It's been a while since I had baby photos to show, Felix grew just too quickly. But we two have a lot in common, and the latest addition to the list is the love to his sister:
Julia was born late night of the 12th of july in Fürth and now we're complete 
It is interesting to notice what is sometimes seen as difficult. "It's too hard for me, I can't do that." "I'll never be able to do that, that's nothing for me." Like if most things could be done instantly just by snapping one's fingers. They instead require all these tedious things like effort, trying, learning, practicing and so on. The funny thing is, figuring out things in the IT area is not really that demanding. Wanna write a Plasma applet? There's a step-by-step tutorial at Techbase, just follow it blindly and with a decent skill in reading and typing, tadda, there's a Plasma applet. Wanna a package in the build service? You can use another one as a template, find a tutorial on the wiki or just google for it, and if you'll be just a little lucky, a tool can even do the work for you.
For getting a good comparison of what can difficult actually mean, let me show you something I consider to be pretty hard to learn. To have a better contrast, let's go in some completely different area that has absolutely nothing to do with computers. So if you think something is difficult, instead of doing this whatever something, try doing for example the Salchow jump. And since I expect many people here have no idea what that is, it looks like this, performed by yours truly:
That's roughly it. I assume it looks quite unimpressive to anyone who's never tried it or anything close (and, possibly, in this specific case it probably looks quite unimpressive even to whose who have). Yet this thing was bloody hard to learn for me. I probably learnt coding with Qt quite decently with much less effort (although, that's one of Qt's selling points, isn't it). Writing .spec files and creating packages? Nah, eeeasy. Even getting into Xlib programming was probably less effort, and I read a good part of the Xlib manual as a part of that. I admit getting into compositing effects and adding them to KWin might have been harder than the Salchow though 
. Still, for somebody whose reaction to the idea of writting an alternative KDE workspace shell was 'how hard can that be?', the Salchow proved to be an unexpectedly difficult matter.
I was first shown and explained the Salchow about 9 months ago. I think I needed about 2 or 3 months just to perform it in the most lame way that'd technically qualify, about as much as x = 1 qualifies for a math equation. The video is from April, i.e. more than 3 months on top. Today I can perform it somewhat higher and at slightly faster speed, but it still hardly qualifies for anything better than 'decent'. And while I hope it'll one day get to something I'd consider good, I'll probably never ever get to those crazy things like multiple rotations or anything even remotely close to what you can see on the TV, no matter how much and how hard I'd try. Do you still think that e.g. creating and maintaining a package is hard, compared to this? And don't even get me started on the next jumps ... the Salchow is actually easy. Try to think of this next time when you'd want to do something but would consider it too difficult (besides, take this from me, trying difficult things is actually much more interesting than the easy ones).
PS: Come to think of this, I've never thanked Danimo and Scott Wheeler, who happen to be ultimately reponsible for me starting with skating and having a lot of fun, as I'd probably never come across any such idea myself. So, well, thank you.
For mirroring my backup drive, central data store for devices, music playing and a webserver for experiments, I'd like to run a small server at home. I want this server to be energy efficient, easy to modify, robust, silent and run customizable free software. It should have at least 500 GB of storage, but 1 or 1.5 TB is better. You can buy very low-energy computers such as the Fit-PC 2 (6 watt) or the Linutop 2 (8 watt). Energy costs for machines that run constantly can be roughly estimated by doubling the power draw in watt, so running a device that uses 8 watt constantly costs about 16 euro a year.
Until recently the computer I used most was a Dell X1 Latitude laptop. That machine is now 4.5 years old. At the time, I chose it because it is a laptop with no fan and hence very silent. It is still better than any atom based netbook. So I would like to use this laptop as a server. UPS and screen are integrated which is a nice plus. The machine has a 1.8" disk built in. It is not possible to replace it with a disk of at least 500 GB. I wanted to know the energy cost of adding more storage to the X1. So I did some power measurements with an 2.5" external disk (Toshiba, 160 GB) and a 3.5" external disk (TrekStore 500GB). I measured on my current main laptop, a Lenovo X200s too.
