Martin Grimme

Mediabox Walkthrough: Playlist Editing

2008-05-01 09:07 UTC  by  Martin Grimme
0
0
In a few days the new version 0.95 of the MediaBox Media Center will be released for the Nokia internet tablets. Let me introduce a few of the new features until then. Today I'm showing you a bit about the new playlist feature.

Enter the music viewer

You can edit the playlist in the music viewer. To get there, press on the tiny arrow button in the bottom left corner once.

The screen will slide up to reveal the viewer menu where you can switch between the different viewers of MediaBox.

Tap on the music viewer icon to select it. You're in the music viewer now.

Choose an album

On the left-hand side of the screen you can see a strip of images representing your album folders which MediaBox has found on your device.

You can drag the strip with your thumb to scroll through it.

When you've found the album you're looking for, press on the little arrow button on the album image to open it.

Add tracks to the playlist
After opening an album, you can see all its tracks on the screen. Again, you can use your thumb to scroll through this list.

The top item of this list represents the album itself and shows you the album cover (if available) and the number of tracks in the album. The other items represent the tracks in the album.

On each track there is a menu button to the right. Tap on it to reveal the track menu, where you can choose between [play] and [add to playlist]. The album item does not (yet) have a menu button. Instead it has the [add to playlist] button there.

That way you can either add particular tracks or complete albums at once to the playlist.

Switch to the playlist view

There is a button in the toolbar where you can switch between album view and playlist view. Press it once to get to the playlist view.

The playlist view shows all your playlist items in a list. Use your thumb to scroll through this list.

The album cover on the left side of each playlist item shows you where this particular track comes from.

Play or remove tracks

Each playlist item has a menu item on the right-hand side.
Press it once to reveal the item menu, where you will find buttons for [play], [remove from playlist], [remove succeeding], and [remove preceeding].

The [remove succeeding] and [remove preceeding] buttons are special because they do not only remove the selected item, but also all items preceeding or succeeding it.
That way you can quickly clean up large portions of the playlist.

Reorder the playlist

You can use your thumb to drag playlist items in order to reorder them.

Use the tiny dragging area at the left of an item to drag it around.
Categories: maemo
janjansenbe

Nokia Internet Tablet - N810 (part 7)

2008-05-02 00:28 UTC  by  janjansenbe
0
0

How to setup a phone call towards a landline or mobile phone using SIP protocol ?
How to setup a Voipbuster account on the N810 ?

or in other words:

How to make calls for free of how to make very cheap calls using the N810 ?

The information I have provided on the next page is mainly coming from this page on www.internettablettalk.com !

Voipbuster N810

Screenshot has been taken after ending a 2 min Voipbuster SIP call using N810.

This procedure has been tested and verified on the latest OS2008 build !

Interested in all the required steps, all the details, some configuration screenshots, please click on the link for page 2.

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

Categories: Linux
Alberto Garcia

Vagalume in your language

2008-05-02 00:44 UTC  by  Alberto Garcia
0
0

We’re about to release a new version of Vagalume and this one will be the first with gettext support. So if you want to help to see Vagalume in your language feel free to send me an e-mail, download the latest vagalume.pot file and send me the translation (you can also join the vagalume-devel mailing list).

Note that there are people already working on translations, so if you want to help please have a look at the translations that we already have and ask me before starting.

I’m also glad to announce that I’ll be talking about Vagalume in a couple of conferences:

Hope to see you there! :)

Categories: Planet Igalia
Daniel Gentleman

Interface poll results, WiMAX poll

2008-05-02 08:40 UTC  by  Daniel Gentleman
0
0

Forgive the lack of content lately. Next week I'll be done moving and will have dedicated office space in the new place for more video and live chats.

The Internet Tablet OS interface poll was interesting! Here are the results:

iPhone style 69 (36%) Asus Eee style 29 (15%) Mylo COM2 style 2 (1%) Symbian style 34 (18%) Canola style 85 (45%)
People love Canola and the iPhone! For myself, I'd say those are my top choices too. We'll see what comes out of the next development cycle. It may be a wholly new interface or may not change at all. We'll find out.

This week's poll: Are you interested in WiMAX? I will guess that an unlimited WiMAX plan would be between $40 and $50 per month. I would also assume (though may be wrong) that only the Internet Tablet can use the WiMAX radio and it cannot be shared with other devices. Assume the WiMAX coverage works in your area when answering. Would you spend $40-$50 to have your tablet always online?
  • Yes.
  • Yes, but only if I can share the connection with other computers.
  • No. It's too expensive for what it provides.
  • No. WiFi/Bluetooth is enough.
As usual, the poll is on the main page of tabletblog.com.

p.s. I have something extra special planned in a couple weeks - including a new conversation directly from Nokia!

Categories: N810 WiMAX Edition
Murray Cumming

I’m pleased to say that André Klapper and Karsten Bräckelmann are new Openismus employees.  They will be sharing bugmaster duty for maemo.org, with André taking over full time from September. They worked as a team before doing similar work for Ximian’s Evolution, and they are well known for their bug herding for GNOME, so I have great confidence in them.

They will ensure a healthy ongoing flow of information for Maemo, between internal developers, external developers and users. Along with Dave Neary concentrating on documentation, and Niels Breet working on infrastructure, this is part of a big push to make Maemo’s community work as well as the most successful open source projects. I think you’ll hear lots more about that.

Categories: Gnome
Martin Grimme

MediaBox Walkthrough: Search as You Type

2008-05-02 13:10 UTC  by  Martin Grimme
0
0
Today I'm showing you another new feature of the upcoming version 0.95 of the MediaBox Media Center. Search-as-You-Type works on any internet tablet with a keyboard, either built-in or connected via Bluetooth or USB.

Find a track
If you have many tracks in an album or the playlist and want to quickly scroll to a particular track, just type some letters from its title.

While typing, MediaBox searches your tracks for a match and scrolls the list to bring the track into view. You can see your search term displayed in the title bar while typing.



You don't have to type the full title as it's sufficient to type just a few subsequent letters from anywhere in the title.

Make a new search
The search text field clears automatically after a few seconds.

In order to make a new search, wait for the search text to disappear in the title bar, and enter your new search term.
Categories: maemo
tonymaro

USCellular Didn't Disclose All

2008-05-02 21:04 UTC  by  tonymaro
0
0

Just picked up a new Blackberry 8830 World Edition with GPS and unlimited data plan.

Very nice...

But the mapping software doesn't ever find the GPS satellites.

I just spent 20 minutes on hold with USCellular to be told "Sorry, but that's a known problem. We've already told RIM. It's not a problem with the device but a software problem. Hopefully they can fix it soon."

Talk about passing the buck and being noncommittal...

Categories: blackberry
Valério Valério

Canola

2008-05-03 19:03 UTC  by  Valério Valério
0
0


Canola is a media center like application for Nokia Tablets, which makes it much quicker and easier to do multimedia tasks. Canola is based in a Python powered plugin architecture that is very easy to extend.

Categories: Linux
tonymaro

Microsoft Forces IE Into Your Hands

2008-05-03 21:35 UTC  by  tonymaro
0
0

Computerworld reports that Microsoft's Internet Explorer is the only browser gaining market share, while Firefox and Safari lose.

Personally, I don't buy it. First of all the percentages are so small to be possibly just noise in the sampling method.

But, as someone who controls a large corporate network, I can say that keeping Internet Explorer from popping back up on computers has been a task. Microsoft uses every underhanded method possible to force users to Internet Explorer 8, even though I've already standardized on Firefox. I've had it reappear on Microsoft Update, already downloaded and ready to install, on several workstations I know had previously been told never to offer the update.

How can you not gain market share when you control the OS and can trick average-joe users into installing it?

As for Apple, they did try to push down Safari to my home machine, which I promptly denied. But I can't tell you of a single Mac user I know who has stopped using Safari on his Mac. Perhaps they just decided to be a little more productive and do a bit less web browsing last month? Or maybe all the Mac addicts were out riding their bikes or climbing a mountain, taking advantage of all the nice weather while Microsoft users where sitting on their collective fat rear ends.

Statistics tell very little sometimes, and when the change is only 0.3% you can't call that a change at all.

Categories: evil empire
Yevgen Antymyrov

Labyrinth - mindmap tool for maemo

2008-05-04 01:23 UTC  by  Yevgen Antymyrov
0
0
Hi all!

Short preamble at first. Recently I've become a fan of mind mapping. I visited Exception #07 developers conference in March and there was a guy who did his presentation using not well-known tools like MS PowerPoint or OpenOffice Impress but he used totally different approach, Mind Map. It's the way of brainstorming or displaying your ideas just the way like human brain works - not one by one like sheets of paper but radially with multiple links and forms. It's much better than scrolling page by page during workshop, for example.

For daily use my choice was Java-based Freemind - big, but powerfull and available for Linux, Mac and less popular systems like WinXP, etc . But I wanted something small and modest to use on my Nokia N800. So I've done some search and found nothing. So I(as python/bit C/C++ dev) did some search among apps written in python and found Labyrinth - http://code.google.com/p/labyrinth/

Really don't understand people who use tons of autotool/autoconf code + python script just to install 10 .py files. But I've finally managed to release an alpha-quality port of Labyrinth for maemo - http://labyrinth.garage.maemo.org/ , available also on maemo website - http://maemo.org/downloads/product/OS2008/labyrinth/

Note! It's not ready yet for `production` as I took dev/trunk version from
the original website to have more powerful application with curves and
more export formats supported. If you are interested and want to contribute
either to application itself or to maemo port in particular - you know now where to go.

Here is what it looks like:
Categories: maemo
Urho Konttori

Wiicontrol for nokia n810 / n800

2008-05-04 04:20 UTC  by  Urho Konttori
0
0
Let me start by telling you that wiicontrol is just marvelous piece of software. I allows you to pair your wiimote with your tablet. Result: Perfect controller for games and really nice controller for media applications.

So, emulators are now usable, doom / quake: check! pengupop / bomberman. Yeah baby! I cannot take credit of the wiicontrol, as it's really a project JL Diaz started, I just pimped it a bit. It's based on wiimote by Will Woods. GPL2+ for wiimote and gpl3+ for the wiicontrol.

Hey, please take a look at this video to see how very simple it is to use. If you toggle the gyro, it will currently produce wasd events when the you rotate your wiimote. Nice for e.g. strafing in quake/doom. Anyway, this is the first version and I'm sure me and JL will be bringing some cool configuration options and perhaps even mouse cursor support in the near future.



EDIT:
Link to install it is in here:
Wiicontrol 1.04
Categories: wiimote
Leonid Zolotarev

Open Positions

2008-05-04 13:30 UTC  by  Leonid Zolotarev
0
0

We are looking for talented and self motivated software developers, architects and project managers to join our browser software development team:

Categories: hire
Tuomas Kulve

Ogg-support 0.7: Canola interoperability

2008-05-04 14:15 UTC  by  Tuomas Kulve
0
0

Light Media Scanner now uses libivorbis (Tremor) instead of floating point libvorbis. Ogg-support now depends on newer build of libivorbis that exports the symbols needed by LMS.

There’s now ogg-support-lightmediascanner meta package which depends on lightmediascanner0-ogg for easier installation with the Application Manager.

Unfortunately all other issues with ogg-support still remain.

Categories: Maemo
Zeeshan Ali

python strikes back

2008-05-04 17:09 UTC  by  Zeeshan Ali
0
0
The joy of getting my python problems fixed on my debian testing were short lived. This time when i ran `apt-get dist-upgrade`, apt failed saying:


ValueError: /usr/bin/python does not match the python default version. It must be reset to point to python2.4
dpkg: error while cleaning up:
subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
...
Errors were encountered while processing:
/var/cache/apt/archives/python-uno_1%3a2.4.0-5_i386.deb
/var/cache/apt/archives/deskbar-applet_2.22.1-1_i386.deb
/var/cache/apt/archives/python-ctypes_1.0.2-4_i386.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)


So removed the link to python2.5 and recreated it but this time pointing to pythong2.4. It should fix the problem, right? No! here is what apt says now:


ValueError: /usr/bin/python does not match the python default version. It must be reset to point to python2.5
...
Quim Gil

The paradigm of the open organization

2008-05-04 20:12 UTC  by  Quim Gil
0
0
Forget now about labels and conventions: there is not such thing as free software, like there is not such thing as free speech. There are free developers and free speakers, and they are the ones setting the limits of freedom of their products and actions. If they are not free, how free can be the [...]
Categories: maemo
Andre Klapper

hello maemo!

2008-05-05 08:58 UTC  by  Andre Klapper
0
0
As already announced by Murray, guenther and me have started working on maemo.org's bug database. A quick introduction for the maemo folks (most GNOME folks should know me already): I started triaging Evolution bugs back in 2004 when Evolution was still handled in Ximian's Bugzilla. Since that time I have never really ...
tonymaro

Sun Certified Ubuntu

2008-05-05 18:31 UTC  by  tonymaro
0
0

This is somewhat old news but I just got around to reading my April 21st copy of Information Week.

Something I hadn't noticed previously in all the news is that Sun Microsystems pre-tested and certified Ubuntu 8.04 to run on Sun's x86 servers. That's the first time that a hardware vendor has bothered to test and certify Ubuntu Linux to run on their equipment.

That's an impressive milestone if you think about it. Ubuntu has taken a lead as the Linux desktop of choice in a very short period of time, something I think a lot of people hoped would happen to Mandriva (Mandrake) or Redhat a long time ago. This event not only validates Canonical as a company, but validates their official entry into the server market.

