IRC/Gathering-2013-02-24

This is a transcript of the IRC gathering on February 24th, 2013.

Present: fe, jmccorkindale, sunjunkie, hcopperm, gnattery, MissKat, Skud.

(16:54:20) jmccorkindale [~jmccorkin@124-168-4-19.dyn.iinet.net.au] entered the room. (16:55:01) Skud: hi jared (16:55:22) jmccorkindale: hey Skud, hows things? (16:55:37) Skud: not bad. just had an afternoon nap. yay sundays :) (16:55:44) jmccorkindale: :) (16:55:59) sunjunkie [~sunjunkie@adsl-75-26-177-207.dsl.scrm01.sbcglobal.net] entered the room. (16:56:44) Skud: hi sunjunkie (16:57:30) sunjunkie: Hi. Mind if I lurk? This is my 1st time here. I hope to learn something. :-) (16:58:55) Skud: please go ahead (16:59:04) Skud: though if attendance is low, we may drag you out to chat to us :) (16:59:41) phazel: hey everyone (17:00:07) sunjunkie: sounds good. btw, I'm at a loss wrt Pear. (17:00:48) Skud: how so? (17:01:39) sunjunkie: I can't seem to find it. (sounds silly, I know) (17:01:44) jmccorkindale: hi phazel, I don't think we have met yet (17:02:02) Skud: sunjunkie: http://pear.growstuff.org … but we're not officially using it yet (17:02:16) Skud: sunjunkie: i think we will probably start this iteration, and there will be full instructions posted to the mailing list (17:02:38) phazel: hey jmccorkindale, I saw you on the mailing list :) (17:02:40) sunjunkie: thx. I have lots of programming experience but never 'paired' (17:03:03) Skud: Tansy, pear? (17:03:03) Tansy: i guess pear is Growstuff's app for pair programmer matchmaking, at http://github.com/Growstuff/pear (17:03:31) Skud: no tansy, pear is Growstuff's app for pair programmer matchmaking, at http://pear.growstuff.org (17:03:31) Tansy: okay, Skud. (17:03:36) Skud: more useful, now it's up and running (17:04:04) Skud: sunjunkie: you will need an account on github to sign up for pear, but since you'll need one for working on Growstuff anyway, we figured that was a reasonable requirement :) (17:04:57) jmccorkindale: big fan of the concept behind pear, thought it was pretty cool to build a tool to help you build other things (17:05:48) Skud: tools to build tools to build tools! (17:06:39) sunjunkie: an old programming axiom: There is no problem that can't be solved by adding another level of indirection. :-) (17:08:48) hcopperm [~hcopperm@c-67-180-197-81.hsd1.ca.comcast.net] entered the room. (17:11:51) Skud: sunjunkie: i updated http://wiki.growstuff.org/index.php/Pear with some information about using Pear, from the point of view of someone who just wants to work on Growstuff. (17:12:11) Skud: jmccorkindale: i think pozorvlak was trying to find you to finish off that comments story. (17:12:17) Skud: hi hcopperm (17:12:27) hcopperm: Hi (17:12:28) Tansy: privet, hcopperm. (17:13:00) Skud: so we have a few new people today… might be worth doing a round of intros? (17:13:11) jmccorkindale: Skud: we exchanged emails, he's gonna finish off the story in his downtime (17:13:41) Skud: plus i should explain how these gatherings generally work. usually i (or someone) just asks if there are any particular topics people would like to discuss, and we form a vague agenda out of them. other than that we just hang out and get to know each other. (17:14:44) hcopperm: Hi I'm a js/ruby dev from the Bay Area interested in gardening (17:14:56) Skud: hcopperm: ooh, front-end js by any chance? (17:15:08) hcopperm: Yes (17:15:14) Skud: we need some of them! (17:15:27) Skud: or i should say more of them. i think we have some people who do a bit, but don't specialise. (17:15:47) hcopperm: Have a recommendation for where to start looking at the code (17:15:51) hcopperm: ? (17:16:06) hcopperm: Haven't had a chance to look yet (17:16:27) Skud: intros… I'm Alex or Skud, i started this project about 6 months ago, i do a mix of coding and