Magnum03
From Mandriva Community Wiki
Editorial
(note : maybe tracy anne could do this editorial for the international version AshLeDombos 12:30, 25 March 2008 (CET))
Mag'num is out, at last!
That was long to bring out this issue #3, really long. Because of lot of things, lack of time for example, but it is especially due to my management lighter. Please excuse me.
The good news is that mag'num has a totally new facelift. You can congratulate all those who have produced this marvel. Goodbye rectangular format, hello square format, a modern, airy, and a key chart that I could not have imagined and even less to set up. And it's all done with free software, Scribus.
Enjoy this number, give your opinion and and if the envy takes you come to participate in the next publishing. We are always looking for motivated people, there is nothing more to gain than the satisfaction of the bring out the magazine!
Olivier aka goom
News from world of freesoftware (note : free world ? AshLeDombos 12:30, 25 March 2008 (CET))
Mandriva moves ! (I don't know if it is correct, the meaning is that there are lots of things happening in mandriva world AshLeDombos 12:30, 25 March 2008 (CET))
Mandriva and Turbolinux create a common development laboratory named Manbo-Labs. -- Mandreeeva is the name of the Mandriva 2008 for the mini portable PC Asus Eee. -- Release of the first version of the RC Linux distribution Mandriva 2008.1 2 Mandriva Release Spring 2008 final and official scheduled for 09/04/2008. (has to be updated AshLeDombos 12:30, 25 March 2008 (CET)) -- Mandriva moved to Denmark for the local distribution of Mandriva. -- Mandriva also exported via Lithuania Infosaitas society. -- It is now Israel's turn to receive Mandriva with the assistance of Merkado Ltd Linux.
Around Linux
In the United States, sales of computers (desktop or laptop) not equipped with MS tax increases in supermarkets. The sudden popularity of these machines at low cost is due to the race for power (note : meaning more and more powerfull hardwareAshLeDombos 12:30, 25 March 2008 (CET)) required to simply have access to the internet or reading the mail. Users watch, compare prices and are beginning to understand that for these basic functions, a $ 250 computer is doing everything as well as a super $ 1200 machine with a proprietary solution. -- The version of Forceware 169.12 nVIDIA Linux is available. Versions 32 and 64 bit at this address: http://www.nvidia.fr/object/linux_fr/ you can also count on packages prepared by Mandriva -- On Wednesday, January 30, the Deputy Assistant Director for Telecommunications and Information Technology of the Gendarmerie Nationale (France) (note : Gendarmerie is a kind of constabulary force attached to the MOD as opposed to the Police which is attached to the Home Office--sjaglin 12:56, 19 April 2008 (CEST)), announced the migration of desktops from the gendarmerie in the operating system GNU/Linux Ubuntu. 8,000 workstations will be installed in 2008. All 70,000 machines must have migrated in 2013. -- A Shuttle KPC K45 Linux for $ 200? That's what could be announced in the coming days. Which distribution? Shuttle wants to distribute widely implanted in the countries where the computer will be offered. This will ultimately foresight linux.
And long live freedom! (viva ?AshLeDombos 12:30, 25 March 2008 (CET))
The Île-de-France (region of Paris, France), is the first regional adherent of APRIL (French association for promote and defend free. "Open source software is involved in knowledge sharing and the reduction of "digital gap" (note : the gap between those who have computers and internet and the others AshLeDombos 12:30, 25 March 2008 (CET)). The common good must be protected and developed. "Said Jean Paul Huchon, President of the Ile-de-France. -- Firefox continues to nibble market share for Internet Explorer. In Oceania, it is used in 31% to 28% in Europe and 21% in North America. (Xiti study conducted from 1 to 31 December 2007 on 112,018 websites.) -- There has been talk of tied selling PC / OS on France Inter (french radio). In issuing Public Service were invited Alix Cazenave (APRIL) and Edward Barreiro (UFC Que Choisir). The resellers and Microsoft were missing. The podcast is downloadable in MP3 (note : I think it is not interesting for international version) -- Mandriva relaunch its operation "refugee" OS offering a refund of 35% to Powerpack 2008, subscription or Mandriva Flash Powerpack 2008. This operation will be completed on 08 April 2008. One more reason to experiment Mandriva. Details of the offer here
Le Mandrivien
In front of the microphone (note : meaning someone is interviewed, maybe another expression is better AshLeDombos 12:30, 25 March 2008 (CET))
You may already know them if you stay on the Mandriva forum but you do not know who they really are. This section proposes to discover the people behind their nickname. We took our courage and have tried to get some answers.
This month, baud123 has complied with the exercise. Magnum: first, who are you?
Baud123: I am an IS architect (information systems) in my life and Mandriva users on a daily basis. I started with a mandrake 5.3 I believe, found in a magazine in the last century, and it is with the 9.1 that GNU / Linux is the only operating system useful at home. I am currently a reviewer on linuxfr and moderator of free hosting service Tuxfamily
You are heavily involved in the life of the Forum of Mandriva. Could you explain to us the reasons for this commitment?
