Linux

(Posted 23 May 2013 by finid)

(Posted 23 May 2013 by falko)

I want a CLI WebDAV client that's better than cadaver or hdav. I want a program that can sync an .ics file with a CalDAV server, by dividing it up into events and individually synchronizing each of those. I don't have a clue how deletions would be handled, but that would be nice too. Then I want a program that can synchronize the .ics file with org-mode files. I want a SIP client that works as well as Twinkle but has the architecture of SFLphone or is a library upon which an arbitrary UI can be constructed. I want an HTML-rendering library that has callbacks or hooks for security- and privacy-relevant things like cookies and SSL certificates. I want at least one browser built on this library. I want it to support vi-like keybindings. I want an HTTP(S) proxy that can be dynamically-configured per-client or per-connection through a standardized protocol that web browsers or their plugins can speak. I want it to be able to handle all the relevant things covered by AdBlock Plus, RequestPolicy, and NoScript. I want HTTPS authentication through Monkeysphere and mod_gnutls. I want a git-annex backend for Ogg Vorbis files that treat the audio streams independently of the metadata yet stores them together in the same file so that everything behaves as usual but the annex doesn't bloat by 400Go after I run beets. I want a file transfer queuing system that can work over any sort of transport mechanism, direct or asynchronous, that handles partial transfers and throttling, and is generally magical. I want all kinds of accounting software improvements. I want sane PBX software. I want an OpenStack that doesn't use libvirt for KVM. I want backup software that behaves some weird hybrid of BoxBackup and Dirvish. I want a peer-to-peer card- and board-game platform that uses cryptographic assurance. I want everyone to use YAML instead of XML. I want a phone that's not running a doomed operating system. I want lots of other stuff.

One of the platforms we’ve been working on for a while at Collabora is the Raspberry Pi. Obviously the $25 pricepoint makes it hugely appealing to a lot of people — including free software developers who up until now have managed to avoid the agonyjoy we experience on a daily basis working on embedded and mobile platforms — but there are a couple of aspects which speak specifically to us as a company. Firstly, we did quite a bit of work on OLPC through the years, which had a similar, very laudable, educational mission encouraging not just deep computer literacy in children, but also open source involvement. The Raspberry Pi has broadly the same aims, a very education-friendly pricepoint, and has seen huge success. Less loftily, it’s a great example of a number of architectures we’ve been quietly working on for quite some time, where hugely powerful special-purpose (i.e. not OpenGL ES) graphics hardware goes nearly unused, in favour of heavily loading the less powerful CPU, or pushing everything through GL.   background etc The Raspberry Pi has a Broadcom BCM2385 SoC in it, containing an extremely beefy (roughly set-top-box-grade) video, media and graphics processor called the VideoCore (somewhat akin to a display controller, GPU and DSP hybrid), and a … somewhat less beefy general-purpose ARMv61 CPU. The ARM side does everything you’d expect, whereas the VideoCore is a multi-functional beast, acting as the GPU for OpenGL ES, the display engine for outputs/overlays/etc, and also any general-purpose processing (e.g. accelerated JPEG decode). In terms of how this looks from the ARM, the VideoCore exposes its display functionality through DispManX, an API for display control similar, in capability at least, to KMS. The DispManX exposes a number of output displays, each of which can have a number of planes (sometimes called overlays or sprites) which can each be in different colourspaces (think: video), scaled, alpha-blended, or variously stacked. No surprise there, as this is how most GPUs and display controllers look everywhere: from your phone, to your desktop, to your set-top box. A recurring theme for us is how to properly use and expose these overlays. There’s a huge benefit in doing so over using GL: not only are they a lot faster, but they also have hugely better quality when doing colourspace conversion and scaling, and extra filters for much better image quality2. There’s also a pretty strong power argument to be made; at one stage, measuring on a phone, we found a 20% runtime difference — from 4 hours to a bit over 5 — when watching videos using the overlay, compared to pumping them through GL ES. And that was without the zerocopy support we enjoy nowadays! The X Video extension (Xv) exposes overlays in a very limiting and frustrating way, meaning they’re only really suitable for video, and even then aren’t capable of zerocopy.  DRI2 video support was proposed to fix this, but so far TI’s OMAP is the only real deployment of this, and client support is very patchy. Even then, this is only applicable to video. Under the X11 model, effectively the only way to do compositing is for an external process to render the entire screen as a single image, then pass that image to the X server to display. This is fine for GL, since that’s exactly what it’s built for, but it means you’re never going to get to use all your lovely 2D compositing hardware. Either that, or you do offload compositing inside the X server: something very difficult which almost no-one does, not only because it means no compositing. And no compositing means that your desktop is all back to 1995, with those attractive flickering backgrounds and jittery resizes. :(   i thought this was about rpi … ? We’ve been working with the Raspberry Pi Foundation since last year, when we first brought up Weston on Raspberry Pi. At that stage, Weston was still very heavily GLES-based, but was able to opportunistically pull individual surfaces out into overla

