I have two cats – Bill and Pickle.
Crushingly dull obligatory tech history follows. Former Mac user (1992–2014; AppleSeed programme member 2009–2014). The GUI of OS X 10.10 Yosemite drove me away from Apple. I gradually switched from OS X 10.9.5 Mavericks to PC-BSD. Then TrueOS, then FreeBSD-CURRENT. In the midst of all that, something with FreeBSD in September 2012 … probably toying with 9.0 on a PowerPC iMac with failing graphics hardware. Not because I was a glutton for punishment (like, the horror of a command-line loader, and the certainty that hardware was failing) – because there was nothing good to be done with the Mac, and I was curious about non-Apple alternatives to Microsoft Windows.
Essentially: KDE Plasma on FreeBSD-CURRENT since around 2015.
I try to take a conscientious approach to security issues. CVD, responsible disclosure, and all that. CVE-2009-0014 et cetera.
Bill and Pickle were largely responsible for discovery of a security issue that involved a comedy of errors, and eventual discovery of an old “fixed” bug that's not truly fixed for many users of FreeBSD. Whilst I can't draw attention to the public comedy (it's not entirely amusing), here's a two-point overview:
Sidestep away from the cats. To me, and where I hang out:
I'm dyslexic, reportedly. It probably doesn't show in my writing. Long story.
I became a FreeBSD committer in June 2022, resigned after thirteen months. 13, unlucky for some. 162 commits across three trees (137 doc + 5 ports + 20 src).
Avatar in places such as Codeberg: from the cover of the 1970 edition of The Worlds of Frank Herbert (credit: Jan Parker). If you're vaguely disconcerted by detached heads and shoulders in a serene alien landscape, you should tremble in fear at the detached head sometimes encountered by people like me on planet Earth.
Mugshot in places such as GitLab: from a 2018 holiday in Greece.
Avatar in places such as GitHub and BSD Cafe: a bunny rabbit. Partly because it's less confusing than a 1970 vision of a faraway planet, but more because:
Think about them. Think: bunny rabbits. Feel better? I do.
Footnote: bunny rabbits tried valiantly, ultimately failed, to spread happiness at the Forums.
I joined in 2012, quit in June 2022, rejoined in October 2023. All profiles, including mine, are hidden from the public. The May 2024 transformation – from Graham Perrin to Cath O'Deray – was:
Readers with a sense of humour might note that Cath's primary occupation was Tube. Her secondary occupation, not divulged during her time there: Statistical Analyst – a five-month contract, which involved removal of a few hundred links to the Internet. (She didn't pay attention to all 8,000+ comments, only the subset that was found through normal web browsing.) Conclusion:
Analyses complete, I quit, for the second time, in October 2024 – https://forums.freebsd.org/tags/absence/. I suppose that mean-minded bloodsuckers will continue to infect the place – I'm thankful that those emotionally ugly suckers are so miniscule a part of the community, but more thankful that I quit before they bled me dry.
