Well.. I admit that I felt a little proud after seeing the good old KDE3 on the trailer of the upcoming “The Social Network“.

For those who didn’t see it, here it is:

This is a KDE desktop with:

• the Keramic widget and window decoration style (so it’s at least a KDE 3.1, released on Jan 2003)
• a konqueror window (god, I loved that browser) showing the /home/mark directory (obviously Mark Zuckerberg)
• a terminal, probably xterm, showing some wget-ting going on to fetch the pictures displayed in the other konqueror window
• a mozilla window displaying the www.eliot.harvard.edu/facebook/index.shtml URL, probably something like the directory of the house

Apart from that it all looks very standard to me.. do you see any other customization/hint on the picture?
Come on, unleash your CSI skills!!

I remember it was KDE 3.2 that made me fall in love with this awesome desktop environment (it was really the top of the class at that point, with konqueror, the kio slaves, and a browser that was about to change the history) and my first opensource code commit was about 6 years and 8 months ago.. and I enjoyed every second of that. (and now it pays the bills too! lol)

Well… looks like I’ll be at the movies on Oct 1st!

As promised, here is a list of some KDE ideas that the people left in my previous post, along as mine. They’re available for free, so feel free to pick one and make it yours As a side note, I’m making a KDE Prediction for 2010: KDM will receive lots of love! You can see that the stars are aligning. In fact I’m going to split this post into 2 ideas scenarios to reflect that.

KDM Ideas

1. QML in KDM
   This is all about animations, user interaction and eye candy. See this for example.
2. Plasma in KDM
   This is about consistence and configurability.
3. Webcam Login (face recognition) in KDM
   Show your face (or Mona Lisa‘s one) and you’re in! No password typing needed. Integrating with the pam-face-authentication may be the smart way to go.
4. Fingerprint Login in KDM
   This is KDE’s most requested feature… you can’t be wrong implementing it

KDE Ideas

1. Unified webcam library
   Webcam’s are being utilized a lot lately: they’re cheap, widespread, and they’re working good under Linux. Projects come out with webcam support, like Fotowall, Kamoso, Kopete and there are efforts to get it working in Phonon.
   Note that a camera is a source of video, images but also can be used for authentication and may even be used for user input – can you imagine manipulating stuff with your fingers? Note that webcams must usually be read in single instance, so the approach here might be 1 Qt-Only userspace daemon supporting multiple connections.
2. Unified Theme Manager
   One theme manager to rule them all: styles, colors, plasma theme, windeco & all. Of course the themes must be packed and shared in a binary-compatible manner with any other KDE system (yes, the challenges are there..
3. Unified Configuration Panel
   Making systemsettings really the one and only configuration tool and provide backends to the distributions for adding/changing modules so KDE systems will have the same feeling for configuring the system. Some modules like ‘partition disk’, ‘edit boot menu’ and ‘manage startup programs’ (daemons) should be added and left to the distribution for implementation – I think they will. Note that current systemsettings lets you configure the joystick even if you don’t have one (!).
4. KWIN: draggable windows
   And for windows I mean (actually J. Janz means) the whole non-interactive panel. Blank space as well as inactive labels should be draggable. From the user POV there is no window-deco + window contents. It’s a panel, let’s use it, move it, resize it, context-menu-it as a whole.
5. Raytraced UI
   I’ll blog more about this, but this is a little thing I’d really like to do but I don’t know if I will find time to do that. Do you think that iPhone gui is cool? Raytrace the .ui high-level gui definition format and you’ll get something better. Glassy too. Mail me if you want to know more about this

Conclusion

I’m sorry I missed some interesting suggestions but I don’t have space here to detail them; just look to my previous blog entry’s comments to find more about BasKet note pads integration into Plasma, file browsing enhancements (context dependent actions, menus, warnings and kparts) qt4 gui for vi, etc.

As someone pointed out there is quite a bit of overlap and dispersion between the ways to collect ideas. I can count:

• KDE Bugzilla’s wishlist
• KDE Forum’s brainstorm
• distribution specific bug trackers
• blog posts (ehm….:-)
• GSOC ideas
• kde-look’s brainstorm
• developers mailing lists
• other bugtrackers
• techbase or userbase
• direct mails and irc chats

Directing users to provide their feedback in a low-dispersive, constructive, modern, layered (from generic directions to specific actions) and focused way is probably one of the challenges that should be added to Aaron’s list for 2010.

This is one of the hottest topics of the moment: Multi-Touch (see the trends here). Every review of the just released Qt 4.6 mentions the Touch-and-Gestures framework and KDE is getting ready to use the technology — still it doesn’t work on X11 (yet).

