Planet Wolves

System 76 Lemur Review

2010-03-10T02:49:04+00:00

This blog entry represents the views of me, myself and I, and does not represent the views of my employer (Canonical) or System 76. While I have decided to write a review of this specific machine, there are many vendors out there who ship Ubuntu on their machines and this review does not favor System76 over these other vendors. Heck, I am happy to review their machines too if they want.

Recently I got one of these new System 76 ultra-thin laptops, the Lemur:

System76 are well known in the Open Source community for shipping Ubuntu on their machines, being active community members and for helping LoCo teams with machines too. I have never owned a System76 box so I thought this was a good opportunity to give it a ride and share some feedback.

So first, the specs:

Display: 14.0″ HD WXGA Super Clear Ultra-Bright LED backlit (1366 x 768)
Graphics: Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics
Audio Output: Intel High Definition Audio
Networking: Gigabit LAN (10/100/1000), WiFi
Wireless: 802.11 agn
Expansion: Express Card 34 slot
Ports: HDMI, VGA, 3 x USB 2.0, Headphone Jack, Microphone Jack, SD Reader
Camera: Built-In 1.3 MP Webcam
Security: Kensington® Lock
Power Management: Suspend & Hibernate
Battery: Lemur UltraThin Li-Polymer Battery Pack
AC Adapter: includes one AC adapter
Dimensions: 13.38″ x 9.09″ x 0.90″ (WxDxH)
Weight: 3.5 lbs

The machine I got has an Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 1.3 GHz 800 MHz FSB 3 MB L2 (10 Watt), 4GB RAM (DDR3 1066 MHz 1 DIMM) and a 80 GB Intel X25-M Solid State Drive.

Now, in the interests of full disclosure: I don’t really do reviews, so this is going to be a quick run through the details, not a 150-picture unboxing and War And Peace epic of every minor detail of the machine. I just wanted to get my experience down as quickly as possible so I could share my feedback with others.

The Machine

OK, let’s zip through the summary:

The machine is a really sleek looking bit of kit. The first thing that struck me is how well designed it feels: it doesn’t feel like a randomly thrown together collection of components. It is thin and incredibly light, and has a very Apple-ish feel to it. It passed what I am calling the Lost Test: that is, when laid in bed at night watching Lost on Hulu with said laptop rested on your chest (for that IMAX effect), how many episodes can you get though before you feel like your heart is about to overheat and stop working. It’s lightness and lack of heat helped it pass with flying colors.

The screen looks great, doesn’t seem to smudge easily and is nice and bright. I like the fact it is a widescreen, something I miss with my current Thinkpad.

The keyboard is pretty much ok: it ain’t no Thinkpad keyboard, but of all the laptops I have owned and that are buried in my laptop graveyard, the Lemur’s keyboard feels better than most. The keys are wide enough and I love the fact that there is no Windows key, but instead an Ubuntu key. I want to see more of that, yes I do.

The trackpad is long and feels pretty good, and the buttons don’t look like buttons but instead areas on the trackpad near the bottom where you can push down: this makes it look really sleek. Unfortunately at first the buttons are a little hard to press, but I have noticed that they are getting easier, so I think they just need breaking in a little.

With the current configuration of processor and RAM, this thing is shit off a shovel fast. It zips along like no-ones business, and Ubuntu is up and running in a matter of seconds. While I didn’t test any hardcore 3D games on there, it runs Compiz great with the extra effects switched on.

Sounds works great, the speakers sound surprisingly good and the built-in webcam works well too. Finally, the battery life seems fine in terms of life, but not outstanding. Then again, I am used to my extra-long-life Thinkpad batteries.

My only real gripe believe it or not is the packaging the machine comes in: it visually looks cheap with a large generic “notebook” logo and doesn’t reflect the swishness of the machine encased inside it. I spoke to Carl Richell, founder of System76 about this and he has acknowledged it is an issue and they are keen to fix it: he said they really want every essence of the System76 experience to feel sleek. Good man.

The Default Install: Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala

It is just incredible driving back from picking up a computer from the UPS warehouse and knowing that it already has Ubuntu pre-installed. I have never bought a pre-installed Ubuntu computer before, so I was curious to see how it looked. I got it home, switched it on and it threw up the installer’s configuration settings: I entered my details and the system was ready to roll. I was left with pretty much a default installation of Ubuntu: there is not the horrible bundled collection of software you don’t want and ugly vendor wallpaper that you find if you buy a typical Windows pre-loaded machine. Good work System76 on shipping what I consider a great representation of Ubuntu.

Other than that, nothing much to say: everything just works as you would expect.

Running Lucid

Being part of the Ubuntu development team, I was keen to get Lucid on there. I used Update Manager to update to Lucid and installation was smooth. Once again everything works: any bugs that I have found have not been specific to this machine, but replicated on my other Lucid machine. What is really noticeable is boot speed on the SSD: it is bonkers fast.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I think the Lemur is a beautiful machine, and combined with what I consider a beautiful Operating System, particularly with the new fit and finish of Lucid. When running the Lemur it really feels like great design in hardware and software meeting well. I would happily recommend this machine to others.

I Never Realized…

2010-03-09T22:14:55+00:00

…that this part of my desktop could feel so sleek:

Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx, we are ready for you.

RatholeRadio EP 21

2010-03-09T14:31:47+00:00

This week Dan’s podcast RatholeRadio hit it’s 21st episode and to be fair it seems to be going from strength to strength. It’s a really nice way to round off Sunday evening I’m not sure why but I don’t feel the ‘urgency’ that I sense when other podcasts do their ‘Live’ shows. Maybe its the smaller IRC audience but I think its more to do with the fact that Dan plays what he wants, while you could heckle him from the IRC channel “Dan I’m stabbing myself with a Biro” I doubt very much if he would change the playlist that he had set up for that particular shows performance.

This week I decided to listen on my main openSUSE box rather than my Ubuntu Dell mini the first problem I encountered was appalling sound level, level? there was no sound! Actually that was not strictly true I could hear a faint noise coming from the left headphone. I have two shuttle PC’s both of which have audio in/out on the front, now dear reader you would have thought ‘remove two jacks from top machine plug same into bottom machine’ right? Erm apparently not! The bottom machine has the two ports cunningly swapped! Arrrrgghh I am now deafened and sentenced to suffer from tinnitus for the next week or so as 50 billion decibels burst my not so young eardrums.

As per usual Dan started off with some demo music just to test out his sound systems and the icecast http://65.60.11.2:8216/live we all seem to enjoy this part heaps as its not included in the podcast so its sort of our little groups pre-show party so to speak.

Hold On To Your Structure by The Hoboscopes
This is a fun track, gypsy punk with a heavy accordion lead. This had us all jigging around like lunatics, I like the way Dan plays something lively to kick the show off, gypsy punk always seems to put a smile on my face I suppose the musicians take it seriously I just think its a sort of mickey take on main stream punk or is it a more palatable version? Thumbs up on this one.

These Days by Robin Grey
A guitar based semi folk type song nothing special in my opinion but was a pretty easy listening track so fitted in well with the ‘Sunday Evening’ theme that permeates throughout these reviews. I would have thought Dan would have played a second lively song rather than hitting us with this mellow track? Over all it was a so so track gets a “Meh” on this one.

Loneliness Of The Shot Down Bomber by Paindonor
Now this is an interesting song a cool mellow techno start with a heavy violin influence slightly strange but pretty haunting. I’m not sure if you could “Get down and shake your bootee” to this one but ideal for chilling out to or maybe while driving to work. I really like the title of the song and you did sort of feel, I presume, the pain in the track. Thumbs up on this one.

Words Of Wisdom by George Carlin
This was one of those political ’message’ monologues Dan seems to favour I’m not a big fan of it myself I’m not sure how it fits into a music show although having said that music and political messages have been intertwined since time began. I suppose it was enjoyable if you’re into that sort of thing it sort of reminds me of those free concerts where you have to listen to Red Robbo after each song to justify getting in for free. Thumbs down on this one.

Sad Man by Dub Rebellion
A Ska, Dub, Reggae band Dan seems to think I’m a huge fan of reggae I like it but its not my sole interest. The cohesion of Ska and Reggea is defiantly right up my street I wonder what a Bob Marley song would have been like given a Ska makeover? I enjoyed this track even doing a few ‘skanking‘ moves which is perfectly acceptable in the privacy of your own home. Thumbs up on this one.

The first ever live Rathole Radio gig tickets go on sale
The first ever live Rathole Radio gig is happening in Liverpool on Friday April 30th at the Bad Format Social Club. It kicks things off nicely for the OggCamp10 weekend to follow. Dan is trying to promote Creative Commons artists and has some amazing acts playing live. There’ll be interactive message walls, many laughs and the bar is also very reasonably priced apparently. I have paid my measly £5.00 so maybe I’ll see you there?

Live Fast Lie Down by BeatSix
This was a fairly lively Rock ‘N’ Soul mix reasonably enjoyable but nothing to set my socks on fire to be honest. I had a quick read-up on their Jamendo profile where they state “Think, very early Duran, mid-era Echo and the Bunnymen, a touch of David Sylvian/Japan with a potent stabs of art-rock guitar stings over a chocolaty bass and drums groove”. which in my opinion translates as “I’m not too sure what we are?” it wasn’t a bad song just nothing special. Gets a “Meh”

Superhero by Lab7
We was back on track with this Electro Spanish group, the song does the classic quiet start building to a heavy typical electro beat, quick as a flash out came the glow sticks and we was pumping to the beat. Apparently they are “An alter ego of a normal someone who uses electronic music to express himself through a kidnapped mind” which is a little bit scary. I like this one a lot and would probably download it. This one gets a thumbs up.

Mr Weirdo by Fresh Body Shop
Dan then hit us with this indie group with a very good beat and guitar rhythm I tried to resist performing as a virtual drummer and made do with ‘foot tapping’ instead. The group hail from France and have a huge list of so called influences listed on their MySpace website I did like the first influence “My cat” which I thought was kinda funny but over all I liked the song so this one gets a thumbs up.

LIVE TRACK – Billy Bragg – “Waiting For The Great Leap Forward”
Within the first two or three chords I recognised this emotional song from my youth with that epic line which is the title of the song. Dan gave us what to date has been my favourite rendition of a song which he belted out with all the passion that Billy himself would have been proud of. I’ve always liked Billy Braggs stuff I wonder if Dan fancies having a crack at the Levi Stubbs cover Tears? Have a listen to some of Billy’s stuff he is a political musician but the words of his songs still have value today. Thumbs up on this one.

Weapons by Keep Cool Vibration
Billed as Reggae Live Dub Rastafari this would be the classic big band Bob Marley type presentation, yes you guessed it we was all doing that slow motion bottom thrusting dancing. Yet another good tune to take up the penultimate slot of the show, I did want to read a bit more about them but their profile on Jamedo is in French and Google translate usually gets French wrong or so I’m told. Some strong trumpet sections and pretty clear vocals all in all a pretty good song which would be well worth downloading in my opinion or at least have a listen on line. Thumbs up on this one.

The Horse & Cart by Kagnee
Yet another song from the catalogue of the band Dan was a member of, this one apparently is about Pamela Anderson who made a porn tape with her partner Tommy Lee Jones back in the days when I had hair. Now I do like some of the stuff on the album but this particular track turned me off while it was probably a laugh making the song and it has some low level historical value, apparently Tommy Lee heard the song and sent a signed copy back to the band, I thought it was terrible just an excuse to say what a slapper she was. Thumbs down on this one.

With seven thumbs up it would seem this weeks show was better than I thought I had a feeling it was slightly down on the last two podcasts that I’d attended but I must be wrong? I obviously enjoyed myself more than I thought.

International Women’s Day

2010-03-08T19:49:41+00:00

Today is International Women’s Day, and it provides an opportunity for the world to focus on women’s rights, and society’s attitudes towards women. International Women’s Day has been celebrated since the early 1900’s and has been a key milestone through many key events that have affected women’s rights and is now recognized as a national holiday in China, Armenia, Russia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

When I first heard of International Women’s Day, I was unsure of how I can contribute to celebrating the day and raising awareness of women’s rights. On the website one approach it advises is:

The tradition sees men honouring their mothers, wives, girlfriends, colleagues, etc with flowers and small gifts. In some countries IWD has the equivalent status of Mother’s Day where children give small presents to their mothers and grandmothers.

I think this is wonderful opportunity inside our global communities to do exactly this: to not only celebrate the contributions of women in our projects, campaigns and passions, but to also talk about ways in which we can break down the barriers and attitudinal prejudices that some women still face, particularly in largely male dominated software communities. Today is a great day for equality: let’s all make the most of it.

As part of International Women’s Day, the Ubuntu Women team have been running a competition to gather a collection of stories that share how women discovered Ubuntu and their experiences of joining our community. I thought this was a wonderful initiative: it really speaks to strong experiences of how Ubuntu can enable women to join a collaborative community, and how technology can be a true enabler.

Of the many stories submitted, there were to be two winners: one picked by the community, and I was given the honor of picking the second. Thankyou to the Ubuntu Women team for involving me in the unveiling of the winners, and this morning I announced both winners, read out their stories, and also read out a third that I thought was excellent too. Congratulations to Elvira Martinez and Karen Y. Perez for winning, and to Jen Phillips for getting read out too.

