Archives par mot-clé : Free Stuff

Ubuntu, GNU/Linux

Analekta, de la musique classique en format FLAC

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Ce matin j’écoutais une entrevue à la radio, à l’émission « Isabelle le matin« .

La première partie de l’entrevue est ici:
« Analekta, l’histoire d’un succès… Francois-Mario Labbée, président-fondateur. »

Dans la deuxième partie (que je n’ai pas trouvée) on apprends qu’Analekta offre depuis quelques mois le téléchargement de la musique classique qu’ils vendent en ligne en format FLAC, en plus du MP3 et autres sur iTunes. C’est aussi le sujet principal d’un article paru dans le 7 jours en février.

« Le format des vrais audiophiles » est le produit vedette du site qui offre les MP3 « gratuitement », en bonus 🙂


En entrevue et sur leur site M. Labbée vante les mérites du format FLAC (un format libre, soit dit en passant) et indique qu’il faut un logiciel « spécial » pour l’écouter… c’est bien le cas sauf si vous roulez Ubuntu 🙂 Chaque fois qu’on propose un album sur le site on a aussi un lien direct sur leur FAQ expliquant la différence entre le format FLAC et le format MP3. Eh oui, un lien direct qu’on peut ajouter dans nos signets, c’est de plus en plus rare!

C’est très complet! Sauf peut-être pour l’information concernant Ubuntu ou Linux en général, peut-être pourrions-nous contacter gentiment Analekta pour demander de l’y ajouter ? Car sur Ubuntu, aucune manipulation n’est requise pour lire le format FLAC – il est libre donc supporté par défaut. On pourrait aussi, au passage, les remercier et les féliciter de ce choix 🙂

Ce format fonctionne très bien aussi sur les téléphones Android qui utilisent CyanogenMod. CyanogenMod est une version modifiée du logiciel qui vient habituellement sur votre téléphone Android… modification rendue possible car Android est basé sur des logiciels libres.

FLAC Logo - click here to see the source file and its licenseBref, j’étais bien content que ce format soit en vedette sur un site web qui propose de la musique en téléchargement commercial légal, sans protections inutiles (DRM). Mieux encore, ce sont les mérites techniques du format qui lui on valu cette place de choix. Quoique j’aurais souhaité une petit mention au sujet des brevets, les formats libres et leur importance, je suis bien content du résultat final.

Vous pouvez même tester le format en allant chercher des pièces gratuites offertes dans la section « Cadeaux ».

Merci Analekta, d’un utilisateur Ubuntu qui aime bien pouvoir choisir un format libre offert en option.

 
Ubuntu, Ubuntu Planet, Communautaire, GNU/Linux, Logiciels Libres

An invitation to join Ubuntu’s Q&A group on Shapado.com

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This is an invitation to anyone interested in joining a multi-lingual, freely-licensed Ubuntu Q&A site to check http://ubuntu.shapado.com.

As a disclaimer I should mention that I work at Canonical as a senior support analyst for Ubuntu support (both desktop and server) and I also train other people to provide Ubuntu support. I am also the admin and creator of the Ubuntu group in Shapado (10 months ago). So I constantly switch my community and professional hats 🙂

I use the Answers system in Launchpad extensively (including its FAQ facility) but it lacks two big features:

  • Non-English language support – also known as « l10n » or « localization« . That would be Bug #81419.
  • A reputation / trust system

As you can see that bug report is in an odd deadlock. My interpretation of it is Answers and Launchpad itself were not planned from the beginning to be multilingual. It’s so big now that this can’t be done quickly or easily.

The reputation system or « making Launchpad more social » is a huge feature request too, perhaps traditionally out of scope for such technically-oriented online resources (at least in the traditional Free / Open Source communities). It’s also something I am missing from my daily interactions with customers when providing commercial support.

So when I learned about Shapado I found a nice tool that could complement my advocacy needs, and some more. How is it different than Launchpad’s Answers ? To me, it’s primarily the language support, but many other features are a bonus.

Regarding the recent proposal to have an Ubuntu community in Stack Exchange, see How does Shapado compare to StackExchange ?. I honestly don’t want to join yet another English-only site that runs on non-Free software that I can’t fix or translate myself. I can’t ask anyone around me to do that either. That proposal was forwarded to the LoCo Teams contacts mailing list, asking team contacts to forward it. I am sorry but as an Ubuntu Member and Ubuntu QC contact I won’t do that. I am sticking with my principles for now, and using any free, open source alternative I can get.

So if you’re interested in using Shapado for Q&As in English but also French, Portuguese and Spanish (for now), see http://shapado.com/pages/faq and http://ubuntu.shapado.com.

If you’re interested in setting up your own local, localized Shapado Q&A server, see the installation instructions, the question asking about Ubuntu/Debian packages, and the Shapado « needs-packaging » bug report.

