As a first time facilitator and participant, Asia Source 3 was a learning experience. It was not the typical workshop or conference as it was 6 day camp for us. There were focused discussions, activities and parties practically every single day. During the day, we’ were quite busy with the various discussions and activities that deal with open source communities and tools that we need for managing information, migration, broadcasting information and growing a community. The diverse backgrounds of the participants also make it even cooler because of the way that everyone will interact and perspectives and experiences are shared.

One of the things I learned from camp is that even introverts can be a little bit more social once they have an environment where they can somehow be themselves. Introducing myself to people at camp wasn’t exactly the easiest thing to do but my geeky shirts were a starting point in some cases. Or my interest in localization led me to interesting people who shared what they do in Cambodia and Bangladesh. This for me is a precious lesson on interacting with others in the community. This is face to face interaction, not online. And it is better than just knowing someone via email. You could see the faces of the people behind the project/s and that takes the whole community-bonding experience to a different level. For me, you could not be as impersonal about a project anymore when you encounter such awesome people from different projects who are very passionate about open source.

For those who were just new to Linux and the entire open source philosophy, they looked even more excited after camp because they have so many things to share with others. It makes them want to experience the same environment at the source camp in their own country too. People who make things happen are simply that awesome!

For those who want to see the Asia Source 3 Wiki, it’s now online.

Post from: New Linux User

image credit: cohdra via Morguefile

Their plan:

The group developed software that, when the user is not using the mouse or keyboard, plays a tone at a high frequency and records the tone’s echo. The computer then processes the tone and filters out everything except the frequency and looks for variance.

Interesting concept, right? Because it’s not just about efficiency in using power but it’s also about your user experience. And these researchers know from experience too.

If you’re really concerned with power saving the software is said to detect your presence up to 8 feet away. The research group is looking for people to participate in the project by testing the software. This Sonar Power Manager could be tested on Linux but you’d have to compile from source. It looks like a good project to participate in testing. You and the researchers will both gain from learning more about the feasibility of this power manager.

In other news, there is now an open source game editor you could check out. It’s called Game Editor. It’s for those who want to create games for computers as well as mobile devices. Users can choose to make free and open source games but if they want to distribute the games using other licenses they have to pay USD 95 for the professional edition. Interested? Check out Game Editor and see if it fits your needs.

Post from: New Linux User

Tellico is a collection manager, not limited to books.

Tell It to Tellico…

And Tellico will save just about everything you enter in the application. This is not a difficult application to use. It already has pre-set collection data entry forms. The ones that are already pre-set include the following:

• book collections
• video collection
• music collection
• coin collection
• card collection
• stamp collection

There are other defaults you could use. And you could even make some. If for example you want to document your collection of your figurines or maybe even other stuff. You could use custom fields for your particular collection. It’s up to you to define which fields are needed for your documentation.

You could create custom fields

There’s supposed to be a way to be able to search for particular books or music from the internet but it doesn’t seem to work with me. Internet’s flaky these days so I would have to check it again another day to be sure. But there is a form for you to fill out and then you could choose from the results which should be in your collection.

And you could even have different reports that summarize the information about your collection. You could group the entries according to the filters you want. It’s really nifty. : ) You could even save those reports in HTML so you could upload them on your website, if you want to share such information with friends, family and fellow hobbyists.

Try Tellico and see how you like it. : )

Post from: New Linux User

Locally, a group of Linux advocates set up Sahana, a collection of web based disaster management applications that provides solutions to large-scale humanitarian coordination and collaboration in disaster situation and its aftermath. It’s a good start for us to have a centralized area for any possible communication when disaster strikes. There are also others who have been tweeting and plurking the latest news. The updates were related to volunteer work, how to give relief goods, as well as tips on how to check on your car when it gets flooded to info on which shop offers services to laptops which needed to be serviced/recovered after the flood. I also received messages from friends in other countries and amidst the time differences it is heart-warming to receive messages from those who care.

