Nat Friedman & the Personal Cloud: “Personal data warehouse”

Ximian co-founder and intrepid technologist with SUSE Linux, Nat Friedman recently blogged about a “Personal data warehouse,” stating:

What I want is a giant elastic bit bucket in the cloud, with a powerful search engine on top of it.

He goes on to describe several capabilities that he wants the search capabilities to have, essentially bringing together several disparate services available on the web today–such as face recognition (Polar Rose) and Optical Character Recognition  (OCR, the simplest form right now may be Evernote‘s)–in order to make his data imminently accessible and usable.

Nat describes several other aspects, all of which in my view comprise not a single service, but a data platform. This Personal Cloud concept really cannot be delivered well by a single service provider–you don’t want it to be. Once you have your personal data in the cloud, the next step is to have a selection of relevant applications to choose from for helping you to manage your Personal Cloud. That means APIs that allow developers to offer best-of-breed services, such as face recognition, as applications that you can use with your cloud-hosted personal data.

All of that reminds me that I really need to write up a post about the necessity for data owners (you and me as individuals) having ultimate control over who can access our data (and what data they can access).

Open Source for America

If you have not yet looked into Open Source for America (OSA), the advocacy organization recently announced at OSCON, I recommend checking it out.

The recent increased focus on governmental transparency is long overdue. In the 1990′s, we saw a trend in the US toward putting public records online. The trend reversed drastically over the last decade, as new justifications for government secrecy arose. Coinciding with the new US administration, the public is expressing a renewed interest in transparency, with increased attention to Lobby Reform. (In a representative democracy, should it be permissible that elected officials should be able to make secretive backroom policy deals with lobbyists from the tobacco, health insurance or energy industries?)

In the context of open government, the transparency of government technology must also be considered. Free and Open Source Software gets used by government. But when software can be acquired and deployed at no charge, is it going through the same security and other reviews as proprietary software? Conversely, are there times when proprietary software is unacceptable? Consider electronic voting machines. If “We The People” fund the creation of the software ran on these machines, is there any way a vendor can justify not disclosing the source code? I state these observations as questions not to open a discourse about them, but to point out that there are many issues to consider about the role of Free and Open Source Software in government. The establishment of OSA may help shine light on such issues and provide help and guidance to Federal, state and local governments.

To find out what the organization plans to do, I recommend listening to the series of interviews with various OSA board members recently hosted by my good friend Erin Quill (also my former co-presenter on–and now host of–Novell Open Audio).

Google Chrome Bluescreened My Windows XP VM!

…and in a sick way, it was really kind of cool.

I’ve been playing with Google Chrome for a couple days.

But because Chrome is only available (natively) for Windows right now, I have to run a Windows XP virtual machine on my Linux machine (which still runs openSUSE).

And since I hardly ever need to use Windows anymore, the VM needed several updates, see?

So, I’m a-browsin’ and a-updatin’, and really enjoying how well the browser performs–especially with AJAX–while wondering how much the snappiness will decrease when Chrome is laden with more full set of browser features…

…and then Windows Update completes its work and tells me to reboot.

So, I click the “Close” option and skip the “Restart” so that I can do a Shutdown-and-Apply-Updates instead, because that’s how I want to do it, see?

But Chrome doesn’t want to close down. In fact, it stops responding altogether. Now Google Chrome is in a stare down with Windows shutdown.

Well, you know what Windows does to programs that don’t stop. That’s right, it puts up dialog messages. This one essentially says, “He don’t wanna go, boss. Can I kill’im?”

But before I can even respond, Chrome frickin’ blue screens Windows. As the kids say these days, >Snap!<

Next thing I know, I’m watching the VMware POST process emulation, and hoping that my VM is not hopelessly corrupted.

Good old nostalgia…I haven’t seen a Blue Screen of Death on my own machine in ages.

BrainShare 2007 Friday General Session

If you would like to see the General Session that I hosted at BrainShare 2007, it is now online.

