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.

Hey all!

As many of you know, there is a little Jussi fork coming soon – I’m really excited about it, but under no delusions of the time it will take. As well as that, I have received a slightly different role at work which will somewhat increase my responsibilities.

So, with all this in mind, I will be resigning from my post on the Ubuntu IRC Council on the same date as 3 other members of the team’s terms expire. (21/12/2011) – The Ubuntu Community Council should hopefully get an announcement about the election out soon.

I also will be around in an operator capacity a lot less than I had been prior to the IRCC appointment, but hopefully will still have time to jump online sometimes. (perhaps in the middle of the night while burping the baby? )

I’d like to say thanks to all those who supported, helped and gave time to the Ubuntu IRC effort while I have been around – its been a blast.

Jussi

Hello All,

One of these rare blog posts again

So, I noticed m4v has filed a stack load bugs for things he needs to do for stormyfacts – the replacement for the encyclopedia plugin for ubottu. (that the factoid plugin that gives you answers when you call !test or so, for those of you who aren’t aware).

You can see the bug list here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu-bots/+bugs

I’d love to see a few more contributors willing to help out on this..

So how do I contribute I hear you say?

First get your supybot setup and running – make it join a private channel, please don’t let it join our channels without asking. (its in the repos, sudo apt-get install supybot).

Then install the custom ubottu plugins from: https://code.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-bots/ubuntu-bots/devel – you can find some help on this from: http://ubottu.com/devel/wiki/Main_Page

Finally, look at the bugs, and come join us in #ubuntu-bots-devel for questions and discussions.

We look forward to seeing you there!

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 :=)

Hi All!!

I don’t write often, but this time I wanted to give a little shout out to someone who is doing a great job in the background that nobody is seeing yet, but will make a lot of things easier for using and improving the bots in #k/x/ubuntu-* channels.

That person is Elián Hanisch, otherwise known as “m4v” on IRC. He has been working on the new encyclopedia plugin for ubottu, as the old one was in desperate need of improvement. I’ve been seeing a steady stream of commits coming in (mostly through the CIA bot in #ubuntu-bots-devel) and I’m really pleased with the progress thats going on! The new plugin uses Storm to improve the back end for encyclopedia, which will lead to a faster bot and less strain on the system.

If you see m4v about, say a big thank you for working on this

Cheers

Jussi.

So I came up with an idea yesterday, and after a quick chat to Alan Bell, I think we will implement it.

We plan to put up a Planet site, similar to planet ubuntu, however with businesses who use/contribute to Ubuntu. This may be huge businesses like Dell, or tiny startups. (or anything in between).

The content will be information about what those companies do with Ubuntu. We want to avoid pricelists and offers, and focus more on progression of ubuntu and how it would be used.

The entry barrier could be quite low to begin with, adjustable if need be.

Im interested to hear what you all think, so comment away!

I’m moving to a house with no internet coverage except mobile internet. (3G). While 3G coverage is pretty good in the area, and we have very good speed on 3G here (up to 10.2Mbit/s), I’m wondering if there are products out there that are a better option for home use than the little 3G “mokkula” (stick) that comes with a subscription?

It’s for home use only, so are there any good 3G router/modems? How about signal boosters? Is there anything else I should know?

If you have experience in these areas I’d love to hear from you.

(and no, no chance of wired internet, sadly).

Well its been a pretty crazy week at UDS, with so many sessions to go to and people to have meetings with. Ive been feeling very enthusiastic about a few things that have happened, namely my work with the Ubuntu IRC Council, Ubuntu Bots and of course my beloved Kubuntu.

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We had a great session about the ubuntu bots today, including talking a bit about the future, and how to rewrite some of the plugins, as well as moving mootbot to be a supybot plugin. It went really well and I’m feeling very positive about th future of Ubuntu bots.

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Special thanks go to Alan Bell, Gord Allot, James Tatum and of course our ever presents tsimpson and m4v.

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The Ubuntu IRC Council has been getting some positive feedback recently, which is really encouraging. Thank you to everyone for that. However, I cannot just accept all that positiveness and thank you’s, the team has put so much in, done so much work that it continues to amaze me. I want to just acknowledge the contributions by the rest of the IRC Council and than them for l their work in the last cycle. if you don’t know them or haven’t met them yet, they are:

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Topyli (Juha Siltala)

Pici (Benjamin Rubin)

Tsimpson (Terence Simpson)

Nhandler (Nathan Handler)

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If you see them around or just on IRC, feel free to say hi, give feedback or whatever.

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With that I’ll sign off, try get some sleep before a hectic final day of UDS.
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Jussi
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(As you may have noticed, wordpress is evil and its late/I’m tired. Maybe Ill fix it tomorrow)

The IRCC is now taking applications for a number of new operator positions in the following channels: #ubuntu #kubuntu and #ubuntu-offtopic. The particular area of need is for people with availability between the times of 12am to 7am UTC.

So if you’re active on our IRC channels and you are available in the specified times (or at least part of them), and if you’ve been aching to help, you should consider applying for membership! You might get your chance if

• You are great at resolving conflicts
• You are very patient. Superhuman nerve control is a basic IRC operator feature
• You can take criticism
• You are happy when helping and advising others
• In addition to the Code of Conduct and our IRC Guidelines, you are happy to adhere to some additional guidelines

In general, please do not consider becoming an operator because it could be “fun”. It is not, it’s hard work. However, it is often quite rewarding, and you get to operate with a great team of people. You don’t need to be an IRC guru, but you do need to know enough to be able to learn more.

Please be aware that *many* applicants will not become operators for various reasons. This will not necessarily be because we think you would make a bad operator. Only a limited number of operators are ever needed, some timezones are better covered already than others, and so on.

IMPORTANT: Please follow the application process at: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/IRC/IrcTeam/OperatorRequirements and additionally note your available times on your wiki page. Having your wiki page listed on your LP page is also useful to aid us in finding your information.

We look forward to your applications!

Hi All,

This is something we have had in the works fore a while and I hope to put some more effort onto it soon. The #ubuntu-irc-helpers channel on freenode has been created as a place for co-ordination and learning for Ubuntu helpers on IRC.

The idea is its somewhat like a “backstage” to #ubuntu, #kubuntu, #xubuntu and the other support channels, its a place to talk about the things that are going on in these channels and help give better support. It allows sharing of best practices, that “quiet word to someone” if needed and even a quick prod to the ops with out using the!ops trigger.

Overall, its a place to “Help the helpers”.

There is more info on the wiki at:  https://wiki.ubuntu.com/IRC/IrcTeam/UbuntuIRCHelpers

In any case, if you help in the #k/x/ubuntu-*support channels, please feel free to come jointhe channel and help make Ubuntu’s IRC a better, more helpful place

Remember to read the topic on entry!

See you there!