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DevelopmentKDE Image Database 1.0 ReleasedVersion 1.0 of KimDaBa, the KDE Image Database, was announced this week on KDE.News:
After exactly one year of coding, several months of bothering people with demos, and 2 long holidays (also used for coding), I've finally gotten my act together enough to make a public release of KimDaBa. If you have a large pile of digital images and need a sane solution for managing them, KimDaBa could well be the answer to your prayers.
The design of KimDaBa was aimed at achieving these goals:
KimDaBa differs from simple image display programs in that it maintains a database of image metadata, which can be used to speed up the process of quickly locating and grouping images. The program has been set up so that it is easy to switch from one search thread to another, allowing one to follow a tangential search pattern. In the examples shown on the KimDaBa home page, image properties include categories for persons, locations, and keywords. High level searching functions allow groups of images to be specified according to search patterns with boolean qualifiers. For example, it is possible to search for all pictures of your brother in Spain. KimDaBa looks to be a useful addition to the Linux user's digital photography toolkit.
System Applications Audio Projects ALSA 1.0.0rc1 availableVersion 1.0.0 rc 1 of the ALSA sound driver is out. The notes say: "intel8x0 driver fixes, OSS PCM emulation fixes".
JACK 0.90.1 releasedVersion 0.90.1 of JACK, the Jack Audio Connection Kit, is out. This release fixes one minor bug.
Planet CCRMA ChangesThe latest changes from the Planet CCRMA audio utility packaging project include new versions of Rosegarden4, RTMix, Qjackctl, Qsynth, Raptor, and more.
swh plugins releaseRelease 0.4.3 of swh plugins is out with a bunch of new audio filter plugins and other improvements.
Database Software libgda/libgnomedb 1.0.2 released (GnomeDesktop)GnomeDesktop.org has announced version 1.0.2 of libgda/libgnomedb, a set of libraries which implement a framework for developing database applications. "This is a bugfix release, containing fixes for various bugs found by users in the 1.0.1 release."
PostgreSQL Weekly NewsThe PostgreSQL Weekly News for December 1, 2003 is available with the latest happenings in the world of PostgreSQL.
phpPgAdmin 3.2 ReleasedVersion 3.2 of phpPgAdmin has been released. "This release adds many features to the already popular 3.1 codebase, PostgreSQL 7.4 support, some new translations and bug fixes. phpPgAdmin is a PHP web-based administration application for all 7.x versions of PostgreSQL."
Yaffil Merges Source Code with FirebirdThe Firebird database project has merged the code from the Yaffil project. "Yaffil, a Russian, Windows-only version of the Firebird database engine, was built originally from the open source Firebird code with a number of additional features. It began life as a private project, before becoming available as a commercial distribution from iBase.ru, of Moscow. Separate Yaffil development has since ceased, product sales have been stopped and all the sources have been released for merging into the Firebird 2.0 code base by the Firebird development team."
Mail Software milter-spamc 0.11 and milter-sender 0.47 availableNew versions of milter-spamc and milter-sender are available from milter.org. "Yes! A new release of milter-spamc/0.11 now supports access database white listing using the -f option; also another new option -F to allow redirecting to individual spam mail boxes; Unix domain socket support with spamd; IPv6 support; and few other fixes and enhancements.""In light of "Brain Damaged..." behaviour in Sendmail's handling of HELO, milter-sender-0.47 has been released. Also a bug related to formatting the TZ for the full callback message has been fixed."
Printing LPRng 3.8.23 releasedVersion 3.8.23 of the LPRng print system has been released. Change information is in the source code.
Web Site Development Araneida 0.82 releasedVersion 0.82 of Araneida, an extensible HTTP server written in Common Lisp, is out. "The main feature of this version is the integration with the SLIME debugger. The debugger can now be used to debug errors that occur in handlers."
bbla-1.5.3 has been released (SourceForge)Version 1.5.3 of bbla, the Big Brother Log Analyzer for web servers, has been announced. "1.5.3 is a revision which includes several bug fixes, and improvements to the installation procedure."
Bricolage 1.6.8 releasedVersion 1.6.8 of Bricolage, a web site content management and publishing system, has been released. "This maintenance release addresses a few issues discovered since the release of version 1.6.7."
Bricolage-Devel 1.7.1 releasedVersion 1.7.1 of Bricolage-Devel is available. "It gives me great pleasure to announce the release of Bricolage-Devel 1.7.1, the second development release for what will eventually become Bricolage 1.8.0. This version of the open-source content management system addresses all of the bugs discovered since the release of the first development release, 1.7.0."
