Planet maemo: category "feed:db85272b5cc4c48c874836930690af4e"
Some goodies for the n900 are now in my repository. Yes, I know it's evil to have my own, but if that's all it takes to be George Thorogood then so be it. In the at the aforementioned link you will find unison, gphoto, stldb4, libferris, ocaml, a compiled install of coreutils to avoid battling busybox, xercesc, xalanc, xqilla, and a (more) working soprano.
Last week I got a wonderful surprise in the mail, a tasty new n900! The package "from" lists Quim Gil as the sender, so its come directly from half way around the world. Thanks Quim! And now for my initial thoughts and investigations; some of this will be of no surprise to existing owners, some of it was of some surprise to me. Oh, before I begin and loose folks to the down arrow key, anyone know of plasma packages for the n900? I'd like to port my abomination australian weather plasmoids over for mobile use.
This is a post about metadata extraction from files for desktop search. While it applies specifically to libferris, the same considerations apply to anything which trawls an entire filesystem looking to create a rich index of metadata to allow desktop search to run queries in a reasonable timeframe. Ferris runs fine on KDE and the n810 (soon n900?) so its applicable to both syndications in a way.
For those who haven't done seen it, linux.conf.au now has its CFP open, till 7th Aug. It was quite a tight window this time around, but if you already knew about the conference, you probably already have something to pitch to the call :)
IMHO it would be nice to see RDF/Nepomuk folk(s) and some maemo/moblin/i-rebrand mobile hackers too. So please excuse the dual syndication on the premise that some hackers might not have noticed the CFP but have cool stuff which just might be made cooler by chatting over a few beers in 30C summery weather.
IMHO it would be nice to see RDF/Nepomuk folk(s) and some maemo/moblin/i-rebrand mobile hackers too. So please excuse the dual syndication on the premise that some hackers might not have noticed the CFP but have cool stuff which just might be made cooler by chatting over a few beers in 30C summery weather.
If anyone in the maemo world knows of recent plasma packages for the n810, please drop a line or leave a comment linking to it from here.. The post is about Abomination, my perl/KDE4 code to grab and log data from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology and present it in an interesting way.
I notice that doppler wind is now available from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. Also, I didn't notice the up to 512km composite rain maps before. The plan is to include support for both of these radar types into my KDE plasmoiods. I think having the doppler wind as a transparent overlay above the rainfall overlay would be quite telling, being able to see why clouds burst at given points.
Though this doesn't solve the deeper, more interesting question of if the system that is causing the interesting wind trend will remain for the next 2 hours while you are outside performing activity-Y and wanting to remain dry.
I notice that doppler wind is now available from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. Also, I didn't notice the up to 512km composite rain maps before. The plan is to include support for both of these radar types into my KDE plasmoiods. I think having the doppler wind as a transparent overlay above the rainfall overlay would be quite telling, being able to see why clouds burst at given points.
Though this doesn't solve the deeper, more interesting question of if the system that is causing the interesting wind trend will remain for the next 2 hours while you are outside performing activity-Y and wanting to remain dry.
OK, so a post about annotating files and desktop search. KDE guys might be interested because libferris uses soprano, the base of RDF on that desktop, maemo guys might be interested because all this works on that platform too, and I have a specialized index structure for n810 power level devices in libferris.
If you are on the lookout for a C++, GTK+2, Qt, Linux developer with a PhD and experience in persistent storage and indexing then I'm looking for you!
For those who don't know me, I am "the libferris guy". Which means I have played with virtual filesystems for many many years and implemented a good handful of ways to index and search diverse filesystems. Some of the articles I did for Linux Journal and linux.com will give an impression of the sorts of things libferris can do, and in the next months the Linux Format includes information on Web services as a filesystem, eg, mounting flickr, youtube, and facebook.
After hacking RDF support into KOffice earlier this year, I would very much like to work more with Soprano and RDF technologies. But anything involving indexing and storage is also of huge interest. In fact one of the things I like about RDF at the low level is that it overlaps these desires too, for example, my custom model partial implementation for Soprano which is targeted at great performance on embedded devices.
I have implemented some GIST trees for PostgreSQL and worked with C++ and development on a Linux platform for over 10 years. If you are interested in these things or just want a Qt hacker for a while then please drop me a line using the nick for this blog at gmail or sourceforge as email address.
For those who don't know me, I am "the libferris guy". Which means I have played with virtual filesystems for many many years and implemented a good handful of ways to index and search diverse filesystems. Some of the articles I did for Linux Journal and linux.com will give an impression of the sorts of things libferris can do, and in the next months the Linux Format includes information on Web services as a filesystem, eg, mounting flickr, youtube, and facebook.
After hacking RDF support into KOffice earlier this year, I would very much like to work more with Soprano and RDF technologies. But anything involving indexing and storage is also of huge interest. In fact one of the things I like about RDF at the low level is that it overlaps these desires too, for example, my custom model partial implementation for Soprano which is targeted at great performance on embedded devices.
I have implemented some GIST trees for PostgreSQL and worked with C++ and development on a Linux platform for over 10 years. If you are interested in these things or just want a Qt hacker for a while then please drop me a line using the nick for this blog at gmail or sourceforge as email address.
After reading an article on Boxee recently which described it's social network integration it occurred to me how wonderful this would be to have for KDE. Having tags and ratings on the desktop is a really nice thing, but having tags and ratings coming through for arbitrary pieces of information from your "friends" makes things quite interesting.
I've been thinking for a while about an application for mobile devices that knows rail, bus, ferry, and magical flying eagle timetables and stops. The idea is to be able to glance at a mobile device and see it say "hey you are at foobar, its 9pm, I guess you want to go home/to hotel, and here's how you can do it, how regularly that happens and the last time you could do it today".
