“Norcal Approach, Songbird 34, six for five, two-fifty to join the localizer.”
Today was my first day at Songbird1 as the new Manager of the Build/Release Team.
 San Francisco International Airport’s Runway two-eight-right Category III ILS Approach Procedure |
Contrary to (popular?) irc.m.o legend, I didn’t die or get run over by a compiler.
I was, however, spending some quality (and deserved, I think) time on my couch with various DVD box sets and, post-Christmas, my new PS3.2
I must admit, even though I spent most of today setting up my workstation and email and wikis and all that (important) stuff, I’m worried I may have looked like I was a little bit out of it: I was so excited about today, I only got about ninety minutes of actual, useful, real sleep before I had to get up at 6 am.
(Oh, and now I’m finding out all the various ins and outs of CalTrain schedules. I think I need some more practice, as I totally got on the wrong train going home today. But hey, I say we all need a tour of the Silicon Valley corridor from time to time to keep our appreciation fresh.)
I’m really looking forward to the new opportunities and challenges working in an environment like Songbird presents, but I think I’m most stoked about:
- Working on a project and product related to Mozilla and Mozilla’s myriad technology.
- Once again being able to work on an open source project. I’ve always believed it’s a privilege to be able to make a living working on open source. Plus, I think as software engineers and hackers, working in that context keeps us honest about our code… or at the very least humble.
- Working on a project whose focus is on open media on the web, which I admit I’m just beginning to really feel like I grok. As an admitted die-hard Linux user who now-has-a-commute and is getting a shiny-new-iPod-for-said-commute, having an open application to get various media from various sources onto that iPod, on an open operating system, is… really important to me.
Admittedly, this is just from my sense from a single day, one with way-not-enough-sleep. 
Anyway, I’ll be hanging out on IRC—even moreso now3—so if you need to find me… just holler, and you’ll get me.4
Still.
______________________
1 Or Pioneers of the Inevitable—a name my mother absolutely loved when she heard it—if you prefer…
2 Xbox-ers and Wii-ers: no making fun. I actually like it! And now that “Bluray has won,” I’m even more pleased with it.
3 Which admittedly wasn’t a ton the last couple months ’cause… well… come on… West Wing. And Arrested Development!
4 Or… Reed… one of us…
Really glad to see you back, Paul. You are a real asset to the community!
Hope SB works out well for you, safe travels.
Hey Preed, congrats on the new role at Songbird! Great to see you’ll be staying in Open Source and working on Mozilla related stuff. Best of luck!
-Bret
Congratulations!
Great to hear you are using Caltrain, btw. I found that having Caltrain schedules on my PDA made things much simpler. There’s an awesome Caltrain+ for Palm-based devices, and there are a bunch of Java-based schedules as well that I didn’t much like. There’s also something for iPhone.
(Shameless plug follows…) But you might also want to check my Caltrain schedule program collection, available in Python as cross-platform version, a Google Android app and finally a web version. See links at http://www.heikkitoivonen.net/software.html
Congrats Preed! It’s nice to hear you put some clothes on and got off the couch…
Good luck at Songbird.
- Jay
Congrats on the new job!
Like you I’m a Linux fan, although I run Linux in a VM on a MacBook in order to consolidate three OSes onto one machine, and although I no longer buy DRM-encumbered music from iTunes (it’s DRM-free iTunes or Amazon for me), I still have a bunch of locked-up songs preventing me from finally making the switch to Songbird.
So I was thrilled to hear about DRM Dumpster, which promises to unencumber such songs so you can exercise your rights over them, in my case the right to play them in Songbird. I haven’t tried it yet, but I will soon, and hopefully it’ll fulfill its promise.
Awesome news, great to have you kicking ass in the Greater Mozilla Area again.
Congratulations on your new job Paul!
Good luck at Songbird,
-Scott
@All: Thanks! Starting a new job is always an interesting, stressful, shiny, and new experience.
The addition of an actual Commute ™ makes life interesting as well.
@Heikki: I will definitely have to check out the iPhone version; the CalTrain schedule on iPhone Safari is OK, but it takes forever-and-a-day to load over Edge.
@Jay: Yah, and don’t forget doing laundry. It’s weird, I didn’t miss work for the first couple months I was chilling on the couch, but after about the third month (right after the holidays), I started to go a bit stir crazy. There’s only so much Aaron Sorkin you can watch.
@Myk: I’m doing my Windows builds in a VM, but I have a native Mac and Linux (64-bit!) machine. I’m actually surprised at how pretty-blazing-fast the 64-bit Linux box I have is. We’ll see how bad virtualized-Win32 is.
I haven’t bought much from the ITMS, so I don’t have that particularly problem. I do, however, have more-or-less my entire-music-collection in FLAC, so that always presents… interesting issues.
@shaver: Thanks! It’s interesting to be on a different side of the “Deliverable Fence,” as it were.