The video from this morning is below:

Can’t see it? Click here!

With today being International Women’s Day, I just want to share a few quick words on the women in my life. I have the privilege of having some incredible women as part of my life. In my family there is my wife, my mum, auntie’s, cousins and other relatives, the many wonderful female friends both online and offline, and every day I have the pleasure of working with some truly remarkable women in the Open Source world, throughout the various communities I am part of. There has been much discussion, particularly in the Open Source community, about how we can encourage more women into our communities, and there has been some friction between different approaches. I don’t see today as a day in which those debates should flourish, but as a day in which we should celebrate the women in our lives who help us flourish. Everyone single one of us has women who contribute so much to our lives and empower us every day, and I am thankful for all the women who bring color to my life, and give me the strength and energy to be who I am.

Live Announcement Of Ubuntu International Women’s Day Competition Winners!

2010-03-08T05:37:50+00:00

At 10am PSt / 1pm EST / 8pm UTC/GMT on Monday I will be doing another live videocast, and this one is a really special one. That day, March 8th, is International Women’s Day and the Ubuntu Women team have been running a competition to gather a wonderful collection of stories about how women discovered Ubuntu. I have been given the honor of picking one of the two winners and the community has picked the other. The two winners will receive a fantastic collection of prizes.

I want to thank all of the awesome entries to the competition and thanks to the Ubuntu Women team for asking me to participate and share the winners. I look forward to see you all then!

Go and watch the live cast here.

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-03-07

2010-03-07T16:41:00+00:00

Sweet. The now show is back. Good times. #nowshow #radio4 #BBC #
Lovely run up Lickey hill; http://favoriterun.com/294345 – 7:45mins/mile; 12.57 miles. Now to eat breakfast and visit/annoy @carolinegoodwin #
Congratulations Rowan. You've slept well. Don't rush to get up; I don't mind. When you do wake, we'll eventually go and have Lots of fun. #
My ankle seems worse this morning. Time to wear boots :-/ #
Hockey good. Left ankle not so good. Feels f–ked and swelling. Boo. #
Hockey time. #bromsgrove At least it's dry #
I seem to be in a good mood today; a welcome change. Hockey tonight, Dead mech podcast to listen to, new ear phones and a sunny day. #
I seem to be in a good mood today; a welcome change. Hockey tonight too #
Interesting day. Hyper toddler. Poor patch. #
Signed up to the #dyfienduro – #474 Perhaps I need to do some cycling now. Or not. #
fixed http://www.whoateallthepies.tv – silly rinetd and so on. Perhaps I ought to do some /paying/ work today…. #
It's probably a good thing i haven't got last.fm recording what I listen to on my iPhone. Guns and roses estranged would be top. #
Surprise surprise galaxy chocolate is now the same price in @asda as poundland. £1 for 125g. Was £1.26 in asda. #
Lovely sunny morning in bromsgrove – one of the rare times I miss farming. #

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-03-07

2010-03-07T16:41:00+00:00

Sweet. The now show is back. Good times. #nowshow #radio4 #BBC #
Lovely run up Lickey hill; http://favoriterun.com/294345 – 7:45mins/mile; 12.57 miles. Now to eat breakfast and visit/annoy @carolinegoodwin #
Congratulations Rowan. You've slept well. Don't rush to get up; I don't mind. When you do wake, we'll eventually go and have Lots of fun. #
My ankle seems worse this morning. Time to wear boots :-/ #
Hockey good. Left ankle not so good. Feels f–ked and swelling. Boo. #
Hockey time. #bromsgrove At least it's dry #
I seem to be in a good mood today; a welcome change. Hockey tonight, Dead mech podcast to listen to, new ear phones and a sunny day. #
I seem to be in a good mood today; a welcome change. Hockey tonight too #
Interesting day. Hyper toddler. Poor patch. #
Signed up to the #dyfienduro – #474 Perhaps I need to do some cycling now. Or not. #
fixed http://www.whoateallthepies.tv – silly rinetd and so on. Perhaps I ought to do some /paying/ work today…. #
It's probably a good thing i haven't got last.fm recording what I listen to on my iPhone. Guns and roses estranged would be top. #
Surprise surprise galaxy chocolate is now the same price in @asda as poundland. £1 for 125g. Was £1.26 in asda. #
Lovely sunny morning in bromsgrove – one of the rare times I miss farming. #

Google News Sitemap + Wordpress

2010-03-06T18:32:11+00:00

Annoyingly the current version of the google-news-sitemap plugin for Wordpress (v1.4) doesn’t work with some silly XML namespace error reported by google.

See http://wordpress.org/support/topic/364929 and effectively the ‘patch’ on the Google Support forum thing which works fine (there are two bits of the plugin which need updating – whcih correlate to the two parts mentioned in the posting etc)

Bit annoyed that the fix is so easy – yet the plugin hasn’t been updated yet. Grr.

Communication fail

2010-03-06T11:45:06+00:00

Changing to Wordpress is a good move for me but I did forget to sort out a few things such as my feeds. Now obviously I’m convinced there are hoards of open source community members hanging on my every word so now I will have to traipse round all the ‘Planets‘ that was kindly syndicating my posts and ask them to modify their setup.

Interestingly this has highlighted a service that Twitter etc can provide, I’m also sure there are individuals who have applied my feed their favourite RSS feed reader so all of these people will no longer get my life enhancing musings I shall have to tweet the new feed URL.

The Grand App Writing Challenge Submissions!

2010-03-05T23:17:09+00:00

As many of you will be aware, this week Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week took part, and the week has been wonderful so far. There has been so much excitement and interest, and I have been tickled pink at just how many people have been telling me that the week has re-invigorated their interest or given them a new passion for writing fun and useful apps. Ubuntu is an awesome platform for making these apps, and it has been a real pleasure to see people getting so fired up about using it.

Before the week kicked off, I offered a fun little challenge called The Grand App Writing Challenge. With a week of rocking content ahead designed to help build a fun and thriving community who like to write apps that scratch their itches, I put forward the challenge for you good people to write some apps and see how far you get this week, and I will blog your progress at the end of the week. Well, while we still have a few sessions yet to go, it is Friday and I was keen to show off some progress!

With which, I present the wonderful submissions from some of our attendees this week!

HardwareMap

Chris Couzens wrote in and shared his project HardwareMap:

My program is called HardwareMap. It lists computers and services on the local network (Avahi) and hardware connected to your computer (HAL). When you click a device, it tells you properties of the device and lets you perform common actions for that device. For example, an ftp share has a button to open in Nautilus, a webcam has a button to open in Cheese and an inline preview of the webcam.

More Info

Blogite

Andy Breiner writes in about Blogite

I created a python program called Blogite. It is suppose to be similar to Gwibber but for RSS feeds. It pulls in the RSS feeds, but I need a better way of displaying the feeds. I want to add categories so rss feeds can be easily separated and shown. It is still slightly rough around the edges. I also want to add pictures so it can show the picture right next to the post similar to Gwibber.

Fantastic! This looks like it has bags of potential!

More Info

See the Launchpad project
See more information
No PPA yet, but in the works

Rename Them All

Owais Lone wrote in to share an application which can be described pretty easily:

A simple Batch Renamer; That’s it. Even having a screenshot of my app on jono@home would be something I’ll cheer about for a couple of months at least.

Consider it done, Owais.

Owais made great progress this week, so check out the project!

More Info

sshsplit

Martin Eve writes in with his first app, in the form of sshsplit:

I recently saw your Great App Writing contest post and decided, over the weekend, to knock something up. This is my first effort at using Python, having previously had quite a lot of experience in C# and .NET. My program is called sshsplit. It multiplexes ssh dynamic tunnels. An example perhaps serves better. Normally you would: ssh -D 54321 remote-host – to get a tunnel on 127.0.0.1:54321 that goes through remote-host. However, if you are using a network-resource-intensive application (torrent clients for example), this single tunnel will not suffice for, say, 1000 concurrent connections. sshsplit launches several instances of the ssh dynamic tunnel and then load balances between them. If no arguments are passed, sshsplit launches the configuration GUI. Otherwise, for help, run: sshsplit -h. sshsplit can also be configured to use any binary you would like

Great work, Martin! It looks like you made fantastic progress!

More Info

See the Launchpad project
Anotherscreenshot
See the PPA

Uninstaller for Adobe® AIR® 1.0.0

Bernard Opic writes in with his very first app too:

Uninstaller for Adobe AIR is an easy solution for uninstalling Adobe AIR applications. When installing an AIR application it is possible to first save the installation program file (. air). This file will then allow to install but also to uninstall the application, provided that the AIR engine is installed and functional. If you install an AIR application from its source without saving its installation program file, or if the AIR engine is not available, uninstalling an AIR application can be difficult on a GNU/Linux system because it requires the use of system commands via a shell. Thanks to Uninstaller for Adobe AIR it becomes very easy to uninstall an AIR application since it suffices to choose it from a list of installed applications and click on an Uninstall button. Uninstaller for Adobe AIR is a free software under GPL version 3 license, designed to compatible with the GNU/Linux Ubuntu distribution and with the GNOME and KDE window managers.

Great work, Bernard!

More Info

See the homepage

Splatter

Anirudh writes in with another fun and useful app in the form of *Splatter:

I’m an (opportunistic ) student developer, and wanted a better way to collaborate on bugs and watch issues on some of my favorite projects. However I hated having to go through bugzilla’s overwhelmingly complex interface just to check up for new comments and changes. If I turned on email notification I’d be hit with a barrage of emails which I’m not too fond of. I felt it was time for things to change. So over the past one and a half weeks, I wrote Splatter – a gnome app to keep track of bugs. It evolved from a very simple concept of being a frontend to a bugtracker to becoming a tool for collaboration on tasks with fellow developers.

Great work, Anirudh!

More Info

See more screenshots and homepage
See the PPA

Ain’t Easy Project/Goal Manager

Andrew Sellers shares with us his work on Ain’t Easy:

For those of us currently deluged with work, stretching from one week to another, or simply those who work on many different things, tracking down when an event is happening in nigh impossible. Not just that, sometimes goals will simply get buried under a mass of other projects. It just ain’t easy to keep up with all of it. Some things aren’t fit for a calendar, while others just don’t work well with to-do lists. Finally sometimes you have to associate text or documents with an event, how are you going to do that? That’s where Ain’t Easy comes in. Straight from Alabama, this application will take as many goals or projects as you can throw at it, throw your links and text at it, it’ll just save it and let you launch it a simple double-click of the mouse.

I look forward to seeing more updates, Andrew!

More Info

See more information
Third party Debian package

The Results

In my original blog post I offered to send three of the projects an Ubuntu t-shirt. I was going to pick three fave projects, but I think all the submissions are great, so I going to send you all a t-shirt. Thanks all for taking part!

This Is Exactly What We Want

2010-03-05T04:57:30+00:00

A user called Eric left a comment on my Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week and Python Snippets Day blog entry which I felt really needs highlighting:

Thank you and the entire Canonical team for putting the Opportunistic Developer Week together!

I’ve been stuck doing heavy, back end enterprise Java programming for the past few years. My interest in programming slowly fizzled out.

On a whim, I decided to check out quickly, acire and the learning materials your team put together. PyGTK erased all the bad taste in my mouth from the Swing applications I’ve coded. I haven’t had this much fun programming in a long time! Thanks so much!

This is exactly what I want us to do as community, to help unlock creativity in people’s minds and lower the barrier between idea and implementation. Thanks, Eric, you really put a smile on my face with that one.

Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week and Python Snippets Day

2010-03-04T17:07:34+00:00

Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week day 4 kicks off and we have some incredible events today:

5pm UTC – Hot rodding your app for translations support – David Planella
6pm UTC – Learning through examples with Acire and Python-Snippets – Jono Bacon
7pm UTC – Write Beautiful Code (and Maintain it Beautifully) – rockstar
8pm UTC – Speed your development with quickly.widgets – Rick Spencer
9pm UTC onwards – Snippets Party – Join us in #ubuntu-app-devel and create Python snippets to share with other people – see this page for details of how to get involved!

It is recommended that you enjoy the week in Lernid. You can find out more details of how to install Lernid right here. Don’t want to use Lernid? No worries, just pop over to #ubuntu-classroom and #ubuntu-classroom-chat to join in the fun. Don’t forget that #ubuntu-app-devel is the place to ask questions about general development on Ubuntu.

Join the snippets party!

Today is a special day this week: in addition to providing some great content to help people get started writing apps on Ubuntu, we are also keen to continue growing our wonderful library of python-snippets which is viewed with a program I wrote called Acire. This library of snippets provides a range of examples that you can run, play with, modify and merge into your programs. So many of us learn by doing, and the more snippets we have the easier it is the learn from a diverse range of topics!

We have two events today I am keen to encourage you to join. First I will be delivering a session on the python snippets project:

6pm UTC – Learning through examples with Acire and Python-Snippets – Jono Bacon

In the session I will explain how the project came about, it’s current progress and where we are going. We will then have a fun snippets party a little later:

9pm UTC onwards – Snippets Party – Join us in #ubuntu-app-devel and create Python snippets to share with other people – see this page for details of how to get involved!