I've been running Ubuntu on servers for a few years already. I've never waited for someone to certify Linux, I'd just test and go. Lately I find that Tyan AMD based servers work exceptionally well with Ubuntu 64 bit server edition.

It will be interesting if this is the first leap into dominating the Linux server market for Canonical the way they've already dominated the desktop Linux market. That's where the real money will be for Canonical. Home users don't want to pay for their Linux, much less for Linux support. Enterprise users are more interested in buying long term support contracts, particularly if you have servers in various remote locations.

Categories: linux
andrunko

Maemo Keyboard on Qt4 applications

2008-05-05 21:01 UTC  by  andrunko
0
0
So, it seems I really like working with Input Methods.

This time I present you the Qt4 input context plugin for Hildon Input Method. So for now all Qt4 applications can make use of the maemo keyboard.

The code is still in its initial stage, but it's working so far. You can grab it from here.

Contributions are really welcome. If you want to help, please consider looking at the FIXME list on qhildoninputcontext.cpp :).

UPDATE: Thanks to Rodarvus to point me out that qhildoninputmethod.cpp didn't exist, changing to qhildoninputcontext.cpp :D
tonymaro

Apologies To The Maemo Folks

2008-05-06 02:28 UTC  by  tonymaro
0
0

I recently migrated my site to a new server and new blogging software. The maemo feed followed my old site redirect, but my new site's RSS feed doesn't automatically provide just the Maemo related posts like the old special feed I had set up.

Working on a fix. In the meantime, you guys might want to stop watching the RSS feed for www.maro.net unless you don't mind a lot of unrelated posts...

Categories: maemo
tonymaro

Blackberry E-Mail Troubles Return

2008-05-06 03:27 UTC  by  tonymaro
0
0

Well this is odd... after a little over 24 hours of functioning properly, my blackberry suddenly stopped sending e-mails on the first attempt again. Hitting "resend" would always work.

Yet again, logging into the blackberry web interface, deleting the account and recreating it fixed the problem.

What's up with that? Sending an e-mail results in "Invalid error from server". Immediately hitting resend sends it just fine. I've watched the Cyrus IMAP server logs and found something interesting...

When it stops working, on the first attempt cyrus shows "login: localhost" when I try to send a mail, then it fails.

When it works (and on a "resend") it shows "login: bda356c.bis.na.blackberry.com"

I'm stumped as to how "localhost" could even happen...

Categories: blackberry
Krisse Juorunen

PC Macintosh tablet related software

2008-05-06 09:34 UTC  by  Krisse Juorunen
0
0
In my previous blog posts I featured maemo.org/downloads, which is a superb source for various applications and games for your Nokia tablet but today I have even more news for you.

From now on, maemo.org downloads section has one more section - on this website you will be able to find various Windows PC and Macintosh software, which has help you manage your tablet even more.



By visiting maemo.org/downloads and clicking "PC" button you will gain access to a huge amount of software and downloads.

Just to give you a tip, on this site you will be able to find 770Flasher. THis is anunofficial program for the Macintosh with the help of which users can update tablet firmware.
Categories: free software
tonymaro

Asterisk, Blackberry and eGroupware

2008-05-06 17:25 UTC  by  tonymaro
0
0

This is a near perfect solution. I run an Asterisk Vo/IP system for my office, and eGroupware with Cyrus for our mail system. We migrated from Microsoft Exchange some time ago and I've never looked back.

With eGroupware, we were able to replace 99% of the functionality of our Microsoft Exchange server with open source software. With sieve filters users can set up an unlimited number of server-side mail filters, something you can't do with Exchange anymore, and the web interface works much better with Firefox than Microsoft's web access. Our Asterisk phone system integrates into the mix and will deliver voicemail to the user's e-mail box.

Now, with my Blackberry I can download and play those voicemails without ever having to dial into the phone system, because they are wav files attached to e-mail that is picked up by my Blackberry. I'm feeling so "connected" right now it's not even funny :-)

Switching to an all open-source messaging suite like this was easier than I thought, but when we did the primary migration I only had about 10 users to worry about. This made it much easier. I took Outlook (or the appropriate mail client) and downloaded everything to a local storage. After setting up IMAP to the Cyrus server I pushed it all back up - not recommended if you're going to migrate a few hundred users, but effective in my case. I then set up the Funambol open source sync client for each user to sync their contacts and calendar between the server and their local store. This gives them remote access to their data, and I have a copy of that on both the desktop and the server in addition to the server backups in the event of a catastrophic failure.

On my Blackberry I again use the Funambol client to sync contacts and calendar to the server. Within 30 minutes of getting the Blackberry I'd already downloaded the Funambol client over the air and sync'd with my eGroupware server, without ever attaching the Blackberry to a computer.

Configuring Asterisk to deliver voicemails as a wav file to your e-mail box is simple. I now I have a completely integrated messaging system that doesn't tie me to a desktop computer, and every aspect of it is open source software!

Categories: asterisk
Andrew Zhilin

Chapter IV: Ready to surf.

2008-05-06 22:42 UTC  by  Andrew Zhilin
0
0
Hello there. Today we’ll talk again about main feature and main way of use of Internet Tablets — Internet surfing. But not about the window to the web, MicroB. We’ll talk about things, that are very common for every user and that we face many times every day. Actions, that comes before surfing itself. I have [...]
Daniel Gentleman

WiMAX deals finally prevail

2008-05-07 08:18 UTC  by  Daniel Gentleman
0
0
Finally the US WiMAX market has some direction. According to CNN (via Engadget) Sprint and Clearwire will merge their efforts with more investments from Intel, Google, Time Warner Cable, Comcast, and Bright House Networks.

I dislike the idea of a WiMAX monopoly (which will be sold under the Clearwire name even though Sprint will have a 51% stake) but I hope this means a single WiMAX account will work in any area with WiMAX coverage. As other N95-3 owners (Hi Jonathan and Reggie) know, It's disappointing when slightly different tower standards are the difference between GPRS, EDGE, and HSDPA on the same device.

While Clearwire will be the wholesale branding of the WiMAX rollout, I hope that the XOHM brand name stays. I just like their logo. I also like saying it like "Zoom!"

Categories: WiMAX
tonymaro

I've Learned I'm Chronically Disorganized

2008-05-07 17:20 UTC  by  tonymaro
0
0

It's official. I'm chronically disorganized.

Actually, I like to think I'm an organized individual trapped in a disorganized world. Disorganization frustrates me but really causes me to be more introverted than to solve the problem of disorganization around me.

I mean, really - I got a dual monitor setup, only to clutter not one, but both screens with icons of stuff I've recently downloaded, tested, or written.

I've got the spring cleaning bug...

Categories: clutter
Marius Vollmer

A pleasant surprise.

2008-05-07 19:32 UTC  by  Marius Vollmer
0
0

I just upgraded a N800 from Chinook to a internal Diablo pre-release with apt-get. This was never supposed to work, but it just does anyway. Nice!

It’s also quite easy:

  • Put the device into R&D mode and disable the lifeguard reset.
  • Make sure you have a lot of free space in / and/or move the apt archive cache from /var/cache/apt/archives to a memory card.
  • Run apt-get install osso-software-version-rx34-unlocked in a shell that doesn’t die when the network goes down.
  • Make some coffee, walk the dogs, plant a tree.
  • Updated: Run flash-and-reboot and let it flash the kernel and initfs.
  • File bugs.

I hope we can soon announce the repository that you need for this, but I can’t make any promises.


Categories: maemo
Valério Valério

Wiimote in Maemo

2008-05-07 20:37 UTC  by  Valério Valério
0
0


More information here.

Categories: Linux
mdk

Hell in Wrocław

2008-05-07 21:31 UTC  by  mdk
0
0

I’ll be attending and giving a presentation at Libre Graphics Meeting this year in Wrocław.

Title: ”Programmer’s hell: working with a UI designer”.

Time: Friday, 14:25.

Lot’s of fun guaranteed, come to feel some hot flames.

mdk

Hell in Wrocław

2008-05-07 21:35 UTC  by  mdk
0
0

I’ll be attending and giving a presentation at Libre Graphics Meeting this year in Wrocław.

Title: “Programmer’s hell: working with a UI designer”.

Time: Friday, 14:25.

Lot’s of fun guaranteed, come to feel some hot flames.

Zeeshan Ali

Karl Lattimer is my hero

2008-05-07 22:11 UTC  by  Zeeshan Ali
0
0
I just can't help but appreciate how this dude comes to my desk and solves my complicated problem within minutes. My python problems were all solved when he removed the link (/usr/bin/python) to absolute path (/usr/bin/python2.5) and recreated it, only this time using relative path. Either he is too smart or I am too stupid. :)
tonymaro

Gmail False Positives

2008-05-08 00:25 UTC  by  tonymaro
0
0

On a whim instead of just deleting my 1500 spam messages in GMail, I looked through the first page... and found 4 that weren't spam.

Wow. That's just from today. I thought I was getting less mail lately - I just assumed nobody loved me anymore.

I need to watch that more closely.

Categories: email
Daniel Gentleman

How the N810 helped me

2008-05-08 08:08 UTC  by  Daniel Gentleman
0
0
Yesterday, I moved into my new apartment. I am not done (still cleaning and set-up to do) but I would have hated to be without my N810 for the day.
  • GPS! The Wayfinder subscription really paid off. I knew, in general, where my new apartment is but had only visited it once before. The GPS got me there and back without a problem. Also, the GPS helped me find a good route to work from the new apartment.
  • Email! As usual, internet access was cut and packed up for the day. My N810 paired with my N95-3 got me online and in touch.
  • Web! I don't realize how much I rely on web searches to help me until the computer is not available. I didn't know phone numbers for utility companies and other needs but was able to find them with quick Google searches.
  • Entertainment! It's amazing how tedious boxing, moving, and unboxing can be. Having some music or a video in the background helped.
This would all have been a lot more annoying with a laptop or bigger device. The only time the N810 spent charging was in the car while I was driving. That's all it needed. The more time I spend with this tablet, the more I wonder how Internet-dependent people live without one.

Categories: N810
Daniel Gentleman

Mac owners get Video Converter too!

2008-05-08 08:26 UTC  by  Daniel Gentleman
0
0

The Internet Tablet Video Converter (original post and video) now has a native Mac OS X version. I took a look at it and it seems to be functionally identical to the PC version but my testing at home seems to be quite fast. Take a look at the Nokia Beta Labs blog for more information or just go download it yourself!

The Mac client and updates (including a developer API update) are a direct result of user requests and feedback. Let's keep telling Nokia what we want.

Categories: video
atmasphere

Thanks to this post on Nokia Beta Labs, I’ve just learned that there’s finally Mac support in the Internet Tablet Video Converter Application which is great news. I’ve used the Windows version in virtualization mode previously but am looking forward to testing this out now as well.

In other news… sorry it’s been a while. I’ve been pretty wrapped up with work and travel. More soon … have a Hava in the house and will have a report to share in the next few days.

Technorati Tags: , , ,

Categories: Applications
Tags: , , ,
Jussi Kukkonen

(old) news

2008-05-08 15:23 UTC  by  Jussi Kukkonen
0
0

Forgotten this blogging thing altogether… well, here goes:

Geoclue 0.11

Geoclue 0.11 was released. I’m fairly satisfied with it and would love
comments from application developers. Some highlights:

  • Refined API. Easier to use and includes some nice additions like async-method calls (no more freezing UIs).
  • Usable Master provider:
    Geoclue Master provides Address and Position data using the best available geoclue provider. Master may not be industrial quality yet, but it is IMO usable (testing is more than welcome).
    See documentation for usage examples.
  • A couple of new providers:
    Gsmloc — uses a cell phone, libgammu and http://gsmloc.org to get a position. No signals though.
    Localnet — uses router MAC address and a local file to get an address. Excellent for often visited places.

Get Geoclue as a tar-ball or via git:

git clone git://anongit.freedesktop.org/git/geoclue

OpenedHand is hiring

Several open positions: We’re looking for people with kernel, OpenEmbedded, GTK+, Clutter, UI design and graphic design skills (not necessarily all in the same person). Take a look.

Guadec 2008

Looks like I will be in Guadec talking about Geoclue! This will be joint operation with Iain and Bergie, and we’ll cover Geoclue, Gypsy and location-aware applications in general. I’m really looking forward to the whole event: I’ve wanted to go for a couple of years, but never really had the chance.

Categories: geoclue
tonymaro

Why MCSE's Won't Learn Linux

2008-05-08 17:12 UTC  by  tonymaro
0
0

ZD is blogging about why many MCSE's can't or won't learn Linux.

The judgement?

"Basically, to learn Unix you learn to understand and apply a small set of key ideas and achieve expertise by expanding both the set of ideas and your ability to apply them - but you learn Windows by working with the functionality available in a specific release."

He goes on to say:

"Put a Solaris guy who’s never used Linux in front of SuSe 10 with a list of complex tasks and [...] he won’t be either intimidated or deterred; and the job will get done because he knows how the tools he needs should work

"In contrast, if you take a guy who’s grown up entirely on Windows 2003/XP and put him in front of a rack of NT 4.0 machines with a similar task list, the chances are good that he [..] won’t get the job done - because NT 4.0 isn’t 2003/XP Server and he’ll end up rationalizing that it simply doesn’t do the things he doesn’t know how to do."

