Ubuntu ZA

Congratulations

First off, congratulations to the Launchpad.net team for reaching bug #1000000. They’ve managed to build a huge platform that scales very well. Very few bug trackers live to that milestone and it’s amazing how they have managed to keep it snappy and also keep downtime so low by doing continuous roll-out.

1 000 000 x 67

A million bugs are a lot, but even more mind-blowing: for every bug filed in Launchpad.net, 67 iPads have been sold. Educational institutions everywhere are jumping on the iPad bandwagon, and in the Edubuntu project, we believe that the tools are quickly coming together that allows us to deliver a product that can be truly competitive with the iPad in educational environments.

We’re currently re-designing the Edubuntu website and will soon have a dedicated section to this project, but in the meantime, please join us on the edubuntu-devel mailing list and introduce yourself, or on the #edubuntu IRC channel on Freenode.

Meta Track?

I’m glad you asked! At the Ubuntu Developer Summit, sessions are arranged by track. There are some topics that don’t have official tracks, but you end up seeing the same people in the same kind of sessions and it ends up being a track for all practical intents and purposes. One of these “meta-tracks” that emerged at this UDS was about software packages in Ubuntu. These were discussions related to how packages are organised in Ubuntu, how they’re maintained and synced with Debian, how to get upstream software developers excited about Ubuntu and more.

These were the sessions where I could walk in and be sure to find some combination of Stefano Rivera, Allison Randal, Asheesh Laroia, Evan Broder, Iain Lane, Andrew Starr-Bochiccio, Daniel Holbach, Andrew Mitchell, Micah Gersten, Bhavani Shankar and more in there

These sessions included:

• APT Improvements
• Upstream App Developer Documentation
• App Developer events
• software-center-q-client
• Backports BoF
• Continuing Packaging Guide Improvements
• Refine our SRU process to be more agile while avoiding too many pitfalls
• App Developer external outreach
• software-center-q-server
• Promote and encourage upstream delivery in Ubuntu
• Packaging requirements for Apps in Ubuntu
• LTS backport testing in 12.04
• Phased updates of software packages
• Merging / onto /usr
• Discussions of what should get uploaded to -proposed and when
• Review of the ARB process using MyApps
• Application Review Board
• Debian Health Check
• Developer Membership Board Discussion
• MOTU BOF Session
• Transition the archive to Java 7
• Finish the archive reorg
• Advertise new apps in the Software Center
• working session result of apt-improvements
• MyApps submission experience and expectations for upstreams
• Ubuntu App Developer Site incremental improvements
• Reaching out to future Ubuntu developers
• If a crash is already fixed by an update, prompt to install it

I couldn’t attend all of them, many sessions were in the same slot or I were required in another session at the time. I marked the ones I couldn’t attend in italics. Archive Re-organisation

I’ll jump in with the big and controversial topic. When Ubuntu was founded, Canonical and the Ubuntu community was small and could only support a subset of the Debian archives. This supported subset became known as main. Initially it was less than 1GB large, the rest of what you’d usually find in the Debian main archive became known as Universe, and a group of people, named in jest after a he-man series, became known as the Masters of the Universe (MOTU) team.

Main was maintained mostly by Canonical staff and the universe archive was maintained by Canonical staff and community members. Over time, more and more community members started to maintain packages in main. Flavours such as Edubuntu, Kubuntu and Xubuntu were later allowed to install from universe and it was later enabled by default. In the initial LTS release, only main packages were supported long-term. These days, there are many packages in universe that are supported for the full 5 years on LTS releases. Previously, only packages in main had translations shipped for them. This is also no longer true. The lines between main and universe have become so blurred that having the separation no longer made any sense. Around the last LTS release (10.04), the topic of an archive re-organisation emerged. It was a big discussion, and when the Developer Membership Board was formed the MOTU Council was disbanded (which in my opinion was a bad idea) in part of that and also in anticipation for the archive re-organisation. Some people took that as meaning that MOTU is dead or that it would stop to exist. That is certainly not the case.

