There’s one person who used this branch to astounding effect. A user named tomoasks has made this very realistic video of the Buffalo’s mascot. If you’re wondering what the Buffalo’s are, they are a baseball team in Japan.

I embedded two videos here, the first by tomoasks (in blender) and an actual recorded video of the mascots dancing their team song. If Tom can get hold of this guy for Mango, wouldn’t it be real great!

Below is an actual video recording:

1. When Tizen was announced, it was more of a “political” decision of a future system than the announcement of an existing new technical platform (Intel and Samsung and the Linux foundation are still thinking of how to create it based on Meego and Limo, so that’s why no additional technical info was released yet).

2. Big part of Tizen will be the framework and the corresponding SDK to support HTML5-WAC applications. Native applications development will be supported through the use of EFL (Enlightenment Foundation Libraries). What this means that the UI will be EFL based, not Qt based. This doesn’t mean though that Qt cannot be integrated as an add-on, as we see below:

3. Meego will form a big part of the components that are not Qt based (from what I understand including most of the core systems), and Limo will supply the EFL components.

4. What #3 basically means is that this is largely a Meego system with Qt removed; however, one can basically make a Qt-derivative since the core is hugely Meego.

I personally haven’t touched Enlightenment or their libraries since the early 2000s (peanutlinux days), but I do know that EFL is quite lightweight and is sponsored heavily by Samsung for use in their products and platforms.

This is gonna be interesting because what ensues is a probable tension between the Qt proponents and the EFL proponents. We also know that a number of Qt developers developing for Meego have been alienated by the Tizen announcement. All we can do is wait for this to sort out.

This is by far one of the most balanced studies I’ve seen comparing successful (and unsuccessful) well-known open source projects. Incidentally, visionmobile’s clients include HTC, Sony Ericsson, RIM, Microsoft, Intel, etc as part of it’s well known client lists.

Their quantification of “openness” between selected mobile open source projects (both successful and unsuccesful, single sponsor and multi sponsor) is called as the “Open Governance Index”.

The results were particularly interesting:

Among the 8 open source projects listed, Eclipse was the most “open” of all the projects, and Android was the last in the list. The research paper however noted that Android is also one of the most successful projects in the history of open source. It was contradictory enough that the paper called it the “Android Paradox”.

A number of interlinking factors were cited what made Android successful:
1. Google’s financial muscle and marketing.
2. Android’s “zero cost” subsidy by Google, since Google’s ultimate purpose is to drive more eyeballs to it’s ad inventory, which results to cheap handsets and low cost internet connectivity.
3. The adoption of the Open Source project by different manufacturers in order to compete against Apple’s iphone. The OEM industry generally poured billions of dollars into Android in order to compete with the Cupertino company’s product.

In retrospect, the research paper acknowledged that in the long term, platforms with the most open governance will be the most successful. Cited success stories are Eclipse, Linux, WebKit and Mozilla. Meego has the capability to become a successful project in the long term, in my opinion.

It also went to suggest that making a project open doesn’t necessary warrant a successful community builder. They stated that Software developers are human in nature and self-centered; and will only take interest in such a project if it provides value or addresses a common need – citing Linux, GTK or Webkit as an example (need for a vendor-neutral operating system, graphics software stack, browser engine). Symbian failed in this aspect; they failed to target developers (besides this, no proper development tools, complex contributions structure, etc).

What does this mean for Android and competing open source projects such as Meego?

Android was successful because aside from the factors stated above, when Android was released to the developers, the product was already a very advanced, and complete project (by and large due to Google’s famed engineering team):

However, there are some very good lessons for us to learn from how Google has managed the Android
open source project. First, Android was released as an open source project at a point in time where it
was already a very advanced, complete project. OEMs, operators and software developers could more
or less immediately use it to create derivative handsets and applications. Second, Google kickstarted a
developer buzz around the project with the $10 million Android Developers Challenge. Alongside
financial incentives, Google provided a very strong emotional message: that of opening application
development within a previously inaccessible mobile industry. Finally, Google’s speed of innovation
(five platform versions across 2010) outpaces any external innovation, and makes the ecosystem
entirely reliant on Google.

On the other hand, when Meego was announced, it was basically starting from scratch (okay, not exactly scratch, but the earliest versions of Meego were in the command line from my perspective) – try to imagine that they essentially went from a deb-based packaging solution (Maemo) to an rpm based one, and shifted from GTK/clutter to mainly Qt. This was one of the disadvantages I saw with the early development of Meego, and I have to say most likely hampered it’s early adoption (I do like the very open way the meetings are held though – I’ve been in one of the developer meetings in the past; but due to time zones it’s really difficult for me to attend it). It has gotten way better though; with the inclusion of non-Nokia/Intel people into the upper build team, the development process is getting to a point where I believe that this operating system will likely pick up pace and steam in the very near future (it has a bright future ahead in IVI systems in vehicles for example, and the upcoming N9 is positively received by many).