MultiTouch can be Fun !

I couldn’t resist, so for 99€ (120$) I bought a Bamboo Fun Pen & Touclh tablet. I find this really affordable, since you get: A. the precision of a graphics tablet (with 1024 pressure levels, back eraser, etc..) and B. a real 2-Pointers input device!

I tried the tablet on vista, with the latest drivers and the bundled applications bot I got disappointed because:
1. the scroll gesture is remapped to the mouse wheel.. so you lose all the ‘analog’ fun and it feels unconfortable.
2. the zoom gesture is remapped to CTRL+wheel, awkward fixed-steps again.
3. the rotate gesture is not supported by any app even the bundled ones i tried.

In the end I thought this was not “multi-touch”, but some silly gesture-detection broken hardware. I was wrong.

Linux to the rescue

Step 1. After loading the wacom.ko module (updated with this patch) the Linux kernel prints out stuff like this:

[default   ] data: 02 00  00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00
[finger 1  ] data: 02 00  7d 80 fe 00 8a  80 fc 00 87  00 00 00 00 00  81 11 00 00
[finger 1+2] data: 02 00  ae 80 b6 00 72  81 08 00 70  87 81 5b 00 72  81 21 00 00
[finger   2] data: 02 00  00 00 00 00 00  81 59 00 b4  6d 81 59 00 ba  80 11 00 00

Can you see it ? This is a 2-finger device!

Step 2. The Kernel understands the data and splits it into 2 input devices that Udev maps to /dev/input/wacom and /dev/input/wacom-touch. From here you can read higher level information for each finger such as the decoded position, pressure, click type (tap, doubletab), and more.

I WANT QTouchEvents AND QGestures !!

I do too And I wanted to hack something about that. But I stopped here:

We get the input from evdev and the Application needs QTouchEvents and QGestures, so the easy way would be to hack up a touchpoint feeder to the Qt framework that directly reads from evdev (evdev -> qt). This would work fine for 1 application, but what about two? And what about moving the X cursor too? I think evdev->Xdriver->XInput2->qt is the solution, but we must be sure that no valuable information is lost in the chain, that the event filtering is done in the right place and obviously, that the X driver does a good job. Unfortunately xf86-input-wacom (X input driver for wacom’s kernel driver) doesn’t support my Bamboo Fun Touch & Pen yet and moreover I don’t see MPX support in the sources, so I’m wondering how far away is the Qt multi-touch backend from seeing the light.

Conclusion

I don’t know which way the multi-touch will happen on linux, but I know for sure that we want to play with gestures and we want it soon

For more information:

• Peter Hutterer’s blog. Peter is the MPX (Multi Pointer X) author and plays a big role in the X.org community.
• X Input Extension 2.0 features.
• The Linux Wacom project. A community-driven effort to develop kernel and X drivers.

I’ve moved my blog here and I’m building my own site starting from Fotowall.
I feel like home here

Today Fotowall reached the 100’000 downloads mark! It’s a HUGE result, and it’s even more incredible if you consider that we have no homepage, no advertising other than word-of-mouth and those are the downloads of the XP/Vista release only (we have the linux and mac releases too)!
If you haven’t downloaded the latest release, do it now!

To celebrate this result, here is a short teaser for the upcoming version (that will be out in one week):

Click here to view the embedded video.

A big thank you to the team: Arnaud Tanguy, Alessandro Portale, Andreas Brech, Georges Dubus, and translators Martin Zimmermann and Marcio Moraes.

Fotowall 0.7.1 has been released today! Get it while it’s hot

New features in Fotowall 0.7. In the top left area you can see the web image selector.

With this release Fotowall integrates with the deep web. You can now search the network with the embedded flickr search pane and add the images to the canvas. This opens up an infinite can of content, all available for your pleasure .

Other relevant features include:

• support for Qt 4.6 (brings animations and transparencies)
• usability fixes (rubberband selection, deletion, etc..)
• cleaner design (new icons, loadable frames, better property dialogs)
• italian, french and german translation
• check for updates and web links

Don’t hesitate to ask for missing features and always remember that you can rotate pictures by dragging corners with the right mouse button

Enjoy your Fotowall!!

Se avete un blog, già conoscete la soddisfazione che si prova analizzando le statistiche.. Si può determinare la risposta all’impulso, vedere da dove viene e dove va la gente,  capire quali chiavi di ricerca siano state usate per giungere al tuo blog.

