Monday, November 27. 2006
Holidays be upon me!
I’ve had a week of freedom from the entanglements of university and it has been great. Europe and America should be jealous of me, because I’ve been spending days on end at the beach browning up. I’ve had some much needed time to finish of Splinter Cell, and get back into the coding routine - especially now that I have my motherboard back after five weeks of awol maintenance. At least it all works now.
Today my house was attacked by a kookaburra, and after trying to get it out of the house i realised i’d never been so close one before. A pair of the birds live in the gum tree out the back, and they come back every year to have babies and get fed chicken by us. If you’ve never seen one before, here’s a photo I took of it trying to understand how something could be so transparent but so solid.
In other news, in 6 days I’ll be leaving for my next adventure, to the wonders of Turkey, Egypt & Israel. I’ll be gone for 7 weeks to grab some fresh (or very polluted) air for my clogged up head. Very exciting!
Sunday, November 26. 2006
New Laptop; Kubuntu Review
Laptop
For Black Friday I got an early Christmas present, a Toshiba Satellite. Its innards are all Intel, so everything works fine in Linux. Its nice coming from the hassle and incomplete support of ndiswrapper to the open source drivers that Intel apparently helps support.
Kubuntu
My main desktop is Gentoo and has been for the past 4 years. I'm rather happy with it: I know how it all works, its continuously updated, has good support for commercial software. However this laptop has only 512 of RAM (rather painful for compiling) and I had heard that Kubuntu has good laptop support.
And indeed thats pretty much the case. All of my hardware was recognized: the dual-core, the wireless, the Intel graphics chip and power saving and status features are all working without any configuration. It was the easiest install I've ever done. And I'm happy with the result too, Kubuntu does a good job of putting everything together. The complaints I'm about to go into don't take away too much from this fact.
The problem with Kubuntu and Ubuntu are their defaults for the repos. I'm pretty sure the fact that the default repos get better support then the 'universe' 'multiverse' etc. repos is something that is only understood by only a few. And apparently thats the entire reason for not having them on by default. So when I wanted to install kdevelop, I was a little puzzled at first. Gentoo currently shines in this area, I've only ever had to use an "overlay" if I wanted to install unreleased software.
The other issue I've had is with wireless network configuration (at least its not wireless driver configuration!) If there's a Kubuntu equivalent to Gentoo's /etc/conf.d/wireless I haven't found it. Right now wireless works if I run wlassistant (a GUI interface to configure the wireless) try to connect, it fails, and then I restart /etc/init.d/networking. That doesn't make too much sense, I know.
In general their startup scripts seem to be all pretty unorganized. All written in plain /bin/sh and with no clear design (like instead of a general dependency system, there are scripts that are run before and after specifically network goes up and down). Gentoo's startup and configuration system is hardly revolutionary which I suppose makes Kubuntu's antiquated system that much more frustrating.
x2x
x2x is a cool little utility. It lets you control two computers easily with one mouse/keyboard. I made an icon in my quick launch to the following:
ssh -X ian@`kdialog --inputbox 'Connect with what host?' some.host` "x2x -west -from :0."
And with that I can just set my laptop down and start using my desktop's mouse and keyboard to control both.
Kirksville
I'm returning to Kirksville, Missouri tomorrow. Its felt like a long time even though it was only a half week: it will be good to be back.
Sunday, November 19. 2006
dang it Jeff
Tuesday, November 14. 2006
Know C++, Maybe Even Love Qt4?
Someone out there looking for a new job opportunity? Enjoy accessing a huge music-library? Even more important: always wanted a red user-icon on Last.fm?
There you go, start working at Last.fm as a C++ Developer. You will be working on the Last.fm Client, a Qt4-driven piece of software for Windows, Linux and OS X. Want more info? Click the link. It's worth it. Oh, and it's fun.
Now I wanna see you guys applying
cheers,
muesli
Friday, November 10. 2006
Announcing Tripod
I am proud to announce the first release of Tripod, the premier application for managing photos on your iPod.
http://www.sebruiz.net/tripod/
Tripod is targeted towards a KDE environment, but requires only kdelibs and libgpod (cvs), so it is easy to use in any environment. Currently, Tripod allows for creating, removing, renaming of photo albums, as well as adding and removing of photos to albums.
