KDE Dev Meeting

just got out of the very long KDE e.V. meeting where we discussed pressing issues regarding the logistics and methodologies affecting the mechanics of the project. it started at 10:00 and just finished now at 18:30. look at me use the 24 hour clock style of time!

i'm also picking up little bits of German phraseology. i can order things off menus in restaurants, for instance. i've also learned the fine art of (not) tipping properly in Germany. it's very different to Canada, where the servers get paid horribly and basically starve if you don't tip rather generously.

cigarettes are easy to come by with the dispensers on most streets and they are about half the price they are in Canada. this is not good to my attempted recovery from smoking. bah. on a more positive note, i'm slowly getting the hang of proper name pronunciation here. the 'r's are hard and will take quite a bit more effort, but i'm better than when i arrived. =)

got in last night at 02:00 (yep, that's 2 am) with Zack after drinking and discussing the finer points of sofwtare development motivation and other important things with KDE people, such as Till Adams and Kurt Pfeifle. was up at 9am for a shower, and i was the last one up in my room at the hostel, which i share with 3 other KDE devs. apparently not all programmers get up at comfortably late hours. i miss Scott, in that regard. =)

lunch was had with Zack, where i tried to explain the concept of gnocchi to him. he thought i said
"tomato" every time i said "potato", so he figured i was describing somethign ketchup-like and rather surprised when the (rather wonderful) little potato dumplings arrived in pesto sauce. not sure what's up for dinner tonight, but the user conference starts tomorrow. and i'll have more ready access to a laptop starting this evening so i can start blogging like a maniac again. and finish my presentation. and get some hacking done.

there is some cool stuff going to happen here, as the hacking marathon hasn't even started and already code is being written and amazingly interesting topics are being discussed. i've met so many of the people i've worked with and respect within the project, including people from Trolltech and SUSE.

apparently SUSE/Novell is sending a usability person to take part in the usability discussions. together with some people coming from private companies and universities specializing in usability around Europe this is going to be an amazing session for usability.

i haven't felt this excited and energized about things in a long time. life is good. but software patents suck. don't ever forget that. also don't forget that the next most handsome person in KDE after moi is Zack.