As my change over to the new job and new home gets closer, I'm finding myself in a state of limbo—my standing with the Camino project more so than anything else. Although I haven't actually started work yet, I have signed the requisite IP agreement. In absence of other information, I'm assuming that it took effect when I signed it, not when I walk in the door for the first time.
Now, this certainly isn't the end of the story, as I fully intend to begin the paperwork to see what my future is as soon after getting there as possible (without being a colossal pain to my superiors, that is). So in a few weeks I'll start the process of seeing what's what. Until then though, I'm playing it safe. Unfortunately, I don't actually know how safe to play it, so I'm leaning toward really safe. That means:
- No code contributions
- No bug triaging
- No substantive contributions to #camino on IRC
- No forum posts
The last at least is probably overly careful, but it's easier and safer to just take a clean step back for a while.
It's hard though, because I like troubleshooting in the forums, and (as sick as it sounds) I like bug triaging. And it's hard because I feel disloyal to the Camino team. It's not like we are swimming in developers, and it's looking like there will be almost no-one for the next month. The Camino team is awesome, and I hate to abandon them even for a short time—they took me in, answered my dumb questions, helped me get going doing real work, put trust in me, and generally made me feel like a real part of the team almost immediately. They're all very understanding of my hiatus, but in a way, that almost makes it worse. Since I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that I wouldn't have my new job without my Camino experience (both resumé and real-world Objective-C), and since it's because of that job that I'm taking a hiatus (hopefully nothing more), I can't help feeling like I'm giving them the short end of the stick here.
With luck, I'll be back soon. I'm sure given enough persistence I can find some way, even if it's curtailed or slightly indirect (e.g., working on some of the Moz Mac-only bugs, rather than Camino specifically), of helping out. And if I'm really lucky, the higher-ups will agree with my view: Camino isn't about competing with Safari, it's just about having more choice, and filling a slightly different niche. It's about enriching the platform.
Stay tuned.
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