Ao longo dos anos, tenho encontrado formas alternativas de projectar o código-fonte que se vai fazendo em projectos de larga escala. Este tipo de projectos é um candidato especial, já que é constituído por muitos ficheiros e por várias pessoas, cuja correlação dá resultados surpreendentes. Inclusivamente é uma das fontes de estudo para as ciências sociais e de comportamento.
A utilização do 3D e geração de gráficos 2D sobre os dados evolutivos destes projectos traz-nos perspectivas engraçadíssimas da representação quer da evolução do código, quer do código propriamente dito.
Então temos um projecto, o Code Swarm, que constrói representações orgânicas da evolução de projectos de nome internacional, como o servidor web Apache (site), Python (site), o IDE Eclipse (site) ou o SGBD PostgreSQL (site). O resultado é simplesmente abismal - não se esqueçam de ligar o som.
O mais velhinho destes projectos, pelo menos do meu conhecimento, é o Linux Graphing Project de Rusty Russel, entretanto transformado no Free Code Graphing Project, que fazia uma representação do próprio kernel de Linux.
Outro tipo de projectos que merecem ser mencionados são os visualizadores de tráfego em 3D, como o glTail.rb ou o 3D-tcpdump (vídeo).
Se conhecerem mais, deixem comentário.
segunda-feira, 7 de julho de 2008
domingo, 6 de julho de 2008
JXplorer in Fedora 9
I just found this great tool for browsing LDAPs: JXplorer. After installing it, I had to tweak some stuff. It already had a hack, which was not working as expected, so you might have to install it this way:
After have it installed:
and chage (simple diff style):
That should work.
export linux_LD_ASSUME_KERNEL_hack=1
./JXv3.2_install_linux.bin
After have it installed:
vi bin/JXplorer/JXplorer_LDAP_Browser
and chage (simple diff style):
1375c1375,1376
< LD_ASSUME_KERNEL=2.2.5
---
> #LD_ASSUME_KERNEL=2.2.5
> LD_ASSUME_KERNEL=2.6.25
That should work.
Fedora 9 review
First of all, my apologies to the portuguese readers. This post is being written in english in an attempt to gather more audience, since it will contain resolutions to problems I've found. Also, forgive the delay, since it comes quite outdated (I've installed it 3 or 4 weeks ago).
I've recently upgraded my laptop HP/Compaq nx7400 (which was running a super-suprisingly-stable Fedora Core 6) to Fedora 9 due to my fear of getting discontinued¹. Since I used many hints from a post (lost the link), I thought of thanking to the community for it by writing this post.
The overall opinion is that FC9 is a compilation of some interesting new features, either in GNOME, kernel, or general utilities. However, FC9 didn't come out ready for the usual end-user. I maybe thrilling with it, but that's because I can solve things, usually the hard way. The usual end-user doesn't have time, nor patience, nor knowledge to fix this kind of this. As you will notice in this post, simple things still have complicated resolutions and, strangely, some already simple resolutions to simple things did just disappeared. But let's get over it!
While I was expecting having such feeling with everything else but this, my first feeling was a quite surprised "AT LAST"! There is no need to use ndiswrapper anymore to have my wireless Broadcom Corporation BCM94311MCG (14e4:4311) working. Driver b43 now works out of the box, with the starter kernel; I noticed however that kernel 2.6.25.4-30.fc9.i686 had something broken as it stopped working. I'm now running 2.6.25.6-55.fc9.i686 (ed: 2.6.25.9-76.fc9.i686) and it's working as well.
For getting GoogleEarth to work smoothly, I had to struggle a bit. It was hogging with 3D. Check here for some hints, which worked.
What I think it's worth mentioning is the new kernel option i915.modeset=1. I still didn't have the time to explore it deeply. See here.
For Macromedia Flash to work, you will need to do a "yum install libflashsupport", or you won't get sound in the flash-plugin.
Regarding the office/pim suite, I maintained Thunderbird+Lightning. The problem was that Lightning got visually scrambled if you install it manually and I never understood why. After *hours* after it, I found that the RPM package thunderbird-lightning had to be installed, according to FedoraForum. It was so simple...
