I read about weird binary at Varun Kumar's blog (http://varunkumar-n.blogspot.com/2010/03/weird-binary.html)

Number system with base as –2 (minus two) is commonly referred to as “Weird Binary”. Like binary number system, weird binary also uses the binary symbols 0, 1. The bit positions in weird binary represent the powers of (-2). For example: 11001 in weird binary represents 9 in decimal system.

This number system reminds me a saying in Tamil regarding tough situations, "For every foot of climbing, Slipping 2 feet". ஜான் ஏறுனா மொழம் சறுக்குது .

So How to convert from decimal to weird-binary(base minus 2)?

But I didn't want to check-out others solutions to the problem, before trying it myself. I wanted to find a pen and paper way to calculate it, similar to the one we use to convert from decimal to binary. And found it interesting!


Just at every alternate step, instead of going for the maximum multiple of 2 less than previous balance, find the minimum multiple of 2, greater than previous balance.
IOW, at alternate steps, if the remainder was 1, add 1 to next balance(quotient).

Weird-binary can be used to represent negative numbers without any special sign-bit. But I still couldn't think of any use for this negative two base system. Can you? Is it being used anywhere?

Last weekend, I was boosting at Chemnitzer Linux Tage where we ran openSUSE booth with Jan Weber, Kai-Uwe Behrmann and Sirko Kemter. Jan and Sirko already wrote reports at their blogs, so I’ll add just some personal thoughts and remarks.
It all started on Friday at the Greek restaurant. There was about ten of us, including all the guys mentioned above, invis-server people and others (sorry, I suck at remembering names). We had nice evening with some greek food (surprisingly), German beer and free ouzo refill. Yes free. Caused me troubles later…

On Saturday morning, we went to the TU where the event took place and finished the booth with table clothes I brought from Prague. I have to thank my girlfriend’s brother, who work in a restaurant, for providing these (I will rather not thank the restaurant – I doubt they are aware of their contribution). Both touchscreens were ready, running 11.2, one GNOME and the second one KDE 4.4.1 IIRC. We had also bunch of DVDs to hand out, some stickers and similar stuff.

The event officialy started at 9 o’clock. I was surprised that so many people showed up.  Many of them came to the our booth, either just to take the DVD or to ask for help with their openSUSE installation. It was a bit funny when somebody started to talk to me in German (which I have completely forgot since the secondary school), so I always had to ask for switching to English – about 95% of cases this was no problem, and in the rest of cases I simply Fwd:ed the people to Jan or Kai-Uwe.

I have talked to several people doing server solutions based on openSUSE and asked what’s their biggest issue with using openSUSE and what can we do better. There seemed to be a consensus that it’s packages dropped from the distribution without communicating it enough to the community. Perhaps we could think about some centralized place (mailinglist) where packages that are due to be dropped were communicated to the community, so interested people could step in and take over of their maintenance?

Late in the afternoon, I attended Frederic Weisbecker’s talk called Instrumentation with perf events and ftrace, which was AFAIK the only lecture held in English. Frederic gave an overview about recently included tracing subsystem in linux kernel and how can it be used to gather various information from the running system.

On Sunday, things were more quiet as not so many people as on Saturday came. It was quite funny when I talked with some guy from Fedora at our booth when internet connection at the touchscreens broke up. I suspect it was some problem at AP’s side, but he seemed to be quite amused by openSUSE’s “instability” nevertheless. Hmm…

I left at about 15:30 and headed back to Prague.

In general, I think it was nice event and our booth was quite successful, because we handed out about 800 DVDs and also managed to solve most of the problems people asked us to help them with (KDE 4.4 desktop appereance, non working internet connection and VirtualBox installation are just few of them). I was happy to meet new people as well as those I know from IRC or changelog entries.

I took few photos, which can be found at picasaweb.

Now as I've seen a number of 3D movies and especially two partial real action films recently - Avatar and Alice in Wonderland - I perfectly understand Cameron's point of view:

If you can film in 3D with a stereo camera, do it! It's so much better than post-processed 3D. The 3D effect in Alice in Wonderland always felt a bit out of place. And I'm not talking about composition, but rather about the tiny depth differences in details you probably don't get exactly right when doing post processing. And Burton probably was more careful than others will be in what looks like studio-driven films.

Ok, acknowledged, the comparison is everything but fair. Avatar had a much higher budget, which shows. It created probably the single least intrusive 3D experience for me so far. For purely animated films 3D is an easier task, and there Bolt felt almost as good as Avatar, Up a bit worse, but still so much better than AiW.

Many films still fall in the old pit falls like trying to shock / "interest" the audience with cheap sticking-out-of-the-frame tricks (My Bloody Valentine as a very negative example). Which bores at best, but certainly draws you away from the film. If it's done just for fun at the beginning of the film like in Monsters vs. Aliens, all right, but please behave. In Avatar the 3D effect was never annoying, it just drew you into the film and let you forget that you're watching a 3D film. It just fit.