• Nat Friedman brought out several guests (including David Reveman!) and showed some killer Linux stuff
• Baber Amin showed an open source InfoCard implementation
• Ken Muir showed the upcoming GroupWise release, codenamed Bonsai
• Alan Murray showed some cool Data Center technologies

Your Host for BrainShare’s Friday General Session

It’s now official: I will be hosting the Friday General Session at BrainShare 2007!

So far, the Friday line-up is really solid. It looks like we will have some cool Linux stuff with Nat Friedman, a demo of some open source identity components with Baber Amin, a look at what is planned for the next GroupWise with Ken Muir, and some mind-bendingly cool data center automation stuff with Alan Murray.

And to top it off, we will be giving away ten–count ‘em! ten!–primo AMD-powered, custom painted laptops.

It’s going to be a lot fun. Hope to see you there!

Take the openSUSE Survey

My friend Michael Loeffler who works on openSUSE informs me that the openSUSE team is conducting a survey of their end users right now. If you use openSUSE, please take a few moments to fill it out. (And of course, there is some thank-you swag involved.)

Record a Desktop Video on SLED

After posting a couple videos from my SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 system, some network admins have asked me to share how I record these. One said that he sees practical use in creating how-to videos for his end users.

So here is how I set up my SLED10 system for capturing my desktop as a video file.

The Short Version

• Use RecordMyDesktop.
  • (Um…That’s it. You don’t need to read the rest.)

The Detailed Version

Install

1. Make sure you have the following packages to your SLED10 machine: gcc, make, ogg, libogg-devel, libtheora-devel, libvorbis-devel, alsa-devel, jack-devel.
   • If you find that I omitted any packages, please let me know which I need to add to the list.
2. Download the latest version of RecordMyDesktop and gtk-RecordMyDesktop from the RecordMyDesktop project site. (These will be source code tarballs that you must build and install onto your machine.)
3. Put the two source packages in a folder and extract them.
4. Open a Terminal window and change to the newly-extracted RecordMyDesktop source folder.
5. As a regular user, use the command “./configure –prefix=/usr” to configure the build environment. If the configure errors out, it’s likely because of a missing package. Add the missing package and its “-devel” accompaniment.)
6. Now use the “make” command to build the package.
7. Finally, use the command “sudo make install” to install the software. This will prompt you for the root user’s name.
8. Repeat the same steps for the gtk-RecordMyDesktop source folder.

Launch

1. Use Alt-F2 to start a Run Application window.
2. Type “gtk-recordMyDesktop” on the command line and hit enter.
3. Start recording!

Use

• Watch the how-to video.

A Few Best Practices Suggestions

• I recommend creating a special user account for recording videos. It will help you to ensure that you always have an uncluttered desktop with a consistent background for your videos.
• Use a simple wallpaper or background color so that viewers are not distracted from the subject of your video.
• Turn of your instant messenger. It really blows a video to have “yt?” pop up.
• If you have other suggestions for me to include, please post a comment.

Show Me that Updated GNOME Main Menu

[Please Digg This]

How often do we Linux advocates and enthusiasts hear the complaint that Linux lacks the polish and refinement that users expect from their desktop? For most end users, it doesn’t matter how good the underlying software is. If the interface sucks, then the software itself sucks. While it may pain some avid Linux adherents to say it, this is part of the reason why desktop Linux has yet to catch on with a broader set of users: Linux has struggled for years to come out of the woods and be perceived as visually appealing and pleasant to use.

Those who read this blog probably know that Interaction Design matters a lot to me. It has been one of the things I have advocated extensively in my work with desktop Linux. To be sure, part of why I still like working for Novell* is that the desktop team at Novell continues to produce not only great technical advancements, but also continuous improvements in the look and feel of the desktop. The new Main Menu for Gnome that debuted with SLED10 showed how studying user interaction with the desktop can result in a strikingly improved interface. (I don’t kid myself here–there are many who have vocalized their preference for GNOME’s traditional Applications-Places-System menu. But, many do like it.)

I’m pleased to share that the desktop design team at Novell is working on further improvements to the original Main Menu. The video below comes from the upcoming SLED10 Service Pack 1 as it looks in the current internal beta 3. (The unreleased status means that this is not necessarily the final product, and things may change from what you see today.