In other words, to be an MCSE you memorize a specific set of functions that you perform to accomplish a particular goal. With Linux, you will more likely need to understand why you perform functions.

My take on this? It validates what I've been saying for years. Most MCSE's I know weren't worth the paper their certificate was printed on and didn't deserve a certification to begin with. Throw them in front of a computer to troubleshoot a problem that wasn't on their test and they spin their wheels for hours before either finally googling an answer or... as I've seen several times in my own (past) employees... screw it up worse.

Give me someone who runs Linux on a home machine, and I guarantee they can troubleshoot any technical problem in both Linux and Windows. Years ago, I stopped hiring based on certificates. One certificate is nice to have, but I weigh a Microsoft Certified Professional equally with an MCSE+I, etc. Just because you had the spare change and the time to memorize hundreds of rote answers doesn't make you a decent technician.

Categories: evilempire
Luciano Wolf

PyMaemo has bdist_maemo support

2008-05-08 17:58 UTC  by  Luciano Wolf
0
0
PyMaemo has now bdist_maemo support inside distutils module. I'll try to bring more updates to the PythonLauncher application too.

Now about scratchbox, it seems that this new sbox-core-1.0.9 has a problem with packaging. It was impossible to generate PyMaemo using this version. I'll do some more further investigations.
Philip Van Hoof

Your application used to be single threaded and is consuming a resource that is not thread-safe. You’re splitting your application up into two or more threads. Both threads want to consume the non-thread-safe resource.

In this GNOME-Live item I explain how to use GThreadPool for this.

It’s a wiki so if you find any discrepancies in the sample and or text, just correct them. I’m subscribed so I’ll review it that way.

The GNOME-Live item is done in a similar way to the item about using asynchronous DBus bindings and the AsyncWorker item.

Categories: Informatics and programming
Martin Grimme

MediaBox 0.95 released

2008-05-09 12:06 UTC  by  Martin Grimme
0
0
The new version 0.95 of the MediaBox Media Center is finally available. Thanks to all users who reported bugs and made suggestions for new features. Thanks to lot of feedback, many things have improved since the last release.



With the new MediaBox you can finally compose playlists and rearrange them on the fly. If your internet tablet has a keyboard connected, you can also search for tracks in long playlists or albums by just typing a few letters of the title.



The new version has an improved easy and finger-friendly user interface and reduces memory consumption, especially when dealing with large collections of media.



You can view the release notes at http://mediabox.garage.maemo.org/data/release-notes.

MediaBox 0.95 is available in the Maemo Extras repository. Click the arrow below for quick install.



Have fun!
Categories: maemo
Daniel Gentleman

My friend Rob Bushway, who I had the pleasure of meeting at CES, got his hands on an N810 case from CarryMobile.com and reviewed it on GottaBeMobile.com. Hop on over for the video. If you're not an existing GottaBeMobile reader - consider subscribing and joining their forums.

Rob: What do you think of the N810 as a device, hmm?

Categories: accessories
Krisse Juorunen
To get the most out of this tutorial, watch the video above and then read the text below. The tutorial assumes that N800 owners have upgraded to OS 2008. If you want to find out more about upgrading your N800, click here.If you want to comment on this tutorial, please post in the comments section at the end. If you have any questions or problems regarding your tablet, please post about them on
Categories: nokia n800
Dave Neary

Getting constructive about Nokia and maemo

2008-05-09 16:59 UTC  by  Dave Neary
0
0

There has been some criticism recently of Nokia and its handling of maemo - improving the state of affairs is one of the reasons why Quim contacted me and asked me if I’d be willing to work with the project to improve things.

Click to read 1144 more words
Categories: freesoftware
Jamie Bennett

Carman LIVES!

2008-05-10 09:30 UTC  by  Jamie Bennett
0
0

Wow!

Its been a long time coming but it looks like Carman, the excellent car OBD-II analyzer for the Maemo platform (from the makers of Canola) is finally being developed again. After 4 months of no messages to the Carman commits mailing list this little gem appeared:

read more

Categories: Carman
Daniel Gentleman

N810 development team featured in Fortune

2008-05-11 09:36 UTC  by  Daniel Gentleman
0
0

The latest issue of Fortune Magazine has a piece highlighting the global development team of the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet. Some of my favorite names and faces are missing (you know who you are) but some great people I've met are in there. If you would like to put faces to many of the names you've seen and heard, take a look at the article on CNN Fortune.

Photo by David Yellin, borrowed from the CNN piece. Please don't sue me!

Categories: community
Tyler Longwell

Diablo Escapes

2008-05-11 10:49 UTC  by  Tyler Longwell
0
0
Hello!



Yes. Some intrepid hackers at Internet Tablet Talk have done it. Diablo is officially on non-nokia people's tablets. I being one of them ;)



This is very far from release, but has some improvements. Most notably is that Diablo's flash player is much, much faster. Next would be an updated X-term, pretty nice.



Oh, and did I mention that it comes with two mail clients? Odd, but Modest is there.



There is also a development tool, but it allows the N8x0 to suspend to memory. NICE!




The Application Manager is also improved, you now get update alerts in the notification area.



What I'd really like to see though, is a new build of the browser engine. Still the same old code. But, I really do like this. Even though it may be months till it is released.

Great work guys! Uber-devs at Nokia are really doing some great stuff.

All these photos are Qwerty12's! He is the genius who got this working. Check out the updates at this thread. (You may need to skip to about page 21, though ;) That many posts!)

Categories: n810
Zeeshan Ali

A week of Xbox fun

2008-05-12 02:10 UTC  by  Zeeshan Ali
0
0
While my MediaServer implementation is still in it's very infancy, I was already asked by more than two people if it will work with Xbox. I didn't have a clue since I don't have an Xbox so I asked Naba if i can visit him on some weekend to find some clues but he was kind enough to lend it for a week instead. For the past one week I had been having lots of fun with it. This nice page by Frank Scholz gave me headstart and I was able to get Xbox see my MediaServer rather sooner. The only other achievement I had in the whole week is that Xbox is able to see the videos but can't play it (most probably because I don't give it all the metadata it requests).

The good thing is that now i have a very good idea of what Xbox expects from my MediaServer and I am very hopeful on getting my MediaServer working with Xbox at some point. Here is the log of all the SOAP messages I get from Xbox for anyone interested.
Daniel Gentleman

OS2008 Diablo leaks

2008-05-12 09:34 UTC  by  Daniel Gentleman
0
0
Brighthand reported this past weekend that OS2008's update, scheduled for this summer, has already leaked. The report came from an InternetTabletTalk thread showing discussing it.

Apparently this OS upgrade is different from previous firmware changes in many regards: It doesnt' break application compatibility for most applications. OS2008 Chinook applications should work under OS2008 Diablo. Also, the mail client is finally changed! We welcome the Modest client.

There are more, but the update is not yet official. We'll know all the details when it comes in the release notes.

Finally, Brighthand also has an editorial called "It's not the hardware. It's the user experience that's broken." This mirrors many of my thoughts in a previous editorial basically stating that the software experience needs to catch up with the hardware excellence. It's coming. I hope.

On a final note: The ThoughtFix studio is now under construction in the new apartment. There's much unpacking to do, but expect more video and live shows in the near future.

Categories: OS2008
Krisse Juorunen

Nokia N800 & N810: How to unzip files

2008-05-12 12:46 UTC  by  Krisse Juorunen
0
0
Unzipping files on your tablet

Tablets, as well as smartphones, support various file formats and .zip archives is one of them. If you download a zipped file and moved it to your tablet, you may have noticed such problem - there's no way to unzip such file and view its contents.

But I’ve got a solution for you - there is one piece of software and it’s called Unzip. Unzip is completely free and can be easily installed onto your tablet. Once it's been installed you can unzip any .zip files (you just have to click an them in the File Manager)



Installing Unzip on tablets

1. First of all, in your tablet click on the globe and select "Open New Browser Window".

2. maemo.org/downloads is your destination page

3. Enter "unzip" search query in the top right hand corner.

4. Find Unzip application.

5. Click "Click To Install" arrow. Say yes or OK to all of the boxes that appear.

6. When Unzip has installed successfully, close the Application Manager.
Okay, you are ready to rumble.

You can now unzip any .zip file by just double-clicking on it in the File Manager. Sometimes complex things could be very simple.
Categories: tablet how-to
Philip Van Hoof

In Vala you can define interfaces just like in C# and Java. Interfaces imply that you can have class types that implement one or more such interfaces. Vala does not force you to implement its interfaces in Vala. You can also implement them in good-old GObject C.

Here’s a detailed example how you implement a type that implements two Vala interfaces in GObject/C:

Categories: Informatics and programming
atmasphere

Google Reader for iPhone running on the N810

2008-05-13 02:58 UTC  by  atmasphere
0
0

Tonight I learned from Gerry Moth and Matt Stevens that Google Reader has been updated for the iPhone … which of course means it works great on the S60 Platform as well as the Nokia Tablets running the MicroB (mozilla) browser. I tried this tonigh on the N82 using the S60 webkit browser but as soon as I saw it in action I knew I wanted to use the tablet instead.

I shot this quick video on the N82 in my kitchen so I apologize for the out of focus text. I think the point is still quite clear … this is a great way for anyone to enjoy Google Reader on the go!

I’m definitely switching from the standard /m site which only offers a single item at a time. This is MUCH more efficient and works well even over EDGE.

Technorati Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Categories: Applications
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Aniello Del Sorbo
Today I was going thru my feed subscriptions on Google Reader when I hit this interesting post from Jonathan Greene (aka atmasphere).With no further ado I pointed my n810's browser to the iPhone version of Google Reader...awesome.Really.This made me think.. why they had to wait for the iPhone to come out in order to make stuff like that ?Why other websites feel being pushed by the iPhone and not
Categories: n810
Gustavo Barbieri

Evas, Smart Objects and Edje

2008-05-13 14:42 UTC  by  Gustavo Barbieri
0
0

I’m often introducing new developers to Evas, part of the Enlightenment Foundation Libraries (EFL), and one common problem is to understand how Evas, Smart Objects and Edje integrates. Yesterday, while teaching some guys here at ProFUSION I came to the following picture, that describes it well:

Click to read 1518 more words
Categories: C
tonymaro

Podcast: Spotlight on Linux

2008-05-13 15:12 UTC  by  tonymaro
0
0

I was a guest on the "No Carrier" podcast over at Galaxycow. It's about an hour long show, so download it and listen on your commute!

Categories: linux
tonymaro

New Database Server Going Up

2008-05-13 19:42 UTC  by  tonymaro
0
0

I've just finished building what is soon to become my new primary MySQL server. It's a dual CPU, dual-core AMD64 running at 2 GHz each. I've put 8 GB of RAM in it right now, but the board will support up to 64 GB. It's running three Raptor 10,000 RPM SATA drives in a Linux RAID 0 (striping) for performance. No, there's not a mirror or checksum because not only will it have daily off-machine backups but will also be replicating to a backup database server when it's up and running.

I've configured network bonding, so it effectively has a 2 Gbps connection to the network. Right now I'm doing some serious load testing on the Raptor's since I've had issues in the past with them on another chipset motherboard. So far so good!

This server has been a pain in the rear, simply because finding a power supply that would work with the board wasn't easy. It requires no only the 24 pin power, plus the 4 pin power, but another 8 pin power connector as well that is different from the 8 pin power connectors I had on another supply. I've learned that power supplies and motherboards don't clearly mark what is what when you're looking at product spec pages online.

Categories: database
Daniel Gentleman

Today, I am asking two questions. The first and most important to me:

What's your favorite development on the Nokia Internet Tablet platform so far? This can be hardware, software, third-party applications, people-acquisition, partnerships, or more. Leave your answer in a comment to this post.

The second is a poll in it's usual right side-bar on tabletblog.com:
Do you carry your Internet Tablet around with you?
  • Yes - the Internet Tablet is always in my pocket.
  • Usually - It's handy to have, but I can leave it behind.
  • Sometimes - When I think I'll need it.
  • Rarely - Only in specific situations.
  • Never - It's used at home or at the office exclusively.
The results of the last poll are in:
"Would you spend $40-$50/month for WiMAX service on your Internet Tablet?"
Yes. 21 (9%) Yes, but only if I can share the connection with other computers. 69 (30%) No. It's too expensive for what it provides. 77 (33%) No. WiFi/Bluetooth is enough. 63 (27%)
60% of users say no outright. 30% wish to use their WiMAX Internet Tablet as a modem for other devices (myself included.) and only 9% say that it's a good price plan for the service. We'll see what Sprint/Clearwire/XOHM (or whatever it turns out to be) offers.

Finally: If you own a Nokia N810, visit the OS2008 User Site from your tablet and click on "Nokia N810 survey" icon displayed above. There are about a dozen questions about usage and participants will be entered to win an Internet Tablet music package with Nokia Advanced Headphones and Nokia Mini Speakers. I started filling in the survey myself, but would rather have one of you win the prizes so did not enter.

Categories: polls
gnuton

Maemo style on Qt applications

2008-05-14 17:42 UTC  by  gnuton
0
0

I’ve just readed on trolltech blog that there is a new Qt plugin that permit a Qt application to use the current gtk theme engine.
It will be nice to use it in Qt maemo apps.
I’ve to try it.
Click here to read the original post.

Categories: Maemo-dev
tonymaro

Verizon Loves Linux

2008-05-14 19:21 UTC  by  tonymaro
0
0

Verizon Wireless announces they will be releasing Linux based cellphones next year.