A funny utility I started to use some weeks ago is blueproximity. There was not an RPM ready for it, so I've built one (I prefer to always install by RPM, if possible). Check my homepage to get it.
Once in production, I need to install some True Type fonts. Just while I was thinking «uff! That was so much simplified in Fedora Core 6, it was just a matter of drag&drop them to a virtual folder font:///», I realized that gnome-vfs just disappeared and, as such, you just don't have a virtual fonts folder. Yup, it's true, they were not bluffing (when they said it would be discontinued). You won't have ssh:// and ftp:// and whatever:// support in nautilus as you used to. You now have a fuse-based approach, indeed, but I couldn't find any simple way to install new fonts - something that, as I mentioned, was already pretty usable. I managed to install the fonts copying them to ~/.fonts and checking the checkbox in fontmatrix (after installing it). So, this raises the question: if I need fontmatrix to install new fonts, why not make it part of the standard installation?
Another thing: if I'm supposed to use the gnome-keyring (since I have the option to store passwords), why the heck doesn't it install gnome-keyring-manager by default so I can manage my keys? OK, it's just a 'yum install' matter, but it forces the user to know the package name...
Another thing worth mentioning is the cool NetworkManager, which is becoming quite intelligent. It seems to be able to manage wired connections better (along with system-config-network), as well as detect pluggable serial modems, like the GSM Huawei E220 HSDPA. Perhaps it's due to that better integration with system-config-network, my GSM connection is working via NetworkManager pretty well.
Regarding VMware Server, I fetched VMware 1.0.6-91891. Another cool thing is that I didn't need vmware-any-any anymore. But I did need to "yum install perl-ExtUtils-Embed" to get vmware-cmd to work. I now have a strange problem: whenever I go fullscreen in my Virtual Machines, the keyboard goes nuts - basically, I loose my case shifting powers. Struggling with it had to be postponed, which means I'll eventually fix it, but not for now.
So far, the updates have been released on a too-much-for-me rate, which seems good for the project. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean the packages are coming more stable...
== Notes ==
¹ Actually, this will probably be my last Fedora installation for a while. Not that there are better solutions out there, but because I'd like to have the same long experience with other distributions. And - I have to say it - I really dislike having to distupgrade every 6 months. It's a bit paradoxal, I know.
I've recently upgraded my laptop HP/Compaq nx7400 (which was running a super-suprisingly-stable Fedora Core 6) to Fedora 9 due to my fear of getting discontinued¹. Since I used many hints from a post (lost the link), I thought of thanking to the community for it by writing this post.
The overall opinion is that FC9 is a compilation of some interesting new features, either in GNOME, kernel, or general utilities. However, FC9 didn't come out ready for the usual end-user. I maybe thrilling with it, but that's because I can solve things, usually the hard way. The usual end-user doesn't have time, nor patience, nor knowledge to fix this kind of this. As you will notice in this post, simple things still have complicated resolutions and, strangely, some already simple resolutions to simple things did just disappeared. But let's get over it!
While I was expecting having such feeling with everything else but this, my first feeling was a quite surprised "AT LAST"! There is no need to use ndiswrapper anymore to have my wireless Broadcom Corporation BCM94311MCG (14e4:4311) working. Driver b43 now works out of the box, with the starter kernel; I noticed however that kernel 2.6.25.4-30.fc9.i686 had something broken as it stopped working. I'm now running 2.6.25.6-55.fc9.i686 (ed: 2.6.25.9-76.fc9.i686) and it's working as well.
For getting GoogleEarth to work smoothly, I had to struggle a bit. It was hogging with 3D. Check here for some hints, which worked.
What I think it's worth mentioning is the new kernel option i915.modeset=1. I still didn't have the time to explore it deeply. See here.
For Macromedia Flash to work, you will need to do a "yum install libflashsupport", or you won't get sound in the flash-plugin.
Regarding the office/pim suite, I maintained Thunderbird+Lightning. The problem was that Lightning got visually scrambled if you install it manually and I never understood why. After *hours* after it, I found that the RPM package thunderbird-lightning had to be installed, according to FedoraForum. It was so simple...
A funny utility I started to use some weeks ago is blueproximity. There was not an RPM ready for it, so I've built one (I prefer to always install by RPM, if possible). Check my homepage to get it.
