3d Printer continuum

...It's been a while since I last blog, well it is summer and I am on the run with my work so time is never enough.
I am still playing with my Prusa i3 3D printer and hopefully I am a few steps closer to the end. The last few days I ordered some more materials that I did not had and some that I ordered but turned out to be the wrong parts(yeap that happens too when you are a rookie :P ). The good thing is that nowdays the printer actually looks like a printer, the other good thing is that there are not actually wrong parts, it is just the parts for the next one that I will build :) . I also had some time to read a bit more about the wiring and while waiting for the parts to come I will actually work on assembling my heat bed and the power supply. Maybe I will find the courage to program the arduino, although I am avoiding this like hell since I am not confident enough,yet.
Here are some pictures and you cannot see some of the missing parts :D

Organizing oSC13 - 64 days before

Rule #64// Cornering confidence increases with time and experience.
This pattern continues until it falls sharply and suddenly. 
Taken From http://www.velominati.com/the-rules/

If you ride a bicycle of a motorcycle you should be very familiar with this rule either in theory as written above or in action if you ever slipped in a turn. There are always the bending places and then there is the breaking point of everything. Handling proper situations and 'bending' them when necessarily should also come with the ability of the handler of knowing when something breaks. Knowing and avoiding the breaking point like hell is pretty important. After that last bending point it is you who should come and fill the gap between those bending points. Being lazy for any reason to feel this gap can lead to a total collapse of your whole structure. This is pretty important when organizing something like a conference.

What the organization of a conference is actually looks a lot like a structure made of things that must be there and it is like the foundations of the building, things that is equally important to be there like windows and doors and things that  is good to be there but the whole structure can be operational and without all those like the decoration of the building. The shitty thing here is that most of the people who only know a conference as visitors (and attract visitors is one of your the main goals) get all this backwards.

Having the perfect conditions and everything you need to organize a FOSS conference is beyond imagination so in order to do proper work and in the same time keep everyone of your visitors satisfied you have to 'bend' some things. Most of the time it is your patience and you time but many times is your volunteers and your budget. Did I ever mentioned so far that you have to be very creative? Well when organize a conference many times you will have lemons and you will be asked to make orange juice  No worries. If you and your team are highly creative, making orange juice out of lemons is just foreplay. It is not impossible and once you do it once or twice then you come to a point when you find it very easy. The time you will find something (in other conditions extreme and undo-able) easy be very careful. This is the point when there is a big change to 'fall sharply and suddenly'. There is nothing wrong with failing up to a point. After that point is when you will start having structure problems. If you pay attention you will only have some bruises, if not...

How it's made - OBS

As all human beings I am curious by nature, I always liked to see how things are made and listening to stories of what lead people in doing interesting stuff. When I was in Nuremberg for the Marketing hackathon, Jos (Poortvliet) told us that there would be that meeting with the OBS guys and have a talk about everything around it so that we could wright a series of articles in order to promote it. After a few sentences I understood that we would start from the day that OBS was conceived until the present day. For me this was a conversation I had to be part of.

The day after Jos told us about the meeting we were gathered in a room with the guys that created the OBS magic. Some of you might say that I become excessive putting the word magic next to OBS but be patient to read the upcoming OBS series of articles and judge me then.

We gathered in the room and we started recording with our laptops and our mobiles so that we would be sure that we will not lose any part of this conversation for the articles we will prepare. 

We started by asking typical stuff like 'How it started?' and 'What created the need for a tool like that?' but the answers, along with the flame on the eyes of people answering was something that it is very difficult to describe in written language, filled the room with energy. 

What originally started as an interview so that we would gather information to write some articles became a six people group telling a story that was closer to the atmosphere of a fairy-tale than anything else. Soon there was that flow that questions were unnecessary and everything was coming out naturally.

Listening to those peoples stories and seeing the passion in their eyes made me envy them for not being a part of it. Yes OBS is a great project and there are a lot of interesting stuff you can do with it but at that one hour that I was in that room this was the last thing that I cared about and the last think on my mind. It was all about passionate people who love Free Software, who love giving stuff back to the community and who love every little step while doing it. It makes you realize that what most people see as letters and numbers and variables in a part of code other people see a part of themselves and a way to individual freedom. Someone once told me that the basic difference between a free software programmer and a proprietory software programmer is that the guys in free software most of the time see their code more as a child and less than some lines of code. I could understand this but I had never really felt it. This hour I spent in the 'Rome' room at SUSE offices in Nuremberg with those guys taught me more things about Free Software Programming than all the conferences and all the talks I had been part so far. Feel Free to suppose that I am making this thing bigger that it really was, for me it was just an experience I had to share with those who will get it.

Are we few and small?

The truth is that this blog is a bit left alone, the main reasons are that there is no time but most of all I am not feeling in writing. I wrote so many things the last few months that I ended up actually hate writing... And here I am chattering...