We'll see how it plays out, but overall it's good news for embedded Linux.

Categories: cellphone
tonymaro

A Little Iraqi History

2008-05-14 20:09 UTC  by  tonymaro
0
0

After a discussion of the war today, I decided to do a little informal research into the Iraqi war and casualties to compare it to other armed conflicts.

Here's a few tidbits for you. All numbers are approximate and come from sources such as the Iraqi Body Count project, Wikipedia and other fairly reputable Internet news sources.

Coalition military deaths to date: 4,228
US Portion of coalition deaths: 3,921. That's 3,921 US soldiers killed in combat since we started.

In contrast:
Chinese May 12th, 2008 Earthquake: 15,000 dead, 60,000 missing.
Vietnam war casualties: Approximately 60,000 US Soldiers killed or missing.

Iraqi insurgent death estimate (as of August 2007:) 18,832. That's 18,832 clear enemy combatants killed by allied forces. The problem with Iraq is identifying who is a clear enemy combatant when they hide as civilians.

In contrast:
Vietnam war North Vietnamese casualties: over 600,000

Iraqi Civilians killed: around 80,000 since the start of the war. It's estimated that around 20,000 of those were by Allied forces, primary collateral damage from the initial airstrike, collateral damage during combat, or mistaken for combatants. The other 60,000 were killed by their own people.

In contrast:
Vietnamese civilian deaths: 2,000,000 estimated

Oh, and how many people did Saddam Hussein either personally kill or order to be "ethnically cleansed?" Estimated at around 2,000,000. Yeah, the total of Vietnamese civilian deaths over the entire conflict. This includes the 150,000 Shia Muslims he had executed and buried in mass graves.

Do I believe any death is good? No. But to those who claim the Iraqi war is killing Americans left and right and is completely unjustified I say look again at the numbers. Just my opinion.

Categories: bush
mzandrew

offtopic

2008-05-15 01:00 UTC  by  mzandrew
0
0

Could we all agree to modify our blog feed URLs so that only internet-tablet-related things end up on planet maemo? Competing hardware and software is okay, even, but some of the stuff that’s been on here lately is completely off topic.

When I wanted to be part of planet maemo, I setup a separate blog just for internet tablet related stuff. I realize that’s not possible for everyone, so I suggest this:

With wordpress (which I use), to narrow down the rss entries to a related category, don’t just copy and paste the regular url-for-my-blog/feed link at the bottom, but use url-for-my-blog/category/internettablet/feed/ for the url. The only difference is the category/internettablet/ part before the feed/ and you have to make it a category that you’ve been using on your blog. If you have more than one category, you could setup a yahoo pipe that concatenates all related entries and then make that what gets posted to planet maemo.

It would be much appreciated by almost everyone hooked into this feed.

Thank you for reading this nearly offtopic post.

Categories: Uncategorized
Alberto Garcia

Vagalume 0.6 released

2008-05-15 01:22 UTC  by  Alberto Garcia
0
0

Vagalume 0.6 is here!

Among the new features introduced in Vagalume 0.6, the coolest one is probably the brand new tray icon for desktop users written by Mario, similar to the one already available for Maemo:

Vagalume tray icon

Other highlights from this version include:

  • Update the status message of your IM client. Tell everyone what you’re listening to. Currently supported: Pidgin, Gajim, Gossip and Telepathy
  • Gettext support: Vagalume has been translated into Portuguese, German, Finnish, Spanish, Galician and Italian
  • New setting to disable the love/ban confirmation dialogs
  • New D-BUS methods and a script to control Vagalume from the command line (currently only for Maemo, more news soon)
  • Osso-backup support

I would like to thank all the contributors, in particular Tim Wegener for his work in the IM status support. And of course all the translators too!

Last but not least, I’d like to remind you again that, as I said in my previous post, I’ll be at LinuxTag 2008 in Berlin with other Maemo hackers. Hope to see you there!

And now, enjoy!

P.S.: I’m moving Vagalume to Maemo extras, so one of these days it should be available there. Stay tuned!

Update: Vagalume 0.6 is now available in Maemo Extras

Categories: Planet Igalia
Yevgen Antymyrov

Labyrinth - bugfix release

2008-05-15 01:56 UTC  by  Yevgen Antymyrov
0
0
It was too early to release the first version of Labyrinth without proper checking. Even considering "alpha" status of the project. The issue was found almost immediately, though I did not have a time to fix it.

Pygtk in OS2008 and in SDK 4.0 does not support method `to_string` for gtk.gdk.Color, only attributes: "pixel", "red", "green" and "blue". The method is used to store RGB color values like 127/64/0 in hex text "#007f0040000". Can someone advise why it's not working on maemo? The web site says "This method is available in PyGTK 2.12 and above.", however OS2008 contains:

>>> import gtk
>>> gtk.ver
(2, 14, 0)

This was the workaround for the issue:

def color_to_string(color):
return "#00%02x00%02x00%02x" % (color.red, color.green, color.blue)

Now as the saving is fixed the only porting task left is maemo's Virtual Keyboard support ;)
Categories: maemo
Zeeshan Ali

GSSDP 0.6 released

2008-05-15 03:19 UTC  by  Zeeshan Ali
0
0
- Use libsoup 2.4. [Zeeshan Ali Khattak, Jorn Baayen]
- Use g_timeout_add_seconds(). [Jorn Baayen]

download: http://gupnp.org/sources/gssdp/gssdp-0.6.tar.gz
Zeeshan Ali

GUPnP 0.10 released

2008-05-15 03:19 UTC  by  Zeeshan Ali
0
0
- Use libsoup 2.4. [Zeeshan Ali Khattak, Jorn Baayen]
- Use g_timeout_add_seconds(). [Jorn Baayen]
- Use GIO instead of xdgmime. [Jorn Baayen]
- Support HTTP Range header in the HTTP server. [Jorn Baayen]
- Use GMappedFile to mmap served files of read()ing them. [Jorn Baayen]
- Improved documentation. [Ross Burton]
- Spew HTTP messages to console when GUPNP_DEBUG is set. [Ross Burton]
- Various other fixes. [Ross Burton, Zeeshan Ali Khattak, Jorn Baayen]

download: http://gupnp.org/sources/gupnp/gupnp-0.10.tar.gz
gnuton

Chinook 4.0.1 SDK Environment: Funky installation.

2008-05-15 12:10 UTC  by  gnuton
0
0

Today i’ve installed Chinook Environment on KUbuntu Hardy using the scripts: scratchbox installer and sdk installer.
The script runs fine but there are some issue such as:
MMAP ERROR
Setting up sudo (1.6.8p12-4osso7) ...
Updating sudoers
mmap: Permission denied
Solved running
echo 4096 > /proc/sys/vm/mmap_min_addr and so apt-get install -f
MESSAGEBUS INVALID USER ERROR
Setting up gconf2 (2.16.0-1osso9) ...
/scratchbox/tools/bin/chown: `messagebus:messagebus': invalid user
Soved with:
cd /var/cache/apt/archives
fakeroot dpkg -i *dbus*
DPKG-PRECONFIGURE NOT AVAILABLE
Usually this file is in the debconf package. But the Maemo debconf doesn’t have got it! O_o
The error message is:
/scratchbox/tools/bin/sh: line 1: /usr/sbin/dpkg-preconfigure: No such file or directory
I’ve solved it copying this file from my host to scratchbox environment.
cp /usr/sbin/dpkg-preconfigure /scratchbox/users/gnuton/targets/CHINOOK_ARMEL/usr/sbin
So i’ve runned again apt-get install -f and now i’ve my working (?) SDK Env.
That’s all! Happy installation to you!

Categories: Maemo-dev
admin

Addressing the Stylus-Driven UI

2008-05-16 03:07 UTC  by  Unknown author
0
0
Given the fact that touchscreens have become nothing but the “in” thing to do, it seems like most every innovation with the Internet Tablet focuses on making it finger-friendly. Now, there’s nothing wrong with it, and personally I prefer it. But, what would happen if we addressed the UI from a perspective of being optimized [...]
everaldo

WebKit-Sharp and my FunnyBrowser

2008-05-16 09:34 UTC  by  everaldo
0
0
In my last article I blogged about how to create Mono bindings using GAPI, I used it to create WebKit-Sharp.

After a quick search in Google I found another implementation of WebKit bindings for Mono, you can find them there (http://cmartin.tk/webkitgtk-sharp.html), the problem is that those bindings were done by hand without using GAPI, probably because the author didn't use "gapi2-fixup" to customize and fix some information about webkit (You can find more information about it here).

Well, today I have just committed some of my local changes to webkit-sharp and the amazing "FunnyBrowser" sample, I have been using "FunnyBrowser" as my default browser now for one week and for basic navigation it works faster and uses less resources than Firefox.

Next weekend I am also planning to make packages available for Maemo if webkit works on it, I will keep you guys posted.



We haven't released webkit-sharp yet but you can found sources here:

http://anonsvn.mono-project.com/viewcvs/trunk/webkit-sharp.tar.gz

OpenSUSE 10.3 packages are also available (including libwebkit) on my repository in the OpenSUSE Build Service:

http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/ecanuto:/webkit/openSUSE_10.3/

I have plans to release FunnyBrowser as package when it works with GMail without problems.
Categories: maemo
Krisse Juorunen

Internet Tablet School - Privacy Policy

2008-05-16 09:40 UTC  by  Krisse Juorunen
0
0
Web Site Terms and Conditions of Use
1. Terms
Click to read 1764 more words
Daniel Gentleman

N800 cheaper than ever.

2008-05-16 10:16 UTC  by  Daniel Gentleman
0
0

InternetTabletTalk readers are reporting and discussing a new price on the N800. Expansys had the N800 on sale for US $156, but they are currently sold out. The speculation is that someone bought them all to flip for a profit.

Currently, the cheapest price I can find for the N800 is $175 at Consumer Depot.

For those of you without an N800, it's still a good device and well wort the prices above. If you're lucky enough to have a GPS equipped Nokia S60 powered phone, you can use ExtGPS to give yourself both GPS ability AND internet connectivity to your tablet. If you haven't seen that yet, check out this post on NokiaUsers.

Does this mean the N800 is coming to an end? I hope not. The current line-up is jsut right.

Categories: buying
Tuomas Kulve

GCC options and floating point

2008-05-17 17:15 UTC  by  Tuomas Kulve
0
0

There was (again) some discussion on #maemo about gcc options regarding VFP usage so I decided to make a simple test with different gcc options using the Maemo’s cs2005q3.2-glibc2.5-arm toolchain. Nothing new here for people already familiar with the floating point stuff.

In the test I compiled a very simple test code with different -mfpu and -mfloat-abi options, -O2 and -march=armv6 were given in all cases. The asm code is linked in the table. The code is a simple for loop which could be optimized to one round but based on the results it looks like the gcc didn’t do this kind of tricks.

Although you can ask the default options from the gcc I decided to test also without the options. The test was run on n810 and results are in the table below.

GCC none hard soft softfp none 0m 31.11s
0m 31.01s
0m 0.00s
asm -
-
-
asm 0m 31.24s
0m 31.00s
0m 0.00s
asm 0m 4.38s
0m 4.37s
0m 0.00s
asm fpa 0m 30.64s
0m 30.54s
0m 0.00s
asm 5m 52.53s
0m 21.25s
5m 30.66s
asm 0m 30.57s
0m 30.55s
0m 0.00s
asm 5m 52.56s
0m 21.06s
5m 30.69s
asm vfp 0m 31.09s
0m 30.99s
0m 0.00s
asm -
-
-
asm 0m 31.08s
0m 31.00s
0m 0.00s
asm 0m 4.40s
0m 4.39s
0m 0.00s
asm

Looks like the default for -mfpu is vfp and the default for -mfloat-abi is soft.

There are three different values, one takes some seconds, one takes some tens of seconds and one takes some minutes.

This was expected as there are three different ways to do floating point math. In the slowest one the kernel emulates the fpu after cpu has run into undefined floating point opcode. This is extremely slow as there are a lot of context switches. A faster way to do the floating point math without the hardware is to let the gcc to compile the floating point math to the binary itself (and something in libgcc?). The fastest way is to use the VFP hardware.

Categories: Maemo
Tyler Longwell

What Can Your Tablet Look Like?

2008-05-17 18:02 UTC  by  Tyler Longwell
0
0
Well, I recently took the liberty of changing my tablet's theme around. And now, I have decided to share some other's beautiful mods to show just how awesome the Nokia tablets can look. I have really gotten tired of reading about how horrid the UI is. It's not.

It's awesome.

Firstly, lets set the geek level to ten... Star trek, anyone?




Then, how bout a nice, darker touch?




Ah, some nice home applets a la' Khertan.




Oh-ho, what is that I see? Is that a mac? No~ That is a Nokia Internet Tablet running Basilisk with a rotated screen. And, is that also a Windows emulator... INSIDE a of a Mac emulator? (Soft Windows) Dear lord.




More custom icons, nice wallpaper.




KDE in action.




My tablet. Iconless and elegant.




Well, never knew your tablet could look like that, eh? If you like any, check out the thread with all the info you'll ever need: here.

