Older blog entries for zeenix (starting at number 173)

gupnp-media-server coming soon..

Next on my TODO is a desktop-wide UPnP MediaServer based on tracker. Basically, it will make all of your media availabe to other UPnP devices that is tagged as "shared via UPnP". I already have a working dummy implementation, based on code from Jorn's rhythmbox plugin. I call it "dummy" because ATM it only exports a hardcoded list of media files. Here is a screenshot of Windows Media Player playing music from it using on2share plugin:

Syndicated 2008-04-26 14:59:00 (Updated 2008-04-27 12:54:14) from zeenix

History Meme

I don't know what the hell is this all about but seems like a cool thing to do and in-fashion these days so here I go:

$ history | awk '{a[$2]++}END{for(i in a){print a[i] " " i}}' | sort -rn | head
100 cd
78 make
58 ls
36 vim
22 ldd
21 ssh
12 git-diff
11 src/av-cp/gupnp-av-cp
10 git-log
10 ./autogen.sh

Syndicated 2008-04-17 18:16:00 (Updated 2008-04-17 18:21:21) from zeenix

talking of overnight changes

My last blog entry reminds me of what my bank (Sampo bank) recently did. They were recently bought by a Danish bank and as part of the integration process, the e-banking system of Sampo was replaced by a stupid system that Danish bank had been using. The biggest problem with it is that it doesn't work on every machine, not even all i386 running windows. The result was that a large number of customers moved there money to other banks. Fortunately for me their system do work on this Linux laptop I am using to write this blog entry but my 64-bit desktop is another story. :( According to Riku Voipio, the problem is that they are using some 'native code' in their JAVA applet, now how pathetic is that. These kinds of things happen when a bunch of no good managers with no (or not enough) technical knowledge make decisions about technology behind closed doors.

To add to my agony, their cross-border money transfer has some problems too and if I knew that I would never have used bank-to-bank transfer as the method to send money to my mother for her chemotherapy. I had to call my ex-boss to talk to his friend who works in the destination bank and he just told us that the Bank's branch number/name wasn't conveyed to them.

Syndicated 2008-04-12 11:38:00 (Updated 2008-04-12 11:57:10) from zeenix

SOAP support dropped from libsoup

Soon after I announced the release of gupnp-tools/av, someone pointed out that libsoup-2.4 is already out and therefore gssdp and gupnp needs to be ported to the new API. I am already done with the porting of gssdp and most of the gupnp (thanks to Dan Winship for being so helpful) but then came the shock: the SOAP support has suddenly been dropped from libsoup. I blamed my ignorance on me not being subscribed to libsoup ML so I started to dig into the archives but failed to find any mention of this change.

I know how to solve this issue and I am sure Dan will help me out in this one as well but IMO APIs should be deprecated first and then removed in the next major release.

Syndicated 2008-04-12 10:55:00 (Updated 2008-04-12 11:14:28) from zeenix

stupid blogger.com

If you have recently seen a post by the name "Back to Hel(sinki)", from me, please ignore that. It's just just blogger.com (or is it p.g.o?) punishing me for adding tags to a two week old post. :(

Syndicated 2008-04-08 22:54:00 (Updated 2008-04-08 22:56:52) from zeenix

GUPnP Tools 0.3 released

This release features AV Control Point, a simple media player UI that enables one to discover and play multimedia contents available on a network. Hopefully a useful tool to test and debug UPnP MediaServer and MediaRenderer implementations. [Zeeshan Ali]

Other changes in this release:

- Desktop file for each tool. [Ross Burton, Zeeshan Ali]
- New Icons. [Vinicius Depizzol]
- Various misc improvements and fixes. [Zeeshan Ali]

Download from http://gupnp.org/sources/gupnp-tools/gupnp-tools-0.3.tar.gz

Here is a screenshot of GUPnP AV CP in action:

Syndicated 2008-04-08 22:34:00 (Updated 2008-04-08 23:20:52) from zeenix

Introducing GUPnP A/V

The first release of GUPnP A/V is now available. GUPnP A/V is a small utility library that aims to ease the handling and implementation of UPnP A/V profiles.

GUPnP A/V is free software released under the GNU LGPL.

Syndicated 2008-04-08 22:29:00 (Updated 2008-04-08 23:21:05) from zeenix

Back to Hel(sinki)

I am back in Helsinki. Regarding my mom, when we last spoke to the specialist she said the Cancer is at the level 3 (4 is last) and therefore my mother has to go through extensive/expensive chemotherapy sessions which will last for 6 months or so. Now me and my canadian sister has to arrange the money and Saima is supposed to take care of the rest. Other than that, it feels good to be back with my love.

Syndicated 2008-03-29 13:14:00 (Updated 2008-04-08 22:42:21) from zeenix

GUPnP 0.8 released

While I was having fun with the extremely slow Internet connection here and other family issues, Jorn rolled-out another GUPnP release. Here is the release announcement:

GUPnP 0.8
=========

- New API allowing for subclassing of resource types.
  [Zeeshan Ali, Jorn Baayen]
- GUPnPDeviceInfo returns subresources with version greater or equal than
  requested version. [Jorn Baayen]
- Servers announce versions less or equal than implemented version.
  [Jorn Baayen]
- Make gupnp_context_get_server() public. [Jorn Baayen]
- GError arguments added to all error signals. [Jorn Baayen]
- Improved resubscription handling. [Jorn Baayen]
- Various other fixes and internal improvements
  [Ross Burton, Zeeshan Ali, Jorn Baayen].

One big reason to roll out a release at this point was to make way for a gupnp-av and gupnp-tools release, which will follow shortly so stay tuned. :)

Syndicated 2008-03-23 19:32:00 (Updated 2008-03-23 19:39:08) from zeenix

Last one week

I have been in Karachi for the last one week. My mom is much better now and seems to be recovering fast. The doctor says she still needs a few chemotherapy sessions are there are still some microscopic tumours left but she said this is nothing much to worry about.

We just got her an apt on rent in more secure and less polluted area which obviously costs a lot more money but I've agreed with my Canadian sister to only pay the rent and she'll pay the rest of the expenditure. The biggest reason for this was to move her so close to Saima that Saima could take care of her while her children are at school.

The most recent event is that yesterday, someone robbed my biggest sister (who also lives in Canada but is currently visiting pk) of her bag at gunpoint while she was travelling in a rickshaw. The bag contained amongst other things, all her documents and cards. Normally she doesn't carry important documents in that bag but since it was her last day, so she made an exception. Now most probably, she'll have to go through a long process to get a new passport and Visa. I wonder if the authorities can make an exception in this case and let her travel with some other temporary document but we'll only know till Tuesday because they are closed for easter tomorrow.

Syndicated 2008-03-23 19:14:00 (Updated 2008-03-23 19:53:26) from zeenix