Sorry for not posting for over 2 months now (as if anybody's following up), I've been busy with my assignments, exams, etc...
3 days ago my parents and I came to Malaysia on a vacation (not really, my dad is doing his PhD here and he took us with him.
Just when I thought I'll stay away from programming and computers for a month, I was asked to create a system for a local company, and I can't complain; this is the best vacation I've ever had, I'm not "hired" so I'm not obliged to do anything but I did say I will create it for them and I will.
Why am I doing this? Well, first of all, I can't help it, second, it's a good thing to add on my CV, and last but not the least, I can submit this as my final project in college.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Monday, April 21, 2008
Friday, March 28, 2008
Deviyo
First of all, Junia is now known as Deviyo.
I've been working on Deviyo for the past few days and I have to say that more and more ideas are popping, it's not just a website anymore, it's not just an RIA (Rich Internet Application) anymore, it's much more than that.
Here are some of the things it'll have:
1. An on-line desktop with amazing effects (window rotation, tiling, etc).
2. Fully tag-powered (no hierarchies anywhere).
3. Integrated applications.
And much much more!
Honestly, I didn't expect it to be this big at first but...
I've been working on Deviyo for the past few days and I have to say that more and more ideas are popping, it's not just a website anymore, it's not just an RIA (Rich Internet Application) anymore, it's much more than that.
Here are some of the things it'll have:
1. An on-line desktop with amazing effects (window rotation, tiling, etc).
2. Fully tag-powered (no hierarchies anywhere).
3. Integrated applications.
And much much more!
Honestly, I didn't expect it to be this big at first but...
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Tag FS
I really don't know where to start this post, but let's start with imagining the following scenario/situation/fact:
You have different files on your disk ranging from music to videos to documents to pictures to applications to system files, all these files are arranged in a hirarchial way, for example, you have your My Music folder under My Documents wich is under your name and so on... Under My Music you probably have different folders for different artists inside which you have folders for each album which in turn have your music files, what if you wanted to see all your rock song files in one page? (forget about media players for now).
You also have documents ranging from tutorials you downloaded from the net to your work, and just for the sake of explanation, let's assume that your source code files are documents too (which they are), now, what if you wated to organize your files, you've been working on a prjrct for your school where would you put your source files? Will you put them in the folder in which you keep your school work and assignments or in the flder in which you keep your projects? What about the tutorials you used to learn more about some library you used to create your prject? Where will that go?
You see, it is really hard to organize files in a hirarchy and find them easily, if you want to access one of your songs, say Rise Inside by Killswitch egaged you're gonna have to navigate through C:/Documents and Settings/<your username>/My Documents/My Music/Killswitch Engaged/Alive or Just Breathing/Rise Inside.mp3, I know, I know, you can have shortcuts in windows and links in *nix sytems but that's not an answer, smply because if you click on the My Documents shortcut on the desktop you don't actually open a My Documents that's in your dekstop, it's the same one, think of command line users, they can't even use these shortcuts, links in *nix systems are a bit better but they still can't solve the problem, you can link files but you can't link directories, well, you can create symblic links for directories but what if you dcided to delete the original one? The link is useless now!
Now, lwt's imagine the same situations with a tag file system.
For the first scenario you can simply add tags your music files with generes, years, artist names, etc... So if you want all the rock songs that were released in 1965 all you have to do is to open /rock/1965/ and you should find all the artists, albums, etc... If you want to view all the files that have these tags you can use /rock/1965/*/ where the astirisk means all the tags that are here...
For the second scenario you simply have to tag the files with college, prject and you're good to go, if you want to view your college files it will show there and if you want to view your projects fils it'll show there too, it's the same file, in the same place only accessed using different tags.
For the third scenario, tags do the trick and more, if you want to access your my documents you just have to open /My Documents/ and you have youe My Documents folder open, it's the same one that you can access from somewhere else.
What can I do? Well, I've been wondering about tha myself, don't know if I should merge it with Junia, make an FS for *nix systems based on libfuse (note that there is one already and it's called tagsistant), or just stick to theory.
Vista was supposed to ship with WinFS which was supposed to do something similar to this, but it didn't ship with it.
Tags have been getting more popular these days, take chandler for example, it was supposed to be a revolutionary PIM that gets rid of hirarchies but, it's been years sonce it started and they haven't reached version 1.0 yet.
On the other hand, you can see may websites using tags to arrange their content, from bookmarks to emails.
Laith Juwaidah
http://www.ljuwaidah.org/
You have different files on your disk ranging from music to videos to documents to pictures to applications to system files, all these files are arranged in a hirarchial way, for example, you have your My Music folder under My Documents wich is under your name and so on... Under My Music you probably have different folders for different artists inside which you have folders for each album which in turn have your music files, what if you wanted to see all your rock song files in one page? (forget about media players for now).
You also have documents ranging from tutorials you downloaded from the net to your work, and just for the sake of explanation, let's assume that your source code files are documents too (which they are), now, what if you wated to organize your files, you've been working on a prjrct for your school where would you put your source files? Will you put them in the folder in which you keep your school work and assignments or in the flder in which you keep your projects? What about the tutorials you used to learn more about some library you used to create your prject? Where will that go?
