LoCusF's blog on tech and stuff

New software on the way

2008-12-22T14:01:00.002+02:00

Hey again,

Its been too looooong since I last posted anything but anyways. I took on a new software idea about utilising software to manage Scrum process more better in distributed organisation. Its called ScrumFY, like Scrum For You :)

It will utilize heavily on audio and video on its functionality. This is important since in distributed organisations it is a big problem that daily Scrums are not face-to-face. A Scrum Master creates a new Daily Scrum and reviews the teams audio and video comments when they arrive.

The main reason I created this software is that I currently work at Nomovok Ltd. It has been really great place to work in (I work from home so of course it is). Nomovok has distributed organisation since majority of developers work from home, like me. I don't have any idea about Nomovok's use of Scrum, but this software ought to help them a lot on integrating Scrum in to their organisation (hopefully).

But back to ScrumFY. The main problems that arise in using audio and video in a software is the bandwidth and network management. This easily tackled with P2P, in which all participants will share all material with each other, so that it is easy to transfer audio and video automatically. Since live bittorrent streams are possible novadays, ScrumFY will integrate some kind of P2P streaming in it.

The problems on webcams are solved similarly like in MonoTooth. All platforms have their implementation of webcam interfaces so its just a matter of choosing a correct one at runtime. I also created ScrumFY as LGPL so that possible propietary webcam plugins can be created (sorry my open source friends :) ).

ScrumFY will also include similar features like in Pivotal Tracker (), like backlog and such things. Please view a demonstration of it :), its very cool.

ScrumFY will probably also include direct source code management as well, so that commits from Git or SVN can be directly linked to a specific backlog story item.

Any other ideas are of course welcome as well, I'll try to keep my blog updated on this :)

-Aleksi

The Captains chair

2008-02-16T14:02:00.004+02:00

So here it is. The Axia 2 chair from Martela, goodbye shoulder & neck pains. And welcome the very high quality chair with excellent armrests and head-support. It also has a swing functionality that enables me to rock it when needed :).

I also discovered this nice feature of combining N810 and this chair:

This means that I can write my debug logs with ease by retracting the desk-stand to full position and have my keyboard hold it down. And while combining synergy with this I can paste my gdb output to this log.

Good growth in both microwave and throath

2008-02-14T16:59:00.003+02:00

For those who have been missing some posts, here comes one quite short. Today I cleaned our microwave (first time in 4 years) and this is quite disturbing discovery I made:

For those who don't can't see what that is, its bacterial growth :). We had some curtains on so the brightness wasn't exactly the whopping 58000 lux at that point, but it sure was at direct sunlight (for those who think that I have bought a lux-meter just to boast with these readings, YOU ARE WRONG). So there is a light-meter for N810 that has a light sensor builtin (for reading the screen in a dark/light without eventually losing your eyesight :)).

Another blog-jammer was the flu that I got last weekend and its still troubling me a little, but I'm getting better now :). Tomorrow I shall get my new computer chair, which is really öky (cool in English). Expect a post on that, its a really good Martela Axia chair (except the price which was whopping 849 euros).

Disability, work & studying

2008-02-05T13:27:00.001+02:00

I have been wondering a lot about studying & work these days. I have also, naturally, pondered my disability in contrast with these things. The things I found out in my ponderings were that disability can also be very helpful (instead of it being a hindrance).

In my course of university studies, I have found out that my disability has improved my creativity by forcing me to think differently. This means that I have found alternative routes that can totally bypass stairs or locked corridors. This has been really important in programming, because one can think more ways of doing things with an open mind. And I have more motivation to keep my physique up as well :).

Working is really important (but not the most important) part of one's life, although not compulsory part. I haven't been in working life yet, but my experience of work comes from separate sources. My friends have told me that they like working since one doesn't need to do any homework anymore :). I have to agree to this since I hate to work at weekends, unless its totally necessary (like home chores, which I have to do).

I have also realised that my disability has given me physical advantage over others. My wheelchair isn't stick-controlled, so I have to use my hands a lot. Especially shoulders, which are a bottleneck for many programmers, are in very good shape. Although they are a little tight at times, I can always go for a stroll and then they are good as new. Therefore, the physicians in IT-businesses should develop a ground-attached wheelchair for the programmers to exercise on.

