(Creating an entry on my old blog until PlanetKDE is updated)

I implemented crop support in Gwenview. Here is the blog entry about it.

I moved my blog from kdedevelopers.org to wordpress.com. The new address is http://agateau.wordpress.com.

This new blog will stay KDE focused, but will also include more general geek stuff and real-life news. I just posted my first KDE related blog entry. It's about the new way to save images in Gwenview. I am eagerly waiting for Planet KDE readers to check and comment

Long time no blog (It seems most of my blog entries begin like that...). In case you missed it, Gwenview has moved to kdegraphics, yeah! I am very happy about it.

Has I keep saying here and there, the KDE4 port of Gwenview is more a rewrite than a port, at least from the user perspective (I try to port as much as possible of the available internals). Since everybody love screenshots, here is one of the current SVN version:

[image:2845 width=300]

Main change compared to the Gwenview 2 mockups I posted some time ago is that the thumbnail view has moved from the bottom edge to the left edge. After using Gwenview 2 for a while, I realized having this view on the left edge was a much better way to use screen space because nowadays screens are getting wider, while digital pictures are still using 4:3 ratio. Of course new digital cameras now support wide picture formats, but I am not sure this feature is going to be used for every picture, and anyway we will still shoot portrait-oriented pictures, which really need as much vertical space as possible.

In case you're wondering, it's already usable in its current state, even if it's a bit limited and contains a few unwanted features (aka bugs) for now.

(warning, lame marketing attempt following)

I am happy to report that Wengo (the company I work for) has finally released version 2.1.0 of the WengoPhone, a GPL licensed, Qt4 based, cross-platform softphone featuring SIP based VoIP, multi protocol IM support (thanks to libgaim libpurple), SMS sending, PSTN calls and much more.

Want to know more? here is the release announcement.

Convinced? grab your copy here!

As you may know, I bought myself a laptop, which I felt compelled to bring with me during my latest vacation to unload my digital camera and for the occasional late night hack.

The trouble with hacking on a laptop on holidays is that you may not have network access, meaning you can't commit your work to Subversion...

There are several solutions to this, one is to use a decentralized version control system with support for Subversion (git comes to mind, there are probably others). Instead, I decided to use SVK. Quoting the home page: «SVK is a decentralized version control system built with the robust Subversion filesystem. It supports repository mirroring, disconnected operation, history-sensitive merging, and integrates with other version control systems, as well as popular visual merge tools.»

It works by mirroring a Subversion repository, then allowing you to create local branches on it and commit to these branches. When you want to publish your changes you merge your branch with the local mirror. The extra neat thing is that it has a nice merge system which, unlike Subversion, will remember the latest merged revision for you.

So far I have been very happy with it. Here is a very light tutorial:

Hum, long time no blog...

I finally bought a laptop: it's a Lenovo 3000 N100. I am happy to report almost everything worked out of the box when I installed Ubuntu Edgy, including Wifi. Only tricky thing was figuring out how to get the correct video resolution. It turned out the only necessary action was to apt-get install 915resolution.

Webcam and fingerprint reader are not supported right now, but I don't need them. Only minor quirk is the missing support for headphone jack sense (turning off internal speakers when a headphone is plugged in), but I believe next version of Alsa will support it.

Its core duo processor is much more powerful than my old Duron 1200, and being a laptop make it possible for me to hack on my daily commute time. It's also fully baby compliant, as you can see...

I finally decided I needed a laptop. My dream machine would meet the following criteria:

• Linux friendly. I would like to "vote with my wallet" and buy a machine for which there exist open source drivers for all components.
• I will be compiling a lot with it, so it should be quite fast at this. This means a fast processor, a decent hard disk and not turning into a bakeoven everytime a binary is linking.
• Not the size of an aircraft-carrier. But not too small too.

If you know the model of my dream machine, please tell me!

I forgot to blog about this: I'm not giving up maintainership of Gwenview anymore, in fact it has been decided that Gwenview will move to kdegraphics for KDE4! This is what I call great news!

The nice people from kde-usability and I have been working on the design of this new Gwenview. It's going to be a bit different from what you have been used to, but I believe it's more focused on the way most people use Gwenview: either to quickly view an image, or to browse all images in a folder.

To wet your appetite, here are two mock-ups of what Gwenview 2.0 will probably look like:

[image:2658 size=thumbnail] [image:2659 size=thumbnail]

Solutions Linux, a french exhibition happens next week in Paris.

As usual, the KDE France team will demonstrate the finest solutions in KDE technologies. To help us in our task, we need you: tell us what is a must see in the latest 3.5 version as well as in the upcoming 4.0 release. With your contribution, we should be able to ensure maximum jaw drop...

This year, Wengo -- the company I work for -- is sponsorising the KDE booth. We are also organizing a KDE hackfest in Wengo office (Paris, La Défense) on the 29th of January. We have an icecc network and a professional coffee machine, so if you are interested, contact me at aurelien dot gateau at wengo dot com!

Having been working on Gwenview for six years, I finally came up with the decision that it was time to move on.

It has been a tough decision, but I realize I don't have enough free time to manage such a project by myself anymore. If you want to know more, have a look at the message I posted to the mailing list.

Of course, I do not want Gwenview to die, that's why I'm looking for a maintainer. If you are interested, please contact me.