The next step is to look at those documents and see what we need to do to adapt them to work for the Mozilla project. For this, I need your help.

I’ve started a thread over in the mozilla.governance newsgroup to get the process started. It includes a link to a rough first draft of a Code and an explanation of where that draft came from.

Please note that all discussion related to the development of a Code of Conduct should happen in that thread/newsgroup. If you post comments here, I’ll just ask you to move ‘em over there :)

Please, please try to make time to participate if you can. This is a big and very important step for the Mozilla project and our community.

Thanks!

We’re going to close the survey down TOMORROW, and we need to get as many responses as we can. The survey should only take 5-8 minutes to fill out, and we’d really appreciate all the feedback we can get.

>>> Feature Page Survey < <<

Thanks!

We’re going to close the survey down at the end of January, and we need to get as many responses as we can. The survey should only take 5-8 minutes to fill out, and we’d really appreciate all the feedback we can get.

>>> Feature Page Survey <<<

Thanks!

Ingredients

• 1 med clove garlic, finely minced (about 1 tsp)
• 1/2 shallot, minced (about 1 tsp)
• 1 tbsp capers, chopped
• 2 tbsp fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
• pinch salt
• 1 tin white kidney beans, rinsed and well drained (low/no salt)
• 1 tin flaked tuna, drained

Method

1. Mix garlic, shallot, capers, parsley, olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice, salt and pepper in a medium bowl and whisk well to make a simple vinaigrette
2. Add beans & tuna and mix well
3. Let sit for 15-20 minutes for the flavours to meld a bit

Serve as a side dish or just as a simple meal. Squeeze more lemon juice over if you’re into that sort of thing.

Ingredients

• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp parsley, minced
• 2 tbsp chives, minced
• 2 tbsp tarragon, minced
• 1 tbsp thyme leaves
• Zest from 1 lemon
• 2 tsp dijon mustard
• 4 filets of sole, no skin
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 med shallot, minced
• 1 tin white kidney beans, well rinsed and drained
• 1 tin diced tomatoes (low sodium)
• Juice from 1 lemon
• Salt & pepper

Method

1. Heat oven to 325.
2. Mix the parsley, chives, tarragon, lemon zest, and half of the garlic together in a small bowl.
3. Heat a saute pan over med heat and heat the olive oil. Toss in the shallot, thyme, and the rest of the garlic & saute for a minute or two.
4. Add the beans to the pan and continue sauteing for 3-4 mins. Add the tomatoes and heat until simmering. Stir in the lemon juice, and some salt and pepper to taste. These should simmer for 8-10 mins or so while you’re preparing the fish bundles.
5. While the beans and tomatoes are simmering, lay filets out on a cutting board, skinned side up. Spread the dijon over each in a thin layer (this should use up all the mustard). Sprinkle the herb/zest mixture over the filets. Drizzle the garlic butter over the filets, including all the garlic. Roll the filets up into bundles, starting at the tail end, and secure with 2-3 toothpicks each.
6. Pour the tomatoes and beans into a glass* 8″ x 8″ baking dish. They should be in an even layer and slightly soupy.
7. Nestle the 4 sole bundles into the tomatoes and spoon tomatoes and beans over each so the fish won’t get dried out. Grate fresh pepper over it all and bake for 20-25 mins.

Fish is cooked through when it’s 130-140 on an instant read thermometer, or opaque all the way through. Serve in pasta bowls, removing the toothpicks, with plenty of the tomato & bean mixture.

* glass is vital for baking anything with tomatoes in it — a metal pan or dish will just taste weird and tinny and don’t do it. Don’t be like me.

To avoid last minute grocery dashes (and crowds) as much as I can, I’m planning the next couple of week’s worth of menus now. This is what the current working list looks like:

Big fancy dinners

• Turkey breast roast & all the fixin’s
• Beef tenderloin roast, sauted mixed wild mushrooms, garlicky bitter greens, potatoes gratin

Regular ol’ workaday dinners

• chili & toast
• beef curry, rice, channa dal
• roast chicken w/ lemon & thyme, cauliflower & broccoli gratin, wild rice
• pork loin roast, braised brussels sprouts, baked potatoes
• ground pork & cabbage szechuan noodles
• seafood chowder
• carnitas, guacamole
• baked salmon w/ lemon & capers, spinach, boiled new potatoes
• spicy shrimp stir fry w/ snowpeas and cashews
• pan-seared rib eye, salt-baked potatoes, caesar salad

Lunches will largely be made up of leftovers, and breakfasts probably be more extravagant/leisurely than normal, including stuff like bagels w/ smoked salmon, baked french toast, frittata w/ spinach and mushrooms, etc etc.

