I’m racing amateur supermoto at Infineon this weekend!
I'm racing amateur supermoto at Infineon this weekend. It's part of the West Coast Moto Jam, a big event that includes all types of motorcycle racing (motocross, dirt track, superbike, etc).
I'll be racing 3 classes:
- Saturday: Asphalt-only Open beginner
- Sunday: Open Novice/C and Open beginner
There is a 30% chance of rain on Sunday and I am not sure what I am going to do as I don't have rain slicks. I'm not sure I really want to cut my tires as they are pretty new and honestly I am not hardcore enough to really want to race in the rain.
I'm really excited about the races in general! I took Thursday off work to practice on the track and I loved it. The dirt section is a little gnarly though (there are pictures at http://mikedoran.zenfolio.com/p533645150). I'm planning on taking it slow and not trying to go fast through it though.
I also probably have some spare tickets if anyone knows me in real life and is interested (they are free and include starting grid passes!)
Important dates for the Firefox rapid release process
This has come up on assorted mailing lists so I figured I'd blog about it...
Please do note the rapid release process is still new and might need to be adjusted as we go through a couple.
If you are.....
A Developer
- You need to focus on the fact that the next merge from mozilla-central to mozilla-aurora is 2011-05-24 (any code for Firefox 6 needs to be in by that date)
- You need to know any major issues you find in code landed before 2011-04-12 should be brought to the attention of release drivers to put into beta or aurora, wherever is appropriate
A Localizer
- You need to focus on the fact that you only have until 2011-05-17 to finish localizing Firefox 5 content in mozilla-aurora (time left for current work)
- You need to focus on the fact that the next merge from mozilla-central to mozilla-aurora is 2011-05-24 (time the work for the next cycle starts so you can plan)
Add-on Developer
- You only have until 2011-05-17 to test your add-on with Firefox 5 content in mozilla-aurora and mark your add-on as 5.0* compatible.
You will be able to test for 6 more weeks on beta but our beta audience has over 2 million people...you probably don't want to field their support questions and should just focus on getting it compatible during the aurora timeframe.
- You should start testing your add-on with Firefox 6 content in mozilla-aurora on 2011-05-24. You will have 6 weeks to test on aurora and another 6 weeks to test on beta
Anyone Else
- Firefox 5 will be released on 2011-06-21
I hear there is a developer calendar somewhere and intend to add the assorted merge dates. I have also been saying it every week in the platform, MoCo, channel, and product meetings. We're working on getting it added to the wiki in the appropriate places (thanks to Matt Brubeck for adding it on the RapidRelease wiki page).
Additionally, there are dates in the specifics document as well as a quick python program to spit out your very own merge schedule. Please note we are still working out the mechanics of merges so they may be +- a day or so.
Come join the new Firefox release team at Mozilla!
Here at Mozilla we release a fair amount of software, most recently Firefox 4:
Photo by Bob Moss
With the new Firefox rapid release process managing the details of those releases is even more critical as we absolutely cannot slip the schedule. Because the schedules are set in stone we need to manage a lot more up front. Additionally, with releases shipping on a faster cadence there is less time for mistakes to be caught. When one adds in new platforms (smartphones, tablets), new products (Firefox Mobile, Firefox Home), and new channels (Nightly, Aurora) there is clearly a growing need for project and release management.
To meet this growing need Mozilla is hiring for a new release management team!
Is this you?
We currently have two positions available:
Associate Engineering Project Manager - Releases: We're looking for someone at the beginning of their career who can learn the ropes and grow to be an experienced member of the release management team. Problem solving, great communication skills, and technical chops are a must!
Engineering Project Manager - Releases: We're looking for someone with tons of experience managing software releases, hopefully at internet scale. This person will hit the ground running, taking the lead on many releases as well as driving process improvements.
What is Release Management?
Wikipedia has a somewhat decent description of what release management actually is. The main takeaway is the fact that it is a project management function, not development (writing the code for the bits that are eventually shipped), QA (testing the bits that are eventually shipped), or Release Engineering (managing the systems that build, package, and deliver the bits). All these groups have differing priorities and worldviews yet need to interact on the same project--that's where release management comes in.