Few handsets are hotter than the Samsung Galaxy S4 right now, and AT&T managed to get their hands on an exclusive color that really shows off the heat.AT&T today announced an exclusive new color for the 16GB Samsung Galaxy S4, arriving online and in stores on June 14.Available for $199.99 with two-year agreement, AT&T's Aurora Red variant gives the Galaxy S4 a sleek, fire engine red to complement the world's hottest Android handset.Although the Aurora Red model won't roar into AT&T's online and retail stores until June 14, eager buyers will be able to secure their place in line with a preorder from either starting Friday, May 24.Made for speedWhile the Aurora Red Galaxy S4 will only come in 16GB capacity, the device features the same 1920 x 1080 Super AMOLED display, packing 441 pixels per inch into its five-inch screen.Weighing only 4.6 ounces and a mere 7.9 millimeters thin, Samsung's latest flagship handset is powered by a 1.9GHz quad-core processor, 2GB of internal RAM and Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean.Like the existing 16GB and 32GB colors already offered by AT&T, the latest edition is perfectly matched for the carrier's 4G LTE network, which currently covers more than 292 million people from coast to coast.Along with a similar Arctic Blue variant, the Aurora Red model arrives on the heels of word that Samsung has shipped more than 10 million Galaxy S4 smartphones less than a month after first making them available to the public.Read more about the Samsung Galaxy S4

How To Use Multiple PHP Versions (PHP-FPM & FastCGI) With ISPConfig 3 (Ubuntu 13.04) Since ISPConfig 3.0.5, it is possible to use multiple PHP versions on one server and select the optimal PHP version for a website. This feature works with PHP-FPM (starting with PHP 5.3) and FastCGI (all PHP 5.x versions). This tutorial shows how to build PHP 5.3 and PHP 5.4 as a PHP-FPM and a FastCGI version on an Ubuntu 13.04 server. These PHP versions can be used together with the default PHP (installed through apt) in ISPConfig.