The application is very stable, but released as beta software since it is the first public offering 
.
Enjoy!
Thursday, November 2. 2006
Timeoutlogger
Some people might know that since about a month I'm suffering from no, or actually very low, motivation to do anything. As result of this I decided to take a timeout from Amarok, KDE and FOSS development/management, for a not yet known period of time.
This will most likely start after release of Amarok 1.4.4
I will unsubscribe from every mailing list, not aggregate planets or blogs or IT related news, not join any IRC channel, not log into my jabber account @ kdetalk, not answer any mail about Amarok, KDE or FOSS (as long as it's not really important to do so) and probably some more I didn't think of as I also stopped drinking coffee (doctor's advice).
Now, why do I do this?
Mainly because I have far too much responsibilities right now (not only in FOSS), and this is putting a lot of pressure on me, but also because I want to get an all new view at the whole open source movement, and last but not least, because I want to spend more time on learning French
So, watch out for Amarok 1.4.4
This will most likely start after release of Amarok 1.4.4
I will unsubscribe from every mailing list, not aggregate planets or blogs or IT related news, not join any IRC channel, not log into my jabber account @ kdetalk, not answer any mail about Amarok, KDE or FOSS (as long as it's not really important to do so) and probably some more I didn't think of as I also stopped drinking coffee (doctor's advice).
Now, why do I do this?
Mainly because I have far too much responsibilities right now (not only in FOSS), and this is putting a lot of pressure on me, but also because I want to get an all new view at the whole open source movement, and last but not least, because I want to spend more time on learning French
So, watch out for Amarok 1.4.4
aKademy - Hoooray!
Arrr.....
aKademy is starting in some days, and I'm kinda busy with doing last organization for the trip (even forgot to learn for the french test tomorrow
- it's not that easy to go to Vienna (Duesseldorf was easier at least
I will arrive on Firday 13:55 @ Dublin Airport (check the wiki) and will leave on 7:30 the following Monday - and currently have no clue how to go to hostel or college or anywhere
Anyway, to make it easy for everyone to recognize and lead me to the right direction, here's a short description: tux cap on my head, big Kay on my black t-shirt, black trouser, black shoes, laptop bag on the righten side, (sliver colored) backpack on the back, a Kay pin on my jacket and no clue of anything but location of next coffee shop...
If you still have no idea how I look like:
<-- the Kayed one. So, I hope someone will guide me to aKademy location and ensures that I don't tumble in a big hole (->O<-) gotta pray a bit now (getting the plane is already quite difficult). Anyway, finally I just want to thank my school for making it possible to travel on Firday and Monday, so that I can at least enjoy the weekend of this year's KDE Conference.
(BTW: there will be no Amarok release, live from aKademy - 1.4.3 was just too ASAP and .4 is not finished - maybe a special aKademy snapshot, though I wonder about the sense...)
aKademy is starting in some days, and I'm kinda busy with doing last organization for the trip (even forgot to learn for the french test tomorrow
- it's not that easy to go to Vienna (Duesseldorf was easier at least I will arrive on Firday 13:55 @ Dublin Airport (check the wiki) and will leave on 7:30 the following Monday - and currently have no clue how to go to hostel or college or anywhere
Anyway, to make it easy for everyone to recognize and lead me to the right direction, here's a short description: tux cap on my head, big Kay on my black t-shirt, black trouser, black shoes, laptop bag on the righten side, (sliver colored) backpack on the back, a Kay pin on my jacket and no clue of anything but location of next coffee shop...
If you still have no idea how I look like:
<-- the Kayed one. So, I hope someone will guide me to aKademy location and ensures that I don't tumble in a big hole (->O<-) gotta pray a bit now (getting the plane is already quite difficult). Anyway, finally I just want to thank my school for making it possible to travel on Firday and Monday, so that I can at least enjoy the weekend of this year's KDE Conference.(BTW: there will be no Amarok release, live from aKademy - 1.4.3 was just too ASAP and .4 is not finished - maybe a special aKademy snapshot, though I wonder about the sense...)
Re: the kay, the dee, the ee on the tee vee
So, Aaron asked in first of his latest tripple-blog-post-mode-action (?) for visitor bump on march 15, 2005.
