Greetings all,
Hope everyone's New Year is off to a good start. Here are a couple of
updates regarding recent Linuxaudio.org activities:
In the light of Dave Phillips' recent announcement, the consolidation of
documentation, user support, and developer resources is now the top priority
at Linuxaudio.org. Since last December, a number of volunteers have come
forward in order to tackle this project.
The preliminary consensus is to generate a well integrated and cross-linked
platform for user and developer support consisting of existing mailing
lists, app wiki site based on Dave's work, a wiki/forum user support hybrid,
and paper/document/manuals repository. The challenge is how to make these
well integrated and cross-linked. For instance, having posts on LAU/LAD
lists pre-parsed before they are distributed with relevant links would be
rather helpful (i.e. one could mention JACK in the e-mail and the parser
would immediately attach an URL to it so that the mailing list subscribers
would get a much more user-friendly version without requiring additional
overhead from the posting party), etc.
The current proposed model (subject to change) should consist of three
domains:
app.linuxaudio.org -- app list (dynamic version of Dave's page)
doc.linuxaudio.org -- wiki documentation
forum.linuxaudio.org -- wiki/forum hybrid
I have taken the liberty to appoint Robin Gareus as this project leader due
to his concise idea and solid programming background in this area. Other
current volunteers include:
Nedko Arnaudov
Joseph M. Gaffney
Ashton Snelgrove
Vince Weber
As always, if interested in participating in this project please do not
hesitate to contact me.
We are also planning on presenting our preliminary framework at this year's
LAC in order to solicit feedback as well as recruit additional helpers. Long
term, we are looking towards a rather ambitious goal of developing a
transparent and well-integrated next-generation documentation, support, and
indexing platform.
Given that I may not be able to attend the conference this year due to a
number of reasons, many of which are beyond my control, provided our session
is accepted, Robin Gareus will be holding the talk. However, if any of you
will be there, we could definitely use some recruiters/PR people for
Linuxaudio.org. We could also use at least one board member to assist in
Robin's presentation. If interested please contact me preferably asap.
That should be it for now. Should you happen to have any additional
questions and/or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Many thanks!
Best wishes,
Ivica Ico Bukvic, D.M.A.
Linuxaudio.org Director
Virginia Tech
Department of Music - 0240
Blacksburg, VA 24061
(540) 231-1137
(540) 231-5034 (fax)
ico(a)linuxaudio.org
http://www.music.vt.edu/people/faculty/bukvic
Aldrin is an open source modular sequencer/tracker for the Linux operating system.
We're proud to announce the release of Aldrin 0.8 (Raccoon), featuring a
new default XML/FLAC/ZIP based fileformat named "CCM", the "Lunar" dsp
scripting engine, sample exporting, saving/loading envelopes, a few new
UI improvements and the usual set of bugfixes.
Beware: Aldrin, libzzub and pyzzub have been split into separate
packages. You will find additional information on the download page.
http://www.leonard-ritter.com/announcement_aldrin_0_8_raccoon
Also, Dave Phillips of linux-sound.org fame wrote a great review of
Aldrin for his blog at Linux Journal, featuring a small Interview as
well. Check it out!
http://www.linuxjournal.com/node/1000156
--
Leonard Ritter
-- Freelance Art & Logic
-- http://www.leonard-ritter.com
To all members:
Regarding this project we really need more input from the community. Hence,
I would greatly appreciate everyone's comments on the "Made in Linux" text
for the cover. Namely, what should be included on it?
Also, Daniel, what did you do with the copyright notice given that different
pieces have different copyrights. Is this somewhere on-file (i.e. URL) where
we could point users to?
As far as the copyright notice is concerned, my suggestion would be to
simply state something along these lines:
"(c) 2004-6. All works are copyright of their respective authors and are
distributed either by author's permission or according to their respective
licenses which are available <state where>. CD cover design copyright
Thorsten Wilms. 'Made in Linux' copyright Linuxaudio.org."
This should probably be stated in small print at the bottom of the back side
of the cover. I am not sure whether we should state on the cover that the
music was entirely done in Linux, since the title of the series already
clearly implies this and ultimately such a comment may detract from the
artistic value.
Finally, Thorsten, would you be willing to simply readapt the front cover to
fit the CD label (for those who may opt for doing CD labels)?
Best wishes,
Ivica Ico Bukvic, D.M.A.