CLiki 0.4.1 releasedVersion 0.4.1 of CLiki, a Common-Lisp based hypertext authoring program, is out. "This version has been updated to work with recent Araneida and SBCL, improves documentation, changes the CLIKI-INSTANCE class graph, supports multiple looks and feels, provides cookie-based authentication, and more."
Announcing Gallery 1.4.1 (SourceForge)Version 1.4.1 of Gallery, a web-based photo gallery system, has been announced. "1.4.1 contains lots of new features that will give Gallery owners dramatic new control over their Galleries. The most notic[e]able one is skins, which allow you to chose between nineteen different looks for your gallery - or develop (and share) your own! Other eagerly anticipated new features include voting, email updates and user self-registration. And there are now thirty-three language packs, available as separate downloads."
Mod_python 3.0.4 releasedVersion 3.0.4 of Mod_python has been released, it works with Apache 2.0. "This is a Beta release, therefore it is likely to contain bugs and is not of production quality. We strongly recommend that you try out your application in a test environment with this release and report any incompatibilities or problems you may encounter."
Samizdat 0.5.0 releasedVersion 0.5.0 of Samizdat, an RDF-based engine for building collaboration and open publishing web sites, is available. "This version introduces basic focus management, completing the minimal set of features required for an open publishing part of the engine, and making Samizdat ready for public beta testing. Other major changes in this release include Pingback support, many user interface improvements, another rewrite of multimedia upload, testing framework, and more."
ZopeMag Weekly NewsThe ZopeMag Weekly News for November 27 through December 1, 2003 is available with lots of information on the Zope web development platform.
Desktop Applications Desktop Environments GNOME Development Release 2.5.0 (GnomeDesktop)As reported on FootNotes, the GNOME 2.5.0 development release is out. This is, of course, just the beginning of this development cycle, so there is not much exciting new stuff yet. Quite a few new modules have been proposed for inclusion, however.
GNOME Desktop 2.4.1 release notesThe release notes for GNOME 2.4.1 are available. "As most of you have realized we did a silent 2.4.1 release some time back. I just wanted to get the release notes out so that we have some clue as to what changed between 2.4.0 and 2.4.1."
GNOME Summary for November 29, 2003This GNOME Summary for November 23-29, 2003 looks at the 2.5.0 release, the latest GAIM release, a Dropline GNOME review, and much more.
KDE-CVS-DigestThe November 28, 2003 KDE-CVS-Digest has been announced. "In this week's CVS-Digest: khtml regressions and font handling fixed. amaroK, another media player, now has a resume feature, and can play streams. Plus many bugfixes in all applications."
KDE TrafficIssue #69 of KDE Traffic has been announced. "Topics include usability issues, Kafka progress, KDE apps in ECMAScript, importing KDevelop projects into KDE CVS and more."
Electronics XCircuit 3.1.30 releasedVersion 3.1.30 of XCircuit, an electronic schematic drawing package, is available. Change information is in the source code.
Games Gweled 0.3 released (GnomeDesktop)Version 0.3 of Gweled, a game that involves aligning gem icons on the screen, has been announced. "Main features are the cool SVG graphics and the smooth animations (for a board-game)."
Graphics Sodipodi 0.33 released (GnomeDesktop)Version 0.33 of Sodipodi, a vector drawing application, has been announced. "This release incorporates lots of bugfixes and enhancements that have accumulated over the past 6 month period."
Interoperability Mono 0.29 released (GnomeDesktop)Version 0.29 of Mono, the open-source implementation of .Net, is available. This release includes updated versions of Monodoc, mod_mono, and more.
MultiSync - Synchronize your Gnome Desktop (GnomeDesktop)Version 0.81 of MultiSync has been announced. "MultiSync allows you to synchronize Evolution, mobile phones (IrMC, SyncML), Opie/Zaurus devices, PocketPC devices, Palm devices and LDAP directories. Palm and LDAP support is new with this release."
Wine TrafficThe November 28, 2003 edition of Wine Traffic is out with the latest Wine news.
Multimedia GStreamer 0.7.2 release available (GnomeDesktop)Version 0.7.2 of Gstreamer, a multimedia framework, is out. "A new GStreamer development release is available sporting many improvements. In addition to a host of bugfixes and infrastructure cleanup so does this release introduce support for AAC and WMA in GStreamer."
Music Applications The FlacPak standardJosh Green is working on a new standard for compressing MIDI instrument patch files, called FlacPak. "This format uses FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) and zlib to compress audio and binary data respectively. By using FLAC for audio and exploiting other characteristics of instrument files (stereo samples, differing bit widths, etc) much better compression can be achieved then if just using a binary compressor."
