• Complete separation of data and its visual presentation.
  Last time round the main object (Topic) was based on Gtk.Widget which didn’t really make a lot of sense. Even though it was using the MVC framework the data was still tightly coupled with the with. That will change and thanks to that it should be possible to write different frontends, not necessairly based on Gtk.
• Mind map widget as a separate Gtk# library.
  The first reason for that is the same as above but there are some additional benefits. I’ll try to make that library usable for others so maybe someone will be able to use it in some other projects. A mind map is an amazing way of visualizing all sorts of data so someone may find it useful. Beside it I was inspired by the amazing work that Aaron Bockover has done on his ListView widget and Banshee in general.
• Using MonoDevelop and Linux as primary development environment.
  I decided that it’s time to put my money… er… my freedom, where my mouth is. I’m complaining about being stuck on Windows all the time and still I’m choosing to use it when nobody forces me to. Of course the biggest factor here is the amazing progress happening in MonoDevelop which actually makes it possible.
• Using Git for local source code management.
  Well, just being trendy here… I’m using Git-svn to communicate with the Google Code SVN repository. I’m actually playing with it so much that most of my commits have around 2 lines. It’s better to commit too often than not often enough, right?
• Supporting Mono.Addins right from the start.
  That’s just something that I’m considering right now. It would be cool to enable other people to easily enhance Psycho’s functionality, but first I need learn how to do it. I guess it should be easier if I start doing that right from the start of the rewrite.

OK, so as you can see I have a lot of plans and I certainly didn’t abandon the project. As usual, some help would be nice. I have a lot of questions and doubts that someone experienced could easily answer. Without those answers I’m wasting a lot of time and I get very frustrated sometimes not being able to progress as fast as I would like to. So, if you were going to mentor a project for Google SoC but it wasn’t accepted, I could really use your help. Especially if you know a thing or two about Gtk(#) and cairo. Please.

Note to self:
Remember, it’s never so bad that it can’t get any worse… :-)

Why would it be so beautiful?

Just a few of my personal reasons why I would love to see that happening:

• Big blow to Microsoft’s dominance
  I have nothing against Microsoft as a software maker. I just hate that I have no choice and when I’m not happy with their product I can’t simply switch to something different. For me, just like for millions of engineers, designers, detailers, draftsmen and other technical professionals there is no choice - we run whatever AutoCAD and other Autodesk products run on.
• I would get to work on a Mac
  Don’t get me wrong - I’m not an Apple fan boy. My system of choice would probably be Linux, but since I am stuck on an evil proprietary platform I’d rather be stuck on something as good as Mac OS (security, performance, stability, usability) additionally running on beautifully designed hardware.
• No funny looks at work
  Our industry (CAD/CAM/CAE) is so Windows centric that when I tell my colleagues at work that I am sometimes using a Mac at home they look at me as if I was trying to be original. A snob with a girly notebook (my gf’s MacBook).
• Just for the fun of it
  It would be really exciting to watch, just like a big storm on the sea. Not a lot of people would probably see that one coming and implications of such a move by Apple would be huge to the whole industry.

What could make you think it is possible?

During the last couple of months a few things have happened that could be seen as signals of something significant going on. No hard evidence but still enough for a hungry mind…

• This job posting.
  Autodesk is looking at hiring a BDM for AutoCAD and Apple is mentioned as one of vendors who would be selling and marketing it. Here’s an excerpt in case the original expires:

Business Development Manager: AutoCAD	Posted 02-Nov-2007
Location: 3950 Civic, SRF
Are you ready to travel the world, develop partnerships with major technology players, and grow a half billion dollar business as the Business Development Manager for AutoCAD? You must be a highly-motivated business person ready to develop a product strategy for selling and marketing AutoCAD with vendors such as hp, Dell, APPLE, Lenovo, Amazon, CDW, and many others.

