Uses of OpenKinect

I've downloaded and built the source code for OpenKinect on linux but since I am the only one in the group with a mac I am also trying to get it built on OSx. So far it is a slow process of downloading the required parts for mac, so while I have been waiting I've browsed some OpenKinect videos. Here are a few that I found interesting. There is one with Mario Kart on Nintendo and there is one with Windows 7. I think both are very fascinating and you should check them out if you have any interest. Anyway I'm still trying to get it built on Mac but I'm running out of HD room...... 

Bugs in openKinect

Now that we have decided to switch projects, from Empathy to OpenKinect,  I was able to download and build the project within a few minutes. Unlike the last project where it required an unreleased version of ubuntu and other packages.

First I just want to say that the bug tracker for OpenKinect isn't very good at all, but Empathy uses bugzilla which is great for tracking and organizing bugs. The oldest and only two labeled bugs were created 2 months ago. One of the bugs broke OpenKinect for mac OSx. It was resolved but some people still run into this problem. To get past their problem they just comment on the bug their problem and someone else usually responds with what might help to fix it. Creating an account for github was too easy, I'm just glad when I was signing up I noticed the free open source account. I was looking into trying to reproduce one of the bugs but I can't get anywhere without the kinect. Some I'm going to wait on Ashley and work with him on it. Sadly I can't do the last part of the TOSS chapter because we don't have any "new" bugs to triage. Anyway we just need a kinect to jumpstart this project. And I can't wait to try it out!

Freeciv

Freeciv is a turn based strategy game, and while learning more about open source projects we had to download the source code for this game and build it. It had simple directions to follow but of course I had the hardest time doing it. I spent a very very long time trying to build it but kept running into problems that they didn't document. After spending hours trying to build it I found out that josh posted a command on his blog that downloads and installs all of the packages needed in one swift motion. After running this command I was able to finish it easily and play the game for a little bit.

Subversion and building problems

Last week I spent a while on subversion, I was able to figure out how to grab files from the repository but I couldn't load things onto it. I got some help from classmates and after a couple hours of looking through a tutorial was able to upload to the server. Once I got that to work, I tried to build empathy but I keep running into this problem of packages that aren't available yet or I can't get the most recent version but they are required to build it. I feel like once we are working on it together as a group we will be able to break through this problem or agree on scrapping the project. One good thing is that I was able to sign up for their bug monitoring system(bugzilla). I haven't chosen which bug we are gonna work on as a group, but I have been able to narrow it down to some very simple bugs. It is a good start for us because none of us really know the language C.

Gnome and all its glory!

When roaming the gnome empathy site I found some interesting things. I couldn't really find anything on history about the project but when I looked at the team wiki, some of my teammates had already been searching around for history so I decided to go another route. I found that there was an Outreach Program for Women. It was a chance for women to apply to help contribute to the gnome project and work with an experienced mentor. They were accepting women that could contribute in any aspect of the project. They also get paid a stipend of $4500, which I thought was crazy for 3 months of working with someone directing you most of the time! Anyway, this page led me to another one which had a list of all projects related to the Gnome desktop and mentors for each. They encourage people to contact and get some direction which I thought was a really good to lure people into helping with the project. I am excited to hopefully get some pointers on the easy things we can do to contribute to the project. But first we are gonna try to decide on which bugs to work on fixing.

The Cathedral and the Bazaar

So we were supposed to read this article called The Cathedral and the Bazaar. It is about a man named Eric Steven Raymond and his experiences when he first discovers and dabbles into the open source world. One thing he said I think is really important, "too often software developers spend their days grinding away for pay at programs they neither need nor love. But not in the Linux world—which may explain why the average quality of software originated in the Linux community is so high." This definitely shows that open source software is a good place to learn/help with coding. He also has about 20 rules that he threw into his article and each one is an amazing tip to keep in mind while diving into the open source world. 

I also signed up for the mailing list and the IRC for Gnome Empathy. This took exponentially less time than reading the article.  

Choosing our projects...

So last class we got together in our groups and searched around some sites with lists of humanitarian free open source software (HFOSS). Each one of us selected a couple of projects and presented them to each other. We narrowed our selections(mainly tony's) to three. Our top three were GNOME Empathy, OpenRemote, and OpenKinect. GNOME empathy which is a messaging project that supports voice, video chat and some other features. It definitely seems to be the most developed and has a ton of help links that will help us along the way. Our next selection is called OpenRemote, it is used for developing touch-driven control panels. This project has some documentation but not a lot along the lines of a mailing list but they do have a chat room. Our third choice is called OpenKinect, this project focuses on using the xbox's new kinect and modifying to do several different things and so you can use it on the computer. We haven't decided yet on what our final choice is but we are going to decide before our next class. So until next time....