Composition, Music Technology, CCTAD, and CHCI
Virginia Tech
Dept. of Music - 0240
Blacksburg, VA 24061
(540) 231-1137
(540) 231-5034 (fax)
ico(a)vt.edu
http://www.music.vt.edu/people/faculty/bukvic/
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On Mon, Dec 25, 2006 at 08:16:25AM +1100, Erik de Castro Lopo wrote:
> Ivica Ico Bukvic wrote:
>
> > A quick look at some of the successful forum/mailing list projects, for
> > instance Ubuntu, reveals that not only they have both, but also both methods
> > of communication are teeming with activity.
>
> Teeming with activity but close to zero signal amongst the noise.
>
> I keep on searching google for solutions to Ubuntu based problems.
> All of the top hits on google point to UbuntuForums and when I
> go there there is almost never an answer. The UbuntuForums are
> absolutely chock full of "Me too" or people saying "that didn't
> work for me".
>
> > FWIW, as far as the "speed" of forums is concerned, it largely depends on
> > what you use in combination on what kind of hardware you run. I've seen some
> > that are quite fast despite the often dubious eye-candy.
>
> Connecting to some web server on the other side of the planet
> will always be slower than accessing mail that has been delivered
> to me and is sitting on my hard drive.
>
I rely heavily upon mutt/procmail, but I consider it to be a hack. I don't want a threaded discussion, I want rapid, high-quality access to authoritative answers to technical questions, preferably in documentation where I can find it immediately without having to wait for an answer or navigate down tons of blind alleys to get it. I know how to filter a threaded discussion in order to find it, but it's still sub-optimal.
I will chime in here to suggest a "none of the above" type of answer:
Wiki along with forums + IRC.
For years I hated wikis, for the same reason I still dislike forums, which is the reason you outline above: lots of noise and random flailing about, and few, if any, useful answers. Of course a lot of mailing lists have the same problem, but I use mutt and procmail to wade through the noise.
But then I discovered by far the best Wiki I've ever seen: the wiki for OpenWRT (http://wiki.openwrt.org/)
It is well-maintained. No endless noise of "I tried that and it didn't work" or apples-to-oranges comparisons or random stabs in the dark... all that crap gets deleted or hashed out in the forums and/or IRC, and all that remains on the wiki is *the answer* to how to do what you want to do, or why it's impossible. Their wiki has some great maintainers ([:mbm:], nbd, florian, and others). The information is organized, clear, complete, and correct.
They also have an excellent forum, which I say even though I hate forums. One way they keep the S/N up on the forum is that [:mbm:] wrote a little hack to PHPBB which connected it to a bot. The bot sits in the #openwrt on OPN, and whenever a new post comes in, the "chatty cathy's" and the real developers with the deep knowledge-- both of whom sit on IRC all the time-- are alerted immediately. Blind alleys get closed off nearly immediately. Interesting topics or serious bugs get attention immediately. Thus, it has a "push" component like email, which is sorely lacking from most forums.
I find OpenWRT to be the best-documented, highest-quality FOSS project I've ever used or contributed to. It just works. I think the combination of great developers and clever use of information tools are the reasons for its success.
- -ken
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> > A quick look at some of the successful forum/mailing list projects, for
> > instance Ubuntu, reveals that not only they have both, but also both
> methods
> > of communication are teeming with activity.
>
> Teeming with activity but close to zero signal amongst the noise.
>
> I keep on searching google for solutions to Ubuntu based problems.
> All of the top hits on google point to UbuntuForums and when I
> go there there is almost never an answer. The UbuntuForums are
> absolutely chock full of "Me too" or people saying "that didn't
> work for me".
Ironically, my experience is that solutions to most of my very hardware and/or
setup-specific problems were found on Ubuntu forums. More so, some of them were
even applicable to Fedora install but were not available on the Fedora forums...
Many of their how-tos are very helpful which points to another advantage of a
well-designed forum: readability.
>
> > FWIW, as far as the "speed" of forums is concerned, it largely depends on
> > what you use in combination on what kind of hardware you run. I've seen
> some
> > that are quite fast despite the often dubious eye-candy.
>
> Connecting to some web server on the other side of the planet
> will always be slower than accessing mail that has been delivered
> to me and is sitting on my hard drive.
You still need to receive such e-mail either actively or passively. It does not
miracoulously teleport into your HD. Either way, we are again talking about
personal preferences, rather than potential needs and/or interests of an
average user (which may or may not be something you find of value and/or
importance).
Best wishes and Happy Holidays to you and the rest of the list!