• Windows application compatibility in Mac OS
  A few weeks ago someone has noticed something that was interpreted as a chance for Windows compatibility coming to Leopard in future versions.
• Autodesk buying out its own shares
  I won’t pretend I know what and why they are doing but maybe they want to accumulate some stock to actually have something to offer to Apple?
  (Edit 1:10 pm, 20 Dec 2007)
• They both like nice new toys
  Multitouch namely. We all know the beautiful and intuitive multitouch interface of iPhone and iPod touch, but if you read Scott Sheppard’s blog you have probably seen this and earlier posts on the subject. Multitouch interfaces seem to be perfect for CAD software and Apple definitely knows a lot about them.

Why I don’t believe it will happen?

I would be happy to eat my gym shorts if I’m not right but I simply think that Apple buying Autodesk is not possible. No matter how strong you wish for something to happen it won’t happen JUST BECAUSE you wish, unfortunately…

• Autodesk and Microsoft are too close
  Autodesk is all buddy-buddy with Microsoft. The next version of AutoCAD looks as if it was an Office 2007 application (ribbon control). They have created their DWFx file format as an implementation of Microsoft’s XPS and it is natively viewable in Vista. I wouldn’t be surprised if the next generation omnipotent file format called DWGx (if rumors turn out to be true) would be somehow based on the OOXML format.
• Too much work to port products to Mac OS
  I can’t even imagine how much time and resources would it take to port, even just the most important Autodesk products, to Mac OS. Maybe temporary use of some kind of Windows compatibility (as mentioned above) would be a good temporary solution but I find it hardly believable that anyone would like to use critical applications in non-native environment.
• Too much resistance from Windows users
  A lot of computer users don’t cope with a change very well. Especially if they use their computers as tools at work and they only care about getting their job done. For them a change of platform would be just an unnecessary disruption.

Why would it make sense for Apple?

Obviously it’s all about the number of users and revenue that they bring to the company. Think about over 8 million of seats of AutoCAD (only legal) and multiply that by the price of a single Leopard license. That alone would give a number close to $1 billion and although it is the biggest, AutoCAD is not the only Autodesk product that people would like to use on a Mac.

• Access to a huge community of technical clients
  Apple hardware and Mac OS would become an instant standard in a number of different engineering industries. They are already pretty strong (or even dominant) amongst professional photographers and graphic designers. There is also a decent number of architects using ArchiCAD on Macs but bringing Autodesk products to the table would introduce Mac OS platform to all sort of engineers and big corporate customers.
• Halo effect or platform synergy bringing new customers
  Huge number of people use Windows at home just because they use it at work. Either because they simply don’t know Mac OS or they don’t want to use two different environments. Bringing AutoCAD (Inventor, Revit, etc.) to Mac OS would introduce it to a lot of people that would simple prefer it over Windows or again use it at home just because they use it at work (or school). This way the number of new Mac OS licenses would probably be much bigger then the number of Autodesk product licenses.
• Media & Entertainment products
  Over the last couple of years Autodesk has acquired a few companies that that are widely used in TV and movie production. Disney and Pixar are probably amongst significant users of those systems. Can you smell the connection already? Huge render farms running on Mac OS on XServ must sound appealing.
• Leverage in product politics
  Apple never knows when Microsoft decides to kill off Office for Mac. If they decided to keep Autodesk products running on both platforms they would have something to keep Microsoft playing nice. Of course before iWork becomes a full blown Office replacement. It would also give a lot of ISVs a reason to treat Mac OS on the same conditions as Windows.

Why would it make sense for Autodesk?

Well, I don’t believe it would unless they make it run on both platforms, but that’s not really the point here. If Apple buys Autodesk it is supposed to be good for Apple, but looking at the graph below I know in whose boat I would like to sit. Apple is still worth half of Microsoft but its value is growing quickly and consistently. They have overtaken IBM already and probably have enough cash in the pocket to buy Autodesk as a Christmas gift to all the people patiently waiting for AutoCAD on a Mac all those years.

Click the image for 6 year value growth history.

