:: Shell-Shocked :: Interview: jesus

Bonjour jesus_mjjg. Thanks for agreeing to this interview. As usual, let's start with a brief bio. could you please state your name, nick, sex, age, location etc. (anything you don't mind divulging)?

Surname: Buffin
First name: Christian
Nick: jesus_mjjg
I'm a male belgian from Waterloo.
Pics are here: http://users.skynet.be/fa052720/christian.html

I've often wondered about your nickname - jesus_mjjg - where on earth (or heaven) did that come from?

Back in ... between 1994 and 1997, I wanted a Hotmail account because I had no net access at home. So I made one. Since I had long hair, some beard (not really much at that time, though) I wanted my login to be jesus. I was then really pissed off because it was already taken. [Ed: I'm sure the son of God was pretty miffed too.] So, instead of adding numbers (I would have loved jesus_666 too, which was maybe taken too) [Ed: Damn that Lucifer.], I added some letters after jesus_ . My real first names are Christian (Marie Joseph Jean Georges), hence the _mjjg.

I see, well that's one less confusing thing in my life. What do you study at school Christian?

I study computer science (or something really alike) at the EPFC which is a school in Brussels. I'm in the third and final year; we call this diploma a "graduat".

Any other hobbies/interests?

My hobbies/interests are: (my) computer, music (mainly rock/metal), going out with friends (drinking, smoking), going to the youth club, some concerts, etc.

I've had a look at your website. You seem to support various organisations, some of which I admit I haven't heard about. Care to comment on any of them?

Most of them are aimed toward equality, ... that kind of concepts (anti-slavery, made in dignity, child labour, clean clothes, ...). Anarchy.org ... interesting subject, but I'm not convinced (I haven't read that much, really). stop-the-hate is really some "know your enemy" thing, and the Napalm Death image ... I like that group, and that song, Nazi Punks Fuck Off, is a cover from the Dead Kennedys (that's all I know, really).

Enough with pure "common ethics", now to the W3C thing ... I wonder if all my pages will still be approved, but it should be something important: it's more like, "hey, just do it" than "hey, I'm a good geek, I do it".

Interesting stuff there ... what about the "Coming Soon" section?

That's some of my mind's garbage: "Burn your id campaign" and "GPL medicines campaign". Those two are something I'd like to promote; in fact I'm already promoting the "GPL medicines campaign" on my school(/anything)bag, but I bet you could hardly see it. This seems like the best idea I've ever had. Any medical related people should help people; it's like a way of life they've chosen. Why all health-related companies don't work together: share investments and help more people with less cost from them? Burn your id is like . ... could be better in some cases, but in some others not: this is some kind of pseudo-anarchist-thing. It seems I like to promote things ... that I sometimes hate myself for. And sometimes I hate nearly all other people for being selfish (and then I hate myself too).

That's erm .. a lot of hate there jesus (just kidding) :). Good point with the GPL medicine stuff. That could catch on ... but we both know it's largely about commercialism. Maybe you could put up a specific site for that - it's a cool idea!

Moving on to some shell-related matters, I see you've created a few themes as well - but you're primarily a coder - is that right?

Not really. When I began using Litestep back in 1999-2000, I was already studying computer science (in another school: first year was ok, but I stayed three years in second year before changing school), I was just playing a little with step.rc settings (which was fun). Then I wanted to make a "sentimental" theme (some kind of tribute for a girl) that was never released. My technique was really simple: if I saw something I liked in someone else's theme, I would steal it, then, maybe, try to understand how it was done. Then I continued theming a little, but I wanted the taskbar to have more settings, and I didn't wanted to use tasks.dll just because it had no resizing (without heavy scripting), so, after some time, I managed to get a copy of Microsoft Visual Studio. I started by making some constants (border sizes I think) changeable from the step.rc ... until now. So, to really answer your question: I'm no real themer, some kind of coder, but definitely an "experienced" user.

Do you have a favourite theme? (yours or someone else's)

I have mine, but, as already stated for the previous question, I'm some kind of idea stealer. The theme that made me look for Litestep was Bau's iBDE v3.

Cool. Believe it or not, iBDE v3 was my first theme as well! So we must have started out around the same time. I talked to Bau the other day, and he sent me a screenshot of v5, which will hopefully be out soon! (It's like v4, only better.) Sorry, go on ...

No problem. I like [morph]'s [noir] theme, Bau's iBDE v4, Laurent's LiteGnome, Phar0e's Saphardana, cpM's VodkaMartini, CraHan's Xhenit, Maestr0's tenebrae, Maur's BarQNX ... My favourite theme is mine, a double-bar-based theme, made from ideas I put together to my taste. My theme isn't graphically tweaked: I took the colors and style from joeblade.com, initially to do the theme contest. The layout was already done before (but is modified at least weekly).

Those are some great themes you mentioned there, and I recommend readers try every one of them! Back to coding, have you ever thought of joining the LS Dev team?

When Indiestep was beginning, I showed some interest, but I just don't want to put any pressure on myself, other than mine (which isn't much). So, until I start coding seriously for Litestep, I won't even think about it. I might become serious soon since I may be doing two modules for "schoolwork". Taskbar3 (of course) and some kind of LsNews/Weather module. If those go fast and well and I have too much free time, I might try to join the team.

Litestep stuff for school credit huh? Lucky you! Lookin forward to that new module. Any comments on the current state of LS Development?

