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Am I programmer?

Many people think that I am programmer… But what is definition of programmer?

Wikipedia says: A programmer is someone who writes computer software. The term computer programmer can refer to a specialist in one area of computer programming or to a generalist who writes code for many kinds of software.

My last desktop program was Multiview for AmigaOS 2.04+ which ended life in 2000 year (after over 3 years of development). Then I changed platform to Debian GNU/Linux and started to mainly use software instead of writing it. Of course during studies I wrote some code in few languages (C, C++, Z80 Asm, PIC16 Asm/C/BASIC and maybe some other) but none of them was something to be used by normal people.

For few years my work title was “PHP programmer” (with some variants) but writing code for websites is different thing then for desktop computers.

Eric Sink wrote one day great post about programmers and developers. According to this I am rather developer then programmer.

My programmer part of me know how to fix code written in PHP (used this language for few years to get paid), Python (but never got proper amount of knowledge about it) and few others — one day I had to debug small application written in 8086 assembler which I saw for first time — and all I had was source code printout.

But I also many times worked with clients to get informations what they really need to be done in project and those discussions changed many aspects of first draft of specifications. Then transforming specs into design and finally into code which gives working service at the end. Providing help to few ~60 years old ladies which use CMS written by you can be hard job — especially when documentation is not yet created so no one else know each system parts.

But there are many work titles to choose from: Programmer, Developer, Engineer, Software (Engineer / Architect / Developer / Designer) so I probably will stay with Developer and will not try to explain too much what exactly I am doing for living :)

Tags: amiga debian life linux php No Comments »

I am dad now

Today at 15:40 local time Mira Juszkiewicz was born.

Tags: life 9 Comments »

2007 Timeline

2007 is ending. It was very good year for me. I am now married man, waiting for daughter birth. Have own company, working as contractor for one of biggest companies in OpenEmbedded world.

January

• Signed contract with OpenedHand — starting from February.
• Became one of 50 selected developers for OpenMoko Phase0 program. Each of us got offer to get Neo1973 GTA01 for free. First it was GTA01Bv3 with battery problem, then GTA01Bv4.
• I ended working for Conecto. Finally end of PHP programming.
• There was information that Sharp ended production of Zaurus palmtops. During next months they were still manufacturing them.

February

• FOSDEM — my first one. It was very nice event and good occasion to meet all those hackers from miscellaneous projects. I spoke with more people that was able to remember.
• Got Nokia 770 tablet donated. Interesting device but underpowered. It also became unsupported few months later.
• My first code entered Linux kernel. It was LCD backlight driver for Frontpath ProGear tablet.
• OpenMoko project released RoadMap.

March

• Vernier LabQuest got released. I was one of members of OpenedHand development team working on Poky for this device.
• Pingwinaria 2007 — I was there with one talk about OpenEmbedded. Then decided that it is time to buy laptop to be able to read mail, do some hacking etc.
• My Neo1973 GTA01Bv3 arrived. Added was Debug board, 128MB MicroSD card, pen/stylus and few other things.
• Three years of using OpenEmbedded.

April

• OpenZaurus project halted — all work is now done for Ångström distribution.
• My oldest Zaurus got SD/MMC driver for 2.6 kernel. Thanks goes to Thomas Kunze. I hope that he will update it to current kernels one day.
• Moved blog to current domain.
• Bought Dell D400 laptop. It is nice and fast machine — I use it as 32bit build machine.
• Nokia 770 which I got two months before became unsupported device.
• Bought 3rdparty Nokia charger to be able to charge Neo1973 battery.

May

• I got Neo1973 GTA01Bv4. As this was “developer update” only battery was added. I also got gllin in rootfs :)
• Bought Linksys NSLU2 — it was working as NFS server for my build machines.
• Played a bit with Vista on my friend 17″ laptop. It is not a system for me.

June

• After reading about trademark wars started by handhelds.org I decided to end using their services. It also means that I am no longer OPIE developer.
• With few friends took StarWars marathon. We were exhausted after five episodes so “Return Of The Jedi” was not displayed.
• Due to big amount of visits from Google search I wrote small information about how to buy Neo1973 phone.

July

• GUADEC — I was going there with thinking “what I would do at GNOME conference” but it was also occasion to meet OpenedHand gang and people from other projects. I still remember how badly I lost on first day… and I did it twice ;(

August

• I married my beloved Ania — it was big event with lot of people from our families, our friends…
• Poky Linux 3.0 released — after release we pushed all upgrades which came to our minds and it was still working.
• Got Alix.1c board which PC Engines company donated to OpenEmbedded project. It replaces NSLU2 as NFS server. It still lack case and other services are still not moved to it.

September

• Ania and I were on Zakynthos island (Greece) on honeymoon — nice place if you want to rest.
• I wrote post about my testing of OpenMoko 2007.2 system. It was most popular post ever.
• My blog got new theme.

October

• OEDEM 2007 took place. Nice event, lot of OpenEmbedded developers.
• Maemo started developer program for Nokia N810 tablet. Due to limitations I was unable to take part of it. ARGHH!

November

• Upgraded my desktop system a bit — new CPU and cooler.
• OpenMoko released Gllin with script which starts it using OABI libraries on EABI system.
• Thanks to work done by Dmitry Baryshkov 2.6.23 kernel works nice on Tosa. It pushed new life into this device.

December

• OpenedHand X-mas took place — lot of fun and occasion to meet new guys from OH. Also played with few interesting devices.
• Due to lack of ARMv6 hardware I was working on getting current QEmu working. Now I am using it to test my recent Poky changes.
• Due to flu (which I catch during OH X-mas) we had to spend Christmas at home. It was our first x-mas at home without family.

Tags: company life openmoko timeline No Comments »

Fucking Royal Mail

On 1st August I send mail from Poland to London, UK by normal mail. At nearly same time British post started to strike. Today I got my mail unpacked with two additional stamps with ‘addressee has gone away’ marks. Do I have to add that address was correct?

Fucking Royal Mail and the way which they handle mail…

Tags: life 2 Comments »

Wrists == pain ;(

Yesterday evening was nightmare — after 2 years my wrists started to pain again ;( Especially right hand is worrying me — there are moments when tendons feel like being pulled too much…

During next days I am going to visit orthopedist to get any kind of solution for hands. Probably for start it will be some medicines and wrist brace like it was in 2005 year when I had problem mainly with left hand.

Tags: life 1 Comment »

My ISP suxx

I am using the same ISP for over three years — it gives me internet access via cable TV. It works reliable (I had maybe 3-4 moments without network) but they got hit by popular problem — overbooking…

According to contract I have 3072/512kbps connection but during last weeks it is rather 3072/90kbps and it blocks me from sharing of my work with people (how long can you wait to push 40MB file over network?). All calls to their support sounds similiar — “we will contact our technical guys to check what is going on” ;(

Which ISP it is? It is ICP Poznań.

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