On the forum Mandriva, I spent mostly regularly to check how the pilot eagle-usb modems for fast 800 (originally provided by free.fr) worked, since I provided (and still provides) support for the pilot since 2003 , developed by other people more competent than me in Linux kernel module. I "bothered" Thierry Vignaud to properly integrated into Mandrake 9.2, and for some time blino took over brilliantly, and now the pilot ueagle-atm has made its way directly into the Linux kernel.
You talk forum of the past! In what other areas have you shot?
I am now rather present on the IRC channel for Mandriva french support (and a little #mandriva and #mandriva-cooker respectively for support in English and the IRC channel developers cooker). Ah, I am also op on #mandriva-es and #linux-es, regulars of these IRC channels having realized that I spoke Spanish and that I was still connected (there was little activity, the IRC channel #mandriva-br being Portuguese and Spanish international, and the IRC channel http://blogdrake.net being the official media in Spanish for Mandriva). The interest is to be able to exchange, provide assistance, discover uses to which I would not have thought, and the entourage of the community is sympathetic (it is also a very good way to improve its ability to speak English or Spanish). In fact, I went through mandrake expert as a volunteer (the site of initial support, since http://mandrivaexpert.com) by the bugzilla, the former developer wiki, which was about http://qa.mandriva.com and now http://wiki.mandriva.com which is much more unifying. Jabber The chatroom is also available for those who enjoy free instant messaging.
But you are also one of the moderators of the chatroom. By visiting your wiki, I stumbled upon drafts of a magazine identical to Mag'num. What went wrong?
You say these drafts? This let us make two Mandriva Linux Inside magazine in 2006, a third was in preparation. The articles are free licensed and can be reused. The wiki has only been used for the part proofing (note: is it the correct word ? the meaning is read and find errors etc. AshLeDombos 12:30, 25 March 2008 (CET)) and translation services (English, Spanish and french). The 3rd edition of this document was not made under Scribus due to lack of contributors: Adam Williamson has been able to mobilize a lot of people, but it is better imoa - as is the case now with Mag'num - that the initiative comes from the community. This brings particularly an vison from outside, developers Mandriva being very open-minded and willing to answer questions anyway (they will be more motivated by this interaction actually).
We need contributors to enrich the knowledge and content of the magazine. We recruit you ?
I can take a little time to do reading and propose an organization for drafts. As a wiki fanatic, I think all contributors should accustom syntax mediawiki (which is not very complicated at the end) to think about revising the documentation already proposed http://wiki.mandriva.com. I saw that the forum offered summaries on selected topics. I find it a pity them confined to the forum as a wiki really is useful to capitalize information and can be used as a notepad for taking notes, then trimmed fairly quickly (ones prolix in wiki syntax help those who provide content).
Why your nickname?
Baud123 is simply the first letter of my first name and the first letters of my name, B. Aud in fact, 123 is because - from memory - I had to create it in the summer of 1998 and baud was already taken on the yahoo instant messaging. There are many other explanation, besides the fact that baud is a unit of information per second.
Back to Mandriva. What do you like in this distribution?
Its simplicity and its community of contributors (including Mandriva developers). All documentation freely available online is really appreciable (knowing that developers are also available when there is a need). I also like the fact that both KDE and Gnome are evolving, which suits me because I use Gnome.
What aspects would you like to see improved in Mandriva?
The communication ;-) This magazine is a good example of the vitality of the community Mandriva community. Otherwise the distribution itself is moving well and I have high expectations of the most comprehensive release of java during 2008 (the java-1.7.0-icedtea is already a great step forward for freedom, the plugin for web browser works finally x86_64 native).
How do you see the future of free software and Mandriva?
Freesoftware continues its sweet way, it is quite hard to be objective being immersed in and convinced of its relevance. However, it suffices to see the number of international companies involved to be aware of the existence of free software and collaborative work that it raises (from competing companies at the origin) to find that it is a steamroller that built a road to go further than the proprietary model restricting its users (yet restrained by some companies). Mandriva is from the beginning involved in the freesoftware, all their developments being published under free license (GPL) as well as their documentation, the entire distribution is publicly available free. Despite the pitfalls (Internet bubble, Chapter 11 which could have lead to the end of the adventure ...) Mandriva is still there, in part through her community often advocating more resources for developers and making contributions (of course packets , as rpmlint tools in addition to those already developed by Mandriva ...). Mandriva will continue with its community, markets also increasingly turning to freesoftware, as we can see examples available on http://chl.be/migrations (note : we should find an english site as example AshLeDombos 12:30, 25 March 2008 (CET))!
What are the websites that you visit frequently?
The wiki Mandriva And Wikipedia for their articles. For new Linuxfr Slashdot And also Distrowatch On Monday for the Distrowatch Weekly News (and push up the counter for Mandriva).