Unfortunately, the archive re-organisation became very complicated very quickly. There still needs to be a way for Canonical to identify packages that they officially support if someone wants to throw money at them for supporting it. We can’t have everything translated because the language packs would just grow too big. How would we deal with managing build-dependencies and make sure that people depend on high-quality tools and libraries? Soon after the initial archive re-organisation was started, it stalled. In my opinion this caused lots of confusion and did damage to the Ubuntu project.

Having said that, I’m glad to report that the discussion at this UDS was extremely positive and it seems like the archive re-organisation might actually be completed over the next two releases. Other benefits will include how support meta-data is stored. The tools that currently use the support fields (update-manager, ubuntu-support-status, software-center, etc) will now get the support metadata from an external file, which means that packages in Ubuntu wouldn’t need a diff with Debian’s packages anymore for support meta-data. Also, the archive layout will be simpler and easier to understand. MOTU would probably change from “Masters of the Universe” to “Masters of the Unseeded”. Packages that are seeded are packages that are provided on standard Ubuntu flavours (Ubuntu Core, Ubuntu Desktop, Ubuntu Server, Edubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu, etc). The rest of the archive that are unseeded would then still be maintained by a newly defined MOTU group.

It’s a big hairy issue and I’ve just touched on some of the areas, but what’s great is that progress is being made again and that people are serious about making it happen. Colin Watson has a work item to take the discussion further on the Ubuntu development mailing list. I’m positive that things will be moving forward on that front for this cycle, even if it ends up taking another cycle to iron out some of the smaller kinks.

Application Review Board

In a previous cycle, Canonical put together a process by which application developers could get their non-free, commercial applications in to the Software Center via authenticated PPA. It seemed unfair to have a process where non-free software could make it into the Ubuntu software center but free software couldn’t, so a process was formed to let apps in the software center via an extras repository. This process is overseen by the Application Review Board. I joined this board right about 6 months ago. We’ve had the usual problems that Ubuntu teams have (because, in reality the ARB is more of a team than a board, the name is a misnomer, I wish less Ubuntu teams had this issue), like lack of time, getting sporadically distracted by other work, but on top of that, we didn’t have our process quite smoothed out yet. The web interface that we used to manage apps had some huge issues (like making apps completely disappear from the interface when requesting feedback from the developer).

For the last weeks, quite a few people have worked hard to help fix the issues in the process and in the web app. There were *many* sessions at this UDS regarding upstream developers, the ARB, the MyApps web interface, etc. At times I thought that there were too many, but it was just right. A lot of issues were discussed, problems were solved, and while I felt like the ARB process was in an alpha stage during the last cycle, I think it’s more like a beta-state process now. I think we’re very close to having a process that’s smooth and easy for both the people that submit these apps, and the people who review them.

Currently the ARB has some backlog that we need to sort through, we’ll probably use that to help improve the process further and make Ubuntu a fun and welcoming platform to develop for.

We also absolutely want people to contribute their software to the right place. If a package belongs in Debian, Ubuntu, a PPA or any other archive instead, we’d like to advise the user properly. I took a work item to put together a flowchart to help people decide where to submit their app, because there’s way to many guides and howtos and someone could read the entire New Maintainers Guide and still won’t know where to submit their app

I know I’m a bit thin on the details on the sessions here, but I’ll do more blog posts on that. I just wanted to provide some background and explain that good progress is made, and that things are greatly improving with the ARB process. In the ARB, many of us are aspiring to becoming Debian Developers so that we can help sponsor packages there when it’s appropriate.

Debian Health Check

The Debian Health Check session as become a regular session at UDS. We had a bunch of DD’s in the room that could comment on the Debian-Ubuntu relationship, but we didn’t have someone who specifically represented Debian. Some of the issues I’ve mentioned previously (like the ARB) were discussed. Also the Ayatana patches from Ubuntu that are hard to get into Debian (which includes Unity).

What is nice is that we have quite a few people who started out with Ubuntu that became Debian Developers. The relationship between Debian and Ubuntu seems quite healthy and it seems that both projects gain great benefit from each other.

MOTU Birds of a Feather

The archive-reorg was discussed, and MOTUs future role was discussed in anticipation of it. There was some discussion about things that have worked well in the last few cycles that should be revitalised. MOTU needs some more announcements of what it’s doing to cause some buzz around its activities. Too few people know what MOTU does and how it does it. Evan Broder and I plan to try some experiments with Facebook ads to see what kind of people/interest they bring in MOTU

The MOTU team is also very eager to get long-term ARB apps into the archive. Having apps in universe would mean less work and restrictions than having them in extras.