Categories: Mods
Dirk-Jan Binnema

my name is nobody

2008-05-18 13:13 UTC  by  Dirk-Jan Binnema
0
0
It's great to see the improvements in the modest e-mail client. For most people, there should be little reason still to use the old email client. Great thanks to all involved -- my friends from Spain, Belgium, Germany and elsewhere; Vivek, Mox, and all users, contributors etc. It's good to mention contributors sometimes; I found the CNN Money-article about the N810 development team a bit off-balance in that respect - it would have been nice to include some people who write the software, too.

Anyway, back to modest. I'm sure that someone, somewhere is missing some feature that is essential to them. While usability and feature-richness are not necessarily conflicting, in practice they often are (I know, I'm a mutt-user!) But, no excuses -- in my (slightly biased) opinion, it's a nice little e-mail client and a great improvement. And with the code being open and free, there is nothing stopping people from firing up their favorite text editor and start hacking on their missing pet feature.

My personal role in the modest-project will diminish a bit. I'll be slaying some new dragons - still Nokia, open source, yadayada; I'll write a bit more about that in the near future. I feel that modest will continue its life in trusted hands, and of course I'll keep an eye on that ;-)

Krisse Juorunen
To get the most out of this tutorial, watch the video above and then read the text below. The tutorial assumes that N800 owners have upgraded to OS 2008. If you want to find out more about upgrading your N800, click here.If you want to comment on this tutorial, click here to visit its comments thread on the Tablet Scene site.Help! My tablet's web browser won't display Flash websites any more! How
Categories: nokia n800
handful

Bossa Conference 2008 Video

2008-05-18 17:26 UTC  by  handful
0
0
It was just amazing :) don't miss the next one!!!
everaldo

Mono 1.9.1 and WinForms available for Maemo

2008-05-19 08:01 UTC  by  everaldo
0
0
During the last Novell HackWeek, me, Torello Querci and Jae Stutzman work a little on Mono packages for Maemo, we also worked a little on Tomboy port to Maemo. Last weekend I just released latest Mono for Maemo packages, the news include WinForms, ADO.NET, and Maemo-Sharp for Maemo 4 (OS2008).

If you want to play a little with the packages just add this repository to your N810:

deb http://go-mono.com/maemo chinook test

Sometimes pictures say more than a thousand words:


MonoCalendar (WinForms) running on N810



CSharpTetris (also WinForms) game running on my N810

And whoever wants to run Tomboy on N8xx devices, this is the one click install.




Packages are in test repositories for now because I am not sure about the way how we make packages available, looks a little hard to manage lots of small packages, we have now about 30 mono packages, we use the same package conventions of Mono for Debian/Ubuntu but maybe that is not the best way, as example, Python is distributed for Maemo in only one big package.

One big package looks bad for me so, my idea is to have only few packages and only Mono 2.0 (gmcs) stuff available:

  • mono-runtime
  • mono-system (including libralies, maemo-sharp and gtk-sharp)
  • mono-winforms
  • mono-data
If you have any idea about a better division of packages or some ideas, please send us a comment and we will check it for next version.
Categories: maemo
Enrique Ocaña González

Until now, when I wanted to build some Vala source code for the Maemo platform I generated C code using the i386 Vala compiler and then builded the executable inside the scratchbox using gcc. That was fine until I wanted to use Hildon features (not available for i386). I definitely needed the Vala compiler running on the scratchbox.

This weekend I’ve put myself on the way and managed to compile Vala 0.3.2 on the scratchbox for the CHINOOK_ARMEL target. The process was much simpler than I expected and consisted of these few steps:

  1. Log into the scratchbox and choose CHINOOK_ARMEL
  2. Download the compiler from http://live.gnome.org/Vala/Release (I tried version 0.3.2)
  3. Untar it: tar jxvf vala-0.3.2.tar.bz2
  4. Enter the vala-0.3.2 directory and configure the package for ARMEL cross compiling: ./configure --host=armel
  5. Compile and install: make; make install

Alternately, to build for target CHINOOK_X86, repeat the previous steps but logged into the CHINOOK_X86 target. In step 3, issue ./configure without arguments instead.

That’s it. You have now the Vala compiler ready to be used. But if you want to develop a multiplatform project, you’ll need to avoid compilation of the Hildon related code when not building for Maemo target. The best way I found to do that was to use CPP as a preprocessor to allow me to use #ifdef’s in the code.

This is a simple way to use CPP to preprocess a single file:

cpp -P -Dsymbol1 -Dsymbol2 ... source.vala destination.vala

But I’ve managed to tweak my compilation script to preprocess all the files, write the result to a directory called CPP and finally compiling the result. Here’s the source:

# File compile.sh
export DEFINE=""
export APPNAME="myapp"
export PACKAGES="--thread --pkg gtk+-2.0 --pkg gdk-2.0 --pkg libglade-2.0 --pkg gmodule-2.0"

# Perform preprocessing and output to CPP directory
# Arguments to this script are "defined" and passed to CPP
for i in $@
do
 DEFINE="$DEFINE -D$i"
 case $i in
  MAEMO)
   PACKAGES="$PACKAGES --pkg hildon-1"
   ;;
 esac
done
if [ ! -d CPP ]; then mkdir CPP; fi
for f in *.vala; do cpp -P $DEFINE $f CPP/$f; done
valac $PACKAGES CPP/*.vala -o $APPNAME -X -g -X "-Wl,--export-dynamic -rdynamic"`
rm -rf CPP

The compile.sh script can be used by passing it the symbol set that should be defined. For instance, ./compile.sh MAEMO DEV would define both MAEMO and DEV symbols. Note that with this approach you should check the source files in the CPP directory when errors happen, because the line numbers referenced by the Vala compiler will be related to them and not to the original files.

I think this approach will be useful for other programmers too, so I’ve contributed it to the Vala FAQ (Does Vala have a preprocessor?).

Categories: Hacking (english)
gnuton

Qt4.4.0 packages with WEBKIT (yeah!)are available at qt4 for maemo homepage.
These packages aren’t compatible with the old Qt4 applications in our repository. So we descourage anyone to force a dist-upgrade on your device.
I’m providing to rebuild ours Qt4 applications and these will be uploaded soon for a “sane” upgrading.
Have a fun with the cutting edge Qt and Webkit!

Ps: if you want to try Qt4.4.0 power, you can install qt4-demos. It’ll take ~80Mb of space of your sdk environment.

Categories: Maemo-dev
Enrique Ocaña González

Shishen Sho Mahjongg 0.2 released

2008-05-19 19:06 UTC  by  Enrique Ocaña González
0
0

Last month I published Shishen Sho Mahjongg for Gtk and Maemo, a board game similar to Mahjongg where the goal is to remove all the tile pairs and two tiles can be removed if a line with a maximum of three segments can be drawn between them.

Today I’m announcing version 0.2. The main improvements since 0.1.1 are Hildon integration (fullscreen, embedded menu, notifications) through conditional compilation and drawing of matching path when two pieces are matched.

You can download the game and know more about the project following these links:

Feel free to send me your comments, suggestions or patches over the original Vala sources.

Thank you! :-)



Categories: Hacking (english)
Tyler Longwell

So Close to Complete!

2008-05-19 19:45 UTC  by  Tyler Longwell
0
0
Hello, hello! More wonderful news from the trenches at iTT! It seems that more amazing software is coming from the community there than ever before. So, without further adieu, I present OpenOffice running natively on a Nokia Internet Tablet :-)



Pretty spiffy, eh? Debian has been released for the tablets, and hacker Qole has set about utilizing this amazing new port. The Debian guys are awesome, porting everything they can to the armel processor (the one in your tablet).

And, if you are wondering, this is not x forwarding. It is actually running on the tablet!



Oh, that is not the only thing you can install under Debian... How about GIMP? XFCE? IceWM? All there. And what can we say about the uber-devs who brought this?

You guys rock. Hard.



XFCE sure does look pretty on that nice 800x480 screen ;)

And I hear it really purrs, too.



Gimp, from Debian, inside Penguinbait's KDE port. So much awesomeness all around!

With all these new apps at out fingertips, the tablet is almost complete software-wise.

(That sentiment actually makes me smile.)

:)

Categories: KDE
Zeeshan Ali

Moving in business

2008-05-20 02:19 UTC  by  Zeeshan Ali
0
0
I am finally moving in with my girlfriend, Ansku. It's been 1.5 years we have been together and now we are moving in. The place we are moving into is in Helsinki and very near to the Helsinki center. A nice apartment very near to the railway station of Huopalahti. The good thing about this train station is that a lot of trains go through it so if you miss a train, there is another one to catch after 5 minutes and the slowest train takes 15 minutes to reach the Helsinki center.

We are supposed to move on 1st of june and some nice dedicated friends have already promised to help us carry stuff.
Zeeshan Ali

Vala is great!

2008-05-20 02:19 UTC  by  Zeeshan Ali
0
0
Ever since Jorn and Matthew mentioned the idea of Vala bindings for GUPnP, I have been eager to learn Vala and so this weekend I finally got around to introduce myself to it. It's really cool. To express my admiration, I have already created a "Vala programming language fan club" group on facebook. :) A few minutes after I mentioned to Emmanuele on IRC about my intention of binding GUPnP for Vala, Ali Sabil had already done the basic work and we already have bindings that work for such basic example application at least:

using GLib;
using GUPnP;

public class Browser: ControlPoint {
public MainLoop main_loop { get; private set; }

private void on_device_proxy_available(ControlPoint cp,
DeviceProxy proxy) {
stdout.printf("device %s found\n", proxy.get_friendly_name());
}

private bool on_timeout () {
this.main_loop.quit();

return false;
}

public Browser() {
this.client = new Context(null, null, 0);
this.target = "ssdp:all";
this.resource_factory = ResourceFactory.get_default();

this.main_loop = new MainLoop(null, false);
}

static int main(string[] args) {
Browser browser;

Thread.init();

browser = new Browser();

browser.device_proxy_available += browser.on_device_proxy_available;

browser.set_active(true);

var time = new GLib.TimeoutSource(5000);

time.set_callback(browser.on_timeout, null);
time.attach(browser.main_loop.get_context());

browser.main_loop.run();

return 0;
}
}


If you are really anxious to try it out, you can get it here but please keep in mind that it needs a bit (at least) of polishing/love before it could be taken seriously.
Zeeshan Ali

GUPnP-AV 0.2 released

2008-05-20 02:19 UTC  by  Zeeshan Ali
0
0
- Use libsoup 2.4. [Jorn Baayen]
- Add DLNA support to DIDL writer. [Jorn Baayen]
- Some small fixes. [Jorn Baayen]
Zeeshan Ali

GUPnP developer tools 0.4 released

2008-05-20 02:19 UTC  by  Zeeshan Ali
0
0
- Use libsoup 2.4. [Jorn Baayen, Zeeshan Ali Khattak]
- Incremental browsing of containers. [Zeeshan Ali Khattak]
Gustavo Barbieri

One myth less

2008-05-20 09:00 UTC  by  Gustavo Barbieri
0
0

I do write C code on a daily basis since 2001 and I don’t know why I always believed that free(NULL) would crash, so I always used the painful construction:

        if (p)
                free(p);

Until yesterday! While talking to Lennart Poettering and we bet about that. Damn, I was so sure about it, but I’d really want to believe I was wrong, since I could avoid such stupid “if”. Well, after we got David Zeuthen’s phone we checked the free(3) man page and I was proved wrong!

Thanks Lennart, I owe you some bucks ;-)

Categories: C
Daniel Gentleman

After searching a few times per week since January, we finally see the LJPRX-48 posted on the FCC web site. I won't spoil much for you all - just look at the docs.


To do FCC searches of your own, go to the FCC Equipment Authorization Search site. Enter the information you would like to find. For example: You can search for a specific FCC ID like shown above or you can choose a company, date range, product description, and more.

Categories: N810 WiMAX Edition
sobral

Canola beta9

2008-05-20 15:35 UTC  by  sobral
0
0
the new beta 9 of canola is out! in this release the main new additions are the UPnP plugin and the "On the Move" playlist.

I find these two new features extremely useful: now you are able to create and edit a dynamic playlist on the go and access your media from your local network seamlessly.

besides that, there is also the new canola-tuning plugin, which enables you to get the cover arts and video thumbnail from inside canola´s settings (no need to run the canola-tuning app anymore).

one really old bug that was finally solved is the PNG thumbail generation! this was a long time on my todo list, but with low priority. the fix included a patch for epsilon, the EFL thumbnail library, and I took the opportunity to send some patches for epsilon upstream.

hope you enjoy, there is more to come ...
br
Categories: canola
Eduardo Lima

Ogg Support on Canola2

2008-05-20 23:00 UTC  by  Eduardo Lima
0
0
Click to read 1074 more words
Daniel Gentleman

iPhone Mania

2008-05-21 09:28 UTC  by  Daniel Gentleman
0
0
I had previously written that I was going to buy an iPhone ... but not any time soon. Now that the rumors of the 3G iPhone launch on June 9 are swirling, I think I'll briefly weigh in again. These are mad man predictions, so don't count on them as truth.

What would get me to buy an iPhone for $299:
  • 3G Data
  • A Flash player in the browser
  • Bluetooth A2DP with support for dual-profile stereo headsets
What would get me to buy an iPhone for $399
  • The three things above
  • GPS
  • The ability to use the 3G data connection with a computer.
What Steve Jobs will think is enough:
  • 3G Data
  • Over-the-air music purchases and podcast downloads
Anyone else care to weigh in on the subject?