The survey should only take 5-8 minutes to fill out, and we’d really appreciate all the feedback we can get.

Feature Page Survey

Thanks!

1. 2oz gin (Tanq or Tanq 10 works well)
2. 1 tbsp rosemary simple syrup
3. 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
4. Chilled club soda to top

Build over ice in a highball or med highball. Stir.

Posting a rant is also a pretty crap way to get your point across, because:

a) It’s hurtful and humiliating to the person being criticised
b) It immediately puts the other person on the defensive
c) It brings the situation to the direct attention of a larger number of people, which makes the other person feel even worse if they do turn out to be wrong
d) It often doesn’t accomplish a lot other than bring some widespread drama to a situation that probably could have been resolved in a much more sensible way

Mozillians are almost invariably smart, capable people who care deeply about what they’re doing and are always genuinely trying to do the right thing. Always start from that premise, give them the benefit of the doubt, and just talk to them if there’s a problem.

I’ve made one small-but-awfully-helpful change to how the product Feature Lists are going to work. Now, if you start working on one of the items on the list, please change the “Rank” for that item on the Feature List to “In Progress”. Don’t worry about moving it to the top of the list, we’ll sort that part out.

I’ve done a few on the Firefox Feature List, as an example. Obviously this makes it a lot easier to figure out what is currently being worked on.

If you are working on a Feature from one of the Feature Lists, please do me a huge favour and flag it as “In Progress” on the Feature List Page. Thanks!

Made this for dinner tonight (blurry, oversaturated pic courtesy my iPhone). Tasty, but feel free to adjust the garlic and red pepper flakes as you see fit. We like us some garlics.

Ingredients

• 2-3 mild or hot Italian sausages
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 shallot, minced
• 1-2 tsp hot red pepper flakes (optional)
• 1 med zucchini, chopped into rough chunks
• 1 yellow pepper, chopped into rough chunks
• 1 med red onion, chopped into rough chunks
• 1-2 tsp fresh oregano (or 1/2-1 tsp dried)
• 1 large tin diced tomatoes (796ml, 28oz)
• Fresh ground pepper
• Penne or other chunky pasta
• Fresh shredded parmesan to serve

Method

1. Fry the sausages in a saute pan over med heat. When done, slice and throw the slices back in to the pan to brown up a bit more. The trick here is to get all sorts of nice brown bits all over the sausages because that makes ‘em yummy.
2. Leave the sausage rounds in the pan and add the olive oil. Then toss in the minced garlic, shallot, and red pepper flakes. Saute that all together for a couple of minutes.
3. Throw in the zucchini, pepper, and onion. Saute those for a couple of minutes, then add the oregano and a few gratings of fresh pepper. Stir a few times, then add the diced tomatoes with all the juices and stuff.
4. Bring up to simmer, and let that go for 10-15 mins…the idea is to let the tomatoes cook down and become more of a sauce. This is a matter of taste, really, so you can cook it for as long as you like, just don’t totally overcook the veggies.
5. While the sauce simmers, bring a big pot of water up to boil and cook your pasta when the sauce is almost done.
6. Serve in big ol’ pasta bowls with lots of parmesan cheese and fresh pepper.

I think that’s it. I just kinda make these up as I go, so feel free to riff on this. Sometimes I’ll add a tin of white kidney beans, or other veggies, etc.

To manage all of this, we need to be a bit more disciplined about what we do and how we do it. Prioritizing what we want to do (and when) is a big part of what this post is all about — we can’t do everything all at once, so we need to be more deliberate about what we focus on at any given time.

We also have to be more conscientious about what and how we communicate with each other — there simply isn’t enough time for any one of us to dig through our various channels to find out everything we need to know. We need a consistent and centralized place where everyone can go to get the information they need.

How are we doing this?