A few nights before I was with a friend of mine that I hadn't seen for quite some time. While catching up the past year and so of news and going around to bars we had some quite interesting talks. The one that stuck in my head started as a conversation about the quality of the source of information and how that affects the quality of the Greek internet. My friend at a certain point ended up saying that although Greek internet is mostly full of crap there are actually people that seek quallity in their sources before they write something, also people who care on make things different by writting truths exist. Now here come the really interesting part of all this. She said that those people feel to be a minority and feel 'small' but the reality is that those people are actualy neither few nor small. The base for that conclution was that in Greek reallity most of the people who have access on the internet, and we were not talking about having a Facebook acount but actually read blogs, read news etc. and writting about all that are usually better educated and seek more stuff than 2 M friends on some social network. That stands on it's own under my opinion but it is my opinion (and my friends) and pay attention to the word usually.

Now thinking about all that got me in the loop of remembering conversations I had from time to time with people around the openSUSE community and generally FOSS people and the frustration I got from those people because they thought the same thing. We are few and small many of those people said to me when there was an idea of organizing something or make something relevant. When I first started mixing with the community and I was inexperienced I must admit that my original thought was that all those were excuses people were saying to me in order to avoid working. After a while I felt the same thing and I understood that those were not excuses but a reality all of those people were living and me because of my excitement was refusing to see. Thank to people that were more experienced than and because those people had the patience to mentor me even when I though I knew everything, I realized that this was a reality. If I ever critisiced you like that I now deeply apologise about this. I know that all of the above still don't make much of a sense and some of you might still wondering what I am trying to say through all that. A fact that goes me to the resume of that conversation I had with my friend.

The resume of that conversation was that people who have a purpose that is not something mainstream usually feel that they are few and small but if you search thoroughly into the internet you will find out that they are more than you think so. All people have to do is search for other people that have common routes or have routes that intersect and move from few to many and from small to big. Widening the way we look ourselves and thinking more out of the box can make the change, you see if you want to change something in the world and make it better requires to often look inside ourselves and changing things to us. 

openSUSE Conference 2012 – Invitation to Lightning Talks and Speedy Geeko

The openSUSE Conference in Prague is about to happen and we know that all of you are really excited about it. One more year with great talks and workshops and the warmth of the openSUSE Community around. Being there is really awesome and being a part of it is really great. Since having fun has no limits for us we feel the need to ask you the following:

• Did you wanted to submit a talk and you were late?
• Do you feel like talking about something that has to do with openSUSE?
• Do you feel like talking about something that has nothing to do with the openSUSE?
• Do you feel the need to have an on-stage group-hug with Izabel and Kostas?
• Can you do all that in 2 to max 5 minutes?

If yes is the answer to at least the last and one other of those questions, here is your chance to make it happen.

This year, on oSC we bring one more time the openSUSE lightning talks and the Speedy Geeko and we encourage everyone to come and be a part of it.

Lightning Talks

After many people submitted talks a bit late to fit on the regular conference Schedule or weren’t sure if they wanted to submit a whole talk in order to present something related to openSUSE, we recognised the need to organise something for all of you. After all there should be place for everyone in the openSUSE Conference.

We invite all people that want to make a short talk or talk short about their work inside openSUSE to join us in Lightning talks. Send your requests, info below.

How it works?

• Each Presenter gets 10 minutes to present their topic (depending on the number of submissions…)
• The topic should be related to openSUSE
• You must send a description of your talk until the 10th of october and have the slides ready to send before the beginning of this years oSC
• Your talk has no slide limit

Time is crucial so after the time limit you will have your microphone taken no matter what…

Speedy Geeko

After last year’s huge success and fun we dare to do it one more time. This year we promise to entertain you showing you the other stuff that openSUSE people do. Last year we had bacon, bees, countries, global personalities plus other cool stuff, this year we hope to be at least that interesting and exciting.

How it works?

• Each Presenter gets 4 minutes to present their topic
• Each Presenter will present with 20 slides
• The slides progress every 15 seconds whether the Presenter is ready or not
• The topic can NOT be related to openSUSE

Time is crucial here too so after the 5 minutes we will find ways to remove the microphone from you. Please don’t make us run for it and be aware that we will carry some sort of weapons.

Instructions

If you feel like participating all you have to do is to follow the instructions below:

• For submitting a lightning talk click here with subject title: Lightning talks
• For submitting a Speedy Geeko talk email click here with subject title: Speedy Geeko

The deadline for sending your talks is 10th of october and we will release both schedules at the 15th.

After we release the schedules all you have to do is to be sure that you will have your presentations given to us at some point before this year’s openSUSE conference.

Of course in an open format, preferably ODF or PDF!