Finally, what message do you tell to the readers?
Take a little time to get involved in the distribution Mandriva. Computer stay - even today - a matter of self-made: there is always need for designers, translators, testers, developers if you feel, software package maintainers (otherwise from packages you need), and of course you can share your experiences or help people more beginners than you (which is a very good way to learn even more). Feel free to promote open formats: Jabber for instant messaging, OpenDocument formats available in OpenOffice.org for your text documents, presentations, spreadsheets ... It did not impede your interlocutors installing software to read PDF, it does not interfere to install one - also free - to read your documents.
Thank you Benoît for having been kind enough to answer a few questions.
Prosper3
Still translating :
Installing Mandriva on eeePC
Not Mandriva: Mandreeeva!
The EeePC comes with a Linux preinstalled motion! BRA-VO! What great news. ASUS has taken up the challenge that such a computer could be natively under Linux.
However, each with its little habits, it was time to remove the Xandros in favor of a Mandriva, on this ultraportable.
Choose the version
The Spring 2008.1 will be released shortly. It seemed easier to start from RC. Indeed, the various drivers necessary for the proper functioning of Eee are present in these versions.
One or Free ?
For reasons of convenience, I made the choice of One because Eee is equipped with a wireless card that works with the madwifi driver, available directly from the CD. It is also the basis of a Free, but this request then a little more time for the start of wifi.
Installation
Using an external CD tinkered (a CD-ROM drive connected to a domestic external IDE HD box) to boot on the One. A Flash 2008.1, if it existed would have been perfect.
Once the LiveCD launched, installation on the SSD (solid state disk, hard disk flash memory) in half an hour.
The choice of installation:
- Custom Partitioning: all '/' on SSD
- No SWAP
- /home will be placed on a SDHC external card (see customization)
Restarting
Everything works almost directly. However, there are some small improvements that need to be made for having a 100% functional Eee.
Energy management
In order to take advantage of controller's frequency "ondemand" allows the user to select processor speed as a function of load: (root)
Modprobe P4-clockmod Echo "ondemand"> /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor These two lines can be added to /etc/rc.local
Echo "userspace"> /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor
And set the frequency to 450 MHz:
Echo "450000">/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_setspeed Turn off your computer when there is enough battery:
A Lithium-Ion battery as in the Eee, must not be emptied completely.
To avoid this problem, change the shutdown policy in kpowersave (applet in the bottom right with the battery icon or electrical outlet)
Right click
--> Configure kpowersave --> General parameters -> battery -> extinguish when less than 7% --> General parameters -> Button events -> lid close button -> shutdown
(This means that, when we close the screen, Eee truly poweroff.)
Managing disk space
The Eee does, in its 4G than 4 gigabytes of hard drive. So we have to pay a little attention to the packages installed.
This command ranks rpms by size:
rpm-qa - queryformat '% (name)% size () \ n' | sort-n +1 | column-t
You just have to decide what you can spend. Here is a file that lists all translations that do not need me: http://ashashiwa.free.fr/images_diverses/enleve to be used as follows:
wget http://ashashiwa.free.fr/images_diverses/enleve urpme `cat enleve`
I won almost 600 MB.
Managing /home
The purchase of a eee is often done in addition to of large capacity SDHC card (8 or 16 Gigas ...).
The interest is to use this space for his /home (or other).
However, I had a particular problem: I wanted the home directory is mounted when I insert the card but not when SDHC, I introdued another SD card (for the transfer of photographs, for example).
Unable to put it in the /etc/fstab: /dev/sdb1 /home. Especially a usb key plugged before the boot could also pose a problem.
We must then use the UUID, marking a single disk or partition.
For the UUID of the partition, we must look in the / dev:
ls -lh /dev/disk/by-uuid
Fix it then that should:
Lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 2008-02-21 09:40 8f2009db-c352-49bb-aecb-d88f65afa1f8 -> ../../sdb1 Lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 2008-02-21 09:40 b621977f-5ce0-42be-b5b3-c58e48d6ab4f -> ../../sdb5 Lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 2008-02-21 09:40 d596721e-c9e2-4a2e-95f5-9fc050f03753 -> .. / .. / sda
As far as I am concerned, this is /dev/sdb1 either 8f2009db-c352-49bb-aecb-d88f65afa1f8
Finally, we must fill in the / etc / fstab with ( "kdesu kwrite" console or with another publisher) to make it up when you start the computer:
UUID = 8f2009db-c352-49bb-aecb-d88f65afa1f8 / home ext2 noatime 0 0
NB: You may have noticed that this is ext2 partition and not ext3 ... Several opinions clash on the web. Favoring the sense of space, I put in ext2. (The journalized fs takes a few percent)
Other gains up
The purchase of a Eee often goes hand in hand also with the purchase of a Card of 1 or 2 GB of RAM. (Dimm so DDR2 5300 to 667 MHz) that allows, for example, to forgo SWAP but also to mount in memory directories /tmp and /var/log/var/tmp choice. This means that whenever we shutdown the Eee, the data in this directory are lost. In /etc/fstab:
tmpfs /var/tmp tmpfs noatime 0 0 tmpfs /tmp tmpfs noatime 0
Other customizations system
Some use Metisse to save space on the screen.