We’ve developed a system to help us manage this stuff, and it looks something like this:

simplified, but you get the idea

Roadmaps are where we set forth our vision for each product and what we believe our priorities need to be in order to achieve that vision. Roadmaps often include other stuff as well, but for the most part the Roadmaps define where we want to go (vision) and how we’re going to get there (priorities).

Product Managers don’t weave these out of whole cloth, but drive the process of creating the Roadmaps through extensive discussion with people throughout the community. These are also not things to be dusted off once a year when we sit down to write a new roadmap — we will evolve them as we go.

Feature Lists are the things we believe need to be changed or added in our various products over the next year or so. These lists are derived from the Roadmaps and then divided by engineering group. The purpose of Feature Lists is to make it easier for engineers to know what they should work on next.

Like Roadmaps, Feature Lists will be revised constantly as we add, remove, and reprioritize things based on changing circumstances and information, and as we ship features out. Ultimately, each Feature List will be rank ordered by priority — #1, #2, #3, etc. with no ties — but we’re not quite there yet.

Feature Pages are really the heart of this system, as this is where each Feature is defined, specified, staffed, and tracked during development. The goal is that eventually (by Firefox 7) all significant development projects will be defined and tracked via Feature Pages.

When we talk about a feature, we’re talking about a “shippable unit”, a well-scoped and atomic piece of work that improves a part of one of our products. This is a smaller unit than what we normally think of as a feature, but conceptually larger than a typical bug fix.

Something like “Create a Home Tab as a Permanent App Tab” is a feature under this definition, whereas “App Tabs” is too large to be well-scoped. “App tab rendering glitch on OS X” is too small to be worth feature tracking, as it is really just fixing a flaw rather than adding to the product or changing how something behaves.

Feature Pages are really guidelines rather than strict templates to be slavishly filled out. Use them as you see fit. The only requirements are:

• The status block at the top be filled in and kept up to date.
• The team list must be fleshed out as completely as possible (and everyone on that list should be aware that they’re on that list).

After that, you’re free to do whatever you need with the Feature Pages. The sections in the template are really just prompts to help you get things clarified and written down, but you can ignore them if it makes sense to do so.

With the vision and priorities defined in the Roadmaps, and the Features defined and tracked through Feature Pages, we’re just missing a place to track the collective progress for each release. This is where the Release Tracking page comes in.

Once a Feature is underway and we know which release it’s going to target, the status block from that Feature Page will be transcluded into the appropriate table on the Release Tracking page.

Throughout development, with Feature Page statuses being updated regularly, the Release Tracking page will make it easy to see at a glance how things are progressing. Should a feature miss a release, it’s easy to move the feature into the next release table and continue tracking progress there.

No Surprises

The primary goal for this system can be summed up as “no surprises”. Everyone across the organization — engineering, QA, marketing, PR, web dev, IT, build & release, etc. — should be able quickly and easily to find out:

• what is currently planned for each release
• how things are progressing
• what they need to do
• when they need to do it

No surprises. This will never be a failsafe system, but I think we can get a lot closer to there than where we are now. This is a first step, and we will evolve the system as we learn more.

Over the past couple of years I’ve developed what I call my Generic Universal Grocery List. It covers breakfasts, lunch, and dinner for two people for a week (give or take), and allows for enough flexibility to make a whole bunch of different things. Note: we both work from home, so we prepare and eat the vast majority of our meals there.

This list evolved over time, really — I started by doing meticulous menu plans then cobbling together lists based on those, etc. I started to notice patterns developing, so rather than building a from-scratch list every week, I’d pull up the previous list and just edit that. Finally I made the GUGL, and I’ve been using it every week for a few months. It works for us, but it’s still an ongoing work in progress — we still end up throwing away more produce than we should, so I’m still tweaking things.

How to use the list

It’s important to realize that we don’t buy everything on the list every time. We:

    1) Make a fresh copy of the list each week
    2) Go through and delete stuff we don’t want or need this time around
    3) Check and add any needed staples (oils, vinegars, flour, etc)

So, here’s the pre-edited list with some inline notes. Where there are multiple items separated by a slash, we’ll pick one of those and delete the rest. This is also ordered according to where things generally are in our grocery store, if you’re wondering why it seems a bit random at times.

