KDE.news

Akonadi Demystified

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Over on his blog Sebastian Kügler talks about the status of Akonadi, how the migration of Kontact to Akonadi is going, and in general where the direction of development is leading.

As a status update, sebas notes "Initially, we had planned to release the new Kontact along with the rest of the KDE Applications 4.5. This did not quite work out, so we pushed the release back a bit, and are planning to release it along with one of the 4.5.x updates. The current plan is to release the Akonadi port of Kontact still this year. In contrast to our usual releases, this step is a bit different. We want to avoid hassle for the end-user as much as possible, so we are extending the beta phase until we think the quality is sufficient for the high demands of users, which is especially important in Kontact, where you likely spend a lot of your time."

The blog post also gives some more insight in how Akonadi works, and where it will be used in the future. He concludes "With all the above in mind, there’s little less than a revolution going on in the groupware area. Akonadi matures further and makes possible a full-fledged groupware client in the form of Kontact, with excellent scalability and extensibility. Akonadi is built with a whole spectrum of target devices in mind, which shows in the Kontact Mobile suite running successfully on a N900. With more applications being available in their Akonadi versions, Akonadi will become a lot more useful, and enhance many other applications in the process. Akonadi also allows for a better user experience around email and calendaring in the primary workspace. Groupware is becoming a generic service on the local client. The upcoming new Kontact groupware suite is only the tip of the iceberg of what’s coming thanks to Akonadi."

Simon at Akademy 2010: Interview with Peter Grasch

Sun, 25 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Troy: Peter, to begin, as a first time attendee of Akademy, what was your initial impression of the event?

Peter: Okay, there were a lot more people than I expected. When I arrived at the university grounds, I met a guy who was also looking for the entrance, and we started talking. This was the starting point for talking and it just continued from there - talking and talking and meeting people everywhere. It was really nice that I could talk about an issue I was having with KMail. Many other people also use KMail and knew what I was talking about.

It was also nice putting names to faces - yourself, Jos and Aaron for example.

Peter Grasch - The Simon Project

Troy: You were specifically invited to give a talk about The Simon Project - what was your expectation as to how you'd be received by the KDE community, and how did it compare to the actual reception you got?

Peter: To be honest, I didn't really know. I came directly from the university and didn't really have time to form expectations. From my experiences reading the Dot and PlanetKDE, I thought it would just be a bunch of hackers doing their thing, in a somewhat formal setting. More specifically, I expected that the KDE team would be formally defined without much interaction with outsiders. However I found that it is quite different and more informal than I expected. It is kind of nice to get direct access to developers to deal with bugs and so forth.

The reception has been overwhelmingly positive. The people that saw the talk received it quite well. Today at the workshop, people were surprised that it worked for them as well. It's nice that the project is being accepted by the community and people like what you are doing.

Troy: What features are new in Simon that were not there a year ago?

Peter: A year ago I was talking a lot about the scenario system, the package system, and now it's fully implemented. While it was hard to implement as I expected, everyone is glad that the system is in place now. A lot of users at the workshop today really liked the concept, which confirms feedback from the mailing lists. We also now have the first user contributed scenarios available on kde-files.org, so the community is starting to grow.

We also implemented base model support, so people can use precompiled base models. These are general acoustic models, not user dependent models. So now they don't have to install HTK to get stuff. We also created and uploaded a German model which is available on VoxForge.

And we introduced a new application, called Sam (Simon Acoustic Modeler), which is the professional tool to manage Simon speech models. It is not necessarily geared towards end users, but instead allows more direct control over what is happening with speech models.

We have two more applications - we introduced a special set of tools for large sample acquisition. We have three teams touring Austria right now, just recording voice, in order to produce a better standard model.

Troy: How has the Simon community grown in the last year? Do you expect that coming to Akademy will help grow the community for the next year?

Peter: I don't think Alex was part of the team back then, so we have one more part-time contributor. Other than that, we had kind of a huge push because of Akademy. The mailing list is active right now, and so is git which is directly related to Akademy. The accessibility BoF was very helpful too. I finally got to meet the KDE accessibility folks, which is nice since their mailing list is not very active.

Troy: Have more distros started to package Simon since we last talked?

Peter: Yes, we have an official repository on the OpenSuse Build Service, which was not created by me (which makes me very proud). We also had a request to integrate Simon into Vinux, an unofficial accessibility testing ground for Ubuntu. This is perfect since they have to create Ubuntu packages as part of this process; it should make it easier for Ubuntu users to get these packages in the future.

