The 802.11n standard for wi-fi may still be technically a draft specification, but the IEEE has now completed the 802.11r specs, making a new standard for wi-fi roaming. Why should you care about this? It's designed for those moments when a wi-fi connected device moves between hotspots, something the original 802.11 specs didn't have in mind. Typically a transition between spots involves a drop and re-associate delay of around 0.1 seconds, which is enough to drop a VOIP call: 802.11r allows re-association with the new wi-fi source in less than 0.05 seconds, which should keep your call connected. The specs and also cover security associations and reservation of QoS resources for roaming wi-fi connections and have been under development for four years. [DailyWireless]

It's becoming all about Blu-ray nowadays, but LG hasn't forgotten the DVD player: its DVS450H is doubly interesting for its design and DivX playing. Check out those sleek lines—pretty sci-fi, especially with that concealed display and sliding-door disc tray lid. LG call its shape "floating", and it can be desk or wall mounted. And its the first "DivX Certified(R) DVD player from a major manufacturer capable of playing HD video" according to LG, with playback capabilities from DVD or hard drives attached to its USB port. It's due in October for around $240. Press release below.

Aug 28, 2008 19:00

LG to Launch First DivX Certified(R) DVD Player from a Major Manufacturer Capable of Playing HD Video

Innovative "Floating" Player Lets Consumers Enjoy HD Content on Standard DVD Device
SAN DIEGO & SEOUL, Korea —(Business Wire)— Aug. 28, 2008 DivX, Inc. (NASDAQ: DIVX), a digital media company, and LG Electronics, Inc. today announced the DivX Certification(TM) of a new DVD player from LG capable of playing high-definition DivX(R) video.

Incorporating a stylish and sleek design capable of being mounted on a wall, LG's new DivX Certified(R) DVD player, the DVS450H, allows consumers to play their personal libraries of high-definition digital content. With this device, consumers can enjoy high-definition DivX videos burned to DVD's or stored on USB flash drives. Typical HD video requires a considerable amount of digital storage space, but DivX HD video provides a superior media experience by maintaining the highest visual quality while significantly reducing the digital file size of the video. Using DivX technology, a full-length high-definition movie is able to fit onto a standard DVD.

"The demand for products that play DivX video has continually driven us to produce solutions that maximize this high-quality experience across a range of product categories," said Dan D.H. Koh, Head of Marketing Strategy Team in LG Electronics' Digital Media Company. "Incorporating support for high-definition DivX video on this DVD player illustrates this in a significant way. We are committed to bringing our customers the very best entertainment solutions and are pleased that working with DivX fulfills this vision."

"Bringing high-definition video to LG's newest DVD player illustrates our mission of enabling a high-quality media experience across any device," said Kevin Hell, Chief Executive Officer, DivX, Inc. "This new player from LG simplifies the consumer transition to HD entertainment by providing a high-definition experience on a familiar DVD platform. We are delighted to work with LG in bringing consumers a premium solution for their digital content."

Products that bear the DivX Certified(R) logo have undergone a rigorous testing program to ensure a high-quality DivX media experience, including reliable video playback, interoperability with other DivX Certified devices and the visual quality that users expect from DivX.

LG is a major manufacturer across consumer electronics product categories who has embraced DivX Certification within a variety of different platforms, including mobile phones, digital televisions, and in-car media players.

La ministre de l'Éducation, Michelle Courchesne, entend plancher cette année sur la transition secondaire-collégial de la première génération d'étudiants issus de la réforme, qui cogneront aux portes des cégeps d'ici deux ans. Suite