As MOTU we’re very committed to it and its goals, but there needs to be some restructuring/updating of the current documentation. It might also need a new vision/mission-statement, etc. This cycle is going to be a revitalisation cycle for MOTU in whatever form it will continue to exist. We hope that many people will get excited about packaging and quality in the Ubuntu archive and help contribute to that

Getting it all down is impossible

I wish I could do a better job at this blog post, but I’m still somewhat suffering from information overload from last week, and if I try to get it perfect and get everything in there then this post will never get finished. If you have questions, feel free to give a poke on #ubuntu-motu on freenode, there’s bound to be someone who could answer questions on any of these topics if you’re willing to hang around a bit. I still haven’t even touched on Backports, APT improvements, SRU streamlining, etc, but you should be able to find most of the information from those sessions in their blueprints. If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading!

Edubuntu 12.10 Plans

Today at the Ubuntu Developer Summit we had a session to plan out the next release of Edubuntu.

For the Edubuntu 12.10 core product, we’re doing some typical Edubuntu updates and features, which include:

• Authentication step in the installer for AD/Samba4/LDAP
• We’ll be reviewing the installed apps, add gnote, refresh the kde-edu apps selection
• Dynamic installer slideshow, based on options selected
• Juju charms for educational web apps (Moodle, WordPress Multisite, etc)
• Remote Live Installer (booting an Edubuntu/Ubuntu livecd over the network
• Education-specific software highlights in Software Center
• Speed-up installation by optimising the way we ship language packs
• A variety of Desktop/Artwork tweaks and fixes

Edubuntu Labs: Get Excited and Make Things

On Tuesday I had 2.5 minutes to speak about Edubuntu during a plenary session where I presented some of our more ambitious plans in Edubuntu. We want to make it easier for people to work on their ideas and projects that might be good for Edubuntu, but that doesn’t necessarilly fit into our main product yet or in a 6 month release cycle. For that, we’re starting Edubuntu Labs (subject to namechange). A playground for experimental and exciting features that might one day make it as a supported Edubuntu product. Internally, we’re starting two of these projects to kick it off.

1. Edubuntu Server

Edubuntu Server is a product we discontinued a few years back. Due to popular demand, we’re considering reviving it as a product. Aspects we’re currently investigating:

• Zentyal Small Business Server
• A built-in disk-cloning tool using LTSP
• A remote installer for Ubuntu based installer media
• Schooltool
• Schooltool integration into Zentyal
• Samba4

If we have Zentyal/Schooltool integration by Alpha1 we’ll create a “task”  for this in Ubuntu. We’re not shipping any installation media for this for 12.10, but we have some very clever installer ideas that might be available by 13.04.

 

2. Edubuntu Tablet

Schools are spending too much money on iPads, and working with the Edubuntu project, I’m going to do what I can to try and fix that.

• The first device we’re targeting for Edubuntu tablet support is the Zatab: http://zareason.com/shop/zatab.html
• For 12.10 we want to release an unofficial, technology preview version of Edubuntu for Tablets. We want to show software developers what a completely awesome platform Edubuntu can be for schools and encourage them to get their software through the proper channels so that it’s available via the Ubuntu Software Centre by 13.04.
• We’ll be using Unity 3D as the default desktop, it’s great for touch devices
• The Kubuntu team is also planning to support this device with the KDE Plasma Active Desktop, we’ll be doing some collaboration maintaining this device’s kernel and hardware enablement.

All of this is still early work, but I wanted to get it out there as early as possible. Over the next 2 weeks there’ll be more official announcements on the Edubuntu website. We’re looking for more contributors to help us out with this, please join us on #edubuntu and add it to your autojoin and introduce yourself on the edubuntu-devel mailing list

As I posted before, I am due for a new cellphone and top of the list is the HTC One X.  I have just noticed that it will be at MTN soon.  See front cover of the May 1-17 MTN Catalog

Now lets just hope that it is actually in the stores also.