Hey gamers - still riding your high from the Xbox One announcement? Nvidia has its own set of gaming goodness that might extend the buzz a little longer, today announcing three PC gaming-oriented oratories. First on the block: the GeForce GTX 780, a GPU based on the same GK110 GPU used in the GeForce GTX Titan. It's Kepler architecture and, according to Nvidia, whirs "whisper quiet."At 2304 CUDA cores, the GeForce GTX 780 boasts 50 percent more cores than the GeForce GTX 680 and 50 percent more memory thanks to a 3GB frame buffer. What's more, the 780 has a 384-bit memory interface that provides 288.4GB/sec of peak memory bandwidth to the GPU for maximum screen resolution. YouTube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Wj8n69FEIM&feature=youtu.beStack it up to AMD's HD 7970 (on Nvidia's terms), and the GTX 780 runs titles like Batman: Arkham City and Shogun 2 39 percent faster, while Borderlands 2, Battlefield 3 and Far Cry 3 run 25 percent to 30 percent faster at 2560 x 1600. The processor is also designed to support next-gen tech Nvidia has in the works, such as WaveWorks and FaceWorks, and features Nvidia's GPU Boost. 2.0.Game forceWhile the fan of the GTX 780 may be effective at cooling the machine down as any standard fan should, Nvidia wanted to ensure that the uptick hum that can often interrupt gaming scenarios was diminished with a new fan controller that uses an RPM and temperature targeted control algorithm to keep the fan at as steady a speed as possible. In other words, the fan doesn't over or under compensate, instead staying at as steady a stream as possible to minimize noise. Base clock for the GTX 780 is 863MHz, with a typical boost clock speed of 900MHz and memory reaching a 6008MHz data rate.Priced at $649 (around UK£ 431, AU$673), the GTX 780 stretches 10.5-inches and comes with display outputs including two dual-link DVIs, one HDMI and one Display Port connector.Last but worth noting, the 780 will replace the GTX 680 in Nvidia's offering line.Time for GeForce If you've been tooling around with GeForce Experience in beta form, you may be happy to know that today it's buttoned up and ready to go.GeForce, for those who don't know, is a software from Nvidia that aims to make PC gaming more accessible and easier to use by automatically setting the optimal settings for a game after a single click of the "optimize" button.Beta downloads since January have hit 2.5 million and now, beginning with the GTX 780, users can replace the Nvidia Update in the driver package. Eventually, GeForce Experience will become standard with every graphics driver, Nvidia noted. Starting today, Nvidia is sending it into to production and will package it with several cards before pushing it out across all its offerings. As the year goes on, Nvidia plans to add more game support and will roll out new features such as optimal playable settings customization, support for Shield and (drumroll please) ShadowPlay. A nice little recording feature, ShadowPlay will be available this summer as a capture function within the larger functions of GeForce Experience. It taps into the H.264 video encoder built into all Kepler GPUs and works in the background - with the click of a hot button, users can record the last 20 minutes of their gameplay seamlessly without disrupting game play. The Xbox One is still fresh. Read on for what games you'll find on the new console.

Although I've still not got the ability to reply to messages, and composing new ones is ugly, my toy mail client is working nicely. I've received a couple of patches, and given commit access to the repository to one other user. Currently I'm still juggling primitives around and working out what is missing. The big exceptions are the obvious: Cannot reply to a message. Cannot move a message to a new folder. When composing a mail to be sent no copy is saved in "sent-mail", or similar. Thread-view is absent. Indefinitely. But on the plus side the lua scripting is lovely: precious ~/git/lumail $ rm /tmp/unread.log precious ~/git/lumail $ ./lumail --rcfile ./lumail.lua --eval "dump_unread();" precious ~/git/lumail $ head /tmp/unread.log Selected folder /home/skx/Maildir/.Automated.backups Folder has 10 unread messages Selected folder /home/skx/Maildir/.Automated.bounces Folder has 3 unread messages Selected folder /home/skx/Maildir/.CRM.Spam Folder has 7 unread messages Selected folder /home/skx/Maildir/.facebook.com Folder has 4 unread messages .. The website needs some love, most notably a logo. And there are several reported bugs/todo-items I need to work through. Still for a toy program I'm using it daily. (Though still using mutt to reply to messages & view/save attachments.)