/etc/sysctl.conf can be modified to explicitly say Linux to not swap and also not write all the time on the disc:
vm.swappiness=1 vm.vfs_cache_pressure=50
Must be added to /etc/sysctl.conf
What still needs to be improved
The management of wifi button: press the button disables well wifi (the button goes off, but there is no network)
What works, but requires a small adjustment
The sound: the sound card is supported, as well as the microphone, but you must specify the model in /etc/modprobe.conf:
Options snd-hda-intel model = 3stack dig -
VGA output. It works immediately, but will not change the resolution higher than 800x600 (shame, huh?;))
You only need to add /etc/X11/xorg.conf in "Screen", subsection "Display" matches your color depth - I have put 24 instead of 16 -:
Virtual 2048 2048
Example:
Section "Screen" Identifier "screen1" Device "device1" Monitor "monitor1" DefaultColorDepth 24 Subsection "Display" Depth 24 Modes "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "640x480" "480x360" "320x240" virtual 2048 2048 EndSubsection EndSection
What works and does not require any adjustment
Keys, touchpad, webcam (NB: to activate the webcam: echo "1">/proc/acpi/asus/camera)
The suspend to RAM
Installing from DVD FREE
Only the wifi requires a driver owner. The rest is taken into account directly. Why then bother with the CD of ONE and its plethora of drivers not useful (virtualbox etc.).
It is therefore necessary to install deposits 2008.1 (or cooker if not released yet) for everything including PLF.
Second, it will install the kernel and the necessary compilation suitable:
urpmi laptop-kernel-kernel-latest laptop-devel-latest
Then install madwifi:
urpmi dkms-madwifi
And voilà ... Wifi is working.
The head in the stars
Many amateur astronomers, but also professionals, are turning to Linux because of its incredible wealth! Indeed, the list of available tools is impressive and covers all areas of this discipline. Namely, the virtual planetarium for the extension, mapping heavenly for learning and preparation periods of observation. But also, the tools to control telescopes, image acquisition and processing are available. The purpose of this article is to give you an overview of the most widely used software and spearheads in the field.
I began the article by a web search for software GPL. It should be noted, and welcome again, the dynamism and wealth of free software: what further proof wait list. Many of these programs are still reserved for specialists, and so I decided to stay on outreach tools accessible to beginners and novices.
Stellarium
Let me start with Stellarium enabling the discovery of the night sky by creating a virtual planetarium. It creates a sky as we can discover (or almost) by raising the head. It is decorated with images of celestial objects compiled into a database managed by the software itself. Time management is important in this software because it can prepare its observation in the calant at the current time.
More funny, do you know where the planets were located at important events in human history? No? Stellarium can carry you on July 14, 1789 (note : french revolution, can be changed by another date ;) --AshLeDombos 20:29, 26 March 2008 (CET)) or on the night of the birth of Christ. Finally, the constellations can be displayed on the screen with their mythological representation.
When it was launched, the program will move to the date and time system. A bar positioning over time can fix the software at a better time for the observation ... that's to say: the night! Another configuration very important is the position of the observer. If you want to base the night vision with "your sky," you can tell the software the coordinates of your place of observation.
The tool handles mainly mice and in full screen. The mouse wheel can be zoomed in or out. A few well-chosen icons allow you to display on the sky objects visible. Be careful not to overload the sky by activating all views at the same time. The objects (stars, planets, nebulae) can be selected. Further information concerning the technical rather are then displayed on the screen
Fort useful, a system of script is also available to record his movements or simply simulate more rare celestial phenomena and spectacular (eclipses, together, and so on.). His language is very simple and accessible to everyone. To launch a type m to switch to text and use the cursor to select scripts desired. You can also download at the following address Http://www.stellarium.org/wiki/index.php/Scripts
Finally, a more complete documentation and a wiki are available on the website of Stellarium http://www.stellarium.org/
Celestia
After the planetarium just simulation. The 3D, it is astonishing and it is with Celestia. Explore our solar system and beyond the galaxy. Put yourself in the place of the Hubble telescope or watch the shuttle in orbit of the earth.
Thanks to this fantastic software, you can put in place a probe exploring the infinitely large. Thus, it may be placed in orbit around Mars and its satellites observed (Phobos and Deimos).
The /usr/share/celestia/ contains some files .cel showing you the possibilities. In addition, numerous add-ons makes software to infinite diversity. Indeed, the Motherlode site is a gold mine for those wishing to explore the world and of the universe.
But not by any means! Have you ever wanted to fly over the StarWars Dark Moon? You want to be at the controls of an X-wing? These are some of the possibilities offered by Celestia.
