Few days ago I found artwork suggestions for Fedora 10. I really like the wallpapers in Solar theme. They should change based on the time of the day. As I don’t think that is supported in Gnome, I wrote this little script that does the job.

To run it, a directory with wallpapers needs to be passed.

./rotate-wallpapers /path/to/wallpaper/directory/

If you want it to run in the background, you can press Alt+F2 in Gnome, and run it.

/path/to/rotate-wallpapers /path/to/wallpaper/directory/

Once it’s run, it will count the number of wallpapers in the directory (files ending in jpg, jpeg, gif, png or svg), divide 1440 by that number and use the result as a period of time on which wallpapers will be rotated. It will set the first wallpaper, and sleep until the wallpaper needs to be changed.

So, this script is pretty much specific. It will work best with the series of wallpapers that have subtle changes, such as the Solar wallpapers. But, you’re free to use it in every way you want. Good luck …

If you find any bugs, please post it in the comments. Thanks.

The article in IT PRO states that Microsoft will be implementing ODF (OpenDocument format) support in its Office suite:

Microsoft has no date for implementing OOXML on its own platform, but has agreed to implement the rival ODF format on Microsoft Office. Microsoft has given its blessings to ODF by joining the OASIS committees, and to cap it all, a senior Microsoft spokesman has conceded that “ODF has clearly won”.

Microsoft has even volunteered to opt into the ongoing ODF development process which, not without reason, has aroused the suspicions of ODF proponents.

I’m a bit suspicious of Microsoft’s move and if Microsoft has some hidden intentions. But I think it won’t be able to “close” ODF .

Here’s a blog post on MSDN which says ODF will be supported in MS Office 2007 Service Pack 2.

And why is this important to me? Most of my friends and professors still use MS Office. I use OpenOffice.org. If I need to send them a document (which needs to be editable, so PDF is not an option), I could do “Here’s the document in ODT (OpenDocument text), play with it”, but that wouldn’t be very nice. I don’t want to force anybody to use something they don’t wish to. So, I convert it to DOC, and then send it to them. But I don’t want to use DOC. And it seems like I’m not going to as soon as MS implements this ODF support. Let’s hope it will release plug-ins for previous MS Offices, too… or that people will switch to OpenOffice.org .

In the end, I think this is a good thing for ODF. Whether we like it or not, MS Office has the biggest market share, and by this more people will be able to use ODF for their documents.

Firefox is on its way for setting a Guinness world record in the most software downloaded in 24 hours. It’s gonna happen on FF3 release day. If you want to pledge that you will download it on its release day, you can do so on their Spread Firefox page. Also, check out the cool affiliate buttons and place one on your site.

Spread the word, spread Firefox!

This is the first post on the new domain, so I would like to make it a bit special .

Hardy Heron will be released in five days, and Ubuntu’s Mozilla team has been quite busy preparing all the goodies. So, what has Mozilla team done?

Firefox 3 beta 5 is in the official repositories. It replaces the old Firefox 2, which can still be installed from the repositories. It is a pity that Firefox 3 release candidate is coming out few days after Hardy, but Firefox 3 beta 5 is very useful and pretty stable for day-to-day use. Just look at the reviews. And I’m sure we’ll be able to install Firefox 3 as soon as it comes out from Fabien Tassin’s Personal Package Archive.

Also, many members have been testing, editing and packaging Firefox 3 (and upgraded some of Firefox2) extensions for Ubuntu, so this release brings more of them than before. Currently, around 30 extensions are in the repositories. The work is still in progress, so expect more. If you would like to see your favourite extensions, feel free to suggest them at Firefox 3 extensions wiki. Ubufox extension makes it easy to install other extensions. Start it from Tools -> Add-ons -> Get Ubuntu extensions.

Prism, which allows to users to move webapps to their desktop, is also in the repositories. Be sure to check it out.

And, if you feel like living on the wild side, you can test Thunderbird 3 alpha from Fabien’s Personal Package Archive. No links, since this can be very dangerous. You have been warned .

Congrats to the whole Mozilla team, and to the Ubuntu community .