Of course, n900 guys will want to just use a web service for this. But as mobile data costs kidneys in some parts of the world, I'm more inclined to choose a design that precaches the data when free wifi is available. This also plays well for travelling with roaming charges etc.
If you are travelling, then the machine should already know where you are staying and when, so it can direct you to the metro line of interest from where you are to get there. Again for travelling, being able to wangle a timeline to move "now" forward and see that the app can suggest reasonable options as it goes is also a good idea. You don't want to rely on it to suggest and then find you are late for the jet.
I'm thinking perhaps Qt/Soprano for this, but the exact RDF vocabulary for the bus, train, etc timetables is not jumping out at me. There are many adhoc designs I've thought about, like a series or RDF list of ical entries for each bus run, perhaps with each entry using geo84 or some other ICBM assocation method. If you know of a good RDFS for this, please let me know. I don't know when/if I'll get to hack on the code, but the itch to do so is unlikely to go away by itself.
Of course, n900 guys will want to just use a web service for this. But as mobile data costs kidneys in some parts of the world, I'm more inclined to choose a design that precaches the data when free wifi is available. This also plays well for travelling with roaming charges etc.
If you are travelling, then the machine should already know where you are staying and when, so it can direct you to the metro line of interest from where you are to get there. Again for travelling, being able to wangle a timeline to move "now" forward and see that the app can suggest reasonable options as it goes is also a good idea. You don't want to rely on it to suggest and then find you are late for the jet.
I'm thinking perhaps Qt/Soprano for this, but the exact RDF vocabulary for the bus, train, etc timetables is not jumping out at me. There are many adhoc designs I've thought about, like a series or RDF list of ical entries for each bus run, perhaps with each entry using geo84 or some other ICBM assocation method. If you know of a good RDFS for this, please let me know. I don't know when/if I'll get to hack on the code, but the itch to do so is unlikely to go away by itself.
Clawmotia is a remote control for MythTV using Qt and qedje. The claw works on maemo and desktop systems. I have updated submenus to fade better, added hotkey support, and improved images and icons since 0.2. Grab it at my maemo repository.
In the shot of it running on the device shown below, the euro sign is for commercial skip forward and back. Having the skip back in the top right of the device makes it very easy to hit if an auto skip has gone too far. It is no accident that pause, mute, and cancel are placed in the other corners. The icons below change the volume up and down. In the middle of the top is an icon to bring up a submenu letting you set the aspect ratio and stretch the video in various ways to get maximal use from your screen.
I have also been tinkering with allowing switching between landscape and portrait mode, the edje is ready, there are just a few things to iron out before it works as expected. Of course, such switching will be far more useful on an n900 where it can happen automatically as you rotate the device. But for n8x0 users a button will be available trigger a rotate...
In the shot of it running on the device shown below, the euro sign is for commercial skip forward and back. Having the skip back in the top right of the device makes it very easy to hit if an auto skip has gone too far. It is no accident that pause, mute, and cancel are placed in the other corners. The icons below change the volume up and down. In the middle of the top is an icon to bring up a submenu letting you set the aspect ratio and stretch the video in various ways to get maximal use from your screen.
I have also been tinkering with allowing switching between landscape and portrait mode, the edje is ready, there are just a few things to iron out before it works as expected. Of course, such switching will be far more useful on an n900 where it can happen automatically as you rotate the device. But for n8x0 users a button will be available trigger a rotate...
Clawmotia is a MythTV remote using edje and Qt. It works well on maemo, desktop and other devices. It requires a MythTV Web setup to talk to. See previous posts for how to set it up.
I got rid of the rendering artifacts on maemo, added hotkey support (volume, fullscreen) and some of the buttons on the main remote screen now bring up submenus. This paves the way for more advanced remote control configurations where intricate but rarely used controls are still available on the remote. For example, aspect ratio and image fill are unlikely to be needed on a well setup MythTV installation, but they are in a submenu of the remote should they be needed. I know the backgound for the submenu panel is not really nice, but with the drop shadow and pan in effect (which also needs tweaking) you can easily see it's a submenu.
Grab it here. I've included the x86_64 and armel binaries as well as the edj "edje" file. You'll need QtCore and qedje and you're in business. For the mameo you'll still have to make a menu shortcut yourself, and of course, see the README.
Better artwork very welcome. If you have skills, I should be able to take an xcf file and turn out a theme. Conversely, take a look at the edc file and you shouldn't have much trouble adding/removing buttons and changing the images.
I got rid of the rendering artifacts on maemo, added hotkey support (volume, fullscreen) and some of the buttons on the main remote screen now bring up submenus. This paves the way for more advanced remote control configurations where intricate but rarely used controls are still available on the remote. For example, aspect ratio and image fill are unlikely to be needed on a well setup MythTV installation, but they are in a submenu of the remote should they be needed. I know the backgound for the submenu panel is not really nice, but with the drop shadow and pan in effect (which also needs tweaking) you can easily see it's a submenu.
Grab it here. I've included the x86_64 and armel binaries as well as the edj "edje" file. You'll need QtCore and qedje and you're in business. For the mameo you'll still have to make a menu shortcut yourself, and of course, see the README.
Better artwork very welcome. If you have skills, I should be able to take an xcf file and turn out a theme. Conversely, take a look at the edc file and you shouldn't have much trouble adding/removing buttons and changing the images.
Recently I started hacking on a memory mapped, multi_index soprano backend. While adding triples, and using listStatements() should work fine, implementing SPARQL is making for interesting times.