Had a superb birthday yesterday; thanks for all of your birthday wishes. I am pleased to report that with the help of the bald, I got my SIP phone plugged in and working. It is all working a treat. 🙂

I have just written and released a new O’Reilly Weblog article entitled Opening the potential of OpenOffice.org. The aim of the article is to stress the sheer importance of OpenOffice.org for further adoption of Open Source on the desktop. The article also aims to encourage more contributors to OpenOffice.org and outline problems with the current release process; an issue which a number of developers take issue with. This article itself is an example of the intention of the piece – anyone can contribute to OpenOffice.org and my contribution was to write an article to raise awareness of these issues. I hope it helps – go and blog about it if you can. The more eyes on it might encourage more people to contribute. 🙂

Wow, 26 years old. This one crept around a bit quicker than usual; I think this happens when you start the process of old-fartification.

The mystery present from Sooz was a suberb VoIP phone. Sooz always gets me cool presents – I had not been asking for a VoIP phone, but she thought of it (not really knowing much about what VoIP is) with the help of a Ginger and Bald loving couple that I know of. Banger got me RAW by Eddie Murphy on DVD. 🙂

In an extra twist, it seems Sooz has booked a meeting with the new dog, Frankie, today at 11.30am. He is only three weeks old. 🙂

Thanks for the birthday wishes folks! 🙂

Kat, I do think formalised education does have a place, but I think your comments are really taking about the huge benefits of mentoring. I am a big fan of mentoring, and anyone who was lucky enough to have a good lecturer benefits greatly working with an inspirational teacher. My cynicism is that as university has become more accessible to more people, the quality has dropped in some parts of the country due to more students but not necessarily more lecturers. The point is that there are many great mentors available outside of a formalised university system. With Open Source every project has community leaders who act as informal mentors to enthusiastic newcomers to the project. My experience and contributions to Open Source were certainly not driven or propagated by university.

Today I cancelled my Live365 subscription. Their claims of CD quality only apply to a Windows only player that you download from their site. This is no good for me, and the player doesn’t run under Wine. After some googling it seems no Open Source implementation of the mp3pro codec is available. Then I thought, hang on…I haven’t used StreamTuner for a while, lets give that a go. I now remember why I thought it rocked so hard the last time. I choose StreamTuner over Live365. This picture will be perfect when StreamTuner is better integrated with Rhythmbox.

Its good to see The Orange Project getting going. I mailed Ton to see if there is anything I can help with. You can pre-order the DVD that will be released at the end of the project and the money from the pre-orders helps fund the project. I bought mine today. Go and buy yours as this is a really important project. The Orange Project is not only going to help refine and stress test Blender but it is also going to provide one hell of a showcase for computer graphics in Open Source. With all the work going on with PiTiVi, DIVA, Cinelerra, GIMP, Inkscape and more, multimedia is becoming a reality on Open Source systems.

I also sent a mail to Paul Davis, the guy behind Ardour to see if some usability comments and critique would be useful for him. Some of you may have read my article about Linux audio software usability (Linux and Audio Production: Simplicity Required). Although Ardour is not intended in the same way as the design for a tracker that Aq and I came up with, I think some simple usability love could be good for it. With Ardour 1.0 due in the next couple of months, focus will then switch to version 2.x which intends to port Ardour to GTK2. This is a great opportunity for some usability improvements. Even simple things such as dialog boxes could be greatly simplified.

Good night last night. Luckily woke up this morning without too much of a hangover. Props to Ron for a great talk about Asterisk. 🙂

Donald Norman speaks the truth. I am also getting a little tired of the fanfare pushed towards Google regarding usability. There is no doubt that Google were pioneers in providing a clutter-less interface to their primary service, but yes, it don’t take a genius to provide good usability for a single function.

Had a meeting today with a chap who has been forced to change careers due to a medical injury. He has had a keen interest in Open Source and he wants to turn his interest into a career. He came in today to get some advice about how to get started, and to explore ways in which we can help. I love cases like this. This guy is showing a keen interest and commitment to further his education and career, and Open Source provides a superb incubator for new skills. I always find it exciting what can be achieved with a motivated person, a computer, a net connection and some ideas. This is the very essence of Open Source. As some of you will know, I think this homegrown method of learning is in many ways, an improvement of the traditional University approach of learning skills relevant to the workplace. I do accept however that this probably only applies to highly motivated people. I suspect Johnny No Stars would have as rough a time at University as he would at home with a browser full of HOWTOs.

Today I was thinking about the structural limitations of usability for creative people. Most creative types think of computers as a tool to get the creative visions in their minds onto the screen and then onto a poster, flyer or other media. The problem with this approach is that the tool has no logic to improve the actual creative process that goes on in the brain. I am not suggesting we try to implement a fully autonomous creative computer, but I am curious to determine how much the tool could assist with the actual creative process as opposed to just copying the creative product from the mind to the computer. Hey, I know this is pretty abstract, but thats what happens in my had sometimes. 😛 I would love to hear what you all think. Can a tool understand how creativity works and help refine and improve that creativity?

