Mailvelope: GPG + Webmail

Writing an email is like a routine to me and since email can be easily forged, it's kinda important to make sure that your email messages can be verified by other parties so that they won't fall for bogus trap set by other people. One way to do that is by the use of public key cryptography which can be used to generate a digital signature that is secure and non-forgeable.

I use GMail as my primary email account and most of the time, i wrote most of my messages on their website. In the past, there's a nice project called fireGPG that can be installed as Firefox plugins that enables me to write a signed email. Somehow, the project was discontinued in 2010 since GMail changes their internal structures so often.

Another project coming in called WebPG and i tried this one as well. It works partially for me as sometimes it doesn't work nicely. I had some time discussing things with the maintainer and he put a nice effort on this project, but for me it's not stable enough for daily usage.

After two attempts, i finally stopped and i switched to Thunderbird + enigmail extension to write a signed email messages for my other email accounts. It works for me so i'm happy with it.

Today, i searched on Google and found this nice project called Mailvelope that have the same function as previous two projects. I decided to give it a try and it does work for me. I installed it in my Firefox account and luckily, it support GMail and several other providers below:

• mail.yahoo.com
• navigator.gmx.net
• mail.google.com
• mail.live.com
• posteo.de
• web.de

Mailvelope is an open source project, so you can contribute to this project as well. Go to their github account and start contributing.

This should be my last post in 2014.

Happy New Year 2015!!!!!

Looking at New Release of phpMyAdmin

Marc Delisle has sent an announcement on the availability of phpMyAdmin-4.3.0-rc1. This is the first RC release for the upcoming 4.3 release which will be another major release and as you can guess, it's loaded with TONS of new features:

* Smart sorting for int keys
* Confirmation message when dropping user(s)
* Confirm dialog on accidentally leaving a page
* Allow clicking an approximate row count to get a correct one
* Support for editing binary fields in hexadecimal
* MariaDB 10+ multi-master replication support
* Allow saving query charts as images
* Use aliases in SQL export for tables and columns
* Export with table/column name changes
* Dynamic process list
* Drag and Drop SQL import
* Preview SQL instead of executing it
* Run SQL query: Allow rollback for InnoDB tables
* Zeroconf PMA tables support
* Regexp replace
* Avoid session timeout when user is active
* MySQL 5.7.5 compatibility
* Avoid session timeout when user is active
* Multiple-column foreign key relation
* Charts for data in <x-axis, series,="" value=""> format
* Range Search Capability
* Improvements for the table editor (index creation)
* PHP OpenSSL support for cookie encryption/decryption

Other that above features, this release will also have other cool features, thanks to GSoC students:
Smita Kumari worked on two structure tools,
1) “a feature that enables a user to maintain a central list of columns
per database to avoid similar name for the same data element and bring
consistency of datatype for the same data element.”

2) Automated normalization is known as "Improve table structure" within
phpMyAdmin. It helps to bring the table structure upto Third Normal
Form. A wizard is presented to user which asks questions about the
elements during the various steps for normalization and a new structure
is proposed accordingly to bring the table optionally into the
First/Second/Third Normal form.

Edward Cheng implemented a component which provides easy access to a
console, including bookmarking and a history viewer.

Chirayu Chiripal and Ashutosh Dhundhara both worked on many feature
improvements. These improvements may not be glamorous but feature some
much needed maintenance and minor improvements.

Behind the scenes, Dhananjay Nakrani has improved the error reporting
server, an optional reporting feature allowing users to automatically
submit error reports directly to the phpMyAdmin developers. Now, PHP
errors can also be reported.

Additional behind the scenes work was done by Bimal Yashodha to refactor
the code behind the Designer interface. Most of these improvements are
transparent to users but help ease the maintenance required on this
portion of the code.

Cinnamon 2.4 and Future CSB Roadmap

Clem has announced the availability of Cinnamon 2.4 which should be premiered on LinuxMint 17.1 (Rebecca) by the end of this month. It has lots of improvements and bug fixes which is very pleasing for end-users.

Here are some of the highlights of this release:

Responsiveness and memory usage

• CJS was rebased on a newer version of GJS in an effort to reduce memory usage and provide faster execution times.
• All Cinnamon components were reviewed and their source code was checked with static analysis tools. Although most of them were small, about 30 memory leaks were fixed.
• Icons used in Cinnamon Settings were added to the Mint-X icon theme. This increased responsiveness (This is specific to Linux Mint so we encourage all artists and distributions to do the same).

More polish

• Credit to and similar to GNOME Shell, the Cinnamon desktop now starts with a zoom animation.
• The login sound is now handled directly by Cinnamon (as opposed to cinnamon-settings-daemon) and plays in sync with the login sequence.
• Modules in Cinnamon Settings and categories in the application menu are now sorted alphabetically.
• Similar to Windows, “Super+e” now opens up the home directory.
• Cinnamon 2.4 ships with many small refinements (multiple panel launchers, improvements in the sound applet, removal of the timeout in the logout dialog…etc) and a lot of bug fixes.

More settings and hardware support

• Single-button touchpads are now supported (like the one used on the Macbook) and actions for 2-finger and 3-finger clicks are configurable. By default they correspond to right-click and middle-click.
• Compositing in full-screen mode is now configurable and does not require to restart Cinnamon. This means less screen-tearing by default for most users and the option to undirect windows for gamers and users requiring an application to run at full speed without being impacted by the composition manager.
• The desktop font is now configurable.
• It is now possible to give the screensaver a custom date format, and custom fonts.

