Archive for the ‘fedora’ Category
Software Freedome Day Athens (review)
Yesterday, as you may know was Software Freedome Day. I will start with this link [1]
Yes the only people that were present were members of the greek Fedora team [2](we could be more but some lucky ones are at FUDCon @ Zurich 
) together with Richard Kweskin of Hellug. We made a simple booth outside of NTUA at Stournari str., with leaflets and stickers and started to inform people about free and open source software. We started at around 11.30 and finished at 2.30. In the mean time Richard gave as a copy of a licence to have presence at the corner of Stadiou str. and Aiolou str., where we also went for the last 30 minutes.
Some photos here [3]
Next event, Athens Digital Week [4]. See you there!
==In Greek/Στα ελληνικά==
Εχθές ήταν η παγκόσμια ημέρα ελεύθερου λογισμικού. Έτσι, το Fedora δεν μπορούσε να μην συμμετάσχει ενεργά σε αυτό το γεγονός. Και όταν λέμε ενεργά, το λιγότερο που μπορεί να κάνει κανείς είναι να δώσει το παρόν κοντά στον κόσμο για ενημέρωση. Έτσι και έγινε στην οδό Στουρνάρη έξω από το Πολυτεχνείο (αρχίσαμε κατά τις 11.30). Μάλιστα είχε κανονιστεί και ανακοινωθεί στο site του SFD [1](Software Freedom Day). Παρόντες είμασταν μέλη της ελληνικής ομάδας του Fedora [2] και ο Richard Kweskin του Hellug που μας έφερε φυλάδια αλλά και μια άδεια του Δήμου Αθηναίων για να μιλήσουμε στην γωνία Σταδίου και Αιόλου στο κέντρο όπου και πήγαμε στις 2 το μεσημέρι για τα τελευταία 30 λεπτά (έτσι για δοκιμή και για να μην πάει χαμένη η άδεια).
Μερικές φωτογραφίες εδώ [3]
Το μόνο παράπονο, ότι δεν είμασταν αρκετοί για να ενημερώσουμε τον κόσμο. Ελπίζω την επόμενη φορά του χρόνου να είμαστε πιο ενεργοί όλοι σε εκδηλώσεις όπως το SFD και όχι μόνο στα μεγάλα events όπως το Athens Digital Week[4] που έρχεταιιιιι .
[1] http://wiki.softwarefreedomday.org/2010/Europe/Greece/Athens
[2] https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FedoraEvents/SoftwareFreedomDay2010Athens
[3] http://picasaweb.google.com/anton.cost/SoftwareFreedomDay2010Athens#
I really really gnome-do
Short story : I installed gnome-do on Fedora. Do your self a favour and install it too.
How?
For Fedora users go to Add/Remove Applications and type gnome-do. Select the application and press “Apply” to install it 
or for keyboard-lovers (the 1st way is more simple) just type (or paste) in your terminal: su -c ” yum install -y gnome-do” , give your root password and you are good to go.
Actually, I don’t really like -y inside the command ( “-y” means yes to any message that occurs after you tell yum you want to install a package). I like to see what I install (dependencies etc). But it’s faster this way for gnome-do. Gnome-do is similar to Mozilla’s Ubiquity for Firefox.
By default it is activated automatically at start-up and afterwards you need to press a keyboard shortcut (<Super>+space). Gnome-do is of course customizable. You can also add plug-ins. (For KDE fans, the default krunner -thanks Andrew-)
In Greek:
Με λίγα λόγια : Εγκατέστησα το gnome-do στο Fedora. Βάλτε το! Πως? (1o link πάνω) [1]
[1] http://do.davebsd.com/wiki/Installing_Do Μεσω του γραφικού περιβάλλοντος πηγαίνουμε System->Administration->Add/Remove Software και γράφουμε στου κουτάκι της εύρεσης “gnome-do” επιλέγουμε το πακέτο και έπειτα πατάμε κατω δεξιά το Apply.
