Posts 

I've been busy with the KOffice-1.5.0 Beta klik packages. Most of the initial b0rkenness is gone now: missing dependencies, differently named libraries on different distros, etc. Thanks to isaac (who built Debian Sarge compatible .debs (for Sarge as well as for Sid) and who tries to update them from time to time too), klik and Debian users have access to well done (yet unofficial) packages. Here is the list of klik links: Read More

Today I took some time to configure an nx server on a system for which I am the administrator. It is a server in a library behind a firewall server. Actually I have to access both a linux server behind that firewall and a windows server as the application they are using is windows based (and even if it runs just fine through wine, it is not enough in every case). So first I had to solve the direct access from myself to the linux server. With some iptables rules I did it (first time in my life!). It is not perfect as I am using a dial-up connection, so my IP address is not fixed and I had to enable ssh access from a wider range, but it works. ssh to the server behind the firewall worked on a non-standard port. Time to try nx. I had some problems running nxclient. For me, on SuSE 10, it showed an empty xmessage window with an OK button. :-0 I checked, I have everything installed, still nothing happens. As a last resort I downloaded the client RPM package from NoMachine. And the wonder happened: it works. Now I could enable the encryption for all traffic, meaning that theoretically I must be able to access the nxserver with only the custom ssh port open in the firewall. And for my surprise, it worked: I could log in to the KDE desktop from the library. The speed is quite amazing, I would say. I may tweak this even more for the future, but even now with a 800x600 screen it is fast enough. I run krdc to connect to the Windows server: works and fast again. So basicly I have now my KDE desktop, inside that another KDE desktop and inside that the Windows desktop. Amazing, I would say. The latency is a little bit high, but this is because of my modem connection (it is a 3G wireless modem, ~128kbps upload, ~300kbps download). Read More

A while ago I did an article on Cosmopod on KDE Dot News. Cosmopod do remote KDE desktops via NX supported by an advert down the side. Before publishing I asked the Cosmopod man if he was sure he would be ready for the influx of users this would bring. He said he was but 10,000 registrations later and the poor server came to a grinding halt. Well they're now back up and running, the About Us page has some interesting comments on the future of computing. Read More

KDE 3.5.1 packages for SUSE Linux 10.0 are now available which include fixes for the worst KDE 3.5.1 regressions. They will also appear at the usual YaST source. These packages are unsupported and mostly untested: kdelibs3-devel has a known wrong dependency which can be safely ignored and will be removed in the next revision. Packages for older distributions may follow once the new dependency resolution of the build server for older distributions problems are solved out . Read More

...here. Yet. "Yet" because I don't have anything to commit as all involved code is littered with commented codeblocks of failed attemps. I am talking about a QObject adapter for the Qt3 D-BUS bindings, i.e. a wrapper class that makes slots of a given QObject instance callable through D-BUS. Generating D-BUS introspection data from the slot signature is next. Read More

This last week was the Ubuntu distro sprint, where a bunch of core Ubuntu developers get locked in a bland hotel in a bland part of London (which was overcast for the whole week with no variation in weather) and told to work on things in return for Amarulla. Read More

Yes, I'm paraphrasing the title of one of the claims how Klipper is an awful hack working in the most stupid way possible whose only purpose is to make sure clipboard content doesn't get lost when you close an application. What a nonsense. Klipper is a tool for keeping several last items from clipboard history, the fact that the several last items include also the very last one is just a nice side-effect. And, while Klipper and X clipboard in general used to have and still have some problems (what doesn't after all), many Klipper problems are actually caused by broken clipboard implementations in various applications including OpenOffice.org or Mozilla/Firefox or by the way X clipboard works and most Klipper hacks are there in order to work around such problems. Read More

Both KDE and KOffice decided to release new versions today. Kubuntu has packages for both. Konversation released a new version which was going to be in time for Kubuntu dapper but they delayed to get some last minute bugs out, the good news is that we got an upstream version freeze exception and the new Konversation is now it. It's nice to have apps start shaping their release schedules around Kubuntu, there really is something in this regular release idea. Read More

The first big thing today was the release of KDE 3.5.1, made possible by the hundreds of dedicated contributors which make up the wonderful KDE community. Especially the translators did some great work, so KDE 3.5.1 is available in the incredible number of 63 languages. Read More

[.. as this test is for German-speaking participants only, I'll proceed in German] Teilnehmer für Wikipedia-Usabilitytest in Berlin gesucht! Um die Einstiegsschwelle zur Mitarbeit an der freien Enzyklopädie Wikipedia zu reduzieren, führen wir im Rahmen von OpenUsability nächste Woche (6. bis 10. Februar) Usabilitytests mit der deutschen Version der Wikipedia durch. Dazu suchen wir TeilnehmerInnen! Read More