I think it's done perhaps slowly (but I'm slower, so blame me first if there is someone to blame) and I'll just try to contribute whenever I can (giving ideas/bug reports/code snips/LSMD/...). I would like to keep supporting older windows versions, but it's just a theorical point of view (rhetorical even ?). I also would like more use of the tree stucture between modules.
Example:
splitting taskbar3's scroll-lock flashing with toggle.dll 0.1 ideas, giving a flashing-less taskbar3 with two more commands: on first flashing window, on last flashing window, and a flashing toggle.dll. So if other modules would want to flash the same led, they wouldn't interfere with each other: toggle.dll would manage that for them.

I think I need a more overall view of Litestep, program things better (the best I can, and I know I'm far from that, from a module-design/module-coding point of view), and then I might start involving myself more. To me it's just fine at the moment: we have a lot of working things, a rewrite is being done, with a longer/better design-process, but it's all fine with me.

What software do you use to code? What sort of computer equipment do you own?

Computer: Pentium III 450 Mhz, 192Mb RAM, 40Gb HDD, Tnt 1, CD-Rom, 17' monitor on a MSI6163Pro mainboard. Coding software: MS Visual C++ 6 (will buy it one day) with some add-on Ilmcuts told me about: Visual Assist. That's all for Litestep-coding.

Any advice for would-be module coders out there?

Make yourself familiar with the code by taking a working module and modifying it (like I did); once you feel comfortable with the code, recode it your way (which I should do), designing carefully what you want to do, making backups as often as you can. One important thing: design.

Good advice. You mentioned were into Rock Music - any favourite bands?

Rock/metal is my main musical preference. I like Sepultura, Iron Maiden, Nirvana, Marilyn Manson, Napalm Death, System Of A Down, Rancid, etc.

Hmm. My little sister likes a lot of that stuff too! You seem to have modified quite a few Litestep modules out there. What motivates you to make these modifications - your own desires, or those of the community?

Theory: motivation comes from my desires only.
Practice: if I added any bug while modifying something, I'll try to repair what I broke, and if you ask nicely enough and buy myself a Litestep mug (like Maestr0 did), I would do some modifications for you. I'm kind of lazy, but if I'm in a good mood, someone asks me for something and I've got time and some motivation to do it, I'll do it (slowly). I'm rather egoistic, but that's no real problem for me.

I see you recently landed a job posting news at joeblade.com - how are you enjoying that?

I really like it: I began looking for Litestep news at litestep.net [Ed: Down at press time.], then shellfront.org, then joeblade.com where I stuck for some time. That's where I bacame somehow � avid � about Litestep news. As I am subscribed to the Litestep Mailing List, I do receive information quite fast, so, if somone (paul?) hasn't posted anything yet, I'll do it, putting my name on the hall of fame.

Anything in particular you like/dislike about the shell/ls community?

It's like real life, but concentrated: you find all kinds of people there, and the fact that it's international is a good thing, as I've been educated in that way. Also, like I told you when we met in Brussels, I like meeting people I've met online, just to see how they look/act like, so when I meet people in the street, I'll think that he/she can also have a project like Litestep, be nice and stuff, and I end up being less afraid of them (hating them less).

Why do you use/like alternative shells?

Because of the prestige it gives me: I can tell girls �Look, here's something I programmed. People are using it all around the world, I'm famous. �

Usually, I'm told things like � Uh oh. �, � Yeah �, ... Seriouly: you're able to do whatever you want to. If something doesn't exist/doesn't work the way you like, you can change it. It's like some kind of � do it yourself � thing, which I begin to like a lot. Action. Usually, people are nice, but, as they are normal people, they will get mad one day, piss people off, ... The nice thing is that we may learn something about our ordinary life by looking at how we act when we are online.

Wise words indeed. You sound like someone who's into self-analysis and introspection. Can you tell us a bit about your past and future projects?

Past projects that aren't done now can be considered dead. Future projects include: releasing Taskbar3 v.1, which will be bug-free and have at least as many options as the Windows XP one, sporting transparency and graphical configuration among other things. Also, I'd like that LsNews/Weather thing to be done (as I told you before), adding the ability to check for Hotmail (Yahoo, ...) accounts using lsmail.dll would be really great, ...

Yes, that'd be a slammin' feature! I think you'd fine people running LS, just for that module (the way some people run a minimal LS config for just the systray.)

I'd like to make some team-theme with Maestr0, aiming toward some LDE(X) � perfection �, with Maestr0's modular ideas (styles, configurator, ...) and some of mine (maybe stolen ones: languages, � plugins �, ...).

That sounds cool - expecially now that LDE(X) is being discontinued. There'll be a market for something similar.

I also discovered a nice e-mail program called Kaufman Mail Warrior, but sources aren't available and the latest update is from 2000. Working on that kind of project could be nice too.

Ah, I know that program, best 1-disk emailer if you asked me!

There's also the LSMD project, started by MrMidi. I met him quite recently when I was in Holland to buy stuff (the green stuff you smoke): we had a drink together and it was nice. Also, going to various countries meeting Litestep people would be really nice.

Anything else you'd like to add?

Just about that meeting we had in Brussels: tell the people I wasn't mad at anyone: I just look weird on some pictures.

Before we close, it's tradition here to ask an unconventional question in every interview, so here's yours: You win a prize - a single meal consisting of anything you like. What will you order?

Une tarte aux poils ? mwahahaha ... sorry, French-speaking humour. Sorry to any girl/woman/feminist to whom this may sound rude, but at least it's really honest.

On behalf of Shell-Shocked I'd like to again thank you for taking the time to do this interview Christian. All the best with your future work. I'm sure I'll be hearing a lot more from you!

Thank you, this was actually really fun.

Got someone you'd like to see interviewed? Got someone you'd like to interview yourself? Tell us!

comments: 6

more by this author/report problem