Αλλιώς για τους λάτρεις του terminal su -c ” yum install -y gnome-do”
Είναι προεπιλεγμένο να ξεκινάει με την εκίνηση του Fedora και ενεργοποιήται (σε περίπτωση που το χρησιμοποιήσετε και χαθεί) με το <Super>+Space (το Super είναι συνήθως το εικονιδιάκι των Windows -_- ) .Έχει και plugins (προεκτάσεις).Για τους λάτρεις του ΚDE (μπλιαχ 
) υπάρχει προεγκατεστημένο το krunner.
Drawing arrows with GIMP
Today I desperately needed to draw arrows in a picture to point parts of an Arduino stack with an Ethernet and Xbee shield.
So, I took the picture of the stack, increased the contrast and made other adjustments to perfect the pictures, and I was ready to place the arrows. Arrows? How? OK, I googled and found this http://registry.gimp.org/node/20269
You just have to download the .scm file. If you are a Linux user (obviously I use Fedora), go to your Home Folder and press Control+H to unhide the hidden folders. Next, go to the “.gimp-2.6″ (1st: Yes there is a full stop, 2nd: 2.6 is the name of the folder right now according to GIMP’s current version). Inside this folder find the folder “scripts” and place there the .scm file. Now, open GIMP (or re-open if already running), go to Tools and you are good to go
(Tip: To draw an arrow you must use the path tool at the toolbox. Just click one time to point the start of the arrow and a second time to point the end. You will just make a straight line that will be used as a path)
In Greek : Στον σύνδεσμο που υπάρχει παραπάνω μπορείτε να κατεβάσετε το .scm αρχείο που θα σας επιτρέψει να σχεδιάζετε βέλη με το GIMP αυτόματα. Για να λειτουργήσει το αυτό το script πηγαίνουμε στο Home Folder, πατάμε Control+H για να αποκαλυφθούν οι κρυφοί φάκελοι και στη συνέχεια πηγαίνουμε στον φάκελο “.gimp-2.6″ (1ον ναι υπάρχει τελεία, 2ον το όνομα προέρχεται από την τωρινή έκδοση”). Μέσα σε αυτόν τον φάκελο υπάρχει ο φάκελος “scripts” όπου και τοποθετούμε το .scm αρχείο. Ανοίγωντας το GIMP τώρα μπορούμε να δούμε στο Tools το Arrow
(Συμβουλή: Για να φτιάξετε το arrow πρέπει να σχηματίσεται ένα μονοπάτι με το path tool. Αν απλά κάνετε ένα κλικ για την αρχή και άλλο ένα για το τέλος του βέλους εκεί που επιθυμείτε είστε έτοιμοι να φτιάξετε το βέλος με το Arrow που βρίσκεται στα Tools)
GFOSS Conference 2010
Yesterday ended the GFOSS Conference 2010 that took place in Athens at NTUA (National Technical University of Athens). It was an event that started on Friday, but yesterday was special because of the workshop I was organising this week together with Anastasis (anast)! The subject was (in translation) “Fedora Project : Remix and Spin it! The Fedora operating system you own (and not only that)”. Furthermore, we also had booth presence on both days with the usual swag
The workshop lasted 1 hour ( the schedule said 2 hours) but I think something more than that would be boring. Some setbacks occurred previously that day and affected the workshop a little bit. First, I tried to create an iso image using a kicksart file I made that unfortunately needed a bit of time to be created due to yesterday’s bad signal of the wifi where the booth of Fedora was (damn near fields), so I didn’t make it in time for the “Takis OS” Live CD I wanted to create. Second, I didn’t expect my laptop to fail me when I tried to plug in the dvi cable. I count it as a setback but, ok I overcame it thanks to the laptop of Anastasis
I think it was around 15 people that joined the workshop (thanks to everybody). I tried to pass the knowledge of what is a remix, a spin, their differences (and similarities), guidelines, processes, kickstart files, livecd-tools, cobbler…but not to the extent of getting down with too much coding, configurations and setting many arameters. In a few words I tried to show the way for a simple creation of a Remix from the kickstart file until the creation of a LiveCD and told a few words about the magic things cobbler can do. Anastasis talked about Geo Spin and Security Lab spin. I couldn’t miss the chance to talk about Fedora Electronic Lab too. Also, I am happy that Nikos (comzeradd) and Pantelis (pant) joined us as well!
