Older blog entries for tnt (starting at number 24)

GStreamer & Functional Programming
Well I actually had some free time today, so I started to create what I discussed in my previous Journal entry.
The tool I am creating is called: gst-gen. Eventually it will read a source file (of a yet to be created programming language) and then, from that, create header file and program source file (in C or C++) for the GStreamer plug-in. So far I am able to create the shells for the header file and the program source file. The next step is to define the new lanauge (which will probably be alot like haskell), and then write the parser, etc.

Weekend

Played Roller Hockey. Hopefully the weather will be nice enough tomorrow so I can play again.
Linux Multimedia Conference -- BC Linux Conference
Work for the (yet to be announced) Linux Multimedia Conference moves forward.
It now has a website, although there is nothing really there yet. The website is at LinuxConference.org. I was amazed that that domain was available.
I've been talking to a professional artist about having him, and his company, design the look and artwork for the Linux Multimedia Coference's website, along with other types of artwork (... like posters, etc).
I've postponed the initial announcing of the Linux Multimedia Conference until we get something decent on the website. To me (and alot of people), a website is the face of you project (or business, or whatever). And, it would be nice if we have a decent face (i.e., website) for our conference.

GStreamer & Functional Programming

I've been thinking that creating GStreamer plug-ins using a functional programming language (like haskell, etc) would be powerful method to create these. (And get rid of all the overhead one has to deal with, from the GObject stuff, and other things). For example, we might have something like:
VideoEffect (x:xs, y:ys, i, k)   =

    ComposeVideo(   GiveAlpha(x, i),  GiveAlpha(y, 1-i)   )   :   VideoEffect(xs, ys, i+k, k);
Where this plug-in would do a simple fade transition. (Obviously this has some bugs... but I'm trying to make the code simple.)
I wish I had some free time, so I could implement this! But I don't... I have to do the work that feeds me.
5 Mar 2002 (updated 5 Mar 2002 at 09:40 UTC) »
Linux Multimedia Conference -- BC Linux Conference
As I've stated in my previous Journal entries, I have been working on organizing a Linux Multimedia Conference in BC, Canada.
Things have been moving alot quicker than I expected. (Which is good!) It seems we'll be able to get some really big companies sponsoring it. And some big organizations backing it. I won't say who yet... because nothing is official yet... but things are looking very good.
In just a little while, I'm going to send out e-mails (to the various Linux Multimedia Communities) to see what kind of interest there is in the Linux Multimedia Conference. (The way things are going I expect there to be quite alot.)

Restting the Windows NT/2000 password with Linux :-)

At a meeting I had today, with some other VanLUG members, someone mentioned a tool. This tool will reset the Administrative password on a Windows NT or Windows 2000 machine (using Linux). This will be very useful. (It also shows how pitiful Windows' security really is.) The link to it is: http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/bootdisk.html
BC Linux Conference -- Linux Multimedia Conference
Well... I've already been getting e-mails from people saying they want to help organize the conference... or that they want to attend. Which is great! (Anyone else wishing to help or attend,... e-mail me and let me know.)

matterial, GStreamer, Moonlight 3D, etc

My work seems to becoming less busy... and thus it is starting to look like I should have some time to work on my various projects soon :-)
I'll be able to continue development of matterial Junior and other matterial stuff. I'll be able to finish my Movie Plug-ins for GStreamer. I'll be able to finish my C++ bindings for GStreamer. I'll be able to turn the Moonlight 3D renderer into a GStreamer plug-in.
And then I can work on some other stuff :-)

Replies

amars, in your Wednesday February 27, 2002 journal entry you said:
Why would the world need yet *another* linux conference... it may be due to my ignorance (from lack of experience af actually attending one) but do any of these Linux/Free Software/Open Source conferences ever accomplish anything? I would say 4 good themed conferences per year (one each quarter) would be enough. With the occasional specific project oriented conference thrown in at random.

And my reply is:

The problem with all these other Linux Conferences (for me... and some others) is that none of them are near by. (There doesn't seem to be any Linux Conferences in or near BC.) Which is what started why I started trying to organize a Linux Conference for BC.
Another motivation is that I'd like to see a Linux Conference that focused specifically on (Multi)media. And so far, there are none that I know of that do so.
27 Feb 2002 (updated 7 Mar 2002 at 21:08 UTC) »
Linux Conference in BC, Canada
BC needs a Linux conference!
Currently there are no Linux conferences in BC. GUADEC is in Europe; OLS is in Ottawa; LinuxTAG is in Europe; LinuxWorld Conference & Expo is always in the USA. And all the rest of them are outside of BC!
When I asked VanLUG mailing list:
...why doesn't BC have any Linux, GNOME, or any other kind of free software or open source software conventions???
I got the answer:
Because you haven't organized one. These things don't run themselves, and like an active LUG, take a *lot* of work to make happen. Someone, such as yourself, has to take the helm and make it happen.
Well I think I will try and organized a Linux conference for BC!
I think that if a Linux conference is organized for BC... then it will need to somehow be unique, and focus on something (or things) that no other Linux conference focuses on, to attract people.
My (first) idea is that BC should have a Linux Multimedia Conference. (I'm a little biased, since I work on various multimedia related projects, but...) a Linux conference that focused on multimedia stuff would seem kind of appropriate for this region since BC has a significant Movie Industry, and churns out alot of talented Classical Animators; not to mention that we have large Game Companies here; and large 3D animation sudios here.
I think a Linux conference that focused on all aspects of mutlimedia -- Video, Audio, Graphics, Games, Text, etc -- could get alot of corporate sponsorship (from businesses from within BC, alone).
The first step is, though, to see if enough people would attend! If it looks like 200 will attend (a Linux Multimedia conference)... then it is worth organizing. (If not... then I need to come up with a new focus for the conference... or, at least, broaden the focus.)
The places to check for potential attendees are:
  • the GStreamer developers and users,
  • the SDL developers and users,
  • the aRTs developers and users,
  • the GIMP developers and users,
  • the subscribers of the LAD mailing list,
  • the subscribers of the LAU mailing list,
  • the subscribers of the linart mailing list,
  • the subscribers of kde-multimedia mailing list,
  • as well as the developers and users of every other art and multimedia application for Linux. (Anyone reading this... feel free to give suggestions.)
The (BC) Linux Multimedia Conference would be for developers, artists, and other mutlimedia users. It could give presentations for developers; bringing everyone up-to-speed with the latest developments, with various projects. It could give workshops for artists; introducing them to various Linux Multimedia applications; or teaching them a new technique with their favorite application. It could give workshops for developers; where developers could learn how to develop for a library or environment. And it could have all the other stuff you usually find at a conference.