Update (10:40 am, 20 Dec 2007):
We all know how impossible that story is, but if you have something that would back it up I would love you to see your comment. That could develop into a nice bogus gossip. :-)

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Of course there are better things to look at than your own neighborhood. Like for example those fascinating features of the terrain in Venezuela:

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We are sorry…

We could not process your order because of geographical restrictions on the product which you were attempting to purchase. Please refer to the terms of use for this product to determine the geographical restrictions.We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

I understand that Amazon and music labels treat that project as an experiment and after it proves to work it will be (hopefully) extended to other countries as well, but without a given time line when that could happen, it’s really hard to accept iTunes conditions. Beside it, it doesn’t really take a lot of special powers to predict that a globally accessible MP3 shop offering what Amazon currently does, would beat iTunes hands down and could easily become a standard in music distribution. Come on Apple, Amazon - you can’t overcharge like that or make clients jump through hoops when illegal sources are so easily reachable.

So, guess what?! Nobody got my money and I’ll leave it to you to guess to what I’m listening right now. Oh, and of course I’ll buy that album as soon as Amazon or any other shop offers me the same deal the US residents get.

On the leukemia-side-of-things - seems like currently I’m slightly below the norm but it also looks like my blood is stabilising and I hope that in coming weeks it will climb up a bit.

My progress with leukemia
Well, if you look at my results it seems like I haven’t got it any more. Of course it’s not that simple. The Philadelphia chromosome is still there and if I stop taking drugs it screw my blood picture back again. The only real way to get completely cured is getting a bone marrow transplant, but that is not really possible at the moment. But the drug works fine and hasn’t got any really sever side effects. From what I noticed so far I’m getting tired very quickly. Usually around 2 p.m. I am so sleepy that I have problems keeping my eyes open. Also, if I don’t eat enough before taking the drug I feel pretty sick, but that is easy to avoid. The problem is that a lot of food together with a constant feeling of being tired doesn’t really improve my fitness.

Immigration stuff
I have finally decided that I haven’t got much energy to spare and decided to get a lawyer and allow him (in this case her) to get it sorted for me. It’s going to cost a bit but at least it’s one monkey off my back. That should give me some peace of mind. I hope it’s worth it because if I get kicked out I’ll find myself in a real financial black hole - with no income and a lot of things to pay for.

Hacking on Psycho
Yes, I’m back to it. Again… Currently I’m working on a style manager and at the moment I’m writing it as a separate application. After I figure out how exactly I want it to work I’ll plug it into the rest of the project. I just wish I wasn’t so tired in the afternoon so I could focus a little better and do some more work.

CAD on Linux
This is something that, because of my job, interest and education, I really care about. That topic appears here and there (and even here - btw, some really stupid comments here) from time to time and then disappears without any constructive result. In my opinion this whole thing boils down to two separate issues. No proprietary CAx (CAD/CAM/CAE) system running on Linux (Solaris, BSD, whatever) being one of them and no free and open source CAx that could replace (not even remotely) proprietary applications on the other side. Big dry desert and no hope for rescue. On top of that there is one more battle to lose. DWG seems to be the standard format for CAD data. Everyone who wants to exist in CAD has to work with DWG. Now, rumor has it that Autodesk has DWGx file format in works. Basically CAD equivalent of Office Open XML. The problem is that there is no ODF in CAD, so if Autodesk decides to standardise it they will have a much easier job then MS with OOXML. OK, enough about that for today. I think that I have a long post about it coming pretty soon…

Update: 
Seems like Amazon has done something to restrict mp3 downloads to US only. I get a “geographic problem” message when I try to download anything.

Also, our application for residence in NZ is finally logged with the Immigration office. Now we have to wait and see what they say. There’s a good chance that we will have to put up a big fight to have a right to stay in NZ. It’s probably not what I need most at the moment so I hope it’s not going to be too bad. I’d rather spend my energy on other things right now.

News coming from Poland are moderately optimistic. Only 20% of people who could be treated with Glivec actually get it. I wonder if that’s true…

Every cell in the body has a nucleus that contains chromosomes. To be more specific, 23 pairs of chromosomes.

The most important cause of CML is a translocation of two of them: chromosome 9 (the ABL gene) and chromosome 22 (the BCR gene).

During the division of the cells, these two chromosomes criss-cross, break, and fuse to each other. In doing so, they create so called Philadelphia chromosome.

Philadelphia chromosome is made up of two parts and is also called BCR-ABL.

This new gene produces a specific new protein called tyrosine kinase.