Don't worry, release management is not just playing with schedules, sending emails, and organizing meetings. There is ample opportunity to create tools (examples aren't hard to find) , help define the direction of the product (by driving features or hashing out new processes), and make decisions that directly impact hundreds of millions of people worldwide.
Darn, I don't live in the San Francisco Bay Area
While our preference would be to have the employees work out of our Mountain View, CA office, it is not explicitly required. You don't have to live in the San Francisco Bay Area, California, or even the United States! We have offices all over and for the right candidate / timezone we might even consider 100% remote (though your effectiveness will likely be diminished as a large part of the job is interaction with other people).
If you do want to move to the San Francisco Bay Area, we can investigate how to get you here.
Sweet, sign me up!
Great! We want to fill these positions quickly, so get your resume in order and apply via the jobs website:
Ellie Goulding – Lights (Bassnectar Remix)
Heard this song in a video that was on Reddit. Love it. Totally going to use this as the soundtrack to some of my motorcycle race videos (assuming I can remember to bring my camera to the track this time).
mozilla-central to mozilla-aurora merge tomorrow, 2011-04-12
The merge from mozilla-central to mozilla-aurora happening TOMORROW (2011-04-12) at ~6:00 am PDT.
There is some discussion as to what "merge on 2011-04-12" means. It is generally open to two interpretations:
- Developers can land fixes up to 11:59 pm PDT on 2011-04-12 and the actual merge will happen on 2011-04-13 PDT
- Developers can land fixes up to the merge point, which happens sometime on 2011-04-12
We are going with #2 above and intend to do the merge @ ~6:00 am PDT.
How will you know the merge is done / mozilla-central is tracking for Firefox 6 instead of 5?
There will be a version bump on mozilla-central to 6.0a1 (see bug 648653). Anything before that will generally be on track for the next Firefox version, anything after will likely wait for a future release.
What happens if the version bump hasn't happened and it is after 6:00 am PDT?
We've decided to give some more time, you can still land for the upcoming Firefox release (likely for < 24 hours).
Please use best judgement when pushing late tonight and tomorrow. We will NOT be closing the tree...normal mozilla-central tree rules apply.
Version numbers on mozilla-central changing next week
This is a heads up that mozilla-central will be bumped to the new versioning scheme early next week PDT. It will either be Monday (and bump to 5.0a1) or Tuesday (and bump to 6.0a1). Please see bug 648653 and the development specifics document for details.
Please comment in bug 648653 if there are urgent items that need to be taken care of before this happens or if there is a concrete reason Monday or Tuesday appears to work better.
Signed up for 2011 Northern California Supermoto Series
I signed up to race supermoto in the 2011 Northern California Series! I got my racer card in the mail:
Why 161? The golden ratio. I might add in a very small decimal point and the proper trailing digits. Yes, it's nerdy...but I don't really have a number with personal significance so I figured I'd go with something significant in general.
The first race is April 2nd and 3rd at Prairie City OHRVA (near Sacramento). I have already practiced on the track previously, which will make the first race of the season a little less nerve-wracking. I'll be riding my KTM:
I'm really worried about the rain and am contemplating buying rain tires. I'm not sure I want to deal with switching out the slicks if it doesn't rain though. Throw in the fact that I likely need new slicks for the race regardless and I'm looking at possibly two or three tire changes...not fun. I was going to pick up another of the same bike I saw for cheap on craiglist to use as parts and to have a spare wheelset, but it looks to have sold. Oh well, I'll figure something else out.
I'll be racing 2 classes:
- Beginner
- Open C (novice)
The beginner isn't a part of the championship series but the Open C is. I plan on using the beginner races to get some in-your-face supermoto practice time in while concentrating on winning the Open C.
I have two goals for the season. First, to not crash. Second, to win 1st in Open C and move up next season. We'll see how both go...