matterial

Well, it look like the matterial project has picked up a new developer: Billy Biggs -- vektor. vektor brings all sorts of skills and experience to the matterial Development Team, that will prove him to be a valuable addition to the team.
I unfortunately am still really busy with work... and haven't done much with matterial for a while now :-(
Olympics: Hockey
Canada won the gold for hockey! For most Canadians, it wouldn't have mattered if Canada lost every other sport or game in the Olympics, as long as they won at hockey. It's been a while since I've seen that many Canadian flags on the streets.

Linux Video Developers... the convergence

The GStreamer IRC channels and mailing lists have sort of also become the place where Linux Multimedia Developers (including Linux Video Developers) converge. Well... it's semi-official now. Since so many of the who's who of Linux Video Development are subscribed to the GStreamer Developers Mailing List, we're going to CC any important stuff to the GStreamer Developers Mailing List. (We being me [tnt], Uraeus, Ronald Bultje [from MJPEG tools], and anyone else who was listening.)
Hopefully others will follow suit, and do the same. (And CC any important Linux Multimedia Development stuff to the GStreamer Developers Mailing List)
17 Feb 2002 (updated 18 Feb 2002 at 03:36 UTC) »
Mandrake Club
I had my company join the Mandrake Club. That way I am supporting the makers of my (newly) favorite Linux distro.

I think you're suppose to get some extra stuff when you join the club. That sounds kool (... although I would have joined even if they didn't offer extra stuff... but the extra stuff is nice :-) ) I wonder when they'll be sending me my user name and password to access the MandrakeClub.com website???

Moonlight 3D
When Moonlight 3D gets converted over to use GStreamer, as its plug-in architecture, we'll be able to do some interesting things.

For instance... imagine a plug-in that converts a (gray-scale) image into height map. (In 3D Studio MAX, I typically used this type of thing to create mountain ranges.) Well, now imagine that we have such a Moonlight 3D/GStreamer plug-in. This plug-in would take an image as input, and produce 3D data as output. Such a plug-in could be used to animate water! A video would be feed into the plug-in... and out would come moving ocean.

GStreamer
I started writing C++ binding for GStreamer. IMO... it will give GStreamer alot more syntactic sugar. For example, you can write:

GStreamer::Pipeline pipeline;

// Put stuff in the pipeline. pipeline << element1; pipeline << element2 << element3;

// Connect things together. element1 >> element2 >> element3;

Or something like that.
Me in the News
Got interviewed today, over the phone, by a reporter from the Union-Tribune, Kim Peterson.

I think she's writting an article about Lindows or Michael Robertson. (Michael Robertson is the founder of MP3.com and Lindows.)

I got interviewed because of an article I (previously) wrote for OSNews.com called: Lindows Done Right. The reporter, Kim Peterson, wanted to get the perspective of someone from the Linux community. (So I got picked, because of my article.)
5 Feb 2002 (updated 9 Feb 2002 at 04:51 UTC) »
Moonlight 3D
Read about the reincarnation of Moonnlight 3D today.

So I went and talked to Patrick Mauritz -- the guy who wants to reincarnate Moonnlight 3D -- about using GStreamer for (part of) Moonlight 3D's plug-in architecture. (Since he already thinks the current system sucks.)

He's agreed... but (since he has absolutely no familiarity with GStreamer) I'll be the one turning the renderer (and some other stuff) into GStreamer GstElements, etc. And I'll be the one binding GStreamer to Moonlight 3D.

Which is fine, since this helps out with matterialize (from matterial).
1 Feb 2002 (updated 9 Feb 2002 at 04:52 UTC) »
GStreamer and the GIMP
Been talking to the GIMP people and GStreamer people (again) about getting GStreamer and GEGL to integrate. (In doing this) I found out that GEGL is only about 20%-30% done. And also found out that the most important part of GEGL is GIL/CodeGen part.

It seemed to me, that if that is the case, then maybe the GIMP people should make CodeGen produce GStreamer objects, and add whatever else they need to the GStreamer code-base.

So I went and talked to yosh about that. And after some discussion; and (later) after getting omega to come over and talk to him too... I think we've almost completely convinced yosh.

If it happens... it will be great! And give Linux a very strong Multimedia back-end. And likely make it the defacto standard Multimedia back-end for Linux. (It also makes happen some of the things we planned and designed for matterial... in particular, (parts of) matterialize.

15 older entries...

New Advogato Features

New HTML Parser: The long-awaited libxml2 based HTML parser code is live. It needs further work but already handles most markup better than the original parser.

Keep up with the latest Advogato features by reading the Advogato status blog.

If you're a C programmer with some spare time, take a look at the mod_virgule project page and help us with one of the tasks on the ToDo list!