Let’s try to make a simple Android application using the phonegap cross-development framework calling a php script that uses my spelldial class to return a spelldial uri. Part one will describe steps on how to make your very first native webapplication in android (simply a hello world android web application).

I assume that you know how to install eclipse, the android sdk and the phonegap framework on your system (I’ll cover this in small detail, to help you get started).

There are many ways to program in android, ios, symbian, blackberry or winmo phones. There are cross-development frameworks which give you an abstract way to program in these mobile devices without dealing with the underlying phone hardware.

Two different technologies come to mind (these are the most popular that I’ve seen):
1. Appcelerator Titanium – this cross development tool allows web developers to quickly go into the mobile application department using what they know. HTML5, CSS, and a host of web programming languages such as php and ruby are supported. What is unique about this SDK is that these technologies are then compiled into their native counterparts – the end result is a native application. Impressive, actually. Supports both iOS and Android environments.
2. Phonegap takes a different approach. This is closest to what you call as a web application encapsulated in the mobile phone’s browser class. For example, what this means, in Android, this framework wraps around the WebView Java class and makes certain native phone functionalities available (like accessing your contacts for example) through javascript. For flash/flex developers, this is much like the ExternalInterface class that bridges between javascript and the flash application.

Which is more appropriate? If you’re a web developer and would like to make your application as close as possible to a native application, your best bet would be Appcelerator.

Why am I using phonegap in this case? If you just like to quickly develop applications and do not care if they look different from native applications, use phonegap. By the way, because of how phonegap works, it is available to more mobile environments than Appcelerator. Symbian, WinMo, Blackberry, iOS and Android mobile environments are supported by phonegap. No matter what the environment, your application would look the same because it is just practically your html application enclosed in the native phone’s browser class.

Also, phonegap is supported by the Dreamweaver CS 5.5 release, which means if you can afford it, mobile development will be quite simple to do (without using Eclipse as your environment to develop phonegap applications).

Now, lets begin. Let’s create a new project in eclipse by selecting File->New->Other

We now include our details for the application (Since Froyo or Eclair, the android version before 2.2, runs in 86% of android phones, I choose the lowest common denominator, Eclair), below:

We will have to add the phonegap jar file to the libs folder (which you will have to create) and also create the /assets/www folder where you will place the html files for your application. In this www folder, you will have also to place the phonegap.js file in there. This js file contains the functions that you will call to access native mobile phone functions such as accessing your camera, contacts, etc.

In order for Eclipse not to spurt out an error message (having a java class not available for use), we have to add phonegap.jar to the Build Path (Right click on the libs folder, select Build Path->Configure Build Path):

We will now edit the spelldial.java source code which was created using the New Project Wizard to look like this:

Let’s look at it line by line:

import ...
import com.phonegap.*;

The code above imports the phonegap class for use in our application.

public class spelldial extends DroidGap

Our spelldial class (which was created by the Wizard), extends upon the DroidGap class, which is in fact an extension of the WebView class.

This line below is what runs the web application (sort of like the main() function in your c program):

super.loadUrl("file://android_asset/www/index.html");

You can change the url to whatever you have placed in the assets/www folder as your starting point. index.html can simply be text saying “hello world” at this point.

One more thing, since phonegap uses certain native phone functions which require explicit permissions for the app to run, we’ll have to edit our AndroidManifest.xml to allow our app to use these:

These tags are placed below the android:versionName section:

<supports-screens
android:largeScreens="true"
android:normalScreens="true"
android:smallScreens="true"
android:resizeable="true"
android:anyDensity="true"
/>
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.CAMERA" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.VIBRATE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_LOCATION_EXTRA_COMMANDS" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_PHONE_STATE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.RECEIVE_SMS" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.RECORD_AUDIO" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.MODIFY_AUDIO_SETTINGS" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_CONTACTS" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_CONTACTS" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE" />

And there you have it, some basic steps on how to set up the phonegap framework in eclipse. Part 2 will be the actual js code and php code that this web application uses to call a person using the spelldial api php class hosted on a server.

To end this, let’s take a look at phonegap support in Dreamweaver CS 5.5:

I want share to you that I compiled some meego 1.1 rpms for openvpn (I can’t use my meego netbook for work because it doesn’t have openvpn in it’s default repositories). All you need to do is to download the rpm files in the ostalks ibiblio mirror:

http://mirrors.ibiblio.org/pub/mirrors/ostalks/meego/1.1/i586/openvpn-2.1.1-2.i586.rpm

and

http://mirrors.ibiblio.org/pub/mirrors/ostalks/meego/1.1/i586/pkcs11-helper-1.07-5.i586.rpm

install the last rpm first before installing openvpn.

