Hello list I know there's been a couple of applications in the last few days, and another has just started, so please don't be annoyed. The unlucky TU this time is Chris Brannon (I flipped a coin, the other side being "try again..next time"). He's been great and has sacrificed time to check my packages out, so thank you once again Chris! I have split the following autonetography into parts for selective digestion; you guys can read only what matters. Yeah, right..? (hint: ctrl+f, "=", ENTER | whatmattersmost: "Usage") == Preamble == I started with Arch Linux not too long ago, from early-mid 2007. Linux itself, somewhere around 2006. My first stop was the IRC, at which point of time I used to hang out on #gentoo and #sabayon (now you know my previous poison). Just for a little fun, I vaguely recall it went something like this: schiv: does arch have anything like USE flags? Xilon: no $someone_else: compiling has absolutely zero benefit schiv: ok As you can see, people were not very hostile back then (probably because a lot of questions have become reccuring over time). Anyway, I liked my system immediately and started picking on beginners like myself on IRC. "Pick on someone your own size" - that's exactly what I did and I even picked on a certain user going by the handle of "Daenyth". == Getting Started == My next stop was AUR, the first package being "wicd", which thanks to then-developer Varun is now in [extra] and serving the community well. Then I took to the forums to help aid others in trying to get wicd working, and that marked the beginning of my "time on Arch". For the rest of the year I almost-regularly visited the forums, and on occasions edited wiki articles, reported bugs. I uploaded and maintained AUR packages which I used, so even up til now, there aren't that many. I began helping out with a "pro audio" initiative, of which the current ArchAudio [ http://archaudio.org ] is a direct result. I co-maintain and manage the project along with other keen individuals.

From mid 2008 through mid 2009, I was a little inactive due to hardware failure, and something misleading called "real life", but nevertheless had Arch running on a Windows machine through VirtualBox.

I thought of applying for TUship one or two times before, but it was either time or "there's enough help already" that kept me from going ahead. There was a TU "Shinlun" who I wanted to request for sponsorship because I could take some load off, but he went inactive and ultimately stepped down. I don't think lack of time is an excuse for me, and I now realise that even a little dedication helps the community. One for all, all for one, but don't quote me on this. == Usage == My main packaging interest, as you might've guessed by now, is multimedia; audio/video. Other than that, I would love to maintain popular and/or important packages and ensure that users continue to have access to a bigger arsenal and wider range of tools on Arch Linux. Hopefully, I will also be working on getting the Sugar environment packaged (it's been on my TODO for a while). I might occasionally send in useless patches for makepkg, as I have done before, only to be struck down by Xavier's mighty roar. However, I can't be of much help with the development of pacman itself, the AUR internals, or anything else related to C or Web Development. Not yet, at least. == History == I come from a non-IT academic background, if such information needs to be known. I'm "from the Arts and not Sciences" by society's standards, but in fact I'm "neither or either". I'm from a tiny island-nation called Singapore, and there is very little convergence of the two areas here. Currently I'm pursuing DSP, in particular CSc Music, but not until I complete my National Service which should start next year and end two and a half after. I used to be a Philosophy student, and then Audio Engineering. I hope to be able to get into Cosmology/Astrophysics eventually, but competition here is tough and I was always lazy in class, lectures and Math (I won't say I was "bad" at it). Professionally, I'm busy..I mean I'm "in the business sector". Biologically, I'm a noob adult born in the Year of the Snake (1989). == Troubelshooting == So on to some questions of my own: 1) I remember we used to tell each other that we don't need to state dependencies from [core] in AUR, how true is this? Are we looking at just the base group or is it totally a matter of consistency? 2) How are cross-repository buildtime and optional dependencies handled? For example, can we have a package in [extra] makedepend and/or optdepend on another in [community]? 3) Unfortunately, it is time for a nice facepalm. I don't do x86_64. So do I get access to the build machine in the event this application is accepted? I would greatly appreciate any and all kinds of feedback with regards to my packages. Even if a quorum is not reached, I put a very high value on advice and opinion (!). Thank you for reading. Regards -- GPG/PGP ID: B42DDCAD