Quote: HOT ON THE heels of its denials that anything is wrong with the G92 and G94s comes another PCN that shows the G92s and G92b are being changed for no reason. Yup, the problems that are plaguing G84 and G86 are the same that affect seemingly all 65nm and now 55nm Nvidia parts.
This PCN is very similar to the one linked above, and the formatting is almost almost exactly the same, so we won't cover all the details, just the pertinent points. This one is much more important, it confirms that the problems are not confined to the 65nm products. Since Nvidia told us the last one was unimportant and refused to give it to us, we didn't bother asking this time, we just took notes when they were shown to us at a recent conference.
It is titled "G92 GPU Desktop Products" with a subtitle of "Change Bump Material from High Pb to Eutectic Solder", with a date of June 2008 and a number PCN0346A on it. Page 2 has the "PCN Submit Date" of June 13, 2008, " Planned Implementation Date" of July 28, 2008, and a "Proposed First Ship Date for change" of August 17, 2008. Short story here, if you have a G92 or G92b purchased before next week, you likely have a lemon. Remember, these are chip ship dates, not boards in stores.
The next few chunks, "Change Category" and others are the same, "Class 1", given to everyone under the sun, and OMGWTFBBQ. That is kind of a 'well duh' thing, and is exactly the same as the G86 part PCN.
The big one is the affected parts list. It clearly states that not only are 65nm parts bad, but 55nm ones are as well. The entire list of affected parts is as follows.

Small batch, my arse
Lets see, what do we have here? It looks like they changed the bumping material on the 55nm parts a month and a day after introduction. Yup, no reason for that at all, nothing to see here either.
The next part is a description of what we already knew and told you about on the last PCN story. To use their words, "Nvidia will transition from using high-lead solder (95%Pb/5%Sn) to eutectic solder (63%Sn/37%Pb) flip-chip bump material for the G92 product family. During the transition period Nvidia will be supplying both high-lead and eutectic bump until inventory is depleted. No other materials are being changed."
This makes complete sense, and it is followed by a picture of a modern chip with the bumps and underfill pointed out.
The reasons are the same, supply and robustness, as is the impact statement. Same very curious wording. Nothing new, just bad news.
The "Implementation and Qualification Plan" however does have some new news. It says, "Nvidia has previously qualified numerous products using eutectic solder bumps using the same bump suppliers, substrate vendors, underfill and assembly sites as this device. Qualification data is available upon request." This information backs up our previous assertions that this is quite widespread among all their 65nm and 55nm products. Qual data is available "Now," it says, and samples on July 1, 2008.
Page 4 has the same diagram, and indicates that the eutectic bumps are marked the same way as the G86 ones, with a trailing R on the lot #. Because it is etched on the die, you have no way of knowing which one you have until you take it apart, pull the heatsink, clean off the thermal paste, and read the laser-wielding chicken scratchings. Most stores won't let you do this, and NV is going to be mixing the dies up until they burn off inventory. This means you won't be safe until long after the card is irrelevant, say later in Q4.
The "Recommended Action" and contact info is the same as the G86 PCN, and the Revision history has an Initial Release date of 06/13/08. There is no blank page 5 on this one, it is just the disclaimer that was on page 6 of the last one.
While Nvidia is playing these PCNs off as nothing to worry about, they are. The fact that the defective chip problem extends to the G92 line like we said earlier is bad enough. It pretty much confirms that the problem is the same as the "Small batch of EOL laptops parts only given to HP," that they warned about in July. The bigger problem is that it affects the newer 55nm parts as well. Those were supplanted in a number of days you could almost count to on your fingers and toes if you grew up in a small town in Appalachia, never a good sign. In fact, qual samples were available before the 9800GTX+ actually launched.
It is hard to overstate how bad this is. Basically every 65nm and 55nm Nvidia part appears to be defective. It is not a question of yes or no, but how defective each line is, and what the failure rate for each one is. We are hearing of early failure rates in the teens per cent for 8800GTs and far higher for 9600GTs, so this is not a quibble over split hairs.
To make matters worse, Nvidia has a mound of unsold defective parts that they are going to bleed out into the channel along side of the (hopefully) fixed parts. As a buyer, you have no way of knowing which one you are getting, and it looks like Nvidia isn't keen on helping you figure it out either, that would cost too much.
Until Nvidia comes fully clean on this fiasco, lists all the defective parts, and orders boxes clearly marked, you can't say anything other than just avoid them. Then again, since doing the right thing would likely bankrupt them, we wouldn't hold your breath for it to happen.
Oh Snap

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquir...55nm-parts-bad

via MacNN:

Marketcircle has released Daylite 3.7.6, an update to its productivity suite. The software claims to ease Windows-to-Mac transitions, particularly for small businesses, and in this latest version fixes a bug that caused the application to restart when a sync failed. The software has also seen a new feature added, one which schedules automatic database backups through Daylite Maintenance Preference...