L’algoritmo usato da google non è noto ma la perversione di certe persone è ben evidente, infatti è arrivato su questo blog ANCHE chi ha googlato:

1. enrico ross m31 – (e questo tipo lo conosco pure! (D.E. ndr))
2. fattispazio – (levati da li!)
3. produttori di croissant – (cerca “pasticcerie”)
4. design soggiorno – (io so disegnare solo caprette e conigli, vuoi?)
5. meccanismi a catena – (cerca “Wanna Marchi”)
6. appartamento da figata – (sono vietati dalla legge Merlin..)
7. conservanti alimentari per dolci – (conservanti “alimentari” ??)
8. migrazione farfalle 2009 conegliano – (speriamo non ci devastino il raccolto!)
9. la gioia di tutti – (vedi il 10.)
10. luana la zoccola – ()

L’escalation verso la 1.0 continua con una nuova milestone

Nuove caratteristiche presenti in Fotowall 0.6

Se non vi sono bastate le tonnellate di migliorie della 0.5 ecco che arriva una 0.6 che quasi raddoppia la base di codice e introduce una serie di caratteristiche che danno un taglio professionale senza intaccare la facilità di interazione e la libertà di giocare con Fotowall E ancora non avete letto nulla…

Integrazione con PosteRazor

Non ci vuole un pennello  grande, ma un grande pen Fotowall 0.6!

PosteRazor, di Alessandro Portale, è un programma che consente di stampare a casa propria dei poster grandi a piacere con una stampante comune.In pratica divide l’immagine in tanti fogli che una volta ritagliati ed incollati vanno a formare un Poster.  La capacità di Fotowall di sintetizzare immagini in altissima definizione e l’esportazione con PosteRazor permettono di creare composizioni grafiche di risoluzione notevole in uno spazio piccolo, quale lo schermo del PC.

Oltretutto, l’unione di Fotowall e PosteRazor, rappresenta un avvenimento davvero raro nel panorama opensource. Sono infatti frequenti i fork, quando gruppi di persone vogliono evolvere un software in modo diverso dalla linea prestabilita e così si finisce con più programmi che fanno la stessa cosa, ma i join, come questo caso, sono davvero rarissimi!

Oggetto Video, o Specchio

E” un oggetto manipolabile (come le Foto o il Testo) che contiene il video ripreso dalle webcam collegate al PC. E’ detto anche specchio perchè spesso i portatili sono dotati di una webcam che ti riprende, quindi è un po’ come inserire degli specchietti in Fotowall

Export Guidato

L’assistente consente di esportare la scena attuale in 4 modi: impostando lo sfondo del desktop, salvando un’immagine, creando un poster (vedi PosteRazor), o stampando su carta. Ci sono tutte le opzioni necessarie per divertirsi Consiglio anche di vedere il modo “Dimensione Esatta” (accessibile dalla finestra principale di Fotowall), che consente lavorare a schermo all dimensione fisica specificata (tipo 15x6cm) e stampare alla medesima dimensione. WYSIWYG

Formato XML

La scena può essere salvata e recuperata (quasi, ehm.. esattamente..) nel nuovo formato XML, che assicura compatibiltà in avanti. Da oggi in poi potrete mettere via le vostre scene Fotowall preferite.

Selezione, Prospettiva &  altri 50 commit

E’ possibile selezionare più oggetti, spostarli o cambiare le proprietà in gruppo, cambiare la prospettiva degli oggetti (rotazione attorno agli assi X ed Y ), riscalare il testo come si roto-scalano le immagini, c’è l’effetto Seppia, e molto altro ancora

Enjoy your Fotowall!!

Oggi ho rilasciato Fotowall 0.5!

Show off dell'elemento Testo di Fotowall 0.5

Tra le migliorie:
- creazione e stampa di CD/DVD (by Tanguy Arnaud)
- elemento Testo (completo di Editor visuale HTML-like )
- più di 50 fix sull’usabilità!
- effetto GLOW

Puoi scaricare qui i sorgenti se ti piace studiare il codice, oppure scarica direttamente il programma per Windows (2.8MB).

Un rigraziamento SPECIALE all’amico Ilan d’Inca per il supporto, il Beta-Testing e le ideone
Al carissimo Ilan dedico questa release!

As many people requested, now Fotowall has become really Open Source (GPLv2) and is publicly hosted on the net!!

Its new home is http://www.enricoros.com/opensource/fotowall, and for celebration 0.21 was released, with a new Icon, WinXP+ binary file and the full-res version of tutorial video I put on YouTube.

Suggestions are more than appreciated,
Thank you all for your support and drive