Personally, I am glad that technology is not only used to improve one’s work. It is also being used to effectively disseminate information needed. This way, we’re able to not just be updated about where the storm is going but what we could do when it hits, etc. It also helps us track which shelters need more supplies, or more volunteers and so on.

This is one heck of a learning experience for all of us, I think. Especially for us in the Philippines. It’s a matter of preparation and coordination among people so we could adapt to whatever storms (literally and figuratively) that might hit us.

Post from: New Linux User

From that essay, you could learn something about Linux and other operating systems as well. I didn’t really know about BeOS until I read that essay. And there were other analogies that Neal Stephenson gave that made it easier for me to learn about Linux as well as free and open source software. You also learn about, well, the command line. I think that what he wrote here made me appreciate it a bit more.

For example,

The command line interface makes it easy for programs to dribble out little comments, warnings, and messages here and there. Even if the application is imploding like a damaged submarine, it can still usually eke out a little S.O.S. message.

And I have noticed my friends who would try to figure out errors by running applications with a graphical user interface on the command line. As the program runs, one could see on the command line what’s going on. Unlike in the GUI, it simply quits or exits. In that sense, the command line does win.

Also, in Neal Stephenson’s essay you will find comparisons between Linux, Windows and the Mac OS. I think that this was pre-OSX so it might look a bit weird to you. But he also mentions differences in how these operating systems are perceived by users. He also mentions how these operating systems are being marketed. Perspectives and paradigms associated with computers and these operating systems are noted. In some ways, I think that these perspectives still reflect society today. Windows and their marketing strategies, as well as their not so polished products that sell quite well; Apple and how different their business is from Microsoft; and how much Linux gives freedom to hackers.

For me, this essay gave me some kind of historical background as well as social and cultural aspects of operating systems. I hope you would enjoy reading it too. Check out these links if you want to read them:
In the Beginning was the Command Line 2004 (with annotations)
In the Beginning was the Command Line .zip file download.

Post from: New Linux User

A sample of topics:

• Perl 6: Why? What? How?, Damian Conway, Thoughtstream
• Introduction to Google App Engine, Joe Gregorio Google
• How to Write Your Own Eclipse Plug-ins, Beth Tibbitts, IBM
• Django in the Real World, Jacob Kaplan-Moss, Django
• What You Need to Know About Rails3, Yehuda Katz, Engine Yard
• Linux Filesystem Performance for Databases, Selena Deckelmann, PostgreSQL Project
• Cloud Computing – Why IT Matters, Simon Wardley, Canonical Ltd
• Building a Business on the Cheap, Chris Wanstrath, GitHub
• The HTML 5 Experiments, Bruce Lawson, Opera Software ASA
• High Performance APC, Brian Shire, Facebook, Inc.

I am sure that some of my co-workers will want to go if it was possible. There are topics that would be of interest to us:

• Use Open Source Tools to Program iPhone Games on Linux and Windows Without the iPhone SDK, PJ Cabrera
• Writing Open Source, moderated by Addison Berry and Emma Jane Hogbin
• Using Drupal, James Walker and Angie Byron, Lullabot
• Google O’Reilly Open Source Awards
• A Brief History of Software, Michael Lopp, Rands in Repose
• Business Models for Open Source Developers, Darrius Thompson, OpenCandy

Check out the complete schedule of OSCON 2009 here.

Looks like it could be interesting to go there. But as I live in another country, it’s not possible for me. I hope to hear more about it from you guys after the event, in case you will be going. I hope people will have a great time learning together and meeting new contacts.

Register soon so you could ensure your slot in the said event. (OSCON 2009 Registration Details.)

