Planet SoC

Earlier this summer I had noticed that National Public Radio (NPR) launched a brand new open API based on open source technologies. My initial reaction was at best skeptical. I assumed any sort of “API” released by a major media outlet would turn out to be nothing more than a few customizable RSS feeds.

I got a G1 today.
That deserves a post unto itself, but I wanted to share a solution an annoying issue regarding switching from Verizon to T-Mobile. Before I got the G1 I had a LG-VX9800 (yes, ancient, I know) with around 200 contacts. Obviously one of the first things I wanted to do when I got my G1 was transfer all my contacts from the LG to the G1. There are several ways to do this

If there was a blogger award for “Most likely to make timely posts”, then in no possible world would I even be considered for the award. I could list some excuses that sound legit in my head, but the real reason I don’t feel motivated to post often (or on time) is because I’d rather spend that time in Google Reader reading everyone else’s exciting content (that was not sarcastic).
So, lets see… last time I posted I was en route to Akademy 2008 (the KDE developers conference). That was July 30th, now, a month and a half later I am back from Europe (which was amazing), GSoC is over (sad), and class has started (jury’s still out).
Current Status of the MP3tunes Amarok Service
The Good (Works)

The ball has been dropped by me - dropped hard - during the past several weeks. First, I was stumped for a week and a half by the glib+qt fiasco, then my development machine’s hard drive shuffled off the mortal coil. Replacing it took a solid week, and when it finally arrived I installed Gentoo. Two days later, the finally install completes as I’m frantically throwing my life’s possessions into a car:

• clothes
• 2 laptops
• 1 Target desk (retail $50)
• assorted books
• 1 blow-up air mattress

Fast forward through seven hours of me hurtling down the interstate at not-so-safe velocities, and here I am, pardoning my recent idleness as my flight to Paris boards at gate D32. Not accomplishing much over the past several weeks suddenly doesn’t seem so bad: I’m going to Europe! There is a week long hack-a-thon at Akademy; I’ll catch up then.

I’ve been slacking on the update reports over the past two weeks, because I’m holding out for the exciting post where I say “MP3tunes AutoSync is working! Huzzah!” Sadly, this report isn’t that one.
For the past week I’ve been banging my head against the wall of glib, QtEventLoop, and QThreads. I have quite a headache to say the least, but yesterday thanks to my mentor and Ian, both Amarok developers, my head actually broke through that wall. Literally. GLIB, and Qt are kowtowing at my feet swearing oaths of fealty. They have promised to work together and let me get back to doing fun things, like code new features.

Project: MP3tunes + Amarok Integration
Total Commits: 84 Weekly Commits: 36
Past 7 Days
Starting these posts with “It was another busy week..” is starting to get boring; I’ll cook up something more exciting for next week.
In case you missed it, in the past seven days history has been made. I’ll let that stand in as the bulk of my weekly report, but a few worthwhile things have occurred since then that deserve a mention.

I’m very excited to announce that the first Amarok->Cloud transfer has taken place. Just moments ago, for the first time ever (as far as I’m aware), a track was sent up into the Cloud from a desktop media player, escaping the local collection prison. This track shed the chains of limited accessibility, and is no longer doomed to obscurity, lost in an sql database in my home directory.
This lucky track happened to be Making Me Nervous by Brad Sucks available over at the great indie music label Magnatune.

The beginning of a new book is like the beginning of a relationship; you don’t quite know what to expect. Hopefully not too much time passes before you become acquainted, and then it’s not very long until you are intimately familiar with each other. The good ones don’t get old, because, while perhaps each page turn/day passing doesn’t reveal something exciting, you can’t put it down. There’s something special there.

Project: MP3tunes + Amarok Integration
Prescriptum: These weekly reports will likely contain a bit of technical information that only other Amarok developers will understand. I do not like that idea, as I want these reports to be grokable by all, but since I haven’t yet decided on a format to present the info in a manner I like this will have to do for this first week.

Internet technology is seeing an overall trend towards increased connectivity (always on), information sharing (openness), and most importantly, data existing in “the Cloud” (anywhere access). This is a fascinating prospect, because no one can tell what the results will be.
Exempli Gratia: The Amazon Kindle. At the core this device does something that many devices have done before, that is, it offers always on transparent connectivity, but it took this commonplace technology and applied it to an entirely different market.
Wait just a second — taking a technology to another market happens all the time, so why is this case special? Because the Kindle did not just take an existing technology. It took a technology and gave users access to the Cloud.

“If you think technology can solve your security problems, then you don’t understand the problems and you don’t understand the technology.” (Bruce Schneier)
From the Windows XP EULA:
1.1 Installation and use. You may install, use, access,
display and run one copy of the Software on a single
computer, such as a workstation, terminal or other
device (”Workstation Computer”). The Software may not
be used by more than two (2) processors at any one
time on any single Workstation Computer. [Emphasis Added]

Excerpt from The Escapist issue #4 article 8 by Dave Thomas.
“Further, it turns out you don’t need a computer to play Second Life. We do it all the time.
Although 10 years have passed, I still vividly remember the face and the curly red hair of the girl I almost ran over with my bike. For that moment, her face looked up, the sun shone down in painterly streaks, she smiled, time stopped and I fell in love. I didn’t plow her into the gutter and instead peddled on home to my family. But right there, in that second of cliché so perfect that they could use it to sell soap on TV, I slipped into my second life.

No wonder I bury myself in the pleasurable, supplementary reality of television. Now available at minimal cost, no advertisements and 100% guilt free. What a wonderful soma it is to forget yourself in others pathetic, predictable, yet enviable lives. Inject the video, smoke the audio: partake of the sweet denial.
Ah-gads, what an addiction.

By far the most insidious feature of MSN Instant Messenger is the “Display Name” option. Perhaps the brainchild of a programmer with the goal of disrupting the social lives of teenagers worldwide, the “Display Name” option allows MSN Instant messenger (MSN from here on out) users to set a “friendly name” or nickname that others can use to identify them by besides the generally cryptic email address.

A half-empty glass rests amiably, gently refracting the awful gaze of a dying sun plunging headlong into the depths of a darkened sea splintering its volatile rays into shards of caustic munitions to bombard the sunken skin of a sturdy skeleton grip and exaggerate the amber emptiness staining the smooth hourglass fragility.

You’re going up on an escalator that’s also a ladder that’s not moving but is. You’re going up only it’s really Everything moving down to fascilitate Illusion. Who’s fighting with Delusion over who’s got a better head game going. Nobody’s talking but all you can hear is Somebody. Illusion and Delusion both are claiming that one for themselves. Belief laughs, long and deep, from the belly. With a hint of (from?) Malevolence but it might really be Indifference. Everything/you keep(s) moving down/up. You think you might be dizzy, see a light, know where you are, etc…

The second law of thermodynamics states that all natural processes flow in a direction that increases the total entropy of the universe. If no work is done on a system, entropy spontaneously reaches a maximum. This process of spontaneously increasing entropy is irreversible in nature because time is irreversible.
This law applies to all things occurring in the universe; heat will always flow from hot to cold, pressure will always flow from high pressure to low pressure, atoms break down, metals oxidize and break apart, but this does not apply just to physical, natural, or chemical objects. As time increases, entropy increases and as time increases friendships will break down, relationships will fall apart, and with time, one’s love for someone else will flow from a high concentration to a low concentration.