Henk did a sterling job hosting the Precise Pangolin Release party in the Shuttleworth Lab at UCT. We had a fair turnout for a public holiday which was also the first day of the 5 day weekend. Note too that this was the AfrikaBurn weekend. We also had a super delicious, home-made, Pangolin cake which was creatively decorated with chocolate scales. Thanks to Henk's friend. We planned to demo some games and we did, in an informal way. Mostly it was just an install fest. We also made some live CDs and liveboot USB disks for people. Thanks also Stefano for nursing the non-standard upgrades.

Happy Ubuntu 12.04, release day!

I just noticed that Ubuntu (and Precise) is trending on Google+! As far as I can tell this is the first time that Ubuntu is trending there. That’s just awesome.

Following the stream is pretty nice, there’s currently a new post with every automatic refresh (about once a second).

Congratulations to everyone who worked on this and also the release team who did an outstanding job delivering Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise Pangolin) to the masses!

Well, I guess it’s time to prepare for UDS for 12.10 and I’m looking forward to seeing many of you at UDS in California in a bit more than a week! I’ll be posting some updates on Google+ as well, please follow me!

Happy Birthday, Spectrum!

Today marks 30 years since the release of the very first ZX-Spectrum. This was the first computer I ever used, I learned in part how to read on this device while typing out games written in BASIC from magazines. It was one of the first mass-produced computers to make it into homes and was a remarkable device for its time. I have lots of fond memories of it and I will probably always be somewhat sentimental about it.

Google UK Doodle

Google UK commemorated by having a Google Doodle today in honour of the device. Happy birthday ZX-Spectrum!

Yup it is time for a Ubuntu release party again!

It's been almost a year since we had one in Pretoria

and Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Precise Pangolin is shaping up to be super stable, productive and enjoyable when it is released on 28 April. It may even give Windows8 and Metro a run for it's money :) .

We intend to have our launch party on Saturday 5th May 2012
from 10:00 to 13:30 at the Karoo Cattle and Land in the Irene Village Mall

Shop 176
Irene Village Mall
Corner Nellmapius and Pierre Van Ryneveld
Irene

Bring your laptop, memory stick(Flash drive) or external hard disk and get copies of the latest Ubuntu and join us for exited conversations over a nice brunch with other Ubuntu enthusiasts. (Also bring power multi adaptors, blank cds or dvds and some networking equipment if you can so we can all work on our laptops and share Ubuntu 12.04 data freely :)

See the event detail on loco.ubuntu.com .

See you there! \o/


✝

A quick Poster for the Pangolin release parties. This is the web version. 

Print poster at spreadubuntu
Web Poster at spreadubuntu

We have 2 release parties so far. One in Cape Town and one in Pretoria.
Cape Town : Friday 27 May 10-13:00 Shuttleworth lab UCT - LoCo DetailPretoria: Saturday 5 May 10-13:30 Karoo Land and Cattle in Irene - LoCo Detail
I am hoping to organise a casual Ubuntu Hour/ after party in Stellenbosch too so I can catch up with the everybody who was in holiday.
An insert snack of choice, a refreshing beverage of choice, a friend and a laptop upgrading to pangolin also counts as a release party.

Greentown School Kindergarden iPads

Earlier this year, I was a bit surprised to see that a school is planning to buy iPads for its entire Kindergarden. I’m interested to know how that went and how they’re using those devices. The school dipped into it’s long-term savings to buy those iPads, and to me that sounds risky. If I were a parent at that school I don’t think I would approve of the school risking long-term security to provide technology to kindergarden kids. The article I link to states that the iPads are bought because it aims to improve reading skills. I’m pretty confident that it would make at least some difference, but I’m also confident that it doesn’t justify the price and risk associated with it. Also, how does the school manage the apps installed? Are there tools for that (I’m honestly asking)? Can educators monitor scores? The child’s progress? Do the educators receive sufficient training on these tools? Who helps when things go wrong? The cost of iPads doesn’t end with just the price of the devices and the direct maintenance costs. Educators have to change the way they teach. They have to learn how to provide education via a new medium and redevelop some of their materials. When I first read that article I was thinking of all these things and wondering if that school could really justify buying them.