Video information:

• The video is a 12.1 MB Ogg Theora file.
• I recommend using something like Totem for viewing. (Helix/RealPlayer did not play the video very smoothly.)
• I narrated the video using a small PC headset rather than a professional microphone, and I did no post-production editing. So, it’s kind of rough.
• If the video link is broken, please leave a comment. then I will put it on a different host.
• If you cannot get the video to play, there is a low-resolution version on Google Videos.

*Yes, I say “still” that is an admission that I have been challenged with a certain, recently-cemented partnership

Related Posts:

• …they’re brewing up some polish…
• Show Me That New GNOME Main Menu
• Customizing the GNOME Main Menu
• Products and Projects: What’s in a Name?

How to Revert to Standard Gnome Menus

So you don’t like the SLED10′s Main Menu–you prefer the traditional Applications-Places-System menu in Gnome. A few people have commented to me that they hope that SLED doesn’t force them to use the new menu. Rest assured, SLED10 provides you choice on that.

I made a quick video to show that, no, you do not have to use default Main Menu in SLED10. With a couple quick clicks you can change it back to the way you like.

Video information:

• The video is a 2 MB Ogg Theora file.
• Windows and Mac users consult this page.
• On Linux, I recommend using something like Totem for viewing. (Helix/RealPlayer did not play the video very smoothly.)
• There is no audio on this file.

Greg Kroah-Hartman Blogs About Community

SUSE has many, many interesting hackers who have been hacking on free software for years. Greg Kroah-Hartman is a well-known and widely respected Kernel hacker. A friend of mine in the UK recently pointed me to an eloquent post by Greg about the need for community considerations with free software projects. It’s a perspective well worth considering.

Questions with Ron Hovsepian

My apologies to our listeners for the delay in posting any interviews about the Novell-Microsoft agreement. I know that there are a lot of questions and I have seen plenty of concern and speculation among the community at large. (There is an annual sales kickoff event that has everyone at Novell tied up. That’s not an excuse, it’s just the terrain I have to navigate to get information.)

The outcry from the free software community about the Novell-Microsoft agreement has been substantial, and a lot of people have been turning to me and asking for answers. I hear you, and I am at last starting to assmble some material.

I finally secured an interview with Novell CEO Ron Hovsepian and Novell General Counsel Joe LaSala this afternoon. Having received many questions from the community, I chose two major items to take up with Ron: Why deal with Microsoft, and, Is Novell abiding by the GPL? More specifically, the questions are essentially these:

1. Few companies have ever lived to tell about their partnership with Microsoft. Why should Novell be any different?
   
2. Is Novell paying Microsoft royalties for software patents? And, if so, is Novell possibly violating section 7 of the GNU General Public License?
3. By collaborating with Microsoft on Windows-Linux interoperability while operating under a patent agreement, will Novell possibly contaminate open source projects with Microsoft intellectual property?
4. Why has there been such a delay on getting out more information?

I know that there is a lot more ground that needs to be covered than these four questions, but because they will get into technical detail, I will commit to going deeper and further into the matter with people who are involved in the technical aspects.

I’m staying up late tonight to review the audio, and I’ll be mastering this edition myself. As soon as I get it done, I have to put it through approvals (which happens when questions involve legal matters). I hope to have it online by mid-day Thursday (MST), depending on how quickly some of the stakeholders can get back to me. Thanks for bearing with me on this.

Reader Question: SLED or openSUSE?

[DistroWatch Readers: Welcome! Thanks for checking out this post. Please also check out the podcast that I host, Novell Open Audio.]

A reader recently asked me whether I prefer SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop, or openSUSE?

The problem with the question is that it requires so much explaining. At the moment, I prefer SLED10.

Reasons:

• SLED is currently the latest, greatest desktop distribution from Novell.
• SLED is a rock-solid release. I have found that its reliability is matched by the refinement and polish of the interface. It’s fantastic.
• SLED has the Enterprise driver download process, which provides me new revisions of Nvidia and ATI drivers whenever Novell posts new kernel versions. (Sorry, but I hate doing builds.)