Dejan Cvetković, generalni direktor Microsoft softvera za Srbiju i Crnu Goru, je objavio interesantan tekst u dnevnim novinama Danas. Naime, on je napisao veliki broj neistina o slobodnom softveru i softveru otvorenog koda (kao i otvorene standarde i ostalo). Da vidimo šta je napisano…
(Napomena: pasusi u kurzivu su delovi originalnog teksta iz novina)

“Otvoreni standardi, otvoreni kod, otvorena arhitektura – sve to zvuči tako pozitivno, tako slično, tako…otvoreno. Ko ne bi poželeo da radi baš sa takvim IT sistemom koji je mnogo bolji od zatvorenog. Prvo iznenađenje krije se u činjenici da je pravi kontrast na tržištu danas između različitih vrsta  otvorenog, a ne između otvorenog i zatvorenog. A zašto je danas sve na IT tržištu otvoreno? Zato što želimo da imamo veću kontrolu, želimo da sarađujemo sa drugima na razvoju naših sistema i želimo bolji uvid i razmenu podataka. Ali, to ne znači haos, već nastajanje da sazna šta je u osnovi programa koji se koriste. Tako ga bolje poznajete, bolje koristite i više učite o njegovim (a i svojim) sposobnostima. To zvuči kao velika sloboda, ali krije i veliku opasnost. Metafore iz sveta automobilske industrije svojevremeno su bile veoma popularne u IT novinarstvu, a sećam se nekih u kojima je Majkrosoft prošao ne baš slavno. Pa da probamo ponovo – zamislite da svaki put kad otvorite haubu svog automobila i dotaknete neki njegov deo, doživite da se taj deo promeni ili, čak, nestane. Ili, još gore, želite da prekontrolišete kočnice, ali pritisnete pogrešno dugme, i one potpuno nestanu, ali i dalje izgleda kao da su tu. Možda bi to bilo po malo opasno?”

Da li sam jedini kome kraj zvuči pomalo suludo? Dakle, otvoreni sistem je nekako i zamaskiran, te izaziva nagle i česte promene. Možda grešim, ali to je moj zaključak na osnovu napisanog. Prateći tu logiku, do sada bi moj (a verovatno i milioni drugih računara) bio u skroz neupotrebljivom stanju. Da li je tako? Kucam ovaj post, dakle nije. Radi li Google? Hmm, radi… Izgleda da je sve u redu i sa njihovim mašinama. Pošto je pisano u biznis delu novina, da vidimo šta firme imaju od otvorenog softvera. Brzi pogled na podatak o trenutno najstabilnijim hosting kompanijama nam pokazuje da čak sedam od deset koriste softver otvorenog koda za servere. Ako pogledamo istraživanje iz novembra ove godine, web serveri otvorenog koda drže oko 50% tržišta. Naleteo sam pre nekog vremena na zanimljiv post Svi koriste Linux (na engleskom), gde su ukratko navedene neke od većih firmi koje, za neku svrhu, koriste softver otvorenog koda. Da nastavimo…

“Kod otvorenog sistema sve je otvoreno i pristupačno: kad jednom otvorite sva vrata i u svom sistemu, morate dobro da pazite gde se šta ostavljate. To je kao da ste skinuli vrata sa svog stana i na dovratak stavili malu priručnu mapu koja kaže gde su šrafcigeri, gde je novac, gde je kupatilo, a gde “ladno” pivo, jer vam povremeno u kuću navraćaju neki majstori koji bi nešto da poprave. Da, ali ko još može da navrati? Sigurnost? Zaboravite na sigurnost, bitno je da je otvoreno.”

Uh, uh… Da li je baš tako?… A zašto? Jednostavno. Lepota otvorenog koda, naspram zatvornog, je baš ta otvorenost – svi mogu da vide kod. Svi mogu da uđu “pod haubu”, i da vide šta se dešava. Više očiju ima priliku da vidi i da radi na kodu, te samim tim da doprinese sigurnosti i stabilnosti. To što je otvoren ne znači da svaka promena bude prihvaćena. Svaki projekat ima tim koji dobro proveri neki doprinos sa strane, pre nego što se spoji sa glavnim delom koda. Ako je nešto slučajno prošlo, biće brzo ispravljeno baš zbog svih uprtih pogleda.

“Takođe, kad nema nekih pravila, kad nema standarda koji zacrtavaju kako se treba ponašati u ovakvoj situaciji, onda su jedini pravi eksperti oni koji su taj sistem postavili. A oni onda mogu da biraju koliko će vam naplatiti da ga i dalje održavaju za vas. Jer drugih nema. Vratimo se na čas u automobilsku industriju: zamislite da vaša omiljena fabrika automobila proizvodi samo motore i volane, a da sve druge delove auta po volji ugrađuje vaš automehaničar Ljubinko, koji ih kompletira i završava za vas. Zamislite dalje da je vaš automobil dovršio uz pomoć tri budilnika i pola kilograma retke vrste amazonske šljive. Koji drugi majstor će umeti da ga popravlja? I koliku će moć nad vama imati vaš majstor? A da ne pominjem uvoznike retkih amazonskih šljiva.”