$18.2m Fort Bend Independent School District iPads

Today I stumbled across a website for students who are against their school board spending $18.2m for an iPad roll-out. The school board is rolling out iPads while their traditional computing IT infrastructure is aging, reportedly the school still has some outdated technology in place, such as Windows 98 machines. The students are making the case that money would be better spent upgrading their current infrastructure, like upgrading all their machines to Windows 7 and deprecating all the old hardware that can’t run it. I agree with them, it would indeed be an improvement on buying a bunch if iPads, and that investment is likely to also last a lot longer than the iPads will.

While $18.2m is a lot of money, I think it’s the tip of the iceberg of what’s being spent on iPads in schools and I can’t help wondering if it’s the best way for schools to be spending their money, especially considering the doubt of whether the use of technology actually increases grades. In my experience educators tend to think of computers as magical devices that will do a lot of the teaching for them and give them more time to focus on other things, but the reality is that it’s rarely the case.

The Case Against Technology in Schools?

I suppose it’s starting to sound like I’m trying to build a case against technology in education. I’m not.  However I do believe that spending that kind of money, especially for very young kids is a waste. They have much more important things to do, like playing. I can’t imagine how learning to read and do basic algebra can possibly be better for kids on iPads than interacting with your real life teacher and your classmates around you. These kids have several years ahead of them where they can learn how to be office drones and good little consumers, why put that on them now?  I’ve come across teachers and parents who believe that their kids need to start as early as possible in order to give them a competitive edge and to get them “in early”. I can’t predict the future, but I’m pretty confident that your kids will be completely fine if they learn about computers a bit later.

So why am I bringing all of this up?

Well, I’m not really trying to convince anyone of anything in particular, but I do think people should be aware of some of the current trends that are at least somewhat concerning. I also think that people should think about this, because I remember being in school and getting angry myself when I came across things in the system that just completely sucked and wondering… “isn’t there anyone out there who really cares about this!?”.

Edubuntu

I’m also thinking of solutions, because I can’t help doing that. I’m wondering of ways we could make Edubuntu a *lot* more better for schools. So far we’ve been pushing out a collection of the best available free software we could find every release and as a project it’s getting quite stable and we’re getting quite good at doing what we do. I also think it’s time we step it up, have an official, supported Edubuntu device. Have good management software where you can choose which software, ebooks, courseware and other tools are installed on which device. Have testing tools and feedback tools that are easy and secure to use. Make better use of the Ubuntu Software Center’s support for additional add-on applications and build an eco-system for people who develop software for education, free software and not.  We’re a small project and just keeping our current work going is already just about as much as we can carry, but we’re going to have to grow the project drastically if we’re going to develop something that is an appealing and interesting alternative to these iPads that people are so happily sinking money in to, often money that they don’t really have. I also want to see a good alternative that provides a solution using free software.  I have some more details on all of this to follow, but I thought I’d keep this blog entry shorter so that I can at least get it out.

I’m going to be presenting some cases for big changes in Edubuntu to the Edubuntu Council soon and I’m going to try to get us a lot of help for this. If you’d like to get involved in any way, please get in touch! More details will follow soon.

As it happens to most of us, we tend to drive to fast from time to time and pick up some traffic fines that needs to be paid.  In the past there was a site www.payfines.co.za which worked just great and one could easity pay one’s files.

During November 2011 I got 2 fines on the same day (be carefull when you in Stellenbosch) and I tend to let it lie till the second notice before I pay the fines.  Why should I give my hard earned money to somebody else if I can hang onto it.

During March when I wanted to pay my fines, www.payfines,co.za did not exist anymore and was redirected to www.paycity.co.za.The first issue I had was that I had to re-register since my payfines.co.za registration did not work anymore. I did the register part and had to email some documentation to get activated which was done and a couple of days later my access was given.

When one sign’s into the site the following screen is presented:

When you select the “View and pay your traffic fines” (marked in red above), the correct list of outstanding fines are listed to be paid:

Selecting what fines to pay and clicking the PAY NOW button works as should be.  One is presented with the input fields to make your payment via Credit Card as expected.

After entering all the Credit Card details and click the PAY NOW button, everting just fails:

Clicking OK removes the Dialog box but the site just hangs and the only way to recover is to close the site totally.