To finish, and if you are still not convinced, turn the demo ... The pilot program will focus on the mouse. The contextual menus allow a good number of configurations, but it is essential to learn the commands at the keyboard. We regret that they are available only on documentation and not pop-up easily accessible.
The official website of Celestia
Skychart
For the seasoned observer, Skychart (sky map) is an indispensable tool. This program allows to draw maps of the sky according to data from 16 catalogs of stars and nebulae, and the position of planets, asteroids and comets.
It is designed to produce maps of any kind depending on the specific needs of an observation. Many settings can choose what specifically or automatically catalogs are used, the color and size of stars and nebulae, the manner of representation of the planets, the display labels and grid coordinates, the superposition of photographs, visibility conditions, and so on.
All these possibilities make it a celestial atlas much more complete than just a planetarium. It has features that make it the essential companion of the astronomer. Notably its function "observation" or "night vision" which with its dominant red is not going to dazzle you in the dark. Can be found that the interface is a little austere when you just leave the two programs previously cited. But I must say that, while more complex, the software can be easily took over. It is a mature, correctly translated, but the contextual help is being drafted.
To get the power, a system of add-ons is also available. Namely, images and catalogues of celestial objects. For the lucky ones computerized telescope, the software allows their control and thus lead to the object pointed by the software. But where is the fun?
Note software KStars in the same area which fits perfectly into office ergonomics KDE and appears to have the same functionality. Its documentation is complete but lacks the same types of add-ons in order to be as comprehensive. Its manoeuvrability with the mouse is certainly better than Skychart but switch to "night vision" is only possible through software settings. In conclusion, let me show you a few things cool. For those who are passionate about astronomy or want to know more, there is certainly the books but also VideoCasts! I found hubblecast but in English. It is possible to use Miro and subscribe to visualize the flow. Several PodCasts are available on Podemus.
Finally, finally, there Heavens Above. This site allows you to track the position of remarkable objects to impress the friend (e) s. You can predict the position of the international space station and go look in the sky. Even stronger, you can also observe the glow of Iridium satellites! For this, it is necessary to synchronize its clock or clock and set its geographical coordinates!
The liveCD are available for the tests. Otherwise, urpmi is your friend!
- The association offers a astrolix liveCD based on the ONE RC1, which included stellarium and a half of unpublished scripts. It is available on http://astrolix.org
The site http://lin4astro.org/ no longer maintained and is replaced by astrolix.org
Prosper3
Nepomuk
Under the advent of KDE_4, I decided to make a specific folder about how Mandriva was involved in KDE4. I had heard about Nepomuk semantic desktop, and its integration into KDE. But without a specialist in the field, I assumed that I was going to make about it a page or two that i would integrate in this folder. So I met, virtually, two people involved in the projet_: Stéphane Laurière, Project Manager on behalf of Mandriva and Sebastian Trüeg, architect of the Nepomuk semantic desktop in KDE_4, also employed by Mandriva. Then I discovered a vast and ambitious project, which is supported and funded by sixteen European IT sector, including Thales, IBM, SAP and Mandriva course, as well as many research centres and laboratories in Europe. This project has also been funded by the European Commission's budget of 11 million euros, of which 0.9 reserved for Edge-IT, a subsidiary of Mandriva oriented research and security. Opening, social networking, artificial intelligence, Peer to Peer, abolition of borders between web and desktop, the Web revolution, as many concepts around the Nepomuk project.
The origin of Nepomuk (in a few words)
The story begins at a meeting in Luxembourg, as part of the day organised by the European Commission on research in the area of the network. Stéphane Laurière (Arkub), as a representative of Mandriva, then presents the wiki semantics. Don't worry, people who do not yet know the meaning of semantic, I will explain it later. Stéphane encounter on this occasion Stefan Decker (http://www.stefandecker.org/), a professor at the National University of Ireland and Martin Frank, Stanford, both sponsors of the White Paper "The Networked Semantic Desktop" as well as Ansgar Bernardi from DFKI (German Centre for Research on Artificial Intelligence). Stefan Decker is also Director of DERI (Digital Enterprise Research Institute), whose research on the Semantic Web, metadata, ontologies and semi-structured data, Web services and applications for digital media libraries, knowledge management, integration of information and Peer 2 Peer. Yes, I confess, I am a little "dropped" on the follow-extension names emphatic. And yet I removed. But it helps to receive the abundance of brains from multiple horizons. And this is in this context that Mandriva is offered to join them to participate in a larger project, supported by a dozen partners.
Every 5 years, the European Commission is funding a Framework Programme for Research and Development in the areas of robotics, computers ... In 2006, a project office semantics is then submitted to the commission. Specifically, it is a project _ "Environment for advanced personal knowledge and exchange within a social network." Nominated by the commission draft Nepomuk will then rise.