cat-herding (17:16:41) Skud: hcopperm: http://github.com/Growstuff/growstuff or http://dev.growstuff.org for a live demo (17:17:14) hcopperm: Sweet, thanks (17:17:17) Skud: hcopperm: there is a metric buttload of information at http://wiki.growstuff.org/ too (17:18:39) Skud: jmccorkindale, sunjunkie, phazel: mind doing a quick intro? (17:18:55) sunjunkie: I thought the wiki was impressive for a new project. (17:19:04) sunjunkie: Is impressive (17:19:10) phazel: I'm Courtney, I recently graduated compsci and I live in the same city as Skud. We're both doing the NEIS program together and I'm also working on growstuff exclusively. (17:19:42) Skud: thanks sunjunkie. that's what comes of being a compulsive documentor. (17:20:12) jmccorkindale: I'm Jared, I'm new to this project too, only been around for a week or so. I'm a uni student trying to get an edge on other graduates, when it comes time to get a job (17:21:09) sunjunkie: I'm a 'older' programmer about to retire from HP and dying to get back into coding. Been doing more software functional design in recent years. (17:22:11) sunjunkie: I'm in California (17:22:11) Skud: not much waterfall model around here, sunjunkie :) (17:22:32) sunjunkie: I sure hope not :-) (17:23:31) Skud: sunjunkie: there's an extreme programming quote i like about doing just enough design, which goes something like, "a story is a promise of a conversation" (17:24:16) sunjunkie: I like it (17:26:06) phazel: So did anyone have anything they wanted to bring up? (17:26:24) Skud: i wanted to talk about the newsletter (17:26:27) jmccorkindale: I have a bit of forums feedback, though I'm not a forum expert or anything. Found myself looking for a "Back to Forum" link when in a post page. (17:26:57) Skud: jmccorkindale: post it to the mailing list please? we're likely to remember it better that way (17:27:34) jmccorkindale: ok (17:28:34) sunjunkie: I'd like to know what I should do first when I'm ready to contribute to coding? Sign up in Pear? (17:29:12) Skud: sunjunkie: yup, and also talk to the coaches and let them know your interest and that you're looking for a pairing partner who can show you the ropes (17:29:34) Skud: sunjunkie: hanging around in IRC is often a good idea, as it's where a lot of informal chat happens and people get together for coding. (17:29:36) sunjunkie: Is there a list of coaches on the wiki? (17:29:55) Skud: the coaches change every two weeks, at the end of iteration (which is today). an email goes out saying who's doing it this iteration. (17:30:01) Skud: this time round will be miles and joseph (17:30:07) phazel: sunjunkie: There's also usually a thread at the start of an iteration where people put their hands up for helping and say when they're available (17:30:34) phazel: in the mailing list, I mean (17:35:12) hcopperm left the room (quit: Quit: hcopperm). (17:36:13) Skud: ok, so, newsletter? (17:36:33) phazel: sure (17:38:14) Skud: ok so! new thing this iteration is that we're going to start sending out a newsletter to people who are interested in growstuff. (17:38:52) Skud: it will go out every 2 weeks, just after the end of an iteration (usually monday or tuesday) and it will contain news about what we're working on, information leading up to our launch, etc. its purpose is to build an audience of interested people who will become members when we launch. (17:38:53) MissKat|afk is now known as MissKat (17:38:59) Skud: hi misskat! (17:39:09) MissKat: Hi! (17:39:23) MissKat: sunjunkie: hanging around IRC is a time honored tradition (17:39:28) MissKat: oh! (17:39:32) MissKat: There's a meetup thing! (17:39:40) Skud: yup! (17:39:42) Skud: good timing ) (17:39:43) Skud: :) (17:39:44) ***MissKat is talented (17:39:45) phazel: Skud: Will it basically contain a summary of the stories we've done that