Learning to be a video flyer

I spent the majority of last weekend skydiving with a video camera strapped to my head. This is not the first time but it was the first time trying to film a tandem skydive. It actually went really well. I kept the pair in frame the entire time, I got the entire exit including the plane leaving, and I also was able to flip on my back and film the deployment.

Gentoo: Bugday and maintainer-needed packages

In response to Bugday and my willingness to help, I want to help users that contribute. I won’t be around for Bugday and I am normally not available on the weekends. So, here is what I am willing to do.. On any maintainer-needed bug, if you fix the issue, feel free to CC me (darkside (at) gentoo.org) on it. You should say something like “darkside: I fixed this and tested it, please commit” and I will review it and commit it.

Thoughts about CouchFreaks 2008

For those of you that don’t know, CouchFreaks is a skydiving boogie (party) held every year over Labor Day weekend in Fort Dodge, Iowa. They bring in Skydive Arizona’s Turbine Fleet of aircraft which is great lift capacity. Honestly, they could use one more turbine to solve the manifest delays but that would also create more problems. Some personal highlights: NPSL Meet 4. Our team, Wissota Wild, finished in 2nd place for this meet and 2nd place overall.

Home stretch of undergrad-ness

Well, I just started classes again today. I just have 5 classes left of undergrad! Only 16 credits, so technically I could finish it in one semester. However, I would prefer to stretch it out over 2 semesters. 10 credits this semester and 6 next semester. Both technically are considered “half-time” which is great because then I won’t have to repay my student loans until 6 months after May 15th 2009 or so.

Intel: iwl3945 madness

As jaervosz wrote the other day, the iwl3945 driver has some serious issues with it. I think I have it narrowed down to what conditions cause the problem. Problem: When downloading large files for non-trivial amounts of time, the download speed drops to <80 K/s. This is unacceptable, the whole pipe is limited to that by the way. I am not sure what exactly causes this but I have narrowed down the conditions to which it happens.