The snippets party is simple: just join #ubuntu-app-devel on freenode and join us to write a bunch of snippets and contribute them to python-snippets. Today we have 104 snippets already in the library: I would love to see us get that to over 150 today. Come and join us!

Contributing snippets is simple: just click here to find out more!

Silly SoapClient

2010-03-04T09:32:27+00:00

Sam made some changes to a SOAP service one customer has – and suddenly our automated tests kept failing. “WTF?” we thought.

We persistently got the same error (e.g. Fatal error: SOAP-ERROR: Encoding: object hasn’t ‘SortResults’ property in ….) yet the generated WSDL file (when viewed through a web browser etc) no longer has SortResults in it.

We checked :

Proxy settings,
Apache configuration (and restarted Apache)
svn reverted files
DNS and more.

Then it turned out the SoapClient PHP object caches the WSDL file by default in e.g. /tmp/wsdl-blahblahblah. (Where blahblahblah looks very much like an md5). And it doesn’t make much of an effort to check it’s validity. Obviously the documentation does state this, but it does seem like the wrong default behaviour to me.

Solution: Add something to the automated tests to delete /tmp/wsdl-*. OR pass into the SoapClient constructor an array of options like :

$client = new SoapClient('http://somewhere/blah.php?wsdl", array(cache_wsdl => WSDL_CACHE_NONE)

Time wasted: Too much.

Ignite Week - Manchester

2010-03-04T00:02:11+00:00

I’ll write up Ignite week more fully after the Liverpool event on Thursday night, but as Ian Forrester has put up a video of my talk on Re-Inventing Money at Monday’s Manchester event I’m embedding it below: Thanks to Ian for filming the whole night - see the other talks at http://cubicgarden.blip.tv/

More desktopcouch tips and tricks

2010-03-03T23:51:17+00:00

Manuel is at it again, with a second round of desktopcouch tips and tricks. He's building up quite a library of stuff over there. Now hopefully I can persuade him to link them from the desktopcouch documentation...

Browsing my Android phone over wifi at home

2010-03-03T23:19:53+00:00

Having to plug my Android phone into my computer via USB so that I can copy new files onto it is a pain. So I thought to myself: it's got wifi, right? Can't I just run an ftp server on it?

And, lo, I discovered On Air. Cool Android app; it's got One Massive Button and that's it. The One Massive Button just turns on a file server and exports it over the network.

(Actually, I lied. There's also one tiny button which toggles the type of server between FTP, WebDav, and AppleTalk. So I set it to FTP, since that's easy to connect to from Nautilus -- Places > Connect to Server > FTP (with login). On Air displays the IP address of the phone, and a randomly generated 4-digit password.)

So, that's all I need; I can now browse my phone without plugging it into the computer.

Then I got to thinking. It'd be dead handy if that automatically got started up when I was (a) at home and (b) the phone was plugged into the mains (because I don't want it being a server while I'm wandering around my house, and the mains plug is near the computer). A bit more poking around led me to Locale, an Android app which lets you watch for certain conditions (like geographical location, charge state, and so on) and then take certain actions when the conditions are triggered. Seemed ideal. But Locale is $10, and the "am I in a certain place" trigger was another dollar, and "am I plugged in" was another dollar, and I thought: yeah, $12 isn't much, but I don't really need this, so maybe I'll do without.

And then @michaelwells pointedout on Twitter that the "Setting Profiles" app might help. So I took a look, and basically, it's Locale, but free. Nice.

So, install Setting Profiles, set up a "rule" with conditions "connected to my home wifi" and "charger is plugged in", and an "action" of "start On Air". Done.

I'm really quite pleased with tying those things together.

Minor complaints, because nothing is perfect (perfection is finality. finality is death. nothing is perfect. there are lumps in it)

I wish On Air had a "start up the server automatically" setting, thus obviating the need to press the One Big Button.
I wish On Air advertised its FTP server with Zeroconf. (Probably it doesn't need to for the author's Mac use case because AppleTalk servers already do that without Bonjour?)
Settings Profiles doesn't show up in my apps list! That's really quite weird. To start it I have to go back into the Market, choose Downloads, and then start it from there. I'd file a bug, but there doesn't seem to be any useful way of doing that. How am I meant to do this? Leave a comment on the app in the Market?

Settings Profiles (website)

On Air

Writing a Rhythmbox plugin

2010-03-03T21:29:36+00:00

Yesterday, as part of Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week, I did an IRC talk about writing a (basic) Rhythmbox plugin in Python.

You can see the talk, the slides, and the plugin at http://www.kryogenix.org/code/RBMicroBlog/.

Refreshing The Ubuntu Brand

2010-03-03T19:35:44+00:00

The new style of Ubuntu is driven by the theme “Light”. We’ve developed a comprehensive set of visual guidelines and treatments that reflect that style, and are updating key assets like the logo accordingly. The new theme takes effect in 10.04 LTS and will define our look and feel for several years.

Ubuntu has seen a tremendous amount of growth and change since it was conceived in 2004. Back then it was a small project with strong ambitions and a handful of developers passionate about delivering a world class Linux Operating System that can compete on every level with Microsoft and Apple. We adopted a style based on the tagline “Linux for Human Beings”, and called it “Human”. Six years on we have made incredible progress. Ubuntu is a global phenomenon: we have carved out a pervasive culture of quality and design, thoughtful usability and great technology all fused together in a project that maintains the same commitment to community and collaborative development that we embraced back in 2004.

In 2009, a small team lead by Mark Shuttleworth, conducted a review of our key brand values and identity. Based on that work, a set of visual treatments were produced, and shared with key members of the Ubuntu Art community, spanning the core distributions, derivatives, and aligned efforts like the Forums. Representatives from Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Edubuntu, Xubuntu, Mythbuntu, SpreadUbuntu and more came to London and worked with the Canonical design team to refine the designs and work together. The results of that work are presented here.

This collection of community representatives worked with the design team and created some great work. Some examples:

In addition to this we also worked with our key governance boards: the Community Council, Technical Board, Forums Council, LoCo Council and others around this work to ensure that our community can use it to it’s best advantage.

Brand Values

The key values we believe are reflected in the Ubuntu project are:

Precision. We ship high quality software, and we ship it exactly on schedule. Our Debian heritage means that the individual components of our platform are tightly defined and neatly arranged. There is no excess, no fat, and no waste in Ubuntu. We are a community that thrives on delivery.
Reliability. We are building Ubuntu for serious use. Whether it is being deployed on the desktop or in the cloud, we care that Ubuntu is secure, reliable and predictable. We deliver updates to Ubuntu that are rigorously tested. When we make a mistake, we learn from it and put in place good processes to ensure that it does not happen again.
Collaboration. Ubuntu is the result of collaborative work between thousands of people, and it is both the beneficiary and the public face of the collaborative work of tens of thousands of free software developers who build individual upstream components, or aggregate them in Debian. We go to great lengths to ensure that anybody, anywhere, who is passionate about Ubuntu and competent to participate, can do so. We enable virtual participation in our physical Ubuntu Developer Summits, we use mailing lists and IRC in preference to over-the-cubicle-wall communications, and we welcome contributions from both companies and individuals. Our governance bodies reflect the diversity of that participation, and leadership or permissions are based on proven merit, not corporate employment.
Freedom. We strive to deliver the very best free software platform. Our highest mission is to accelerate the adoption and spread of free software, to make it the de facto standard way that people build and consume software. We celebrate the work of other groups committed to collaborative content development, and open content licensing. While we are pragmatic about this (we ship proprietary drivers when we believe they are a requirement to get free software working well on PC’s) we expressly do not include any proprietary applications in the default installation of Ubuntu. We want people to love and appreciate free software, and even though we work to make sure that Ubuntu is compatible with, certified with and iteroperable with popular proprietary software, we do so to facilitate the adoption of free alternatives to proprietary solutions.

While the branding has changed, the freedoms and rights have not: our global community will still maintain access to the resources needed to construct logos that use the branding. We will be providing the new font, images, colour specs, and a set of recommendations for creating branding for websites, t-shirts and the other needs of our community. As before we will protect the integrity of the Ubuntu brand with the Ubuntu Trademark Policy.

Light: Ubuntu is Lightware

The new style in Ubuntu is inspired by the idea of “Light”.

We’re drawn to Light because it denotes both warmth and clarity, and intrigued by the idea that “light” is a good value in software. Good software is “light” in the sense that it uses your resources efficiently, runs quickly, and can easily be reshaped as needed. Ubuntu represents a break with the bloatware of proprietary operating systems and an opportunity to delight to those who use computers for work and play. More and more of our communications are powered by light, and in future, our processing power will depend on our ability to work with light, too.

Visually, light is beautiful, light is ethereal, light brings clarity and comfort.

Historical perspective: From 2004-2010, the theme in Ubuntu was “Human”. Our tagline was “Linux for Human Beings” and we used a palette reflective of the full range of humanity. Our focus as a project was bringing Linux from the data center into the lives of our friends and global family.

Go and see the full details of the brand refresh here, with more images.

Moved to WordPress

2010-03-03T15:21:16+00:00

Yes its true, I’ve swapped from Joomla to WordPress. I had around a five year love affair with Joomla for my personal site but to be honest over the last couple of years its been ‘overkill’ for my requirements these days I just want to write something and post it, now I’m not saying you cant do that with Joomla its just that it cries out to be tinkered with, I had so many modules and components that was disabled the whole site was just bloat.

The professional way would have been to set this site as “Down for maintenance” while moving everything over but I’m not that bothered I’ll fix everything as I go along, for my part I’m over the moon I have a nice clean template that I’ve customised added some plugins and imported (hopefully) all my posts from the old Joomla site. I want to put back in place “Favourite Podcasts” and Favourite Blogs” plus the ‘Tabbed’ stuff I used to have if anyone wants to give me some help with that I’d appreciate it. So I’d best crack on and get my images up and fix all the broken post.

Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week Day 3 Kicks Off In An hour

2010-03-03T15:00:24+00:00

Just a quick note to let you all know that Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week day 3 kicks off in an hour!

Here is the order of events for today:

5pm UTC – Creating stunning interfaces with Cairo – Laszlo Pandy
6pm UTC – What’s new in Quickly 0.4 – Didier Roche
7pm UTC – Create games with PyGame – Rick Spencer
8pm UTC – SHOWCASE: Photobomb – Rick Spencer
9pm UTC onwards – Hacking party in #ubuntu-app-devel on freenode! Come and join us, work on your apps, ask questions and have fun in our community.

Trying to not delve into wordpress

2010-03-02T23:40:32+00:00

I don’t normally do anything with Wordpress from a work point of view – I’ve always left such work to ‘designer’ types…

Anyway, yesterday I had a referral for someone who has two fairly busy websites (anorak.co.uk / whoateallthepies.tv) sat on a fairly beefy server (8 core, 16g of ram… oh in a few years that’ll be entry level… but I digress)… anyway, they were having performance difficulties with one site – a bit of investigation found the problem to be related to their migration from one server to another – rinetd was directing traffic from the old server, but had filled the filesystem up and was consuming all cpu time …… Easy enough to fix. Job done. Everything started working again.

After a bit more investigation I found that the two sites needed updates applying and plugins upgraded, and they had no backup job in place *doh* …. Clone the site, whizz through the wordpress upgrade routine on the clone, get the customer to OK it (he did) and then we did it on the live server…. and it looked like a success. Until an hour after I’d done the update and the customer realised part of his front page was missing….

Great. Just what I’d hoped to avoid – delving into wordpress’s code.

On opening up the theme’s index.php file it was easy to see where the content should be – add in some debugging on the clone – and “Oh look – that ‘thing’ is empty.. it should contain ’stuff’….”

Turns out there’s a WP_Query class; and it seems Wordpress 2.9.x treats it’s query slightly differently to previous versions – ‘they’ used category_name=blah as a parameter – this no longer works, instead it needed changing to cat=1234 .. bingo, data returned; site fixed; customer happy.

I breathed a big sigh of relief. I was worried that they previous developers had made some weird customisation to wordpress core which I’d have to forward port and debug/fix.

Being the nice chap I am, I also installed xcache onto the server to help PHP out – I suspect they could cut their hardware ‘allocation’ by half and still have ample capacity to serve the sites. A few days with munin running and I’ll know for certain. Perhaps they’ll appreciate the cost saving?

Announcing The 10.10 Ubuntu Developer Summit

2010-03-02T19:06:52+00:00

I am tickled pink to announce the details of the next Ubuntu Developer Summit taking place at Dolce La Hulpe Hotel and Resort in Brussels, Belgium from the 10 – 14 May 2010.

The Ubuntu Developer Summit one of the most important events in the Ubuntu calendar and at it we discuss, debate and design the next version of Ubuntu. We bring together the entire Canonical development team and sponsor a large number of community members across the wide range of areas in which people contribute to Ubuntu. This includes packaging, translations, documentation, testing, LoCo teams and more. UDS is an incredible experience, filled with smart and enthusiastic people, fast paced and exhausting, but incredibly gratifying to be part of the process that builds the next Ubuntu.

It is important to note that UDS is not a conference. It is absolutely a participatory discussion-based summit in which we work together as a team to define what our next release will look like. If you are planning on attending or planning on applying for sponsorship, you should be prepared to participate in the sessions actively.

