fidzu : Fedora

J.C.R. Licklider was born 95 years ago today.

Where would we be without his vision, and the inspiration he provided others?

"The first recorded description of the social interactions that could be enabled through networking was a series of memos written by J.C.R. Licklider of MIT in August 1962 discussing his "Galactic internal linkNetwork" concept."

11 Mar 2010 12:23pm GMT

So now that Fedora 13 Alpha is out…. have you given it a try? What do you think about the wallpaper? We want to hear your feedback, because there isn't actually that much time to update the wallpaper for beta, I think a little over a week. We haven't gotten much feedback about it yet, so we need to hear from you now!

You can give your feedback here in the comments or on the Fedora design team mailing list. How can you provide useful feedback? Here's a little writeup on that, shamelessly stolen from an earlier blog post:

How to Provide Helpful Critique

Some folks understandably believe art and design are stuffs enshrouded in a mysterious haze of incense smoke without much logic or reason involved. I get it. I've been there too, and I think it's easy to feel that way - discussions about art works sometimes get a bad reputation for being anywhere from fussy, to bizarre, to completely pointless.

You may find solace in the fact that there's actually plenty of logical principles and elements and a vocabulary for them that can be use to discuss such works in a productive manner that doesn't involve 'invoking an embodiment of emotive symbolism' or similar. I strongly recommend you explore some of this vocabulary, as not only will it help you more effectively communicate your critique but reading through a brief survey of basic design principles will probably even help you explain why you feel a particular way about an element of a work you're critiquing. Some basic resources:

• Wikipedia: Design elements and principles
• Wikipedia: Composition
• Artwork Critique Form by Marvin Bartel

So…. let us know what you think! Also, here's some shouts and greets to the rocketeers who've worked towards getting the Fedora 13 artwork ready to launch thus far:

Luya Tshimbalanga (bonus points kicking off the process and moving things along!), Charlie Brej, Samuele Storari, Nicu Buculei, Alexander Smirnov, Bogdan Bartos, Onyeibo Oku, Christo Petkov, Mola Pahnadayan, Mel Chua, Hristo Petkov, Kanza Aman, and Catalin Festila!

(If I missed you, get your artwork up on our F13 artwork wiki page! What are you waiting for? )

Filed under: artwork, fedora Tagged: artwork, fedora

11 Mar 2010 5:31am GMT

I like TigerDirect stores: they're like geek supermarkets. However, they have some really annoying practices, such as entering my card number into their POS system, separately from their POS terminal; the terminal receipt shows only the last 5 digits of the card number, and the cash register receipt shows all but the last 6 digits. Anyone with those two receipts and the Luhn algorithm has the full card number.

But the practice that annoys me the most is having a person at the door "check the receipt" of each person making a purchase. The receipt-checker is standing only a few meters away from the cash register -- what is there to check? Is this an effective loss-prevention practice, or just a way to annoy customers?

Today I bought a micro-SD flash card with adapter for an Open-RD Client system that Seneca just purchased. The sales guy was helpful, and as I took the purchase to the lone cashier on duty, I found her talking to the receipt-checker. She shuffled over to the cash register. I paid and made my way to the door, and the receipt checker smiled at me and popped the top off his blue highlighter. I smiled back.

"May I check your receipt?" he asked.

"No," I answered, continuing to the door. I figured that the purchase has already been made, as far as I know they have to right to search or detain me, the receipt checker saw me pay the cashier, and it's obvious that I have one purchased item and one receipt in my hand.

Thinking he'd heard wrong, he again asked, "May I check it?"

"No," I replied, walking out.

"Thank you," he yelled after me as I left the store.

11 Mar 2010 5:22am GMT

I have looked around and I thought for a moment, that I never could finish fully my translations in transifex, because not every each ones really commented in gettext files. Exactly with zero bytes. With no word. Between a tons of joker chars, like in morse codes - from where should I know witch joker char is for what? Basically there are some ways to figure out, but currently when I launch POedit, just few files has line comments. I know, this is not really easy to create such PO's - between tons of coding - but when the information is goes in another track... Well... it could mean a lot of trouble. But please, if it's possible - just a few words.... like as the developers of Shotwell POT. It has been done so nicely....

BTW, our marketing team has also explained the newest slogan: Rock it. Witch is cool, and nice - but still couldn't decide how to translate - because there is not really fully equal word to it in my language - what pulls through the "rocket/supercool/let's go change" word. BUT, I have the availability after explanation that to be translated. You know, much easier...