The vision of Nepomuk: the semantic desktop
But first, what's the semantic Desktop?
Simply said, the semantic desktop - or workstation - is a set of technologies enabling:
* Users to organize and share resources (documents, messages, images, video ...) like a network, rather than in hierarchical directories.
* Computers to seek information like a human brain.
Let these three points: organization, sharing and research.
Organization
We are now accustomed to folders and subfolders that make up the tree of our hard drive, which makes it difficult sometimes to imagine another form of organizing our files.
And yet, software such as Amarok, or iTunes for music, or Digikam for pictures, use another form of organization based on the metadata. What is metadata? For example in the case of an MP3 music file or ogg, this might be the author, title, genre, album, track number, comments, words, a note , its release date ... In the case of a photo there may be similar data: the photographer, the type of photo, and many more information: "Is this a picture black and white, sepia or color?", A picture of landscape, a photo portrait, and so on.
With this metadata management, so there's no need to create folders: All music could be loose in a single file, loading Amarok classification by gender, by author, by preference, and so on.
The idea of the semantic job is to extend this concept to all the resources of the computer, whether mails, historic conversation jabber, text files, images and more. In a workstation semantics, the user has at its disposal tools enabling it to efficiently organize its resources via metadata. These metadata will be the links between the various nodes in the network of resources that are the documents, music, web pages.
Sharing
The Semantic Web is beginning to be known, thanks to RSS, the use of increasingly frequent tags (in blogs, for example). Tags, are words, in connection with a resource (article, photo, music download ...) For example, on certain blogs, the tag "mandriva" concerns all items related mandriva. Tags are metadata. But then why I speak here of the web? Simply because the workstation semantics and the Semantic Web are, in the vision of project Népomuk, so linked that they are one.
Today, the separation between web and the desktop is still very visible. I have a video of my stay in Bolivia: if I want to consult with you, I have to load it on my Web site, or failing to Youtube, or put it in the folder of my P2P software. In the workstation semantic web comes to the computer. The machine connected becomes an active element of the web, as is already the case in part to some software peer to peer. My video, if I want people to the views, I do not need to load it on youtube, I modify the metadata "not visible" on the Internet by "visible" and hop! My video, with all its metadata is accessible to all. This concept is commonly called "social network".
Search
So far the search for resources across the web (google, exalead, yahoo ...), an engine on P2P (aMule, GNUnet ...) or on a workstation, has always done more or least this way: I type a word, I need to specify the file type, size ... And I get a list or longer results, more or less in connection with my research (if at all). On the workstations (thereby hear on your computer) there are engine fast, powerful and better and better designed (Apple's Spotlight, Google Desktop Search, Beagle ++...)
Search engines more powerful, especially the web, use many algorithms to optimize the relevant answers. But this research is essentially limited to "suites" glue, but not all the words, it means the sentence has meaning. A human being will perform differently "tuna swimming is red", "train surfing the pie" of "green ball well not cold." For the search engine, it is the same, three suites of words which he will try to pull something. For human beings, it has detected two sentences that make sense, even if one of them is absurd. Two sentences whose form is correct, what we can call the syntax (subject, verb, Supplement), but only one actually mean something, which have meaning and what we call then semantics. To quote the Wikipedia article on semantics: In rough: the syntax is the form, semantics is substance [1].
Imagine a more concrete example: I am looking for, say on Google, "plays performed in Barcelona in 2007." Through its algorithms and its performance, I will, with luck, find some sites speaking in a 'theater in Barcelona. " Only the search engine he really understood the focus of my research? No, because every word is seen as an element of the research. I was looking for anything about Barcelona, but the engine show me sites information about Barcelona, its history, theatres, a little further I came across a site listing of events in 2007, then further on the announcement an actor in theater looking for a three-room apartment in Barcelona, and so on ... The search engine, as powerful and fast as it did on the one hand not understand the meaning of my request, from a syntactic or semantic, and on the other hand has nothing to documents he proposes in his hit list.
An intelligent search engine?
Now imagine a search engine that understands the meaning of my request, ie able to use all means at its disposal to find documents related to the application, including photos and audio and video recordings, and able to verify that the documents he gave me the list correspond to my request: each document would then be listed in connection with a play, having been played in Barcelona in 2007. This type of relationship is called ontology (the "O" from Nepomuk). There could be further searches by ontology, either on the Web or on their workstation, "photos taken by photographer as" documents (mails, chats, texts ...) relating to contracts more than 10000 € "(that's my little example," corporate ", it must be that policy makers recognize pressed too).
In short, the search engine Semantic Web needs to be intelligent. Finally when I talk about intelligence, I do not speak of AI engine controlling characters in a video game, I speak of a true intelligence to "human scale." So it is no coincidence that the center German DFKI, specializing in artificial intelligence, coordinates the project.
The project objectives Nepomuk
The development and validation of open standards
The primary objective of Nepomuk is firstly to create open standards around the concept of workstation semantics, just like html is the language of the web. For the moment, the partners involved in the project set out the basic specifications of the tools.