For every UDS, Canonical sponsors a number of community members to attend the event. We are looking for those who want to bring some real insight and expertise in their area of Ubuntu, be it development or community governance. If you feel you could offer this but can’t afford to cover your expenses of attending, you should apply for sponsorship.

How To Request Sponsorship

Luckily, requesting your sponsorship is pretty simple, and we a simple system to handle sponsorship requests. To apply for sponsorship, just follow these simple steps:

Go to http://summit.ubuntu.com/uds-m/ and log in with OpenID. When you have logged in, click the Request Sponsorship link.
On the first page, add your location and use the About yourself box to tell us why you should be sponsored and tell us about your work on Ubuntu – here you should tell us your vital stats – tell us your any 5-A-Day numbers, any work on the sponsorship queue, what you have uploaded, which teams you are in, your LoCo involvement, documentation you have written, any translation work and other work that you have been involved in. When you have done this, click the Next button.
On the final page, answer the questions and then click Finish to finish your sponsorship request.

More details on requesting sponsorship are here.

PLEASE NOTE: we have a re-direction bug at the end of this process that affects some people. Don’t worry though, your application is still saved to the system. We are currently in the process of fixing this bug.

All done.

Everyone should get their sponsorship requests in by Fri 26th March 2010 to be considered. Good luck!

Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week Day 2 Kicks Off In An Hour

2010-03-02T14:00:10+00:00

Just a quick note to let you all know that Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week day 2 kicks off in an hour!

Here is the order of events for today:

4pm UTC – Gooey Graphics with GooCanvas – Rick Spencer
5pm UTC – Writing a Rhythmbox plug-in – Stuart Langridge
6pm UTC – Microblog from your app with the Gwibber API – Ken VanDine
7pm UTC – SHOWCASE: Gwibber – Ken Vandine
8pm UTC – Building multimedia into your app with GStreamer – Laszlo Pandy
9pm UTC onwards – Hacking parts in #ubuntu-app-devel on freenode! Come and join us, work on your apps, ask questions and have fun in our community.

Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week Kicks Off In An Hour

2010-03-01T14:00:42+00:00

Just a quick note to let you all know that Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week kicks off in an hour!

Here is the order of events for today:

4pm UTC – Welcome! Ubuntu For Opportunistic Developers – Jono Bacon
5pm UTC – CouchDB support in your app with DesktopCouch – Stuart Langridge
6pm UTC – Creating an application from scratch with Quickly – Rick Spencer
7pm UTC – Building in Application Indicator support – Sense Hofstede
8pm UTC – Integrated development workflow with Ground Control – Martin Owens
9pm UTC onwards – Hacking parts in #ubuntu-app-devel on freenode! Come and join us, work on your apps, ask questions and have fun in our community.

Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week This Week

2010-03-01T08:48:05+00:00

Well, folks, this week Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week kicks off with a fantastic week jammed with great sessions helping to bridge the gap for opportunistic developers who want to write fun, useful applications using Ubuntu as a platform. We have a wonderful week of sessions ahead and as ever, it is recommended that you enjoy the week in Lernid. You can find out more details of how to install Lernid right here. Don’t want to use Lernid? No worries, just pop over to #ubuntu-classroom and #ubuntu-classroom-chat to join in the fun.

I will be kicking off the week at 4pm UTC and talking through the goals for the week and talking through some of the work we are doing to help opportunistic developers enjoy Ubuntu as a platform and write some fun apps.

Friends, also don’t forget about the fun challenge I set last week:

Think of a fun program to write, and see how much you can get completed by the end of the week, Fri 5th March 2010. On Friday I will write a blog entry that showcases screenshots of your progress and (if possible) a PPA where people can download a package to try.

When you have something you would like me to blog, send an email no later than the end of the day Pacific time on Thu 4th March 2010 to me at jono AT ubuntu DOT com and include:

The name of your program and a brief description of what it does.
A link to a screenshot online that shows your new app running.
If available, tell me the name of the Launchpad project where it is hosted and the PPA with the package. This is a great way for people to try your program and possibly join the project and contribute to it!

I will send a t-shirt out to the three app authors who made the most interesting apps with the most progress.

Start your engines folks, let’s see what we can do! I can’t wait to see how you folks get on!

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-02-28

2010-02-28T16:41:00+00:00

Back from long run. Good but body now protesting; dog caused me to loose timings etc so no idea of time. http://favoriterun.com/302054 #
RT @bromsgrove Winner of the best curry award named: spice valley, worcs rd. http://bit.ly/amuzbx <- I agree. #
First ice cream van of the year just drove past, and now he's back again. Surely it's just not warm enough yet? #bromsgrove #
Toddler appears to be awake; I'd better sneak a shower before he finds me #
Back home – after an epic tube journey and drive back from #phpuk2010 – now onto a json 2 soap proxy for upcoming iphone app #
Thanks for a great day #phpuk2010 ! #
RT @andygirvan Check to see if your desired username is available at dozens of social networking sites w/ Namechk – http://namechk.com/ #
Aaaah phpillow api looks good. #phpuk2010 #
How would you deal with stale reads from varnish infront of couchdb? #phpuk2010 #
Nice lunch – thanks #phpuk2010 – more cakes would be good though #
Finally on the tube; will be slightly late for #phpuk2010 …. Oh well. Perhaps we won't need to queue when there #
I failed to find either #php t-shirt to wear; so opted for a #python one instead. #traitor #phpuk2010 #
Survived hockey v. friendly bunch; might get into the 4ths easily. Can't hit the ball properly though; blaming stick as my body's perfect #
Off to play hockey (hopefully) for the first time in 11(?) years. I don't remember the rules…. #bromsgrove #hockey #
Dyfi enduro email arrives; I contemplate doing it – when I had previously decided to give up enduros months ago. #mtb #notcycledinayear :-/ #
Annoyance #3 startssl.com offer free ssl certs – but only if you're willing to wait hours for 'checks' to complete … #
Annoyance #2 editors which reformat / reindent code. Thanks for the merge conflict. Really. #
Annoyance #1 subverion merging still sucks (using 1.6 etc). Ffs that file moved directory – you should still cope #
The dog agrees – I need to eat a sandwich or two before going to bed as it's late. Clever dog. #
Wondering what's wrong with his local council and who put this notice up…. http://twitpic.com/151o1e #bromsgrove #
How a Web Design Goes Straight to Hell http://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell from @oatmeal #
What a website – http://www.inspirationnw.co.uk/index.html …… just missing the "best viewed in netscape/ie4 button" #backtothe90s #fail #
Can't resist eating one more handful of Bombay mix….. Must…. Stop…. Nom nom. Crikey – all gone. Which greedy sod ate it??… Oh. Oops #
Finally almost worked myself up to going to #Bromsgrove #hockey club (Thurs evenings). Might have to buy a stick tho – not played in 12 yrs #
I need to update PalePurple's website with a few half decent examples of our PHP development work… #EveryonesSiteIsBetterThanOurs #
I'm happy now I've found the Gruffalo's website and there is also a film. http://www.gruffalo.com/ *YEY!* #
RT @guardiantech Young men are hooked on the web – even in bed http://bit.ly/9JY5Y5 – oops, that's me #
Stonehenge Bacon Wrapped French Toast Sticks – Bacon Worshipping http://bit.ly/9BUlol #thisiswhyyourefat #
Amused that customer expected a mock iphone app to have working 'bits' beyond static content. #mondayfun #
Action packed dog walk – Rowan fell over and cut his finger, then splashed in puddles and mud. Then Patch escaped chasing (a) cat(s)…. #

Fun Little Acire Story

2010-02-26T23:10:23+00:00

With the new release of Acire just out I wanted to tell you folks a fun little story of an added benefit to Acire that I never envisaged when I came up with the idea for the app.

Yesterday I got an email from someone (I will keep the identify private) saying:

I’m trying to create an application but I can’t seem to find any way to embed a gnome-terminal into my app. I know you’re not offering support but if you have some spare time is there any chance you can point me to the documentation for that?

This happens a lot: someone wants to do something, so they ask for help over email or on another medium such as IRC. Unfortunately, I am usually pretty busy and typically don’t have the time to answer support questions. Before Acire existed I would have at most hunted out some links or possibly just the person to to go and ask on a particular forum or mailing list.

Now Acire exists, I just fired it up, selected Python VTE from the cateogries combo box, clicked on the snippet, and then cut and pasted the code into the email:

#!/usr/bin/env python

# [SNIPPET_NAME: Embed a VTE terminal]
# [SNIPPET_CATEGORIES: Python VTE]
# [SNIPPET_DESCRIPTION: Embed a VTE terminal in your application]

try:
    import gtk
except:
    print >> sys.stderr, "You need to install the python gtk bindings"
    sys.exit(1)

# import vte
try:
    import vte
except:
    error = gtk.MessageDialog (None, gtk.DIALOG_MODAL, gtk.MESSAGE_ERROR, gtk.BUTTONS_OK,
        'You need to install python bindings for libvte')
    error.run()
    sys.exit (1)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    # create the terminal
    v = vte.Terminal()
    v.connect ("child-exited", lambda term: gtk.main_quit())

    # fork_command() will run a command, in this case it shows a prompt
    v.fork_command()

    # create a window and add the VTE
    window = gtk.Window()
    window.add(v)
    window.connect('delete-event', lambda window, event: gtk.main_quit())

    # you need to show the VTE
    window.show_all()

    # Finally, run the application
    gtk.main()

Job done. What made me smile about this was that Acire not only helps me, but it helped me help someone else too. Rocking.

Acire 0.3 Released

2010-02-26T22:56:24+00:00

Everyone’s favorite tool to browse Python snippets, run them, learn from them and incorporate them into your programs has been released! This new release has the following new features:

Translated – Acire has now got support for multiple languages, but this is very new so it needs your translations! Want to help make Acire rocking in your language? Easy. Go and contribute here!
Edit Snippets – Acire now allows you to edit the code inside a snippet and execute it within Acire itself.
Save Snippets – You can now save the snippets, even if they have been edited, into a specific file on your system.
Look and Feel Polish – a little bit of spit and shine has been applied to respect your chosen monospace font, use a scalable icon for docky and a few other little changes.

As I have mentioned before, I the snippets that Acire shows and the Acire itself are in two separate packages (this means that others can write viewers to view the snippets on other environments).

Installing Acire and it’s snippets is simple. First install the daily snippets PPA (this will deliver new snippets to your system on a daily bases):

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:python-snippets-drivers/python-snippets-daily
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install python-snippets

Now install the Acire PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:acire-team/acire-releases
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install acire

Right now packages are available for Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx and Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala packages should be available soon.

We need your snippets!

The fuel that makes Acire rock is the library of snippets. To really get the most out of Acire and it’s library of snippets, we need you to contribute snippets that demonstrate something in Python. These snippets are really helpful in showing us all how a given Python modules works, and really helpful in lowering the bar to development. Here is how you can contribute a snippet!

Step 1: Grab the library

Just run:

bzr branch lp:python-snippets

Step 2: Create your snippet

A snippet should demonstrate a specific feature in a given module or in the Python language. This could include showing how to use a specific widget, a feature of that widget, or another function.

python-snippets is divided into sub-directories which outlines the theme of the snippets. You should pick the most appropriate directory to put your snippet it, and add it there. If a suitable directory does not exist already, create it and add it there.

Step 3: Add metadata

The way Acire pulls out the snippets is by detecting some specific metadata additions to comments at the top of the file You should now add the following meta data as comments to the top of the file:

# [SNIPPET_NAME: A Short Name For The Snippet]
# [SNIPPET_CATEGORIES: Category]  <-- see CATEGORIES file for existing categories
# [SNIPPET_DESCRIPTION: A single line description of the snippet]
# [SNIPPET_AUTHOR: Your Name <your@emailaddress.com>]
# [SNIPPET_LICENSE: An Open Source license (from the LICENSES file)]

Here is an example:

# [SNIPPET_NAME: Playing a Pipeline]
# [SNIPPET_CATEGORIES: GStreamer]
# [SNIPPET_DESCRIPTION: Construct and play a pipeline]
# [SNIPPET_AUTHOR: Jono Bacon <jono@ubuntu.com>]
# [SNIPPET_LICENSE: GPL]

You now need to add your file to your branch with:

bzr add your-snippet.py

Step 4: Propose it for merging

With your new snippet ready, it is time to propose it for inclusion in the main python-snippets library.

First, commit your changes to your local branch with:

bzr commit

Now push it to your own branch on Launchpad:

bzr push lp:~<your launchpad username>/python-snippets/<name of your branch>

As an example:

bzr push lp:~jonobacon/python-snippets/gstreamer-snippets

Now go to https://code.launchpad.net/python-snippets and you should see your branch listed there. Click on it and when the branch page information page loads click on the Propose for merging link. Add a short description of what you examples do in the Initial Comment box and then click the Propose Merge button.

We will then review the merge and if it looks good, add it to python-snippets and it will be delivered to Acire users in the next daily package upload.

The Grand App Writing Challenge

2010-02-25T16:31:37+00:00

Yesterday I gave my talk on opportunistic developers on ustream.tv (which I plan on repeating next week). In that session I floated the idea of having a fun challenge next week when Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week happens. The idea was pretty popular, so I wanted to share it here.