Troy: In the previous article, you made a comment about the state of Linux audio systems. In your opinion, has this situation improved in the last year, and if so, what has made it better?

Peter: Well sadly many of the problems still exist. The essential thing is that we switched to QtMultimedia, not because it is the right solution, but at the moment it's the best workaround. It still doesn't work well with PulseAudio, it still breaks in many configurations. Unfortunately, we still can't use Phonon because it lacks recording functionality. Someone is working on that right now through this year's Summer of Code. We want to switch fully to Phonon soon, and have a real solution instead of just jumping from API to API.

Troy: During your presentation, you used a standard English language model. Is the availability of this model a new development?

Peter: No, but that Simon can use it is new. This is the base model functionality that I was talking about earlier. This makes a lot of difference for users who are getting started.

Troy: Does similar data exist for other languages?

Peter: Yes, we have one for German, and there is some source material for other languages, but to the best of my knowledge there are no other complete (and usable) models yet.

Troy: How does the availability of standard models make installation and use of Simon easier (for users not requiring custom models)?

Peter: It doesn't make it easier, it makes it easy. It wasn't easy before. As I said in the presentation, we developed the first run wizard with the KDE Usability team. We managed to come up with a nice wizard that gets people started right away.

Troy: According to your presentation, dictation is still not supported in any real capacity. Are you following the VoxForge project still, and has there been any progress made?

Peter: Yeah, sure. The base models that we are using now are from VoxForge, and we compiled the German model for them using their data. I am still looking forward very much to working with VoxForge on dictation models; we're closer than we were last year. We are at very basic levels right now with, for example, the virtual keyboard being available.

Troy: One of the future goals mentioned in the previous article was integration with KDE's Get Hot New Stuff framework. Since this has now been successfully implemented, what new goals do you have for future releases?

Peter: One major point that keeps coming up is that we're trying to ensure that our scenarios are context aware. So for example, if you're using Amarok, the Amarok scenario is loaded while others are disabled - this would improve recognition.

We're actually working on two big projects right now. One of them is a benefit project to create a system to be used in senior homes as well as individual installations in community centers. It will include features like Skype control, TV and message passing between the administration and the residents. We use XBMC for this - XBMC and Simon are working together closely on this.

The other project is developing a robot for seniors. A lot of them do not want a care worker in their home, so in some cases where people may need only a little bit of help, this robot would be able to phone authorities for help and so forth. The little stuff. This is an official EU research project called Astromobile. This is not our project - we are just doing the speech recognition while a University in Pisa handles the project itself.

Troy: Now to the sticky licensing questions (again). How has the availability of standard speech models affected the longstanding HTK licensing issues?

Peter: Well, there has not been a direct licensing effect. You don't need to compile your speech model yourself (in English and German), you can just install the base model without training the speech model yourself. This means that you can set up your Simon system without the HTK.

We're in a unique position where if we decide to switch to Sphinx, which is free software, we actually expect an increase in recognition performance. This is due to the nature of HTK being a research project instead of a real world implementation.

KDE.org Relaunched for Software Compilation 4.4

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000

The KDE web team is pleased to announce a major redesign of the KDE.org frontpage and buzz.kde.org, just in time for the pending release of our updated Workspace, Application and Development Platform compilation. The redesign is the result of many hours of work by artists, coders, writers and testers. Keep reading to gain some insight into the people and processes behind the retooling.

Impetus

As many people are already aware, KDE recently underwent a shift in marketing and promotion vocabulary. These changes combined with many orphaned and out-of-date pages on the existing KDE.org website were a major topic of discussion at the KDE Marketing Meeting last November in Stuttgart. Once a branding strategy had been agreed upon (KDE is the organization or community, which produces Workspaces, Applications, and a Developer Platform), a site navigation was discussed which can accurately relate this information about the community to new or returning visitors.

During initial mockups, it was discovered that there was an aborted attempt to update KDE.org already in the KDE source repository from two years earlier - this previous attempt was never completed, but some of the framework was already in place to reuse, so work got underway immediately. Now after several months of work, many mockups lay on the cutting room floor, and the final site is ready, aside from a few tweaks still pending.