More...

AMD to Ship First AM3 Processors in March, 2009

Marketcircle has released Daylite 3.7.6, an update to its productivity suite. The software claims to ease Windows-to-Mac transitions, particularly for small businesses, and in this latest version fixes a bug that caused the application to restart when a sync failed. The software has also seen a new feature added, one which schedules automatic database backups through Daylite Maintenance Preference...

source: MaVille.com

Depuis le début de l'année, les prix se sont stabilisés voire même ont baissé. « Surtout pour les biens entre 170 000 et 200 000 €, constate Gilles Horel. Ce sont des biens qui deviennent compliqués à vendre puisque l'on constate une pénurie de clients. »
On est passé de la pénurie de biens à la pénurie de clients sans transition !

As if you didn't already spend enough time on the internet, Microsoft is looking to feed your addiction even further by developing a reliable "Vi-Fi" system for automobiles. The major problem that must be overcome is the fact that current Wi-Fi networks suffer hiccups in service as you pass through. This is especially true when moving out of the range of one base station and into another. To smooth the transition process, Microsoft and a team from the University of Massachusetts are working on building a network based around a base station anchor that is backed up by several auxiliary base stations in the area.

In other words, a computer or other wireless device that taps into the Vi-Fi system would select one base station at a time as an anchor. Using a complex algorithm, the system will calculate the probability that a packet received by an auxiliary base station was not received by the anchor. If the probability is high, the auxiliary will relay the packet to the anchor as a backup.

Microsoft hopes that their research will lead to the first truly reliable Wi-Fi system for vehicles, and recent tests conducted on their campus have been extremely successful. The next step is to scale up the project around the campus, but how or when a Vi-Fi system could be implemented in the real world has not been determined. Of course, one major hurdle would have to be that a serious municipal Wi-Fi infrastructure would be required to get the project off the ground. [SeattlePi via DailyTech via Newlaunches]

Le gouvernement du Canada souhaiter donner à l’agriculture biologique le soutien dont elle a besoin pour accéder à de nouveaux marchés locaux. Ce gouvernement continue d’appuyer l’industrie des produits biologiques, alors qu’elle prend de l’expansion afin de répondre à la demande croissante de produits biologiques. M. Gerry Ritz, ministre fédéral de l’Agriculture, a annoncé aujourd’hui un investissement de 258 100 dollars qui profitera  aux agriculteurs, aux consommateurs et à l’environnement.

« De plus en plus, les familles canadiennes et étrangères achètent des produits biologiques, a déclaré le ministre Ritz. Le gouvernement s’est engagé à aider nos agriculteurs à saisir ces nouvelles occasions commerciales. »

Le financement du projet intitulé Growing Up Organic est versé à Canadian Organic Growers Inc. (COG) par l’intermédiaire du Programme pour l’avancement du secteur canadien de l’agriculture et de l’agroalimentaire (PASCAA) d’Agriculture et Agroalimentaire Canada.

« Grâce à cette initiative le gouvernement, les agriculteurs et l’industrie assurent le maintien de la croissance du secteur agricole, ainsi qu’un avenir dynamique de l’agriculture biologique au Canada », a affirmé Mme Laura Telford, directrice exécutive de COG.

L’agriculture biologique favorise, d’une manière durable, la santé et la productivité de l’écosystème – sols, plantes, animaux et humains. Les produits alimentaires biologiques sont cultivés selon des méthodes de production respectueuses de l’environnement, qui mettent l’accent sur des pratiques comme la régénération des sols et la conservation de l’eau.

Ce projet aidera les agriculteurs biologiques à accéder à de nouveaux marchés locaux, notamment aux établissements de garde d’enfants, aux hôpitaux et aux écoles. De plus, il encouragera la transition de l’agriculture traditionnelle vers l’agriculture biologique et initiera les nouveaux agriculteurs aux pratiques biologiques.

Ce projet contribuera également à l’établissement d’une chaîne de valeur régionale des produits biologiques, notamment la création de coopératives de producteurs et la mise en place de l’infrastructure nécessaire pour appuyer les activités locales de distribution et d’entreposage. Ces mesures aideront les agriculteurs en leur offrant un marché sûr, à valeur élevée, et offriront aux consommateurs un accès accru à des produits biologiques régionaux. La distribution locale de produits alimentaires signifie aussi une réduction du transport et des émissions de gaz à effet de serre, ce qui sera bénéfique à l’environnement.

