AM Report for Mike O'Connor <stew@vireo.org>
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I am pleased to report on the new developer applicantion of
Mike O'Connor <stew@vireo.org>:
1. Identification & Background
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ID check passed, key signed by 7 existing developers:
Output from keycheck.sh:
pub 1024D/BE9BF8DA 2005-01-11
Key fingerprint = EB1F 4A7B 0253 9A1A 5617 4C3F F426 E1B2 BE9B F8DA
uid Mike O'Connor <mike@vireo.org>
sig! 75C024C8 2007-04-16 Yaroslav Halchenko (Yarik) <yoh@onerussian.com>
sig! C671257D 2007-06-26 David Moreno Garza <damog@espiral.org.mx>
sig! 16D970C6 2007-11-22 Eric Dorland <eric@debian.org>
sig! 1CF2D62A 2007-11-23 Micah Anderson <micah@debian.org>
sig!3 607559E6 2005-04-15 Benjamin Mako Hill <mako@ubuntu.com>
sig!3 BE9BF8DA 2005-03-22 Mike O'Connor <mike@vireo.org>
uid Mike O'Connor (stew) <stew@vireo.org>
sig! 75C024C8 2007-04-16 Yaroslav Halchenko (Yarik) <yoh@onerussian.com>
sig! AB963370 2007-05-21 Clint Adams (Debian) <schizo@debian.org>
sig! C671257D 2007-06-26 David Moreno Garza <damog@espiral.org.mx>
sig! 16D970C6 2007-11-22 Eric Dorland <eric@debian.org>
sig! 1CF2D62A 2007-11-23 Micah Anderson <micah@debian.org>
sig!3 B70E403B 2005-02-27 Ari Pollak <ajp@aripollak.com>
sig!3 607559E6 2005-04-15 Benjamin Mako Hill <mako@ubuntu.com>
sig!3 BE9BF8DA 2005-01-11 Mike O'Connor <mike@vireo.org>
sig! 3E30A739 2007-05-21 Clint Adams <schizo@debian.org>
sub 1024g/97509629 2005-01-11
sig! BE9BF8DA 2005-01-11 Mike O'Connor <mike@vireo.org>
Let's test if its a version 4 or greater key
Key is ok
Key has no expiration date set, nothing to check.
Mike writes (but I'm afraid he grew older during NM):
I am currently a 34 year old, living in Brooklyn, NY, USA. My wife
and I run a computer related consulting business doing many sorts of
programming and linux system administration work.
I first was introduced to GNU/Linux at college in 1993 when a friend of
mine told me that If I could come up with a spare 386/486, he could set
it up to log into the campus network and run X. This was an exciting
prospect because I was wasting a lot of time travelling back and forth
to campus only to wait in line to get time on a university computer.
He got me setup with a 23 floppy set of Yggsdrasil Linux and I was on
my way. This and emacs were my first introductions to the free software
movement, however, I didn't really "get it" yet.
For the first few years after college, I worked at several jobs doing
Microsoft Windows based programming, and primarily used windows, but
kept a slackware linux box around mostly for internet connection sharing.
Besides using emacs, I wasn't keeping much contact with the open source
world, until the same friend who had introduced me to linux offered me a
job doing web based programming in a linux environment. When I
started working there in 1999 I was very relieved to be back in a
unix environment. I've been using linux exclisively since that time,
and It's been great. Shortly after, my (not yet) wife and I left and started
our own business doing contract programming. We've been in business ever
since, and we have worked almost exclusively using free software.
I switched to Debian about 5 years ago mostly becuase I had heard how good
the packaging system was. I didn't really know anything else about the
project at the time. Very soon after switching my first machine to Debian, I
switched all of the others.
When I was first experimenting with Debian, I ended up joining the #debian
channel on irc.debian.org. I ended up hanging around there a lot becuase I
was learning so much stuff so fast, and gradually I started being able to
help other in that channel. Helping others there has been a very
rewarding way of helping the Debian community. I've been in that channel
nearly every day for the last 4 or 5 years. Recently I was asked to
also help as an operator on freenode and oftc. But as time has passed,
I've been wanting to find more substantial ways of contributing. I filed
an ITP for a piece of software that I had been using which was not yet
in Debian (tpg), but was never able to attract a sponsor. I subscribed
to the -wnpp list and kept my eye open for other packages that were up
for adoption that I used. And looks at the wnpp for abandoned ITPs.
I eventually took over maintenence of rosegarden4 whose maintainer
was MIA. I also got ivman relicenced upstream so that it could be
included with Debian, and took over its ITP and got it uploaded soon after.
I'll be keeping my eyes out for other packages to maintain. In the meantime,
I'm also trying to help close RC bugs to get etch out the door. I have been
wanting to find ways to contribute back to the free software movement. I
just don't find enough time or focus to produce much free software on my own.
I think that the way debian facilitates me contributing little pieces here
and there is much better for me.
2. Account Data
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Account: stew
Forward-Email: stew@vireo.org
3. Philosophy and Procedures
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Mike has a good understanding of Debian's philosophy and procedures
and answered all my questions about the social contract,
DFSG, BTS, etc. in a good way. Mike committed to uphold the SC and DFSG
in his Debian work and accepts the DMUP.
He has submitted a number of bugs for DFSG issues.
4. Tasks and Skills
- -------------------
Mike has a good understanding of the technical side of Debian.
He is maintainer of
- gnuserv and ivman sponsored by Ari Pollak (ari)
- python-contract, python-xlib with the Python Module Packaging Team
sponsored by Piotr Ożarowski (piotr)
- python-plwm sponsored by Clint Adams (schizo)
co-maintainer of rosegarden with Free Ekanayaka (freee, who sponsors Mike)
A cursory inspection of his packages and the bug activity on them showed
that they are in good shape.
He has an amazing track record of fixing RC bugs. I examined the following
sample (most of these are RC) of bugs with analysis, solution and/or patch
by Mike:
#295511, #296959, #299528, #307833, #319323, #345253, #346226,
#347023, #370040, #370134, #372174, #375240, #375542, #379152,
#380136, #385520, #386833, #388535, #441711, and #441715.
All patches are of consistently good quality and for all of them the
maintainer/upstream/NMUer seems to be happy (as far as correctness is
concerned) with stew's initial patch submission.
Of note is that these patches involve bash, make, zsh, C, C++,
Java (not code but build environment), Perl, lisp (for emacs startup)
and that Mike packages Python modules. Of course, I cannot say much
about his proficiency in these languages, but apparently he can fix
things written in them.
Particularly T&S relevant bug reports (aligning to some of the template
questions) I looked at included #145916, #422944, #288229, #441720,
#430207, #448006, #451595.
He also answered the questions I asked regarding T&S without problems and
did not shy away from explaining some of the complexity theory involved
in the "britney problem" when the conversation touched on that.
His conversation on the BTS is helpful and polite.
5. Recommendation
- -----------------
I am thrilled that someone of Mike's skills wants to join Debian and
enthusiastically recommend to accept him as a Debian Developer.
- --
Thomas Viehmann, http://thomas.viehmann.net/
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