KDE 4.3 “Caizen” is out!
Plasma on KDE 4.3
The KDE team has released the latest iteration of their famous cross platform desktop environment. KDE 4 is a desktop environment that has great potential as it has embraced some really powerful and state of the art technologies as its pillars e.g. nepomuk, akonadi, Plasma, Qt4 and others. Also its creators have a really good vision of where they are heading and how they will keep the desktop from becoming obsolete in this Web 2.0 world.
I’ve been using KDE 4 on and off since its highly controversial 4.0 release. The 4.0 release and its subsequent 4.1 release were very immature and definitely weren’t ready for mass consumption. Although the developers claimed that these releases were not meant for regular users maybe they should have advertised that fact better and maybe they should have the 4.0 numbering. The 4.2 release was widely regarded as finally something for “regular users” and “what should have been the 4.0″. In my opinion not even the 4.2 release was ready for prime time. Many annoying bugs were still present, some caused by distributions, others due to driver issues and others were just plain KDE bugs. Also many KDE 3 apps still weren’t ported to 4 which caused a void that had to be filled with GNOME or KDE 3 applications, not a pretty thing. But with this 4.3 release things are looking pretty good. I’ve been using this 4.3 release since this first beta and I’ve seen it grow and mature. And I have to say that this release is what I would finally label as a good release for mass consumption of general users i.e. not developers, hobbyists and enthusiasts, as long as the distributions don’t screw it up. I’m not saying this release is without problems or bugs, but they are not that noticeable and prevalent as before.
Something that has impressed me a lot about the KDE developers its the speed on which they develop the KDE environment. If you compare the 4.o release to this 4.3 release they are worlds apart. The things they have achieved in such a short amount of time is astonishing. Maybe it is due to the technologies they are using or maybe its just due to growth in the community and energetic developers.
The KDE community has fixed over 10,000 bugs and implemented almost 2,000 feature requests in the last 6 months. Close to 63,000 changes were checked in by a little under 700 contributors. Read on for an overview of the changes in the KDE 4.3 Desktop Workspace, Application Suites and the KDE 4.3 Development Platform.
Although the initial releases were somewhat half baked this 4.3 release is in my opinion a demonstration that the platform is starting to mature and that from this point on we will start seeing even more great innovations and progress on the desktop. 4.3 was released and I already can’t wait for 4.4. I’m sure 4.4 will rock big time. The GSOC student’s work will be merged in, some of the new ideas thought up on the GCDS will be implemented and this will be the first release using gitorious for development. Some of the things to look forward in future releases are the materialization of the “social desktop” and the “semantic desktop” within KDE.
In: Linux, Technology, Uncategorized · Tagged with: desktop environment, foss, kde, relase
Learning Japanese with Firefox
kawaii!!!
Like I had mentioned before I’m once again in a quest to learn Japanese, but this time its for real, I promise 
Anyway I’ve been looking at the different resources and methods to train oneself in Japanese and found a couple of Firefox add-ons that can help you learn Japanese while surfing the net. These are the one’s I thought would be the most helpful but by no means its an exhaustive list. To see more options visit the Mozilla add-ons page.
- Furigana Injector: “Looks up the readings for kanji words and inserts them as furigana.”
- Kanji-li: “What the program does is simple. It replaces the first letter of a word with a kanji of similar meaning. For example, the word read might appear as 読ead.” Unfortunately this add-on is only available for older versions of Firefox.
- FetchImi: “FetchImi is an English to Japanese pop-up translator. Read English web sites with pop-up translations just by moving the cursor over the word you want to lookup. ” This add-on is till “experimental”.
- Ubiquity: Ubiquity is wonderful “do it all” tool for Firefox. It comes with a translation command that can be very handy.
This add-ons are definitely helpful for intermediate and advanced Japanese students but not so much for beginners like me.
In: Internet, Technology, Uncategorized · Tagged with: firefox, japanese, learning, mozilla, online, reading
For all those Windows 7 fans – We have RTM
It was only yesterday that we said when various people would be getting the final RTM copy of Windows 7. Well today, Microsoft has announced via the Windows Team Blog that Windows 7 has been Released to Manufacturers (RTM) and that the final build is 7600.16385.090713-1255, one build version up from the leaked copy of 7600 we saw last week.
