Category Archives: Computing

My thoughts and works in computing and programming.

Maemo Hacking and Project Revivals

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With such a cold wet summer, I thought I would spend more time hacking. Yet this year spare time is a scarce commodity and most of that time I find myself far from a proper development workstation. Fortunately with an Internet tablet in my pocket, I can at least start on learning about Maemo development.

For an embedded device, the maemo platform is neither the easiest nor the hardest device to start hacking. Setting up the SDK on Ubuntu takes only a few minutes. In fact I also managed to setup Eclipse to do maemo development too. But I didn’t try to compile any source code so far.

Developing on Maemo, requires knowledge in both Linux and C programming. The N810 itself uses a heavily modified version of the 2.6.27 Linux kernel, Gnome and GTK. GTK seems to handle the GUI side of things in much that the same that Java Swing does. And I like the fact that GObject brings some semblence of OO programming to C. I’d prefer to learn Qt instead of GTK, but I guess I have to start somewhere. Judging by blog posts from KDE developers that got N810s at Akademy 2008, the state of Qt and KDE on Maemo is in its infancy.

In a recent conversation with Dan D’Alimonte, he suggested that I should think about reviving the justCheckers project as a web application. Considering the state of the codebase I work on a daily basis, the justCheckers codebase is very much maintainable. As a web application, the releases can happen faster and casual users can play with the program. And I’d like to play around with some more advanced Java web technologies. Now whether or not I actually revive the project is another matter. It is a definite maybe for now.

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Some Thoughts About Life and Consulting

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Some thoughts to think about:

  • Set expectations early. It avoids confusion and hassle in the future.
  • Assertiveness instills confidence and helps achieve what you need.
  • Smiling helps keep everyone positive and repels negativity from you.
  • Show progress cause it encourages people.
  • Review your goals and schedule time lines. This will make them concrete.
  • Break up goals into manageable tasks. This will make your goals achieveable.
  • Be patient. Nothing will improve in your life overnight.

Nighttime Rambling about the Weekend

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Too busy to blog this long weekend. Still I feel a short update is in order for my readers.

Went out on Friday with the Rudy and Olga, to a nice little place in downtown Toronto called West 7. Open 24 hours, nice Italian cuisine, tea candlelights and jazzy-lounge music; basically you can’t go wrong with a formula like that. And they make a mean bruschia. Almost as good as the one I had in a villa in an olive grove overlooking Terni, Perugia. You may be jealous.

Also I got to play around with somemore overhyped AJAX and WSDL web technology. I still think that the entire over-the-web technology needs to move past the whole document and browser interaction paradigm. The KDE 4 promises to change that with their Plasmoid concepts.

Moving on to Saturday, got to hike in Hockley Valley again. Nothing beats walking through forests and old fields. Ok, mosquitoes always suck. But the smells, sounds and sights of nature relax the soul in ways no urban or suburban landscape can. The sound of water rippling by. The sunshine filtering through the cedar forest, filling the air in a sweet woody smell. The flurry of grasshoppers springing up, avoiding your footsteps as you walk through a sun baked pasture. Reconnecting with Nature is an exhilirating and sootheing experience.

I got to reconnect again with Nature today, by attacking our hedge with a pair of shears. This time there was no love lost between me and nature. Almost crashed into a hornet’s nest. Cutting thick branches also sucks. But the hedge is trimmed now.

Kinda jealous that this semester’s web development course at UofT gets to tinker with some pretty neat Web 2.0 ideas. My own web development course of JSP, CGI-Perl and Servlets with database applications feels dated by comparison. I don’t knew all this Ajax and web services stuff as much as I’d like to. Hmm… Another technology to learn?

Anyways, it is 1:14 now and need my sleep for tomorrow’s workday. Night.

At Least I’m a Full Employee

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I’m not feeling particularly creative today. Or rather the hustle of both my professional and personal life is taking a toll on my creativity. Also sorting out stuff and figuring out a road map for immediate goals takes time.

At least one of the stresses of whether I’ll work for my current employer more or less disappeared. So it looks like I’ll get to keep growing in my current role as a software consultant. Development in real life differs greatly from the sheltered realm of university. Gathering requirements is more difficult. The code base most likely won’t win awards for breivity, simplicity and elegence. And a perfectionist approach to engineering, will drive you insane or into pessimism. Finally consulting requires one to be diplomatic nearly all of the time. For an asocial (not anti-social, I just need solitude more than others) individual, this can be quite a challenge. So far I think I’m achieving this, more or less.

Writing and blogging at least gives a nice way to unwind. But unfortunately this week is so hectic, that I have very little time. In fact, I got to end right here.

An Invitation to a Party

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Somewhere out there in Wolverhampton, UK, four large gents and there large group of friends, followers and groupies are having one helluva party. Unfortunately I’m not with them. As Aq pointed out on a previous blog entry, Toronto is a bit of a ways. And in days of stellar expensive flights, I couldn’t afford such a trip. 🙁

I did listen to the last studio recorded LugRadio podcast. On my N810, a device which first heard about in LugRadio. Or was it from Bert & Ernie on LAS? I keep on mixing up my muppet shows. 😀 And whats up with the melon?