The idea is simple:

Think of a fun program to write, and see how much you can get completed by the end of the week, Fri 5th March 2010. On Friday I will write a blog entry that showcases screenshots of your progress and (if possible) a PPA where people can download a package to try.

Getting Started

Getting started with this is simple. First think of something that would be fun to write. This could be a GUI front-end to a command line tool, a simple app that does something useful for you that will improve your life, a game or anything else. Pick something that isn’t too hard: something that is a good first step to dip your feet into development. Folks, do share ideas for apps in the comments here so those people who can’t think of something have a pool of ideas available.

When you have idea you can create your app really easily with Quickly. You can first install Quickly from the Ubuntu Software Center by clicking Applications -> Ubuntu Software Center and search for quickly.

When it is installed, just run:

quickly create ubuntu-project <yourprojectname>

As an example:

quickly create ubuntu-project mycoolapp

Now run:

quickly tutorial

This will explain how to get started working on your application. If you have questions related to using quickly, you can join #quickly on freenode. If you have general software development questions, you can join #ubuntu-app-devel on freenode.

Sharing Your Progress

When you have something you would like me to blog, send an email no later than the end of the day Pacific time on Thu 4th March 2010 to me at jono AT ubuntu DOT com and include:

The name of your program and a brief description of what it does.
A link to a screenshot online that shows your new app running.
If available, tell me the name of the Launchpad project where it is hosted and the PPA with the package. This is a great way for people to try your program and possibly join the project and contribute to it!

I will send a t-shirt out to the three app authors who made the most interesting apps with the most progress.

Start your engines folks, let’s see what we can do! I can’t wait to see how you folks get on!

Introduction To Python Sessions Soon!

2010-02-25T13:00:45+00:00

If you are new to Python and coding, Rick Spencer from the desktop team will be running some beginners Python tuition sessions in an hour:

Thu 25th Feb 2010 – 15.00 UTC – Ubuntu Opp Dev Week Prep: Intro to Python for total beginners
Thu 25th Feb 2010 – 16.00 UTC – Ubuntu Opp Dev Week Prep: Intro to Python for programmers

These sessions are best experienced using Lernid. If you would prefer to use a normal IRC client, just join #ubuntu-classroom and #ubuntu-classroom-chat to join in the fun.

Brand New Lernid Released

2010-02-25T06:58:21+00:00

Ready for the awesomeness that is Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week, we have a shiny new Lernid for you all to rock the week with. Lernid is the online learning tool for getting the most out of our learning weeks. It makes connecting a doddle and provides interactive features such as showing slides, web pages and more.

The new 0.6 release has had a tonne of bug fixes and is by far the most stable release yet. It also includes these new features:

New icon – awesome new icon, and looks smooth as silk in docky too.
Nick completion – just like a normal IRC client, type in the first few letters of the nickname, hit tab and boom! there is the nick!
Option for show time in class and chatroom – want to see the times? Simple.
Possibility for pausing automatic browser updating – don’t like that browser updates? Sorted.
NickServ authentication – now you can use your nickserv password when connecting.
Question button – want to ask a question in the right format? Click the Question button and then type in your question. Job done.
Gwibber support (tweet the ongoing session) – click the Event menu when a session is running and Tweet current session to share your attendance with Twitter/identi.ca/Facebook/FreindFeed etc (only works on Lucid).

Kudos to Michael Budde for taking over the reigns on Lernid as the new maintainer, and for the fantastic little Lernid community for making such a stunning release!

Getting Lernid

It is highly recommended that you download this version of Lernid ready for the event. This is how…

Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala

You can download Lernid for Karmic from the releases PPA. Just click Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal and cut and paste in these commands.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:lernid-devs/lernid-releases
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install lernid

Then click Applications -> Internet -> Lernid.

Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx

If you are running Lucid, Lernid is easier to install than ever as it is now available in Universe! Thanks to the awesome Didier Roche for his work today in getting this into the archive!

As such, installing Lernid is as simple as using the Applications -> Ubuntu Software Center or typing:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install lernid

Then click Applications -> Internet -> Lernid.

Random notes from installing postfixadmin 2.3 deb

2010-02-24T16:52:48+00:00

Server: Debian Lenny

Installed .deb from here

# wget http://sourceforge.net/projects/postfixadmin/files/postfixadmin/postfixadmin_2.3_all.deb/download

....

# dpkg -i postfixadmin_2.3_all.deb

... dpkg moans about missing dependencies

Selecting previously deselected package postfixadmin.(Reading database ... 38632 files and directories currently installed.)Unpacking postfixadmin (from postfixadmin_2.3_all.deb) ...dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of postfixadmin: postfixadmin depends on dbconfig-common; however:  Package dbconfig-common is not installed. postfixadmin depends on wwwconfig-common; however:  Package wwwconfig-common is not installed. postfixadmin depends on php5-imap; however:  Package php5-imap is not installed.dpkg: error processing postfixadmin (--install): dependency problems - leaving unconfiguredErrors were encountered while processing: postfixadmin

# apt-get -f install

(dependencies now get installed...)

…. Goes into the Postfixadmin .deb installer thing.

Tell it to use Apache2 (in my case) as the webserver,
Give it the ‘root’ user’s database password (if MySQL).
Tell it to generate a password for the postfixadmin user…
Tell it to use the package maintainers version of /etc/postfixadmin/config.inc.php (well I did).

I think something went wrong for me – as I needed to do this afterwards; perhaps you’ll have better luck.

# mv /etc/postfixadmin/config.inc.php.ucf-dist /etc/postfixadmin/config.inc.php

Next, goto http://yourserver/postfixadmin/setup.php – you should see lots of text saying how it’s updating the database to version xyz, xyz+1 etc.

Choose a password to protect the setup.php page; press submit, and you’ll be presented with a ‘hash’ – copy and paste this into the config.inc.php file – so you get something like this on line 32 :

$CONF['setup_password'] = ‘my long hash thingy goes in here’;

Next, create a super admin account, using the setup.php page – remembering to type in the setup password you used to create the hash above.

That’s it.

(Well, now you need to configure Postfix and/or courier and/or dovecot etc etc)

You might want to read my other article which covers this…

Rocking The Opportunistic Desktop

2010-02-24T04:09:51+00:00

I just wanted to summarize some fun opportunistic developer things going on over the next few weeks. all of these events provide a great opportunity to get started having fun making awesome apps that you can share with others.

Presenting The Opportunistic Developer Vision

On Wednesday 24th Feb at 11am / 2pm EST / 7pm UTC/GMT I will be giving the talk that I delivered this past weekend at SCALE in LA in which I talk about the work going on in the Ubuntu community to embrace Opportunistic Developers in writing awesome free software apps. If you are curious about all this blathering about opportunistic developers from me, be sure to tune in and check it out. Tune in here.

Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week

A few weeks ago I announced the plan to put together Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week: a week of IRC tuition sessions aimed at helping opportunistic developers scratch their itches and write fun and useful programs using our awesome platform. The week takes place from 1st – 6th March 2010.

The response so far to the call for sessions has been fantastic, and we already have the following sessions scheduled, all visible from the timetable for the week:

Welcome! Ubuntu For Opportunistic Developers – Jono Bacon
Gooey Graphics with GooCanvas – Rick Spencer
Testdrive – DustinKirkland
CouchDB support in your app with DesktopCouch – Stuart Langridge
Creating stunning interfaces with Cairo – Laszlo Pandy
Hot rodding your app for translations support – David Planella
Creating a PyKDE app – Rich Johnson
Creating an application from scratch with Quickly – Rick Spencer
Microblog from your app with the Gwibber API – Ken VanDine
What’s new in Quickly 0.4 – Didier Roche
Learning through examples with Acire and Python-Snippets – Jono Bacon
Building in Application Indicator support – Sense Hofstede
Writing a Rhythmbox plug-in – Stuart Langridge
Create games with PyGame – Rick Spencer
Write Beautiful Code (and Maintain it Beautifully) – rockstar
Using GTK+ signals in Python – Sense Hofstede
Integrated development workflow with Ground Control – Martin Owens
Building multimedia into your app with GStreamer – Laszlo Pandy
Speed your development with quickly.widgets – Rick Spencer
Web browsing and rapid UI with WebKit – Ryan Paul

Each of these sessions is designed to give you a taste of the topic and get you up and running, enough to be productive and start exploring the features of the tool being discussed. In addition to this we will have a series of showcase sessions:

SHOWCASE: Gwibber – Ken VanDine
SHOWCASE: Lernid – Jono Bacon
SHOWCASE: Photobomb – Rick Spencer

These sessions explain the story behind the app: talking about which tools, modules and technology that was used to put these apps together and what challenges were solved. This is a great way to learn more about tools available for opportunistic developers so that when you need to do something, you know which tool to reach out for.

All of this awesome content is best experienced using Lernid. Expect a new Lernid packaged and ready for the week of opportunistic goodness. If you would prefer to use a normal IRC client, just join #ubuntu-classroom and #ubuntu-classroom-chat to join in the fun.

Introduction To Python Tuition Sessions

Now, many of you will be entirely new to Python and entirely new to coding. To give you folks a head start before Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week kicks off, Rick Spencer from the desktop team will be running some beginners Python tuition sessions on the Thursday before Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week:

Thu 25th Feb 2010 – 15.00 UTC – Ubuntu Opp Dev Week Prep: Intro to Python for total beginners – Rick Spencer
Thu 25th Feb 2010 – 16.00 UTC – Ubuntu Opp Dev Week Prep: Intro to Python for programmers – Rick Spencer

This is a great way of getting your opportunistic development kickstarted!

Again, this awesome content is best experienced using Lernid. If you would prefer to use a normal IRC client, just join #ubuntu-classroom and #ubuntu-classroom-chat to join in the fun.

Rock and opportunistic roll, my friends.

Fun Apps And Hacking Parties

With an awesome week of opportunistic developer learning ahead of us, I was keen to put together some sessions where you good folks can just hack on fun projects in the same room, ask each other questions and more. As such, at the end of each Opportunistic Developer Week day, there will be a a series of parties. These include:

Mon 1st March 2010 – 21.00 – 23.00UTC – Hacking Party – Work on your app together, ask/answer questions and have fun together!
Tues 2nd March 2010 – 21.00 – 23.00UTC – Hacking Party – Work on your app together, ask/answer questions and have fun together!
Wed 3rd March 2010 – 21.00 – 23.00UTC – Hacking Party – Work on your app together, ask/answer questions and have fun together!
Thu 4th March 2010 – 21.00 – 23.00UTC – Snippets Party – Join us and create Python snippets!\
Fri 5th March 2010 – 21.00 – 23.00UTC – Hacking Party – Work on your app together, ask/answer questions and have fun together!

This is an awesome opportunity to get together and make something fun. So, I have a challenge for you good folks: before we start next week, think of a fun app to focus on writing next week. Pick something that will do something useful for you and something not too large and comprehensive (e.g. don’t pick a word processor or spreadsheet!).

The Place To Be: #ubuntu-app-devel

As part of building an awesome community and platform for opportunistic developers, I created #ubuntu-app-devel on Freenode and we have a great group of enthusiastic developers in there who can answer your questions and help you get started. Join us and join in hte fun!

Two ‘At Home’ Shows Coming Up

2010-02-23T01:42:37+00:00

On Wednesday 24th Feb at 11am / 2pm EST / 7pm UTC/GMT I will be giving the talk that I delivered this past weekend at SCALE in LA in which I talk about the work going on in the Ubuntu community to embrace Opportunistic Developers in writing awesome free software apps. If you are curious about all this blathering about opportunistic developers from me, be sure to tune in and check it out. Tune in here.

On Friday 26th Feb at 11am / 2pm EST / 7pm UTC/GMT I will be doing a full hour devoted to Q+A on Ubuntu, community management and whatever else you want to discuss. Tune in here.

I hope to see you all there!

Awesome Ubuntu Software Center Updates

2010-02-22T23:47:59+00:00

Two awesome new features that the Ubuntu Software Center recently got in Lucid:

Featured Category – there is a special top-level category for highly recommended applications that we don’t have room for on the disc. This includes the GIMP and Abiword right now. We will add more throughout the release cycle.
Personal Package Archives – PPAs are now visible inside the software center. This is another step closer to making opportunistic development rocking in Ubuntu.

You should all hunt down mvo on Freenode IRC and tell him he is awesome.

So what am I up to?

2010-02-21T22:42:24+00:00

At recent events, when I meet new people, we naturally ask each other “What do you do?”. I’m failing quite badly at summarising my activities, so thought I’d briefly list current projects here, for reference: Gaia University - IT strategy, project management, & SysAdmin, in a programme to gradually upgrade every online aspect of this international [...]

