Archive for August, 2005

Wed

I’ve noted a few links about an individual dev. on the gimp who is wreaking havoc for them. Talk about a crank!

I’ve found the best way to deal with issues like this is offlist. However, if this kind of thing persists (which I haven’t had to deal with), then I think the Gimp folks are right in banning her. If she has become such a problem that it is hurting the project and destroying their image, they have tried to work with this person, and she takes no direction, then you guys have to cut her. I think though it should be decided by a consensus in the lead/core developers though, as this should ONLY be a last resort.

So many prayers going to ppl. in NOLA right now.

Whoa, another horrible event in Iraq with over 840 dead from a panic and stampede!!!

Pastebin looks super great

Tuesday

Cool Disc sleeves…too bad I don’t really use cd’s at all. They are like VHS now…

Interview with Natalie J..

50% of all research conclusions are incorrect or something like that.

Get a[n art]job.

Monday Linx

Links spelunking!

I’m starting to think that putting energy and promotion into GNOME Office and KOffice might be a better use of the Open Source communities energies rather than blankly supporting OpenOffice.org. My judgment on the subject is still up in the air, but I can’t help but think how basically all the feedback I receive about OO.o points to the high barrier process. I would go so far as to say that closed source development and very high barrier social participation project development are not that much different.

Hmmm…do I want to take this to the next level? I’m still not sure. Anyhow, I’m emerging gnome office apps now. And, I’m going for a test run with abiword.

Checked out Gopets today. I see there are 85327 members now! Whoa! My friends at Gopets will be happy that I’m writing some about the company in a new essay about social network services. Positive!

Aha, to get Chinese characters to work:

emerge media-fonts/arphicfonts

Are you a connector. I think it is my mission.

I’m hot on the trail of PC Baang’s in San Francisco. Whoa, SF Games group — I’m not really into card or board games, but sure, why not!

Wikipedia

I’ve been adding more Wikipedia articles lately. I’m into the whole “invent the future” type progress. Or as Lev Manovich once said to me, “You are either defining the blanks, or filling them in.”

  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metcalfes_Law
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reeds_Law
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributive_writing

Sunday

http://jet.ro/dismount/

Seeing John Palmieri’s post about Gimp signing up for OpenUsability.org for evaluation makes me think Inkscape and Open Clip Art Library should do the same thing. I always tell ppl (and my art students like my old profs taught me): any criticism is good criticism.

What do you all think? Anyone up for signing up our projects for this, or should I pursue this? This is the good kind of testing that Bryce and I have talked about the past that is needed in OSS.

Yeah Kees, that game, Porrasturvat, could use some serious usability fixes, like you should be able to directly select the body part with the interface and move that guy around with just the mouse. Also, it would be great if it took a lesson from 3d dev. projects like Maya, so that hitting alt, or shift, or ctrl would allow one to zoom and rotate around the stairs.

Man, this game is pretty cool…totally addictive. I would put some time into it ;)

Yeah, I really want to do some sdl dev. sometime here. Anyhow, I had to emerge these modules to get it to work on gentoo:

emerge libsdl sdl-image sdl-mixer sdl-net sdl-ttf

Great thread on why myspace’s crap design is enabling it to grow.

By tracking back references to “Open Clip Art Library,” I found a blog dedicated to seeking clip art: http://clipart.blogprodigy.com/ This would be a great site to subscribe to and find other public domain vector graphics and maybe submit them to Open Clip Art Library if they are in fact pd (and, yes, it is good usually to ask b4 taking ;)

Armored iPod looks like some matthope.org style project on an iPod. I think my project to do with an iPod is to not buy one.

The Mystery of OO.o Development

Second year in a row that OO.o folk denied my proposal to talk about integrating Open Clip Art Library and Inkscape work with OO.o. Honestly, I wonder who develops on OO.o, why this process is so hard to crack into, and generally what is the deal.

Sorry, this is so off-topic, but is something I’m heavily trying to find out the main points of energy in, yet constantly hit a brick wall.

If anyone on either of these lists knows the OO.o dev. process, some key developers, or why it is so hard to break into the OO.o inner circles, please enlighten me.

I just want OO.o to play nice with SVG, Inkscape, Open Clip Art Library and other Open Source projects, but always get a, “I don’t know who works on OO.o.”

I used to wonder this more about X, but now keithp, ajax, anholt and others are rocking out that process in such a great open process.

Maybe I’m totally off point here, but honestly, I want to know what is up and if it is really a super-huge participation barrier, what to react accordingly in the future.

The rejection follows:

——– Forwarded Message ——–
From: Stefan Taxhet
> Reply-To: callforpapers@openoffice.org
> To: jon@rejon.org
> Subject: Your submission for OOoCon 2004
> Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 21:51:03 +0200
>
> Greetings,
>
> On behalf of the OpenOffice.org Conference Team, I would like to
> thank you for submitting your proposal for a paper. There were
> many submissions, far more than could fit into the two days of
> the conference, and so we had to make some difficult choices.
> In evaluating proposals for papers, we considered the areas
> each proposal addresses and how they interrelate with
> each other. I am sorry to say that, unfortunately, we are unable
> to use your proposal as a paper for this year’s OOoCon.
>
> Nevertheless we would be glad to see you at the conference.
> Please register by using the form at
> http://marketing.openoffice.org/ooocon2005/registration.html
>
>
> Thank you,
>
> Stefan Taxhet
>
>

DWZ Online

While writing a few different writings, I’ve also been hacking on gettng DWZ back online. I have been writing and moving content around there for about 3-4 hours right now.

I have now fleshed out a few writings I really want to get done:

All of these writings are in a wiki so please add to these topics at will. My hope is to get them together and possibly submit them to various places. I still have to finish up my book about open source collaboration, CVS Book, but these writings are lighter and are helping me get back into the writing flow so that finishing up CVS Book will be easier.

Also, maybe some of these HOWTO like documents would be valuable as some sort of collection to be published. If anyone is interested in publishing them, please contact me.

If anyone adds to these documents significantly, I will give co-author credit.