iteration, plus the occasional interesting thing? (17:39:51) Skud: yup! (17:39:59) Skud: for instance this one will include: (17:40:06) Skud: - summary of what we worked on this iteration (17:40:19) Skud: - an abbreviated thing about why growstuff is open source, linking to that blog post from last week (17:40:20) Skud: - (17:40:38) Skud: - talk about events we'll be appearing at or have recently been to (sustainable living festival, melbourne ruby on rails user group, etc) (17:40:49) Skud: - probably a short mention of NEIS etc (17:41:25) Skud: anything else? (17:41:25) Tansy: anything else is gravy. (17:42:42) Skud: thanks, tansy. (17:42:49) ***Skud tosses tansy a botsnack (17:42:49) phazel: nothing I can think of (17:43:16) Skud: ok so the one thing i wanted to ask everyone is to SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTER (17:44:03) Skud: and then share it with your friends who might be interested in growstuff, and help us get more subscribers, and all that (17:44:14) Skud: right now we have 13 people on our mailing list (17:44:19) Skud: i'm hoping to have a few hundred before launch (17:45:02) Skud: you can subscribe here http://blog.growstuff.org/newsletter/ (17:45:07) Skud: or just tell me your email address and i'll add you (17:45:24) jmccorkindale: there's a permaculture group I can circulate the link to, if this might help (17:47:32) Skud: wonderful, yes please! (17:48:05) Skud: jmccorkindale: if you wait a day or two, the newsletter will be posted on http://blog.growstuff.org/ and you can point them at that so they can see what they're getting before they subscribe (17:51:24) jmccorkindale: ok (17:52:35) Skud: i guess we should mention that phazel and i will be starting our NEIS training next week (17:52:43) Skud: which means we're studying full time in addition to our normal growstuff work (17:53:06) phazel: yeah >_< (17:54:14) phazel: it's also on during the more useful times of the day for us to code with other people (17:55:21) Skud: yeah. except for miles, who may find himself suddenly popular in the mornings his time ;) (17:55:45) phazel: true (17:56:10) jmccorkindale: whats involved with the training (17:56:26) phazel: it's a short business course (17:56:35) phazel: specifically for small businesses (17:57:08) phazel: Skud will know most of it already, but it'll be a lot of stuff to learn for me (17:57:09) Skud: it's a Certificate IV in Small Business Administration, run by RMIT (17:57:23) Skud: phazel: i don't know about that. i am crap with accounting. (17:57:32) phazel: no guarantees that I'm not :P (17:57:43) Skud: plus what i know about marketing is mostly internet stuff, and probably not what they're teaching (17:58:04) phazel: true, but I think that's the kind of stuff you can get through with mostly common sense and rote memorisation (17:59:22) fe [~fe@115-64-255-237.tpgi.com.au] entered the room. (17:59:23) phazel: If it's stuff like how to promote your hairdressing salon (17:59:43) fe: Hi:-) (18:00:04) Skud: yeah (18:00:06) Skud: hey fe! (18:00:28) fe: I had meant to be here earlier, but real life... (18:00:47) fe: lots of people:-) (18:00:58) phazel: Hi Fe (18:02:19) Skud: fe, sorry to put you on the spot, but we did a round of intros earlier, because there were so many new people. mind telling us a bit about yourself? (18:02:31) fe: no worries:-) (18:02:43) fe: I'm a wanna-be gardener:-) (18:03:05) fe: lots of trees on our current block, but we're _about_ to move, and I'll be starting with essentially a blank slate (18:03:18) Skud: ooh (18:03:25) Skud: lots of planning! (18:03:33) fe: no programming background—except for a little bit on a MUD _many_ years ago:-) (18:03:37) fe: indeed:-) (18:03:59) fe: We have one large section of lawn planned out for the 'orchard', and another for the vegie