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-02-21

2010-02-21T16:41:00+00:00

pondering a long run tomorrow – http://favoriterun.com/302054 – 19.3 miles. Hope the weather's ok. #
UK Drivers – when on the motorway, if there is adequate space on your left, pull over and let those behind through. #fsckingBMWidiotontheM6 #
All stop. M42….. #
Only 8 hours in the car today. 'should' have been closer to 4 hours. #couldhavecycledtherequicker #
Uh oh. Snow! Cold fluffy snow. We can't go over it, we can't go under it. We've got to go through it. #
I've noticed that when I turn the car off, the traffic starts to move again. Git driving past in the field. *jealous*. 2 miles in 2 hours #
Hmm slow slow slow #
Engine off. Handbrake on. Stupid m1. #
Spice valley, bromsgrove – nice food, shame about the lack of baby / toddler facilities. One of the better local curry houses at least. #
Silly cron, you really shouldn't run cron.d files which are chmod'ed 000. Oh well one mystery solved at least. #debian #bug #lenny #
.@Bendihossan nah. I'm cheap, dirty and run an interpreted language like php. Nat evolution not intelligent design ftw I'd silently fail in reply to Bendihossan #
Soon I shall be 11111. Go me! (overflow error next year, or hardware upgrade?) #
It's cold. Specks of snow falling. But I Think it's not going to be a White birthday tomorrow … Boo #
"…. then bake mysterious things" #cake #ftw #
Garage: "We can't work on your car until it's been valeted", they did drill a hole in the boot (bye water) and give it two new tires… #
Guess I'd better give this sleep thing another try. In other news, the car interior might dry up after tomorrow (yey!) #
spent the morning debugging Python, stupid variable casting requirement…. #

IT Happens

2010-02-17T21:01:16+00:00

I’m travelling back from the Connecting 2.0 Communities event held this afternoon and evening at Madlab, in Manchester’s Northern Quarter. An MDDA-sponsored event to give technical and social media advice to community groups. I was arm-twisted into giving a short talk, so rapidly prepared an item on Social Media tactics and strategy culled from our [...]

Some Opportunistic Developer Updates

2010-02-15T21:28:57+00:00

A few awesome opportunistic developer updates:

Firstly, I have been adding some parties every day during Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week. These include a couple of hacking parties in which you should come and join us and hack on your new apps and be around folks to ask for help, answer questions and share progress.
Secondly, given the interest brewing around opportunistic developers on Ubuntu, I have created a new IRC channel called #ubuntu-app-devel where you can go to hang out with others writing apps, you can ask questions there, share progress and talk about how we can make Ubuntu a rocking system for harnessing the creative inclinations of opportunistic developers.

Rock and roll, my friends.

App Of Jaq

2010-02-15T18:09:44+00:00

In the continued mission to inspire and encourage opportunistic developers to write cool little apps that scratch an itch, no matter how specific and niche, I have started work on App Of Jaq: a desktop app that scratches my itch to build the Shot Of Jaq experience right into the desktop. The first cut of the app will:

Provide simple and easy access to listening to the latest shot, using GStreamer to play back the shot.
Have the ability to tweet/dent/Facebook the latest shot with one-click using the Gwibber API.
List latest shots for one-click playback.
Show recent comments where you can click them to display them inside App Of Jaq and reply – this is shown using GtkMozEmbed.
Keep right up to date with the latest comments as App Of Jaq shows latest comments in a pop-up bubble using notify-osd.
Get one-click access to all the latest shots and other Shot Of Jaq resources with an application indicator menu.

Let’s take a look at a couple of screenshots:

The main window.

The application indicator: I don’t have the Shot Of Jaq icons yet, so I used the distributor-logo (hence the Ubuntu logo).

I am still working on the first release but hope to have it ready in the next few weeks and added to a PPA. Ultimately, I am keen to replace the web view of the comments and have a native GTK-driven commenting interface, bypassing the website entirely. I am also keen to build our new Shot Of Jaq karma system into the desktop app too. I am going to leave these features for the second release though.

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-02-14

2010-02-14T16:41:00+00:00

Hmm tesco sell semi invisible diesel too. Needle didn't move after refuel, stopped to put more in and then it caught up. Stupid car. #
Random diesel prices : independent 111.9p/l, sainsburys 113.9p/l, tesco 115.9p/l. Tescos were the only one open at 7am on Sunday. :-/ #
Hmm weather advisory for heavy snow on my birthday (17th). Convienant. #birthdaysledgingwouldbenice #
I'm wondering how I managed to hurt my ankle while asleep. It feels like it's almost sprained. Hop-along-David today :-/ #
Distinctly unimpressed brain – I shouldn't wake up at 1am thinking it's 5am and I've slept well. Now to try the sleep thing again….. #
Dentists enjoy making you wait. Do they overbook Deliberately? #
Today I did a total of 124 pushups thanks to the Hundred Pushups iPhone app. (Week 4, Day 2, Level 3) #100Pushups #
RT @glynmoody rupertg Chip and Pin bank card security cracked – http://bit.ly/9cVqqk #
I'm in awe of my competitors … http://www.birdandcocreative.co.uk/php-shorthand-if-and-else-assignments/ #php #fail #
Facebook chat over xmpp was easy to do. Thanks fb. #
Today I did a total of 152 situps thanks to the 200 Situps iPhone app. (Week 3, Day 2, Level 3) #200Situps #
RT @JohnPinner @europython EuroPython 2010 Registration & Talk Submissions open at http://europython.eu – Extra Early Bird rate for one week #
Well day 11316 has gone ok… Not long till day 11323. But what do I want? #
Today I did a total of 120 pushups thanks to the Hundred Pushups iPhone app. (Week 4, Day 1, Level 3) #100Pushups #
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Infant-formula/ #
A rabbit with a pancake hat…. http://www.myconfinedspace.com/2010/02/09/rabbit-with-a-pancake-on-its-head/ #
Time to find a star bucks with free wifi or something to tide me over to #phpwm At least I can drink tonight #
Bus hat ftw. http://twitpic.com/12777q #
Meet or Die http://bit.ly/dbOocr clearly the authors were not against meetings or anything… #
RT @birminghampost rail delays between Birmingham and London http://tinyurl.com/y8s7dhf <- Is it just me that gets screwed by trains ? #
Today I did a total of 120 situps thanks to the 200 Situps iPhone app. (Week 3, Day 1, Level 3) #200Situps #
Trying to never eat 'lamb' curry dishes again …. mutton dressed as lamb. Spices of catshill – I'm looking at you.. Distinctly unimpressed #
Got the 3d glasses… Avatar had better be good #
42 is the meaning of life…. and the number of pressups shall be 42. #100pressups #
Last night we swapped bed sides (perhaps just to f-ck with @rowangoodwin). I slept poorly. Who'd have thought which side mattered? #
Another week. Another brick in the wall. Two leads on php contractor front (neither agency related) *yey* #

Fun, and a bit deviant

2010-02-13T19:30:45+00:00

FeedingManchester #3 Just back from Feeding Manchester #3, an attempt to co-ordinate everyone in the business of sustainable food production in the city, and keep the city council and its ambitious plans for local food on track. Although I do a bit of sustainable and community IT in Hulme, and social media training in the Northern [...]

Proud To Be a Son

2010-02-12T18:16:18+00:00

Today my dad was informed that he will be awarded a masters degree at Cambridge University where he has been studying recently. While I am overflowing with pride over his achievement, what really makes me smile is the incredible journey that led him there.

Born and raised in the Dales in North Yorkshire, he came from a frugal rural upbringing in a large working-class family. They didn’t have much, but he always made the most out of what he did have, never complaining, always dreaming, leading him on step by step through a range of adventures, each underlined with his phenomenal sense of values, and an unwavering commitment to family and hard work.

His life so far has been a rich tapestry of diversity, with just a few of his experiences including being a welder, running multiple car dealerships, managing a multimedia software project, being a hypnotherapist, a magistrate, a nightclub owner, a mayor, a pub landlord, and currently running an antiques business in conjunction with my mum who has embarked on her own incredible journey to become one of the top master restorers in England.

While his daily routine has differed over the years, his values have not. He is the purest definition of good person that I have ever met. He has spent his life committed to doing the right thing, often challenged by adversity. He has always defended those without a voice, often putting his own personal circumstances and comfort levels into a state of flux. He fought for voting rights for women in working mens clubs in the UK, campaigned for the safety of residents near rail crossings in the town I was born in, stood up against inferior safety provisions in his workplace to protect his workmates, he took his old friend Ray to the 50th anniversary D-Day memorial in Normandy and went to great lengths to obtain replica medals as Ray had lost his many years previous. These are just a few examples from a patchwork of experiences stitched together with kindness.

He has not only been the perfect father, but a true inspiration for a son. He taught me a strong set of values, each illustrated by his experiences; experiences shared but never lectured, and from my earliest childhood memory I can remember him and my mum both encouraging and defending my right to an opinion, under the premise it was shared fairly and with empathy for other people’s views.

So, while I sit here beaming from cheek to cheek with pride over my dad who started with nothing and made something while never compromising who he is and where he came from, it makes me realize just how incredibly fortunate I am to have been blessed by such an incredible mentor. I love you dad, and I have never been so proud of you as I am today.

Hacker Culture and geek groups in Birmingham, West Midlands

2010-02-11T19:10:35+00:00

Birmingham has a vibrant community of geek/enthusiast groups, of which I’m proud to be a part. That said, it’s sometimes hard to find or even know about all of them, without the right. So collected here are the groups I know of:

Birmingham LUG: Linux User Group that meets at the University of Birmingham, on the third Thursday of each month. Meetings are usually a technical talk, followed by a drink at the bar on campus.
Birmingham Perl Mongers: Perl user group that meets in Birmingham, twice each month alternating between technical and socials. Group members hosted the 2006 YAPC::Europe Perl Conference, and are major contributors to the Perl community.
Brum2600: Hacker group that meet in Birmingham, on the first Saturday of each month. Brum2600 also holds Brumcon, an annual event with speakers from around the country and Europe.
Coventry LUG: Linux User Group that meet in Coventry, twice each month for a socal on the first Tuesday and a technical meeting on the third Tuesday.
fizzPOP: A hackerspace that holds hack sessions in the centre of Birmingham, every few weeks. Hack Sessions involve electronics projects (esp. Arduino), art projects, crafts, mechanics and other varied creative activities.
Mappa Mercia: OpenStreetMap mapping group for the West Midlands. They hold mapping parties and meet regularly for socials. Members have been instrumental in mapping the West Midlands so well.
Midlands Micromouse and Robotics Club: A group that builds and competes robots to map and navigate a maze in the shortest time. Competitions are held monthly. Other robots are also featured.
Multipack: A community of web developers and designers who hold regular meetings and varied meetings in pubs and parks around Birmingham.
Paradise Circus: Group of bloggers, web developers, and social media types that meets monthly to hold a Bloggers Meet and a Social Media Surgery. The group is named after the Building that houses Birmingham Central Library.
PHP WM: PHP West Midlands group meets in the centre of Birmingham, on the second Tuesday of each month. There is usually a talk followed by discussion.
PyWM: Python user group that holds a technical meeting near to Sutton Coldfield, on the fourth Saturday of each month. There was once also a social meeting held on a Thursday, but this is not currently happening. PyWM members have organised PyCon UK and EuroPython for the past few years running.
Redditch and Bromsgrove LUG: Linux User Group that meets in Bromsgrove and Redditch, every other month on the first Thursday.
Warwick University GNU/LUG: Linux User Group that meets at the University of Warwick, each Wednesday during term time.
West Midlands Ruby User Group: Group covering the Ruby programming language and Ruby on Rails framework. They are newly started, so far meeting once in Wolverhampton and once in Birmingham.
Wolves LUG: Linux User Group that meets in Wolverhampton every second Wednesday, for socialising and the occasional talk. Wolves LUG is notable for it’s high preponderance of Ubuntu users. Members have been instrumental in organising LugRadio Live events.

EDITS: 2010-02-11 21:00 Added Multipack. 2010-02-17 Added Birmingham Micromouse.

Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week Update

2010-02-11T06:56:07+00:00

Earlier this week I announced the plan to put together Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week: a week of IRC tuition sessions aimed at helping opportunistic developers scratch their itches and write fun and useful programs using our awesome platform. The week takes place from 1st – 6th March 2010.

The response so far to the call for sessions has been fantastic, and we already have the following sessions scheduled, all visible from the timetable for the week:

Welcome! Ubuntu For Opportunistic Developers – Jono Bacon
Gooey Graphics with GooCanvas – Rick Spencer
Getting your app in Launchpad with Bazaar – David Futcher
CouchDB support in your app with DesktopCouch – Stuart Langridge
Creating stunning interfaces with Cairo – Laszlo Pandy
Creating a PyKDE app – Rich Johnson
Creating an application from scratch with Quickly – Rick Spencer
Microblog from your app with the Gwibber API – Ken VanDine
What’s new in Quickly 0.4 – Didier Roche
Building in Application Indicator support – Sense Hofstede
Writing a Rhythmbox plug-in – Stuart Langridge
Create games with PyGame – Rick Spencer
Write Beautiful Code (and Maintain it Beautifully) – rockstar
Using GTK+ signals in Python – Sense Hofstede
Integrated development workflow with Ground Control – Martin Owens
Building multimedia into your app with GStreamer – Laszlo Pandy
Speed your development with quickly.widgets – Rick Spencer
Web browsing and rapid UI with WebKit – Ryan Paul

SHOWCASE: Gwibber – Ken VanDine
SHOWCASE: Lernid – Jono Bacon
SHOWCASE: Photobomb – Rick Spencer

Now, many of you will be entirely new to Python and entirely new to coding. To give you folks a head start before the week kicks off, Rick Spencer from the desktop team will be running some beginners Python tuition sessions on the Thursday before Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week:

Thu 25th Feb 2010 – 15.00 UTC – Ubuntu Opp Dev Week Prep: Intro to Python for total beginners – Rick Spencer
Thu 25th Feb 2010 – 16.00 UTC – Ubuntu Opp Dev Week Prep: Intro to Python for programmers – Rick Spencer

We are still looking for sessions, and if you want to contribute and give one, just drop me an email at jono AT ubuntu DOT com.