I'm targeting this version as my next milestone for my CSB project along with next Slackware release. I can't support Cinnamon 2.4 under Slackware 14.1 since it requires many new packages which aren't yet available under 14.1. Asking users to upgrade those libraries is not an option, since it may break many other applications and user experiences.

We will just have to wait for 2.4 to land in Slackware :)

CUPS 2.0.0 Released

Four days ago marked 15 years of CUPS development since 1999. The developer also took this chance to release a new major release of CUPS, 2.0.0. Honestly, i didn't follow CUPS development lately, so i missed their development releases and was kinda surprised to see that they jumped from 1.7 to 2.0.

Anyway, this release is focused on performance and security improvement. Several highlights on this release:

• Added support for systemd
• Added support on TLS certificate validation and policy enforcement
• OpenSSL support has been dropped in favor of GNU TLS.
• Dropped support for AIX, HP-UX, and OSF/1
• Provides a complete set of APIs for implementing HTTP and IPP services
• The scheduler is now also launched on demand

Check out their blog post for more information about their first Beta release, RC release, and finally final release.

Three Exciting Releases

There were three exciting open source releases  yesterday. They are proxmox 3.3, ffmpeg 2.4, and enlightenment 19.

First, let's talk about Proxmox. The new release is a big one and it was announced here. There are several big changes on this release, including:

• Firewall support (new package pve-firewall)
• Two-Factor Authentication (Yubico and OATH) 
• noVNC console  (use HTML5)
• new Proxmox VE Mobile, GUI for mobile devices 
• ZFS Storage support
• Updated to Qemu 2.1.0
• pve-kernel-2.6.32-32-pve: 2.6.32-136  
• pve-kernel-3.10.0-4-pve: 3.10.0-17 
• based on Debian Wheezy 7.6  

Next is ffmpeg 2.4 which was announced here. It was released just 2 months after 2.3 release and it has a codename of "Fresnel". Please note that this release IS NOT ABI-compatible nor fully API-compatible with previous version. But on the other hand it is aligned with the Libav 11 release series, and will as a result probably end up being maintained for a long time. Don't get rush to upgrade if you have lots of applications that depends on earlier API version otherwise it will break.

FFmpeg 2.4 includes the following library versions:
        • libavutil      54.7.100
        • libavcodec     56.1.100
        • libavformat    56.4.101
        • libavdevice    56.0.100
        • libavfilter     5.1.100
        • libswscale      3.0.100
        • libswresample   1.1.100
        • libpostproc    53.0.100

Important API changes since 2.3:
        • The new field mime_type was added to AVProbeData, which can
          cause crashes, if it is not initialized.
        • Some deprecated functions were removed.
        • The avfilter_graph_parse function was made compatible with Libav.
        • The Matroska demuxer now outputs verbatim ASS packets.

Last, but not least, is enlightenment 0.19.0. Mike Blumenkrantz has announced on the mailing list and this release brings huge updates, including:

* greatly improved wayland support
    - E_WL_FORCE environment variable for forcing output types
* e_uuid_store: Add infrastructure to store window/surface properties.
* Add a tiling profile.
* per-screen desklock logo visibility config
* Tiling: Merge the tiling module rework..
* check udisks1 DevicePresentationHide flag
* ACTIVATE_EXCLUDE window active hint policy
* show video resolution in filepreview widget
* add fileman option to clamp video size for video previews
* handle xrandr backlight using a single, accurate handler
* blanking options for wakeup on events (urgent + notify)
* packagekit module for package manager integration
* ibar now optionaly triggers its menu on mouse in
* selective redirection toggling
* new focus option "raise on revert focus"
* add PIN-style desklock for lokker module
* make desklock hookable, break out current desklock into module, move pam stuff to separate file
* revive personal desklock passwords
* allow moveresize visuals to be replaced
* allow desk flip animations to be handled completely externally
* E16-style live pager returns!
* comp config is no longer a module
* E_FIRST_FRAME env variable
* new compositor API
* add E_MODULE_SRC_PATH for setting current module src path without needing to install modules
* use non-recursive makefiles for entire build system

New President for Indonesia

In the next few hours, we will have an official announcement from the Election General Committee (KPU) about who will become the next Indonesian president, even  though the results are already known by many people, thanks to many quick counts hold by many organizations.

There are 132,896,438 valid votes for this year's election and based on the final calculation, president candidate no 2 (Joko Widodo and Jusuf Kalla) got 70,633,576 votes (53.15 %) while candidate no 1 (Prabowo Subianto and Hatta Rajasa) got 62,262,844 votes (46.85 %). There are 8,370,732 vote differences and it's more than enough to make candidate no 2 to become the next president of Indonesia.

Z1 Upgraded to KitKat 4.4.4

Yesterday, i saw a tweet from Sony that they are releasing Android KitKat update (4.4.4) to all Xperia Z1, Z, and Z Ultra after releasing it for Z1 compact a day earlier. This is really a surprise for me, as usually Sony is not that fast on bringing updates to their product (well, based on their KitKat update history). I'm suspecting that because it fixed a critical security issues and also the long-lasting camera bug that consumed a lot of resources when activated.

Anyway, i decided to take this chance to upgrade my Z1 to the latest Android release and the upgrade was done successfully, but i haven't really tested the camera issues. I did the upgrade using Sony PC Companion. For OTA users, you will have to wait further before it arrives on your phone.


Here are the notes from Sony's website:

• Android 4.4.4 including the latest enhancements and security updates from Google
• Updated and improved camera experience
• Improvements when using Google voice, Contacts, Music streaming and Google+
• The latest versions of our Sony apps for you to enjoy
• All of our latest bug fixes, optimisations & improvements

Opera 24 for Linux Users

Ever since Opera switched from their own rendering engine to Webkit last year, they left Linux users without any new release of Opera. Until today!!!