OEMs should be expecting the RTM copy in around 2 days, with all TechNet and MSDN subscribers having to wait until August 6 to try out the final build of Windows 7. Keep tuned at The SDF to hear their thoughts on the final copy of Windows 7 when they can get it.
(Post taken straight from The PC Report)
In: Windows · Tagged with: windows 7
NBC’s Chuck
Thought I’d tell you guys about a series called Chuck that airs on the NBC network. Chuck is an action packed TV show that airs on NBC, along with a ton of action there’s a ton of comedy. Created by Josh Schwartz (The O.C., Gossip Girl) and Chris Fedak (Chuck is Fedak’s first TV credit), this is one kick-ass tv show.
The series is about a twenty-something year old computer geek that receives a ton of encoded images of classified government secrets via an email sent to him by an old college friend and the images get downloaded into his brain. He literally has classified government secrets in his brain. The copy of the secrets in his brain is the only remaining copy of the world’s greatest spy secrets, and Chuck is walking around town with them.
Currently, there are 2 seasons. NBC recently announced it will be renewing Chuck for a 3rd season which will premiere this fall. I highly suggest you watch Chuck on hulu and if you like what you see, buy season one on Blu-Ray or DVD and while you’re at it, pre-order Season Two on DVD or Blu-Ray
And most importantly, Enjoy!
In: Entertainment · Tagged with: Chuck, NBC
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
Gurren Lagann
Commonly known as “Gurren Lagann”, it is the most epic anime EVER!!! It was released on 2007 and won several awards at the Tokyo International Anime Fair, Animation Kobe, and Japan Media Arts Festivals. Produced by the animation studio Gainax (Neon Genesis Evangelion, FLCL), the series is 27 episodes long (though is divided in 2 parts, but it is 27 in total).
In: Entertainment, Uncategorized · Tagged with: anime, awesome, epic, gurren laggan, piercing the heavens
Drumline Meets Revenge of the Nerds
I was chatting it up with a friend, and she sent me this video.
Which I thought was damn impressive, to be quite honest.
You can find the video here.
Basically, it’s a video of a drumline doing lots of classics. Such as Pokémon, Zelda, Tetris and Mario.
And it’s awesome.
Go in. Check it out. Comment what you thought.
I was blown away by the coordination they showed. It couldn’t have been easy.
In: Entertainment, Movies · Tagged with: drumline, link, mario, nerd, pokémon, tetris, zelda
People with rare genetic disorder called “Duke Nukem’s disease” start a support group
This is so sad, I wish them well. I think I’ve always had a little bit of “Golden’s Eye disease” 
In: Funny · Tagged with: duke nukem, first person shooter, funny clip, genetic disorder, shooter, strange disease, video game
Folklore: Robert Johnson and the Crossroads
There are other ways to learn a guitar beyond books and lessons, but they have a price beyond money. A price that can be paid only with the common coin shared by all men, whether they be beggars or kings, their immortal soul. A price that was said to be paid by the legendary Blues musician Robert Johnson around about 1930.
Folklore and Mythology: Kelpies
Imagine yourself to be walking along a dark road one night near a river or loch, you may have had a wee dram too many and it’s still such a long way until you reach hearth and home. All of a sudden you spy a fine horse in the middle of the road unattended, it couldn’t hurt to borrow him to see you home could it? You can always return him to his owner in the morning, and perhaps even receive a little compensation, for surely the owner of such a fine animal will be both wealthy and relieved to be reunited with him. So you mount the beast not even wondering why his mane is wet when it’s a dry night, then all of sudden he’s off racing towards the water. In desperation you try and throw yourself off but you can’t, you’re stuck on his back and nothing you can do will see you free. He gallops into the water, and as your lungs fill and all goes black you realise that it was no ordinary horse you’d chosen to ride, but a kelpie looking for its next meal.
In: Folklore, Freaky, Mythology
Folklore and Mythology: Selkies
This is the first in what will be a series of posts from me about folklore and mythology, since the subject has long been a personal interest of mine, and so I thought it best to start with something from my own country.
The selkies of the Orkney Islands.
In: Folklore, Freaky, Mythology · Tagged with: Folklore and Mythology, Selkies
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