All of this awesome content is best experienced using Lernid and I have asked Michael, the new Lernid maintainer if he can roll a new release this weekend. So, expect a new Lernid packaged and ready for the week of opportunistic goodness. If you would prefer to use a normal IRC client, just join #ubuntu-classroom and #ubuntu-classroom-chat to join in the fun.

Rock and opportunistic roll, my friends.

Fixing Bugs The Opportunistic Way

2010-02-10T17:38:01+00:00

Recently I announced Project Awesome Opportunity; an ambitious goal to build awesome collaboration facilities into Ubuntu that makes working together on projects as simple as possible. Project Awesome Opportunity is not just about coding: it is about people opportunistically creating things that scratch their itches. This could could anything from software to learning materials and more.

The project targets three primary use cases:

Creating a software project – creating and working on a project be as simple as possible using the wonderful Quickly as a tool.
Collaborating on content – working together with Bazaar and sending content to Launchpad.
Fixing a Bug – taking the pain out of how you grab a bug to fix and contribute your fix back to the project.

I just wanted to follow up with the third of these three goals which Martin landed in Ground Control this week. Let me explain how it works.

Imagine you want to fix a bug. I created an example bug to do this demo:

To get started, you first go to your Projects directory and you can see some buttons:

Let’s now see how you can grab a project. Click the Fetch Project button and a dialog pops up where you can type in a project name which is hosted on Launchpad:

As you can see above, when you search, the projects are listed below. Just select the project and click OK and a directory appears in your Projects directory:

If you double-click on that directory you will see a few different buttons. We want to fix a bug, so click the Fix Bug button:

You will now see a dialog box where you can search for a bug within the project. When you search for a bug name or number the bugs appear. Click on the bug you want to fix and click the OK button:

Now a branch of the code will be downloaded to your directory:

When the code is downloaded the directory is named after the bug number:

You can now double-click on the directory and see the code:

Let’s do a simple change and add the following content to the README file:

#################################
##### THIS IS A TEST CHANGE #####
#################################

When you have made some changes, you will see a new Upload Fix button in the file browser:

When you click that button you will now see a dialog box where you can enter what changes you made to the project (this is a commit message, and useful adding details about your bug fix):

Click OK and another dialog box will appear, this time asking for a content for a merge proposal – a merge proposal is a request to the owners of the project to merge your bug fix into the main code base. Enter a message and click OK:

The fix will then be uploaded and your merge proposal made and you can now see a View Request button:

When you click the button your browser will show the merge request page where you can have a conversation with the project developers about your proposed merge, work out any kinks and otherwise collaborate together:

In addition to making the merge proposal, Ground Control also attaches your branch with the fix to the original bug report:

This process takes a significant level of complexity out of the process of fixing bugs and streamlines the developer on the bookends of the process: identifying what you want to fix and submitting the fix. This gives the developer more time to focus on the bug fix itself, which in my mind is the point of great developer tools.

For this feature to flourish and for us to rock the socks off opportunistic developers everywhere, we are going to need your help, particularly with testing and where possible bug fixes. Here are the main ways in which you can help:

Fixing Bugs – Martin is largely a one man band on this project and he needs help fixing Ground Control Bugs. If you are interesting in helping, see the bug list here and get involved. He will love you and I will hail you.
Testing – Testing is critical to this project. We have a tight timeframe on this, so we need you to help. How do you test? Simple, grab the dailly PPA of Ground Control set up by the awesome Nathan Handler, test it and report bugs.

The next step is building in top-level support for the awesome Quickly model of creating new applications and working on those applications at a code/UI and development level. This will neatly mesh together the application development ease of use of use in Quickly and the integration with Launchpad with Ground Control. Didier is a total rock star with Quickly, and 0.4 is sounding awesome, and I am excited to see how these tools will work together and make opportunistic development accessible for all.

KDE Application Indicators In GNOME

2010-02-10T04:04:10+00:00

Something we have been spending some time working on in this cycle has been fixing the mess that is the system tray. This is based upon an awesome specification submitted to Freedesktop by KDE. The spec has been implemented by KDE, we have written an implementation for the GNOME panel and it shipped in Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx Alpha 2.

This work has a range of benefits:

Better usability: no more confusing mix of left and right click menu options.
Multiple indicators can be scrubbed: click once and move your mouse between them instead of having to click multiple times.
Icons are properly spaced.
Separate panel icons can be specified which helps improve theming.
Better KDE and GNOME integration.

I have blogged about this work before, but I had not yet seen the last bullet in action. Here, my friends, is the KDE application Kopete running in GNOME having it’s indicator rendered using GTK menus and respecting GTK icons where appropriate:

Of course, the equivilent happens running GNOME/GTK+ applications in KDE. Rocking!

We have also started adding application indicator support to many of the applications we ship in Ubuntu, and of course these patches are going upstream as they are written. Over the next week or so patches for Brasero, gnome-bluetooth, gnome-control-center, Vino, gnome-disk-utility, and gnome-power-manager will be sent upstream, and we have already sent Nautilus and Rhythmbox patches upstream. We have also seen the community create application indicator patches for Transmission, LottaNZB, Lernid and more.

If you would like to add this rocking support for your app, take a look at this guide and feel free to hang out in #ayatana on Freenode.

Social From The Start

2010-02-09T22:13:49+00:00

Twitter, identi.ca and Facebook have become an increasingly common medium in which people are communicating. While Google Wave vies to be the next generation of communication (as we waxed lyrical about on the recent Shot Of Jaq), in reality email and microblogging are unlikely to be unseated as primary methods of communication. Naturally, we want to make these methods of connecting people rock good and hard in Ubuntu.

Today Ken VanDine uploaded a new Gwibber to Lucid which adds improved reliability, multi-column views, a new theme and more. It looks like this:

I love you Ryan Paul. I cried 140 individual tears of joy.

This leads me to a simple conclusion:

Goodbye Tweetdeck. You suck considerably more than Gwibber.

No more ugly Adobe Air app. No more closed source Twitter client. No more lack of identi.ca support. No more horrible notification bubbles. Instead, sweet, native, effortless microblogging, right from my Ubuntu desktop. A veritable ass kicking at at it’s finest.

Now, this is cool in of itself, but then combine it with the ability to tweet/dent right from the Me menu:

Microblogging built in, sleek and elegant. I am stoked, and Gwibber is rocking the house. Also, if you are the opportunistically development minded, don’t forget that you can build microblogging support into your apps with Gwibber’s API too, and there will be a session on how to do this at Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week.

Mashup or half baked potato?

2010-02-09T20:53:59+00:00

I was bushwhacked by @tdobson on identi.ca having read my review of RatholeRadio he was keen to get me to give my thoughts and opinions on his podacst http://www.blog.tdobson.net/mashup now I’ve not listened to this show and fortunately there has only been two releases so far which means it shouldn’t be too hard a task for me.

My first impression of the Mashup section was “well what’s it all about then?” I proceeded to paw over the site like some latter day Sherlock Holmes or Witch finder general whichever takes your fancy. But wait what is the ‘Mashup‘ all about? Hidden away in the credits of episode one (Which is at the bottom of the page) its says “I mention how this show is inspired and encouraged by Dan Lynch’s Rathole Radio.” Aha! OK so its inspired by RatholeRadio but what’s the aim? What’s the purpose? Clearly I needed to listen to the show to get to the bottom of what was going on.

Mashup! – Episode One
The first track was Funky Jackson Medley performed by Groovy Revolution which was basically a melody of songs ranging from Play That Funky Music (White boy) to Michael Jackson’s Black or White to be fair I actually enjoyed it although personally I’d have preferred just to hear Play that funky music on its own. Next up was Werewolves! by Akira the Don now I really liked this one nice piano banging tune, OK i doubt they’ll get signed up by Sony but I did enjoy it “Ahooooooo werewolves of London”.

Moving on we was treated to Addicted by Red light Rippers pretty so so in my opinion classic pub rocker type music which hundreds of bands up an down the UK knock out most Saturday nights then OMG! this song burst out of my headphones Forever to last by Atomic Cat off came the shirt out came the glow sticks and I danced through ASDA washing up liquid soap bubbles spirited away from all my cares and woes, awesome!

Next came a track Citadel by Celestial Aeon Project a haunting flute orientated track the sort of thing you find on one of those ‘Moods’ CD’s in the bargain bucket at the filling station. We then had a slight interlude of news, of sorts, which is a nice idea rather than listening to back to back tracks we then had a semi political song Dear Mandy [an open letter to Lord Mandelson] by Dan Bull and next was Paranoid Big Brother by 3 Daft Monkeys they reminded me in parts of Jethro Tull a pretty good song and I reckon the advice of “Go see em live they’re (bleep) awesome” is probably true.

Finally we had Code Monkey by Jonathan Coulton a guitar based song that perhaps should be the theme song for some of my Linux friends, but then wait, what’s happened? Has the tape run out? Have I hit pause by mistake? The podcast came to an abrupt end! No “Well thanks people its been emotional”, “Join us next week when we will be giving away free money”, “Email the show at feedback@ineedmorelisteners.com” nope it just ended.

Maybe I’m being a bit harsh after all it was the first podcast, overall I was pretty impressed certainly from what I heard there was a different emphasis on musical style to RatholeRadio but then again this is not about comparing two shows. I’m still unsure as to what Marked difference it brings, maybe the presenter needs to carve out a niche following possibly only playing live bands a sort of radio show for all those poor bands living out the back of transit vans spending weekends driving up and down motorways to flea pit venues for £10 and all the beer they can drink.

Overall I liked it maybe I’ll drop by now and again just to see how things are moving along.

Starbucks – Free wifi should not cost £5

2010-02-09T17:55:24+00:00

Today, I went to London to visit a prospect customer – who we’ve done work for before – oddly the people I spoke to had no knowledge of the work we did (they paid for it all about 18-24 months ago… but nevermind), and it doesn’t appear to have been deployed either (“We heard someone talking about this X months ago; but thought it was just a suggestion / didn’t think work had been done”) … so I’ve probably thrown a spanner into their idea of migrating from ExponentCMS to something else (E.g. Drupal).

Anyway, I got back to Birmingham at about 17:00ish, at which point there wasn’t a lot of point in me sitting on the bus for an hour or more, only to arrive in Bromsgrove, and then drive back to Birmingham to do the phpwm meeting tonight…

So, while walking up New Street, I spot Starbucks with it’s “Free WIFI” advert in the window. Cool. Drink + Wifi = Win. Or not. I had to spend £5 to buy a ’starbucks reward card’ – then use my iPhone to find out how to register (which wifi ssid etc) – and the starbucks.co.uk site didn’t make it obvious to find either.

So, suffice to say, now I am connected – and all traffic is being tunnelled out via

ssh -D 9999 david@my.server

International Women’s Day Comp: Get Your Entries In!

2010-02-09T08:05:21+00:00

Look at this lovely bag of swag:

Image courtesy of Melissa Draper.

Want to own all this goodness, including Ubuntu Backpacks, women’s t-shirts, key chains, 1 year digital subscription to Linux Pro Magazine or a 1 year print subscription Ubuntu User, and a copy of the The Art of Community by some beardy community guy?

On January 10, 2010 the Ubuntu Women Project announced an International Women’s Day Competition; an awesome effort to gather wonderful stories of how women have discovered Ubuntu. From the announcement:

Ubuntu-Women has tried in the past to find some way to celebrate this event, but as far as I can remember it has never really amounted to much other than some chattering on IRC. So let us try a bit harder for 2010!

We have all come to Ubuntu in our own special ways — every single one of us differently to the next. Yet one of the most common questions we get asked is “How can I get $woman to use Ubuntu?”.

Obviously we cannot really answer that question, but we would dearly love to have a collection of stories by women about how they discovered Ubuntu. Such a repository would allow us to demonstrate that there’s no one definitive answer, and at the same time maybe provide the gift of inspiration to women who are interested — showing them that it’s really not so unusual to be Ubuntu fans after all.

We are not expecting any particular length, but do remember that these stories should be suited to perusal at leisure and not require someone to allocate hours of their day to read. Anywhere between a few paragraphs and a OO.o Write page is ideal.

Two prizes up for grabs. One prize pack will be given to the story that the community votes is their favourite. One prize pack will be given to a randomly drawn entrant. I have been given the pleasure of drawing this entrant in a videocast, and announcing both winners to the world on March 8th. Thanks to the Ubuntu Women project for asking for to do this.

So, get your entries in to ubuntuwomen.competition at gmail.com by 23:59UTC on 22nd February 2010. Rocking!

Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week: Call For Participation!

2010-02-08T05:53:12+00:00

In the continued interests of helping to make Ubuntu rock as a platform for scratching itches and making awesome apps, I am putting together a new online learning event: Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week, happening online between 1st – 6th March 2010.