Even to wookie with good throath:
Acworarc ahao! wwwowoan ahao! rcoooaor ahao!

Or with standard 1200 kbaud as R2D2:
Hear it. Feel it. Rock it.

Or any language. Am I right?

11 Mar 2010 4:28am GMT

I decided to revert to Fedora 12 because of the lack of input for stylus for the tablet. I will wait for beta version.

-----

J'ai décidé de retourner sur Fedora 12 à cause du manque d'entrée du stylus pour la tablette. J'attendrai la version beta.

11 Mar 2010 4:09am GMT

11 Mar 2010 3:26am GMT

Foi anunciado o lançamento da versão de Alfa da Décima Terceira Versão do Fedora, após uma semana de adiamento. Essa primeira versão utilizável do Fedora 13 visa proporcionar aos desenvolvedores de todas as variantes customizadas e empacotadores, um meio de testar e aperfeiçoar os pacotes e as Spins. Além de proporcionar aos aficionadas por inovação experimentarem [...]

11 Mar 2010 2:46am GMT

I happened to take a look at this and see there wasn't a package for it. It's one of those items that I don't have time to keep up with but I think would be a nice package to have in Fedora. If anyone wants to pick up with this and run with it be my guest!

The package includes a subpackage for devel (a single header file) and a subpackage for the Python bindings. There is also a patch to get the Python code to find the shared object.

Have fun!

Patch: mongoose-site-location.patch
--- bindings/python/mongoose.py 2010-03-10 20:07:53.735407453 -0500 +++ bindings/python/mongoose.py 2010-03-10 20:09:08.935760549 -0500 @@ -110,7 +110,8 @@ def __init__(self, **kwargs): dll_extension = os.name == 'nt' and 'dll' or 'so' - self.dll = ctypes.CDLL('_mongoose.%s' % dll_extension) + from distutils.sysconfig import get_python_lib + self.dll = ctypes.CDLL(get_python_lib(1) + '/_mongoose.%s' % dll_extension) start = self.dll.mg_start self.ctx = ctypes.c_voidp(self.dll.mg_start()).value self.version = ctypes.c_char_p(self.dll.mg_version()).value Spec:
# sitearch for others (remove the unneeded one) %{!?python_sitearch: %global python_sitearch %(%{__python} -c "from distutils.sysconfig import get_python_lib; print(get_python_lib(1))")} Name: mongoose Version: 2.8 Release: 1%{?dist} Summary: Simple and easy to use web server Group: System Environment/Daemons License: MIT URL: http://code.google.com/p/mongoose/ Source0: http://mongoose.googlecode.com/files/%{name}-%{version}.tgz Patch0: mongoose-site-location.patch BuildRoot: %{_tmppath}/%{name}-%{version}-%{release}-root-%(%{__id_u} -n) %description Mongoose is an easy to use web server. It can be embedded into existing application to provide a web interface to it. %package python Summary: Python bindings for the mongoose web server Requires: mongoose %description python Mongoose is an easy to use web server. It can be embedded into existing application to provide a web interface to it. This package includes the bindings for the Python programming language. %package devel Summary: Development files for the mongoose web server BuildArch: noarch %description devel Mongoose is an easy to use web server. It can be embedded into existing application to provide a web interface to it. This package includes the development files. %prep %setup -qn %{name} %patch0 %build make %{?_smp_mflags} linux %install rm -rf $RPM_BUILD_ROOT # Install the base mkdir -p $RPM_BUILD_ROOT/%{_bindir} mkdir -p $RPM_BUILD_ROOT/%{_mandir}/man1/ cp %{name} $RPM_BUILD_ROOT/%{_bindir} cp %{name}.1 $RPM_BUILD_ROOT/%{_mandir}/man1/ # Install the python bindings mkdir -p $RPM_BUILD_ROOT/%{python_sitearch} cp bindings/python/mongoose.py _%{name}.so $RPM_BUILD_ROOT/%{python_sitearch} # Install the development files mkdir -p $RPM_BUILD_ROOT/%{_includedir}/%{name}/ cp %{name}.h $RPM_BUILD_ROOT/%{_includedir}/%{name}/ %clean rm -rf $RPM_BUILD_ROOT %files %defattr(-,root,root,-) %{_bindir}/%{name} %{_mandir}/man1/%{name}.1.gz %files python %defattr(-,root,root,-) %{python_sitearch}/_%{name}.so %{python_sitearch}/%{name}.py* %files devel %defattr(-,root,root,-) %{_includedir}/%{name}/ %changelog * Wed Mar 10 2010 Steve 'Ashcrow' Milner <me> 2.8-1 - Initial spec

11 Mar 2010 1:19am GMT

No dia 9 de Março foi lançado a versão alfa do Fedora 13 Goddard, após uma semana da data prevista.