Your hosts
Izabel Valverde and Kostas Koudaras

openSUSE Beta Pizza Party Θεσσαλονίκη

Καλημέρα 
Μα αφορμή τις κυκλοφορίας της Beta 2 διοργανώνω σπίτι μου την Κυριακή 24/6 και ώρα γύρω στις 6 Beta Pizza Party. 
Όσοι είστε από Θεσσαλονίκη ή όσοι μπορείτε να έρθετε Θεσσαλονίκη την Κυριακή και έχετε όρεξη να τεστάρουμε την καινούργια Beta 2 έκδοση για Bugs και να φάτε Pizza από τα χεράκια μου είστε
καλεσμένοι. Αν δεν ξέρετε πως να έρθετε στο σπίτι μου ζητήστε πληροφορίες :D

Δηλώστε συμμετοχή για να ξέρουμε πόσοι θα είμαστε και να κανονίσω πόση Pizza θα ζυμώσω. Θα υπάρχουν και μπύρες αλλά επειδή με μας ποτέ δεν είναι αρκετές, αν έχετε διάθεση να πιείτε παραπάνω φέρτε και καμία εσείς. Ρεύμα, wifi και .iso της Beta 2 θα υπάρχουν διαθέσιμα στον χώρο ;-)
Οι Συμμετοχές κλείνουν την Παρασκευή το απόγευμα στις 6.

Φυσικά αν είστε μακριά και θέλετε να διοργανώσετε το δικός σας Beta
Pizza Party μπορείτε να δείτε τα παρακάτω links
1)http://news.opensuse.org/2012/06/18/beta-means-pizza-join-the-party-or-make-your-own/
2)http://news.opensuse.org/2011/09/30/opensuse-pizza-parties-the-geeko-way/
εδώ υπάρχει και συνταγή για Pizza

Μην ξεχάσετε να δηλώσετε το Party σας στο
http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:BetaPizzaParty

Να περνάτε καλά
Κώστας Κουδάρας

Amazing Google Code-In

Happy new year my reader, I wish 2012 to be a successful year for everyone. After many days sick in bed today I finally managed to do some work and review two tasks I had on hold(sorry guys), later I realized that students had completed 21 out of 24 task I had and I found that really impressive. Most of the tasks I had as a mentor where video tasks and translation tasks, basically things that will help newbies (and not only) to learn and do things easier with openSUSE. To be honest I never thought GCI would go so well and produced so high quality products but I have to say that things have changed a lot since I was a student and this was not so long ago ;-) .

I started along with the other 2 Stathis (Iosifidis and Agrapidis a.k.a Diamond_gr and Efagra), as they are GCI mentors too, to review the results of the work we got from it as a local community and so far it is quite amazing. Given the fact that the next few months we will try and improve the Greek wiki of openSUSE the GCI was so far a great help. 

I really hope most of the students will stay around and continue the amazing work they do if not openSUSE in FLOSS generally.

A dot in the map

I don't ever remembering suggesting a site but to be honest I rarely fall into sites that not many people know and worth mentioning, also most of the times I do, I am a bit bored on blog about it so I eventually never do ;-)

Today though it's different, I am taking a break from a presentation it was supposed to be ready...Well...Yesterday, but I am still looking for the right kittens photos to complete this presentation(...don't ask...). Anyway normally I would just watch a movie or something but I am a bit in a mood to blog and latelly I had too much on my plate and had no time to do it, so here I am.

Anyway a friend of mine, Efstathios Chatzikyriakidis had this briliant and simple idea, to make a map where people around the world would state their possition in the map and the OS they use. Some of you might find this useless but I find interesting the fact that I could see the preferance of people around me on what Open Source or Free Software they use and some of you might too. The site is called OSHACKERS and it is licenced under the GNU GPLv3 and if you are curious I would suggest to give it a look and why no register... 

Οι εγγραφές για το συνέδριο openSUSE είναι ανοιχτές!

 

"Η οργανωτική ομάδα βρίσκεται στην ευχάριστη θέση να ανακοινώσει ότι έχουν ανοίξει οι εγγραφές για το συνέδριο openSUSE που θα πραγματοποιηθεί στη Γερμανία, στην πόλη της Νυρεμβέργης, στις 11 με 14 Σεπτεμβρίου. Πηγαίνετε στη φόρμα εγγραφής και εγγραφείτε. Έτσι μας βοηθάτε να οργανωθούμε καλύτερα για μια καταπληκτική εκδήλωση.

Ναι, ήρθε η ώρα να αρχίσετε να ετοιμάζετε το ταξίδι σας στη Νυρεμβέργη!

Προετοιμασία
 
Σε δύο μήνες από τώρα θα πραγματοποιηθεί το συνέδριο openSUSE και SUSE Labs στη Νυρεμβέργη της Γερμανίας. Αυτό σημαίνει ότι, επειδή τα αεροπορικά εισιτήρια δε φθηναίνουν, πρέπει να αρχίσετε να ετοιμάζεστε! Ζητήστε άδεια από το αφεντικό σας, αρχίστε να ενημερώνετε τους καθηγητές σας ότι δε θα είστε παρόντες στις 11 - 14 Σεπτεμβρίου. Και φυσικά αρχίστε να βρίσκεται φτηνές πτήσεις ή εισιτήρια τρένου. Κάντε κράτηση στο ξενοδοχείο και είστε έτοιμοι να εγγραφείτε για το συνέδριο. Φυσικά μην ξεχάσετε να υποβάλλεται μια συνεδρία αν θέλετε να κάνετε κάποια παρουσίαση, να οργανώσετε ένα BoF (συνάντηση ομάδας), να πραγματοποιήσετε μια συνεδρία hack ή ένα workshop.

