In the beginning there was the swamp, the hoe, – and Jussi!

So today I am in a writing mood. (for some strange reason – these don’t come often).

This is a bit of a grumble post, but also a call for help. I’ve used Libre office and before that Open office in Kubuntu for a long time, including a fair amount of work for my job (I run Kubuntu at work).

There’s a lot of things that make me grumble about it, including hard to find options, bad formatting of MS office docs etc, but the one thing where I find a massive problem with that could so easily be fixed – especially with Ubuntu/Canonicals current focus on design is the situation with templates and defaults within the Office (and other creativity) programs shipped.

Have you ever tried creating a document in open office using the default styles (headings etc)? What about the default styles for drawing (horrible light blue boxes anyone?) And the default included templates? not much there… (a few OSS geared ones and some that look like they were made sometime last century – no disrespect meant to any of the creators).

So this is a call for all those who have a sense of style – make a template this week, and either email it to templates at jussi01.com or grab our BZR branch (bzr branch lp:ubuntutemplates) and  create a merge request. Templates should be licensed Creative Commons with no restrictions.

Also, if someone has the expertise to make the defaults better ore any constructive thoughts how to fix the default styles within our office and other applications (including colour palates for drawing apps etc) please feel free to grab me (jussi) or AlanBell on freenode or drop us an email to the above address.

So you thought Amarok was the “only thing worth considering”? Think again.

Enter Tomahawk.

I recently came across Leo Franchi’s blog post and discovered a brilliant new music player. Its not yet packaged for Ubuntu, as some of the libraries still need packaging – hopefully we can have it sorted in time for Oneiric.

I’m not going to repeat his blog post – you can go read it yourself or take a look at the tomahawk website. However, in the short time I have had to play with this, its impressed me immensely. It allows sharing of music and playlists with friends through twitter and jabber, as well as music discovery through the same means. You can scrobble to last.fm, and loads more – I’m still finding the features out

In anycase, its cross platform, available for Linux, Windows and Mac and a Android player is “being worked on” (So Ive been told).

If you want to help out with development or just have a question, feel free to join us on IRC – #tomahawk on freenode

See you there!

Oh, almost forgot – the obligatory screenshot – stolen from Leos blog :=)

 Well Peoples, its that time again, yet another good excuse to party! (YAGEP).  So, KDE SC 4.4 is releasing andm YOU, yes YOU can organise a party.

So heres how it works!

1. Check the wiki to see if there is already a release party in your town/near you: http://community.kde.org/Promo/ReleaseParties/4.4  – If you want to join a party, just add your name to the list! (so its easier on the organisers)

2. If theres not, have a look at http://community.kde.org/Promo/ReleaseParties for some help on how to organise one!

3. When you’ve made your plans,  Add your party to the wiki! (make sure you are logged in so you can edit)

4. Get inviting people and promoting your party! Blog, tweet, tell others about !

Remember, everyone is welcome to create parties, not just core KDE people. If you are excited about KDE’s New release, then you too can create or join a party!

So, Ive now got my blog syndicated to planet KDE, You should be seeing a whole lot more posts from me in the near future.

For those that don’t know me, I’m Jussi, Better known on IRC as jussi01 and I work a lot with Kubuntu and Ubuntu’s IRC world. I also do some testing and a whole lot of support for Kubuntu. I’m now getting involved with KDE Promo, hence my blog is over here also

Cheers!