moving parts of the kasper clan

I’ve been using Firefox 3, beta5 for a while now and am very much liking it. It’s crashed a fair bit, but that’s understandable being that it’s only a beta5. One thing that has bothered me, though, was that quite a few of my must-have extensions aren’t released for FF3 yet. TinyURL Creator, for one, is notably absent. Well, thanks to this page, I found a really simple workaround to enable (possibly dangerous and a bad idea to do) your old extensions in FF3:

All I had to do was to create a “extensions.checkCompatibility” boolean field in the Firefox about:config and set it to false. As you can guess, this disables the compatibility check for the extensions, and all the disabled incompatible extensions are enabled (with warning messages). Of course, this does not guarantee that the extension will work.

Yay! TinyURL Creator works again!

Hm, and while I’m on the subject of browser betas, Opera’s latest beta is looking really nice and finally works with the latest Flash plugin. And is it just me or is there a horrible vacuum where there should be some nice Firefox 3 themes? The only tolerable one I’ve found is the updated Qute theme.

It started to hit me yesterday as I spent 3.5 hours in this year’s KDE Google Summer of Code mentor’s meeting (thanks again sebr!!). KDE4 just plain rocks, and it feels good to start getting excited about it again. And I don’t just mean KDE 4.0. Don’t get me wrong, KDE4.0 is a nice little release. It’s not perfect and there are some things that are irritating about it and keep me from using it as my main DE. But like Aaron has been saying over and over and over again, KDE4.0 is not KDE4. KDE4.0 is more of a preview of things to come, and what I see coming just plain kicks butt.

I am finally getting excited about our PIM space again, and that feels really, really good. KMail, KOrganizer, KPilot, and the rest of our PIM suite was what drew me to KDE in the 3.x series. (Well, that and quite honestly I find the intentional dumbing-down and lack of configurability of the other large, free DE irritating to the point of exhaustion.) But lately our PIM apps have suffered from lack of care and have started to look seriously unsexy compared with Thunderbird, Sunbird, and even *gasp* Evolution. But KDE4 gives us a chance to remedy that, in my mind, and looking at this year’s Summer of Code projects, I’m hoping we get some really nice improvements done. There’s a few really sweet ones that I’d love to see get accomplished: the Google Contacts/Calendar integration into Akonadi and thusly KDE PIM, the enhanced KMail view, and (nearest and dearest to my heart) getting KPilot fully functional, and rock solid for KDE4.

And going through the SOC-sorting meeting made me realize all over again how fantastic a community it is that we have in KDE. There’s a lot of respect and comaradarie and friendliness that I just don’t see in some other communities. Not to mention the quality of talented people that we have. PIM might have drawn me to KDE, but it’s the people and our awesome community that we have that has kept me. =:)

Anyway, I just had to say that it feels really, really good to be excited about KDE4 again. In my mind, it’s a really unique opportunity to do something fresh and new and fun and exciting again. It’s a chance to learn from past mistakes and do better. It’s a chance to take the fantastic functionality that we have and rethink how our users can best interact with it. It’s a chance to not be bound to the past and to not have to be stuck with the same old presentation layer we have just because we don’t want to make drastic changes to our applications.

As the pretty graphic says, KDE4 is truly a chance to be free. =:)

It felt darned good to hack on KPilot just a wee bit today! Actually, it was less hacking on KPilot directly and more on some utility code that I’ve written that allows me to sync my work Exchange calendar into my personal calendar and subsequently to my Palm. I’ve blogged previously about this, but since my last post, I’ve switched employers (YAY!!!) and I now have to deal with Exchange 2007 OWA, with Forms-Based Authentication (FBA). FBA has managed to break the nifty little Ruby Exchange (RExchange) code that I’d been using, since RExchange doesn’t do FBA. So, I’ve gone back to Graham Cobb’s tremendously useful little OWASync package which has been updated to handle Exchange 2007’s schema and FBA, WOOT!

So, anyway, if you, like me, need to sync your Exchange calendar to your Palm, and you don’t want to have to keep your personal Calendar also in Exchange just for the privilege of being able to sync both work and personal calendars to your Palm, you might find some of this useful. The right answer for this, of course, is to get KDE PIM to be able to speak to Exchange, show it in kontact, allow 2-way manipulation of your Exchange calendar, and then get KPilot to know how to merge multiple calendars into 1 view and 2-way sync them. But that’s a whole lotta work. =:)

I’m actually thinking that it might be a long-term idea to have KPilot be able to sync to multiple calendars on its own. But, again, that’s a whole lotta work.

And what’s more… while it might not be the prettiest solution, what I have now works and does what I need it to:

1. Retrieve my calendar out of Exchange
2. Display my calendar in Kontact (or Sunbird–I just checked and it works fine too!) so I don’t have to deal with OWA for checking my calendar
3. Have my work calendar remind me of appointments via my Linux desktop
4. Sync my Exchange work calendar with my Treo

Dear Lazyweb,

Having paid a decent amount of money yearly to Linksys for their nice little Parental Controls feature which ties in really well with my WRT54GS wireless router, I am surprised and dismayed to find that Linksys is no longer going to allow me to do so. They’re discontinuing their Parental Controls feature (a site-wide proxy, if you will) and have no replacement product. And having looked for the same service available from anyone/anywhere else, I am also shocked and dismayed to find that I can’t locate a viable replacement for said service.