Anyways, thanks again to the entire LugRadio crew, for the crazy banter and great times. You will be missed. And if I ever meet you guys in the flesh, I’ll be buy ya a beer. Or more if necessary. 🙂

Oops, I broke something

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I broke my Internet Tablet today. Not physically.

Rather I used Dolphin from KDE 4 for some file transfers yesterday. Me and my obsession running beta versions. And to add insult to injury, yanked out the cable without unmounting (safely removing) the device. Silly me.

Well now the internal memory is read-only. Dmesg reports filesystem panic, and fsck.vfat errors out. So it looks like I’ll need to backup and reformat that partition. But hey at least I learned to gain root access on the N810 (install rootsh and run sudo gainroot in the x-terminal.

A big thanks to johnx, and others on #maemo on irc.freenode.com for all the help.

Football (Soccer) Madness – A Quickie Update

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Ok, I’m just gonna post a quick update as part of my resolution, to post daily. I reckon that my life is not as half boring as I make it out to be…

I surprised my system admin at work that my N810, is in fact a Linux device. It is true that there isn’t too many Linux of such a small form factor. Updating to the newest version was a great idea.

Also we played a round of soccer (European football). I played a fantastic game. Maybe a bit aggressive, but thats just my intense focus when I game. I would love to do this on a weekly basis.

These past few days, I’ve a bit panicky. So many new adjustments and things happening to me. I am still adjusting. Please bare with me.

A Day in the Life of an Internet Tablet

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While I’m writing this in Notes application instead of Blogger, I’m impressed with my new Internet Tablet. Not as powerful when not tethered to the seamy underbelly of the Internet, the N810 performs well as a handheld computing device. Even the thumb keyboard is quite comfortable. The device can seem a bit heavy at times. But I prefer a heavier sturdy construction, than a lighter flimsier one.

Ok it is not a phone. But that’s a good thing: I don’t have to pay for data charges, etc. That said, relying on open wireless LANs is not best way to go. I’ve seen interesting networking combinations involving USB-OTG cable, which I’d like to explore.

I like the fact that maemo (the operating system stack running the Internet Tablets) lets you run a large number of applications. I will report on some of them, once I upgrade to the latest version of Internet OS2008 later on tonight.

Waiting for Maemo

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Last Thursday I got the chance to play with a Nokia N810 at the TigerDirect store in Mississauga. A pretty nifty device, but the price was not so nifty. So I ordered one via the Web. And hopefully it’ll arrive sometime today. Yay!

My initial review (after using for a few minutes) is that the N810 is a nice little device. I love the fact that I can carry an Internet-capable device in my pocket, without paying gigantic data transfer. Definitely useful to keep connected with people. And having a computing device that I don’t have to share is very useful.

A few negative points: the N810 loads slower than I thought. Faster than most Linux workstations, but slower than my Palm Pilot Tungsten E. The GPS doesn’t lock quickly. And tablet comes with a plastic stylus, instead of a nice rugged metal, rubber tipped stylus.

Getting to run on a Linux environment, means I’m familiar with the applications. Screen resolution is decent enough to handle the majority of sites. The slide-out keyboard is way more convenient than the infrared wireless one I have to tug along with my Palm. And there are a lot of apps already ported to it.

Overall I looking to playing on, working with and developing for the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet. I can hardly wait to get mine. 🙂

Updates to Life

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I haven’t blogged about myself in a bit. So here is an update on me:

@ Work:
Have less than a month left of my probationary period at work. All the signs, indicators and omens point towards my staying on as a fully privileged employee of VisionMAX Solutions. I am very pleased with this situation. I can’t stress how much I enjoy hacking away at a web application. My only rant is not being able to see the forest from the trees at times. And I’m outgrowing my aversion to spontaneous human interaction.

@ Life:
I’m still figuring out how balance work and life. I seem to be winning that battle. Actions and rituals smooth out over time, so long as no one turns my universe on its head. God promises not to. And people are too busy in-fighting. So nothing should change in that manner. Hopefully I’ll be able to take on more stuff in the future. Anyone following my journey through life on Facebook, don’t hold your breath. I’m migrating away from Facebook, since I don’t have any say in how my information and content is handled.

@ Writing:
As noted earlier, I don’t blog (or journal) as much as liked to. But that just because I’m adjusting to everything nowadays. However, I do have success in my writing of prose. Right now I’m writing chapters 2 and 3 of a dark science fiction novel. I’ve uploaded all my typed up writing so far to Google Docs, for my own convenience. However that also means I can share my current drafts with anyone with a Google account. If you’re interested (and I know you personally), I’ll let you see what I wrote so far. Just e-mail or IM me.

@ Coding:
Outside of work, I don’t do much coding. However I plan on getting involved with the KDE and maemo communities in the near future. I would love to learn C++ and further the state of art of both KDE and maemo. Watch this space for further details.

You got your update of Dorian already. Now go do something productive!