Ah, and before I forget it:
The single most important feature of movies filmed in 3D is not the 3D effect. It's the fact that due to 3D directors and camera men finally have to think of good camera paths and slow cutting pace again. No chance to create "dramatic" effects with wacky camera and half second cuts, you have to have actually good choreography in action scenes. Otherwise the audience will... I'll spare you the gory details

Note that I still believe that the film content is way more important than the style. Still, we're talking about moving pictures, they ought to be pretty...

All in all, Chemnitzer Linuxtage 2010 was a very successful event.

I, including some of the Ambassadors from the Benelux/Western German Region , arrived on Friday evening to be greeted by J. Simon in Chemnitz.

We checked into our hotel after a 7 hour drive from Southern Netherlands and quickly headed off to a restaurant to meet other ambassadors and FOSS community contributors. The weather was cold and snowing, but not quite as cold as the Netherlands, due to the fact that we were in a landlocked region of Europe. After a bite to eat, we met other contributors at a local brewery to discuss our respective projects and what our plans were for the event which started the next morning.

CLT Overview:


Facilities:

The event was held at the Technical University of Chemnitz (a.k.a Karl Marx stadt) in their modern building which was spacious and properly equipped with a fast Internet connection and modern rooms for presentations and lectures. There were benches and tables set up on the top floor of the exhibition room where visitors could have a place for meeting and working on their laptops. Next to the entrance was a full wardrobe facility for visitors and also a childcare facility which had places for children to rest and a massive Lego set-up with various toys to keep young children busy while their parents attended the event.

Purpose and Focus:

The purpose and focus of CLT 2010 was a little different than other events I have attended in the past. Most events were geared towards the technical aspects of the various communities where CLT had a user focus of curious people, newbies, and those contemplating on switching to Linux. There were a wide diversity of projects at this event from distro' s and desktops to 3D modeling programs, DAW' s and music labs set up for recording and mastering music, as well as, academic projects. There was even a PC doctor where you could drop off your laptop if it had problems and the technicians would try and solve the problem while you were attending the event. A nice little touch, I thought ;-)

Operations:

Day 1:

From initial observations, we entered the event and were met by a member of the event organizing team who was pleasant and professional in manner and immediately escorted us to the main booth where we were issued our event passes and meal passes. Thereafter, he escorted us to the location of the Fedora booth. Initial observation showed that the booths were very well evenly placed within the building without excessive overcrowded areas. This provided plenty of space for exhibitors and visitors alike to walk by and stand in front of the booths without interfering with the flow of traffic in the aisles of the event. It was also worth noting that the cords and cables were well organized and covered with carpet and secured with tape around all of the walking areas of the exhibition hall.

Day 2:

Throughout the day we were in contact with the event organizers which were happy to answer our questions and discuss the planning involved with the event. After the initial impression from day 1, I could confirm that the event and it's organizers were well informed, professional and highly organized. There was security present at the event 24 hours a day for both days and event personnel present 24 hours a day at the entrance who were attentive and checked all people entering and leaving the event at all hours of the day and night.

Catering:

The catering for the event was split into two sections. There was catering in the main hall for visitors and where a hot lunch was served both days in a timely fashion. The second section was in a private room and for event exhibitors and employees. I did not have a chance to try any of the visitors catering meals, but could observe that it was a nice sized meal for the price and generally people looked content. The catering for the exhibitors was well thought out with a good variety of hot and cold dishes, coffee and tea, candy, cakes and pastries, and a variety of juices and soft drinks. The staff was very cordial and efficient at always having food and drink available no matter how busy the lounge was at times;-)


Fedora Activities:

The weekend consisted of various meetings in which I had with ambassadors which I have not already been acquainted with and finally had the pleasure to meet with and talk about various topics and issues within the Fedora project. It was nice for me to discuss with others what their feelings were about Fedora and what they viewed as needed to be improved within the community. In addition, I spend time at the Fedora booth speaking to various ambassadors and other community members while informing and answering questions that visitors had about the Fedora project. It was a nice balance of the internal and external aspects of the Fedora community and how it interacted with other communities and the macro environment.

Social Event:

On Saturday evening the event organizers planned a social event for exhibitors, volunteers and staff of the event on the top floor of the building. Long tables and benches were arranged (german beer garden style) and a nice buffet consisting of a nice balance of fish, meat and vegetarian dishes, pasta and various canapés, fruit and desserts. In addition, there was a wide variety of local beer, soda, juice, wine, coffee and tea served. The food was excellent, fresh, and the caterers had plenty of food and drink available for all.

During the social event there was also entertainment provided. During dinner there was a jazz band playing and after the dinner a magician who traveled around to each table to give a personal show to people with a mix of comedy, magic tricks and balloon animals for the children.

We had a very nice time at our table with members of the Fedora ambassador team and our sister community of centOS.


Conclusion:

In conclusion, I would be comfortable in recommending this event to anyone. It was a very pleasant event with a relaxed atmosphere that was focused for all Linux users and contributors, possible adopters, and those just curious, as well as, their friends and families :-)

The planning and operations of this event were far superior to any other FOSS event I have attended and the organization skills were almost impeccable. Everything was thought out to the last detail and the planning yielded a good balance for the different types of people attending the event.

The ambassador team present at the event were professional and well organized also. It was especially nice to see those involved in cross/supporting project helping out and switching "hats" to help their fellow community members.

