FAQs

This page is just meant for general questions that I notice are asked with some frequency. If you feel like something is missing from here and you'd like to see it included, feel free to ask it by raising an issue on GitHub.

1) Why the name "Lorikeet"? Why the bird names in general?

The bird naming convention is just a bit of a running theme that my supervisor Ben Woodcroft first came up with. I thought it was cool theme and so I followed suit with the name "Lorikeet" and later Rosella (which should be named "Ibis" because of bin chicken... Thanks Sam.). There is no real meaning behind it, and in some respects it is maybe kind of a bad idea to name your tools after random birds with no clear connection between the bird and what the tool does. But also, I hate acronyms and contractions and birds make for cool logos.

As for why Lorikeet? The real answer is I like lorikeets. The convoluted answer is that lorikeets are super fast and they tend to fly and in flocks at really high speed. Conversely, lorikeet is super fast and also flies in flocks via parallel threads. They also have very distinctive calls, additionally the fact they tend to exist in large flocks makes me think about strains in microbial community. The individuals in a flock are all the same species, but individually they are different. Similarly, strains in a community are all the same species but they all hang out in a flock together.

2) Where did the logo come from?

I made it (among other bird based + CoverM logos) using GIMP and based the idea off of this tutorial. They are very easy to make so just follow that video if you feel like making something similar.

3) Where's the paper?

You sound like my supervisor.