Once in production, I need to install some True Type fonts. Just while I was thinking «uff! That was so much simplified in Fedora Core 6, it was just a matter of drag&drop them to a virtual folder font:///», I realized that gnome-vfs just disappeared and, as such, you just don't have a virtual fonts folder. Yup, it's true, they were not bluffing (when they said it would be discontinued). You won't have ssh:// and ftp:// and whatever:// support in nautilus as you used to. You now have a fuse-based approach, indeed, but I couldn't find any simple way to install new fonts - something that, as I mentioned, was already pretty usable. I managed to install the fonts copying them to ~/.fonts and checking the checkbox in fontmatrix (after installing it). So, this raises the question: if I need fontmatrix to install new fonts, why not make it part of the standard installation?
Another thing: if I'm supposed to use the gnome-keyring (since I have the option to store passwords), why the heck doesn't it install gnome-keyring-manager by default so I can manage my keys? OK, it's just a 'yum install' matter, but it forces the user to know the package name...
Another thing worth mentioning is the cool NetworkManager, which is becoming quite intelligent. It seems to be able to manage wired connections better (along with system-config-network), as well as detect pluggable serial modems, like the GSM Huawei E220 HSDPA. Perhaps it's due to that better integration with system-config-network, my GSM connection is working via NetworkManager pretty well.
Regarding VMware Server, I fetched VMware 1.0.6-91891. Another cool thing is that I didn't need vmware-any-any anymore. But I did need to "yum install perl-ExtUtils-Embed" to get vmware-cmd to work. I now have a strange problem: whenever I go fullscreen in my Virtual Machines, the keyboard goes nuts - basically, I loose my case shifting powers. Struggling with it had to be postponed, which means I'll eventually fix it, but not for now.
So far, the updates have been released on a too-much-for-me rate, which seems good for the project. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean the packages are coming more stable...
== Notes ==
¹ Actually, this will probably be my last Fedora installation for a while. Not that there are better solutions out there, but because I'd like to have the same long experience with other distributions. And - I have to say it - I really dislike having to distupgrade every 6 months. It's a bit paradoxal, I know.
sábado, 17 de maio de 2008
Driver EPCAM para Linux
Há alguns dias atrás fui descobrir que havia pessoal a usar o driver EPCAM que eu, em 2004, tinha gerado a partir dos trabalhos de Jeroen Vreeken.Sem lhe tirar o devido crédito, o driver deixou de funcionar praticamente após a transição 2.4->2.6 e, entretanto, envolvi-me noutras coisas, pelo que o driver ficou mais ou menos obsoleto (para o que ajudaram também as várias alterações ao Video4Linux, e sua versão 2). Por mero acidente, localizei o thread acima nos UbuntuForums e, finalmente este fim-de-semana, pude testar o driver e - surpresa das surpresas - trabalha melhor que nunca! Por isso, se por acaso tens uma Creative Webcam (PD1001), experimenta!
De pequena área na minha homepage, e agora que somos mais do que dois (eventualmente) a participar neste projecto, decidi registar o projecto na sourceforge.net; estou à espera que o pessoal adira, e já recebi respostas positivas.
Lamento não poder ajudar mais, mas ainda bem que não foi tempo desperdiçado... esta é uma das coisas que me fascina no Open Source.
sexta-feira, 2 de maio de 2008
De repente...
...olhei para o lado, e era o único que não tinha blog... então cá vai disto.
O título é uma paródia a uma paródia que resultou da paródia que é o Natal, quando a malta se junta [para a paródia]. Ainda assim, deixo em aberto a possibilidade de fazer consultoria [remunerada] sobre qualquer localização de Portugal. Sim, porque conforme se tem visto nas últimas discussões na DRI sobre geografia de Lisboa, eu [já] tenho sempre razão, o pessoal já discute é por vício... :P
O título é uma paródia a uma paródia que resultou da paródia que é o Natal, quando a malta se junta [para a paródia]. Ainda assim, deixo em aberto a possibilidade de fazer consultoria [remunerada] sobre qualquer localização de Portugal. Sim, porque conforme se tem visto nas últimas discussões na DRI sobre geografia de Lisboa, eu [já] tenho sempre razão, o pessoal já discute é por vício... :P
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