In this edition...

  1. Front Page
    • qgil soundly settles ceaseless suggestions surrounding a "sudden switch-off" of certain servers
    • Why Maemo Community Council needs to be a council of "do-ers"
  2. Applications
    • BashQuotations finally released for the Nokia N9 / N950 with support for German and English bash.org quotes
    • Q To-Do updated with progress bars and tree view
  3. Development
    • Community OBS replacement for MeeGo under Mer. Maemo inclusion to replace autobuilder?
    • Latest CSSU testing update causes problems for some users
  4. Community
    • maemo.org Community Management/Relationship handed back to Quim Gil
    • Projects having problems with maemo.org infrastructure?
    • Forum<->email integration now available on talk.maemo.org
    • ...and 6 more
  5. In the Wild
    • Nokia N9 scores higher than competitors in customer satisfaction
  6. Announcements
    • StatusNet client for Harmattan
    • Helium - a Harmattan UPnP control point

Front Page

Quim Gil soundly settles ceaseless suggestions surrounding a "sudden switch-off" of certain servers

Via: @Jaffa2

Editor: Ryan Abel

In an email to the Community mailing list, Quim Gil firmly put down rumours of any unannounced shutdowns of maemo.org or its services in the near future: Ok, this is not going to happen. Whatever happens we will know 3-6 months in advance since this is how budgeting goes. All 2012 is covered as we speak (and afaik it was never under question). The time to discuss about 2013 will start approximately after the Summer. It's always like this, by the way. You have my word with my @nokia.com domain and all. You can quote this whenever someone has fear, uncertainty or doubt about maemo.org hosting. About an unambiguous an answer as you could want. Hopefully it will put to bed the FUD about maemo.org and Nokia's continued infrastructure support, which has been one of the most pernicious and infectious distractions which has afflicted the Maemo community since Harmattan was revealed to be branded "MeeGo" (despite, under the covers, being Maemo).

Why Maemo Community Council needs to be a council of "do-ers"

Via: @Jaffa2

Editor: Andrew Flegg

Since last week's update on the slow moving Maemo Community Council election, it seems to have taken off. At the time of writing, there are now four candidates running and a number of threads discussing issues that the current council has had (only a single active member, difficulty in discussions with Nokia/Nemein, poor communication with the community).

In amongst all the noise of axes being ground, gcobb cuts to the chase, after outlining a potential plan to reduce the cost and scope of maemo.org, to concentrate on core competencies of supporting Maemo users & developers: If others agree with this approach then we need a council of do-ers, who will take on organising getting these tasks done and working with Quim. Not philosophers or ideas people who do not have time to put the necessary effort in. That is why I am not standing!

Although your editor disagrees with the suggestion of getting rid of autobuilders (of one form or another) and any form of QA, Graham's focus on the issues, practical solutions and what that means in terms of community facilitation is refreshing.

We have attempted to try and pull out the main facets of the discussion. However, those with time to kill, and a desire to see inside the sausage factory, may wish to read the threads on maemo-community and the "Council Election" thread on TMO.



Applications

BashQuotations finally released for the Nokia N9 / N950 with support for German and English bash.org quotes

Editor: Ryan Abel

helex has released an update for the QML-based BashQuotations bash.org (IRC quotation database) client which brings Harmattan support: Still no update regarding the russian language support, I have to apologize, but finally I found last weekend some hours for a fast port of this application to the Nokia N9. Perhaps I will find soon some time to do the support for the russian bast.org site. But time is a very limited resource. The application is available from Nokia Store.

Q To-Do updated with progress bars and tree view

Via: @Jaffa2

Editor: fiferboy

A new version of Q To-Do has been released with the following improvements: Improvements on the QML TreeView include: swipe gestures for navigating the tree (additional to the already existing navigation via buttons); integrated handling for onDoubleClicked and onPressAndHold on tree items in the tree code; improved color setting for the tree view; and some minor, general clean up work in the code. There are some other improvements listed in the announcement as well that come from the new QML TreeView. This version can be downloaded from the author's repository.

Development

Community OBS replacement for MeeGo under Mer. Maemo inclusion to replace autobuilder?

Via: @Jaffa2

In a thread started by Timo Härkönen to enumerate the "infrastructure" problems (which are an issue in the current election cycle), RM Bauer highlighted a planned IRC meeting to discuss the issues around (Apps For) MeeGo's Community OBS, and the possibilities of Fremantle versions to replace the autobuilder: It's being announced over the Mer general mailing list. The meeting is tomorrow (10th April) at 16:00 UTC in #mer-meeting.


Latest CSSU testing update causes problems for some users

Highlighting the "testing" aspect of the titular CSSU version, a number of users have been claiming of "missing directories" or "broken file management" since the latest version was pushed. Christian Ratzenhofer has posted explicit instructions on how to recover from this situation.

Testers who aren't comfortable with their device being potentially unreliable like this should stick to the "stable" CSSU version.

Community

maemo.org Community Management/Relationship handed back to Quim Gil

Via: @Jaffa2

Editor: fiferboy

Matti Airas made the announcement that the maemo.org community management resposibilities are being handed back over to Quim Gil: Quim will be the first Nokia point of contact for the community from now on. Quim was an integral figure already back in the days when Maemo.org was set up and is well capable of handling all present issues as well. Quim, best of luck and welcome back home! Although he wasn't really gone from the community if you knew where to look for him, your editor is sure there are many people who will be pleased to see Quim back in the (Maemo) public eye.

