On Mon, Mar 23, 2015 at 3:41 PM, Emil Condrea emilcondrea@gmail.com wrote:

Hello,

I am Emil Condrea, student in 4h year at Faculty of Computer Science in Iasi, Romania. I am an enthusiastic developer fascinated by low level programming. Since two years ago I started to do research about kernel programming. For the final thesis I wanted to improve the existing code in open source community rather than reinventing the wheel so I combined security with virtualization and kernel programming. I am developing new features to Xen virtual TPMs. Also, I am going to send patches to tpm library trousers so others can use the new features I implemented at kernel level. I wrote this in C. I can give you more details about it if you are interested.

I am writing this email because I want to write a proposal for Xen based Hypervisor in a box. I want to be a part of this project because I am very focused on virtualization and security and this is what I want to work in the future.

Regarding my experience: I am working since 3 years ago at Bitdefender as Antispam Engines Developer (C/C++). Also, I have 6 years of experience on web development. You can see more details on my website: http://emilcondrea.com

I am really looking forward for your reply in order to know if you think I am the right person for this project. From your point of view is it ok to write proposal right now or should I contact the mentor first?

I think in general the idea is that you should write the proposal when you feel like you have enough information to do so. :-)

You should start by making sure you have a clear idea what detailed outcome you want, and an overview of the detailed steps that it will take to get you there. In this case that should involve taking a brief look at anaconda, the ISO creation mechanisms, and the installation of Xen on a CentOS system. Any questions about the project idea -- either the overall scope or questions about details of deliverables -- or the details of how the various systems work -- should be asked here on the list.

GSoC is set up less like an internship and more like what you might do as a contractor: Discuss specific deliverables which you will provide at specific times (the mid-term and the end), which can in theory be used to deny you payment (although of course that would only happen in unusual cases).

The difference, of course, is that a contractor would already be thoroughly familiar with a project before writing something up; while GSoC is intended for people who have zero familiarity. But part of the purpose of writing a proposal is to demonstrate a willingness and ability to *gain* familiarity on your own (with some assistance of course).

So there is more flexibility to change things as you go along. But if you come at it from the mindset of a contractor, I think it might help focus you a bit. :-)

Hopefully that helps!

-George