Nessa versão as principais features são:

Suporte 3D para placas de vídeos Nvidia, através do drive Nouveau;
RPM versão 4.8;
Inicialização do sistema em menor tempo;
Instalação do sistema com pré-definição de partições separadas para Home e Boot;
Firefox 3.6;
Suporte a mais Webcams;
NetworkManger suporta conexão a internet por meio de celular conectado via Bluetooth;
Kernel 2.6.32
KDE 4.4

Para maiores informações leia o release notes.

Faça o download e ajude a testar e melhorar o próximo release.

10 Mar 2010 11:50pm GMT

I'll be heading in to Austin tomorrow to check in and get my badge before the crazy lines roll in Friday morning. Tomorrow night I'll be at the Social Media BBQ at Emo's. Friday I'll start off in the Blogger's Lounge because that's where all the cool kids hang out. Depending on how my retrospective call at work goes (it's the end of our agile development cycle) I hope to attend a few UX panels. You can find all the panels I've selected to attend on my SXSW schedule.

Saturday night the company I work for is cosponsoring a party with Tumblr, FourSquare, SoundCloud, and KickStarter at Emo's. They are also cosponsoring the Houston@SXSW party Monday night at Hudson on Fifth. You can RSVP for that party here.

Sadly there doesn't seem to be any Austin Barcamp activities going on. If there is something going on that I don't know about yet, please inform me! I'd like to start a discussion on the need for good designers in free and open source software development and to brainstorm ways to get designers more interested in participating!

If you can't find me at the panels I've posted, the Blogger's Lounge, or at these parties - you should be able to spot me at The Planet's booths (303 & 305) in the tradeshow sometime Sat & Sun 12 - 6 and Monday 12 - 4. I'm told there will be sweeeeeet giveaways so I hope to see you there!

10 Mar 2010 10:55pm GMT

In addition to the last posting here a new one:

[Original by Johnny Vulcan via flicke under cc-licence; edited by Henrik Heigl]

[Original by Velo Steve via flickr, edited by Henrik Heigl]

[Original by Abraxas3d via flickr, edited by Henrik Heigl]

10 Mar 2010 10:35pm GMT

10 Mar 2010 9:57pm GMT

I'm totally jazzed about the upcoming Marketing FAD which kicks off this weekend. The Marketeers will be meeting in Raleigh, Friday (late-late Friday, probably starting at zee Waffle House!) and ending Tuesday; I'll be headed out of town Wednesday. We have a boatload of deliverables we plan on knocking out, and on top of that, well, FUN STUFF. We're going to a hockey game, for one - and, coincidentally, It will be the Carolina Hurricanes vs. Phoenix Coyotes.

So for background: Ryan Rix and I are both traveling to RDU from… you guessed it, Phoenix. I am not exactly the world's biggest sports nut, but of course I have to root for my hometown, so I've been cracking jokes about how I'm going to be decked out in my full Coyotes gear (which, of course, I don't actually have). Here's a fun clip from the marketing meeting yesterday on IRC, where we were discussing any last-minute items we needed to wrap up before our FAD:

20:06:35 <spevack> so I think we're in pretty decent shape.
20:06:46 <spevack> That's really about it from my end.
20:06:47 <spevack> HOCKEY
20:06:48 <spevack> 
20:06:48 <spevack> EOF
20:06:50 <rbergeron> oh
20:07:09 * rbergeron and rrix are bringin yotes gear
20:07:27 * rrix has a jersey 
20:07:31 * mchua chuckles
20:07:35 <rbergeron> oh, you do? ergh
20:07:43 * rbergeron has... facepaint?

In any case: I'm somewhat packed, I'm only bringing 2 pairs of shoes (zomg, I know, right?!) because I have to make room for…

COOKIES!!

I'm up to my ears in promises. ke4qqq may be going home from the FAD with 10 boxes of girl scout cookies because of his limesurvey awesomeness (plz see my ongoing tale of luv for survey-goodness on the fp.o market research wiki page).

But seriously: I had a point to this blog post. And I'm getting to it…. right… now.