This has now been going on for more than 2 weeks.  I contacted PayCity.co.za vie email, telephone and even twitter but have not received a satisfactory response at all.  I did get a response via Twitter

As can be seen, this was more than 3 days ago and the PayCity.co.za system is still not working.  I am glad I do not depend on the system to buy electricity or some critical service since the service and quality of their site is pathetic.  Payment integration services are not difficult to do and if they do not know how then I highly recommend that they get somebody that can sort their problems out.

The irony is that in the latest TygerBurger (dated 4 April 2012), PayCity GM Jean-Claude Allegrucci claims how much money people can save by using their service.  Mr Allergrucci, before making claims like that, please ensure that your site is working like advertised and provide a decend and acceptable service if something goes wrong.

Off to go pay my fines the manual way at some counter or if you aware of another online service which will allow me to successfully pay my Stellenbosch fines, then please let me know in the commenst.

It is university vacation so a rather quiet ubuntu hour.

My current cellphone contract has come to an end and I am due for an upgrade.  It will definitly be an Android phone and the current front runner is the HTC One X.

I am a MTN contract subscriber and have tried to find out if and when this phone will be available on contract in South Africa. So far I could not get any answer on this.  If somebody have an idea then please comment below.

From what I have seen in the reviews, this is a awesome device and I am praticularly impressed with the 8MP camera and video taking capabilities.  Have a look at the below video.

The only thing that I might miss is the absence of a SD card but with 32GB of internal storage that should be much of a issue.

I mentioned that I am doing an online Python course through Udacity.  The results from week one is out and I got 89% for my first homework assignment, got 1 question wrong and it was a realy stupid mistake.

Currenly busy with week 2 work and must say that I am enjoying it.  The work is getting more complex and we a now getting into the nuts and bolts of Python.

Let me go and do my homework for week 2 — sound’s like I am back at school again

My current 2 year cellphone contract is up for renewal this month.  I have been using a HTC Desire for the last 2 years and absolutely loved it.  Comparing to today’s Android phones, the Desire is very limited particularly when it comes to internal memory and storage.

I have already decided to stay with an Android phone so the iPhone is not even on my list to look at.  

I have narrowed my search down to 2 phones namely the HTC OneX and the Samsung Galaxy SIII. On the left you see the HTC OneX which was announced by HTC at the Mobile World Conference and the specs is well known. On the right is what the Samsung SIII might look like.  Samsung has not annouced the phone yet so there is not official images of it yet.  From rumours and leaks, it seems to be in the same spec class as the HTC OneX.

I am a HTC fan so I am leaning towards the HTC at the moment but will wait till the Samsung SIII has been announced and then take both for a test and only then decide. I just hope that my mobile provider, MTN, will be bringing both to South Africa.  They have already indicated that they will be bringing the SIII but have not seen anything about the HTC OneX.

From what I have read about the reviews of the HTC OneX, everybody is highly impressed with the phone particularly with the camera that is on this one.  Seems like HTC has gone out of their way to make the camera experience a real good one.  I use my camera phone fairly often so a good camera is a must on the phone.  I am eagarly waiting for reviews on the Samsung SIII and what reviewers have to say about it.  I am particurlarly looking forward to a side by side review of the 2 phones.  Please comment below if you have seen or read a review like this.

Onwards to my new phone

 

This bash script prefixes the prompt with the branch name whenever the working directory is in a Git, Mercurial, Subversion or Bazaar branch.  The code is part of my bash-environ package.  Here it is on Ubuntu Pastebin, and a plaint-text download.

The script modifies PS1 to reference the branch function which detects .git/.hg/.svn/.bzr version control systems and formats the branch name for the prompt.  branch minimises calls to external commands and avoids "bzr nick" entirely, so there should be no noticeable delay in displaying the prompt.

Using dirname-ng (cl_dirname) will provide dirname as a function which is 10x faster than /usr/bin/dirname, for slightly faster check for .bzr, .git, .hg, .svn directories.

Update: Added Subversion checkout detection
Update: Removed use of "bzr nick", examine branch.conf & location files directly
Update: Used __git_ps1 pointed out by Anon.  Removed env vars.
Update: Quoted all values to prevent word splitting when path contains spaces.