Categories: speculation
Murray Cumming

Jan Arne Petersen joining Openismus

2008-05-21 13:44 UTC  by  Murray Cumming
0
0

We got lucky again. Jan Arne Petersen will start as a full-time Openismus employee next week, bringing more GTK+/GNOME development skills. He’ll be doing some interesting work on the Maemo platform.

Categories: Germany
Daniel Gentleman

On May 25, 2005, Nokia took stage at LinuxWorld in New York and announced their new product. It was a Nokia, but not a phone. It was a slate-sized touchscreen device, but not a PDA. It was something new. The Nokia 770 Internet Tablet. A what?

Nokia 770 reviews like this one at MobileBurn had the same initial reaction as much of the public: What is it and why? After some time experimenting, the tech geeks learned to understand and embrace the idea of a device made specifically to consume Internet content through a WiFi (or phone-tethered Bluetooth) connection. Developers started embracing the open-source software base and Nokia started listening to everyone talk about it. What happened next is evolution. There are now four Nokia Internet Tablets (that we know of) and hundreds of applications available for the platform. Here at TabletBlog, I want to celebrate Nokia's third anniversary of the Nokia 770 launch by giving my readers some special treats. This comes in five parts:
  1. Introduction and more (You are here.)
  2. Inside Nokia: An interview with Dr. Ari Jaaksi
  3. Community Spotlight: An interview with Reggie Suplido of InternetTabletTalk
  4. An insider's outside perspective: An interview with Veronica Belmont of Tekzilla
  5. A timeline of Internet Tablet developments from 2005 to 2008
Looking into the future, we see Diablo (the next Nokia Internet Tablet operating system revision) coming and likely more Internet Tablet revisions along the way. Other companies are taking Nokia's example by producing what they call MIDs (Mobile Internet Devices) as small, Linux based touchscreen web browsers. Intel, a big presence behind the MID development, even shares source code back and forth with Nokia's maemo team.

What is the future for Internet Tablets? The 770 was a the tip of the iceberg. The way we once used the internet will smack into that iceberg, sink, and change forever. It's already happening. I hope you enjoy this 3rd anniversary post as much as I enjoyed putting it together for you.

Happy 3rd anniversary, Nokia Internet Tablets. I know this celebration is a few days early but I want you to take Sunday off to relax.

Categories: N810 WiMAX Edition
Daniel Gentleman

This post is part of a series celebrating the third anniversary of the Nokia 770 launch:
  1. Introduction and more
  2. Inside Nokia: An interview with Dr. Ari Jaaksi (You are here.)
  3. Community Spotlight: An interview with Reggie Suplido of InternetTabletTalk
  4. An insider's outside perspective: An interview with Veronica Belmont of Tekzilla
  5. A timeline of Internet Tablet developments from 2005 to 2008
When I first met Dr. Ari Jaaksi (left) in the photo above. we were talking about the day-0ld Nokia N800 Internet Tablet. He is the Director of Open Source Operations at Nokia and a champion of Linux devices within Nokia. For this Third Anniversary special, he lends us a bit of his time for a nice light-hearted interview.
Click to read 1364 more words
Categories: N810 WiMAX Edition
Daniel Gentleman

This post is part of a series celebrating the third anniversary of the Nokia 770 launch:
  1. Introduction and more
  2. Inside Nokia: An interview with Dr. Ari Jaaksi
  3. Community Spotlight: An interview with Reggie Suplido of InternetTabletTalk (You are here.)
  4. An insider's outside perspective: An interview with Veronica Belmont of Tekzilla
  5. A timeline of Internet Tablet developments from 2005 to 2008
Behind any great Linux project is a community and the Nokia Internet Tablets are no exception. In addition to the developer resources from the maemo team, the Internet Tablet family has grown together on the forums of InternetTabletTalk.
Click to read 1382 more words
Categories: N810 WiMAX Edition
Daniel Gentleman
This post is part of a series celebrating the third anniversary of the Nokia 770 launch:
  1. Introduction and more
  2. Inside Nokia: An interview with Dr. Ari Jaaksi
  3. Community Spotlight: An interview with Reggie Suplido of InternetTabletTalk
  4. An insider's outside perspective: An interview with Veronica Belmont of Tekzilla
  5. A timeline of Internet Tablet developments from 2005 to 2008 (You are here.)
The following is a time-line of notable events in the Internet Tablet evolution since the announcement of the Nokia 770. This is not a comprehensive list by far so readers are encouraged to include their favorite developments and when they happened.
Click to read 1150 more words
Categories: N810 WiMAX Edition
Daniel Gentleman

This post is part of a series celebrating the third anniversary of the Nokia 770 launch:
  1. Introduction and more
  2. Inside Nokia: An interview with Dr. Ari Jaaksi
  3. Community Spotlight: An interview with Reggie Suplido of InternetTabletTalk
  4. An insider's outside perspective: An interview with Veronica Belmont of Tekzilla (You are here.)
  5. A timeline of Internet Tablet developments from 2005 to 2008
To properly put the Internet Tablets into perspective, I wanted to get some thoughts from someone "in the know" but outside the immediate Internet Tablet family. As a special treat, Veronica Belmont of Revision3's Tekzilla (and many other projects, including Mahalo Daily, Buzz Out Loud, Crave and more) took some time to answer questions on this platform and style of device. Thank you, Veronica!
Click to read 1164 more words
Categories: 770
gnuton

Reflashing my N810

2008-05-23 06:47 UTC  by  gnuton
0
0

Last night I was hacking Qt4 for maemo and I forced apt-get to install some packages in my full root partition of my N810.
This operation has probably corrupted its JFFS filesystem and BOOM!
When I tried to boot up my device it showed me the normal bootscreen and after 20-30 seconds it reboot itself!

Categories: Maemo-dev
Philip Van Hoof

Automation of bells

2008-05-24 11:56 UTC  by  Philip Van Hoof
0
0

Yesterday I was invited by a company that is specialised exclusively in bells, automation of bells, tower clocks, chimes and carillons for churches, cathedrals, public buildings, industry and schools.

They want to build a more modern version of their current device. They want it to have a little touch screen for example. The device is used for programming the songs that will come out of the tower. For example if there’s a wedding tomorrow, the technician or the priest himself configures his church’s bells.

And for your information. In the UK they indeed do this manually in most of the churches (usually there’s a community attached to the church for this). Lack of volunteers has created the need to automate this in other parts of Europe.

I’m doing some contract work for another big company so instead of coding the application we decided that I would give their developer a short training.

I tried to explain him how to make a signal in GObject, some Gtk+ things, how to make a GObject, how to use the GMainLoop correctly. I explained the GDK lock, how to use it with g_idle_add_full. The usual stuff.

I think I did succeed in explaining how to use glib-genmarshal, but this seemed to be quite complex to understand according to the developer. Then I thought about Vala! I decided to explain this person, in fifteen minutes, how Vala works. What its purpose is.

When I showed him how to do signals in Vala the developer suddenly grasped almost everything about our damn-complex signals. He immediately made the connection with how C# works with its events. Everything became clear. He’ll probably code most of his stuff in Vala now.

This kinda shows me that our GObject and C fanatics are getting it wrong. If we want vertical application development with GNOME Mobile, we don’t want to explain people how to do this in C. We want to explain them how to do it with Python, with C#, maybe C++ and definitely with Vala too.

I think our documentation and library development efforts are therefore not heading in the most optimized direction. Our C based libraries and their documentation should care more about higher languages being their consumer, than about showing how cool tricks you can do in C. Right now, most people developing libraries are still much more into showing their C skills.

The C tricks in your public .h files are irrelevant for application builders who’ll use your API in a higher programming language. Don’t make your API unusable by requiring the consumer of it to utilize C-isms.

My advise? Write all of your public API in Vala and let it generate the C header file.

Categories: Informatics and programming
gnuton

QGTKStyle on maemo

2008-05-25 07:06 UTC  by  gnuton
0
0

As Qt4 lover and programmer, I want to have well integrated Qt applications on my Maemo device. Some time ago I read about QGTKStyle project on Qt Blog. Thanks to the last Qt4 (4.4.0) available for maemo, a few days ago I tried QGTKStyle on my SDK but it didn’t work! It didn’t support 16bit screen!
So I talked with Jens ( the troll! ) and in less than 24 hours he had extended his pet to every X11 colour depth!
Last evening I tried it again and… it worked: GREAT!

Categories: Maemo-dev
Zeeshan Ali

Why Vala?

2008-05-25 15:16 UTC  by  Zeeshan Ali
0
0
When I told some people that I will write (which involves re-writing existing code first) the gupnp-media-server in Vala, their question was "Why Vala? Why not Python, Java or C#?". So here are the strong points of Vala, not all of which are found in these languages:


  • Statically-typed

    Back in the days, when I was hacking on Gazpacho I found the lack of types on variables and function/method parameters really annoying in Python. This can become quite a pain when you are reading other's code and that is exactly what I was doing most of the time. The fact that Johan and Kalle wrote very nice and readable code, helped a lot though.

  • No runtime dependency/overhead

    This might seem like a small point to many developers but as an embedded-systems developer, this is a big plus for me and I am sure to many (if not most) of the embedded-systems developers out there.


  • Easy integration with C/GObject

    A big plus for all the GObject/C developers out there. Besides, there are situations when writing code in any language other than C or C++ is not possible/viable and such easy integration would make life very easy. Recently a colleague of mine had to bind a gobject-based library for Python and it turned out to be a lot more pain than I imagined. This impression is based on the fact that so many of GNOME developers have taken python so serious and so many of the GNOME apps are being (re-)written in Python.

    This point is very important when it comes to writing frameworks and libraries since if you write them in a language that doesn't qualify as a LCD, you are pushing your choice of language on the application developers you aim to attract. Since Vala translates to a language that does qualify as LCD, it in turn also qualifies as one.

    An important bit here is that this integration is bi-directional, i-e one can use the classes written in Vala very easily from C. In fact this is much easier than doing it the other way around as you don't have to write any bindings.





UPDATE:I am sorry if my ideas hurt someones's feelings attached to some particular language. If i have hurt your feelings, there is no need for insults, I didn't force you to read my blog. Just writing this after removing an insulting comment from an 'Anonymous' dude.
Philip Van Hoof

I have been whining about features that I want in Vala to Jürg. To make up for all the time he lost listening to me I decided to fix two Vala bugs.

The first bug I fixed was using a recursive mutex for lock statements. Code like this will work as expected now:

public class LockMe : GLib.Object { }
public class Executer : GLib.Object {
	LockMe o { get; set; }
	construct { o = new LockMe (); }
	void Internal () {
		lock (o) { }
	}
	public void Method () {
		lock (o) { Internal (); }
	}
}
public class App : GLib.Object {
	static void main (string[] args) {
		Executer e = new Executer ();
		e.Method ();
	}
}

Here’s a gdb session that most GLib programmers will recognize:

Breakpoint 1, 0x08048a87 in executer_Method ()
(gdb) break g_static_rec_mutex_lock
Breakpoint 2 at 0xb7e4d0e6
(gdb) cont
Continuing.
Breakpoint 2, 0xb7e4d0e6 in g_static_rec_mutex_lock ()
   from /usr/lib/libglib-2.0.so.0
(gdb) bt
#0  0xb7e4d0e6 in g_static_rec_mutex_lock () from /usr/lib/libglib-2.0.so.0
#1  0x08048b04 in executer_Method ()
#2  0x08049046 in app_main ()
#3  0x0804908a in main ()
(gdb) cont
Continuing.
Breakpoint 2, 0xb7e4d0e6 in g_static_rec_mutex_lock ()
   from /usr/lib/libglib-2.0.so.0
(gdb) bt
#0  0xb7e4d0e6 in g_static_rec_mutex_lock () from /usr/lib/libglib-2.0.so.0
#1  0x08048a6e in executer_Internal ()
#2  0x08048b0f in executer_Method ()
#3  0x08049046 in app_main ()
#4  0x0804908a in main ()
(gdb) cont
Continuing.
Program exited normally.
(gdb) 

The second bug is supporting interfaces for D-Bus services in Vala. It goes like this:

using GLib;
[DBus (name = "org.gnome.TestServer")]
public interface TestServerAPI {
	public abstract int64 ping (string msg);
}
public class TestServer : Object, TestServerAPI {
	int64 counter;
	public int64 ping (string msg) {
		message (msg);
		return counter++;
	}
}
void main () {
	MainLoop loop = new MainLoop (null, false);
	try {
		var conn = DBus.Bus.get (DBus.BusType.SESSION);
		dynamic DBus.Object bus = conn.get_object (
			"org.freedesktop.DBus", "/org/freedesktop/DBus",
			"org.freedesktop.DBus");
		uint request_name_result = bus.RequestName ("org.gnome.TestService", 0);
		if (request_name_result == DBus.RequestNameReply.PRIMARY_OWNER) {
			// start server
			var server = new TestServer ();
			conn.register_object ("/org/gnome/test", server);
			loop.run ();
		} else {  // client
			dynamic DBus.Object test_server_object =
				conn.get_object ("org.gnome.TestService",
					"/org/gnome/test", "org.gnome.TestServer");
			int64 pong = test_server_object.ping ("Hello from Vala");
			message (pong.to_string ());
		}
        } catch (Error foo) { }
}
Categories: Informatics and programming
Andre Klapper

Ubuntu Developer Summit and Maemo Bugzilla

2008-05-25 23:35 UTC  by  Andre Klapper
0
0
Spent the last week at the Ubuntu Developer Summit at Prague. It was a pleasure to meet and see lots of friends and new people from the Ubuntu and GNOME universe. Technically speaking lots of workshops were a bit to Ubuntu specific to me (I mostly attended QA and Mobile ...
Enrique Ocaña González

Shishen Sho Mahjongg 0.3 released

2008-05-26 00:39 UTC  by  Enrique Ocaña González
0
0

Version 0.3 of Shishen Sho Mahjongg has just been released. The main improvements since 0.2 are: Gravity, hints, undo history, time counter and speed improvements.