Ξενοδοχείο

Η ομάδα του συνεδρίου openSUSE έχει φτιάξει μια λίστα με ξενοδοχεία όπου μπορείτε να μείνετε κατά τη διάρκεια του συνεδρίου. Σας συνιστούμε να προτιμήσετε κάποιο από αυτά τα ξενοδοχεία καθώς θα έχουν μόνο συμμετέχοντες του συνεδρίου (fellow geekos), έχουν λογικές τιμές (ειδικές τιμές για τους συμμετέχοντες του συνεδρίου!) και φυσικά δεν είναι πολύ μακρυά από τον χώρο διεξαγωγής, στο Zentrifuge.

Ταξίδι

Για μερικούς από εσάς ένα ταξίδι στη Νυρεμβέργη δεν είναι κάτι εύκολο από οικονομικής απόψεως. Ίσως είστε φοιτητής ή πρέπει να έρθετε από πολύ μακρυά. Τα γνωρίζουμε όλα αυτά πολύ καλά και είναι ο κύριος λόγος για τον οποίο ψάχνουμε συνεχώς για χορηγούς! Μπορείτε να υπολογίζετε να δείτε σχετική ανακοίνωση σε μία εβδομάδα περίπου, σχετικά με το τι και πώς μπορούμε να σας βοηθήσουμε οικονομικά να ταξιδέψετε και να είστε σίγουροι ότι θα κάνουμε ό,τι μπορούμε ώστε μέλη της κοινότητας από μακρυά ή με οικονομικές δυσκολίες μπορούν να έρθουν και να συμμετέχουν κι αυτοί μαζί μας!

Εγγραφή

Η εγγραφή σας εξασφαλίζει καρτελάκι για εσάς στο συνέδριο χωρίς να χρειάζεται να περιμένετε στην ουρά μέχρι να σας ετοιμάσουμε ένα εκείνη τη στιγμή. Επίσης σας προσφέρει πρόσβαση στο ασύρματο ίντερνετ και σας εξασφαλίζει μια θέση στο πάρτυ! Και φυσικά μας δίνει τη δυνατότητα να οργανώσουμε καλύτερα τα πάντα, επομένως έχει σημασία να εγγραφείτε το συντομότερο δυνατό αν σκοπεύετε να έρθετε!
Να σημειωθεί ότι για να εγγραφείτε δε χρειάζεται να δημιουργήσετε λογαριασμό. Θα πρέπει να κάνετε κράτηση σε ξενοδοχείο μόνοι σας, ρίξτε μια ματιά σε αυτή τη σελίδα!
Τέλος, υπάρχει η δυνατότητα για 2 διαφορετικά εισιτήρια. Η είσοδος είναι ελεύθερη για όλους αλλά όσοι θέλουν να υποστηρίξουν το συνέδριο και έχουν την οικονομική δυνατότητα μπορούν να αγοράσουν ένα επαγγελματικό εισιτήριο (professional ticket). Κοστίζει 250 ευρώ και σας παρέχει, εκτός από πρόσβαση στο συνέδριο, βραδινό με τους ομιλητές και άλλους κατόχους εισιτηρίων καθώς και με τη διοίκηση του προϊόντος SUSE.

Βοηθώντας

Εν τω μεταξύ, οποιαδήποτε βοήθεια στην ομάδα διοργάνωσης είναι ευπρόσδεκτη. Αν θέλετε να ασχοληθείτε κι εσείς και να βοηθήσετε να κάνουμε το συνέδριο openSUSE το καλύτερο που έγινε ποτέ, εγγραφείτε στη λίστα της ομάδας και δείτε και τη σελίδα οργνάνωσης." 

Πηγή:  http://own.opensuse.gr/

Πρόγραμμα 1ου openSUSE Collaboration Weekend Camp

Πρόγραμμα 1ου openSUSE Collaboration Weekend Camp

Παρασκευή
17:30 - 17:45  Καλωσόρισμα
17:45 - 18:30  Μεταφράζοντας την διανομή openSUSE - Χρήση του Lokalize και του Gtranslator (Eυστάθιος Ιωσηφίδης - Κώστας Κουδάρας)
18:45 - 19:30  Μεταφράζοντας το weekly news και το wiki - Πως, τι και γιατί
19:30 - 20:30  Βραδινό
20:45 - 22:15 Wiki Hackfest - Διαγωνισμός με δώρο ένα :
22:15 - … Συζήτηση: openSUSE people - From us to us - Διομήδης Αναδιώτης "Καινούργιος στην κοινότητα"