Par l’intermédiaire du PASCAA, lancé en 2004, Agriculture et Agroalimentaire Canada a versé plus de 7,2 millions de dollars en vue de la réalisation de 74 projets dans l’industrie des produits biologiques.

Pour en savoir davantage sur le PASCAA, veuillez consulter le site Web www.agr.gc.ca/pascaa.

Thierry Rochas est l'envoyé du parti Nouveau Centre à la Convention démocrate de Denver. Il raconte, pour marianne2.fr, la journée d'hier où les délégués se sont échauffés en écoutant Bill Clinton, toujours aussi efficace, et Joe Biden, le candidat à la vice-présidence qui s'est montré mordant. On annonçait le troisième jour de la convention comme une transition avant le grand soir du discours d'acceptation de Barack Obama. Mercredi, me disait Veronica Pollock, la responsable VIP and Politics, "c'est le jour après le discours de Hillary", sous entendant qu'il fallait bien reprendre un peu son souffle.

Et bien, ce fut la journée la plus dense et la plus surprenante de la Convention. Dès 15h, les procédures de présentation des deux candidats démocrates étaient en route. Le long protocole (respecté à la lettre et dans un timing impeccable) se déroulait tranquillement. Pour tous les délégués présents dans la salle, le point d'orgue arriverait plus tard, avec un discours de "Bill" et aussi la première apparition du "futur" vice président Joe Biden (réputé être un orateur à surprises, voire à gaffes...).

Bref, je commençais à envisager un repli stratégique au Draft (mon bar, mon restaurant, ma salle de travaill, mon observatoire social...) quand les différents Etats ont commencé à annoncer le décompte des votes des délégués entre Clinton et Obama. Sans surprise, le Sénateur de l'Illinois se retrouvait dès les premières minutes très très largement en tête.
Quelques heures plus tôt, Hillary avait pris soin de réunir ses partisans dans une salle voisine pour achever de les convaincre d'unifier le parti.

Puis la parole vint à l'Etat de New York. Hillary Clinton donna alors l'ensemble des voix de ses délégués au sénateur Obama. Dans l'acclamation générale, elle proposa ensuite d'interrompre la procédure de décompte pour nommer le candidat Obama par acclamation. Avec les yeux fixés sur le futur, et dans un esprit d'unité; avec comme seul objectif la victoire; déclarons tous ensemble et d'une seul voix, ici, maintenant, que Barack Obama est notre candidat et sera notre prochain président".

La présidente de la procédure d'investiture, Nancy Pelosi, accepta et procéda dans la foulée à ce qui restera un moment fort de cette convention. Barack Obama fut investi par une salle en délire dans les 3 minutes qui suivirent. Bien sûr, rien n'est totalement imprévu dans ce qui venait de se passer. Mais quand même, quel show !

L'animal politique Bill Clinton Quelques heures plus tard, arriva le fameux discours de "Bill". Clinton a toujours adoré la castagne. Sous ses allures bon enfant, l'animal politique est redoutable ! Il avait très naturellement endossé le rôle de "porte flingue" durant la campagne de sa femme, permettant à celle-ci de ne pas trop entrer dans les combats et… de sortir des polémiques, souvent par le haut. Ce rôle incombera désormais au vice-président nominé : Joe Biden.

"Hier soir, Hillary nous a dit qu'elle ferait tous ce qui est en son pouvoir pour faire élire Barack Obama. Et bien ce soir, nous serons deux -- Nous serons même 18 millions d'entre nous ", s'est exclamé Bill Clinton. Sous entendu, voilà ce que nous apportons comme dot... Le mariage est désormais entériné, la hache de guerre enterrée."Tout ce que j'ai appris pendant mes huit années à la présidence et au cours du travail que j'ai accompli depuis, en Amérique et dans le monde, m'a convaincu que Barack Obama est l'homme pour ce job", a dit Bill Clinton, sous les yeux de Michelle Obama, visiblement émue.