The Web Team

A major, high traffic website like KDE's should not be left without updates for long periods of time, as the interested web developers get stuck in content maintenance mode, and soon lose interest. Occasionally, a refresh is required simply to revitalise the Web Team. So, briefly and in no particular order, the KDE community would like to acknowledge the current Web Team, many of which have had a few too many short nights since November:

Eugene Trounev (artwork)
Ingo Malchow (design, code)
Ben Cooksley (css, content)
Dario Andres (content)
Frank Karlitschek (code)
Troy Unrau (branding)
Daniel Laidig (app pages)
Emil Sedgh (dynamic content)
Dion Moult (design)
Hans Chen (design)
Nuno Pinheiro (artwork)
Rainer Enders (mockups)
Sebas Kügler (content)
Lydia Pintscher (content)
Luca Beltrame (content)
Jos Poortvliet (content)
Franz Keferböck (buzz.kde.org)

Camp KDE 2010 Wrapup

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Last week, the KDE Community had their yearly Americas event, this year in sunny San Diego. Despite California not living up to its sunny reputation, the attendees certainly had a good time. The first three days featured talks about a variety of topics (day 1, day 2 and day 3), there were CMake and Qt development courses and of course several small meetings and work to be done. However there was more than sitting in the conference room at UCSD. We had a great time at Banana Bungalows on the beach, went out for a variety of food, had a few dragons and babies visit us and risked our lives getting to and from the university. Read on for some general impressions on the event, and for some motivation to attend Camp KDE 2011 next January, at a location still to be determined.

Accommodations

Enjoying the view from the Banana Bungalow deck

KDE events usually choose a hostel for primary accommodations as it provides close social interaction at relatively small expense. The hostel chosen this year was Banana Bungalow, on the beach of the Pacific Coast, with a few people staying at the nearby Best Western. The location was good for watching the waves, and reasonably cheap. The hostel was a decent place until it started to rain.

The place was run by longer term residents of the hostel, and always had people walking around and having fun, mingling with the KDE crowd. We filled the big picnic table downstairs with laptops and saturated the hostel's wireless, something that typically happens anywhere that KDE people congregate. Of course, the stay was made more interesting by some local beverages.

All was fine at the hostel until the heavy rain started on Monday. It rained so much power went down, the streets were flooded to two metres, and there was a real river flowing inside the hostel. Despite the dire circumstances, spirits were still high, and once again showed how the morale within the KDE community is something that cannot be destroyed! Fortunately, unlike the other visitors at the hostel, we were able to sneak away to the university during the day to enjoy warmth, wifi and food.

Conference Location

Till Adam trains without shoes

The main event was held at the Computer Science and Engineering building at University of California at San Diego (UCSD), courtesy of their Computer Science department. The talks were relatively well attended, and an increase over the previous year to around 70 people. During the first three days of talks, there were a number of students from UCSD that managed to make it to the presentations, despite it being a long weekend in the U.S. Many of the talks ran slightly behind schedule, with an average of one hour delay each day. Next time Camp KDE runs, we will arrange for someone to remind the speakers of remaining time using flashcards or similar.

UCSD was a good location for the event, providing ample electricity and wireless access for the attendees. The event, however, did highlight the not-quite-there-yet nature of wireless support for many chipsets in Linux, as a few people were relegated to wired access. When the rain got really bad, many of the attendees stayed at UCSD late into the night to take advantage of the additional shelter provided over the hostel. The main disadvantage of the location was the distance between it and the accommodations - having the accommodations at the event location were considered one of the main advantages to the Camp KDE 2009 event in Jamaica.

Food

This pizza did not have long to live

San Diego certainly had plenty of food available for general consumption, much of which was very good. For the most part, the attendees arranged for their own food, although snacks were provided by the organizing team for consumption at UCSD. Generally speaking, people gravitated towards Mexican food, being only a few miles from Mexico. Bean burritos and fish tacos were consumed in mass quantities, but the food court at UCSD provided opportunity for some additional variety like Chinese, Greek, Italian and Thai food.

In the evenings, the attendees would often migrate to a restaurant or bar near the hostel to find some local fare. Once bored of Mexican food, people began to find pizza, Thai, and more to satisfy their need for energy. Along with the food, a few local beers and other liquor were sampled, occasionally resulting in bouts of karaoke upon return to the hostel. There are a number of recordings of KDE contributors crooning that may or may not be used as future blackmail.

On the final day of the event, those still remaining went for a more formal dinner at the Mexican restaurant El Torito, near the UCSD campus. This was the last significant gathering of the event, and resulted in a number of very lively discussions. Among the topics discussed were what to do for Camp KDE 2011, and how things can be improved for following years. In general, the event was considered a productive, successful event by those who attended.