The week will be just like our previous online learning events such as Ubuntu Developer Week and Ubuntu Open Week, but instead providing a week jam packed with awesome sessions about writing applications that scratch your itch, and predominantly focusing on Python tools and frameworks, Bazaar, Launchpad and infrastructure. The goal for the week is give attendees a head start on a given technology useful for applications.

So, I am looking for volunteers. If you feel you could give a tutorial about a given Python module or associated technology (e.g. Glade, Launchpad, Bazaar etc), please drop me an email at jono AT ubuntu DOT com and I will liaise with you to get it scheduled. I am also look for some showcase sessions: stories about how you put together an application, how it scratched your itch and what tools you used. Thanks to everyone who contributes to leading a session!

The week has already been added as a Lernid event and I am going to encourage session leaders to create slides for their sessions. As each session is confirmed it will appear in Lernid and on the wiki page. Rocking!

Master Of The Situation

2010-02-08T04:42:55+00:00

I had a crack at creating some electronic music. I know, not metal. I figured I would share this, and I have never done this before, so be gentle.

Check out Master Of The Situation in MP3 and Ogg format.

Created in Cubase with Halion One, a KeyRig and Drumkit From Hell.

Wow: Guys you rock PPA'S to try

2010-02-07T23:51:00+00:00

So today I've been playing with some new new software via PPA's, for all the guys doing this many thanks.

Open up Software Sources. Click on add source. Type in ppa:name of ppa. Click on add.

Gnome-shell: 2.29.1~ Looks better, feels faster and more responsive much nicer than earlier attempts. ppa:vperetokin/unofficial-gnome-shell

Epiphany: 2.29.6 Wow is all I can say. As fast as Chrome/Chromium, open source, plugs into seahorse/gnome keyring for password storage, smaller font makes it much better for netbooks. ppa:webkit-team and ppa:webkit-team/epiphany

New Gwibber: Guys this is the release we want, this is awesome, everything is displayed sensibly, everything about it is pretty, great work. ppa:gwibber-daily

To all those involved in the creation of these apps and there improvements, many, many thanks. The work you do is really appriciated and I don't think thank you is said enough. Keep up the good work...

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-02-07

2010-02-07T16:41:00+00:00

Wondering where to run to tomorrow. #
Rowan now has a facebook account to go with his Twitter @rowangoodwin and blog … (rowangoodwin.co.uk, Facebook.com/rowan.Goodwin) #
Haha msnbot it appears you are enjoying indexing a customers server a bit much. Have you heard of being 'nice' ? #
Today I did a total of 132 pushups thanks to the Hundred Pushups iPhone app. (Week 4, Day 3, Level 3) #100Pushups #
Rowan is still asleep. Lie in ftw. #
RT @loudmouthman What Woman will not tell you about pregancy is great breakfast reading http://bit.ly/caqaJL #
RT @jzy: @codinghorror you should try "Outside" sometimes. http://bit.ly/dsbcos – looks like a great game…. Cost? Hardware/platform? #
If only this developer knew database design. Adding (a) new table(s) for an additional dataset is just WRONG! #uneducated #heathen #
Today I did a total of 119 pushups thanks to the Hundred Pushups iPhone app. (Week 4, Day 2, Level 3) #100Pushups #
More sleep plz? Kthxzzzz #
Hmm aroundme's augmented reality looks cool; @moobert might kill me if i ask him to do it on the food hygiene iPhone app we're planning tho #
Don't you just hate it when you save data to a backend, only for it to silently vanish. (Apc + zend_cache. Perhaps apc needs more memory?) #
I am now 200 grams heavier. #chocolate #
Why do I need to FAX docs to apple to develop on the iPhone. FFS. What's wrong with email ? #fail #not1980sanylonger #
Today I did a total of 121 situps thanks to the 200 Situps iPhone app. (Week 2, Day 3, Level 3) #200Situps #
Interviewing possible php contractor this morning. I hope he's good – i've got work stacking up. #
*ding dong* "Time to wake up chuggers!" #
.RT @metofficeWMids ADVISORY of Heavy Snow for West Midlands valid from 0349 – 2359 Wed 03 Feb http://bit.ly/bBNkz0 #
RT @scottmac: Announcing HipHop for PHP – http://developers.facebook.com/news.php?blog=1&story=358 #
RT @grifferz Impregnation via the proximal gastrointestinal tract in a patient with an aplastic distal vagina: http://is.gd/7wvbe (via @jwz) #
Today I did a total of 102 pushups thanks to the Hundred Pushups iPhone app. (Week 4, Day 1, Level 3) #100Pushups #
Sleep little toddler. Sleep. #
Cold cold. Brrr. Snow melted tho #
Well that was a crash course into learning mailscanner with exim on rhel. What next dear customers ? #
Hmm 144 bus turns up an hour and a half late. Chances of getting to Birmingham before 1030 – near zero. #
Bromsgrove looks a bit clogged up this morning. Stupid snow. Wondering if I'm going to make
the train now. #
Today I did a total of 108 situps thanks to the 200 Situps iPhone app. (Week 2, Day 2, Level 3) #200Situps #

I Support Same Sex Marriage

2010-02-06T20:17:22+00:00

I love being married, it has opened up an incredible sense of commitment and security in my life and my wife’s life. Love is love, and I would never want to prevent anyone from enjoying what I am afforded the privilage of enjoying. This includes gay people. As such, I have joined this Facebook group to get 1,000,000 who support same sex marriage. I usually hate these kinds of groups, but I think it could be interesting to visualize the support behind this issue. Worthy, methinks.

links for 2010-02-04

2010-02-05T01:33:33+00:00

BBC - BBC Radio 4 Programmes - Costing the Earth, The New Diggers Dig for victory - faced with a collapsing economy & ecology, what better response than growing, preserving and sharing abundance? (tags: localfood GuerillaGardening FIxTheFoodChain BBC food sustainability permaculture selfreliance organic commons diy csa transition)

Project Awesome Opportunity

2010-02-04T20:46:34+00:00

In the continued interests of making Ubuntu a rocking platform for opportunistic developers, today we formulated the plan for Project Awesome Opportunity. The goal is simple: build an opportunistic development workflow into Ubuntu. You will install one package from Universe and your Ubuntu will be hot-rodded for opportunistic application development, making development more fun and more accessible for a glorious itch scratching smackdown.

At the heart of the project is Ground Control by Martin Owens and Quickly by Rick Spencer and Didier Roche. I have been thinking about the challenges of how we build a great first incarnation of a platform optimised for opportunistic developers, and it struck me that we can divide the first set of tasks into three broad areas:

Creating a Project – we need to help opportunistic developers ramp up as quickly as possible: they feel the itch and they are ready to scratch right away.
Collaborating on a project – it should be really simple grab code, create a contribution and submit it to the project.
Fixing a Bug – bugs are at the heart of software projects, and we should optimize the bug fixing process making it a doddle for opportunistic bug fixing developers to grab some code and make it work.

A key part of this workflow which I designed yesterday is the Fixing a Bug component, and this is something I am really passionate about us trying to deliver in the Lucid timeframe. This is not a formal project that my team is working on, this is something that I am focused on in my spare time and coordinating with Ground Control author and rock star, Martin Owens.

Let me explain how it works:

Opportunistic development lives in the Projects/ directory in your home directory. When you load this directory in Nautilus, you see this:

Ground Control places three buttons that identify the key use cases we are keen to satisfy. When the user clicks the ”Fix Bug” button the following dialog box appears

For the first cut of this feature a bug number is required, but the feature could also include a search box for finding bugs and even potentially have an option on the Launchpad project page saying ”Fix a bug on your desktop” (or some other descriptive term) and when you click that link, Nautilus opens up and is fed the bug number.

When a bug number is submitted, Ground Control will create a branch that the bug affects (typically trunk) into your Projects/ directory. You can then go and hack the code:

When a source file in the branch is changed (and ultimately the coder fixes the bug), we now see an ”Upload Fix” button:

At this point the branch has the fix committed, so the coder clicks the button and then sees this dialog box:

This dialog box asks for the following:

The first box is the content that goes into the commit message.
The second box is the content that goes into the merge proposal.
The third box is optional additional characters for the branch name.

When the user clicks the OK button, the following process occurs:

Bazaar commits to the local branch.
The branch is pushed to the branch location specified.
The branch is added to the bug report.
A merge proposal is made.

So, I fleshed this idea out over the last few days and documented it and had a chat with Martin Owens who created Ground Control, and he has committed to finish off the current feature set of Ground Control and creating the Fix a Bug feature in the next two weeks. Martin has volunteered to invest a significant amount of time and effort into solving this problem in Ground Control, and I am going to be working to grow awareness of the project, handle the packaging in Universe, and help to get more people involved in testing and translations. See the Create a Project, Collaborate and Fix a Bug blueprints for this feature. Feel free to subscribe to them to track progress.

Fixing Bugs – Martin is largely a one man band on this project and he needs help fixing Ground Control Bugs. If you are interesting in helping, see the bug list here and get involved. He will love you and I will hail you.
Testing – Testing is critical to this project. We have a tight timeframe on this, so we need you to help. How do you test? Simple, grab the dailly PPA of Ground Control set up by the awesome Nathan Handler, test it and report bugs.
Moral Support – Martin Owens is doctormo on Freenode. Ping him and tell him he is awesome. He and I hang out in #ubuntu-community-team: buy him a virtual beer.

So that is the goal. Let’s see if we can rock it and fire up more opportunistic developers.

Still looking for a PHP contractor….

2010-02-04T20:40:07+00:00

At work I’m still looking for a short term PHP contractor. Perhaps I’m being unrealistic in my expectations/requirements (rate/location/duration/skills etc), but nevertheless…. As I’ve not found anyone via normal channels (twitter/phpwm user group etc) I thought I’d turn to a random recruitment agency (who I’d spoken to a week or so ago).

Yesterday I interviewed one guy – who’d been a programmer for a number of years (10+) – using Visual Foxpro (whatever that is) – presumably it’s a dead language, as he wants to move across into PHP. He has very basic PHP experience (yet claims 2 years on his CV), figured out how to do FizzBuzz and Recursion without too much help – but didn’t know anything about object orientation, separation of concerns (specifically MVC), security (obvious SQL injection) or unit testing and failed to make any comment on what is almost the worst code I could find to present to him. This isn’t necessarily a problem – I would normally be happy to train someone – however, not when I’m paying him £25/hour and I’d be lucky if he was productive within a week. (Hint: students are better than this when they’ve only been in University for two years).

Today, I therefore continued hunting, with mixed success. I had three more CVs – all asking for more money, and one looked quite good – but had a requirement he worked remotely after the first few days (well he does live in Telford). Another, who is local, I’m interviewing tomorrow. Wanting to do some homework on him, I had a look at a couple of websites mentioned in his doctored CV - the first is clearly .Net from the error message it throws when you pass a > into it’s search box – so either they replaced his PHP site quickly or his CV is misleading. The second has a PHP error on it – and is only (effectively) a themed wordpress site which looks like it’s slowly rotting. From these I found out his address (hint: whois $flamingodomain) and an invalid email address/domain (which archive.org seems to not do much with). Typing in his name into Google / LinkedIn, Facebook etc produces no obvious matches. So I know hardly anything about him, and for all intent he may as well not exist. Great sales job there.

From talking to the recruiters it seems it’s difficult to find decent PHP programmers – and anyone who may be decent will almost certainly not be programming PHP as their primary language (i.e. they’ll be doing web development in Java/.Net, and know PHP quite well). This seems a shame, but really only confirms what I already knew from interacting with others in the community. I’ve known for ages that I’ve effectively taken a large pay cut by running my own company, and doing PHP. It sucks that this continues to be the case. Clearly I’m a martyr or something.

So, if you happen to be a contractor looking for work, please make an effort. I’m not overly impressed so far, and may just end up stalling customers for another week/month instead.

(Oddly I wrote this post, posted it, and it vanished. What are you up to wordpress? Why do you want me to retype things in twice?)

Can you write a web app, like Ebay, for me?

2010-02-04T19:04:43+00:00

Today I had a phone call which went along the lines of ….

Prospect: Do you develop web applications?
Me: Yes… <cue sales pitch>
Prospect: I’ve got a great idea, it’s like eBay…. I need a programmer….
Me: <thinking: oh not another….>
Prospect: I think it’s about 2 developer months worth of work….
Me: Well, we’d need to see your requirements spec to determine that.
<snip>
Prospect: Would you be willing to do the work for free in return for a stake in the resultant venture? How much would it cost?
Me: Well, I’ve not seen any sort of requirements specification; I’ve no idea what’s involved….. Just how long is a piece of string?

I don’t quite understand why people think they’ll be able to create an eBay/Amazon/Google/whatever killer/competitor with minimal funding, a couple of months development and also persuade me to do the work for free on the outside chance they’re successful (that’s like a <5% chance). I might consider reducing the price of the development in return for a share in any resultant company – but I’m sure as not going to commit to anything before I’ve seen any sort of business plan.

Perhaps tomorrow I’ll get someone wanting a site “like Facebook” costing a few thousand pounds… ‘cos we do PHP just like them… and it can’t be hard can it?