Enfin, last but not least, Joe Biden arriva. Son rôle n'est pas simple car il est peu connu du grand public. Ce soir, c'est un peu son "Grand Oral". L'assistance l'écoute avec attention. Il sera désormais le bras armé d'Obama, celui qui partira au contact. Et pour son premier discours il a correctement remplis son rôle de chien d'attaque vis à vis de MacCain et tout particulièrement sur le bilan de la politique étrangère de Bush. "Notre pays est moins sûr et plus isolé que jamais dans l'histoire récente. (...) La politique étrangère de Bush-McCain a creusé un fossé très profond et nous avons désormais très peu d'amis pour nous aider à en sortir".

Enfin, cerise sur le gâteau, Barack Obama en personne a rejoint son "futur" Vice Président dans une salle en délire. Haranguant la salle d'un "J'ai l'impression qu'elle se passe plutôt bien cette convention, qu'en pensez vous ?" il a très chaleureusement remercié Bill Clinton et Joe Biden pour cette soirée, clôturant son mot d'un " nous aurons demain une soirée fantastique, que tous ceux qui veulent venir, viennent !" On ne pouvait rêver meilleur teasing !

(this question covers photographs, videos, iMovie HD, iMovie 08, Final Cut Express, iPhoto and Photo to Movie....so, not sure where to put it :)).

Hello all,

I'm trying to make a home 'movie' mainly made up of photographs, but also of some video clips and music. I know it's very straightforward just making a slideshow of photos (eg in iPhoto) but I really want to add the video as well - plus the usual transitions, titles, etc.

I've tried out all of the programs mentioned above but I'm having some kind of problem with each of them.

I find iMovie HD the easiest to use, for what I'm looking for in this case, but I can't find a way of stopping it seriously reducing the quality of the photos. If I could solve that then iMovie HD would be perfect, but despite endless Googling and searching here I just can't find a workable solution to that problem.

FCE is terrific, but it seems scarily complicated to apply pan and zoom to the photos, which I really want to do.

Anyone out there who makes similar 'movies' - what do you use?

Thanks.

Dites donc, les écrans géants, ça consomme pas un peu trop d'énergie ' Non, je ne râle pas, je constate juste que Radiohead en fait trop encore une...

As Paul noted this weekend, Jaiku was completely down for scheduled maintenance over the weekend, with very little explanation other than it was a good time to go speak with a loved one. A lot was made of this by the few left in the blogosphere who use the service to fill their status microblogging needs, particularly how interesting it was that a Twitter-ish bird was doing the downtime notice, and how insulting it was to be told by Jaiku that they perhaps don’t spend enough time functioning in meatspace.

They’re back now, and they’re purporting to be offering unlimited invitesto the private beta service. I’m still skeptical this is the case, since I’ve been on the “waiting list” to join Jaiku since the months before they were acquired by Google. I even re-submitted my application for an invite the moment I saw their blog post on the re-opening hit my feed this afternoon. Clearly the process hasn’t been fully automated yet, as I haven’t received a confirmation email.

Regardless of the true status of the open-ness, they say they’re ready to handle any volume. The purpose of the downtime was to move the service “to a Google data center,” something “that [they]’d planned to do anyway, as part of the future transition to Google App Engine.”

If indeed Jaiku throws wide open the doors to the service for the masses, this will be an interesting real-world stress test for not only Google’s version of Twitter but the Google App Engine itself.  So far, very little in the way of high profile, high traffic stuff has proclaimed itself to be running on Google’s cloud computing option. Those looking to evaluate it as a solution for their company would do well to watch how Jaiku performs in their “new nest.”

---
Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:

Jaiku Releases New Microblogging Tool for Nokia S60
Jaiku on Your iPhone
A Day Without Jaiku…
WidSets to Launch Jaiku Widget
Jaiku Hosting Markku’s Channel for Eurovision 2007
Will Google Use Jaiku to Collect Data on You?
Jaiku’s New Mobile App to be Unveiled at Supernova

Le CLER est un des membres fondateurs d'Enercoop. La coopérative fournit de l'électricité depuis le 1er juillet 2007 avec succès. Mais le contexte électrique français (situation dominante de l'opérateur historique) et international (hausse des prix de l'énergie) exige une augmentation du capital et du nombre d'utilisateurs.