Σάββατο
08:00 - 10:00 Πρωινό
10:15 - 11:00 Χρήση του Yast - Διαχείριση συστήματος εύκολα, γρήγορα και με πολλές δυνατότητες(Ευστάθιος Αγραπίδης-Κώστας Κουδάρας)
11:00 - 12:00 def python_django(tutorial): (Θοδωρής Χατζημίχος)
12:15 - 13:15 "Security and arduino:Multifactor authentication system(voice recognition and rfid technologies)" - Μέρος 1ο (the-hackerspace)
13:30 - 14:30 "Security and arduino:Multifactor authentication system(voice recognition and rfid technologies)" - Μέρος 2ο (the-hackerspace)
14:30 - 17:30 Μπάνιο/ρακετες/Beach Volle/φαϊ/μπύρες
17:30 - 18:15 Qt Signals And Slots (Αντώνης Τσαπαλιώκας)
18:30 - 19:30 "Security and arduino:Wireless devices remote control (client - server control center)"(the-hackerspace)
19:30 - 20:30 Βραδυνό
20:30 - 21:30 Vim introduction (Γιάννης Χατζημίχος)
21:30 - … Συζήτηση: Δουλεύοντας μέσα σε μια κοινότητα Ε.Λ/Λ.Α.Κ

ΚΥΡΙΑΚΗ
08:00 - 10:00 Πρωινό
10:00 - 10:45 Επιβίωση με Gnome 3 στον κόσμο του KDE (Ευστάθιος Ιωσηφίδης)
10:45 - 11:00 OBSάρω, OBSάρεις; (Ευστάθιος Αγραπίδης)
11:45 - 12:30 KDE Frameworks (Γιώργος Τσαπαλιώκας)
12:30 - 13:15 openSUSE Medical project - openEMR (Αθανάσιος-Ηλίας Ρουσινόπουλος)
13:30 ΤΕΛΟΣ ΕΚΔΗΛΩΣΗΣ

TheHackerspace opening: When Great things happen

 I rarely envy people, one of the times I did it was when some guys from Athens announced the creation of a Hackerspace there. I also envied them wen i saw that they started making good work and organizing well. After that I heard about the creation of P-space at Patras and I thought that it was only a mater of time for some people to make something similar to my City.

 A few weeks ago I heard that Efstathios Hatzikyriakidis along with Stavros Kalapothas and Stergios Kalamopoulos where starting a local Hackerspace. I knew Efstathios and he had helped me on the past when I once sent him an e-mail because I wanted some help for Arduino. He was very helpful back then and in a way he had earned my trust.

  So yesterday it was The-Hackerspace opening, and it was an open invitation for everyone to attend and have a talk about our City's Hackerspace. Almost 30 people where there, all curious and all genuine interesting (at least from what I can tell) for it. We had very interesting talks while waiting for the organizers to present us their ideas about the-Hackerspace and you could find all kind of people among us, from hackers to Window users.

At a certain point the people that gathered us all there got our attention and started presenting us their way of thinking of how they would like  the-Hackerspace to work. I was amazed. Their ideas were (are) progressive but at the same time doable. I admit that it was far from what I expected to see in a good way. From what I saw and from the talk we had after their short presentation, other people had the same opinion with me. After that we had a cake and a few hours later we left with the best impressions.

If you are from Thesssaloniki or from a city near there is no excuse for not at least make a visit there. You can find more information about the location of the-Hackespace at http://the-hackerspace.org/location/.

In a city that Great things rarely happen, the-Hackerspace is something at least innovating and it surely deserves our attention and support.

Πως μπορείτε να συνεισφέρετε στο openSUSE και σε άλλα έργα ΕΛ/ΛΑΚ;

Μετά από δυο πολύ καλές παρουσίες, κατά την προσωπική μου άποψη και όχι μόνο, της κοινότητας σε 2 μεγάλα γεγονότα όσων αφορά το ΕΛ/ΛΑΚ της κοινότητας openSUSE, το openFEST 2011 και την Fosscomm στη Πάτρα και κατά τον απολογισμό αυτών προέκυψε ότι ένα από τα ποιο σημαντικά και συχνά ερωτήματα  ήταν:
-Πώς μπορώ να συνεισφέρω στο Project;
Κατά την άποψή μου αυτό το ερώτημα δεν είχε να κάνει μόνο με το δικό μας έργο. Κατάλαβα ότι όλες οι κοινότητες ΕΛ/ΛΑΚ λέμε στον κόσμο τι κάνουμε, καλούμε τον κόσμο να συμμετέχει βοηθώντας στα διάφορα έργα μας αλλά τελικά ίσως δίνουμε λίγες πληροφορίες για το πως κάποιος μπορεί να συνεισφέρει σε αυτά. Με αποτέλεσμα πολλές φορές οι χρήστες να απομακρύνονται από τις κοινότητες νιώθοντας, λανθασμένα φυσικά, ότι δεν μπορούν να συνεισφέρουν κάτι.