Opera has just announced that they are bringing back Linux support for their Opera Developer 24. So far, they only tested it on a single platform: Ubuntu Linux 64-bit with Unity or Gnome Shell. It may work on other platforms, but that’s not guaranteed.

Here's the screenshot for the latest Opera release for Linux. 

 

I haven't tried this on Slackware Linux though

Skype Update for Linux

After some time, finally Microsoft/Skype is updating Skype for Linux with a new 4.3 release, announced on their blog.

This changes brings many new features and changes:

• An updated UI
• Our new cloud-based Group Chat experience
• More reliable file transfer support when using multiple devices at once
• Greater accessibility by blind and visually impaired users
• PulseAudio 3.0 and 4.0 support
• Lot of bug fixes

Meanwhile, there's also a drawback on this new version:

• This version dropped support for direct Alsa support; please install PulseAudio 4.0 or greater for the best calling experience.

You can install the new Skype using the same Skype SlackBuild script available on SBo. You only need to edit the VERSION line or override it on the fly using VERSION=4.3.0.37 sh ./skype.SlackBuild

GIT 2.0.0 Released

Junio C Hamano has just announced the availability of GIT 2.0, a major release of the popular distributed SCM tool used by Linux Kernel project and many other open source projects. I even used it in many of my own projects (both open source and personal projects).

This major release brings some big changes, but it has been introduced since 1.9.x, so the transition period should be easier for everyone who have been using 1.9.x. In overall, the changes are scattered everywhere: UI, workflows, performance, documentations, and code clean-ups.

New Sync Protocol in Firefox

If you are a Firefox users and you happen to use their Sync feature which was introduced back in Firefox 4, you might be pretty upset when the design is so confusing and hard to use since you have to have access to the other browser in order to set up a sync account.

Well, great news for you since Mozilla has changed their Sync protocol mechanism in the latest version which was released last April (Firefox 29). The new system only requires you to sign up using the new Firefox account and it's password-based system (two-factor authentication is now being developed, with a possibility of using Google Authenticator App and SMS).

Here are the easy step to migrate to the new sync protocol:

• upgrade everything to FF29
• disconnect old browsers from Sync
• create a Firefox Account
• sign all browsers into your new account with the same email and password

That's it. You are now synced using the new Firefox account and all your data remains safe during migration.

For those who are still using the old sync, please note that they will end the old protocol at the end of ESR release maintenance period (14-Oct-2014), so what are you waiting for? Upgrade now :)

Here's some warnings:

pairing-based Old Sync and password-based FxA-powered New Sync don’t mix: if you used pairing to connect two FF28 browsers together, you won’t be able to connect a third FF29 browser to them, even if you upgrade them all to FF29.

digiKam 4.0.0 Released

It's been some time since digiKam released a new version and this time, it's a new major version 4.0.0. There are lots of new feature on this release, including so many bug fixes:

NEW FEATURES:

General  : New Tags Manager window for easy tags management.
General  : New images quality sorter tool, based on blur, noise, and compression analysis.
General  : Multiple selection and multiple drag-n-drop capabilities on Tags Manager and Tags View from sidebars.
General  : Drop of Qt3Support classes. Now digiKam is pure Qt4 implementation.

Metadata : Nepomuk Service fixed to use current Api. Enable it from digikam metadata settings.
Metadata : Support for writing face rectangles in Windows Live Photo format.

Editor   : Port of canvas to Qt Model/view.
Editor   : LocalContrast tool support multicore CPU.
Editor   : Sharpen tool support multicore CPU.
Editor   : Blur tool support multicore CPU.
Editor   : Charcoal tool support multicore CPU.
Editor   : OilPaint tool support multicore CPU.
Editor   : Emboss tool support multicore CPU.
Editor   : Raindrop tool support multicore CPU.
Editor   : FilmGrain tool support multicore CPU.
Editor   : NoiseReduction tool support multicore CPU.
Editor   : BlurFx tool support multicore CPU.
Editor   : DistortionFx tool support multicore CPU.
Editor   : DistortionFx tool support zoomable preview.

Showfoto : Port of Thumbbar to Qt Model/view.


BUGFIXES FROM KDE BUGZILLA (alias B.K.O | http://bugs.kde.org):