Lenovo X220s (console, idle, low brightness unless otherwise specified)
Adapter only: 6 W
Console, low brightness: 19 W
Console, high brightness: 21 W
100% cpu and high brightness: 40 W
mounted 2.5" disk: 24 W
active (dd) 2.5" disk: 28 W
mounted 3.5" disk: 37 W
active (dd) 3.5" disk: 41W
Dell Latitude X1 (console, idle, low brightness unless otherwise specified)
Adapter only: 0 W
Console, low brightness: 15 W
Console, high brightness: 19 W
100% cpu and high brightness: 23 W
mounted 2.5" disk: 17 W
active (dd) 2.5" disk: 21 W
mounted 3.5" disk: 32 W
active (dd) 3.5" disk: 37 W
The 2.5" disk uses USB for power. The 3.5" disk has a separate adapter which is included in the power measurements. The device used for the power measurements is a DEM1379.
The idle 3.5" drive uses 13-15 more watt and the active drive uses 13-16 more watt. The difference is as large as power usage of the entire server. So I am now wondering if there are more energy efficient external 3.5" drives.
I started to publish on Twitter some days ago to not stay completely silent about the good stuff that is happening with KDE/openSUSE. Most of the time my posts even appear on other people's pages and in Twitter Search. According to the "Find People" function I don't exist though.
I have moved my blog to kdedevelopers.org. The previous blog was self-hosted (at home) but I simply don't have enough bandwidth to host it (that box will be used to serve uber-lightweight static pages and a koji instance only).
And since I've been mostly blogging about Qt and KDE in the past, I think that this is the best place to host my blog.
See ya!
yes it's been a fun ride. For the past 18 months, I had a nice job, but since yesterday not anymore. I think it's a nice occasion to look at all the stuff that eat all the space on my hard disks and see what can be reused and released as opensource.
but for now time to relax and enjoy the simple pleasure of doing nothing, of having nothing to do and also not having to be at the office on time ... this is life ... except without the $$$
Well, today I was let go after being at Platform Computing working on our Open Source software for almost 5 years. It's been one of those up and downer days. I read the FLOSS blog postings from all the different communities and see people being let go and now I'm one of them 
The writing was on the wall though for months, it's not like I didn't know this would happen. I just wanted to deny that It could happen, but it has happened.
So, for now. I will not be dedicating much time to KDE while I try to find new work elsewhere. I don't look at this as a sad day, but as a new beginning for me...
If anyone wants to hire a pretty smart Linux guy, please contact me
Shawn.
I think the title say it all.
so I wish everyone to have a nice year 2009, with
everything one might desire ....
Richard Dale:
Artifical borders or how positive aspects of globalisation are withheld from consumers
The human race has been living and thinking in terms of borders for a long time, since the first people decided to settle down instead of keeping a nomadic life style.
Ideally each individual's respect for everyone else's needs and personal boundaries would be sufficient to control access to shared resources and such things, however I am not holding my breath that this would happen any time soon (soon as in terms if centuries).
Therefore we happen to need borders and ways to enforce them, such as protecting political borders through military forces, legal borders through law enforcement, etc.
Sometimes people separated by such borders decide that whatever reason they had to create these in the first place are no longer sufficiently imporant (if they exist at all) and work on removing these obstacles reap the benefits of what basically is a reunion.
I know that all of you reading this blog understand this very well, because we, communities like KDE, are an unprecedented reunion of people separated by all kind of borders.
This is why people within these communities are or really should be offended by any attempt to enforce borders that have actually been removed even outside our own spheres.
Attempts like artificially segmenting markets for the sole benefit of big corporations which want to keep control over what consumers are allowed to purchase beyond their financial restrictions.
Obviously these corporations are really good at hiding this, quite often by mollifying consumers using half-truths.
One such half-truths is the often encountered "localization problem", i.e. the extra effort of getting things translated, correctly layouted and formatted, etc.
The nice aspect of this half-truth is the true part, i.e. that it is quite some considerable work to do this properly and that basically everybody knows that first hand, e.g. by having been abroad in a country with a different native language.
The false part is implied consequences.
For example lets have a look how this is applied on TV shows.
It usually takes a year(!) or even longer after the original airing in North America until the episodes reach Europe.
True: doing good translations and dubbing takes time
False: it doesn't take a year (or longer) and episodes aren't broadcasted right after being shot either
One actual reason: "test drive" in one market and quit if it tanks. The studios don't want to get into a situation where one market likes the show and another doesn't, i.e. actually let the consumers decide, $DETIY beware!