The Nokia EOS could be finally landing on July 9 according to a new release date rumour, and it should come packing that 41-megapixel sensor that Nokia 808 PureView owners have been enjoying for some time.According to a source speaking to Mobile Geeks the launch date will be during the second week of July, most like on July 9. Unlike the 808 PureView though, this will be a Windows Phone 8-running cellular.Previous leaks have suggested the EOS will boast a quad-core processor, 4.5-inch 1280 x 768 resolution screen, and a new app called "Nokia Pro Camera" which brings a load of more advanced features including manual focus.808s and heartbreakOf course, the big pull here will be the 41 megapixel rear snapper to accompany the new software, though it's reported that pics can only be taken at a maximum of 34 megapixel, just like the 808 PureView.As for video it'll shoot 1080p and 720p HD, or so says the source who claims to have had some hands-on time with the phone.According to other tidbits we've picked up previously the handset is much lighter than the Lumia 920, though similar in design, which is impressive considering the beefy camera specs.The rumoured EOS was expected to drop at the May 14 event, where we were instead treated to the Nokia 925. See what we thought of the EOS-inspiring Nokia 808 Pureview in our review

IntroductionAs it doesn't have the essential telecommunication features the Canon PowerShot N clearly isn't going to take the place of a phone, but the manufacturer hopes that we will use it in conjunction with one.Thanks to its manufacturer's camera making know-how and its 1/2.3-inch 12.1MP back-illuminated CMOS sensor and DIGIC 5 processor, the N should be capable of taking better images than the average smartphone. Furthermore, because its lens has a focal length range equivalent to 28-224mm, it should also prove to be much more versatile than a phone when composing shots. And, if the 8x optical zoom isn't enough for you this can be extended digitally to 16x to produce the equivalent of a 448mm lens.Although it's not app enabled, the PowerShot N has Wi-Fi technology built-in so that it can be connected to a computer or a smartphone to enable you to share images quickly. There's even a dedicated button that, after initial set-up, can be used to connect to a smartphone or tablet with one touch. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to test this aspect of the camera yet. But judging by the options in the Wi-Fi section of the menu, it should be pretty straightforward to set up.For those who want to let the world know where they've been taking photographs, Canon has a free smartphone app that enables location data to be added to images from a smart device.The PowerShot N is all about creating images quickly and easily, so naturally all the exposure modes are automatic. Program mode provided the most control, with aspects such as exposure compensation and white balance being adjustable. Alternatively, there are some creative shooting options with filter effect such as Fish-eye Effect, Miniature Effect, Soft Focus, Toy Camera Effect and Monochrome.There's also Creative Shot mode, in which the Canon N produces six versions of an image, one untreated and the rest adjusted in a variety of ways depending upon what the camera makes of the image. The camera looks at aspects such as composition, focus, white balance, gradation and contrast and generates five alternative versions automatically.It produces a variety of fun effects, with some dramatic crops, extreme colour and brightness and contrast shifts that replicate old film, cross-processed and black and white images. While it's a hit and miss process, it's fun, and it sometimes produces interesting images that will be a hit on Facebook and the like. We noticed that when shooting a couple of people, the camera often produces shots of both people by themselves as well as one with them together.We have seen the Hybrid Auto mode before, but Canon has made it more easily accessible via the shooting mode menu screen. When this option is selected, the Canon N records four seconds of 720p footage before each shot. The camera uses the information from the clip to determine the best settings to use for the still image. But the fun part is that the camera merges all the four second clips captured during the day to create a short movie. It should make for amusing viewing when the Canon N is used at parties.Build and handlingPerhaps the most noticeable thing about Canon N is that it's almost square rather than rectangular. It also has a 2.7-inch tilting LCD screen that is touch sensitive. This capacitive device enables you to take control over key features such as the focus point and trip the shutter with a touch of the screen, and we found that it's nice and responsive.With the lens collapsed, the Canon N is fairly compact and can be slipped into a jacket pocket, or in some cases a jeans pocket, so it's easy to transport and can be carried everywhere. It's also fairly light yet feels solid and well built, so you'll be happy to take it everywhere that you'd normally take your phone.There are two rings around the lens. The first is used to zoom from one focal length to another – no great surprises there – but the other is the shutter release, and pushing it up or down trips the shutter. It takes a