So, dear reader, if you happen to know of a good product/service that allows multiple logins per site (home) and configurable levels of allow/blocking, and doesn’t cost more than $60 per annum, please tell me.

My next thought is in building out a Virtual Machine (dang I love VMware!) with Ubuntu CE installed and configured that I’d eventually publish on the virtual appliance site thingey. Maybe there’s someone who’s beaten me to this already?

TTFN.

sudo zypper update:

2 Problems:
Problem: No valid solution found with just resolvables of best architecture.
Problem: Cannot install java-1_5_0-sun-plugin, because it is conflicting with java-1_6_0-sun-plugin

Problem: No valid solution found with just resolvables of best architecture.
With this run only resolvables with the best architecture have been regarded.
Regarding all possible resolvables takes time, but can come to a valid result.
Solution 1: Make a solver run with ALL possibilities.
Regarding all resolvables with a compatible architecture.
number, (r)etry or (c)ancel> 1
Applying solution 1

Problem: Cannot install java-1_5_0-sun-plugin, because it is conflicting with java-1_6_0-sun-plugin
A conflict over java-1.5.0-plugin == 1.5.0_update14 (java-1.5.0-plugin) requires the removal of java-1_5_0-sun-plugin-1.5.0_update14-0.1.i586[opensuse-updates] which is scheduled for installation
=== java-1_5_0-sun-plugin-1.5.0_update14-0.1.i586[opensuse-updates] ===
java-1_5_0-sun-plugin-1.5.0_update14-0.1.i586[opensuse-updates] is needed by atom:java-1_5_0-sun-plugin-1.5.0_update14-0.1.i586[opensuse-updates] (java-1_5_0-sun-plugin >= 1.5.0_update14-0.1)
findutils-4.2.31-24.i586 is needed by java-1_5_0-sun-plugin-1.5.0_update14-0.1.i586[opensuse-updates] (/usr/bin/find)
=== java-1_6_0-sun-plugin-1.6.0.u4-0.1.i586[opensuse-updates] ===
java-1_6_0-sun-plugin-1.6.0.u4-0.1.i586[opensuse-updates] is needed by atom:java-1_6_0-sun-plugin-1.6.0.u4-0.1.i586[opensuse-updates] (java-1_6_0-sun-plugin >= 1.6.0.u4-0.1)

Solution 1: do not install java-1_5_0-sun-plugin
do not install java-1_5_0-sun-plugin-1.5.0_update14-0.1.i586[opensuse-updates]
Solution 2: do not install java-1_6_0-sun-plugin
do not install java-1_6_0-sun-plugin-1.6.0.u4-0.1.i586[opensuse-updates]
Solution 3: Ignore this conflict of java-1_5_0-sun-plugin
number, (r)etry or (c)ancel>
^C

*boggle*

sudo smart upgrade:

Computing transaction…

Upgrading packages (234):
MPlayer kdegames4-carddecks-default
SDL kdegames4-carddecks-other
SDL-devel kdegraphics3-kamera
SDL_image kdegraphics3-pdf
alsa kdegraphics3-postscript
alsa-devel kdegraphics3-scan
alsa-oss kdegraphics4
alsa-plugins kdelibs3
alsa-utils kdelibs3-arts
[snip lots of stuff in between]
kdeedu4 qtcurve-kde
kdegames3 screenlets
kdegames3-arcade soprano
kdegames3-board transcode
kdegames3-card vorbis-tools
kdegames3-tactic xfsprogs
kdegames4 xmoto

Installing packages (4):
kaffeine-lang kdebase3-runtime libavahi-qt3-1 libdca0

Removing packages (4):
gnucash gnucash-lang ktorrent-lang slib

571.7MB of package files are needed. 46.3MB will be freed.

Confirm changes? (Y/n): y

Um. Yeah. I think I’ll stick with smart for now, guys…

Ooh, just saw this excerpt from Aaron:

in other news, Matt Rogers has set up a review board installation which i want to start using to streamline the patch review process in plasma. Matt has set up a group for Kopete already, i’ve noticed, too. if all goes well, we’ll find a permanent home for it and maybe even start getting other kde projects using it =)

Awesome! I can tell you from experience that Review Board is one seriously cool tool. Having been the initiator of the code review process at Rite Aid, I would have loved to have had it as an available option, but was stuck using cvs diff, a2ps, reams of paper each week, and large amounts of coffee. I firmly believe in code and peer review and love the results they bring. But doing it without a good tool-set is PAINFUL, and just wears you down. I’m excited to see our KDE guys using such a cool solution!

Woohoo!