Social Event

What is powering their brewery?

On Tuesday we had the scheduled social event. The weather forced some small changes in plans. We ended up going on a tour of a local brewery, the Stone Brewery, a medium size craft beer maker. We learned a lot about making beer, the origins of Ale and Lager and of course sampled a few different beers. The brewery was fairly technical in their details, showing us their touch screen user interface they used to monitor the brewing process. The consensus was that their interface would benefit from a few Plasma animation classes.

After the tour, we stayed at the attached restaurant for some delicious food, and watched the rain. The original plan for the afternoon had been to go to an outdoor location, such as the renown San Diego Zoo, but this was canceled due to the rain. We ended up splitting into several smaller groups, with one group heading to Tijuana, another going back to UCSD, and a third making a trip to Fry's. For the people from outside the U.S., the visit to Fry's was rather entertaining.

At the end of the day, KDE hacking had taken over, with most people congregating at the conference room at UCSD. Tables were thrown together, and the urge to hack on things could not be denied. Many remained at UCSD until midnight, to avoid the rain.

Dragons Galore!

Konqi and Katie return!

During the KDE 4.0 Release Event in Mountainview two years ago, local KDE enthusiasts decided that they would put together professionally designed costumes for KDE's mascots, Konqi and Katie. This appearance was quite well received, and since KDE was returning to California for Camp KDE, it afforded Aaron Reichmann, one of the two original people beneath the costumes, an opportunity to dust off the costumes once again.

This year, the original Katie was not available, so Plasma hacker Chani Armitage donned the Katie costume. Between her and Aaron, the dragons made two appearances to lighten the mood of the technical talks. Who knows where they will be seen again?

A Family Affair

Our youngest attendees

Perhaps as a sign of the maturing KDE community, more contributors are spawning new child processes. At this event, we had two infants in attendance, and several more attendees that left their children at home. Wade Olson (Camp KDE 2009 organizer) made a surprise appearance, with baby in tow, to supplant Kitware hacker Marcus Hanwell's child as the youngest conference attendee. According to Wade, spawning children has become a contagious event within the KDE community.

This is not the first time that children have attended a KDE event, and this is beginning to become a regular occurrence, however having two very young babies was interesting, especially when they would randomly cheer during a presentation. Overall, they were well behaved, and part of the positive atmosphere at the event.

Productivity

Marcus distracts us from the rum

Many of the benefits of a KDE event are of the social nature. Bringing KDE people together helps brainstorming and interaction in ways that email or IRC simply cannot match, so while much of the time spent during such a meeting is of the social variety, the practical benefits to the KDE community extend well beyond the conclusion of the event. But it isn't just meetings within the KDE community that occur. These events present the opportunity to meet many local Open Source personalities, such as the keynote speaker Philip Bourne or many of the UCSD students. A number of KDE people managed to arrange a meeting with a major company in the area to talk about KDE and embedded platforms. These meetings are far more useful in person than over email.

Additionally, having so many experienced hackers in the same room is good for code-related productivity. Most evenings, even if involving food or drink, also involved a significant amount of hacking. The Qt training provided by Till Adam of KDAB was invaluable to all attendees, rookies and experts alike. The Qt/Embedded training opened up a lot of eyes about the nature of embedded platforms, and how to potentially unlock the power of Qt/Embedded for KDE programmers. And Marcus's CMake training was useful to anyone that has ever tried to use the KDE build system.

While any of these training sessions were going on, a number of people were furiously coding on a number of projects. Amarok and Plasma, in particular, had a strong showing, and the immediate benefit of having these people in the same room was obvious to any outside observer.

James Cain won the Camp KDE Be Free contest, and was flown out to the event to participate. Coming from a mostly outside perspective, his experiences with the KDE community at the event have already begun to turn him into a significant contributor (his first dot story was posted already!). If Camp KDE has this affect on people, then perhaps it should be marketed as a way to get involved with the community, for future events.

Concluding Remarks

The streets were flooded

Camp KDE 2010, the second installment of this annual event, was a huge success. It showed growth over the previous year, and solidified the event as KDE's second major annual event, next to Akademy. While attendance will certainly grow in the future, the nature of the conference allows for significant productivity, and personal networking within the KDE community, as well as externally. The rain and other difficulties faced by the team were met with cheerful optimism, and really showed the true strength of the morale within the community.

A special thank you to Jeff Mitchell and the organizing team, and the many sponsors that made this event possible.