Hullo. Long time, no see.
I had to step out of KDE development for a while to raise $2000 for charity as part of the bigger child’s play charity.
It was a ton of fun and the most successful event our ACM chapter had ever, but now my term as president is winding down. The semester is almost done, and we’ve only got two more big events planned for the spring semester: a robot competition, and our ACMUA fundraiser, Fragging 101. Things have changed a bit from last year, as we’re a much more cohesive team. Which means I don’t have to put nearly as much effort into running stuff as I did last year, giving me more free time. This is also my last year as an undergrad, so it’ll be the last year I spend all my free time running the ACMUA. Which means I can get back to phonon-gstreamer hacking and hopefully keep people from creating even more multimedia frameworks, fuelling the firestorm of complaints that multimedia in Linux is hopelessly broken. It might be broken, but if we can make ONE system flawless, I think thats all it will take.
Another cool change is my next job. Currently, I’m working part-time downtown at Summit Data Communications, a tiny development shop that makes a big impact. If you’ve ever gone into a supermarket and saw one of those handheld scanners they use for inventory, our radios are likely giving it wifi connectivity. Unfortunately, almost all the work we do is for Microsoft systems, except for the Linux driver I am helping to produce. I don’t have much to say about the Linux driver, because it isn’t something I’m proud to be working on. The driver will likely never become free software, which gives me good reason to be happy for my next job.
Starting Jan 1st, I’ll be working downtown again, but at the Austen BioInnovation Institute in Akron. Two classmates (who happen to be ACMUA officers and real good friends) and I will be running a small research project there. Due to the funding requirements (its from the department of defense), I can’t really say what exactly it is we’re working on till the funding is totally approved.
But it’ll be 100% open source and free software when it is completed. Thats what the CS department chair told us, and partially why the ABIA fully supports us.