You can download the game and know more about it visiting the project page at Maemo Garage.

Enjoy it!

Click here to install this application

28/05/2008 UPDATE: Now the application is also available in Maemo Extras repository and listed in Maemo Downloads with its own green “click to install” icon :-)

Categories: Hacking (english)
streg

A while back I was going through kernel-source-rx-34-2.6.21.0-packages .config file in order to build some usb-drivers.

Click to read 1198 more words
Categories: Maemo
Dave Neary

Call for help!

2008-05-26 16:50 UTC  by  Dave Neary
0
0

I received my copy of Big Buck Bunny today, and I’m leaving for Berlin tomorrow morning for LinuxTag.

I’d like to be able toshow BBB on my Nokia N810, but when I copy the AVI file from the DVD onto the tablet, it doesn’t load (”File format not supported” it says). Same goes for “Elephants Dream”. The same also goes for the Nokia N800 (although there I just get a message the there is no application that can manage the file format).

Can anyone point me towards the codecs I’ll need to get this working tonight, please? I’d hunt myself (really I would) if I wasn’t packing a bag and putting kids to bed.

Thanks Lazyweb!

Categories: freesoftware
tko

Three steps forward, one giant step back

2008-05-26 17:14 UTC  by  tko
0
0

Life with Clutter on OSX

First there was massive breakageimprovement to support multiple stages in clutter. It’s really good news for like clutter-gtk, allowing you to have multiple clutter embeds in an application. The bad news was that it changed the backend API and broke OSX build.

Somehow somewhere in the middle of relocating myself to London I managed to get the OSX backend back working again. But not before the shiny new cogl, another big rewrite landed, and broke the build again.

Good news

Little hacking later cogl is building again and multistage works on OSX. Once those, and a couple of other minor patches have been reviewed and committed clutter can be built on OSX again.

On top of that there’s a patch to make it possible to build clutter on OSX without gtk+ using instead Core Image (Quartz) to load the textures. Should make it a little bit easier to bootstrap the building process. It’s not as big a deal as one might think as clutter is in MacPorts now.

Bad news

The bad news is that with all the patches to make clutter build on OSX again it can produce weird artefacts or plain crash. I was assuming it had something to do with NPOT textures but after poking around with OpenGL Profiler I’m not so sure anymore. Using OpenGL Profiler can crash some clutter test programs, even the ones before cogl rewrite and multistage, with invalid memory access. Seems to happen only with the native driver and some combination of extensions and whatnot.

My totally unfounded guess is that I’ve gotten some reference counting wrong or missing locking somewhere, but so far any attempts to tweak things haven’t worked and I’m running out of ideas. Help?

Categories: General
Daniel Gentleman

TabletBlog interviews YOU!

2008-05-27 11:27 UTC  by  Daniel Gentleman
0
0
In my last series of posts on the three-year history of the Nokia Internet Tablets, I interviewed Ari Jaaksi, Veronica Belmont, and Reggie Suplido. Those interviews were fun, but what I'd like to do now is interview YOU - my readers!

Pick a question from any one of the interviews and answer it here in the comments. I think it'd be nice to get readers discussing any of the questions I put forth to my guests.

Categories: interviews
Daniel Gentleman

Site feed restored

2008-05-27 11:52 UTC  by  Daniel Gentleman
0
0
After last Thursday's onslaught of posts, I switched the site feed to "short" to avoid overwhelming your RSS readers. Now that most readers are caught up, I switched the site feed to "full posts" so all content is back in your RSS reader.

Categories: blogging
Daniel Gentleman

Get a job at Nokia

2008-05-27 11:56 UTC  by  Daniel Gentleman
0
0
If you like Internet Tablets enough to work on them for a living, check out Quim Gil's announcement of a "Jobs" section of maemo.org. Sadly, there's no job listing for "Rabid Fanboy" so I won't be applying for work at Nokia.

Speaking of jobs - My day job got bought out by a company in Dallas and they're closing this office in Phoenix at the end of July. If you're hiring a Linux guru or blogger in Phoenix, I know one who will be available!

Categories: Nokia
gnuton

QGTKStyle has been available for Maemo

2008-05-27 18:40 UTC  by  gnuton
0
0

QGTKStyle is a Qt style rendered using GTK to give a native appearence for Qt applications running on the GNOME desktop.
It’s available on our repositories at qt4.garage.maemo.org.
This is an experimental package: it’s stable but it’s under heavy development, so this package is provided ONLY for testing and bug reporting.

If you want to keep up-to-date on QGTKStyle changes, please check QGTKStyle page at google code .
Note: QGtkStyle is installable only via xterm. In order to install it, you simply need to run apt-get install qgtkstyle as root; So run qtconfig as not privileged user and select GTK as style.
Our forum is always open for any discussion about it, and you can use the tracker to report a bug in the package.

Categories: Maemo-dev
Florian Boor

LinuxTag is (almost) there

2008-05-27 22:00 UTC  by  Florian Boor
0
0

In a few hours LinuxTag 2008 will open its gates. There is a large booth for mobile and embedded Open Source projects in hall 7b – I’ll be there for OpenEmbedded. GPE is there and right next to us there is the booth of the OpenMoko folks.
Logo


Categories: Linux
Marius Gedminas

LinuxTag 2008

2008-05-28 11:18 UTC  by  Marius Gedminas
0
0

Nokia kindly invited me to speak about Maemo at LinuxTag 2008.

WiFi is a bit problematic here. At the hotel there's no free wifi, you can buy some kind of access from Swisscom at silly prices (8 EUR for 1 hour, with a 100 MB download limit) with silly limitations, and besides my laptop refuses to associate with the AP and doesn't even get to the login page.

WiFi works at LinuxTag itself (at least in the conference rooms; the expo hall was spotty), but you have to visit a pointless and slow web page and press a button labeled 'Go' before they let you ssh around. I fail to see the point, but at least I can get my email now.

Everyone is very nice here. I only attended one talk by now (Cristoph Hellwig's interesting talk about xfs), but I hardly saw any open laptops in the audience.

The Berlin public transport system is not difficult to figure out. The N810's built-in GPS is not useful in practice. I got a fix exactly once after standing for about 10 minutes outside of the hotel. Maemo Mapper is useful for figuring out your actual location on the map, as you're listening to station names on the bus.

Met some people (hi, Dave!). My memory for names is still atrocious. My bad eyesight doesn't let me read badges easily, either. By the way, if you're designing badges that will hang from a lanyard, please print them with the same text on both sides.

Categories: /home/mg/blog/data
Krisse Juorunen
(This isn't directly relevant to Internet Tablet users (and those viewing this on Planet Maemo please feel free to give this item a thumbs down) but it's a similar format and it's about another Nokia product so it seems appropriate to mention this here.)The N-Gage School site is a sister site to the Internet Tablet School, and carries easy-to-understand step-by-step instructions on how to install
Categories: n-gage
jaaksi

Phones no, Ubuntu yes?

2008-05-28 17:28 UTC  by  jaaksi
0
0
We’ve been busy lately! Next software releases and products, architecture works with the Trolls, browser work with Mozilla, and so forth. It’s already almost June and I’m thinking we just got over Xmas. It’s good to realize that in about 4 weeks, nights start to get longer and days shorter here in the Northern hemisphere. The Earth rotates towards the next winter! Get ready!

Linux phone shipments declining – cool user experience from closed camps

We all like open source. Free speech, good beer, bugs are shallow, community will fix everything (if you let ‘em), no patents to slow us down, decisions based on technical merits, etc. If you hear all this positive talk you may wonder why won’t this good software just crawl into devices and turn them on. How come the shipment of Linux phones is declining globally? How come some of the bravest open source device and phone activities do not seem to get very far? And why do the most interesting user experiences and new user interfaces seem to come from proprietary camps? Apples, Microsofts, LGs, Samsungs, Nokias – they all introduce cool new devices, software and user interfaces based on closed software stacks. Why is this? The answer is NOT that because the companies are evil. There must be a better answer. Maybe I’ll explain them in my next post ;-)

Ubuntu rules

So what’s with computers then? Ubuntu is surprising me. I’ve been thinking that the traditional PC desktop environment is always going to be dominated by the closed players – where the one has 90% and the other has 10% and that's it. I also thought that the computer concept needs to radically change before anybody can seriously challenge the status quo. Network PC, mobile devices, something else. But now then, what’s with Ubuntu?

I do not know about their exact market share or Mark’s goals with Ubuntu. But the team is making a great progress. I’ve always liked Ubuntu but was kinda ashamed of using it. It’s brown, it doesn’t have an apple on it, and it doesn’t come with Internet Messenger. But this week two little things happened.

First, I bought a new smart card reader. I connected it with the laptop (!) running Ubuntu, pushed in an SD card – and it just worked! Ubuntu – laptop – smart card reader. Plug-n-play. This is seriously important to my father! He’s 78.

Then, our Windows XP laptop lost its network settings. I said to my daughter, I’ll fix it. Meanwhile, why don’t you use my laptop. I got the Windows laptop fixed the next day and gave it back to my daughter. She had used my Ubuntu laptop for a day for all she does. I did not get any comments nor any complaints or “how can I do this and that” questions. She was just happy using it. She is eleven now.

I find this pretty amazing!
Dave Neary

Live from LinuxTag

2008-05-29 09:52 UTC  by  Dave Neary
0
0

I arrived in Berlin on Tuesday for three days in LinuxTag 2008 to meet up with some members of the maemo.org community, see old friends, and generally chat with as many people as possible.

After arriving, I managed to  get out for a run, which was surprisingly pleasant - ourhotel is quite near the Tiergarten behind the zoological gardens, so while running around I accidentally went past some lovely landmarks, and managed to scout out a nice beer-garden beside the Neuen See where we had some nice Weisswurst last night.

It’s been fun so far - I met up with Quim and Marcell on Tuesday, and Kate, Peter, Niels and Marius yesterday. I spent a lot of time wandering around playing “spot the familiar face” - it was great catching up with Jochen Topf from Open Street Map (formerly FOSTEL organiser), Vincent Untz and Joe Brockmeister who are here for OpenSuse, Nils and Florian from OpenEmbedded and GPE.

I ran into Anne Oestergaard too, and it was great chatting with MaryBeth and Rob from OpenMedia Now, Knut Yrvin from Trolltech, and most of the KDE eV board who are here this week too - I met Aaron Seigo for the first time, after years of email conversations, and Sebastian and Cornelius are here too.

With so many familiar faces, it can be tempting to just talk to people you know, but I do like meeting up with new people at these things too - and the number one conversation starter I’ve had this week has been  Big Buck Bunny - my kids love this cartoon, so much that Tuesday they watched it on repeat for an hour. And it goes down well with the adults too. Mad props to Ton, Sacha and the gang on the great success - they have attained their goal of an accessible cartoon to follow on from the “arty” Elephants Dream.

Already today we’ve heard Cat Allman from Google telling us about Google Summer of Code and GHOP, and  the always entertaining Knut Yrvin on QT. After Knut’s session the maemo.org track starts, and I will be reporting as much as possible. Nick Loeve (trickie) proposed having a Wiki sprint today, and if I can get critical mass (and critical internet access) for that, we’ll do that a little later.

Categories: freesoftware
Dave Neary

OLPC, OpenMoko and GNOME Mobile

2008-05-29 11:43 UTC  by  Dave Neary
0
0

Some recent stories have started raising brows among some comentators on GNOME Mobile (see the comments in particular):

Click to read 1402 more words
Categories: gnome
Dave Neary

maemo.org track in LinuxTag

2008-05-29 14:13 UTC  by  Dave Neary
0
0

So far, the maemo.org track has been great - very informative. Some highlights:

Gary Birkett (better known on IRC as lcuk) gave a short talk on how and why he got involved in memo.org - an interesting perspective on motivations of volunteers, and a classic “scratching your own itch” situation. He’s developed a text reader which works in full-screen, and has smooth scrolling with finger & stylus (like the iPhone).

Niels Breet is the maemo.org webmaster. He was an active community member doing great work, who has recently been funded by Nokia to work on project infrastructur. It’s an interesting model of community funding - Niels explained that his boss is the maemo.org community, even though it’s Nokia who’s paying his wages. He talked about some of the things that he’s working on improving, including the newly published maemo.org packaging policy (PDF), and fixing the repositories mess to make it easier to upload software to a central maemo extras repository.

The main presentation to close out the morning was Quim Gil talking about the maemo.org strategy of Nokia over the next couple of years. Without going into details, he talked about the next two versions of the platform, Fremantle and Harmattan. Fremantle will continue to be primarily GTK+/Hildon based, and QT will be integrated into the platform in the Harmattan release.
Quim then talked about the role of community in maemo.org and tablet development. He mentioned that Nokia have recently invested in 3 roles (webmaster, bugmaster, docmaster) where the people being funded answer primarily to the community. This represents a big investment in the community.

