Amarok Blog

New Features

Similar artists applet now shows artist tags from Last.fm, and the full artist biography is shown when the artist image is clicked. It’s very nice to be able to listen to a stream from Last.fm, go to the Artist’s page in Last.fm, or even check out similar artists to any that sound interesting! A great way to Explore Your Music.

Bug Fixes

Ralf is still working on the collection scanner. He reverted back to writing the database in batch mode (like the old scanner did) which solved some performance issues when committing more than 20000 files. But a new auto test uncovered some other issues. Most of those should be fixed now and the result should be finished and integrated this weekend.

New Incremental Podcast Directory

Bart has been working on a new podcast directory that, instead of storing a cache in the database, reads directly and incrementally from an online OPML file. OPML is the standard file format for storing lists of RSS feeds, such as podcasts.

A master OPML file will be stored on amarok’s public server which will link to public podcast directories but also lists of favorite podcast channels maintained by Amarok developers.
The incremental feature is important because it means OPML’s are parsed even while they are downloaded and it’s contents are shown immediately even if the download takes multiple minutes. Furthermore this data is fetched on-demand, so there is no unnecessary internet traffic.
Since last week this work is public in the new git branch titled stecchino-IncrementalOpmlDirectory reflecting the naming convention we discussed earlier this month. This branch is open to any contributors and specifically we are looking for someone to implement the look and feel of this new service. Contact us via the developer mailing list or on IRC (Freenode): #amarok and ping Stecchino.

Bugs and Wishes

We closed 23 bugs during that week of which 8 were bugfixes, 1 wish was implemented, 2 closed as upstream bugs, 9 duplicates and 3 closed as invalid.

Related projects

Work continues on the new Phonon-VLC backend to Phonon, which is sounding excellent! In addition to that, it is now rock solid. We have not experienced a single crash in several weeks of testing, which makes it the most stable of all available Phonon backends. We have to thank the VLC team for cooperating so closely with us. Without their help, it would have been impossible to do.

There will be a new release soon and we hope that all distributions will ship the new Phonon-VLC backend soon.

My latest toy:



Not very long ago I had broadly claimed that the Nokia N900 is the best smart phone on the market. Now I'm in a bit of a situation, because that was not really true: I found out that the HTC Desire is really the best phone. Contradiction much? Nope! The N900 is ideal for geeks, while I would say that the HTC Desire is the best phone for everyone else.


What makes it so great?

AMOLED screen with fantastic quality, the best on the market in my opinion. You can read it even in direct sunlight, and the colors are vibrant. Contrast is great.

Android 2.2, with "HTC Sense" UI. Simply the best usability currently, beats iPhone easily. MeeGo might be able to challenge it, but a lot of hard work lies ahead for that to happen.

The size of the phone is "just right". It's neither a brick that needs rapper pants or a gold chain for carrying, nor is it too small. Also, the weight is nice, it is pretty light.

Good camera. 5MP, and with extra software you can get for free (Android Market), you can turn into a really nice HDR cam.

Excellent build quality. This device feels solid and well put together. I find it feels higher quality than e.g. the Samsung Galaxy, which also happens to have a bad screen.

Google's navigation software is hard to beat. With enabled "satellite" layer, it makes driving a nicer experience than I thought is possible.

It looks pretty.

PS:
I should note that newer models of the Desire (e.g. the Desire HD) do not use an AMOLED screen, but rather some "Super LCD", which is marketing BS for "really crappy TN TFT." I went through great efforts to get one of the original models.

First of all, allow me to point out what ADHD (Or ADD, as it is sometimes called) really is. However, instead of trying to explain it myself, I will let Wikipedia do it for me:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention_deficit_hyperactivity_disorder


So you might ask: "Why on earth should a random KDE developer write about a psychological disorder, and what does it have to do with KDE?" First of all, I am myself affected by ADHD. In fact I'm a pretty hardcore case. Some of you in KDE might have suspected this, or heard about it, as I tend to speak out openly. Second, I'm a bit of a hobby psychologist. I know, I know. "Hobby MDs" are the worst kind of MDs. And that's very true. However, I happen to have a good friend who is an MD in psychology, and I talk to her often. Adding to that, I have read many books, articles, and theories about ADHD. So this gives me a bit of an advantage.

Next question, how is this related to KDE at all? Well, KDE mostly consists of geeks. ADHD is very common among geeks. Some scientists believe that the rate might be as high as 30%. So, it is quite likely that many of you either have ADHD and know about it, or they have it, but don't yet know it. In my opinion, it is time for an article that could potentially help those who suffer from ADHD. So I'm doing just that.

Let's start by explaining common misconceptions about ADHD:

It means that a child is always distracted in school. WRONG

It means that someone is really totally nuts. WRONG

It's a bad illness, it needs to be treated, ideally with Ritalin. WRONG

There are many more such misconceptions, I only listed a few of them here.

But what is ADHD really? That's a difficult question, and not even professional psychologists are quite sure about it. Officially, the accepted theory in psychology is: "ADHD is a serious disorder. It is an illness."

I'd like to challenge this theory! That's quite something, isn't it? Here are some of my own theories about ADHD:

First of all, it is not really a disorder per se. In fact it is more of a gift, if used correctly. If not used correctly, it is a pest. It can ruin your life. So, it is worth trying to understand what it really is. Or else you will suffer, and suffer some more.

Let me list some of the advantages of ADHD, if "used correctly" (I will get to that later):

Ultra-fast learning.

Interest in almost all forms of science and crafts, ranging from IT to medicine, to bongo drumming.

Ability to multi-task. Very important in our new information based world.