The creation of API (programming interfaces)
To kick off the momentum around these standards and comparing them with reality, it was decided, as part of the project submitted to the European Commission to develop parallel software environments implementing emerging standards Nepomucene.
This is where Mandriva: its main task is to mobilize communities of developers around this project. To start, and in order to meet the terms of acceptance of the project by the European Commission, three free environments were selected: KDE desktop 4, the platform application development IBM Eclipse (a partner in the project ) and the Mozilla Firefox browser (for a reminder, the Mozilla Foundation Europe is housed in the premises of Mandriva). These three subprojects are respectivements Nepomuk-called KDE, Nepomuk-Nepomuk-Eclipse and Mozilla.
The ultimate goal is that every company, every project can integrate Nepomuk in its own solutions.
Focus on Nepomuk-KDE
Trüeg Sebastian is the developer of the project Nepomuk-KDE, which is the whole project of integrating Nepomuk in KDE 4. Now let's see what we bring this project concretely.
Nepomuk, Soprano and Strigi
A drawing is often better than words. So here is a diagram explaining the general functioning of Nepomuk-KDE. (See box on page 33)
The first implementations
The file browser KDE 4, Dolphin (see page 34), allows you to display a side panel where it is possible to link to any file:
- Tags;
- A note;
- A commentary.
These metadata are stored and indexed in Soprano. This is metadata added manually, but others are automatic, such as creation date and format of a file. Other metadata can be specific to a particular type of file, and managed by a particular application (for Amarok music files, Digikam for digital photographs, for example)
The search engine Nepomuk, besides functioning as a conventional search engine through Strigi, may also use this metadata to refine queries. Page 34 a search for files containing the tag "nepomuk" (hastag: nepomuk). This is an example of semantic search simple. In addition, the interface of the search engine will be greatly improved in the weeks that followed, as stated by Sebastian, it's just a word of mouth. It helps to realize that the opportunities are extremely extensive.
Juice of cooking
From late, yet the delay! Soon 2 months, during which time I have changed jobs and housing! I removed the most perishable to go faster:)
On the menu, as PulseAudio output of its new server, information on RPM, a lot of information in the wiki, Mandriva 2008.1 alpha1, questions about Java and LiveDVD Game!
test KDE 4 Jiri Hlinka gave the tip to install the test version of KDE 4. Simply install the package task kde4. Http://archives.mandrivalinux.com/cooker/2007-12/msg00026.php
RPM compressed LZMA? Per Øyvind Karlsen made some comparisons of the size and time of installing RPM compressed with gzip and lzma. Thierry Vignaud has insisted that for the user, installation time is lengthened. Http://archives.mandrivalinux.com/cooker/2007-12/msg00060.php
Sound Server: migration PulseAudio output Frederic Crozat announced the passage of the distribution PulseAudio output for Mandriva 2008.1, as well as for GNOME KDE. A very good summary can be found at the end of these links: Http://www.happyassassin.net/2007/12/05/pulseaudio-for-20081/ Http://foss.in/2007/register/slides/The_PulseAudio_Sound_Server_353.pdf Http://archives.mandrivalinux.com/cooker/2007-12/msg00153.php
Log files that meet the disc Vincent Panel suggested installing anacron for the rotation of log files on the system, even when the machine is turned off at night. Indeed, in this case, the log file is filled but it is never filed because the rotation takes place at night in the default configuration. Http://archives.mandrivalinux.com/cooker/2007-12/msg00528.php
Mandriva on PS3? Per Øyvind Karlsen said that the construction of Mandriva ppc64 processor for the PS3 should not be difficult, to the extent that much of the work of porting to PPC has already been made by GB (?). Http://archives.mandrivalinux.com/cooker/2007-12/msg00251.php
Image boot Mandriva NFS Colin Guthrie issued a documentation to achieve an architecture with thin clients which start on images collected by the network http://colin.guthr.ie/general/development/network-booting--nfs-root-with-mandriva . html Http://archives.mandrivalinux.com/cooker/2007-12/msg00728.php
Size metadata packages Pixel conducted a comparison of different sizes metadata RPM and has proposed to separate them into multiple files, so you can download on demand. Http://archives.mandrivalinux.com/cooker/2007-12/msg00257.php
Assignments correct bug Adam Williamson said that in case of doubt the assignment of bugs, the best is to assign them to the yard crew of bugs. Http://archives.mandrivalinux.com/cooker/2007-12/msg00442.php
Works in progress ergonomics Frederic Crozat recalled the link to the Wiki page regarding ergonomics and added that work ergonomics are underway on tools Mandriva and their effects should be visible in Mandriva 2008.1. Http://archives.mandrivalinux.com/cooker/2007-12/msg00388.php