All in all, I would like to thank the event organizers of CLT 2010 for their superb event, Joerg Simon the event owner for his excellent organization skills and the extra special effort that he has made to make us ambassadors feel taken care of, and our fellow contributers who made this event possible.


From my personal and professional viewpoint, I believe the Chemnitzer LinuxTage should serve as THE example of the standard that ALL Fedora events should strive to be!!!!

I’m really pleased to announce that latest version of QJson on master is working on Symbian. You can find the installation instruction here.

Since I’m not a Symbian developer it has been a little hard for me to achieve that. I would like to thank Antti Luoma for his help.

There are also good news for Windows developers: now building QJson under Windows is easier. Checkout the new installation instruction page.

I hope this will help all the Windows developers who want to use QJson.

Personally I find that in Linux or any OS for that matter, keeping track of and dealing with bugs can be a real PITA. This may be in part that I’m not a power user of the services available (they don’t make it obvious how to fully utilise their service); also there are so many different types of bug trackers out there – bugzilla, trac, mantis, etc; it is also down to so many different projects use their own tracker; one advantage is that code/project hosting sites have their own – SourceForge, Gna!

Just received the message (via awafaa) that our preferred distro openSUSE is being featured in the trailer of the Film Genitori e Figli (Parent and children). Here an screenshot of the moment were openSUSE is visible at 01m:40s

We released Banshee 1.5.5 – aka 1.6 RC 1 – yesterday, with a lot of bug fixes, polish, and a couple new features.

Gapless Playback / Playbin2

Banshee now uses the playbin2 GStreamer element. With this comes support for gapless playback, which is the default now for users with GStreamer > 0.10.25.2.

Grid View

We are debuting a new grid mode for our custom list widget, visible in the modified Album browser. It will be used for Videos, Audiobooks, and more in future releases.

Album browser, now as a grid
YouTube Extension

This extension shows YouTube videos in the Context Pane related to what you're playing, and lets you watch them within Banshee. You can enable it in the Extensions tab of the Preferences dialog.

Contextual YouTube videos
Banshee Community Extensions Update

We also released Banshee Community Extensions 1.5.5, including five new extensions: CoverWallpaper, LiveRadio, Magnatune, Telepathy, and Ubuntu One Music Store (not ready for users yet).

The Mirage shuffle/fill by-similar mode has been greatly improved. It's smarter, now looking for tracks similar to the last several you've played, and dissimilar from ones you've skipped.

Enhancements and Fixes

• Improve search responsiveness on large libraries
• Add icons for Nexus One and Audiobooks
• Play Queue item count, size, duration now ignores old tracks
• Muinshee fixes: disable Auto-DJ, allow reordering, hide previous song
• Fix a very common, SQL-related crash in 1.5.4
• Fix saving equalizer settings in culture-invariant way
• Jumping to a source's prefs via its context menu works again
• Usage data not submitted more than every 48 hours
• Fix repeatedly resyncing some files to a device b/c transcoded
• Clear the redo stack on shuffle mode change
• Accept feeds with empty title
• Uri encode file location queries, making them work properly
• Fixes to the OS X build

Plans

We are now string frozen in preparation for our 1.6 release on March 31st - so translators, full steam ahead! We might do a RC 2 in a couple weeks for additional testing and fixes. File bugs for any issues you find, and help us make Banshee 1.6 the best release ever!

Aaron, Sandro, moofang, Shantanu and Diego have been hacking up a Plasma storm lately on the Javascript bindings for Plasma and the Plasmate builder tool. Since good code is running code, and running code is a lot easier when somebody else builds it and packages it, I've updated the Plasmate packages in KDE:KDE4:Playground to 0.1alpha2 and have updated the javascript bindings in our KDE SC 4.4.1 packages to include Aaron's latest errata - no need to update yourselves.

So it's even easier to take part in the Plasma Javascript Jam Session competition now.

And while you're at it, how about completing the loop by using our kde-obs-generator to package your plasmoids and make them available on kde-look.org, so others can start to download and improve them directly in Plasmate? Free Software virtuous circle FTW!

The folks of the openSUSE Community in Nicaragua, are preparing a great event in the city of Granada, Nicaragua, in Central America.

After some considerations and discussion within the Nicaraguan LUGs Community, SUSE-Ni was appointed to carry on with the FLISOL event on April 24th.

FLISOL stands for “Festival Latinoamericano de Instalación de Software Libre”: Free Software Installation Latinamerican Festival, where we make live demostrations and installation of Linux on the computers being carried by the crowd.

Nicaragua’s plans are to host 3 FLISOL events in 3 different cities: Managua, Granada and Leon (for the moment), leaving the management and direction in every site to one particular LUG.

For us, the openSUSE Group in Nicaragua, this is a great opportunity to participate in leading one of the main groups and to send personnel to the remaining places, so we can provide a permanent and effective presence in the Country.

Our Main event will take place at the Casa de los 3 Mundos, a Cultural Meeting place, administrated by Mr. Dieter Stadler. The house has enough room for us and for the visiting public.

More to come in the following days, detailing our plans and organization for the event.