WordPress on the iPhone
November 3rd, 2008

The App is available through Apples App Store.
It allows you to post stories, pictures,…. from wherever you are to your own blog.
Running KDE 4 SVN
March 1st, 2008

Today I did a clean compilation of KDE 4 from SVN based on Qt 4.4 technology preview, which will be the base for the KDE 4.1 release konquering your desktop this summer.

I was astonished how many things have changed since my last try, the system runs smooth and applications get in shape from day to day.

For example:
KRunner:
Which is an application comparable to Google Desktop search or Apples Spotlight.

KRunner

Other tools followed and tend to be usable after many weeks of hoping and waiting =)
For example KMail and Kopete.
Both look great and do their job like they should.

Another essential application many people wait for is Amarok2. The developers added a new plasma based context view, which looks great.

So base, games, education, pim and mutlimedia applications do their workk, but there are two childs of sorrow, graphics and koffice.
Both seem to stagnate. KOffice lacks developers and Graphics seem to miss the kde train.
Neither I have heard about Strigi/Nepomuk integration in one of the two big applications in their (digiKam / KPhotoalbum) nor did they start to rework their graphical user interfaces as far as I have seen.
I really hope those will also decide to rework their user interfaces like Amarok did, because the Plasma gives so many possibilities a Graphic application might use.

Ok now I want to paste three things I recognized, I will post Bug reports on Thursday after my last exam.

Window resizing:
The flickering is gone with Qt 4.4, but it only seems to redraw the window shadow and not its content on resizing.

Scrolling:
When scrolling down in many applications everything works fine, but when I scroll up, the redraw routine seems to be broken.

Scrolling Problems Resizing Problems

Heroes happen here or the Microsoft 2008 launch wave
February 28th, 2008

Today after many hours of hammering my had with basics of business administration at university. I just wanted to take some time off and decided to view Steve Balmers Keynote.

So ok, first hurdle was to install Silverlight…

The special page Microsoft opened up for the launch event did not work with Silverlight on Firefox. Ok,… no problem, I fired up IE and wanted to start the movie… next Step was to create a fake Live Id to be able to view the stuff…. I mastered this one too !!!!

Ok now a nice 200×100 pixel video with no controls…. sorry but that is pretty embarrassing…. I think a company like MS should have the opportunity to stream something like a keynote in good quality…. or am I too stupid to control this thing…. after three years of studying informatics?? =)

I really don’t think so….

But ok, because I just wanted to know what Mr. Ballmer has to say about Open Source Software today (Is it still a virus … or did he finally get the point), I decided just to listen from now on…. but after some seconds my PC was jammed… nothing worked any more… it feels like running Windows Vista on a mobile phone.

But back to the facts….

Microsoft started a campaign “Heroes happen here” which is alltogether an approach to get Open Source Developers to Develop on their platforms.

For me this just means, Microsoft does fear the power of Open Source products and communities after years of beeing the one and only product out there, punching out competitors with patents, ….

I think it is comparable with the OOXML discussions. They want you to come on board and build things they want you to build… but in the end they will close you into their world which is not the point open standards and systems should try to accomplish.
10 mistakes in icon desing
February 14th, 2008

Denis Kortunov has written a nice review of the ten most common mistakes in icon design.

I did recognize on or the other mistake in mail daily work, but I have never thought of this in detail.

It is getting clearer from day to day, that modern Systems really have to get Usability and Design Experts on board to be ready for the future.

I think the KDE crowds did an amazing job.

Their Oxygen theme has been accepted, not only be KDE enthusiasts, but also by Linux Geeks and “Normal  People”.

I have already found a project outside the KDE world, which adopted the style. It’s Tine20,which is a a AJAX based rework of the well known eGroupware System, which was built upon phpGroupware.

Just visit their website a take a look at the live demo.

KDE 4.0.0 released … Dreams become true!
January 11th, 2008

Today is the day … big things happen…. I just installed alle the fresh and new KDE 4.0.0 packages and it is runnning really smooth.

Of course, it is a developer platform and has its rough edges, but it really is usable, the KDE folks really did a great job.

Oxygen looks awsome, Plasma is really smooth everything is satisfying me for now.

I think the KDE 4 Series will get so much attention in the next years, because now the base is reworked, which was a long walk for many people.
I really have to say thank you to them. I hope you all enjoy this day of victory! Take some days of, enjoy the momentum and attention KDE will get these days and then go and get all those normal PC Users with KDE 4.1 =)
Open Source Business Desktop – Gnome or KDE
December 20th, 2007

Matt Hartley posted an nice article about Linux Desktops in Businesses. http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/entdev/article.php/3717261It really is an interesting read.

GNOME, both on the user and development side of things, believes in the integrity of GPL-based code and ease of use. Applications developed in this realm tend to be rather vanilla in appearance, yet will work as advertised.

 

KDE on the other hand, is a product that provides the end user the freedom to choose how simple or complex their desktop ought to be with regard to access and configurability. On the development front, the developer is free to choose their path to create open source software or that of the proprietary nature. It just depends on which direction the software developer wants to go. 

 

KDE 4 – Development Platform Release
December 11th, 2007

KDE 4.0 Release Counter

101 Ways to know your project is doomed
August 17th, 2007

Here I only list the top 10…
you may find the rest of the list here.

    1. Management has renamed its Waterfall process to Agile Waterfall
    2. You start hiring consultants so they can take the blame
    3. The Continuous Integration server has returned the error message “Fuck it, I give up”
    4. You have implemented your own Ruby framework that uses XML configuration files
    5. Your eldest team member references Martin Fowler as a ’snot-nosed punk’
    6. Your source code control system is a series of folders on a shared drive
    7. Allocated QA time is for Q and A why your crap is broken
    8. All of your requirements are written on a used cocktail napkin
    9. You start considering a new job so you don’t have to maintain the application you are building
    10. The lead web developer thinks the X in XHTML means ‘extreme’
Got Kubuntu up and running
August 12th, 2007

After some days of thinking, I decided to kill my Mac OS X installation on my Macbook to get a new Linux/KDE aka Kubuntu installation. I tried to run Linux on my Macbook some time ago and it really was no fun. But the actual Kubuntu Tribe 4 brings everything out of the box (Wifi, …). So I’m really pleased.

After many tries under Mac OS X, I got KDE4.0 compiled under Kubuntu. Now I want to start with some k4 development in my spare time.

The only thing I hate is, that I lost all the music, I have bought on iTunes (damn DRM…).

So at the moment I’m waiting for Hello Pizza to deliver my dinner…
Thesis at IBM
August 9th, 2007

I’m happy to announce, that I just got my commitment to write my thesis at IBM Germany.

I will write about open standards in virtual worlds. It is not fully specified, but as soon as it is rock solid, I will let you now know (thx for the hint ;)).