[Foundation-l] Expert board members - a suggestion

[Domas Mituzas]

Hi!

> Correct me if I'm wrong, but here's what I can gather: Total  
> spending was
> $1.7 million less than budgeted.  Tech spending was $1.7 million  
> less than
> budgeted.  And $1.7 million was sitting in the bank accounts at the  
> end of
> the fiscal year.

We did not spend on hardware, because, well, I explained already in  
some other email.
We did not reallocate the money to hire lots of developers because we  
didn't know how the hardware spending will look like.

> The solution to not being able to afford "proper .com-level  
> salaries" is to
> offer people nothing?

We're not competitive on the job market. So, if we don't get qualified  
engineers willing to work for less, what should we do - hire less  
qualified ones?

> I'll fix the dumps for minimum wage plus daycare for my two kids.

;-) Are you for these conditions for other projects too?

> I don't know about that.  It's a pretty cool problem, it's just a  
> difficult
> one to solve.  Or maybe it's a cool problem because it's difficult  
> to solve.

I find it very boring problem myself. Probably thats because I'm  
spoiled by really cool problems at work, or maybe somewhat cooler  
problems at Wikimedia ;-)

> It would certainly help.  The problem with the dumps is that they're  
> so
> huge.

They're small. :) And yes, I know what is the problem with dumps :-)

>  Not being able to test solutions on a system just as huge is a
> serious constraint.

Problems are known well enough to create quite some work. Resolve 10  
"what ifs" and you're nearly done.

> Plus you have to remember that the WMF's particular
> installation is not the common one.

Agreed.

>  There's probably enough information out
> there to pretty much replicate it, but that's another serious  
> constraint.
> I'm certainly not willing to deal with those unnecessary constraints.

OK!

> It was the existence of the history dumps that enabled Judd and I to  
> find
> the oversighted SlimVirgin edits.

That encourages production of dumps, right? :)

> Once again, I've heard that for three years now, so forgive me for not
> believing it until I see it.

OK!

Domas