But my current preference is not my general preference. You see, in a few short weeks, I will switch to openSUSE, just as beta 1 comes due.

Reasons:

• I am not an enterprise user. As an an end-user, I am generally ahead of the helpdesk. Also, being a techie who works amidst scores of people who are very Linux-savvy, I can easily get peer support, as well as community support very easily.
• openSUSE keeps me closer to technology’s leading edge. As we get further from SLE10′s release date, it will become clear why SLED10 is an enterprise version: it’s designed and managed by Novell to be dependable. Consequently, it will not to stay on top of the rapid changes being developed in open source, which causes some churn for the user. But as SLED’s impressive debut fades into its intended purpose, let’s remember that enthusiasts generally agreed that SLED10 was a breakthrough release for Linux dirstributions, and will be remembered as such. So, openSUSE will continue to lead with new features and innovations, and the gap between SLED10 and openSUSE, as well as a variety of other community distributions, will increase.
• With openSUSE in beta 1 comes feature freeze, which means that the pre-beta mayhem goes away, allowing me to settle into the calm turmoil of beta cycles. I joke, but it means that updates will be easier and less likely to add or remove features.
• openSUSE 10.2 will debut some cool new KDE features. I have been using GNOME almost exclusively through the whole beta cycle of SLED10. That’s mostly because SLED10 was bringing so much new stuff in GNOME. As 10.2 draws nigh, KDE will get its chance to strut its stuff a bit, and I want to be in the know.

Does that mean that I will I stick with openSUSE from then on? No. In about a year, I’ll start to track SLED11–probably when it reaches its first beta. I suspect it will attempt to outdo its predecessor almost the way SLED10 made the once well-revered NLD9 look like a child’s plaything. I hope to do the same thing I did through the SLED10 beta-to-release timeframe: track the tech and share with people what’s happening with it.

Upgrade to Banshee 0.11.0 on SLED10

DO NOT FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS. THEY ARE NOW OUTDATED.
This post co-written with Erin Quill, and follows my presentation at Ohio Linux Fest. Thanks go out to everyone who came to my session. (Update: See 16OCT06, below.)

A few weeks before releasing iTunes 7, Apple rolled out a firmware update for iPod devices. The update rendered obsolete a key library for using Banshee with your iPod. (This is normally the point at which I would open up into a small-time rant about Apple, but I understand that the Mighty Aaron Bockover has one queued up for a near-term release.) So here is where we will step in and try to make ourselves useful by explaining how to update a SLED10 system (and probably an openSUSE system, as well) to the latest version of Banshee.

Updating to the latest Banshee does more than simply fix connectivity with any iPod devices that you might have mistakenly updated. It will also get you new plugins, including the aforementioned podcast plugin. (This is where the Amarok/KDE users chuckle about my foolish fascination with Banshee/Mono/GNOME. Fairly, I suppose. Amarok has had a podcatcher for quite some time.)

16OCT06 Update: You can now get RPM’s for the latest version of Banshee. (Even better, this will soon be a YUM repository.) Therefore, do the procedure that follows only if you really, really want to build from source.

NOA: Beergardens and Mobile Devices

I have previously mentioned that we have an upcoming episode of Novell Open Audio featuring Holger Macht and Timo Hoenig from SUSE’s “Team Mobile Devices.” Well, it’s finally online.

In a tip of the hat to the guys over at The Linux Link Tech Show, this edition involves beer. We recorded from Anderland, a fine beergarden in beautiful Nuremberg. Please consider the background noise on this one simply part of the ambience. Oh, and for our Provo-based listeners: yes, that is a baby crying in the background, and, yes, people commonly bring their infants to beergardens.

We remind you that the online listener survey closes on Saturday, so if you haven’t taken the survey yet, please do! We will award two limited edition green Novell backpacks–possibly stuffed with some other cool schwag–to two of the respondents. We’ll announce who wins them after September 30th.

OpenSUSE about to overtake Ubuntu on Distrowatch (7 Day HPD Chart)

While a 7-day stat may not sustain, this is nice to see!

Please give it a digg!

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