Debugger PulseAudio output Colin Guthrie gave the list of information to be provided in a bug report on PulseAudio output. Http://archives.mandrivalinux.com/cooker/2007-12/msg00361.php
Page wiki nucleus of the team Luiz Fernando N. Capitulino spoke of the wiki page nucleus of the team providing the schedule for Mandriva 2008.1. Http://archives.mandrivalinux.com/cooker/2007-12/msg00415.php
Upgrade to PulseAudio output Thierry Vignaud said that the migration of old systems PulseAudio output can be achieved only by the installer, the use of urpmi keep this configuration before. Http://archives.mandrivalinux.com/cooker/2007-12/msg00480.php
- Fingerprint Identification
Olivier Lahaye recalled that a bug was open for fingerprint authentication. Http://archives.mandrivalinux.com/cooker/2007-12/msg00543.php
Names of licenses in RPM Adam Williamson has clarified the names of licenses for use in packets pointing to the page of a wiki on the licensing policy at Mandriva. Http://archives.mandrivalinux.com/cooker/2007-12/msg00781.php
Notes and Errata Spring of 2008 Even if the distribution is not yet out, Adam Williamson has created wiki pages for the Release Notes and Errata. Http://archives.mandrivalinux.com/cooker/2007-12/msg00604.php
Barlia Mandriva 2008.1 has been released! Anne Nicolas announced Mandriva 2008 Spring Alpha1 (Barlia) form of a 32-bit DVD, a DVD and a 64-bit One KDE. Http://archives.mandrivalinux.com/cooker/2007-12/msg00628.php
- Mandriva use the RPM rpm.org
Pixel announced that Mandriva 2008.1 use the RPM rpm.org (that of RedHat and Suse), while explaining the differences between fast and rpm5.org rpm.org. The response did not tardée since Per Øyvind Karlsen responded by insisting that unlike rpm.org, rpm5.org was a true community, and it would be easier to trace patches, unlike the situation Current, where a good number of changes must be adapted to each new version. Http://archives.mandrivalinux.com/cooker/2007-12/msg00653.php Http://archives.mandrivalinux.com/cooker/2007-12/msg00696.php
Java IcedTea to compile all the packages Java? Anssi Hannula announced that Java packages are now compiled using IcedTea, the free version of Java. Alexander Kurtakov explained that it was important to maintain compatibility with jpackage.org, since some packages are not yet in Mandriva. Jaroslav Tulach, at sun.com, said that with a JDK compile and execute with another could pose problems, which appear to execution. Http://archives.mandrivalinux.com/cooker/2007-12/msg00661.php Http://archives.mandrivalinux.com/cooker/2007-12/msg00924.php Http://archives.mandrivalinux.com/cooker/2007-12/msg00837.php
What Java (JRE) in Mandriva? To meet Adam Williamson, Anssi Hannula announced that the version of Java included in Mandriva would prefer that Sun, as it is the only one that has the integration of Javascript and Java Web Start. For the Free and 64-bit architectures, it will be IcedTea since no other alternative. Http://archives.mandrivalinux.com/cooker/2007-12/msg00789.php
- Even more games with task-games!
Jose Jorge has proposed an updated meta-task-games package with 2 new games: bloboats and cultivation. Http://archives.mandrivalinux.com/cooker/2007-12/msg00741.php
Metacity even prettier! Frederic Crozat gave a Christmas gift GNOME users by providing the latest Metacity (engine windows) with the composite mode by default, which adds possibilities for transparency and shadows on the windows, without the need for OpenGL. Of course, it is still in test version. Http://archives.mandrivalinux.com/cooker/2007-12/msg00800.php
Towards a migration to tetex texlive Pacho Ramos recalled that the passage of tetex texlive to no longer than a few bugs. Http://archives.mandrivalinux.com/cooker/2007-12/msg00906.php
New abstraction layer file for Nautilus As stated Fabrice Facorat, some special address (such as computer: / /) do not work, because of the passage of gnome-vfs to gio / gvfs in Nautilus. Http://archives.mandrivalinux.com/cooker/2007-12/msg00959.php
LiveDVD Games, based on Mandriva Moreno announced that the group M.I.B. (Mandriva Italian Backports) has created a LiveDVD games. Http://archives.mandrivalinux.com/cooker/2007-12/msg01029.php
Contributions external tools Mandriva Emmanuel Andry suggested renaming Mandriva tools to remove the "drak" which is the last relic of the era Mandrake. Olivier Thauvin (Nanar) said that providing the tools in the form of tar.gz or tar.bz2 would be a good thing rather than simply point to the server SVN. Fabrice Facorat reiterated its willingness to write the technical documentation for each tool. He also added that it is practical to type "drak" + [TAB] for a list of all the utilities. Http://archives.mandrivalinux.com/cooker/2007-12/msg01067.php Http://archives.mandrivalinux.com/cooker/2007-12/msg01068.php Http://archives.mandrivalinux.com/cooker/2007-12/msg01083.php
Olivier alias ofaurax