Post from: New Linux User

Online, there are many forums and mailing lists. There are also feed aggregators that let us know more about the people behind communities of developers and users. It can’t be helped that they are visible online because of their passion for free and open source software. As for those who are in the forums and mailing lists, sometimes discussions could get heated because of that. Differences in opinion arise. But at the end of the day, there are people who become friends because of the discussions that they have — whether it’s people who help each other learn, whether it’s people who argue with each other who still maintain a healthy respect for their differences, etc. there are friendships being developed. That’s why sometimes you could probably see them joking with each other online.

And then there are local communities. If you’re a part of a local community, you could join launch parties of the distro you’re using, and/or advocating, etc. Sometimes you meet up with each other, just because you want to hang out. The geographic location does help during times like that. Sometimes you start becoming good friends after a couple of times of hanging out because of learning sessions of Linux. It’s your common interest that starts the friendship and it’s the commitment with each other that makes it go on.

I’ve met (and still meet) people because of Linux and some of them are my good friends up to now. I learn technical stuff with them but I also joke with them and hang out with them just because and it’s really enjoyable. There’s nothing like friendship to help you enjoy your life.

Post from: New Linux User

However, not all people think that way. Most people would still prefer to pay for licenses. Well, or download the application for free. So how now?

At home, it’s more manageable, in a way. You have less users to deal with but they could be more stubborn than 10 other users combined. In any case, it’s easier to study the habits of your family and/or housemates compared to an entire organization. Studying them will take time and interaction with them too. But then you get to have a better grasp of what software they need, what tasks they need to accomplish etc. In an office, it gets trickier because each person has different needs and there’s a whole lot of them so you have to study them a lot.

But here are some ideas that might help you:
1. Give them training time. Sometimes this is all what is needed but it is often neglected because we sometimes assume too much.
2. Show them that there are really awesome software for their tasks and make sure that the software you tell them does answer their needs. Else, they might not like it either.
3. Guide them if possible. Some people might have tasks that are critical and the tools they use are too specialized. New software might take some getting used to and so patience is a must! If they get too frustrated right away they might give up altogether.
4. Force them to use Linux. Sometimes people learn because they have no other choice. This could backfire. But on some people it does work. Just make sure that their tasks are not highly specialized or else: they will just complain.
5. Show them that the software works. This convinces people a lot. If the application has a good user interface, the better. People do not just care if it works — they also care about how they’re supposed to be using it.

I want to know other ways to show to others that FOSS and Linux in particular are awesome. It’s just that there are people who are very difficult to convince. How have you convinced others about Linux?

Post from: New Linux User

No photos of me yet ^^;; Sorry. But the doll will suffice for now

The Sun Tech Days in Manila started yesterday but I wasn’t able to go. It was mainly a Netbeans day. This morning though, a lot of people were there and the hall was packed with people. The keynote emphasized on the opportunities we could have when it comes to software development and open source software in particular.

I attended sessions on JavaFX, Grails,and Open Solaris. I was curious about trying out Open Solaris on a VM (for the heck of it) and if nothing goes wrong, there will be chance for me within a month’s time to play around with it.

Tomorrow seems to be a more exciting day because there will be talks about Web 2.0 stuff. For a complete list of talks, you could check out the agenda. I don’t know for sure if you could still register on the spot tomorrow but if you do feel like it, join us tomorrow on the last day of the Sun Tech Days.

Post from: New Linux User

Open Project could open Microsoft Project files. Other things you could do: assign resources to projects, see the what the flows of tasks would be like, compute the budget when you already indicate the resources you want to use, etc.

The following views are available:

• Gantt Chart
• Tracking Gantt Chart
• Network Diagram
• Resource View
• Projects View
• WBS Chart
• RBS Chart
• Report View
• Task Usage Detail
• Resource Usage Detail
• Histogram
• Charts
• Task Usage
• Resource Usage

You could save files in Projity and MS Project formats.

I am not very familiar with MS Project so I can’t really compare the two applications. But as one who has once needed to read the .mpp files, it works for me already. And I think that some changes shouldn’t be too complicated unless the guides are not too clear. There are videos to help new users learn the app.

Post from: New Linux User