click for more photos
Openfest 2010 @ ΤΕΙ Πειραιά (the recap)
Μετά από πολύ καιρό λοιπόν, επιστρέφω στον κειμενογράφο του wordpress. Αυτό το post θα το αφιερώσω όμως αποκλειστικά στο event της προηγούμενης εβδομάδας, στο Openfest 2010 που διεξήχθει στο ΤΕΙ Πειραιά και διοργανώθηκε από το τμήμα Ηλεκτρονικών Υπολογιστικών Συστημάτων του ΤΕΙ (αξίζει ένα μεγάλο μπράβο σε όλους τους). Ως γνωστόν είμαι φοιτητής του τμήματος Ηλεκτρονικής αυτού του ιδρύματος και έτσι δεν θα μπορούσα να λείψω. Ένιωσα επίσης και το χρέος να κάνω μια παρουσίαση, φυσικά για το Fedora!
Έτσι και έγινε. Μια εβδομάδα περίπου πριν το event και είχαμε ήδη αρχίσει να ετοιμαζαστε. Εκτυπώσεις, σχεδιασμός για αφίσες, εγγραφές cd, ποτήρια Fedora κτλ. Σε όλη αυτή τη διαδικασία, από την αρχή μέχρι το τέλος του Openfest, βοήθησαν οι συνήθεις ύποπτοι του Fedora (που δεν είναι μόνο όσοι αναφέρονται στο wiki). Είχα και την χαρά να φιλοξενήσω τον Σαλονικιό μας τον Χρήστο Μπαχαράκη (cmpahar) για κάμποσες μέρες ( μας λύπεις ρε! ).
Εν συντομία, είχαμε το καλύτερο booth του event. Απλά και αντικειμενικότατα παρακαλώ . Η παρουσίαση έχω την εντύπωση ότι δεν πήγε άσχημα. Μπορούσα και καλύτερα αλλά θα με δω στο video που θα ανέβει στο openfest.teipir.gr και θα σας πω. Επί τη ευκαιρία, να διορθώσω μια γκάφα μου : το F13 βγαίνει με βάση το πρόγραμμα 11 Μαΐου (και όχι 11 Απριλίου). Έπρεπε να κάνω το fail μου και εγώ δεν άντεξα . Ακολουθεί φωτογραφικό υλικό, ετοιμαστείτε
El Fedorato (click για να θαυμάσετε περισσότερες)
Να ευχαριστήσω θερμά και από εδώ τον Πιέρρο και την Θάλεια, τον Αναστάση και την Εβελίνα, τον Χρήστο, τον Παντελή (15 χρονών και ορεξάτος ορεξάτος) και όλους όσους συμμετείχαν.
Κάτι άσχετο,να σας ενημερώσω πως πέρα από το identi.ca γράφω και στο twitter . Kάτι σχετικό, θα ακολουθήσει και post εις την αγγλικήν με το video της παρουσίασης γιατί ακόμη δεν έχει βγει. Ευχαριστώ.
Athens Digital Week 2009
OK. Today’s post will also have some Greek as it concerns a big technology festival in Athens, Athens Digital Week, at which I participated last year with Fedora. Actually I think it was the first time I participated somewhere as a Fedora Ambassador. It also has an open source section thus last year we had Max Spevack‘s talk!
Ζηλεύω πάρα πολύ τα παιδιά που θα συμμετάσχουν καθώς είναι μια πολύ ωραία εμπειρία. Δεν μπορώ να ξεχάσω πόσο ωραία ήταν πέρσυ, με την συμμέτοχή του Fedora στο φεστιβάλ. Μιλάγαμε συνεχώς στον κόσμο, πχ η φωνή του Πιέρρου έκλεισε (μάλλον είμαι φτιαγμένος για να μιλάω πολύ) αλλά η κούραση που νιώθαμε στο τέλος ήταν γλυκιά, ήταν από κάτι που θέλαμε να κάνουμε και όσο το κάναμε νιώθαμε την ανταμοιβή.
