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the "new" Library of Alexandria. I was getting pretty excited about going to the Mediterranean next year.
But I think that Taipei is going to be a fantastic place to hold Wikimania, too. Holding the event in East Asia will make it much easier for people there , in Southeast Asia, and in Australia or New Zealand to come to the event. A Wikimania in East Asia will focus attention on the non-English-language and non-European efforts of the Wikimedia Foundation. Taiwan also has a really strong local Wikimedian group, with Wikimedia Taiwan soon on its way.
Finally, a Wikimania in Taiwan will re-emphasize the Blocking of Wikipedia in mainland China. Jimmy Wales has said on the record that Wikimedia will not censor its Chinese-language projects to comply with the PRC's firewall (the so-called Great Firewall of China), and I'm sure an official event in the ROC will further highlight that point.
Personally, I'm looking forward to a trip to Taipei, which will be a good excuse for some more exploration of Taiwan. And I want to congratulate the Taipei bid team. I was impressed by the amount of work that went into the Alexandria bid, and I'm sure they did a lot of work for Taipei, too. I know the Alexandria crew is optimistic for next year: starting the steps for making a Wikimedia local chapter in Egypt, and continuing to develop relationships with the local technology companies as sponsors. Should be interesting... it might be worth a trip after all!