news 28 Posted February 28, 2010 Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #182 for the week February 21st - February 27th, 2010. In this issue we cover: Lucid Alpha 3 Released, Rocking The Opportunistic Desktop, Can you hear the Music, New Ubuntu Members: Americas Board Meeting, Ubuntu Libya LoCo at the Technology & Science Fair, Help localization testing with the ISO tracker, Translating software descriptions with Nightmonkey, Attention Encrypted Home Users, Server Bug Zapping - Call for Participation, Ubuntu Women has a new IRC Channel, Full Circle Magazine #34, and much, much more! == UWN Translations == * Note to translators and our readers: We are trying a new way of linking to our translations pages. Please follow the link below for the information you need. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Translations == In This Issue == * Lucid Alpha 3 Released * Rocking The Opportunistic Desktop * Can you hear the Music? * New Ubuntu Members: Americas Board Meeting * Ubuntu Stats * Ubuntu Libya LoCo at the Technology & Science Fair * Help localization testing with the ISO tracker * Translating software descriptions with Nightmonkey * Attention Encrypted Home Users * Server Bug Zapping - Call for Participation * Ubuntu Women has a new IRC Channel * In the Press & Blogosphere * Full Circle Magazine #34 * Meetings & Events * Updates & Security == General Community News == === Lucid Alpha 3 Released === Welcome to Lucid Lynx Alpha 3, which will in time become Ubuntu 10.04 LTS. Pre-releases of Lucid are *not* encouraged for anyone needing a stable system or anyone who is not comfortable running into occasional, even frequent breakage. They are, however, recommended for Ubuntu developers and those who want to help in testing, reporting, and fixing bugs. Alpha 3 is the third in a series of milestone CD images that will be released throughout the Lucid development cycle. The Alpha images are known to be reasonably free of showstopper CD build or installer bugs, while representing a very recent snapshot of Lucid. You can download it here: * http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/lucid/alpha-3/ (Ubuntu) * http://uec-images.ubuntu.com/releases/lucid/alpha-3/ (Ubuntu Server for UEC and EC2) * http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/releases/lucid/alpha-3/ (Kubuntu) * http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/releases/lucid/alpha-3/ (Xubuntu) * http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/edubuntu/releases/lucid/alpha-3/ (Edubuntu) * http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/mythbuntu/releases/lucid/alpha-3/ (Mythbuntu) * http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntustudio/releases/lucid/alpha-3/ (Ubuntu Studio) See http://wiki.ubuntu.com/Mirrors for a list of mirrors. Alpha 3 includes a number of software updates that are ready for wider testing. Please refer to http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/lucid/alpha3 for information on changes in Ubuntu. This is quite an early set of images, so you should expect some bugs. For a list of known bugs (that you don't need to report if you encounter), please see: http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/lucid/alpha3 https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2010-February/000682.html === Rocking The Opportunistic Desktop === Here are some fun opportunistic developer things going on over the next few weeks. All of these events provide a great opportunity to get started having fun making awesome apps that you can share with others. 1. Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week * Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuOpportunisticDeveloperWeek A few weeks ago Jono Bacon announced the plan to put together Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week: a week of IRC tuition sessions aimed at helping opportunistic developers scratch their itches and write fun and useful programs using our awesome platform. The week takes place from 1st – 6th March 2010. The response so far to the call for sessions has been fantastic, and we already have the following sessions scheduled, all visible from the timetable for the week: * Welcome! Ubuntu For Opportunistic Developers – Jono Bacon * Gooey Graphics with GooCanvas – Rick Spencer * Testdrive – Dustin Kirkland * CouchDB support in your app with DesktopCouch – Stuart Langridge * Creating stunning interfaces with Cairo – Laszlo Pandy * Hot-rod your app for translations support – David Planella * Creating a PyKDE app – Rich Johnson * Creating an application from scratch with Quickly – Rick Spencer * Microblog from your app with the Gwibber API – Ken VanDine * What’s new in Quickly 0.4 – Didier Roche * Learning through examples with Acire and Python-Snippets – Jono Bacon * Building in Application Indicator support – Sense Hofstede * Writing a Rhythmbox plug-in – Stuart Langridge * Create games with PyGame – Rick Spencer * Write Beautiful Code (and Maintain it Beautifully) – rockstar * Using GTK+ signals in Python – Sense Hofstede * Integrated development workflow with Ground Control – Martin Owens * Building multimedia into your app with GStreamer – Laszlo Pandy * Speed your development with quickly.widgets – Rick Spencer * Web browsing and rapid UI with WebKit – Ryan Paul Each of these sessions is designed to give you a taste of the topic and get you up and running, enough to be productive and start exploring the features of the tool being discussed. In addition to this we will have a series of showcase sessions: * SHOWCASE: Gwibber – Ken VanDine * SHOWCASE: Lernid – Jono Bacon * SHOWCASE: Photobomb – Rick Spencer These sessions explain the story behind the app: talking about which tools, modules and technology that was used to put these apps together and what challenges were solved. This is a great way to learn more about tools available for opportunistic developers so that when you need to do something, you know