Generic Universal Grocery List

Produce (enough for 6 meals, snacks & sandwiches)
* coleslaw (pre shredded cabbage mix)
* baby spinach/salad greens
* lemons
* limes
* apples
* bananas
* blueberries/raspberries
* avocado
* tomatoes
* zucchini
* scallions
* leeks
* potatoes
* onions
* shallots
* garlic
* ginger
* mushrooms
* peppers
* napa cabbage/bok choy
* squash/yams

Sandwich stuff, Dips, Pasta (mostly lunches)
* sandwich meats & cheese
* fresh tortellini/ravioli
* parmesan cheese
* hummus

Bakery
* sandwich/toast loaf/panini buns
* english muffins
* pitas/tortillas

Meat (usually 3 meats + eggs)
* salmon/shrimp/scallops
* chicken/turkey
* pork/sausages
* beef/veal
* bacon
* eggs

Dairy
* butter
* milk
* yogurt (plain)
* yogurt (flavoured)
* cottage cheese
* shredded cheese
* cheddar
* orange juice
* apple juice/cider

Staples & Other
* coleslaw dressing (can’t be bothered making my own)
* olives
* diced tomatoes
* tinned beans
* rice/quinoa
* dried pasta
* chicken stock
* beef stock
* cereal/oatmeal
* coffee cream
* maple syrup
* sugar
* ginger beer

Non-food (mostly reminders to see if we need ‘em)
* tinfoil
* parchment
* coffee filters
* laundry detergent
* dishwasher detergent
* dish detergent
* garbage bags (blue)
* garbage bags (green)
* paper towels
* toilet paper
* handsoap

I’m not looking to track every single bugfix, just changes or additions that you think would be significant enough to include in a write up or announcement about the release — anything that would be of interest to users and/or developers.

If you are not sure whether what you’re working on qualifies, please err on the side of assuming it does. You can contact me by:

• email: deb-at-mozilla-com (email if at all possible)
• leaving a comment on this post
• pinging me in IM (deb.richardson@mac.com) or IRC (dria)
• or at very least cc’ing me on the relevant bugs

Please include any relevant bug numbers and links to wiki pages!

Launch days are great, great days. Official announcement here.

We’re just about ready to release an updated version of Personas Plus for both Firefox 3.6 and Firefox 4, so we’re holding a somewhat impromptu testday for it on Friday (but feel free to start early if you like).

Where to get it…

If you have a few minutes to spare, please grab Personas Plus RC4 from the FTP site and install it on Firefox 3.6 or Firefox 4. You will have to “allow” the site to install the add-on in the dialog that pops up:

https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/labs/personas/personas-1.6.2rc4.xpi

How to help…

Please test a few of the activities listed below (and anything else you can think of). If something appears odd or broken, either post a note here, leave a comment on the Personas forum thread or send an email to me directly at deb@mozilla.com.

On IRC?

If you’re on Mozilla IRC, feel free to join the #personas and #qa channels — I’ll be online for most of the day, so look for me (dria) there if you have any questions or think you have found a problem.

Some stuff to test…

• Does the add-on icon (Fox Mask) appear properly in your status bar (Firefox 3.6) or add-on bar (Firefox 4)?
• When you click on the Fox Mask icon, does the menu appear to be complete and correct?
• Do all the menu items seem to do what they should?
• When you open the “My Favorites” menu item, does clicking the “Sign in to Access your Favorites” take you to the correct page on GetPersonas.com (the account sign-in and creation page)?
• When you select the “Random Selection from [galleryname]” submenu item, do you get a new, randomly selected Persona?
• If you have selected the “Random Selection from [galleryname]” submenu item, does your Persona change periodically (every 60 minutes or so)?
• If you are logged into your GetPersonas.com account, does clicking on “Go to My Favorites” do the correct thing?
• If you are logged into your GetPersonas.com account, are you still logged in if you click any of the “#### More from [galleryname]” menu items to visit the GetPersonas.com galleries?
• Go to Preferences and check the “Show Custom Persona in menu” checkbox. Does this add a new “Custom Persona” menu item?
• Are you able to create and apply a custom persona using the Custom Persona menu item?
• Does uninstalling the add-on from the add-ons manager work properly?

Did we miss something?

If you can think of anything else that we should test, please let me know and I’ll add it to the list. Thanks!