Άσχετα με τον αν είστε ένας έμπειρος χρήστης ΕΛ/ΛΑΚ, προγραμματιστής ή ένας τελικός χρήστης, αρχάριος που μόλις κάνατε την πρώτη σας εγκατάσταση Gnu/Linux μπορείτε να προσφέρετε πολύτιμη βοήθεια σε οποιοδήποτε έργο ΕΛ/ΛΑΚ θα θέλατε.
 Παρακάτω θα σας παρουσιάσω κάποιους μόνο από τους πολλούς τρόπους που μπορείτε να το κάνετε αυτό.

Αρχάριοι χρήστες

Μόλις κάνατε την πρώτη σας εγκατάσταση κάποιας διανομής, έχετε ενθουσιαστεί με το γραφικό σας περιβάλλον και με τις δυνατότητες τις οποίες σας προσφέρει το καινούργιο σας σύστημα. Είστε πολύ χαρούμενοι που δεν χρειάζεται να σπαταλήσετε χρήματα για εφαρμογές αλλά παρόλα αυτά αντιμετωπίζετε κάποια προβλήματα που δεν σας αφήνουν να χαρείτε όσο θα θέλατε και καμία φορά σας βγάζουν έξω από τα ρούχα σας και σας κάνουν να σκέφτεστε το παλιό σας λειτουργικό.

Πως όλη αυτή η κατάσταση μπορεί να σας κάνει να προσφέρετε πραγματικά σε ένα έργο ΕΛ/ΛΑΚ;

Γραφτείτε σε ένα από τα πολλά φόρουμ και λίστες ταχυδρομείου που υπάρχουν και αρχίστε να κάνετε ερωτήσεις ψάχνοντας τις λύσεις για τα προβλήματα σας. Αυτό δείχνει στους προγραμματιστές που υπάρχουν προβλήματα και στην κοινότητα που υστερεί η τεκμηρίωση τους.
Με τον καιρό θα μάθετε κάποια πράγματα με τα οποία θα μπορείτε αργότερα να βοηθήσετε με την σειρά σας άλλους χρήστες. Το ΕΛ/ΛΑΚ πέρα από μια μεγάλη γκάμα προγραμμάτων και λειτουργικών συστημάτων είναι και στάση ζωής μέσα στην οποία η αλληλοβοήθεια μεταξύ των χρηστών παίζει πολύ σημαντικό ρόλο. Η αίσθηση ότι κάποιος σας βοηθάει χωρίς να έχει να κερδίσει κάτι από εσάς καθώς και το να βοηθάτε κάποιους χωρίς να θέλετε να κερδίσετε κάτι από αυτούς είναι με μια λέξη:Φανταστική

Όχι τόσο αρχάριοι χρήστες

Η γραμμή του πότε κάποιος χρήστης θεωρείτε αρχάριος και πότε όχι είναι κάτι που δύσκολα διακρίνετε. Συνήθως ένας χρήστης θεωρείτε όχι και τόσο αρχάριος (κατά την γνώμη μου), όταν χρησιμοποιεί το λειτουργικό του σύστημα ή τα όποια προγράμματα ΕΛ/ΛΑΚ τα οποία έχει, έχοντας λύσει όλα τα προβλήματα του και έχει κατανοήσει σε μεγάλο βαθμό πως αυτά λειτουργούν. Τότε είναι σε θέση να βοηθήσει και αυτός με την σειρά του κάποιους άλλους χρήστες και να κάνει αναφορές σφαλμάτων (Bug reports) για τα σφάλματα που πιθανών να προκύψουν σε αυτά που χρησιμοποιεί, μεταξύ άλλων.

Έμπειροι χρήστες

Η εμπειρία έρχεται με την εξοικείωση του χρήστη με το ΕΛ/ΛΑΚ. Ένας έμπειρος χρήστης μπορεί να προσφέρει σχεδον σε όλες τις πτυχές του οποιουδήποτε έργου αυτός θέλει.
 Μπορεί να κάνει αναφορές σφαλμάτων (Bug reports), να βοηθάει άλλους χρήστες και να γράφει τεκμηρίωση γύρω από τα προγράμματα τα οποία χρησιμοποιεί αν πιστεύει ότι αυτή υστερεί.


Όλοι οι χρήστες ανεξάρτητα από τον βαθμό εμπειρίας τους μπορούν να βοηθήσουν με πολλούς τρόπους.
-Μπορείτε να λέτε στον κόσμο τις εμπειρίες σας από το ΕΛ/ΛΑΚ
-Μπορείτε να διαβάζετε τεκμηρίωση και να κάνετε διορθώσεις αρχίζοντας από την ορθογραφία ;-)
-Μπορείτε να βοηθήσετε στην μετάφραση της τεκμηρίωσης
-Μπορείτε να βοηθάτε στις διάφορες εκδηλώσεις σαν προσωπικό του booth
Τα παραπάνω είναι μόνο μερικά από τα πράγματα τα οποία μπορείτε να κάνετε για να βοηθήσετε το openSUSE και τα άλλα έργα ΕΛ/ΛΑΚ, το μόνο που χρειάζεστε είναι θέληση και διάθεση για δουλειά.
Να περνάτε καλά