Depuis l'ouverture du marcheÌ au 1er juillet 2007, Enercoop a engrangeÌ de beaux succeÌ€s :
plus de 1500 particuliers ont souscrit aÌ€ l'offre, plaçant Enercoop en 5ème position sur les 13 fournisseurs d'eÌlectriciteÌ actifs en France,
des clients prestigieux ont rejoint la coopeÌrative (le WWF, l'ARENE, Ecocert, Agir pour l'Environnement etc.),
la notorieÌteÌ d'Enercoop s'est affirmeÌe, notamment du fait de l'obtention du label Clair'Energie, de sa participation au label Eve et de la premieÌ€re place d'Enercoop, loin devant ses concurrents, dans le classement Ecolo Watt.

Cependant, les mauvaises conditions reÌglementaires d'ouverture du marcheÌ et l'explosion des prix sur le marcheÌ deÌreÌguleÌ de l'eÌlectriciteÌ n'ont pas permis aÌ€ Enercoop d'atteindre les reÌsultats preÌvus initialement : le nombre de consommateurs est insuffisant et le reÌsultat comptable infeÌrieur aux preÌvisions.

L'AssembleÌe GeÌneÌrale Extraordinaire du 28 juin 2008 a valideÌ l'impeÌratif d'acceÌleÌrer le deÌveloppement d'Enercoop en insistant sur les axes suivants :
Renforcer l'effort commercial de façon aÌ€ atteindre au plus toÌ‚t le volume de consommateurs neÌcessaire pour atteindre l'eÌquilibre financier,
Impliquer Enercoop dans le deÌveloppement de projets coopeÌratifs de production revendant leur eÌnergie aÌ€ Enercoop. Ce point est fondamental dans le projet de notre coopeÌrative : il permet de couper Enercoop de la deÌpendance au marcheÌ, en creÌant un circuit court « citoyen » sur l'ensemble de la chaiÌ‚ne production/fourniture/consommation. Ce systeÌ€me est baseÌ sur la relocalisation des moyens de production au plus preÌ€s de la consommation,
Assurer la transition, en achetant de l'eÌnergie hydraulique aÌ€ un prix largement infeÌrieur au marcheÌ, aÌ€ travers les appels d'offres auxquels EDF est contraint de proceÌder. Le conseil de la concurrence a en effet imposeÌ aÌ€ EDF de mettre de l'eÌnergie aÌ€ disposition des clients des autres fournisseurs d'eÌlectriciteÌ. Cette eÌnergie est ceÌdeÌe sous forme de 3 appels d'offres (avril et novembre 2008, avril 2009). Enercoop a obtenu la possibiliteÌ d'acheter de l'eÌlectriciteÌ issue de petites centrales hydrauliques avec garantie d'origine.

ReÌpondre aÌ€ l'appel d'offre hydraulique preÌvu fin 2008 est un impeÌratif qui conditionne la reÌussite de l'ensemble du plan d'action deÌveloppeÌ lors de l'AssembleÌe GeÌneÌrale. Or, les dispositions reÌglementaires de cet appel d'offres, en particulier en terme de garantie bancaire, nous imposent une recapitalisation preÌalable de notre coopeÌrative de 600 k€.

C'est la raison pour laquelle Enercoop sollicite actuellement des acteurs importants du domaine de l'eÌnergie (entreprises locales de distribution française et opeÌrateurs eÌnergeÌtiques coopeÌratifs europeÌens) et de l'eÌconomie sociale (MAIF, MACIF et CheÌ€que DeÌjeuner) pour soutenir cette deÌmarche.

C'est eÌgalement dans cet objectif que le Conseil d'administration a deÌcideÌ de vous solliciter, aÌ€ travers cet appel aÌ€ souscription. Plus que jamais, le sort d'Enercoop est entre vos mains pour faire aboutir ce grand projet d'eÌnergie citoyenne.

L'objectif fixeÌ est de reÌunir de la part de nos socieÌtaires 100 k€, ce qui revient aÌ€ une souscription moyenne de 67 € par socieÌtaire.

Rappelons qu'une reÌduction d'impoÌ‚t de 25% est accordeÌe aux particuliers deÌ€s 2009 pour toute souscription reçue avant fin 2008.

