FAQ

To be frank, I've got two small things to say.

Firstly, right now I haven't setup my SVN repo completely. I can commit because I have ssh in the server, and people can view the code because I have ViewVC and SvnServe setup. However, I have not yet tested the things I need to test to give out commit access to other users. Primarilly, I need to be able to ensure that people can use svn+ssh, without the ability to do anything else on my server. Additionally, I may want to disable the automatic updating of my site from trunk and setup a mailing list for commits when I am able to give out commit access to other people. (Though do note I've had issues setting up a mailsever. I've got a good manual, however I've had issues. If anyone wants to help me setup a Postfix+MySQL+Courier/IMAP+Amavisd-new+SpamAssassin+PostGrey mailserver, it would be a leap towards a lot of things that need to be setup on my webserver [;) And I'll finally be able to ditch my crappy ISP after I move my e-mails away from them, heh])

Secondly, I hope it's not considered too selfish. But Electronic_Me™ was started for 3 reasons (not the open-source stuff, just the reasons why I am focusing my attention on it): Firstly, it is going to be the software to run my own online profile and portfolio software. A portfolio is something I've been missing for awhile, and it's tough to get hired without a collection of examples showing you can program. Secondly, ElectronicMe was also intended to be part of my portfolio itself. Basically other than some MediaWiki extensions and my commits there, as well as some insanely old websites of mine which were from before I learned a lot of good programming practices, I have no major body of code that I can present to an employer. My intent with ElectronicMe was to build up the software on my own for starting (just to the point where the software actually does something on it's own), and then after that completely open it up to contributions. I just want to be able to say to someone 'I made this work, at the core behind all the fancy stuff that people have helped layer on top of it, is a piece of running software that I built', and not lie through my teeth. After that point anyone can help turn it from something that works into a fancy and real useful piece of software. The third reason was also to host it. I've registered electronic-me.com, and just on the site I plan to host the software for those that don't have their own webspace to run the code, for a minimal cost (I'm merely thinking something like $2 a month, just as a way to lower my $250-$300/year hosting costs and make the webserver self sufficient).

Honestly, what would help the project most would be things that improve my ability to program. Right now I'm stuck with a family desktop computer, that technically is a P4 with 756mb RAM, but has aged enough that it is slow to change windows, can't even play a video properly anymore, stutters on audio if you have anything else running, and read/writes the drive and edits slowly even when using lightweight text editors. What would help the most would be a way for me to get a modern laptop that can actually handle a decent programming editors, my e-mail, IRC, Firefox, and some audio/video running in the background to keep my mind active (I've noticed that I program best when I'm watching a anime at the same time as I have my editor open. It would be even better if I had two monitors where I didn't need to shrink the size of the editor). If anyone pokes me about it, I might get back to the tweaks to my wiki I need for something like a donate button or ads to maintain the server or put into my computer savings.