Finland's president Tarja Halonen gave an interview to Helsingin Sanomat where she said that all disabled people should have work. I couldn't agree more with her, since work is a priviledge that should be available to anyone. And the separation between disabled people and "normal" people would grow even larger if the diabled people would just rot in care-homes. That would be even more expensive to the society than having them get work and be a part of the society. I also wish that employers would consider disabled people in their payroll more than now. I have been blessed with the opportunity to work in an IT-business from home, where the best place for me to work in is.

Thats all for now, Take care everybody :)

N810 desktop recording

2008-02-01T11:05:00.001+02:00

Hi all!

In this article I will review a technique that enables one to capture live desktop video from a N8x0 and possibly from Nokia 770 as well. I used usb-networking to get better latency for the recording.

The YouTube video can be found here.

So the good thing about this is that one shouldn't need a video camera to capture an application presentation.

But here are the instructions:

Setup your networking method. I chose to use usb-networking.

On the computer, install recordmydesktop (in Ubuntu, run
sudo apt-get install recordmydesktop ).

On the tablet, edit /etc/init.d/x-server as root. In ARGS row, edit the arguments to be:
ARGS="-ac -mouse tslib -nozap -dpi $DISPLAY_DPI -wr"

Please note that doing this will enable the X-server to listen on tcp and disables the access control. Re-enable these security methods by changing ARGS as:
ARGS="-mouse tslib -nozap -dpi $DISPLAY_DPI -wr -nolisten tcp"

when you have completed your recording session to minimize the risk of X-server misuse. Also remember to reboot the tablet when you have re-enabled these settings.

Reboot the tablet.

Re-enable networking, if you used usb-networking.

Now, run on the computer:
recordmydesktop --no-shared -display $TABLETIP:0 -o yourvideo.ogg

Replace $TABLETIP with your tablets IP-address, mine was 192.168.2.15. So the -display parameter was 192.168.2.15:0.

Start your recording :).

Stop the recording by pressing CTRL-C.

Additional notes:

Remember to convert your video to AVI, for YouTube uploading. I used ffmpeg, mencoder should work as well.

Use --no-sound parameter in recordmydesktop to disable sound, if you don't have a microphone.

For multiple takes, use --overwrite parameter to overwrite the previously recorded video.

Cadillacs, Porches and reorganisation

2008-01-29T21:35:00.001+02:00

Yesterday I stumbled across (just kidding, I'm a fan and a subscriber on Youtube) the ninth edition of Coffee with Thoughtfix. He had a pretty good opinions on "secondary devices" which essentially are the Nokia Internet Tablets and all other devices with an internet access and full browser, yet fitting your pocket/bag.

He also described Nokia N95 as the Cadillac of mobile phones, which I agree. N95 is an S60 mobile phone with all the goodies you can think of, eg. GPS, HSDPA/3G/EDGE/GPRS, camera (with live streaming to Qik etc etc). So one heck of a phone.

I would have basically wanted an N95 for my new cellphone, but it turned out to be a bit too expensive and bulky for my use. So I decided to order up another Nokia phone, what I call the Porche. So E51 it is. Got it last friday to replace my Nokia 6680, which was a whopping 2 years old. But more from E51, its really cool, slim, isn't too big and has almost all features the N95 has, except GPS (and some other features too, tell me if you spot one ;).

As the topic says, there is stuff involved too with these tech posts as well. I just wanted to say that organisation of things is pretty useful once in a while. So I thought last night that I really REALLY need to organise my desk. But I have tried in vein so very many times, but this time I succeeded \o/ :

Before:

After:

So the drawer solved a lot of problems. It had a price tag of 19,90€, so not too bad. All the extra stuff, papers and all other shit is there now. The books haven't been burned :), they are in a nice line in the bookcase next to my desk:

So thats it for 2day.

PS. Wait for some totally new content about N810 in the coming weeks :)

About nokia and trolltech

2008-01-29T08:56:00.001+02:00

Yeah I know, this is yesterday's news but I didn't want to post anything once I knew more about this :). It seems that Nokia hasn't bought Trolltech just yet, but they aren't too far to close the deal :). Let's see what happens on that.

But in the tech side of things, I think that the decision to boost S40 and S60 phones with QT isn't a bad idea at all. Its all about the effort to make Symbian better with QT or totally replace it.

So best wishes for Nokia and all you readers out there (counted 1 since a friend of mine joined in by adding rss-feed to my blog, yay :) ).