GSoC.consider(me);

[J. Kivinen]

Good day,

I'm a first-year software engineering student interested in Google
Summer of Code and avid user of Pidgin.  I would like to help improve
Pidgin in any area I can be found useful.  I feel the Google Summer of
Code projects will help with my development experience as well as
supporting to further my education.

I've been living in C for the last 8 months.  In class, we've only
begun C++.  I feel C++ will be easy to pick up in the next two weeks
of school with my  experience in Python (2 years and counting) and
Java (2 years ago).  I'm a Linux user as well as an OS X user (and
Windows if need be).  I am fairly comfortable with most common network
tools (ie, Wireshark, nmap).

All the projects posted seem very interesting to work on, but my
experience might limit me from some of the more difficult ones and/or
ones that gaining the prerequisite knowledge takes a lot of time (a
fear a lot of students may share).  I'm interested in improving ICQ
and Yahoo in particular.

As my peers are _all_ on MSN, I would suggest MSN improvements as a
project.  However, this was a project last year.  Though the project
last year called for direct file transfer with MSN, as a user, I am
aware that that was not completed (a wiki informs me it's on the way).
 If there are any MSN improvements that are highly demanded, I would
be interested in working on those the most.  If it calls for me losing
the benefit of working on something I would use day to day (ie, MSN
direct file transfers), I certainly will be more than happy to work on
something that many users (non-MSN users) can appreciate.

(Note: I am pursing summer employment in my hometown as something to
perhaps fall back on if I can't find a Google Summer of Code
placement.  I will try to hold out until the 11th -- for student
application reviews to finish -- unless already accepted offers
require me to decide sooner.  My preference is a Google Summer of Code
project over local employment.)


Thanks,

Jon Kivinen
Software Engineering, Lakehead University

http://www.jkiv.ca
jkiv on irc.freenode.net