Ok, zamislimo za čas da je naš automobil dovršio automehaničar Ljubinko. Mi tačno znamo kako je on dovršio auto, te možemo naći nekog drugog automehaničara, koji može da pogleda šta je radio Ljubinko. Drugi mehaničar može da nam pomogne kad dođe do problema. Ako je dobar mehaničar, verujem da će videti šta je neko pre njega radio . I u programiranju: ako je kod uredno pisan i održavan, većina programera bi trebalo da bude u stanju da shvati šta se program radi nakon čitanja koda.
Da posetimo Miladinka. Miladinko nam je sastavio ceo automobil. Takođe nas je obavestio da jedino on može da nam servisira auto. Isto tako, imamo zabranu da zavirimo ispod haube. A ako hoćete neku izmenu na automobilu, nadajte se da će ona odgovarati Miladinku i da će se on složiti da je odradi za vas.

“Otvoreni standard je neka druga vrsta otvorenosti, izbalansirana da vam da slobodu da znate i razvijate, ali i da ograniči opasnosti i cene otvorenog sistema. Otvoreni standard podrazumeva da znate detalje, ali ih ne smete menjati i to omogućava svima da ga koriste. Drugim rečima, razmenjujete sa svima ključna znanja o tome kako se najbolje može sa vašim sistemom sarađivati, raditi i komunicirati, ali im ne dajete šansu da u njega uđu i menjaju ga, kontrolišu ili zloupotrebljavalju. Otvoreni kod, s druge strane, podrazumeva da svako može da ga menja.”

Ovde je opet pogrešno shvaćena suština otvorenog koda. Svako može da ga menja i da izmenjeni program dalje distribuira i koristi. Ali to pravo ne znači da neko može da uđe u vaš računar i da vam izmeni delove vašeg koda. Da koristimo paralelu sa automobilima: ne može svaki stranac da upadne ispod vaše haube i da tek tako vršlja po motoru. Stoji da su neki u mogućnosti da to urade. Zato se kola i obezbeđuju na ovaj ili onaj način. Da li biste se sigurnije osećali kada znate da je na bezbednosti vašeg automobila radilo puno ljudi širom sveta ili neka zatvorena grupica?

“Ove i obične teme provociraju snažne jake emotivne reakcije kod učesnika na IT sceni; svi imaju svoj omiljeni modus i oblik rada, i sve te emocije vam kažu koliko se ljudi lako i duboko vezuju za jednostvane ideje – ideje otvorenosti i saradnje, ideje najboljeg mogućeg iskorišćenja onoga na čemu rade, ali je paradoks u tome da upravo sistem koji je formulisaniji, čvršći i zaokruženiji ima više šanse da im to pruži. To najbolje dokazuju veliki i moćni sistemi širom sveta, neki koji servisraju najveće gradove na svetu – a svakim danom ih je sve više. Oni su probali da primene suprotnu logiku i od nje su odustali na veliki i posramljujući način, shvativši da je taj eksperiment zanimljiv, ali da oni moraju da budu iskreni i realni prema svojim potrebama.”

Verovatno su neki odustali, ali nemojmo zanemariti veliki broj vlada i državnih institucija koje su našle otvorena rešenja pristupačnijim i boljim. Podsetimo se izveštaja britanske vlade o isplativosti softvera otvorenog koda iz 2004. godine. Tu je i zanimljiv tekst britanske vlade o softveru otvorenog koda. Još jedan državni dokument o isplativosti korišćenja softtvera otvorenog koda bi mogao biti zanimljiv. Na kraju se nalaze linkovi ka izveštajima još nekoliko vlada, pa bih preporučio da pogledate.

“I nije ovde reč o pobedi Majkrosofta nad Luniksom, niti o pobedi Luniksa nad Majkrosoftom, koliko o pobedi korisnika nad svojim iluzijama i parcijalnim vizijama.”

Kako neko može biti ozbiljno shvaćen kada koristi imena poput Luniks? Baš kao i osobe koje misle da će nešto učiniti nazivajući Microsoft Microshit ili M$…

“Zagovornici OSS ponekad iskreno, ali i veoma pogrešno, sugerišu jednu suptilnu zamenu teza, po kojoj otvorenost znači slobodu, a slobode nikad dosta. Da, teško je ne složiti se da je sloboda poželjna, i da svi volimo da je ima dovoljno. Ali, ova rotacija poruka ima bar dve greške. Nije otvorenost apsolutno identifikovana slobodom, niti to ikad u relanom svetu tvrdimo. Ponekad želimo da budemo sigurni i “zatvoreni” u svojim domovima, sistemima i izborima, da bismo imali slobodu da u njima uživamo, radimo i gradimo po svojoj meri.”