Πλέον ως πιο εμπειρος Ambassador θα μπορούσα να βοηθήσω ακόμη πιο πολύ αλλα δυστυχώς είναι λίγο δύσκολο από την Barcelona. Ψάχνω απεγνοσμένα για κάποιο event εδώ, ώστε να βοηθήσω. Είναι δύσκολο να οργανώσω κάτι ο ίδιος διότι δεν γνωρίζω Καταλανικά αλλά και τα Ισπανικά μου δεν θα βοηθούσαν σε κάτι που απαιτεί συνεχή ομιλία.
At the previous paragraph I mention that I would be interested to help as much as I can (I have brought some Fedora and Fedora Electronic lab leaflets with me) in organizing an event here in Barcelona. I don’t speak catalan and my castellano are not the best, but I would love to participate (and also speak in English, not all people in Barcelona are locals).
And something out of topic, here are some pictures from the peaceful-interesting-beautiful Valencia :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/constanton/sets/72157622449169847/
Use your Nokia cellphone for presentations
Today I didn’t have many things to do (“You have to do the laundry” sais the little angel on my right shoulder, “Yeah…Whatever” says the little devil on my left) so I checked out what Google has to offer me (as a Fedora user) now that I am at the mercy of the internet. I checked out Picasa, Google Reader, Google Desktop and amora (not a google app). I am sure you are familiar with the 3 first ones. But the last one may not ring you any bell…If you own a Nokia cellphone actually, you should know it (and yes, I allow you to check the link before you finish reading this post ). I own a Nokia N82, and amora offers me the means to controll my computer via my mobile’s keyboard (mostly for presentations though).
To install amora I also had to install Python for S60 first (for N82 I found this one and works fine). It’s so cool! I tried it with OOo Impress and works great! I can’t wait to use it!
To install any google application on fedora you have to follow this guide : first configure the rpm key and then configure yum .
By the way I couldn’t launch picasa because I have to intsall the 32-bit openssl package! damn…Not in the mood to fix it
Google Reader works fine (also Google Reader notifier) . ActualIy, I was using the RSS plugin for Evolution, which is not bad, but now I don’t have to wait for all the feeds to get updated to read my mail properly.
Google Desktop? I don’t think I will ever use it as Firefox is open as long as my notebook is switched on.
edit : amora is simply hosted inside google-code (I didn’t make that clear enough). It was implemented by Adenilson Cavalcanti a developer from “Instituto Nokia de Tecnologia” (Nokia Institute of Technology – Brazil).(thanks to Ademar)
I’m flying with Firefox
Well, first of all, my find-something-bad-to-make-you-downgrade period for Fedora 11 is over and the results are as expected…using my computer on daily bases is a procedure that leveled up. But the beauty of it is that you know you are using free software. Software that is shared to you and belongs to you thanks to other people that believe in freedom. And then you say “hey! maybe I should contribute” because that’s your way to say thank you and learn stuff. That’s how I feel to be honest. So, just because I use Firefox every day for many hours, I decided to say thanks this time by contributing as a Test Pilot . OK, I admit that I am also curious to see how this whole thing is going to work. I also can’t hide that I want to be a package maintainer for Fedora, but I have lots in my mind right now.
Furthermore, the last 3 days I try to focus on wireless sensor networks which of course means my familiarization with TinyOS and other technologies which are extremely cool. There is the need of great effort from my part though. Anyway, networks ,electronics and applications that can be used for HCI …no need to ask for more
I almost forgot CHECK THIS OUT: academicearth.org when I first saw it I tried not to behave like the men at the recent Heineken commercial (cheering like crazy). Thanks Christos!
Fedora 11 released and me being busy.
OK. Now that I have the chance to take a break from studying, I can finally make a post. I’m in the middle of my exams period.