Ico
A quick look at some of the successful forum/mailing list projects, for
instance Ubuntu, reveals that not only they have both, but also both methods
of communication are teeming with activity. There will always be those who
prefer forums, those who prefer mailing lists, and those who like/dislike
them the same. Hence, it seems to me that the real question is whether the
LAU/LAD community wishes to cater to as wide common user audience as
possible or do we simply want to expect everyone to adapt to our preferred
ways. Given the abysmal state of Linux audio documentation and overall
knowledge of audio platform on Linux in the user-land, I personally vote for
the former.
Ultimately, I am of the opinion that whatever we can do in a way that
actually is well maintained, will help end-users "dig" what we do. Hence,
IMHO it would be nice to see both available even if they are not necessarily
cross-linked so that posts appear in both places (although their
interconnectedness would be certainly a nice addition). For this reason,
consider this yet another offer/call to the LAU/LAD community for the
design/deployment of the forum.linuxaudio.org, volunteers wanted. If
interested please e-mail me.
FWIW, as far as the "speed" of forums is concerned, it largely depends on
what you use in combination on what kind of hardware you run. I've seen some
that are quite fast despite the often dubious eye-candy.
Best wishes,
Ico
On Fri, Dec 15, 2006 at 01:14:56PM -0500, Ivica Ico Bukvic wrote:
> Wonderful work Thorsten!
Thank you :)
> One question, is the back side designed to be a part of a folded booklet or
> is it supposed to be cut and placed on the back side of the CD? IMHO it
> would be nice to have it placed on the back side to make the CD look
> professional from every side. This, however, would also require that tiny
> side part which commonly has simply a title and a subtitle written
> vertically.
Folded booklet.
I will add a backside with side parts. I would use the same design
for it, unless there's more text to place somewhere.
> FWIW, please remove any credit given to me on the cover as it was really you
> who did all the hard work ;-)
Ok.
BTW, is ther any common term to refer to the whole of the printed art
for a CD?
> Finally regarding the text, the track list is perfect, and obviously your
> authorship should be there, bbut we probably need to figure out what needs
> to be on the CD regarding the copyright and/or other info.
I will wait for a decision. Should be obvious there's not much space,
so I would place some text on the inside, other on the backside, if
there's anything to be added. Then again, it's likely some people
would only print out the cover/booklet.
> I believe I speak on behalf of everyone here when I express my deepest
> gratitude to Thorsten for all his hard work and putting up with the
> seemingly endless criticism (predominantly from me :-).
Heh, you're welcome :)
--
Thorsten Wilms
Thorwil's Creature Illustrations:
http://www.printfection.com/thorwil
Hi!
After a bit of back and forth between Ico and me, the front stands,
I think. Lowercase and the curves on the W are all his fault ;)
Today I worked on the cover/case backside.
http://thorwil.affenbande.org/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/made_in_linux_vol_…
I dropped the bla about copyright, as I think it belonging
to the artists is the default and what people will asume anyway.
Replaced the line about Tux, of course :)
Booklet and case backside could be made different, but then
somebody please tell me which text should appear where.
--
Thorsten Wilms
Thorwil's Creature Illustrations:
http://www.printfection.com/thorwil
How about we stop the seemingly endless discussion and instead all roll-up
our sleeves and actually do this?
Here's what I offer on behalf of linuxaudio.org:
1) generous hosting space
2) virtually unlimited bandwidth
3) docs.linuxaudio.org and apps.linuxaudio.org domains
4) accounts to maintainers
5) server support as needed
What we need volunteers to do:
1) port Dave's pages over into a legible and appealing format to
apps.linuxaudio.org
2) cross-link those pages to docs.linuxaudio.org page (in addition to apps
homepages) which will be a wiki with documentation templates and
standardized layout
3) need to design an appealing interface for both sites (hence consider this
an open call for volunteer designers) -- this cannot be emphasized enough:
we do not want an ugly, plain website, but a nice inviting and user-oriented
resource.
4) create a generic wikipedia entry which gives a summary, philosophy, and
notable achievements of the linux audio scene and provides critical links
(hence it would be used as a portal rather than an exhaustive resource for a
moving target which would never fly with the wikipedia editors anyhow)
On a side note, here's another offer:
As per my discussion with Joern, on behalf of linuxaudio.org I also offer
free unlimited space for porting over LAU and LAD lists to
lists.linuxaudio.org in hopes that we continue consolidating these
invaluable resources. Maintainers will be given appropriate access
privileges etc.
Any takers?
Best wishes,
Ico