You see, it is really hard to organize files in a hirarchy and find them easily, if you want to access one of your songs, say Rise Inside by Killswitch egaged you're gonna have to navigate through C:/Documents and Settings/<your username>/My Documents/My Music/Killswitch Engaged/Alive or Just Breathing/Rise Inside.mp3, I know, I know, you can have shortcuts in windows and links in *nix sytems but that's not an answer, smply because if you click on the My Documents shortcut on the desktop you don't actually open a My Documents that's in your dekstop, it's the same one, think of command line users, they can't even use these shortcuts, links in *nix systems are a bit better but they still can't solve the problem, you can link files but you can't link directories, well, you can create symblic links for directories but what if you dcided to delete the original one? The link is useless now!
Now, lwt's imagine the same situations with a tag file system.
For the first scenario you can simply add tags your music files with generes, years, artist names, etc... So if you want all the rock songs that were released in 1965 all you have to do is to open /rock/1965/ and you should find all the artists, albums, etc... If you want to view all the files that have these tags you can use /rock/1965/*/ where the astirisk means all the tags that are here...
For the second scenario you simply have to tag the files with college, prject and you're good to go, if you want to view your college files it will show there and if you want to view your projects fils it'll show there too, it's the same file, in the same place only accessed using different tags.
For the third scenario, tags do the trick and more, if you want to access your my documents you just have to open /My Documents/ and you have youe My Documents folder open, it's the same one that you can access from somewhere else.
What can I do? Well, I've been wondering about tha myself, don't know if I should merge it with Junia, make an FS for *nix systems based on libfuse (note that there is one already and it's called tagsistant), or just stick to theory.
Vista was supposed to ship with WinFS which was supposed to do something similar to this, but it didn't ship with it.
Tags have been getting more popular these days, take chandler for example, it was supposed to be a revolutionary PIM that gets rid of hirarchies but, it's been years sonce it started and they haven't reached version 1.0 yet.
On the other hand, you can see may websites using tags to arrange their content, from bookmarks to emails.
Laith Juwaidah
http://www.ljuwaidah.org/
Monday, February 25, 2008
Projects, projects, and more projects
I know, I know, I'm supposed to be working on Junia but I'm also working on many other projects, one of them is Game of the Generals, another is a resumes' website that I should help my dad's colleague creating, another potential project is a blog for Be In Oman.
A list of the things I need to do right now are:
1. Finish my assignments.
2. Learn Flex.
3. Finish Game of the Generals.
Things I might need to do/will do later are:
1. Create the blog for Be In Oman.
2. Help creating that resumes' website.
A list of the things I need to do right now are:
1. Finish my assignments.
2. Learn Flex.
3. Finish Game of the Generals.
Things I might need to do/will do later are:
1. Create the blog for Be In Oman.
2. Help creating that resumes' website.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Why the apps?
One of the reasons I hate Facebook is its apps, they make it so hard to use, adds unnecessary functionality, and gives you annoying notices about people inviting you to use their apps.
Recently, Friendster (which is the only social network website I use right now) added apps, fine, they didn't have invitations or anything, I just ignored them, I didn't add any applications, until ,a few days back, I started receiving app invitations from Friendster, I was so pissed, and so disappointed.
I just don't get it, these are supposed to be social networking websites, not online operating systems.
Recently, Friendster (which is the only social network website I use right now) added apps, fine, they didn't have invitations or anything, I just ignored them, I didn't add any applications, until ,a few days back, I started receiving app invitations from Friendster, I was so pissed, and so disappointed.
I just don't get it, these are supposed to be social networking websites, not online operating systems.
Monday, January 7, 2008
KDE4
I moved to rawhide a few days ago because I wanted to try KDE4.
At first I had some problems because I didn't install all the related packages, actually, I had a lot of problems, ranging from 3 crashes an hour to missing icons.
After I installed those packages, crashes started to happen less often, some icons just showed, but I still didn't like it.
Then I started messing around with whatever settings I have (many settings are missing and won't be implemented until 4.1), and that helped the desktop look better, I had gray around the panel, boring decorations, etc... But now, I have cool glassy edges around the panel, with semi transparent decorations :)
Then it was time to fix the sound problem, I headed to #fedora-kde and asked, thanks to the folks there I have the sound working fine now.
I still have some problems such as not being able to use shortcut keys, and some other problems that I can't think of right now.
In short, KDE4 is OK, not as great as I expected it to be though, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone at the moment, maybe later when KDE4 is actually released it'll be more stable. I also find not being able to configure the panel a bit annoying, yet bearable.
I have to say that the only thing I really liked in it is the code folding feature in KWrite :D
At first I had some problems because I didn't install all the related packages, actually, I had a lot of problems, ranging from 3 crashes an hour to missing icons.
After I installed those packages, crashes started to happen less often, some icons just showed, but I still didn't like it.
Then I started messing around with whatever settings I have (many settings are missing and won't be implemented until 4.1), and that helped the desktop look better, I had gray around the panel, boring decorations, etc... But now, I have cool glassy edges around the panel, with semi transparent decorations :)
Then it was time to fix the sound problem, I headed to #fedora-kde and asked, thanks to the folks there I have the sound working fine now.
I still have some problems such as not being able to use shortcut keys, and some other problems that I can't think of right now.
In short, KDE4 is OK, not as great as I expected it to be though, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone at the moment, maybe later when KDE4 is actually released it'll be more stable. I also find not being able to configure the panel a bit annoying, yet bearable.
I have to say that the only thing I really liked in it is the code folding feature in KWrite :D
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)