001 ==> 325702 - digiKam crashes when deleting photos.
002 ==> 307146 - Build against shared LibRaw.
003 ==> 326368 - Can't make digiKam from git with test enable : error with libraw 5 ubuntu precise.
004 ==> 302810 - Crash when closing digiKam during face recognition.
005 ==> 289931 - digiKam crashed after trying to open the geolocation sidebar.
006 ==> 285250 - digiKam crashed after saving changed file.
007 ==> 256050 - digiKam crashed after modifying tag name.
008 ==> 324425 - How to switch off (get rid of) thumbnail preview?
009 ==> 326953 - Add loadEmbeddedPreview reading from QBuffer.
010 ==> 309061 - digiKam crash when moving tag.
011 ==> 327124 - Add loadHalfPreview reading from QBuffer.
012 ==> 326959 - digiKam crash while scanning pictures for thumnails maintenance.
013 ==> 318873 - digiKam crashes when clicking on image in thumbnails [patch].
014 ==> 263299 - Need a Tags Manager.
015 ==> 312373 - Deleting all the tags known to digiKam at once.
016 ==> 326542 - Tagging some face then go to tag manager and test tag manager UI.
017 ==> 158791 - Multi-select tags (i.e. to delete more than one at a time).
018 ==> 256252 - Assign Tag with Drag and Drop doesnt work since Version 1.2.0.
019 ==> 196927 - No easy way to expand or collapse deep tag hierarchies [patch].
020 ==> 317943 - Auto-rotate/flip using EXIF Information destroys pictures.
021 ==> 327242 - EXIF tags sorted in the reverse order (not alphabetically).
022 ==> 199975 - Issues in Album view on Windows.
023 ==> 327143 - TableView: Crash on image metadata change.
024 ==> 326525 - Severe memory leak during maintainance scan for rebuild thumbnails.
025 ==> 321403 - digiKam Crashes When Trying to Start.
026 ==> 327707 - Custom list of metadata cannot be customized.
027 ==> 180322 - Compute 35mm equivalent focal length.
028 ==> 320185 - Compatibility issue with hierarchical tags between Digikam and WLPG (and perhaps other software).
029 ==> 327957 - Text Filter Returns All Videos Regardless of String.
030 ==> 277928 - Database upgrade v4 to v5 failed : digiKam fails to start properly, lost albums.
031 ==> 325112 - Hang when opening folder of images to view thumbs.
032 ==> 314774 - When staring, error message "" occurs.
033 ==> 140175 - Mishandling of symbolic links [patch].
034 ==> 301284 - Crashed at exit of digiKam.
035 ==> 261526 - Other applications to edit the photos cannot be added in the "open , "others" - error: path is not correct.
036 ==> 306782 - Rotating several times quickly corrupts images.
037 ==> 323891 - Tooltips are blank (while using gnome).
038 ==> 255523 - digiKam shows html in notification after moving pictures.
039 ==> 230060 - Delete Album is an absolutely terrifying procedure.
040 ==> 181727 - digitaglinktree does not work if albumdir is not on root-partition.
041 ==> 275687 - Artifacts when scrolling in album GUI.
042 ==> 293297 - Digitaglinktree does not process any photos even if tags exists under People category + new option for year subdirectory [patch].
043 ==> 240048 - Open images with double instead of single click.
044 ==> 278664 - Image Names are not displayed completely in the AlbumUI.
045 ==> 187654 - Photos should be in reverse chronological order in default view.
046 ==> 317731 - digikam crashed while adding tags to images.
047 ==> 320455 - Tip of the Day dialog don't show digiKam icon.
048 ==> 328018 - Face-related XMP metadata not displayed.
049 ==> 142813 - No clock while processing display with color management.
050 ==> 138446 - Add "Assign ICC profile" entry to 'Image' menu.
051 ==> 293832 - Digitaglinktree - Multi tag level combination - find any image though directory browsing [patch].
052 ==> 309393 - Modify date and time changes the previous changes picture too.
053 ==> 236850 - Export iptc to file.
054 ==> 103201 - Wish: easy transport of albums, including tags, comments, etc.
055 ==> 228376 - Tags filter should tick checkbox on 'enter'.
056 ==> 289184 - "Toggle auto" in Tag panel does not remember settings between restarts of digiKam.
057 ==> 218824 - Allow state of the tag tree to be saved.
058 ==> 261566 - Cannot right-click below tree in tag sidebars.
059 ==> 278908 - Create new tags in category not possible.
060 ==> 117810 - Dates view sidebar does not take into account tag filters.
061 ==> 307848 - digiKam import mtp, failure.
062 ==> 306454 - Rotated images gets wrong permission.
063 ==> 270159 - Tag replaced instead of added.
064 ==> 273180 - Enable Fingerprints Rebuilding For Specific Albums....The Same As Reloading Thumbnails.
065 ==> 328294 - bootstrap.local invokes wrong shell [patch].
066 ==> 315881 - Cmake misplaces local KDE graphics components.
067 ==> 224038 - Thumbnails not shown on launch of digiKam.
068 ==> 294835 - Albums are listed with (0) photos, but Database Statistics shows correct numbers of photos.
069 ==> 186672 - Zoom slider should change amount of pictures, not picture size directly.
070 ==> 305104 - digiKam does not show some jpg images in files.
071 ==> 317669 - Two alert windows on overwrite alert.
072 ==> 320249 - Table view crashes when adressing tags.
073 ==> 309578 - crash importing images from an android usb storage.
074 ==> 322360 - Camera found as PTP Device, but if importing Images abort with "connection error".
075 ==> 328362 - Crash on start (macports install on OSX 10.9) - Exception Type: EXC_GUARD.
076 ==> 301371 - Exiv2 mix library strangeness.
077 ==> 328500 - Less unused space in Configure dialog.
078 ==> 328124 - digiKam extremely unresponsive and slow (probably related to tags).
079 ==> 273519 - When adding rating portrait images are rotated to landscape.
080 ==> 315156 - CR2 files from Canon PowerShot G1 X the colours are messed up.
081 ==> 228239 - Raw import tool: meaning of the Esc.
082 ==> 287102 - digiKam does not show selected album at startup.
083 ==> 307330 - digiKam does not connect to the album folder automatically unless it has been preselected in my folders.
084 ==> 163293 - Only generate thumbnail when needed [patch].
085 ==> 328632 - "Save change" create a new file with filename_v1.jpg.
