Random mumblings of ARM developer
Yes — next two weeks I will spend with my wife Ania on Zakynthos island in Greece — we are going there for honeymoon trip. Whole too weeks without working on Poky, OpenEmbedded, OpenMoko, without computers — just we, sun, water and walking, taking photos etc.
I do not promise any texts from our honeymoon as I usually forgets about writing them :)
When I was writing article about OpenMoko testing I was thinking that it will get about 2000 views not more. But someone posted it to Digg and after hours it started… After 10h it has over 300 diggs, page had to be mirrored and I had to enable WP-Cache plugin to lower CPU usage. During 2 hours I got more visits then during whole last week…
Now it gets a bit lighter but who knows what will be when Europe wakes up and check Digg…
UPDATE: enabling WP-Cache made Google Analytics not working properly — that’s why previous post does not show in ‘Top Posts’.
Today is second day of my OpenMoko 2007.2 testing. I do it as part of my work for OpenedHand and this gives me possibility to discuss bugs with applications authors before reporting to get some details.
I flashed u-boot from 2007.08 snapshot release, self-built kernel 2.6.22.5 and openmoko-devel-image from yesterday (also self-built). Had to connect Neo1973 to other computer as my desktop refused to flash with DFU-util (laptop did not had such problems). I did not had a problem with Neo connected via USB Hub.
Start of phone is nice — first you get full screen OpenMoko logo, then few kernel messages (about 10 lines) and psplash starts so all messages are hidden. When X11 starts there is another full screen OpenMoko logo with text informing that UI is starting. Then OpenMoko-Today2 is started. BTW — to get back to Today you only need to press AUX button.
Today screen gives access to Dialer, Contacts, Messages (not installed as there is no version for OM 2007.2), Calendar (which icon is missing — reported as bug #830). Second tab works as application launcher — with kinematic scrolling, selecting group to display, filtering — useful and nice looking.
3rd tab allow to switch between running applications (also possible with tap-n-hold on titlebar), force close of all (with confirmation) or close selected one (but no confirmation so bug #818 reported). Another problem is that most of icons as shown as default ones — reported as bug #837. Those which are shown properly (“Save screenshot” on screenshot) gets wrong size — bug #838.
Next tested application was Dialer. I was able to make few calls from and to phone but did not checked voice quality. There is no history of calls currently — bug #839. I also spotted two other bugs (#814 and #819) but they are solved now.
Finally time comes for Contacts application. I did not used it before so it was something new for me (Dialer and Today were first OM 2007.2 apps). Core functionality listed in OpenMoko wiki works.
Entered first contact using “New” button (top right one). Wrote fullname, organization, phone number, emails and pressed ‘!’ button (top left one). Then I switched into list (first tab) and there was no entries. When I added second entry then first one was visible will fullname and second was empty. When I selected first one then fullname from second one appeared. It looks like refresh of list is needed after edit is done. Reported as bug #815.
I had few contacts so it is time to check does filtering works. MokoSearchBar functionality works like it should but there is no information that view is filtered so I posted bug #829. Also widget does not looks so nice so I posted another bug — it was #835.
Like in Dialer there is no history of communication (calls, messages, mails) yet so 3rd tab is useless now — bug #843.
Last tab is group view. This also needs some work done. There is no way to remove (bug #822) or edit (bug #825) group. Adding new one use requester instead of making it inline like it is in edition of contact (bug #824). And there is a problem when there are too many groups — they overlaps with bottom tabs (bug #821).
During testing of groups I spotted another theme bug — selected checkboxes are not styled like unselected are — bug #823 reported.
OpenMoko Dates is not yet ready for testing so I will not write about it. According to posts on Chris blog it looks more and more interesting.
There is so many discussions about Web 2.0 thing — you know: RSS, pastel colours on websites, building communities, blogs, comments etc… But one thing in it is really great: RSS.
Today we had short discussion at work about reading comics — this time it was Dilbert strip. As I read it via RSS I have few hours of delay (no RSS on Dilbert website). Some guys read it as one of pages which they open each day and one use good old cron to automatically fetch comics. So we have three methods used and there is also ‘get strip via email’ way…
Why I use RSS which has delay instead of loading website directly? To make it faster — I do not need to see it first but do not want to miss it. I have too many websites/blogs/comics in Google Reader to read them directly — with GR I just look at Firefox status bar and see does there is some stuff to check/read or not. It really save time (and bandwidth).
I changed theme on blog. This time it is “Big Blue” by Bob. As usual I had to tweak it for my own use:
I also had to tweak “Hrw links” widget so comply with new theme and wrote “Hrw Online Networking” widget to use informations from OnlineNetworking plugin. Result is nice and also require 1024px but I decided long time ago that I will not work on making this blog looking good on smaller resolutions (mobile browsers gets own version).
Another update is Wordpress MU 1.2.5 — this version base on normal WP 2.2.3. I use MU version because I have few sites powered by Wordpress running (company, blog, wedding, test pages) and this way only one copy of code is on server so I am spending less time on administration.
On 1st August I send mail from Poland to London, UK by normal mail. At nearly same time British post started to strike. Today I got my mail unpacked with two additional stamps with ‘addressee has gone away’ marks. Do I have to add that address was correct?
Fucking Royal Mail and the way which they handle mail…
Today evening I was in IKEA shop near my house and bought GLIS box (blue). Tomorrow I plan to fit ALIX board into it — will require few holes (for Ethernet, VGA, USB, Power ports) and hard disk mounting but will fit and there will be space left. This will allow to put it under desk where is place for all my headless machines.
Yesterday I cleaned my Microsoft Natural Keyboard after few years of usage (keyboard itself is 12 years old). Whole process took me 3 hours, required 3 screwdrivers, bowl with water and some chemicals used to clean keyboard case.
Why 3 screwdrivers? Big Philips one to open case, second to take foils and rubber from case. Then flat one to take keys from case (only if they do not want to go out after finger press from inside of case). All keys were cleaned only with water as it was enough to get them clean. Case needed chemicals — I used “Pronto” anti-dust spray.
Completing keyboard was easy but gave me few problems. First I forgot about rubber used for space key and needed to unscrew electronics to put it back. Then needed to fix “Enter” key (main one, not numpad one) as it was working but very hard — it use hinge which as to catch key properly. After connecting to computer there was a problem with YUHJNM keys (as you see in post’s topic). Another unscrewing and fixing foil they were working.
The last problem was space bar which was working only in the middle. This key mounting is hardest in whole keyboard. To mount it properly you need to disassemble stamen from it and put it into it’s place in case. Then put key into case. Put keyboard keys to bottom and use flat screwdriver to put stamen into it’s place in key. After that keyboard should be fully functional.
Like I wrote it took me 3 hours but it was worth it. Keys does not block and keyboard is clean. Of course it is not white but what you can expect from 12 years old keyboard :)