As we didn't use Urchin analytics back then (as we usually only use Google services if KDE doesn't offer them - and only Google services in that case) I can't show lovely graphics and big load of background information, but I guess Webalizer also does a good job
In particular:
As we didn't use Urchin analytics back then (as we usually only use Google services if KDE doesn't offer them
- and only Google services in that case) I can't show lovely graphics and big load of background information, but I guess Webalizer also does a good job 
In particular:
Dublin - something to look fwd...
A friend recently went to Dublin for some days, and he brought interessting information with him.
As we can see here, MS Windows wants to welcome everybody with a well known look, which just reminds on home. In fact, this is a research done by the government, to find out whether it is possible to control the amount of visitors with such welcome messages. I can tell you, since they started to welcome visitors like this, the amount of visitors got unhalved.
Now, I, as an free desktop enthusiast, think we should prepare for the worst when entering the plain/train to Dublin. So, don't forget your Kubuntu CD's, your Kay-Shirts and last but not least the Kay's. Also make sure you know every single detail about KDE, people usually take you more serious, if they notice you know what you're talking about
As we can see here, MS Windows wants to welcome everybody with a well known look, which just reminds on home. In fact, this is a research done by the government, to find out whether it is possible to control the amount of visitors with such welcome messages. I can tell you, since they started to welcome visitors like this, the amount of visitors got unhalved.Now, I, as an free desktop enthusiast, think we should prepare for the worst when entering the plain/train to Dublin. So, don't forget your Kubuntu CD's, your Kay-Shirts and last but not least the Kay's. Also make sure you know every single detail about KDE, people usually take you more serious, if they notice you know what you're talking about
In 80 Days Around the Kay
It somehow looks like next 2 months are going to be great fun...
In early september I'll join the KDE booth at the Linuxtage in Essen (Germany). Actually I still have to find cheapest way to get there, as the way from $HOME to /essen isn't quite short, but no way would be too long for my Special Kay.
In mid-end setember I'll be at aKademy 06, for the weekend. Also not shortest distance that is, will be about 170 from Vienna to Dublin and back. But aKademy is really a must this year, as I couldn't participate last year as I had to work - so it could be even 500 bucks to go there!
Last but not least it's also highly possible that we (roKymotion team, the currently 2 members) do a talk at Practical Linux in Gießen (Germany). Although I will first have to check how to finance that funky trip.
So, maybe see ya at one of those events
In early september I'll join the KDE booth at the Linuxtage in Essen (Germany). Actually I still have to find cheapest way to get there, as the way from $HOME to /essen isn't quite short, but no way would be too long for my Special Kay
.In mid-end setember I'll be at aKademy 06, for the weekend. Also not shortest distance that is, will be about 170 from Vienna to Dublin and back. But aKademy is really a must this year, as I couldn't participate last year as I had to work - so it could be even 500 bucks to go there!
Last but not least it's also highly possible that we (roKymotion team, the currently 2 members
) do a talk at Practical Linux in Gießen (Germany). Although I will first have to check how to finance that funky trip.So, maybe see ya at one of those events
Freedom?
Belive it or not, but I'm really free.
Google is taking care of that - and therefore: thank you Google!
I can read latest news selection everywhere, check mails everywhere, can stay in contact with friends everywhere, I can do wordprocessing every time, I can do spreadsheeting every time, I even can manage my calendar everywhere, and all this I can do from one site in the web.
Yeah, I know, I probably post too much about the never ending go(o)dness of Google, but I just noticed again that I don't depend on any OS for the stuff that really matters in all day life.
Google is taking care of that - and therefore: thank you Google!
I can read latest news selection everywhere, check mails everywhere, can stay in contact with friends everywhere, I can do wordprocessing every time, I can do spreadsheeting every time, I even can manage my calendar everywhere, and all this I can do from one site in the web.
Yeah, I know, I probably post too much about the never ending go(o)dness of Google, but I just noticed again that I don't depend on any OS for the stuff that really matters in all day life.
KDE Everywhere - Malta
So finally I came round to blog about my Malta travel, more specific, the krusade.After having some troubles preparing the monsterious big Kay for the journey, I was quite surprised how well it worked. Although - I of course forgot the adhesion to make the 5 pieces one big Kay, I first had to find something sticky, which wasn't as easy as I thought, anyway I got the adhesion and was able to start clogging.