086 ==> 233657 - Thumbnails are created for thumbnails.
087 ==> 328034 - Preload the next photo in the folder in a memory cache to speed up transitions.
088 ==> 196649 - Very poor usability when browsing JPEG and RAW files.
089 ==> 308343 - Tag FolderView Icons are blurry when using 48px setting.
090 ==> 328578 - Crash when opening settings.
091 ==> 307281 - digiKam crashes while scrolling list of photos previews.
092 ==> 146318 - Usability: goto next item/ forward buttons are inconsistent between edit and view mode.
093 ==> 293194 - Disable versioning side panel if versioning disabled in preferences.
094 ==> 328818 - 4.0.0-beta1 - Build Errors (kevix2.h).
095 ==> 328830 - digiKam compile error because of commit f3e488b56e4d56be0bb1022e32258add72c3c68a.
096 ==> 292120 - Batch rename returns 'file does not exist' during rename.
097 ==> 198100 - ACDSee XMP sidecar from Raw pictures is not loaded.
098 ==> 303194 - Filemanagement xml-files.
099 ==> 313856 - Re-enable the possibility to set up the shortcuts for rating and labeling (color and pick).
100 ==> 294580 - Unclear status of jpg-pics: how to check for hidden or even malicious data in jpg?
101 ==> 322652 - Crashes on camera import.
102 ==> 312285 - Crash in image editor when moving to the next image.
103 ==> 299755 - After latest X upgrades the Level Tools upgrade is a solid color (black, white, gray).
104 ==> 328835 - Crash when opening "Configure Digikam" settings.
105 ==> 329127 - Remove Tag menu entry is enabled if a picture has no Tags.
106 ==> 297804 - Saving an image loses portait orientation.
107 ==> 279996 - Crash while running face detection.
108 ==> 278049 - Crash during tagging while scanning run in background (Digikam::ImageModel::removeRowPairs).
109 ==> 262596 - Crash when finding faces (Digikam::ImageModel::removeRowPairs).
110 ==> 329323 - Compile time error: flandmark_detector.cpp: No such file or directory.
111 ==> 308734 - digiKam/kioslave: a lot of "KIO::Slave::timeout: Houston, we lost our slave" and "slave died".
112 ==> 304207 - Progress manager: more control on appearance/disappearance.
113 ==> 313678 - digiKam fails to know which images in my camera is new.
114 ==> 314952 - Import window should not lock the interface while reading photos.
115 ==> 282728 - Importing photos with "Date based subalbums". The folder name "date" is wrong.
116 ==> 320398 - Select Album window should remember last used destination.
117 ==> 313880 - "Sort items" choice not respected in the import Dialog box.
118 ==> 323937 - Sorting of several camera types is missing or wrong.
119 ==> 329652 - import (ctrl+n) does not import.
120 ==> 329608 - Thumbnail of picture in dolphin never updated after picture manipulation.
121 ==> 307844 - digiKam import, ignore the user selection, replaces it by "all selected".
122 ==> 292318 - digiKam marble maps does not work.
123 ==> 198406 - Xmp not synchronized, uncomplete.
124 ==> 147921 - Gps widget in French please.
125 ==> 330230 - Memory leak in Image Quality Sorter.
126 ==> 227530 - Album-sorting gone from menus [patch].
127 ==> 218023 - Albums tree does not remember sorting order (ascending/descending).
128 ==> 126116 - Keep directory hierarchy when albums are view by category.
129 ==> 225786 - Proposed digiKam Menu Changes.
130 ==> 246903 - Editor Canvas : not updated when zoom level changes in plugins.
131 ==> 129941 - Editor Canvas : Ability to Drag and Drop an image.
132 ==> 224246 - Editor Canvas : displays useless scroll bars.
133 ==> 233773 - Editor Canvas : ctrl + shift + e doesn't enable scrolling.
134 ==> 170364 - Editor Canvas : Expand selection rectangle by dragging sides in image editor [patch].
135 ==> 288761 - Cached image corrupted after modifying metadata.
136 ==> 326018 - Freezes when I attempt to use the sharpen/refocus tool.
137 ==> 330947 - Icons for protected/unprotected pictures too similar on import.
138 ==> 305079 - Please allow nepomuk digikam service being installable separately.
139 ==> 323284 - Compile 3.3.0 failed - lensfuniface.cpp undefined reference.
140 ==> 302422 - Slideshow info is displayed too high.
141 ==> 292114 - Showfoto not capable for drag-and-drop?
142 ==> 159220 - Non printable characters in IPTC keyword set by digiKam (UTF-8 support with IPTC metadata) [patch].
143 ==> 331700 - Some metadata are written with corrupted encoding of non-latin characters.
144 ==> 331578 - digiKam deadlocks on batch renaming/moving images.
145 ==> 257933 - digiKam zoom slider resets to minimum when returning from image preview [patch].
146 ==> 311936 - FindKdcraw.cmake is outdated and causes digikam to fail building against KDE 4.10.
147 ==> 331714 - Showfoto crash when opening RAW.
148 ==> 332280 - freerotationfilter.cpp:92: (style) Same expression on both sides of '||'.
149 ==> 332346 - Cannot delete (or Download & Delete) from the import dialog.
150 ==> 327676 - Automated picture cutting produces _quadratic_ pics.
151 ==> 306283 - Browsing large pic collections and select subsequent subsets of these: workflow?
152 ==> 250213 - Wish for automatic area selection from irregular contours.
153 ==> 279544 - Tag image for unsharp pictures.
154 ==> 279543 - Filter pictures by "average" brightness.
155 ==> 249023 - Running the batch queue twice on same target directory fails with "Failed to save item...".
156 ==> 332663 - Wrong location of documentation translations.
157 ==> 332287 - digiKam crashes repeatedly while tagging faces with names.
158 ==> 281785 - No prohibition warning while tagging thumbnail above preview.
159 ==> 329313 - WISH: howto update installed version _stable_ without harming existing system?
160 ==> 333299 - Crash segmentation fault at starts.
161 ==> 333386 - Tags manager: '' shown in dialog box when removing a tag.
162 ==> 333388 - Tag manager: Tags removed from images without confirmation dialog.
163 ==> 333385 - Selecting a month in the tree view shows a different month in calendar and icon view.
164 ==> 329697 - digiKam crash when browsing albums.
165 ==> 331597 - Tags are not sorted in UI [patch].
166 ==> 334183 - Face recognition folder selection scans all available folders.