Have fun!

UPDATE:
If you want the source rpms, they are located here:

http://mirrors.ibiblio.org/pub/mirrors/ostalks/meego/1.1/src/pkcs11-helper-1.07-5.src.rpm

http://mirrors.ibiblio.org/pub/mirrors/ostalks/meego/1.1/src/openvpn-2.1.1-2.src.rpm

You need to install the meego sdk.

Just needed to compile:
rpmbuild –rebuild –target=i586 pkcs11-helper-1.07-5.src.rpm
to install openvpn dependency, then

rpm -Uvh pkcs11-helper-1.07-5.src.rpm

and then go ahead to compile openvpn:
rpmbuild –rebuild –target=i586 openvpn-2.1.1-2.src.rpm

then use rpm -Uvh openvpn-2.1.1-2.src.rpm

to install. If you see dependency errors, just install these deps by using the command:
sudo zypper install ]]> http://www.ostalks.com/2010/11/28/openvpn-for-meego-1-1/feed/ 3 http://www.ostalks.com/2010/11/24/sintel-dvd/ http://www.ostalks.com/2010/11/24/sintel-dvd/#comments Wed, 24 Nov 2010 12:05:17 +0000 clintcan http://www.ostalks.com/?p=434 Just a short post (I have lots to do at work, but I need a slight distraction to clear up my brain)… My Sintel DVD has just arrived, and one word to describe it: overwhelmed!

For those of you who don’t know what Sintel is, it is the third open movie made by the Blender Foundation to showcase the advancements of Blender (particularly the Blender 2.5.x series).

Technical goals for Blender 2.5.x are:
* High detail multi-res modeling (sculpting) and render (micropolygons?)
* Fire/smoke/volumetrics & explosions
* Compositing using tiles/regions, so it becomes resolution independent
* Crowd/massive simulation (fix animation system to allow duplicates)
* Improve library system for managing complex projects
* Deliver in 4k digital cinema (depending agreement with sponsor)

As was with all of the open movies, the Blender Foundation depended on donations to help fund development of the open source software application (and create the open movie in the process).

Was the price of getting a DVD worth it? In a word, yes. You’ll have 4 DVDs worth of the actual film, tutorials, scripts, the blender program used to create sintel (plus all of the .blend files to recreate the film!), and whole lot of extras! You’ll even get 4K screenshot renders of the film itself.

In this screenshot, I loaded the .blend file of the guardian fighting sintel in the first scene:

Guardian Render in Blender 2.5.x

There are funny pics like:

Indiana Jones much?

and

Bunny!

And some video recordings of the voice actors:

Halina Reijn voicing Sintel

All in all, it’s a great addition to the Blender library and 3D resources.

DVD Extras (Disk #3)

Film Credits - Was fun looking at my name in it!

So! exciting times here at the Blender Institute, today is our very-really-thistimeforsure last rendering day, next to some color grade we need to do still, but then is time to grab those big .EXR files and convert them into friendly DPX’s for the guys at Cineco to do magic with it and turn them into 21312 stills of 35mm chemical glory.

That means we’re getting close to our (real!) Premiere, so in order to help us make some noise, 3D World is widely covering Blender topics on October’s issue, Sintel will be on cover + interview time with Ton (Producer), Colin (Director), and William (Animator), and even BBB got a column in “A list of the all the Best CG shorts out there”

In addition to this, I decided to make some unofficial wallpapers for all of you to enjoy – just click on the links below.

Sorry for the long delay in posting. Been quite busy lately (real life and trying to make ends meet – poor developer here ). Anyways, there’s a new WIP render of the Sintel Open Movie by the Blender Foundation. Remember it’s a work in progress (some bugs in blender build causing some problems in the render).

Anyways, here’s a youtube video of the wip:

Also, two weeks ago, a trailer of the Sintel movie came out:

All in all, it’s an impressive feat for the Blender team considering they are both working on the movie, plus working on improving blender as well!

And here is what you windows guys are waiting for – an installer for the blender 2.5 alpha 2 svn build date 5-28-2010.

Get your windows blender installer build at the ostalks ibiblio mirror now.

Day One has arrived, and both intel and nokia have released sources and is opening up Meego for development. What is now available? Everything from the kernel to the middleware stack was released today.

The UI Experience Framework will be released later in May; this is when Meego actually goes for it’s first release.

Also, for downloads (images of the base system, terminal only) of Meego for N900, Intel Atom Netbooks and the Intel Atom Handset (Moorestown), they are now available at http://meego.com/downloads

Full details are here.