So as I get very hyperactive when I have to do such a precise and important work (I had exactly one try), it took me about 3 hours to get the Kay finished (most time was probably used for shouting, crying and freaking).
Hopefully understandable that I didn't want to leave it, but it was evening and the class crew was preparing for going out - what does a nerd do? - right! - he takes the Kay with him (awful idea though). Of course the Kay was suffering from all the Heineken and smoke, so that it wasn't very good looking when we came home, that's when I got the intuition that I might should have protected it with a transparent plastic shild thing.
But it survived the night and was able to go with use to Valetta (capital city of Malta). Wasn't easy to find a good backround for the Kay as whole Malta doesn't look so good in summer (as it is so hot- everything is quite dusty). So I took some pictures which look quite good imo (athough the Kay doesn't do so on high res
KDE-Look
PicasaWeb
Thank you ATI
Genesis - 1.4.1 beta1
As I was busy reading the da vinci code, which I had to write an disquisition about, I recently got notified that there will be a beta release of amaroK 1.4.1, reason -> K4M3 (K3M). A view into my mailbox showed me about 100 unread mails in the commits folder...usually the amount doesn't get > 45
So, on Sunday+2weeks (06-06-18) we will probably pull out amaroK 1.4.1 beta1 - advanced amaroK users might know that we don't do betas for x.x.y releases, reason for this beta are enormous changes in the GUI as well as the core.
Those are mostly results of K4M3 (kde 4 mutlimedia meeting) which had lead to really great improvements and ideas.
We plan 1.4.1 for 2 weeks after the beta (if there are no big problems) and probably apply a string freeze 1 week before release.
As of now trunk includes:
I'm still trying to sort out the bugs in the amaroK nightly script, which moved together with my server from SUSE to Kubuntu (woooohoooo!). Not only that this is the first somewhat, trying to be professional, work in Ruby (using 4 times an external app - on 200 lines!) also getting the debian dir to work properly with SVN snapshots is really nifty stuff ... I really hope to get it done within the next few weeks. Maybe before 1.4.1 final
So, on Sunday+2weeks (06-06-18) we will probably pull out amaroK 1.4.1 beta1 - advanced amaroK users might know that we don't do betas for x.x.y releases, reason for this beta are enormous changes in the GUI as well as the core.
Those are mostly results of K4M3 (kde 4 mutlimedia meeting) which had lead to really great improvements and ideas.
We plan 1.4.1 for 2 weeks after the beta (if there are no big problems) and probably apply a string freeze 1 week before release.
As of now trunk includes:
- changed GUI - context tab got removed and fights with the playlist for user's attention
- startup improvements - currently about 50%
- bugs bugs bugs
- bugfixes for other bugs
I'm still trying to sort out the bugs in the amaroK nightly script, which moved together with my server from SUSE to Kubuntu (woooohoooo!). Not only that this is the first somewhat, trying to be professional, work in Ruby (using 4 times an external app - on 200 lines!) also getting the debian dir to work properly with SVN snapshots is really nifty stuff ... I really hope to get it done within the next few weeks. Maybe before 1.4.1 final
All About Eye-Candy
today kapilzad publish his KDE Spectra proposal series for KDE...
Most important thing for me is KDE Spectra Player - meant as "KDE should have a powerful multimedia player, with cool graphics and should be like a file-browser"
Anyway, the whole KDE Spectra propal series is missing a good point, the whole idea lacks usability (thought of a non-usability expert), functionality and is actually only about eye-candy (allthough I wonder whether hundreds awful BIG buttons are still eye-candy)
This is not how I'd like to see KDE!!!
Most important thing for me is KDE Spectra Player - meant as "KDE should have a powerful multimedia player, with cool graphics and should be like a file-browser"
- powerful media player: just wondered why his mockup uses stuff named suroor.mp3 - dunno tags? dunno vorbis?
- cool graphics: which actually means as big that your eyes start bleeding because you have to move them 3 cm to see another button (big + shiny != cool)
- should be like a file-browser: aye, since one doesn't have tags...
Anyway, the whole KDE Spectra propal series is missing a good point, the whole idea lacks usability (thought of a non-usability expert), functionality and is actually only about eye-candy (allthough I wonder whether hundreds awful BIG buttons are still eye-candy)
This is not how I'd like to see KDE!!!
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