After listening to Brutality Radio for a few years, I figured I should invest in a VIP account at Live365. Its nice having less ads, but the promised CD quality is bull – Brutality Radio still runs at FM quality. Some others claim CD quality, but I have my doubts. I am currently on a free trial, so if its crap I will cancel it.

Only two shopping days until the big day people! Get your derrieres over my wishlist and do your good deed for today. Go on, get over there…come on…quickly quickly…

This morning I did a presentation about building dynamic websites with the LAMP platform. The seminar was well attended and the response was positive. We also managed to unload a load of Ubuntu Hoary CDs onto the unwitting delegates. One of the slides in the presentation also discussed XAMPP and it never ceases to stop astounding people. People dig the idea of XAMPP big time, and so they should. 🙂

As I am sure many of you are well aware, I tend to be quite busy most of the time. I like to keep myself occupied. Aside from general work and family/leisure commitments, I am also writing my book. The book writing time naturally impacts the time I have available to write other articles, and this has resulted in a backlog of ideas in my brain. O’Reilly and Linux User have successfully squeezed me for a couple of articles in the mean time, but my articles have dropped since I started on the book. This is frustrating. Don’t get me wrong, I love writing the book, but I really love writing articles too. I have a bunch of article ideas stacked up, and as many meatier blog articles too. I think that when the book is complete there will be a long and possibly violent brain dump on the Internet. I will try to warn you all to keep pets safely indoors when this happens.

Good to see some comments about the Microsoft usability. Thanks folks. It should be interesting to see what the final incarnation of Office will look like. It will be interesting to see if Windows Vista will be buffed to look more like Office or vice versa. I can’t believe that Microsoft are going to implement such a radically different UI for basic UI elements such as menus and toolbars. Given the amount of flak the Blender dudes get for having such a drastically different interface, I hope they are prepared for the onslaught.

Tonight is the traditional Wolves LUG big drinking night. About three years back there was one hell of a blow out around the time of my birthday that involved Aftershock, copious amounts of lager, Aq kissing Sparkes right on the smacker (ugh) and a vicious rumour beating Peter Oliver’s homepage in the Google search rankings. This meet and the Christmas bash have gone down in Wolves LUG legend as proper bo nights. Tonight is that night. Don’t expect much from Aq, Ade or myself tomorrow morning…
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Seems to be an interesting day for usability. With the unveiling of the Office 12 interface, its balance of aesthetics and usability seems rather contrived. Taking a look at the shots, it seems like a step back in usability in some areas. Take a look at the following shot:

The first thing that strikes me is that the interface for Office seems radically different to other Windows applications. For a document centric application such as word to step away from established user interface elements, this will cite views of inconsistency in both Windows and Office. The other problem seems to be the visibility of the different zones in the application. When I was looking at the shots, the menus don’t appear very obvious at all. This then spurs your mind into asking where the menus live. To make matters worse, it seems that when you click on a menu option, a strange little orange coloured box pops up. As such, the menu stops becoming the traditional menu and instead becomes a this-looks-like-a-menu-but-works-slightly different menu. The only purpose of a menu is to provide a series of options to the user. I don’t see any radical usability benefits from the new design. Maybe the shots don’t transmit it sufficiently.

The file selector also seems interesting:

This seems to steal the VFS feature from the GNOME file picker, and it is also interesting to see the search box in there; a feature also coming to a GNOME VFS near you soon. The thing that first struck me about the file picker is just how complex it looks. I can imagine that a new user who is confronted with that lot when they just want to open/save a file will get quite lost.

I am really quite interested in giving Office 12 a whirl. It is good that MS are taking some interest in usability, but I am not convinced from the shots that this is for much more than marketing effect. Sometimes good design is achieved by leaving be those things that do actually work. Saying that however, it is good to see the bigger toolbars, less clutter and better visibility (such as toolbar naming) being rolled in.

I have been thinking recently about usability in different places. As an example, a few weeks back I was astounded by the usability problems with my bank. Apart from the fact that they don’t know their arse from their collaborative elbows (how can someone who gives you a mortgage not know your address), their paperwork was not created with usability in mind. The very concept of small print is a prime example of a flaw in design. People just don’t read small print. Sure, put the specifics of the contracted service in the small print, but don’t put common information in there, information such as contact details and fees.

Another example is an insurance claim process. When you buy your policy, many insurers will issue you with a 40-50 page manual detailing the insurance policy you have just sunk your reddies into. When you need to make a claim, the assumption from the insurer is that you have read, digested and memorised the entire booklet. In these cases there is no potential for error – they demand you understand it all, and if you get any of it wrong, they just don’t want to know. This is another fallacy in usability. No one, other than people who enjoy bureaucracy and red tape reads those booklets. The booklet only generally comes out when you need to make a claim, and that may be too late if you needed to obtain a police report within 24 hours of the loss.

