Dienstag März 29, 2005

Implementing OpenOffice.org features in Java, is this a conflict?
Is it o.k. to implement OpenOffice.org features using the Java technology considering that Java is not fully open source in the pure sense at this point? This article just raised the question. One community member, Charles Schulz, already commented on this article in his blog.

I also don't want to speak for the community or provide an official Sun statement. However, I wanted to share some questions with you that came to my mind when I read the article.

Where does the "open" in "open source" begin? Is it the source code of the feature? Is it the programming language? The compiler? The system libraries? The operating system? Or even the CPU?

Is it o.k. in the open source world to program in C or C++ against a non-open source system library? What if the Java virtual machine was part of the operating system, or if the byte code instruction set was implemented within the CPU? What about open source code that was written for a few CPU architectures that are not defined in an open way by an independent organization?

Again, where does the "open" in "open source" begin, and who cares about what?

For example at CeBIT we showed Project Looking Glass. Nobody, complained about the fact that is was written using the Java technology. Everybody just loved the software and the fact that it's available as open source on java.net.
( Mrz 29 2005, 06:21:30 PM CEST ) Permalink

Getting started with DTrace
On my train to Leipzig I spent some time reading about Solaris' DTrace feature. Although, I'm not a developer myself (anymore), I think it is a very interesting and powerful feature.

From my own experience I can tell you that I got a very good understanding of the DTrace tool by reading the chapters "Introduction", "Aggregations", "syscall Provider" and "pid Provider" of the "Solaris Dynamic Tracing Guide" that can be found at http://docs.sun.com.

I know the tool can do far more than that, but I think reading those chapters provided me with a very good overview. It also helped me to understand some articles and blog entries that I found about DTrace via Google.

As a next step I will dig out my C programming books again to write short little programs. With those little applications I should be able to understand the power of the DTrace tool even better.
( Mrz 29 2005, 05:59:58 PM CEST ) Permalink Kommentare [0]

Just switch! - Showing movies in StarOffice 8 presentations
StarOffice 8 now allows to embedd a variety of multimedia files into documents. Here is a list of supported file formats:



The new feature is now accessible via "Insert - Movie and Sound":



Thus, with the improved multimedia support you can beef-up your presentations with your favourite sound or movie file.
( Mrz 29 2005, 05:25:30 PM CEST ) Permalink Kommentare [1]

A city full of music
As you might have noticed, I was a bit quiet during the last few days. The reason for this was the German Easter break. The Friday before and the Monday after Easter are public holidays here in Germany. My wife and I used these days to visit Leipzig, a city full of music as we found out.

For Friday night we had tickets for the St. John's Passion by Johann Sebastian Bach. Bach lived and worked in Leipzig for many years. This statue of Bach is located right in front of the Thomas Church ("Thomaskirche"):



Bach himself used to conduct concerts in the Thomas Church. The Thomas Church is also the place where Bach is burried. His grave is on the front left of this picture:



My wife and I were able to hear the St. John's Passion in the same church where Back himself used to conduct. It was a strange, but great feeling! The music and the singing was amazing!!! It's not a surprise that both the orchestra and the choir are famous!

Many other composers have been in Leipzig, too. For example, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and Mozart spent some time in Leipzig. Another famous church in Leipzig where Bach actually played the St. John's Passion for the first time is the Nikolai Church that is shown on the following two pictures:





A completely different kind of "music" is created by this thing:



My wife (the hands do not belong to her!) was really fascinated by this thing. It makes some kind of humming sound when you rub the handles with wet hands. In addition, the water begins to sputter/bubble. Oh, during our walks through the streets we came also across this innovative mobil fast food "restaurant":


( Mrz 29 2005, 11:03:49 AM CEST ) Permalink Kommentare [1]

"Mozilla Pays Out $2500 In Bug Bounties"
"The Mozilla Foundation has demonstrated its commitment to preserving a safe and secure Internet experience by awarding "bug bounties," a cash prize for users who identify previously unknown security bugs in the open source software. Michael Krax, from Germany, received five bug bounties for a total of $2,500. The bugs identified by Krax related to chrome privileges."
The full article can be found here.
( Mrz 29 2005, 10:28:33 AM CEST ) Permalink Kommentare [0]

New Indic Native-Language Group
"To those who are wondering "what is a native-language group?", it can be summed up as a group of several native-lang projects (see: http://native-lang.openoffice.org) willing to help each others and coordinate their actions. The first native-language group is the Indic Native-Language Group, composed of the following communities:

-the Hindi native-lang project (http://hi.openoffice.org)
-the Tamil native-lang project (http://ta.openoffice.org)
-the Bengali native-lang project (http://bn.openoffice.org)
-the Malayalam native-lang project (http://ml.openoffice.org)
-the Telugu native-lang project (http://te.openoffice.org)
-the Gujarati native-lang project (http://gu.openoffice.org)"

More information can be found here.
( Mrz 29 2005, 10:05:28 AM CEST ) Permalink Kommentare [0]