Projects having problems with maemo.org infrastructure?

Via: @Jaffa2

Editor: Andrew Flegg

Timo Härkönen started a thread on TMO to shine some light on to the infrastructural problems which have been discussed as an "issue" the council has been unable to achieve action on in the last term: So apparently different parts of the community are having problems with the maemo.org infrastructure and policies? I'm starting this thread to collect the issues in a single place in hope of finding solutions. So in additon to the problem please also tell how you see it should be fixed or do you see a way to work around the problem. If you're just going to bash nokia, nemein, whoever go post somewhere else, please.

Niels Breet has stepped in to the thread and admitted he has perhaps spent too much time on apps.formeego.org in the last few months; which is probably true and started fixing problems. However, in your editor's opinion, very little concrete action has been taken to try and address these, and it's seemed like members of the community have rather had a "bad guy" rather than address the situation. RM Bauer argues differently, however, he's stated that "those of us who are working on maemo are a small group but we know the status of the community and what each of us are about."

As the editor of a large weekly news digest, as well as an active member of the Maemo and Harmattan communities, this is - frankly - a little surprising (if not insulting); however it most shows a lack of communication savvy in using the tools available (such as MWKN) to get more volunteers and contributors. In your editor's opinion, a community facilitator should be reaching out to every communication mechanism possible; not siloing it to those with the time to spend following TMO on an hourly basis.


Forum<->email integration now available on talk.maemo.org

Via: @Jaffa2

Long awaited, to make it easier to follow TMO in a push fashion (and in your favourite mail client), Reggie Suplido has made it possible to follow specific sub-forums on talk.maemo.org via email: The email integration feature is now active in the forum but in "soft launch mode*. This feature will allow you to create new posts, get notified of new posts/replies, as well as post replies to posts that you receive via email. A step-by-step walkthrough is included, showing how to use the feature.

Craig Woodward running in Maemo Community Council election

Via: @Jaffa2

Editor: Ryan Abel

Craig Woodward was nominated by RM Bauer for community council, and had provisionally accepted awaiting a karma refresh: And while I'm aware that until the Karma counter updates nothing is 'official', I will accept nomination once I qualify. Craig's karma count has been updated and he has confirmed he is now running.

Gene Venable nominated to Maemo Community Council

Via: @Jaffa2

Editor: Ryan Abel

geneven was nominated to the community council with a group of other individiuals by p sleggs. As of this writing Gene has not yet accepted, writing on talk.maemo.org: I don't read the mailing list messages and consider the mailing list itself inherently elitist.


Joseph Charpak running in Maemo Community Council election

Via: @Jaffa2

Editor: Ryan Abel

Joseph Charpak has announced his candidacy for the community council: I nominate myself for council member. In case it is formally necessary to accept your own nomination when you nominate yourself, then I formally accept.

RM Bauer nominated to Maemo Community Council

Via: @Jaffa2

Editor: Ryan Abel

RM Bauer, two-time community council member and current chair, has been nominated to the community council, but as of this writing he has not yet accepted nomination.

Iván Gálvez Junquera running in Maemo Community Council election

Via: @Jaffa2

Editor: Ryan Abel

Iván Gálvez Junquera has announced his candidacy for the community council, I volunteer to the Concil for this next year. I'm pretty sure I won't have too much spare time but I can promise I won't leave without notice or move to any other platform in the years to come.

gerbick nominated to Maemo Community Council

Editor: Ryan Abel

William McBee has announced he's willing to run for the community council on talk.maemo.org: So is it too late to put my name in the hat? I ask a lot of questions though... The nominated was "seconded" on the Community mailing list but wont be official until William announces his candidacy there.

In the Wild

Nokia N9 scores higher than competitors in customer satisfaction

Via: @Jaffa2

Editor: Andrew Olmsted

Reevoo is an independent customer review website which - according to an article at NokNok.tv - says people are enjoying their Nokia N9's: With an average customer rating of 9.4 out of 10, it seems they like it very much indeed! To put that into context, the next highest rating for a smartphone is 9.0 for the HTC Sensation XL, followed by an 8.9 for the Samsung Galaxy Note N7000 - two Android giants that clearly haven't impressed Reevoo's subscribers as much as the Nokia N9. The article attempts to correlate the satisfaction of the N9 with that of the Lumia 800 on the basis of similar hardware, but Reevoo's own section on the Lumia doesn't bear the correlation out.

Announcements

StatusNet client for Harmattan

Via: @Jaffa2

Editor: Ryan Abel

An add-on supporting StatusNet (an open source Twitter alternative) updates on the Harmattan events feed. elleo announced the client last week: There’s one thing that my Nokia N950 has been lacking and that’s a StatusNet client, so I set about hacking one together. I love the way that the N9/N950 events feed displays messages from Twitter and Facebook, so my main focus so far has been to integrate with this. I’ve now got my client to a stage at which it covers most of my own needs so I thought I’d make an early release for others to play with. The client is currently only available as a .deb from the developer's website (<usual boilerplate />), but he has plans to upload it to AppsForMeeGo and the Nokia Ovi Store in the future.

Helium - a Harmattan UPnP control point

Via: @Jaffa2

Editor: generalantilles

Helium, a new UPnP control point by Jens Georg (which was announced at the beginning of March) designed to accompany Rygel, has reached its first installable release with the 0.4.0 beta. The application offers remote media browsing, renderer selection, and playback. The .deb release is available from the developer's website.