## Print nickname for git/hg/bzr/svn version control in CWD
## Optional $1 of format string for printf, default "(%s) "
function be_get_branch {
  local dir="$PWD"
  local vcs
  local nick
  while [[ "$dir" != "/" ]]; do
    for vcs in git hg svn bzr; do
      if [[ -d "$dir/.$vcs" ]] && hash "$vcs" &>/dev/null; then
        case "$vcs" in
          git) __git_ps1 "${1:-(%s) }"; return;;
          hg) nick=$(hg branch 2>/dev/null);;
          svn) nick=$(svn info 2>/dev/null\
                | grep -e '^Repository Root:'\
                | sed -e 's#.*/##');;
          bzr)
            local conf="${dir}/.bzr/branch/branch.conf" # normal branch
            [[ -f "$conf" ]] && nick=$(grep -E '^nickname =' "$conf" | cut -d' ' -f 3)
            conf="${dir}/.bzr/branch/location" # colo/lightweight branch
            [[ -z "$nick" ]] && [[ -f "$conf" ]] && nick="$(basename "$(< $conf)")"
            [[ -z "$nick" ]] && nick="$(basename "$(readlink -f "$dir")")";;
        esac
        [[ -n "$nick" ]] && printf "${1:-(%s) }" "$nick"
        return 0
      fi
    done
    dir="$(dirname "$dir")"
  done
}

## Add branch to PS1 (based on $PS1 or $1), formatted as $2
export GIT_PS1_SHOWDIRTYSTATE=yes
export PS1="\$(be_get_branch "$2")${PS1}";

Today I want to talk about Udacity, a online Univercity if you like and I quote:

We believe university-level education can be both high quality and low cost. Using the economics of the Internet, we’ve connected some of the greatest teachers to hundreds of thousands of students all over the world.

Currently they are running 2 cources

• CS 101: BUILDING A SEARCH ENGINE
• CS 373: PROGRAMMING A ROBOTIC CAR

I have enrolled for both but not sure whether I will have the time for the Robotic one.  

I have just completed the first week of the Search Engine one and must say that I enjoyed the way it was teached and the pace at which it was run.  I even did the homework assignment so am eagerly awaiting on how I did with my homework. The course is presented as a series of videos with questions and exercise throughout.  The interactivity is well done and it even has a browser based Python interpretor, so one does not need to install anything on one’s computes.

The course is using Python to build a search engine, I come from a Sofware Development background with years of C, C++ and PHP behind me but has never realy learned Python.  Also just like to mention that I am over 50 years old so studying is a new experience again but as they say, one is never to old to learn.  

Looking forward to receiving my homework assignment result and week 2 of the course.

This is the second part of my series on my favorite Android application and the applications that I use on a daily basis.  Here is part 1 on TV Shows Fav As part of my working life, I have to keep time of the work I do and the hours I work.  The Android app that I use for this is Time Recording.  The app is available in a Free version and a Pro version.  I use the Free version that is ad supported and the ads do not realy bother me. Basically it has the following functionality: Timesheet manager – easy to use, highly adaptive

Manage your timesheet.

Basic functionality:
• Check in & out
• Task assignment
• Daily & detailed notes
• Overview of day, week, month
• Data export & email as CSV, HTML or XML
• Integrated backup & restore
• Google Calendar Sync (one way only, only for Pro users)
• Dropbox integration for data export, backup & restore (Pro version only)
• Pro version is ad-free

Highly configurable, many additional features:
• Date and time formats
• Hourly rates, paid overtime
• Calendar options (first day of week and month, bi-weekly reporting)
• Target time
• Widget to display running day total
• Status bar notification when checked in
• Tasker/Locale plugin support (Pro version only)
• Public services for integration into other apps

Limitations:
• Smallest tracking unit is one minute
• No multiple trackers
• No mileage or expenses
• Only one overtime rate

If you need to keep time for something work activity then I can highly recommend Time Recording.

I’m now an LTSP developer!

I came across LTSP for the first time in 2003. Little did I know that I’d still be using it 9 years later, would attend two LTSP  hackfesst in South West Harbor (Maine, US) and today…  become an official upstream LTSP developer.

It’s a small but really nice community to be part of and I’m really happy to officially be part of it. I’m just about to commit some default LDM theme improvements and a bug fix, I hope to do many more of those in the future