Tyrosine kinase stimulates uncontrolled production of abnormal blood cells by the bone marrow.

Normally, white blood cells grow and divide in an orderly and controlled way, but in leukemia the process gets out of control and the cells divide too quickly, and do not mature. In CML, too many myeloid cells (one of the main types of white blood cells) are produced. The myeloid cells are released into the blood when they are immature and unable to work properly. These immature white blood cells are known as blasts. The immature cells fill up the bone marrow and prevent it from making blood cells properly. As the leukemia cells do not mature, they can’t do the work of normal white blood cells, which leads to an increased risk of infection. Because the bone marrow is overcrowded with immature white cells it also can’t make enough healthy red cells and platelets.

As you can imagine that causes all sorts of problems but that is a story for completely different post…

So, I’m trying to keep positive and focus on things that need to be resolved in order of immediacy. More news to come as the situation unfolds. Words of support are welcome. :-)

The picture below shows the wrong placement on the left and the correct one on the right (with the incorrect above on the bridge).

GPS data problem on Flickr
Originally uploaded by piotr zurek.

City on a misty morning
Originally uploaded by piotr zurek.


Sun among masts
Originally uploaded by piotr zurek.

It would be nice if someone ported it to Linux/Gtkmm or maybe just created a plugin like that for F-spot. I can’t understand why Picasa doesn’t offer that functionality. It would make so much sens.

Mantis again
Originally uploaded by piotr zurek.

And some of the photos I’ve taken tonight:

First impressions on the N2 di-GPS mini?

• Very small and lightweight - why doesn’t Nikon put something like that inside the camera? Or at least inside the MB-200? It would be uber-cool and rather unique in the market. Come on Nikon! D300 with GPS built-in?
• Somewhat “cheap&plastic” feel.
• OFF/Auto/ON switch action is very resistant - good or bad, depends how you look at it.
• No cover for the 2.5mm remote jack - at least a theoretical weather seal would be nice.

So now I need a weekend with a bit of good weather for a photo trip to test it. That’s going to be a looong week of waiting.

And where do you think you’re going?
Originally uploaded by piotr zurek.


Morning depression
Originally uploaded by piotr zurek.


Under the bridge
Originally uploaded by piotr zurek.

I’ve completed that migration using the SVK tool. SVNSYNC somhow didn’t want to work for me. The only issue with the final result is that it looks like all commits (all staggering 194 of them :-) ) have been done on the same day. Well, I can live with that. At least I have all the history. I’ll probably write a short HowTo for other people who want to get away from Novell Forge and land in Google Code repository.

Since MonoDevelop supports Visual Studio solutions I decided to check in the solution files as well. So now, if you check out the code you’ll get the full Visual Studio project that you can easily compile and run. No, I still didn’t get my head around an actual build system. I’ll worry about that when the application is ready for shipping.

I feel rather lonely this Christmas
Originally uploaded by piotr zurek.

We’ve also overheard an interesting discussion:

“Hey man! Haven’t you heard that this year the color of your arm band should match your lipstick and your eye shadow?” - says that posh show-off:


Birds on the beach in Tawharanui
Originally uploaded by piotr zurek.

“Well, I’m more of a “colors-of-the-earth” kind a person” - replies this humble fella:


Birds on the beach in Tawharanui
Originally uploaded by piotr zurek.

The whole experience of installing Feisty on VMware Fusion was nothing short of impressive. When you first start Fusion, it gives you a possibility to create a new virtual machine, for which you can obviously choose a installation CD image.
In my case it was Ubuntu Feisty Herd 1 DVD image. Not a problem. Just tell me how many processors and how much memory you want to use for that vm and Bob’s your uncle. The system boots up as the usual Ubuntu Live DVD and you can start the installation with the Install icon on the desktop. After finishing the installation it has to restart and then you can see the first sign that both of those products are not in their final, production versions.

Ubuntu Feisty running on Mac using VMWare Fusion
Originally uploaded by piotr zurek.

Second attempt turned out to be much more successful. After a few nervous moments of expecting the kernel panic you get what you waited for:

Ubuntu Feisty running on Mac using VMWare Fusion
Originally uploaded by piotr zurek.