Rappelons eÌgalement que l'investissement au capital d'Enercoop est deÌductible de l'impoÌ‚t sur la fortune aÌ€ hauteur de 75 %.

Le succeÌ€s de cet appel donnera une dimension nouvelle aÌ€ notre coopeÌrative.

Nous comptons sur votre participation !

Bulletin de souscription Bulletin parts de capital

At Akademy 2008, KDE Release Team members Sebastian Kügler and Dirk Müller discussed the future of KDE's development process. Describing the challenges KDE faces and proposing some solutions, they spawned a lot of discussion. Read on for a summary of what has been said and done around this topic at Akademy.

Our current development model has served us for over 10 years now. We did a transition to Subversion some years ago, and we now use CMake, but basically we still work like we did a long time ago: only some tools have changed slightly. But times are changing. Just have a look at the numbers:

• KDE 0.0 to 3.5 took 420.000 new revisions in 8 years
• KDE 3.5 to 4.0 took 300.000 new revisions in 2 years

Also, this year's Akademy was the largest KDE event ever held, with more than 350 visitors from every continent of the world.

This enormous growth creates issues both for the wider community, for developers, and for the release team. Patches have to be reviewed, their status has to be tracked - these things become progressively harder when the size of the project balloons like it currently does. The centralized development system in Subversion's trunk doesn't support team-based development very well, and our 6-month release cycle - while theoretically allowing 4 months development and 2 months stabilizing - often boils down to barely 50% of the available time suitable for new feature development.

KDE's current revision control system doesn't allow for offline commits, making life harder for people without a stable internet connection. Furthermore we're still looking for more contributors, so lowering the barrier for entry is another important concern.

Changing requirements

We will have to allow for more diversity and we must be able to accommodate individual workflows. Not everyone is happy with a 6-month schedule, not everyone prefers Subversion. Companies have their schedules and obligations, and what is stable for one user or developer is unsuitable for another. Meanwhile, new development tools have surfaced, such as the much-praised distributed revision control tool Git. Together with new tools for collaborating, new development models are emerging. KDE is in the process of adopting a much wider range of hardware devices, Operating systems (OpenSolaris, Windows, Mac OS) and mobile platforms such as Maemo. And we have an increased need for flexible and efficient collaboration with third parties and other Free Software projects. Sebastian and Dirk believe it is time for a new way of working. In their view, KDE's development process should be agile, distributed, and trunk freezes should be avoided when possible. While there are still a lot of culprits in their proposal, KDE needs to get ready for the future and further growth.

Agile Development

The most fundamental idea behind Agile Development is "power to the people". Policies are there to avoid chaos, and to guide (but not force) people in any way.

What is Agile Development supposed to offer us?

• Shorter time-to-market, in other words, less time between the development of a feature and the time users can actually use it
• More cooperation and shortened feedback cycles between users and developers
• Faster and more efficient development by eliminating some current limitations in team-based development processes.
• Simplicity. Not only good in its own right, but it also makes it easier to understand and thus contribute to KDE development.

How can we do this? To achieve this, we have to reflect upon our experiences as developers and share our thoughts on this. Our process should be in our conscious thoughts. Sebastian and Dirk talked about a specific lesson they have learned: plans rarely work out. As a Free Software project, we don't have fixed resources, and even if we did, the world changes too fast to allow us to reliably predict and plan anything. We have to let go. We should set up a process aimed at adaptation and flexibility, a process optimized for unplanned change.

This needs to be done in one area in particular: our release cycle. Currently, our release cycle is limiting, up to the point of almost strangling our development cycle. So Dirk and Sebastian propose a solution: "Always Summer in Trunk" Our current release process, depicted in the graphic below, can be described as using technical limitations to fix what is essentially a social issue: getting people into "release mode". Over 4 months, we develop features, then enter a 2 month freeze period in which increasingly strict rules apply to what can be committed to trunk. This essentially forces developers to work on stabilizing trunk before a release. Furthermore, developers need to keep track of trunk's current status, which changes depending on where in the release cycle KDE currently is, not taking into account diverse time schedules of both upstream and downstream entities. At the same time, many developers complain about Subversion making it hard to maintain "work branches" (branches of the code that are used to develop and stabilize new features or larger changes in the code), subsequent code merges are time-consuming and an error-prone process.