i'm building it right now on my computer and soon in my VM and when it's done, i will push it to my SlackHacks and also submit to SBo repository as well.

Master PDF Editor

For a long time, i have been searching for application that can be used to edit PDF files that really works. I know that LibreOffice also has this feature, but it's not really functioning well on some documents.

When browsing the web today, i found a nice application called Master PDF Editor that could be used to create, edit, preview, encrypt, sign and print XPS and interactive PDF documents. It's quite magnificent and it's free for use in Linux for non-commercial use.

Here are the list of features:
• Create new PDF and XPS files or edit existing ones.
• Add and/or edit bookmarks in PDF files.
• Encrypt and/or protect PDF files using 128 bit encryption.
• Convert XPS files into PDF.
• Add PDF controls (like buttons, checkboxes, lists, etc.) into your PDFs.
• Import/export PDF pages into common graphical formats including BMP, JPG, PNG, and TIFF.

Since this is a binary repackaging only, it's not that hard to make a build script for this and i have submitted a SlackBuild script for this package and hopefully it will be included in the next batch of update and it will be available in SBo project under office category.

Note:
x32 version - requirements: Qt 4.6.2 or later
x64 version - requirements: Qt 4.8.1 or later

VMWare Workstation 10.0.2 Released

VMWare has released a new maintenance release of VMWare Workstation 10.0.2 which brings in several bug fixes and also new guest support to the newly released Ubuntu Linux 14.04 and also OpenSUSE 13.1 for Linux and also Windows 8.1 Update 1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 for Windows guest.

Here are the list of resolved issues fixed on this release :

• Better audio performance and compatibility with certain USB audio/video devices.
  The compatibility and performance of USB audio and video devices with virtual machines has been improved.
  
• USB devices can be connected to the Linux RHEL 5 guest operating system.
  Resolved an issue that prevents a USB device from being connected to Linux RHEL 5 guest operating system.
  
• Windows 8.1 Update 1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 are supported as guest operating system through easy install.
  Easy installation option supports Windows 8.1 Update 1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 as a guest operating system.
  
• OpenSUSE 13.1 is officially supported as a host operating system.
  OpenSUSE 13.1 is now supported as a host operating system.
  
• Blueray drives can burn CDs when connected to the virtual machine.
  Resolved an issue causing burning CDs with Blueray drives to fail while connected to the virtual machine.
  
• Using Microsoft Word and Excel in unity mode no longer produces a beep.
  Resolved an issue that caused using Microsoft Word and Excel in unity mode causes a beep.
• The UAC dialog of the Windows 8 virtual machine no longer causes the host application windows to be blanked out on Linux Host.
  Resolved an issue causing host application windows to be blanked out in the UAC dialog on the Linux host of the Windows 8 virtual machine.
• The sound card can be automatically added to a virtual machine on a Linux host at power up.
  Resolved an issue that prevented the Sound Card from being automatically added to the VM when powering on the virtual machine on a Linux host.
• Windows 8.1 guest operating system no longer display a black screen when launching Metro style applications from the launch menu.
  Resolved an issue that could cause a Windows 8.1 guest operating system to display a black screen when launching Metro style applications in the launch menu.
  
• Hotkeys can be used in the Preference dialog in KVM mode.
  Resolved a hotkey conflict in the Preference dialog of the KVM mode.
• Improved compatibility of GL renderer with new Nvidia drivers.
  Resolved a compatibility issue of GL renderer with some new Nvidia drivers.
  
• Improved graphics quality with Solidworks applications.
  Resolved graphics errors with for Solidworks applications.
• Virtual machines imported from a physical PC no longer crash on startup.
  Resolved an issue causing virtual machines imported from a physical PC to crash on startup.
• Reading and writing to a file using two threads with a shared folder has been improved.
  Resolved an issue about shared folder when the user read and write file using two threads.
• Linux virtual machines access updated contents when using shared folders.
  Resolved an issue that caused Linux virtual machines to see stale file contents when using shared folders.
• Improved performance of the virtual machine using the E1000e adapter.
  Resolved the virtual machine performance issues when using the E1000e adapter.
  
• Workstation now launches on Ubuntu 14.04.
  Resolved an issue preventing Workstation from starting on Ubuntu 14.04.
  

There are also some known problems on this release:

• VM BIOS show a maximum of 8 disks in Windows 8 host and Windows 8 guest.
  Only 8 disks are shown on the boot page of BIOS.
  Workaround: Remove all the disks greater than 8 from the vm setting and keep the boot disk in the BIOS boot list, then have the boot disk to the top position, then restart the VM. after VM started, add the removed disk back by selecting add existing disk.
  

 Go get the trial version from this link

Upgrading to Latest KitKat from Sony

I have just finished upgrading my Xperia Z1 phone to the latest firmware update from Sony to fix the sound issue that was transfered to internal instead of external headset. This makes the sound so small and it's quite annoying if you are making a phone call as the sound become so hard to hear.

The new firmware has a build number: 14.3.A.0.757 and you will find it once you start your Sony PC Companion and connect your phone on it. Once you agreed with the update, it will start downloading the firmware, restarting your phone and start the upgrade process. After it has been completed, you can unplug your phone and turn on your phone and it will continue with the post-upgrade phase where it will try to optimizing your apps. That simple.