Here is more information on Shapado:

In true dogfood fashion, one can report bugs or make suggestions at http://shapado.com directly, just by using the « bug » or « feature-request » tags 🙂 There is also a more traditional bug tracker.

How does Shapado compare to StackExchange?

 
Ubuntu Planet, Trucs & astuces, Ubuntu, GNU/Linux

Gobby server in 3 steps

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I was tasked to examine different options for internal collaborative editing in a small project, for only a few documents and even fewer people.

I knew there was a Gobby server in Ubuntu but didn’t know it was this easy to setup. I quickly found out about Gobby-Infinote (Gobby using the new Infinote protocol) and Infinoted (server). It was really nice to be able to go to the #infinote channel on Freenode and ask questions one-on-one to the actual developpers and validate my tests! Thank you!

From Gobby’s website:

Gobby is a free collaborative editor supporting multiple documents in one session and a multi-user chat. It runs on Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and other Unix-like platforms.

I performed my tests on an Ubuntu 9.10 64-bit desktop.

  1. On all client systems, install the gobby-infinote package
  2. Then on the server system, install the infinoted package
  3. Once the server is installed, either:
  • If you trust your local network and don’t want any security, launch the server using: 
    infinoted --security-policy=no-tls

    or

  • If you’d rather have encryption, TLS is available. Use: 
    infinoted --create-key --create-certificate -k key.pem  -c cert.pem

The keys creation is automatic, and you can launch the server just using:

infinoted -k key.pem  -c cert.pem

You can also specify such options in ~/.config/infinoted.conf as noted on Infinoted’s wiki (which I plan to update with some of my notes). I am not sure yet what’s best to start the server automatically at system’s startup, I am told upstart should handle this. I’ll probably file a bug or investigate that further later.

Of course your server system can be a desktop, and you can run Gobby from that same system. Once installed clients should go to Accessories > Internet > Gobby Collaborative Editor (0.5).

You will also need to install avahi-daemon so the Infinote Gobby server availability is advertised through your local network and it’s shown among possible choices in your Gobby clients.

If you have setup TLS and you double click one of the available servers that use it, you will be presented a warning as you have a self-signed certificate:

The « other » Gobby in Ubuntu is a previous, stable version (package: gobby). Its server companion, sobby, is not the focus of current development efforts.

The main differences I found are:

  • Optional TLS encryption
  • Undo ability (which required rewriting the sync protocol)
  • Interface improvements
  • Ability to delete files
  • Folder hierarchy creation now possible
  • Graceful recovery & offer to save when the server « disappears » or when someone deletes a file
  • Zeroconf support – so the server « advertises » itself on a LAN, no more IP/port info needed

The current client version in Karmic is 0.4.92 but 0.4.93 is already in Lucid and 0.4.94 is looing up.

Find out more here:

 
Ubuntu, Ubuntu Planet, Conférences, Communautaire, GNU/Linux

Conoces un Ubuntero hispano ? Do you know an Ubuntu user that speaks Spanish ?

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If you know any Ubuntu users interested in getting some first-hand help with Ubuntu, in Spanish, check this post from Diego Turcios, Ubuntu Honduras team lead.

The Ubuntu Users Day will also be held in Spanish! Diego and his team invited me to host a session and I gladly accepted to host the same I will be doing in English. My deepest appreciation to Pablo Rubianes who started this initiative for the Spanish Ubuntu users.

I’ll be teaching / chatting / taking questions about how to best choose your hardware so it works with Ubuntu. It’s on January 23rd, save the date!

 
Trucs & astuces, Ubuntu, Ubuntu Planet, GNU/Linux

Taking Android screenshots from Ubuntu Jaunty

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I’ve just added a detailed guide on how to take Android phone screenshots from Ubuntu Jaunty to the Ubuntu community documentation.

I kept following other guides and blogs without success until I came across this bug report about a missing udev rule for the Android devices. Ew!

I also noticed many guides indicate Eclipse + Android plugins (latest release, manually installed) are needed for this which is not the case! Dalvik Debug Monitor (ddms) works just fine without any other third-party, manually installed apps. This is what it should look like once it « sees » your phone:

ddms

It’s weird that taking screenshots isn’t easier, as this effectively prevents documenting and illustrating many interesting features. I hope the guide makes it easier for anyone to share their findings in using their Android devices. This should also help prepare training or support material, hint, hint 🙂

device

The above screenshot shows missed calls, USB connectivity status, Change Settings shortcut in notifications, TwitDroid pending dents (despite the name, it supports identi.ca which is what I use it for), Wifi connectivity status, Vibration mode, cell phone signal, battery status, alarm enabled and the current time, all in the status bar.

I also have a few widgets on the desktop (if that’s what it’s called…), otherwise I am using the default launcher and configuration.

Unless something specifically involves Ubuntu, I’ll mostly be posting only to Planet Android, which I recently joined. See you there (or here).