First of all, I’m writing from my clean-installed Fedora 11 x86_64 system . You have to see it boot. Everything seems to work just fine. I just forgot to save my bookmarks . But! After the installation I didn’t forgot to yum groupinstall ‘Electronic Lab‘ .
I am looking forward to start a project suggested from my professor at the TEI. It will concern low power microcontrollers for wireless sensor networks. And guess what…it will be open source !!! (I just found out about uClinux and this) After my exams period I will try to find out how this can be combined with Fedora. Furthermore, maybe there is a chance I will do a little research (or something like that, I don’t know for sure yet) on HCI systems in collaboration with the University of Athens on February. I hope this will come true . We’ll see.
I’m also getting ready for my studies at Barcelona, at the Facultad de Informática de Barcelona of the Universitat Politécnica de Catalunya (UPC), I was accepted as an Erasmus student for the next semester. I’m in search of a place to stay. Single rooms with wifi and my own WC are hard to find though. I hope I’ll make it. I will also look forward to meet guys of the local Fedora community there. It’ll be fun.
To be honest I wanted this post to be for my presentation at NTUA which went well, not as many people as I expected. But hey! We never give up, and we always try to become even better. The presentation lasted for 1 hour and I tried to be as much prepared as possible. It’s not easy when you are a pre-graduate student of electronics to talk about VLSI systems etc. I am still waiting for photographic material to post.
FossComm 2009 : recap :)
Friday 8/5 was quite a busy day. After I finished my courses etc. and once again I headed for home through the hell that has been renamed to “national road” at mid-day (all thanks to my fellow Greeks who crash their cars every now and then). Anyhow, when I finally arrived home I picked up my Fedora and FEL (Fedora Electronic Lab) leaflets, my laptop and everything else I needed to go to FossComm 2009 along with Pierros and friends.
Well, the trip was fine and we had a stop at Volos for a bit greek meze and a little bit of tsipouro. Afterwards we went to Larissa , got to the Hotel and relaxed in our rooms. I also met there my friend Alexandros. Anyways, Friday was not as interesting as Saturday.
Next morning we were at the TEI of Larissa to prepare our booth for Fedora for the whole event (along with Christos Bacharakis, Thalia Papoutsaki and Pierros) ! We unpacked everything, from fliers to OLPC, plus I had my laptop to show some programs on FEL. All guys there did a great job organizing the event. The atmosphere was relaxing and also exciting.
I can’t describe how the night went. Α word that could describe most of the people that attended the feast at the tsipouradiko (tavern with lots of tsipouro and greek meze dishes) would be “kurumpelo” which means drunk, but I believe we were more or less drunk but very joyful and in a great mood for company. (But seriously, I have no idea how the guy with the bicycle ended up safe at his house…)
FossComm attendies, presenters, organizers etc all together
Now, let’s talk about Sunday . Pierros Papadeas ‘s presentation on the Fedora project went really well! He really made clear of the goals, the people that support it, explained the four foundations etc…It was cool. Dimitris Glezos presented Transifex. For those who don’t already know, it’s an open source project, a localization web platform already used by the Fedora Project (Dimitris is a member of th Fedora Board!) and Red Hat, developed by Dimitris and the rest of Indifex ‘s (yeap, his company) engineers team.
My presentation on FEL went quite good. It happened during our Fedora 11 Hackfest. I had to point out the goals of FEL, some interesting features that has and that will have (thanks Chitlesh!). I also presented some very interesting tools for design and simulation of circuits. I also mentioned the advantages of FEL, live every other Spin of Fedora has. It was my first presentation and the audience was not very into electronics (except to 2 out of 20-25 people). I had to try not to become boring, so I had to make changes instantly to what I previously prepared to say. Not the best feeling but at the end it was fun and I gained a great experience.
On Monday the Fedora 11 Hackfest continued but I was absent due to a lab at my school I had to attend.
For even more interesting photos and videos —-> FTP Server of Linux Team
I’m glad this post is over because there’s a lot more that I have to post. Busy week, busy month, busy year…
My self at FossComm 2009 - FEL presentation