His major announcement was that he was launching 10 days of community brainstorming on two subjects: the 100 Days community plan and maemo.org 2010, defining short term goals for the community, and helping Nokia define the mid-term goals and strategy for the project. He also announced the maemo summit, to be held in Berlin on the 19th of September, after OSiM World, and finished with a call to arms. Nokia is looking for real community input and action, and wants help finding the right balance between the commercial constraints involved in producing mass-market devices and the community requirement for transparency and openness.

After lunch, we had some presentations of some of the cool apps which have been written by community members for the maemo platform.

Alberto Garcia of Igalia presented Vagalume , a beautiful and well-integrated Last.fm client for GNOME and maemo tablets.

Florian Boor presented the GPE application suite which includes a bunch of small applications targeting handheld form-factors.

Urho Konttori, who has since become a project manager in Nokia, talked about the UKMP media player, UKTube YouTube downloader & plater, and some other applications which he has written for the maemo platform.

Next up: maemo.org platform hacks, and “what’s next?”.

Categories: maemo
Aniello Del Sorbo
Looks like we will finally get really fast fix times, with our tablets, when Diablo will eventually come out.ITT's forum user "qwerty12" noticed a nice "agps-ui" application to control AGPS on the tablet.He went on and installed it and it works!Other (lucky) Diablo (pre-release) users are reporting time to fix in the order of SECONDS!Can't wait for the release of this new firmware.
Categories: agps
jaaksi

Open source – yes!

2008-05-29 16:07 UTC  by  jaaksi
0
0
Thanks for the feedback to my previous post!! I merely described the current situation.

But things are changing. We see many new kinds of devices appearing: Internet Tablets, small PCs, multimedia computers, and so forth. For all these new interesting devices, open source is the way to go. Seriously, what else? A closed sw stack? I do not see any other way to develop these new interesting devices –bundled with interesting services – but to use open source more and more. That is simply the way to build these devices. It is the only approach flexible and powerful enough.

In the traditional phone business, things may be a bit more difficult. Traditional phones have already good operating systems and software optimized for their reasonably narrow set of use cases and for fixed business ecosystems. So, it’ll be more difficult to change that landscape to more open direction. I thought the same was the case with the PC – but Ubuntu may be proving me wrong. So you never know about the traditional phones either. The sure thing, though, is that for all new interesting highly connected devices, Linux and open source is the way to go. This is my opinion.

Then, what can we do to speed this all up? We work very hard on the next highly connected products – to bring new stuff to maemo and develop it further. And I also want to invite you all to do it with us.

So, please, take a look at this. For the next 10 days, we are opening a brainstorm period for the future of maemo.org. The goal is to consolidate feedback from the developers and users in the community, and integrate that feedback into the mid-term agenda of the project.

The work we do with maemo is our practical implementation towards more open environments for mobile devices. In our case, the Tablets provide a challenging new device category that will evolve over time. And open source and community participation are the only means for us to succeed.

We hire people and open new initiatives to get there.

P.S.
Linux phone shipments declining. Why
1) one reason descibed above
2) another reason
3) a third reason
atmasphere

Garnet VM Beta 2 Released

2008-05-30 03:38 UTC  by  atmasphere
0
0

Garnet VM Beta for Nokia Nseries

I got an email about the release of the new beta (2) for the Palm Garnet VM and checked it out briefly tonight. The main features seem to be functioning in full screen mode in either portrait or landscape which is slick. You’ll of course have access to the full library of Palm applications which is nice, though honestly as interesting as that seems the low-res nature of things compared to how my Maemo apps view on the N810 kills this for me … that and it’s been several years since I actively cared about Palm OS.

I did a quick install of ChatterMail and connected to my Gmail IMAP account. Seemed to generally work as expected though between the richer native web UI or Modest this still remains a proof of concept.

Technorati Tags:
, , , ,

Categories: Applications
Tags: , , , ,
Daniel Gentleman

One of the major criticisms of the first edition Palm OS/Internet Tablet work by Access Garnet was the lack of full-screen support. Garnet VM Beta 2 (available for download here) fixes that.

To get Palm OS running on your tablet, follow the link above and fill out the form. This can be done over your desktop PC as the actual download link is sent over Email. I like how the form default for Email options is OFF. Generally, you have to un-check a box if you don't want extra Email. The Email it DOES send you takes you to the download page and the 1.4 MB package is loaded by the Application Manager.

There is already healthy discussion on what works and does not over at the InternetTabletTalk forums. Head over and join the discussion.

Categories: OS2008
Krisse Juorunen
Okay, let's start from basic notions - why would someone want to connect a thumb drive to a Nokia tablet?

USB flash drives, which are sometimes referred to as thumb drives are basically flash memory cards with a USB connector. They could be easily carried around and can store up to 64GB of information. Most of my friends use these to make backups of important files or to carry needed files with them.



The N800 and N810 both come with built-in memory card slots, but both these data storage devices work identically but flash drives are capable of storing larger amounts of information.

The only difference is in the the plug, the USB plug in this case.

Well, when I started writing this blog posts, I didn't know that a similar article already existed, so please refer to this article to find out how to connect a USB drive to a tablet by using a USB cable:

http://trixboxer.com/blog/nokia-n800-n810-how-to-connect-a-usb-flash-drive-to-your-tablet-using-the-usb-cable/

Thanks for your attention and have a good day.
Categories: nokia
Marius Gedminas

LinuxTag 2008, day 2

2008-05-30 10:55 UTC  by  Marius Gedminas
0
0

The day just flew by. We had all the Maemo community talks. Some people have asked me to put my LinuxTag presentation online, so here it is: What do I want from Maemo?.

In the evening we went to a nice outdoors cafe in a large and beautiful park (Tiergaten) and talked about various things until 1 AM.

My email is piling up, and Google Reader is overflowing.

Categories: /home/mg/blog/data
Kate Alhola

Maemo future roadmap at LinuxTag

2008-05-30 12:17 UTC  by  Kate Alhola
0
0

maemo_linuxtag

 

In LinuxTag Nokia released some new facts about future of maemo.
After the soon to be released Diablo release we are going to have releases
with codenames Fremantle and Harmattan. You can find full release in 
Quim Gil's slide set .

The this presentaion gives lot of answers for the hottest maemo
question, Qt or GTK .  The Fremantle will still be GTK+ based release
and Harmattan will give Qt support. The all important but invisible
maemo framework technologies like Dbus, Gstreamer, Telepathy, X11,
Bluez  or debian packing will remain there.

Even though Qt support is coming in Harmattan release, it does mean that
maemo developers should wait so long until able to develop
Qt applications for Nokia tablets. There is already garage.maemo.org
project Qt4 for maemo that runs in current Chinook
release. The current release lacks some important maemo integration
features like maemo input method or maemo menus support but I think
that we will see them there soon. Nokia will support this community
efford to bringing Qt as soon as possible to maemo developers.
 

Categories: Maemo
Zeeshan Ali

My new personal hero

2008-05-30 14:15 UTC  by  Zeeshan Ali
0
0
Meet my new personal hero, Jussi Kukkonen. The only o-hand employee in Finland who almost single-handedly created the Vala bindings of the whole GUPnP stack and ported all our test apps to Vala in a very short amount of time despite the fact that he was completely unfamiliar to Vala and GUPnP (and UPnP itself) when he started working on this task and the fact that the Vala documentation is hardly any complete (especially binding-generation).
Sebastian Mancke

Linuxtag 2008 and Jalimo update

2008-05-30 19:20 UTC  by  Sebastian Mancke
0
0

For me and all people I have talked to, this years Linuxtag in Berlin was a great event. It is still not over, but I can’t attend for the last day. I had three personal highlights:

  • This year, we had a common Mobile and Embedded booth, next to the OpenMoko and Trolltech booth.
  • We had a very nice Maemo track, with a great discussion at the end. Especially Simon had very direct ideas in improving the community situation in Maemo (are your slides already online?)
  • Our jalimo project got a very good resonance by much visitors.

You can see the jalimo slides of my talk, here.

Jalimo booth

ME booth

Categories: Uncategorized
Quim Gil

Who makes the maemo community?

2008-05-30 20:45 UTC  by  Quim Gil
0
0
Back to Helsinki, full of thoughts and ideas exchanged yesterday around the maemo track in LinuxTag @ Berlin. The slides of my presentation are available, but they are mostly a background for my speech, that was recorded and will be uploaded hopefully soonish. Among other things, we kicked off 10 days of brainstorm about maemo.org, the [...]
Categories: maemo
Zeeshan Ali

Dear Python, leave me alone

2008-05-30 23:14 UTC  by  Zeeshan Ali
0
0
So yet once again Mr python decide to tease me when i do `apt-get dist-upgrade`:

Setting up python-lxml (2.0.5-1) ...
/var/lib/dpkg/info/python-lxml.postinst: /usr/bin/pycentral: /usr/bin/python: bad interpreter: No such file or directory
dpkg: error processing python-lxml (--configure):
subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 126
...
Errors were encountered while processing:
epiphany-extensions
bzr
gnome-media-common
libgnome-media0
gnome-media
pidgin
python-lxml
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
Tyler Longwell

Debian On the N8X0

2008-05-31 11:22 UTC  by  Tyler Longwell
0
0
Yo!



More great news! Yes, lots lately, I know. All you N800 and N810 users now have an alternate OS to choose from. Debian. Yes, another member of ITT has brought the whole system to tablets. This comes complete with XFCE, Epiphany, and all the software in the Debian armel repositories. Which is a lot of stuff. That means Open Office, Gimp, and more. (That's how OO was running in an earlier post here.)

Oh, and did I mention you can run all those apps inside Maemo once they're installed, thanks to another mem? Nice, huh ;)

Just wanted to put it out there, get instruction for install and follow the progress here and Internet Tablet Talk!

Categories: OpenOffice.org
gnuton

Today, i’ve reported a bug of QGTKStyle on maemo.
Click here to follow the status and to watch the screenshot of the bug

Categories: Maemo-dev
Florian Boor

LinuxTag 2008 summary

2008-05-31 15:30 UTC  by  Florian Boor
0
0

Linke every year we had a really good time at LinuxTag! It is always a great event talking to interested users, business people and other developers. For the projects sharing this booth such as MyStep, Jalimo, GPE and OpenEmbedded it was a great success. For me it was the first time representing OpenEmbedded at a fair like this – with good results: We had quite some people who knew OE and asked specific questions and many developers with interest in using it.

LinuxTag always gives a lot of inspiration for new things to do and projects to check out. I know about some interesting software we need in OE soon – things like the Sugar framework for the OLPC and x2go. Other important tasks are to publish a list of evices that are defined in OE metadata and pushing the mobile-linux project forward.

In the Maemo track I had a short talk about GPE applications for Maemo – the slides of my talk can be found here. Unluckily I was not able to attend more of the interesting talks in this track. But I found out that the Mamona people seem to like OpenEmbedded at least :-)

Linuxtag1

The Tarent and Mobile booth right after opening in the morning… it was way more crowded a short time later.

Linuxtag2

Many thanks to all the people organizing LinuxTag and Tarent for booth and the big red sofa for sitting down to write my blog.


Categories: GPE
Marius Gedminas

LinuxTag 2008, day 3

2008-05-31 16:17 UTC  by  Marius Gedminas
0
0

After getting my presentation out of the way, I was finally able to relax and really enjoy LinuxTag. I hadn't realised quite how stressed I was about the talk. I'm really happy now that I agreed to come.

Watched an amazing demo in the LinuxMCE booth. I always though it was some kind of a media center app for watching movies, but it turns out to be a complete home automation system where you can control the lights, security cameras and, of course, multimedia, with a large variety of devices (remote controls, mobile phones, VoIP hardware phones, Nokia Internet tablets). Still, I'd have to get a house first.

After the conference I went out for a beer (or, rather, a cup of Earl Grey) in the city with Gary "lcuk" Birkett and Malgorzata Ciesielska, who is doing her PhD on Nokia/Maemo community organisation/collaboration. Had a really nice evening.

Categories: /home/mg/blog/data
Marius Gedminas

LinuxTag 2008, day 3

2008-05-31 16:17 UTC  by  Marius Gedminas
0
0

After getting my presentation out of the way, I was finally able to relax and really enjoy LinuxTag. I hadn't realised quite how stressed I was about the talk. I'm really happy now that I agreed to come.

Watched an amazing demo in the LinuxMCE booth. I always though it was some kind of a media center app for watching movies, but it turns out to be a complete home automation system where you can control the lights, security cameras and, of course, multimedia, with a large variety of devices (remote controls, mobile phones, VoIP hardware phones, Nokia Internet tablets). Still, I'd have to get a house first.

After the conference I went out for a beer (or, rather, a cup of Earl Grey) in the city with Gary "lcuk" Birkett and Malgorzata Ciesielska, who is doing her PhD on Nokia/Maemo community organisation/collaboration. Had a really nice evening.

Quim Gil

maemo LinuxTag update

2008-05-31 21:18 UTC  by  Quim Gil
0
0
Audio and slides of the maemo update at LinuxTag. Main talk points: Diablo, Fremantle, Harmattan, GTK+/Qt, maemo.org brainstorm & maemo summit on September 19, also in Berlin. Start - Slide 1: maemo LinuxTag update 00:17 - 2: The story continues 01:34 - 3: Diablo 04:00 - 4: Fremantle 05:50 - 5: Harmattan 08:05 - 6: UI framework progression 12:54 - 7: [...]
Categories: maemo

Back