The proposal would essentially remove these limitations, instead relying on discipline in the community to get everyone on the same page and focus on stability. To facilitate this change, we need to get the users to help us: a testing team establishing a feedback cycle to the developers about the quality and bugs. Using a more distributed development model would allow for more flexibility in working in branches, until they are stabilized enough to be merged back to trunk. Trunk, therefore, has to become more stable and predicable, to allow for branching at essentially any point in time. A set of rules and common understanding of the new role of trunk is needed. Also, as the switch to a distributed version control system (which is pretty much mandatory in this development model) is not as trivial as our previous change in revision control systems, from CVS to Subversion. Good documentation, best practice guides, and the right infrastructure is needed. The need for better support for tools (such as Git) in KDE's development process does not only come from the ideas for a new development model though. Developers are already moving towards these tools and ignoring such a trend would mean that KDE's development process will clutter and ultimately become harder to control.

In Sebastian and Dirk's vision, KDE's current system of alpha, beta and release candidate releases will be replaced by a system which has three milestones:

The Publish Milestone

This is the moment we ask all developers to publish the branches they want to get merged in trunk before the release. Of course, it is important to have a good overview of the different branches at all times to prevent people from duplicating work and allow testers to help stabilize things. But the "Publish Milestone" is the moment to have a final look at what will be merged, solve issues, give feedback and finally decide what will go in and what not. The publish milestone is essentially the cut-off date for new features that are planned for the next release.

The Branch Milestone

This is the moment we branch from trunk, creating a tree which will be stabilized over the next couple of months until it is ready for release. Developers will be responsible for their own code, just like they used to be, but one might continue using trunk for development of new features. To facilitate those developers who do not want switch between branches, we could have a tree which replicates the classic development model. Developers are encouraged and expected to help testing and stabilizing the next-release-branch.

The Tested Milestone

The "tested" milestone represents the cut-off date. Features that do not meet the criteria at this point will be excluded from the release. The resulting codebase will be released as KDE 4.x.0 and subsequently updated with 4.x.1, 4.x.2, etc. It might be a good idea to appoint someone who will be the maintainer for this release, ensuring timely regular bugfix releases and coordinating backports of fixes that go into trunk.

Technology

A prerequisite for this new development model would be a proper distributed source code management system. Git has already stolen the hearts of many KDE developers, but there are other options out there which should be seriously assessed. Furthermore we need tools to support easy working with the branches and infrastructure for publishing them. Getting fellow developers to review code has always been a challenge, and we should make this as easy as possible. We also need to make it easy for testers to contribute, so having regularly updated packages for specific branches would be an additional bonus. Trunk always needs to be stable and compilable, so it might be a good idea to use some automated testing framework.

Under discussion are ideas like having some kind of "KDE-next" tree containing the branches which will be merged with trunk soon; or maybe have such trees for each sub-project in KDE. Another question is which criteria branches have to meet to get merged into the "new" trunk. Especially in kdelibs, we want to ensure the code is stable already to keep trunk usable. Criteria for merges into various modules have to be made clear. What happens if bad code ends up in trunk? We need clear rules of engagement here. How can we make it as easy as possible to merge and unmerge (in the case the code that has been merged is not ready in time for a release)?

Having a page on TechBase advertising the different branches (including a short explanation of their purpose and information about who's responsible for the work) will go a long way in ensuring discoverability of the now-distributed source trees. A solution also needs to be found for the workload around managing trunk. Especially if we have tight, time-based releases, a whole team of release managers needs to take responsibility. KDE's current release team has come a long way in finding module coordinators for various parts shipped with KDE, but currently not every module has a maintainer.

While there are still a lot of questions open, we'd like to work them out in collaboration with the KDE community. KDE's future revision control system is discussed on the scm-interest mailing list. Discussion on a higher level can be held on the Release Team's mailing list, and naturally KDE's main developer forum, kde-core-devel.

With the release of KDE 4.0, the KDE community has entered the future technologically. Though timescales for the above changes have not yet been decided upon, Dirk and Sebastian took the talk as an opportunity to start discussing and refining these ideas: it's time that KDE's primary processes are made more future-proof and ready for the new phase of growth we have entered.