patch—both in the front:-) (18:04:10) MissKat: Ooooh jealous! (18:04:57) fe: We have to move, first:-) (And there's _so_ much packing! It's our first move as anything other than individuals... _hard_ work!) (18:05:39) fe: (long time since I've used IRC, so sorry in advance if I say things that were meant to be instructions:-) ) (18:05:45) sunjunkie: Hi fe. Where are you located? (18:05:45) MissKat: Packing is horrid. I've just spent the majority of the weekend speed-painting my new apartment, and then I'll spend this week packing like a fiend. (18:05:57) fe: (18:06:09) fe: Oh:-) Perth, Western Australia (18:06:45) phazel: I wonder how many aussies we have in the project (18:06:48) Skud: fe: it was you who homeschools, wasn't it? (18:06:53) fe: it is:-) (18:07:10) fe: which is why I'm _actually_ on the computer—time to prep for the week:-) (18:07:24) Skud: fe: mind if i pick your brain sometime about how to reach out to the homeschooling communities to tell them about growstuff? (18:07:32) fe: sure:-) (18:07:51) Skud: awesome :) short-term, i'm trying to get people to subscribe to our newsletter. the first one is going to come out in a day or two. (18:08:28) fe: I was thinking that it would work well for lots of them.... they're often into growing stuff—either from a science perspective, or to know more about what they're eating (or the real homestead-y types:-) ) (18:08:29) Skud: we're also putting together a list of blogs/bloggers we should contact around our launch, asking them to come try out growstuff and/or help spread the word (18:08:35) fe: (18:08:45) Skud: yeah, it's definitely an intersecting interest group (18:08:59) Skud: not that i know a heap of homeschoolers, but all the ones i know grow vegies (18:09:05) fe:  (18:10:30) sunjunkie: Skud: have you looked at online gardening clubs? There are probably a few and they would have mailing lists. (18:11:03) Skud: yup, we're looking into them… but if you know any particular ones, drop a link our way? (18:11:36) Skud: we want to be careful not to spam organisations where we might be in competition to them, though, which could be a risk for some of those. (18:12:16) sunjunkie: that's a good point. (18:15:19) sunjunkie: Gotta go! (18:15:36) sunjunkie left the room (quit: Quit: Bye!). (18:17:33) ***MissKat heads to bed also. (18:17:53) MissKat: Well, probably not also, given .au. Still, time for bed for me! G'nite folks. (18:18:03) MissKat is now known as MissKat|zzz (18:19:32) Skud: anyone else got anything they want to cover, or shall we call the gathering closed? (18:20:33) jmccorkindale: nothing from me (18:20:54) fe: nor me (18:21:30) phazel: nope. I'm going to the shops. (18:21:44) Skud: i have a newsletter draft if anyone would like to read through it (18:22:01) Skud: could i get someone else to post the gathering transcript to the wiki? (18:22:20) phazel: yeah, I can do that now before I head off (18:22:42) Skud: here's the newsletter draft: http://blog.growstuff.org/?p=33&shareadraft=baba33_5129bfb03f0f7 (18:23:10) jmccorkindale: will read (18:24:11) Skud: wait, that draft is full of bugs. (18:24:16) Skud: let me fix the broken html first, at least (18:25:13) fe: looked fine to me:-) (18:25:19) jmccorkindale: me too :) (18:25:20) fe: (well, worked for me:-) ) (18:25:31) fe: one typo, so far (and it's a long way through:-) ) (18:25:36) Skud: try this instead: http://growstuffblog.chezskud.com/?p=33&shareadraft=baba33_5129c05ee89df (18:25:44) Skud: what typo? (18:25:58) fe: (find it again!) (18:26:08) fe: in the training montage bit (18:26:22) fe: "we'll be studying subject like" (18:26:26) fe: rather than subjects (18:26:52) fe: but that's the only one I found:-) (18:27:25) Skud: thanks (18:28:09) fe: no worries:-) (18:30:16) jmccorkindale: gotto go, got to shower small child :)