Dakle, zatvorimo se u svoje domove. Promenimo koji komad nameštaja, ili možda boju zidova. Ali, ako hoćete neku veću izmenu, pozovite one majstore koji su vam kuću napravili. Jedino oni smeju da menjaju. Takođe, nadajte se da će im se dopasti ideja, jer je njihova ključna reč. I budite spremni da igrate po njihovim uslovima…

“Ali, tezu da je sloboda dobra, a apsolutna sloboda apsolutno dobra, doživela je krah. Jer, sloboda je kao i svaki drugi element konteksta – vredi tačno onoliko koliko i stvar za koju smo je primenili. Otvorenost isto tako. I jedno i drugo se mogu zloupotrebiti, a na nama je da modulišemo koliko nam je čega kao društvu potrebno. IT scena? Isto tako.”

Tačno. Da proširimo, sve se može zloupotrebiti. Doduše, verujem da je otvoreno manje podložno zloupotrebi od zatvorenog… Više očiju je uprto u dešavanja.

Zaista sam razočaran da je ovakav, nekvalitetan tekst prošao u novinama Danas. Očekivao sam više…

Powered by ScribeFire.

Flock 1.0 is out. For those who haven’t heard about it, it is “a social web browser” that integrates services from the social sites, making them easier to use. So far, it is going well. Last time I checked it out it was in some alpha or beta phase. Also, I wasn’t a big user of social sites, so it was not attractive to me. This morning I read on TechCrunch that Flock 1.0 is out, so I decided to give it a try. Here’s my report .

Right after the first start it asked me if I want it to import bookmarks, passwords and settings from Firefox. It went fine – just select what you want to import and move on.

You are greeted with My World – a portal which presents your Favorite Pages, Feeds and Media. It is nice and clean, but I think there are some other sites that gives much better experience. In my opinion, My World is not planned as a big feature in Flock. Ok, let’s move on…

I like how they put the buttons for sidebars next to the Bookmarks toolbar. And they don’t take up much space, which is a plus. The People sidebar will give you updates from your accounts: Twitter, Facebook… The Media bar is a nice feature. You can search and then view the results from various media sites (obviously) inside the bar. I also like the Favorites bar. You can choose where you want to save your bookmarks – on your computer, online favorites site, or both. The thing that I like the most is the blog writer. Just start it, setup your account and write a post. There are links all around Flock that say “Blog this”, so it is easy to blog about something immediately. I still haven’t checked out the Web clipboard, so I don’t know how useful is it.

If you want to use Flock to its max, you should allow it to remember your accounts. It will do that automatically when you log in on those sites. Though, I have encountered one problem – it wasn’t able to remember my WordPress account. This is a known bug and there is a workaround: launch blog writer, skip the setup part and then do it manually (Edit -> Configure blog accounts).

So far, I have to say that I like it. I would like to see support for Google’s Picasa and Last.fm. Also, it would be nice if the Flock dev team could support upload and management of files to WordPress accounts.
In conclusion: if you are a social sites user, you will like it. Otherwise, I think that you won’t find too much use for its features.

*update* Great… I have just found out that it didn’t set the tags for this post, even though I wrote them.
*update#2* Oh, it did set the tags, but not the WordPress’.

*update after few days* Well, I have looked a bit and found out that everything I needed from Flock is already there for Firefox. The only thing that is missing is the Media bar.

Blogged with Flock

Tags: flock, internet, social, browser, software, review

I’m a regular visitor of VladStudio’s website, run by Vlad Gerasimov, a digital artist. It is a spot to find a lot of beautiful wallpapers. Recently, he began making wallpaper clocks – dynamic wallpapers that show date, hour, minute and stuff… I liked the idea, but I wasn’t able to use them on my system, as there was a Windows-only program for it.

I checked out his site last night and was surprised when I saw that there is a Wallpaper clock screenlet for Linux (download).

This screenlet requires Screenlets software to be installed. Once that is done, the screenlet needs to be unpacked to ~/.screenlets/ directory, or /usr/local/share/screenlets/ (this way it will be accessible to every user on the system). New wallpaper clocks are added by unpacking .wcz archive to ~/.screenlets/WallpaperClock/wallpapers/, or /usr/local/share/screenlets/WallpaperClock/wallpapers/ (depending on the place where the screenlet is located).

Well, I hope this will be useful . Enjoy…

Edit: This screenlet depends on python-imaging package.

The new beta version of Skype for Linux is out and it brings us the new interface. In my opinion it is simpler and less cluttered than the old one.

• The username and password fields are now part of the main window.
• The “File, View, …” menu is gone. The menu is located under the gear icon in the lower left corner.
• The tabs are removed, which resulted in dial pad and call status to open in separate windows. This seems as a more elegant solution. Call history is located under the clock icon in the upper right corner. The new events are accessed by clicking the same icon.

And it seems a bit more stable then the 1.3 series . On the other hand, it seems there is still no video support. Though, I did get a notification of users that have a webcam set up.

The release notes are available at https://developer.skype.com/LinuxSkype/ReleaseNotes.