equake Debian package

[Jeroen van Aart]

On 11/07/2013 01:18 PM, Yves-Alexis Perez wrote:

> Xfce Debian packaging takes place inside the pkg-xfce team
> (http://pkg-xfce.alioth.debian.org/). You're welcome to join in case
> you're interested to maintain stuff but:
>
> - blindly adding a package without committing to maintain it properly is
> a no go: we're already struggling with bug reports we don't correctly
> handle

I am not sure what you mean. Why would I not commit to maintain my own 
package? Of course I would.

> - we're more insterested in fixing bugs in existing packages than adding
> new ones (related to point 1)

> - I'm not really actually persuaded of the usefulness of the equake
> package

Both points are the reason why I submitted it independently of the 
debian xfce project. I was not expecting to get it in debian at all 
except through mentors by someone sponsoring it.

I mostly created the debian package because someone asked me on the list 
and I subsequently decided to attempt to get it into debian's repository 
as well.

I don't really feel a need to persuade anyone of the usefulness of 
equake. Thing is, it is somewhat pointless, it just shows earthquakes in 
your panel, which already happened, old news so to say. There is no 
prediction at all, as opposed to a weather plugin. ;-)

On the other hand, it's a great little learning tool to raise awareness 
about earthquakes, how frequent they are and the bragging rights to find 
out about a mag 9 earthquake before everyone else.

Actually, come to think of it, it does have some questionable predictive 
qualities. When I noticed equake showing an alert about this mag 7.3 
earthquake 
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqinthenews/2011/usb0001r57/ I 
certainly raised an eyebrow and got somewhat worried, since I hadn't 
seen any significant earthquakes there before.

Then a couple of days later a mag 9 earthquake occurred, 
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqinthenews/2011/usc0001xgp/

Then a day or so later there was a cute little tsunami in my town on 
West Coast USA. Very much unlike the unfortunate mess they experienced 
in Japan, but still interesting.

So, I would say it may be useful for those who live around the 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_of_fire. For the rest of people, 
especially those who live in Western Europe, probably not... It's so 
quiet there, earthquake wise. ;-\ I know, being from the Netherlands.

Greetings,
Jeroen

-- 
Earthquake Magnitude: 5.3
Date: 2013-11-07  20:13:54.390 UTC
Location: 80km WSW of Panguna, Papua New Guinea
Latitude: -6.6003; Longitude: 154.8109
Depth: 61.63 km | e-quake.org