With a hidden toolbar:

Ubuntu Feisty running on Mac using VMWare Fusion
Originally uploaded by piotr zurek.

VMware Fusion reminds you to install VMware Tools which is also no problem and accepting all default option in the process leads you to a successful end and a few moments later you can enjoy your freshly installed Feisty in native Mac resolution. The nice thing is that the performance of that solution feels sharper on the 2GHz Core 2 Duo with 512 MB of RAM than running in regular environment on 1.8 GHz Centrino with 1 GB of RAM.

Ubuntu Feisty running on Mac using VMWare Fusion
Originally uploaded by piotr zurek.

I can’t wait to try final Feisty on final VMWare Fusion, however it’s a great pity that only one of those products is free. I won’t probably spend my money on Fusion when it comes out. Although I maybe be wrong…

Update:

I have also tried the openSuse 10.2 virtual machine downloaded from Mono Downloads. Unfortunately no luck here. After powering the VM Fusion claims that the “openSUSE 10.2.vmdk” file cannot be found and that without it you can only go back to running Ubuntu in alfa version. Well done Ubuntu.

Anyway, Manuel is guilty of both. Thanks again.

As of yesterday I can finally produce a nice png drawing of my map. The next thing I will have to complete ASAP is Styles functionality and Property View that will allow modifying looks of each topic separately. I wish there wasn’t Christmas coming so that I had no distractions from working on Psycho. It gets more and more usable and I think that the first actual release is coming in around 6 months. I’ll try to produce a Road Map - of course as a mind map.

The next thing I’ll work on, in the immediate future will be distributing all topics around the central topic so that it finally is central. I already have a idea how to do that - just no time to dress it in few lines of code.

I also started looking at the possibility of integrating Psycho with Tomboy and it seems to be fairly easily doable. Even for me. The only thing I’ll need to complete before that is creating free topics (not connected with the central one) and some basic support for DnD in the map. My plan is to simply import all Tomboy notes as free topics and allow the user to define their relations graphically on the screen. It should be also possible to update the map once a previously imported note was edited in Tomboy. Maybe even some change notification… We’ll see.

Eng: Portuguese sounds weird.

Fra: Yeah. It sounds like Brazilian.

Oh really? You don’t say! :-) 

Back to Linux

Originally uploaded by piotr zurek.

Back to Linux

Originally uploaded by piotr zurek.

Guy Fawkes Day

Originally uploaded by piotr zurek.

Guy Fawkes Day

Originally uploaded by piotr zurek.

… after scroling:

… and after re-exposing:

All suggestions highly appreciated…

Sunday was a dolphin day again. Bay of Islands is a very reliable spot.
Not only for dophins apparently…

Australian Gannet
Originally uploaded by piotr zurek.

On Saturday we went all the way up to Cape Reigna and on our way back we’ve taken the route down the Te Paki stream and then around 60 km down the 90-mile beach. Driving through the river bed is awsome but driving 120 km/h on a flat like table beach is even cooler…

Not everyone was as lucky as us.

That’s a 4×4 ride, idiot!
Originally uploaded by piotr zurek.

That said, to make things easier for some people: Canon is gay, and not in a good way…

Website visit statistics

Originally uploaded by piotr zurek.

And that’s the way it should be!

Originally uploaded by piotr zurek.

So, this weekend we headed north, to Bay of Islands. Going there, thereis one thing You have to do. Go for a dolphin watching/swimming cruise.This time we haven’t been so lucky during the swimming part (no underwater pictures) but the watching was just perfect. We’ve seen ahuge pod with some very young and very big individuals. Great fun for usand judging by their behavior for them as well.

Office on fire

Originally uploaded by piotr zurek.

…and on Monday we have come to the office and there was no office any more. One of the appliances caught fire. The funny part is that it was not a cooker or a toaster. Not even a microwave… The dishwasher is the one to blame.

On the way back from Rotorua we have dropped by to Raglan to see the famous surfing spot in NZ. Well, as for surfing we didn’t find it that exciting as the sea was very calm, but we had a really nice breakfast at “Tonque&Groove”.