I do hope Sony also fixed the camera bug which caused the phone to consume lots of memory while using it.

April's Progress

It's been more than two weeks since my last post on this blog. Well, lately, i have been busy with my other blog, since i'm now working on a small project called CSB (Cinnamon SlackBuilds) which attempt to provide Cinnamon Desktop Environment for Slackware users. It's been progressing quite well and i'm satisfied with the result, even though it's still considered unstable for me personally, but i have heard many reports that it's working on other people's machine as well.

Other than working on that project, i'm still doing my job at the university and also as a SBo admin, approving/rejecting submissions from package maintainers.

I'm planning to upgrade my Z1 to the latest firmware : 14.3.A.0.757 which should fix the sound issue that is very annoying since it will switch the sound to the internal instead of the external speaker. Hopefully i can start updating this Sunday so i can start with new firmware on Monday :)

48 Hours With KitKat

It's been 48 hours since i upgraded my phone to KitKat and so far, i didn't find any major problem that has been discussed by other people. There were some time when my phone got hotter, but it's still on the acceptable level due to many applications were opened at that time. During normal operations, the phone is still cold as it used to be.

About battery drain, i also have a good experiences. When i upgraded my phone, the battery was around 60% and last night, when i charged it, it was around 15%, so between two days ago and last night, the battery just drop about 45%, which is a good one. During that time, i use the WiFI and doing some activities like browsing, taking pictures, accessing dropbox, and many others. I have to conduct more experiments about this battery drain, but so far, i do have good experiences with it.

Note that i disabled the mobile data and wifi and location/GPS settings most of the time and only activate them when it's needed. I think that gives more battery life to your phone. Also, i tend to close any apps after i don't use it anymore, so it will not hog your resources.

Welcome to KitKat

Finally Sony released Android KitKat update to their Xperia Z Ultra, Z1, Z1 Compact series and since then, i have been gathering more information about this update through their Forum and i saw LOTS of issues regarding this update, starting from quick battery drain, easily to get overheated, a little lag, speaker low/loud alternatively, and many others. Also, some new features found on Z2 are not backported to Z1 update as well, so that's quite disappointing for me.

Anyway, i decided to take the risk and last night, i reboot my computer to switch to Windows and connect my phone to Windows and ran Sony PC Companion to detect the update. It started to download the updates, but since it was 1 AM in the morning, i went to sleep. This morning, i plugged the phone again and it started to upgrade to KitKat. There was no problem during upgrading and after the reboot, the upgrade process continued and everything is still there. There are no data loss at all.

About battery drain, i also experience it myself, although i think it's only a matter of time before the stamina mode find your usage pattern and it will try to fix it by themselves. I tend to turn off the location, GPS, and only use the WiFI or data packets if it's necessary. So far, it's good.

One thing i wanted to try was the ART runtime which is a technology preview for the future Android release that will bring performance improvements in overall system/apps. Unfortunately, Sony seems to disable this feature on their firmware, as i can't find it on the developer mode. After browsing some sites, i found that Sony Album, their pre-installed application is not yet compatible with ART, so they disable it. I'm hoping that Sony will be able to fix it soon and release an update to bring ART runtime to it's users. You can check for list of apps that is reported to be working/not working with ART runtime on this site

I'm now a KitKat users :)

KitKat Update from Sony

Just now, i saw a Tweet from XperiaBlog that Sony has finally released Android KitKat update for Sony Xperia Z1, Xperia Z Ultra, and Xperia Z1 Compact series worldwide. This is the new updated information about KitKat from Sony:
Android version: Google Android 4.4 (Kitkat)
Latest available software: 14.3.A.0.681
Release started: 2014-03-19

What are the changes? Well, i don't have it yet, but according to the release notes:

• Introducing Android 4.4.2 KitKat with many new features and enhancements
• Updated Camera application and overall tuning to improve the camera experience
• Enhanced email app
• Stability, performance & battery improvements

Also, Sony added this on their build:

• A tweaked Status Bar and Quick Settings – More intuitive and customisable.
• The same launch animation and live wallpaper as the Sony PlayStation 4 adapted across the lock and home screens.
• Sony’s native app portfolio will be updated to the latest versions. This includes Messaging, MyXperia, Smart Connect, Small apps, TrackID, TrackID TV, Sony Select and Smart Social Camera.
• Updated Media apps including WALKMAN, Album and Movies. Better Sony Entertainment Network & PlayMemories integration with a more intuitive UI and faster download speeds. 

Unfortunately, some new features found on Z2 will not make it into Z1 updates such as:

• 4K video
• Timeshift video
• Tap to wake
• Smart call handling
• Smart backlight control
• Glove mode (already included in the Xperia Z1 Compact).

For older devices, please be patient, since Sony is planning to release it on May:

KitKat will hit the Xperia Z, Xperia ZL, Xperia Tablet Z and Xperia ZR from the middle of Q2 2014 i.e. look for it in May. 

Alternative to Dropbox: Copy

For those who have used Dropbox and you need bigger space without having to pay more, you might be interested on Copy, a cloud-based storage that provide similar service to Dropbox. They offer 15 GB of free space by default when you joined (and it's free) AND if you join their service using this referral link, we will both get additional 5 GB:

https://copy.com?r=Lbi02H

One of the most interesting of Copy is what they called Fair Storage. Basically they will equally divide the amount of storage being used. So a 12 GB folder shared between 3 people only counts as 4 GB per person. This is something interesting, as more and more people you shared with (assuming the same content), you will have more empty spaces.