It seems that many people approach usability with a limited potential for its application. Good design can be applied anywhere, to anything, not just computers, cars and TVs. I think if the pencil pushers of the world who concoct these god awful documents were to spend a little time thinking about how their customers can better use them, as opposed to simply disclaiming them from any possibility, they would have far happier punters.

Wow, check it out, Linux Desktop Hacks in French:

You will be pleased to know that there were no deaths whatsoever at the hands of my cooking. Aside from a slightly rubbery pasta, it went pretty well. The good news in the cooking department is that I am getting better at cooked breakfasts. I utterly hate cooking, so any progress is good progress.

Simon and Robert, my brother and nephew popped up this weekend. Good to see them again. Tonight we relaxed, had a few drinks and watched the superb Joe Dirt.

When everyone went to bed, I hacked on my new music site some more. It is pretty much complete now, and tonight I added support for user accounts, ratings and I just need to code some other bits before it can go live. The domain is finally registered, and I hope to have it online soon. 🙂

The plot thickens with regards to the MythTV box. It seems I can probably get a decent quality TV output by using a Scart or S-Video output. I was a little disheartened that my grand MythTV plans were falling apart, but it seems that all is good. There are still some snags to figure out, but I am beginning to get a decent mental picture of what this is going to look like.

Now, I need your help. As some of you may know, and all of you damn well should know, I will be clocking over to 26 years on September 17th. Sooz, my gracious other half, has wandered out and bought me a present. She has rather stingily allocated me two measly questions a day to guess what it is, and she ain’t budging one iota. I am having trouble figuring out what this baby is, so I would like to solicit your suggestions.

Here is the evidence. I am informed it is something to do with the fun side of computers, it doesn’t plug into a computer and it is unfortunately not a Sony PSP or Kelly Brook. She has let me get my grubby hands on it to give it a squeeze, and the box is about 12″ x 8″ x 2″. It feels fairly heavy, and when I shake it, it sounds like it may have some manuals in it. Any idea? I hope so because I am stumped. Answers on a post card to the Add Comment link…

Oh, and it looks pretty confirmed that I will be at EuroOSCON. If anyone out there is going, do let me know and we can hook up to blow the froth off a few cold ones…

Firstly, thanks for the fantastic contributions on the TV out issue. It is great to see some decent hands-on advice. It seems that I need to explore a means of getting a higher quality (maybe RGB?) signal out of the MythTV box to my TV. My boss Scott has concocted a mystery cable to do something similar. I will have a look into it.

I am pleased to see some work is going into theming Wine. This is something I have been wanting to see for quite some time. Here is a shot of the work in progress:

From what I can tell, the work is going into support Microsoft themes, but there has also been discussion of a GTK bridge for themes. How cool would it be to fire up a Windows application in Wine that looks reasonably similar to the other applications on your desktop. Sure, it won’t unify usability, and that is a problem, but it will certainly make the desktop look more attractive. Here is a crazy idea, could the part of the Windows API that opens up a file selector dialog box be re-implemented in Wine to fire up a GNOME or KDE dialog box? This would make navigating your filesystem much easier. Any Wine hackers out there care to comment?

I am sure someone from Wine will know, it seems that they are years ahead of anyone else:

I have been cajoled into cooking for a bunch of Uni friends tonight. After having regular dinners every few months or so, and taking it in turns to cook, it turns out I have never actually cooked on one of these nights. The problem is that I can’t cook…at all. I will certainly try to knock something vaguely edible up, but I wouldn’t hold out…

Last night I poked around looking at MythTV some more. Thanks to the kind folks in the mythtv-users channel on freenode, they answered my questions. I am now well on the way to understanding how I am going to build this baby.

One point that did concern me a little was the issue of TV Out quality. One thing I really want to maintain in the setup is the quality of picture. I want the picture from my Sky box to go through the MythTV box and come out to the TV with preferably no degradation. This brings up a choice between a graphics card TV out and a dedicated PVR card TV out. I have heard conflicting reports about which is best. Can anyone offer any advice?

Spent some time today fiddling around with searches in PHP and MySQL. I read up about some of MySQL’s full text indexing and it is pretty cool how it includes relevance scores and stop words. These stop words are used for ignoring terms such as ‘and’ and ‘if’ in a search. Now, I might be wrong here, but some of the words actually look like legit search terms for me. I am sure people who search for help about less would be less than impressed (no pun intended).

Hooking up with Aq tonight to fix some stuff on Angel. A combination of us moving to Apache 2, Aq fixing it site to use mod_python and some of the database driven pages generating static files is helping to reduce the load and identify where the problem may be.

Banger fans will be pleased to know that another banger will be entering Castle Bacon in about six weeks. We have seen a pup who we are interested in (chocolate-tan mini dachshund) and we are going to take Banger over to see if he gets on with him when the puppy is old enough. The new puppy will be called Frankie. 🙂