"Unfortunate" results:
Or as an more on-topic example for an IT related blog, check how OEMs like Dell abuse this excuse to sell certain configuration in one country but deny delivery to customers of a neigbouring country dispite this two countries having exactly the same localization and despite all trade barriers having been abolished between those countries for years.
The very same companies will happily move production to countries with cheap labour, consolidate preivously distributed support centers, etc.
In other words they will take the benefits of globalization and not let you have any of it!
Therefore it is imporant that we as a really global community demonstrate continuously that thinking and acting globally is not only doable but also possible to do in a timely manner!
Because despite being largely based on voluntary work, the KDE community manages to release products and their localizations synchronously across the globe.
Last week I have been in Nürnberg again, this time almost a whole week.
On Tuesday evening I met Will and half a dozen other SUSE people in a really nice pub called Irish Castle.
Ah, Guiness, Fish&Chips and more Guiness
Though, as an afterthought, I should probably have gone with Wings&Chips like Will did, they just looked even more delicious.
Uh, and as a warning for anyone else spending time with those crazy SUSE folks: they have strange running gags going on, like pooling money for someone to get a new car which that someone doesn't see any need for
On Friday I was fortunate enough to get out of work early afternoon and so I decided to visit the famous Christmas market.
On the way there I came across a small park, ground and trees nicely covered with snow and swarms of huge blackbirds everywhere. Like chocolate chips on icecream
Even more impressive an official nature reserve called Pegnitz Valley right in the middle of the city!
The visit to the Christmas market, which seems to spread all over the inner city, went as expected:
- squeezing through crowds of people in different states of drunkness: check
- eating unhealthy food: check
- with lots of fat and alcohol: check
- and while we are at alcohol: check
Afterwards I went to a nice Cafe/Bar/Restaurant called Cafe&Bar Celona and really nice Pasta, Hefeweizen and Hot Chocolate with Baileys.
Speaking about "Weißbier": you know you are in Bavaria when the answer to the question "Do you have dark one as well" is not a blank stare or "no, sorry", but rather a friendly "of course!"
Anyway, bonus points for anyone correctly guessing where I am currently heading to. again
So,I've moved. This is the first week that I'm in my new place. If you were wondering why I haven't done much coding, that's why
Getting used to living away from the nest.
Here's some pictures:
Makeshift workstation area, notice no LCD monitor yet
A view from above with more snow coming tonight
When your boss tells you that you have to take over some work from a collegue, work that involves travelling several hours in each direction, work on a project you haven't been involved before and only get a minimum briefing, your most common reaction will likely be "this sucks!".
Lets not be kidding, work itself and the circumstances still sucked, but being a KDE developer has certain advantages, e.g. knowing people all over the world, especially in KDE stronghold like Nurenberg.
So on Tuesday evening I went for dinner with The SUSE People(tm), Flavio, Stephan, Cornelius, Dirk and Will, to a really nice place called "Herr Lenz" with an interesting style of cuisine and very good beer
Thanks a lot guys!
P.S.: unless I am really lucky I am going to have to cunduct the actual site acceptance test procedure next week as well, so you might get a call from my again.
The next few days I will be in Nurenberg, working on-site at our customer's facilities at the airport.
I am arriving Monday afternoon and departe on Thursday morning, so I basically have three evenings to spend on going out for dinner and probably a pub or two
So if anyone living in that area doesn't want to pass up on a verifyable excuse for some fun, let me know.
While a new law was accomplished that allows police to break into every house, install a trojan horse on there computer-systems and video-cams in there rooms to secret monitor them, others are on there way to ban internet-games they don't like or to just shut down wikipedia cause they can;
Politician Forces German Wikipedia Off the Net
A rather unknown guy was able to do so with the permission of a court+law and without allowing wikipedia to provide a statement / alternate view before. That is the real scandal since it demonstrates the new direction of our neoliberal development and it shows that the last protection we had, the law, is finally gone and/or fails to do it's work.
No news for those who where able to enjoy the new terror-laws at the G8 Summit 2007 or who did fall into the terror-trap like some families. But that it's now valid for even such cases does set new levels. Huston, we have a huge problem.
If you like to laugh then the Apple presents the iRack clip may something for you - always again impressing how close political reality and good jokes can be