Why you should not be afraid to mingle with the openSUSE Project

I see many people coming to the openSUSE project but only a few of them (the new people) actually participate in the mailing list talks and on IRC channels talks.
I kept asking myself why? Why is this happening? Is there something wrong or what?
Recently I spotted a new openSUSE ambassador that was too 'tight' when we were talking about community matters and I took the opportunity to open a conversation with him about all of the above and what I got from that is that people are often don't say their opinion because they fear of saying something wrong, also they fear on saying their different opinion when they disagree with an older community member and other similar situations.

come play with us

If you are one of those guys and you have similar fears FORGET THEM.
Community needs you to have a different opinion.
Community needs you to speak up.
Don't be afraid to expose yourself, you are among friends here.
This is free software baby, you cannot actually be wrong. Thinking differently is what started Free Software after all.
Saying out  what you think is what makes openSUSE Project and community great.
Disagree with ANYONE if you think you have a point.
Do not leave other people guide you to places you don't want to go.
There are no Rockstars in our community.
WE ALL ARE THE COMMUNITY

Together we are stronger

If I haven't convinced you yet, I failed.
SO WHAT ???
Read also one the post that made me mingle with the community here by Henne Vogelsang

PLAY YOUR TUNE AND ROCK THE WORLD

Kostas 'Warlordfff' Koudaras

Gnome3: Quick adding Repositories to openSUSE 11.4

Just moved to Gnome3?
Liked it?
Already an openSUSE user?
Want repositories for it?
Start a terminal and type:

1. zypper ar http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/GNOME:/STABLE:/3.0/openSUSE_11.4/ GNOME-3
2. zypper refresh
3. zypper dup    

Enjoy your new Graphical User Interface.

Hard Rock and Free Software: part one

Some days ago I was reading again a book about Terminal command line and at some point I felt like listening to music and especially some good old 80's Rock so I picked one of my favorite play-lists and BANG, Skid Row Poetry right in to my face...

Since I was born they couldn't hold me down
Another misfit kid, another burned-out town

Never played by the rules I never really cared
My nasty reputation takes me everywhere

I look and see it's not only me
So many others have stood where I stand
We are the young so raise your hands

They call us problem child
We spend our lives on trial
We walk an endless mile
We are the youth gone wild
We stand and we won't fall
We're the one and one for all
The writing's on the wall
We are the youth gone wild

So listening to those lyrics of 'Youth Gone Wild'  I started thinking what are the similarities when I was starting my life as a Rocker and my life as a Free Software supporter. I found many similarities that I hadn't noticed until that day. I was shocked to be honest, so I thought why not blog about it? And here we are, as always continue reading at your own risk ;-)


1) Family affairs 

Well when I was a young boy and started to listen to rock my father wanted to send me to an exorcist because he thought I was possessed, to be honest I felt possessed my self with all that energy that music had that I never experienced before.

When I grew up (?!?) and discovered Free Software, my father though I was possessed for a second time in my life since he suddenly saw me standing in front of a screen reading for hours, standing still, I also felt a bit strange since the power of knowledge of that new stuff filled me with energy once again.

2)Surrounding Community

Back then, when I started listening to Rock and I went to my friends with a tape filled with Aerosmith, Twisted Sister, Deep purple and Scorpions they thought I was becoming something else that they don't like so we split and I was alone until I found some other Rockers and started crush in to places where we spent all of our time listening to Rock, some of us tried to learn to play guitar and drums. We were part of a community.

When I started using Free Software and I tried to talk to my friends about it and shared them some live Cd's I had made for them, they said that I was loosing my mind, so I was alone until I found others like me and a LUG where we crushed all of our free time and running various Linux distro's, some of us tried to learn Python, Java and Pearl. We were part of a community.

3)Freedom of doing whatever you want, freedom to fail.

As Rockers we started playing guitars and drums and we didn't have to be good, we didn't wanted to be professionals, we just cared to play. We organized gigs and we were drinking beers. Many times we were having gigs with just our friends, some times even without them, we are talking about epic fails but we didn't actually care because we did what we wanted just because we liked the whole situation, we didn't want to make money out of it, we did it for ourselves and that is why we had great fun with it.( Although we all dreamed at least once to become RockStars)

As Free Software users we started writing code(not me :-p ) testing various distributions and also building custom distributions based on other distributions or playing with various GUI's, we don't care if what we are making actually works most of the times and we enjoy failing, since we liked the road better than the actual destination. We tried to convince people test what we do. Sometimes some of our friends did that,sometimes not even our friends accepted to try it. We didn't actually get bothered by it(at least for a long time). We didn't care about making money out of it, we had our jobs. We did it(and still do it) for ourselves and that is why we have great fun with it.(Although we all dreamed ourselves at least once as the next Linus Torvalds).

That's it for now. Part one ends here.

Do what you Love
Love what you do
and
Love thy guitar as you Love thy desktop
Because those will guide you to the path of ...

Kostas Koudaras

Hangover Philosophy: Life and the two versions of her

Some after Hangover Philosophy for the people.