Tagged: cookies, FAD, Fedora, marketing

10 Mar 2010 8:08pm GMT

For as long as I can remember I have found the LWN.net Community Calendar very useful. It would perhaps be nice to have a similar web-based calendar for Fedora events across the world. Currently, the events are tracked by this page. That is nice but doesn't give the visual representation of a month full of events world-wide.

It would be nice to have a calendar that integrates with FAS and, allows someone to post the details of the event. Another group of folks, can take a look-see at the posting and approve it to be listed. The original poster could choose to be the event owner or, add someone who is the actual owner. Since Events etc fall under the ambit of FAmSCo, perhaps they might consider this stuff.

10 Mar 2010 4:43pm GMT

You've got a partitioned disk image, how do you pull out of that just the filesystem(s)? It's easy with libguestfs tools:

$ virt-list-filesystems -al disk.img
/dev/sda1 ext4
/dev/vg_f12x32/lv_root ext4
/dev/vg_f12x32/lv_swap swap
$ virt-cat disk.img /dev/sda1 > boot.fs
$ file boot.fs
boot.fs: Linux rev 1.0 ext4 filesystem data (extents) (huge files)
$ virt-cat disk.img /dev/vg_f12x32/lv_root > root.fs

You can also use guestfish to examine the filesystem image:

$ guestfish -a boot.fs -m /dev/sda

Welcome to guestfish, the libguestfs filesystem interactive shell for
editing virtual machine filesystems.

Type: 'help' for help with commands
      'quit' to quit the shell

><fs> ll /
total 15941
dr-xr-xr-x.  5 root root     1024 Mar  8 19:37 .
dr-xr-xr-x  19 root root        0 Mar  8 13:40 ..
-rw-r--r--.  1 root root  1486532 Nov  7 21:38 System.map-2.6.31.5-127.fc12.i686.PAE
-rw-r--r--.  1 root root   103788 Nov  7 21:38 config-2.6.31.5-127.fc12.i686.PAE
drwxr-xr-x.  3 root root     1024 Mar  8 19:12 efi
drwxr-xr-x.  2 root root     1024 Mar  8 19:49 grub
-rw-r--r--.  1 root root 11253019 Mar  8 19:39 initramfs-2.6.31.5-127.fc12.i686.PAE.img
drwx------.  2 root root    12288 Mar  8 18:45 lost+found
-rwxr-xr-x.  1 root root  3454368 Nov  7 21:38 vmlinuz-2.6.31.5-127.fc12.i686.PAE

><fs> cat /grub/grub.conf
# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE:  You have a /boot partition.  This means that
#          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
#          root (hd0,0)
#          kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/mapper/vg_f12x32-lv_root
#          initrd /initrd-[generic-]version.img
#boot=/dev/sda
default=0
timeout=0
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora (2.6.31.5-127.fc12.i686.PAE)
        root (hd0,0)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.31.5-127.fc12.i686.PAE ro root=/dev/mapper/vg_f12x32-lv_root  LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 KEYBOARDTYPE=pc KEYTABLE=uk rhgb quiet
        initrd /initramfs-2.6.31.5-127.fc12.i686.PAE.img

><fs>

10 Mar 2010 4:05pm GMT

I appreciated Kevin Fenzi's post on Knowing Vs. Doing and it pushed me to clarify the thinking behind my original post.

Kevin has a great point that there can be a lot of enjoyment from "knowing" and acquiring knowledge to which I would add, "even if there is no plan for what you will do with that knowledge." There is nothing wrong with that.

I want to be a person of greater forward progress and accomplishment. These are two things that I value. I also value knowledge. I've found, however, that when I place all my value on knowledge things get lopsided-more and more time gets invested in "wanting to know" and the resistance to "doing" gets higher.

This makes me wonder if the discussions in the Fedora Project are too focused on "being right" before "doing." Mitch Joel had a recent article along similar lines called Complaining vs. Doing. I'm hoping for more "doing" and less talking, arguing, and complaining.

No one is required to share my values of forward progress, accomplishment, and knowledge. I do think it is important to consider the affect our values might be having on the Fedora Project. If someone places a high value on arguing and debate, does that create an environment for a pleasant, sustainable Fedora Project?

Someone could equally argue my values of forward progress and accomplishment are detrimental to the Fedora Project, though if I thought that were true, naturally I would not focus on them.

What do you value most as it relates to the Fedora Project and what are you doing about it?

Filed under: Fedora, Productivity

10 Mar 2010 3:58pm GMT