Ability to "hyper-focus". This comes very handy. ADHD people can focus so strongly on a task, that they can get it done much faster than anyone else could.

Being pretty smart. Some ADHD people are in fact very smart.

Being good communicators. ADHD people are often found in leading positions, such as CEO's or Project Managers.

Being able to detect lies easily.

Less need for sleep. 5 or 6 hours per night are just fine.

However, there is a price in life for everything. ADHD is no exception. These are the disadvantages:

Having next to no patience. Big obstacle, because this really annoys everyone else.

Being unable to lie, or being unable to be dishonest. Can be a problem, because not everyone can take the truth.

Going nuts if bored. Boredom is the worst thing that can happen to an ADHD person. In fact it can lead to deep depression. Imagine it like a CPU that needs constant data feeding, or else the cache starves.

So, let's get back to the point of "using it correctly". What does this mean? First of all, never let that CPU starve. It needs input. A lot. Feed it books, the Internet, science, anything. Just don't get bored. Then, ADHD people tend to be chaotic. "Messy" is actually an advanced form of ADHD. You don't want that, right? So, always try to keep order. Throw things away that you don't need. Never hamster stuff. One phone is enough, you don't need 5 phones. Give them away to friends who can put them to good use. And: Always use TODO lists. They help you organize your life, which is all important. Got a funky idea, but you are taking a walk? Always take something to write with you, pen and paper, or a smart phone. Write the idea down. Later on, think about it again. It might just be a brilliant idea, or a very crappy one. You'll find out later.

Try to be patient with other people. I know, it's next to impossible. But there are ways to get around this. If someone talks slowly and you get bored, find an excuse. "I'm sorry, but I really need to take a leak. I will be back later." That works most of the time. Also, try not to get into pointless arguments, and always stay friendly. Other people will get very annoyed if you are too harsh. It happened to me in the past. Now I know how to handle this better, and it works.

Let's get to the core of the theory. Please read this article first:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention-deficit_hyperactivity_disorder_controversies


So you see, not everything is nice and dandy in the world of psychology. It's a science, and as such it is constantly evolving. New theories replace older ones, if they work better. The current official theory about ADHD might be true, or it might be wrong. We will see in the next years. I'm pretty confident that there will be some revisions.

And now we get to the meat! This is getting really controversial. If you don't like controversial ideas, please stop reading here. You have been warned.

"What is ADHD really, then?"

It's the next evolutionary step of our brain. Studies show that the rate of ADHD increases world wide. This is no coincidence. There must be a reason for it. Only ADHD allows you to live comfortably in our new information based society. Without it, it gets very hard to work e.g. in IT, as you need to learn constantly. Stopping to learn means losing your job, essentially. ADHD people love learning, so they actually enjoy the work, if they like it. Work == Fun. Simple as that. I don't have something to work on, be it payed work or a hobby project, I will get very depressed. It has happened to me, it can happen to you.


ADHD is the Brain 2.0.

There you have it. Discuss!



PS:
It took me exactly 25 minutes to write this article. Only possible thanks to hyper-focusing.

Ralf’s huge Collection Scanner patch

Amarok’s “Collection Scanner”, which is the part that reads your music tags, was one of the oldest pieces of code that we still had in Amarok. It stemmed from the very early days of something like Amarok 0.8 (jurassic!). While the code was later on greatly improved by Jeff Mitchell, the system started to show its age, and it was very hard to get an overview over what had become a rather complex part. Ralf Engels has now rewritten the scanning system entirely. While we are currently still ironing out some bugs, the new system should be even faster and easier to maintain.

Visual improvements for the Current Track applet by Rick

The Current Track applet was neglected for a while. It now is cool and useful even when you aren’t playing music, accurately listing the last 6 or so tracks played. And doesn’t it look great while Amarok is rockin’? Of course you can still easily rate your tracks there, but also “love” them in Last.fm, save your position in a long piece or podcast, and new: edit track details, such as tags, lyrics, labels, and such.

Also new to the current track applet are the “Show In Media Sources” icons, which allow you to add filters to the media sources browser using the current track’s album, artist, composer and genre if available. These are not shown by default, but they can be enabled in the applet’s configuration dialog - accessible by right-clicking somewhere in the applet.

Colored debugging output by Rick and Kevin

You might not notice this unless you run Amarok from the console. It really is interesting to see the work that Amarok is doing to keep your music humming, though! So sometimes start up a console, and type in the command “amarok -d” or “amarok --debug” and see the output just scroll past your unbelieving eyes! Someday you might have trouble (yes, it happens occasionally) and we’ll ask on the list or in IRC to run Amarok this way, and show us the output. You’ll already know how to do this, when you are not stressed out.

New Guitar Tabs applet

We have a new applet that shows you the guitar tabs in the Context View. Thank you to Rainer Sigle for this nice applet for guitar enthusiasts.

Ralf’s refactoring that improved stability

Another patch from Ralf improves Amarok’s overall stability. While it already is a rather stable application (I personally cannot remember the last time it crashed on me), this patch should improve some corner cases where things could go wrong.

Improvements in the Lyrics Applet

In the past, you possibly lost your edits if you were editing lyrics and the song ended. Now you are prompted to save your edits as the track changes. Remember, you can always right-click on a track and Edit Track Details > Lyrics. Your computer doesn’t even need to be online to do this type of editing.

Bugs and Wishes

Over all, we closed 80 bugs and implemented 2 wishes:22 were bugfixes, 2 downstream bugs, 1 upstream bug and 34 were marked as duplicate.

Last not Least

Please remember that we are still running our annual fundraiser Roktober! The Amarok team will be happy about every donation you make, and you will be added to a special edition of our “About Amarok” dialog!