Read-hear-watch at your on responsibility ;-)

Hardware Hacking: Το μεγάλο κάψιμο

Πολλά πράγματα μου έκαναν εντύπωση κατά την επίσκεψη μου στην SCaLE. Ένα από τα πράγματα αυτά ήταν το hardware hacking και η ενασχόληση του κόσμου με το λεγόμενο Free Hardware.
Στην Ελλάδα το ποιο γνωστό από όλα αυτά είναι φυσικά το arduino για το οποίο πρόσφατα έλαβα πολλές χρήσιμες πληροφορίες από τον Ευστάθιο Χατζηκυριακίδη ο οποίος είναι και από τους Έλληνες που 'το έχουν' σε αυτόν τον τομέα και τον οποίο επί της ευκαιρίας ευχαριστώ πολύ για την βοήθεια.
Γνώρισα τα παιδιά του Crashspace και έπαθα την πλάκα μου, Κολλητήρια  μοβ μονόκεροι, τρισδιάστατους εκτυπωτές και arduino για να τους ράψεις στα ρούχα σου η για να φτιάξεις καπέλα που δείχνουν τον μαγνητικό βορρά  Κάψιμο μεν ως ενός σημείου, απίστευτες κατασκευές από την άλλη και πάνω από όλα απίστευτο γέλιο και εποικοδομητική σκέψη. ότι μπορούσες να σκεφτείς, αυτοί μπορούσαν να το κάνουν κατασκευή...

 

Helen South and Leigh Honeywell

LA σε λέει (openSUSE Marketing Hackfest)

Είμαι τόσο ενθουσιασμένος και δεν μπορώ να το κρύψω a.k.a I'm so excited and I just can't hide it που λέει και το Disco-άσμα. Σε μερικές ώρες πετάω για Ρώμη και από εκεί για Λος Άντζελες όπου και πάω για να παραστώ στο Marketing Hackfest όπου και είμαι καλεσμένος για δουλέψω μαζί με την υπόλοιπη ομάδα marketing της κοινότητας openSUSE για την προώθηση της έκδοσης 11.4 που κυκλοφορεί σε μερικές μέρες και όχι μόνο.

Αυτή η συνάντηση είναι ιδιαίτερα σημαντική για την κοινότητα openSUSE μιας και είναι το πρώτο Marketing Hackfest  που διοργανώνετε και μάλιστα γίνετε ακόμα σημαντικότερη δεδομένου ότι βρισκόμαστε μια ανάσα πριν την δημιουργία του openSUSE Foundation. Σχεδόν όλες οι σημαντικές προσωπικότητες της κοινότητας θα βρίσκονται εκεί, αρχής γενόμενης της παρουσίας και συμμετοχής του Άλαν Κλάρκ, προέδρου του Δ.Σ του openSUSE.

Ένας από τους λόγους που είμαι τόσο ενθουσιασμένος είναι ότι όπως όλα δείχνουν θα μάθω πάρα πολλά πράγματα γύρο από πάρα πολλά πράγματα. Επίσης θα γνωρίσω επιτέλους όλους αυτούς τους ανθρώπους με τους οποίους μιλάω και δουλεύω καθημερινά.
Μείνετε συντονισμένοι...

Jules Verne - The Author who taught me to think out of the box

Since I was a kid I was a 'difficult' boy. I was too energetic and naughty but one of the few things that could keep me quiet was reading. A teacher recognized that and suggested my parents to buy me books all the time and just leave them in my room. Since the age of ten I started reading at least one book a week and so far I don't remember myself reading less than one book a month and until the age of sixteen I never asked from my parents any other present than books.
I have many favorite authors but if I could pick my three favorite I would pick four:

• Jules Verne
• Graham Masterton
• Edgar Allan Poe
• H.P. Lovecraft

 Today is the birth anniversary of my first favorite author ever. Jules Verne was an inspiration for many people and among them,me. I spent countless nights imagine myself as a crew of Nautilus at 'Twenty thousand leagues under the sea' and as the sixth member(seventh if we count Captain's Nemo appearance)  of Cyrus Smith's at 'The mysterious island' party . The influence I got from his books was deeply and that influence is responsible for a great percentage of the way of thinking I have. It is also responsible for the countless trust I have in human nature and the power of will. His books taught me that imagination has no boundaries and many times thinking outside the box is a way of evolving as a person. It also taught me to respect different people and the various ways of thinking, made me to realize that sometimes what is good and bad depends many times from the position I am standing. It taught me so many thinks I could probably write a book about them. I certainly wrote countless essays about it through my school years and writing great essays is another thing Jules Verne's books taught me...
 The best way to end this subject I guess is to thank that teacher back in fourth grade of elementary school and of course my parents whom although they denied me many things in my childhood they never denied me books. Imagination to a kid is as important as food and as the quality of the food we serve our kids affects their growth so the quality of imagination affects their mental growth. Don't serve your kids fast food and hours in  front of a TV if you really love them just because that is easier, it will get back to you one day...