Day one from the KDE Launch Event at Mountain View, CA, and I’m tired, stoked, tired, excited, and… tired. Memorable spots include:

• Waking up at 3:00 a.m., EST, flying all day, getting stuck in Silicon Valley traffic for 2 hours, etc.
• Visiting a beautiful, big mall in Santa Clara. My eldest would LOVE this!
• Walking into an actual Swatch store and buying a new, nifty, unique watch. (I used to wear no watch unless it was a Swatch but haven’t had one in a few years. Love them!)
• Finding the new version of my old Nike Prestos and buying a pair!
• Finally getting to meet and talk to Adriaan, after having worked with him for 4+ years.
• Drinking a sip (a really wee sip) of Adriaan’s scotch (I think).
• Eating peanut butter cookies that Adriaan made for us all, and drinking milk with my fellow KDE brethren, late into the night.
• Getting my KDE business cards (2 boxes, mind you!!) (thanks again, Thiago!!!) =:)

Looking forward to more fun at Days 2 and 3 at the KDE4 Launch Event.

Special thanks to Jerry Gartner for the pics, since I sucked too much to actually take any thus far. =:/

Okay, well, I mean, it’s always been cool.  I’ve been using it for a few days instead of Firefox and it’s nice to see some of the new things in the Opera camp since I had last used it.  I like the widgets idea, although I can’t find any widgets that will let me post to my blog.  And I miss the del.icio.us buttons/extension that is available for Firefox.  I definitely like the feel and organization of Opera.  It just feels better and more solid.  Like the theme and appearance management.  Seriously… having to reboot your web browser to just change a theme or add in an extension… seems… really… silly.

Then again, Opera seems to have some quirks with Gmail (”#” doesn’t delete always??  keybindings stop working
until I click on the page often? textareas don’t linewrap sometimes? in fact, Wordpress’s textarea editor is now
not linewrapping, grr…).  *sigh*

Anyway, it’s nice to have a little variety every once in a while.  =:)

Oh, and I found a nice little technical comparison of the PSP and the new PSP slim at pspzine.  Verdict: seems like there’s no good technical reason for me to be lusting after a new PSP slim, so why am I jonesing for one so badly?  =:/

I have never had insomnia before in my life. Until tonight. I don’t know if it’s the stress of everything that’s going on in our lives right now (um, trying to sell a house in a REALLY bad housing market, trying to figure out how to pack up and move one’s family on a shoestring budget, wanting really badly to do super good on my new job that I absolutely love, etc., etc., etc.).

Or it could be that I drank a small amount of coffee today.

Whatever the reason, I couldn’t fall asleep from midnight until 1:30 a.m., so I got up and started hacking on KPilot’s USB workaround thing that I broke a year+ ago and subsequently couldn’t sync my new Treo 700p.

Well, my little droogies: let all who have funky USB Palm devices (Zire, Treo 700p, and I’m assuming also the Treo 680) rejoice once again. I’ve just successfully synced my 700p 5 times in a row with no funky button pushing, timing issues, or otherwise kludgey workarounds.

W()()T!!

I’m going to look through it again tomorrow with hopefully less-blurry eyes and then I’ll commit it.

[ UPDATE: ] Yah, so insomnia sucks. I’ve committed this. I’d love to get some feedback from any intrepid KPilot/funky USB device users! Just be sure to grab revision 749517 or later from KDE’s main subversion server (/branches/KDE/3.5/kdepim/kpilot).

[ UPDATE2: ] For the aforementioned intrepid folk, please follow the directions on our website for retrieving and building the latest source with cmake.  If you get stuck, please post a message for help on the kdepim users mailing list.  Thanks!!  =:)

Blef.  So, I finally got a chance, late tonight, to hit the code, so to speak.  After an encouraging couple of e-mails with a KPilot user (hi Ryan!), and my own discouraging lack of time as of late to touch KPilot code, and the fact that I can’t sync with my Treo 700p (grr), I dug in and started looking at the guilty code.

It’s my fault, really.  I changed the device communications code in the version of KPilot that got released with KDE 3.5.7.  It was some bandaid fixes that pulled the device communications out of the main GUI thread and put it into a worker thread.  This fixed several bugs that were tied to KPilot breaking horribly for users who used libusb (device “usb:”) and bluetooth (device “net:any”).  Pulling blocking, non-UI work out of the main UI thread is goodness.  Yay!

However, it also broke the “USB workaround” feature of previous versions of KPilot that detected a non-hotsync connection from a Palm.  Now, mind you, there were problems with that code as it was, and there’s some improvements that I plan on making to it, but… frustrating….  You fix 3 things and you break 2 others.

The other problem is that there have been so many bandaids to this code (by myself, included) that what it really needs is a good house-cleaning.  So I fought with the code for a few hours tonight and I think that what I need to do next is to step back and look at the logic flows, needed functionality, involved classes, and come up with a clean design for it all.  Blech.  Which means that it’ll take a wee bit longer to have a working, syncing KPilot for my Treo 700p.

But, theoretically, we should have a much-cleaned-up code base for device comm, with fewer bugs, and much more maintainable code for the future.

Yay.  =:(