which tool to reach out for. 2. Introduction To Python Tuition Sessions Now, many of you will be entirely new to Python and entirely new to coding. To give you folks a head start before Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week kicks off, Rick Spencer from the desktop team will be running some beginners Python tuition sessions on the Thursday before Ubuntu Opportunistic Developer Week: * Thu 25th Feb 2010 – 15.00 UTC – Ubuntu Opp Dev Week Prep: Intro to Python for total beginners – Rick Spencer * Thu 25th Feb 2010 – 16.00 UTC – Ubuntu Opp Dev Week Prep: Intro to Python for programmers – Rick Spencer This is a great way of getting your opportunistic development kickstarted! Again, this awesome content is best experienced using Lernid. If you would prefer to use a normal IRC client, just join #ubuntu-classroom and #ubuntu-classroom-chat to join in the fun. 3. Fun Apps And Hacking Parties With an awesome week of opportunistic developer learning ahead of us, I was keen to put together some sessions where you good folks can just hack on fun projects in the same room, ask each other questions and more. As such, at the end of each Opportunistic Developer Week day, there will be a a series of parties. These include: * Mon 1st March 2010 – 21.00 – 23.00UTC – Hacking Party – Work on your app together, ask/answer questions and have fun together! * Tues 2nd March 2010 – 21.00 – 23.00UTC – Hacking Party – Work on your app together, ask/answer questions and have fun together! * Wed 3rd March 2010 – 21.00 – 23.00UTC – Hacking Party – Work on your app together, ask/answer questions and have fun together! * Thu 4th March 2010 – 21.00 – 23.00UTC – Snippets Party – Join us and create Python snippets!\ * Fri 5th March 2010 – 21.00 – 23.00UTC – Hacking Party – Work on your app together, ask/answer questions and have fun together! This is an awesome opportunity to get together and make something fun. So, Jono has issued a challenge for you good folks: before we start next week, think of a fun app to focus on writing next week. Pick something that will do something useful for you and something not too large and comprehensive (e.g. don’t pick a word processor or spreadsheet!). 4. The Place To Be: #ubuntu-app-devel As part of building an awesome community and platform for opportunistic developers, Jono created #ubuntu-app-devel on Freenode and we have a great group of enthusiastic developers in there who can answer your questions and help you get started. Join us and join in the fun! http://www.jonobacon.org/2010/02/24/rocking-the-opportunistic-desktop/ === Can you hear the music? === Well probably not yet, but the Ubuntu One Music Store is right around the corner. The team has made great progress since we announced this new Ubuntu feature just a few short months ago at UDSLucid in Dallas. That session was very important for a couple of reasons. It confirmed the community’s interest in having easy access to popular music from within an Ubuntu application. It was also an excellent opportunity to learn some of the community’s concerns and desires. We think we’ve built a music store that everyone will enjoy using at the launch of Ubuntu 10.04 and as it evolves in the future. There have been some great discussions in blogs and blog comments since bits of the store started appearing in Lucid Lynx Alphas. Now that Lucid Lynx has just passed the Alpha 3 milestone, we thought it was a good time to give everyone a quick update. The store is currently being thoroughly tested by a small group of users. After we fix some of the initial bugs, we’ll expand testing to a larger group. This should be in the next few weeks. In the meantime, we’ve prepared an FAQ for everyone to learn more about the upcoming music store. Additional information about expanded testing will be posted here so follow this blog or our posts on identi.ca and twitter for more information. * Ubuntu One Store FAQ: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuOne/MusicStore http://voices.canonical.com/ubuntuone/?p=230 === New Ubuntu Members: Americas Board Meeting === The approval results from the February 25th Americas Membership meeting are as follows: Dylan Mccall * Wiki - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DylanMccall * Launchpad - http://launchpad.net/~dylanmccall Dylan is a student from Vancouver, Canada who has been using and following development of Ubuntu since 2006. He is the maintainer of the slideshow that runs during Ubuntu's desktop installation process, simply named "ubiquity-slideshow-ubuntu" and also contributes to the forums, writes patches and submits bugs. Penelope Stowe * Wiki - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Pendulum * Launchpad - https://launchpad.net/~pendulum/ Penelope has been using Ubuntu since 7.04 and is currently involved with several projects in the community, including: Ubuntu Women, Ubuntu User Days as an organizer and now member of the Classroom team, Ubuntu NGO as co-head of the Advocacy team, has worked with Ubuntu UK and is also involved with research to create an open source device for people who cannot communicate orally or through sign. Anthony Hook * Wiki - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/AnthonyHook * Launchpad - https://launchpad.net/~anthonyhook Anthony is a Computer Science student at the University of Wisconsin and is currently the team lead for Ubuntu Wisconsin where he has hosted a successful release party, launched a new website and organized monthly team meetings. He also is involved with bug reporting, testing and has done some work with application development. Robert Wall * Wiki - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/RobertWall * Launchpad - https://launchpad.net/~robertwall Robert has been an active member of the California LoCo team since December 2008, working on many projects and events, including: the team's approval application, manning booths at both OSCON 2009 and SCaLE Share this post Link to post