A fourth (and really hopefully final!) Release Candidate of the Personas Plus add-on for Firefox 4 is available on the FTP servers. The RC works with Firefox 3+, current nightly builds, and Firefox 4 beta releases.

You can download the add-on here: https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/labs/personas/ — you want to get personas-1.6.2rc4.xpi.

If you find any issues (or if you test and everything seems OK), please post a comment here! Thanks!

This RC fixes an interaction with GetPersonas.com, so is relatively minor. There are still some known issues, some of which will be fixed in a future version and others which are server-side. Thanks again for all your help!

A third (and hopefully final!) Release Candidate of the Personas Plus add-on for Firefox 4 is available on the FTP servers. The RC works with Firefox 3+, current nightly builds, and Firefox 4 beta releases.

You can download the add-on here: https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/labs/personas/ — you want to get personas-1.6.2rc3.xpi.

If you find any issues (or if you test and everything seems OK), please post a comment here! Thanks!

Zarro Boogs!

We hit zero blocking bugs for Firefox 4. This is a pretty big deal for anyone and everyone who has been working on this release, and means we’ll be rolling out a release candidate Very Very Soon…

Demos!

We launched a demo site that includes this fully interactive HTML5 poster (grab a copy of the latest Firefox 4 beta to get the full effect). I’m biased, obviously, but this is one of the coolest things I’ve seen on the Web in a hell of a long time…

Web Apps!

We announced the availability of the first developer integration release of our Open Web Apps project (along with a neat video that explains what the heck we’re actually talking about when talk about “web apps”). ReadWriteWeb says that we make “a better case for web apps in minutes than Google did in months,” so if you’re still not sure what Web Apps are all about, you chould check out the post over on the Labs blog.

If you’re a web developer, there’s also a bunch of documentation over on the Mozilla Developer Network, and a gallery of apps that people have already built.

The best part? We’re just getting warmed up. 2011 is going to be a ridiculously amazing year.

A second Release Candidate of the Personas Plus add-on for Firefox 4 is available on the FTP servers. The RC works with Firefox 3+, current nightly builds, and Firefox 4 beta releases.

The more testers the better, so we could really use your help. You can download the add-on here: https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/labs/personas/ — you want to get personas-1.6.2rc2.xpi.

If you find any issues, please post a comment here or in the bug. Thanks!

UPDATE: Please test personas-1.6.2rc2.xpi, not rc1, thanks!

A Release Candidate of the Personas Plus add-on for Firefox 4 is available on the FTP servers. The RC works both with the current nightly builds and Firefox 4 beta releases.

The more testers the better, so we could really use your help. You can download the add-on here: https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/labs/personas/ — you want to get personas-1.6.2rc2.xpi.

If you find any issues, please post a comment here or in the bug. Thanks!

That is completely awesome. It’s a great series. Unfortunately it looks like we’re going to have to wait for book 6, which will now be released as part of the re-edited and published-by-an-actual-publisher book 3. You know what? I’m ok with that — it’s so great to see someone create something so great and succeed through this sort of hard work and determination.

If I get stuck in California because of snow in California, I will LOL.

I’m pretty irritated with Apple these days, so have started looking around for non-Apple hardware. I’ve already picked up an Android phone (everything I need in a phone, turns out), but am looking for a replacement for my laptop (which I’m in the market to upgrade now anyhow). I probably won’t bother replacing (or upgrading) my iPad since I just really don’t use it that much.

Right now the soon-to-be-released Samsung Notebook 9 is looking pretty good. Are there other non-Apple laptops I should consider?

It is, as the kids say, teh yum.

Where I’ve been camped at HQ all day. For whatever reason the tumblog features of this woo theme aren’t working. Drag.

These are the first two books the six book “Riyria Revelations” series by Michael Sullivan — good, solid pulp fantasy in the grand tradition of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Sullivan’s world has some depth, however, and the episodic tales are significantly more complex than you might initially think. The stories draw upon thousands upon thousands of years of history, and I suspect it’s all leading towards a…well…a revelation that will likely be one of the turning points in that history.

Great characters, well written, fast-paced, and altogether fun so far. Recommended.

Part of my new toolkit includes the handy “Express” iPhone app by the good folks who create Woothemes (which are pretty neat). This is my first (non-test) post using that app and the new theme. Let’s see how this all goes.