They secure the data using top-secret grade AES 256 encryption algorithm which is proven to be highly secure.

They also offered the client apps in different platform, including Windows, Linux, Mac OS, Android, and iOS. For Slackware Linux, Eric Hameleers has provided binary packages on his repository.

What are you waiting for? Sign up now and if possible, use the above link :)

After Z1, comes Z2 and Z2 tablet

Two days ago, Sony unveiled their latest products at Mobile World Congress 2014 and they are Xperia Z2, Xperia Z2 tablet, Xperia M2, and Sony SmartWear. Although there has been a leak of information about this on the Internet for few days, it still surprise me that all the rumors were true. Anyway, i'm not really dissapointed as Xperia Z2 is not that much different from Z1. It does have a faster CPU, bigger RAM, and also uses the latest Android release (KitKat), but other than that, it's the same as Z1.

I'm more interested to try Xperia Z2 tablet. I already have an iPad, but still it makes me so curious to try out this tablet since i already tasted Xperia Z1 (phone). I wanted to see what kind of experience will i get when playing with the tablet. More over, it uses Kit Kat which brings many new improvements compared to Jelly Beans.

Anyway, i just asked Sony Xperia Twitter account about Kit Kat availability for Z1 and they don't have a spesific date set for 4.4 rollout, but based on the answer, i think they already have it ready by now. They are just waiting for the right time to release the update. I hope after the MWC 2014 is over, Z1 users should get this update. So, my best bet will be on March.

MATE Testing Session

For the last few days, i have been testing MATE 1.8 RC on a clean VM of Slackware 14.1 and so far, the results were great. No major problems found during quick test and it's well integrated with Slackware 14.1. I would like to give big credit for Patrick Volkerding for giving big support of MSB in Slackware 14.1, so that some of the packages needed in MSB could be integrated in the main tree.

I'm still using MATE 1.6 on my laptop and i will try to upgrade to MATE 1.8 as soon as they are released. I never tested on upgrade process, but i believe the risk is so minimum. The MATE developer didn't make an aggressive or massive update to the packages, just incremental updates, which is something i like. I hate BIG CHANGES like what happened with the latest systemd release: systemd 209. It causes lots of problem for downstream (Linux Distributions) as they have to take precautions about the massive changes and make sure that it will not break their product.

I'm so lucky that Slackware isn't using systemd (at least until 14.1) and hopefully, we will never have to battle against systemd in the future.

Libreoffice 4.2 and Impress Remote

Last week, The Document Foundation has released a new major version of LibreOffice suite 4.2, bringing many many changes to the product, ranging from new UI for the start screen (not the splash screen), new formulas in Calc, better performance, removed old and deprecated APIs, and many more. Along with this release, a new tool was introduced and that is Impress Remote for iOS. The Android version has been introduced since 4.1, but for iOS version wasn't available at that time.

This morning, i checked Apple AppStore and saw that the app has been approved by Apple and now available in their store. I downloaded it on my iPad and start testing it. You can find the online documentation by following this page : http://hub.libreoffice.org/iosremote or use the step by step tutorial on the app itself.

The easiest way to connect is by using the same WIFi network on both devices. Start impress and select Slide Show > Impress Remote. Next start your Impress Remote and start searching for your computer (i tested on my desktop). Try to pair and enter the number showed on your computer on your device and you are now connected. You can start give your presentations using your iPad or iPhone or iPod Touch.

Here's an example of it's UI:

My New Phone

My old phone (Nokia E71) started to deteriorate in terms of performance, battery life, and also stability since last year and it's getting worse lately, so i think it was time to get a new phone to replace this one. My quest to find the replacement started few months ago. At that time, there was only two options on my mind, iPhone or Android-based phone.

I actually wanted to get iPhone, but since iPhone 5s is not yet available in Indonesia, i had to buy it from Malaysia or Singapore or i will need to buy it in higher price from third party. If i bought it overseas, then i will face a problem with warranty as Apple's International Warranty doesn't apply to iPhone AFAIK.

So i'm left with Android-based phones. There are so many Android-based phones, but i'm looking for a smartphone that is unique and hopefully long-lasting, in terms of the product support. Few months ago, i read an article about Sony Xperia Z1 (at that time, this product hasn't been released yet) and amazed by it's design and specs. I thought i would like to get this one once it's released.

Last month, i browsed some sites to find this product and i finally found one which is cheaper than other since it's offering a promo for this one and it's the last item for that color (i pick black), so i took it. It was in December 21 and i paid them immediately. On December 22, they confirmed my payment and they updated the status to on process on December 23. Unfortunately, the shipping couldn't be processed immediately since it was a long holiday due to Christmas day, so i had to wait until December 27 before they can send it via TIKI. The phone arrived in Jogja around December 29 and i went to the office to pick it up on December 30. Later on, i went to Grapari to have my SIM card cut to micro-SIM.

When i got home, i unpacked the new phone and switch it on and start configuring it. While configuring it, i noticed that there was an offer to upgrade to Android 4.3, and i decided to move on since it's a new phone anyway. The upgrade went smoothly, but left me one problem that i didn't notice before. During the migration, the SMSC number was changed into "+7", 145, which isn't the correct SMSC number for my operator. I browsed some sites and found similar problem. I tried every solutions but everything failed. So i decided to do a factory reset on customizations and it DID the trick. I lost all of my previous configuration and settings, but then the SMSC number is now properly set, so i can send text messages normally again.

I redo my configuration and also downloading apps that i need for my daily activities and just under one hour, i have the proper setting for it.

I love my new phone and hopefully it can last longer than my previous phone :)