Rosegarden 4-0.9.5 releasedVersion 0.9.5 of Rosegarden 4, an audio and MIDI sequencer and score editor, is available. "This release contains a host of new features and improvements over the previous release, and is nearly feature complete for 1.0."
Office Applications Planner 0.11 released (GnomeDesktop)Version 0.11 of Planner, a project management application, formerly called MrProject, has been released. "This release is mainly a bugfix release. If you have problem loading files with MrProject 0.10, you should upgrade to this release."
Office Suites Scripting Framework is AvailableThe OpenOffice.org Scripting Framework is now available. "The Scripting Framework will be a new feature in OpenOffice 2.0. It is available in developer builds from 680_m15 onwards in order for the community to evaluate the feature and give us usefull feedback. Please use this opportunity to tell us what you think."
Science Thuban 1.0rc1 releasedVersion 1.0rc1 of Thuban, a Python-based an interactive geographic data viewer, is available.
Web Browsers Mozilla Firebird Gets New Download Manager (MozillaZine)MozillaZine reports on a new Mozilla Firebird download manager. "The Downloads sidebar and progress windows have been replaced by a new combined Downloads window that lists all current and completed downloads."
Mozilla Links NewsletterThe November 25, 2003 edition of the Mozilla Links Newsletter has been published. Take a look to see what's been happening in the world of Mozilla.
Mozilla.org Staff Meeting Minutes (MozillaZine)MozillaZine's summary of the November 24, 2003 Mozilla.org staff meeting minutes says: "Issues discussed include the website, Mozilla 1.5.1, Mozilla 1.6 Beta, Mozilla Thunderbird, localised language packs and builds on CD, points of contact for questions, CVS over SSH and relicensing."
Word Processors This Program Lets You Write Letters Weekly NewsThe December 1, 2003 edition of This Program Lets You Write Letters Weekly News, formerly known as the AbiWord Weekly News, is out. Here's the summary: "Features are enhanced, screenshots are taken and the City of Largo likes to do things the hard way. Meantime, Nadav shows off a little OTS power, as Tomas creates a new commandline option for regular AbiWord users and he recently gives Iomega AD buildability to whomever wants it. Plusse, some final preparations for the soon-to-be-released 2.0.2! Also, due to some technical review of usability, AbiWord name changed."
Miscellaneous Krusader 1.30 Does Tabbed-Browsing (KDE.News)KDE.News reports on version 1.30 of Krusader. "Krusader, the old school file manager for KDE, now supports tabbed-browsing in the 1.30 release. Each panel can create unlimited tabs, thereby keeping the twin-panel look and feel while allowing you to keep local folders, ftp, ssh open all at once."
Languages and Tools Caml Caml Weekly NewsThe Caml Weekly News for November 25 - December 2, 2003 is out with the week's Caml language news.
Java Regular Expressions in J2SE (O'Reilly)Hetal C. Shah writes about Java regular expression processing on O'Reilly. "JDK 1.4 supports regular expressions in the java.util.regex package. Use of this package and supporting classes makes string search and manipulation very easy. It helps reduce the development effort, and at the same time significantly improves the maintenance of code. Since classes in this package are a standard part of core Java, they don't have to be distributed separately, and can be assumed to be present."
Lisp SBCL 0.8.6 releasedSteel Bank Common Lisp 0.8.6 has been released.
Perl The 2003 Perl Advent CalendarContinuing a long standing holiday tradition, the 2003 Perl Advent Calendar is online.
This Week on perl5-porters (use Perl)The November 24-30, 2003 edition of This Week on perl5-porters has been published. "A quiet week for the Perl 5 porters, but some threads are worth noting. Notably, I have now a reason to mention Leon Brocard in the summary without appealing to any running joke."
PHP PHP Weekly Summary for December 1, 2003The PHP Weekly Summary for December 1, 2003 is out. Topics include: PHP 5 compatibility, MySQL, Apache 2, GD image sharpening, stat() via streams.
Python Python-dev SummaryThe Python-dev Summary for October 16 through November 15, 2003 has been published.
The Python Learning FoundationThe Python Learning Foundation has been revived, as reported on the Daily Python-URL. "The newly rechristened Python Learning Foundation is a website dedicated to the assistance of people learning the Python programming language. Features include: daily lists of new and recent Python-related web articles, Sourceforge projects, and Vaults of Parnassus listings; daily postings of new and recent web articles, Sourceforge projects and etcetera for four additional categories, Zope, Jython, Tkinter, and wxPython, as well as historical listings of web articles on these subjects; links to 76 online tutorials about Python and Python-related subjects; more than 28 reviews of books about Python."
Here be bounties (GnomeDesktop)GnomeDesktop.org covers an effort by Mark Shuttleworth to start up a Python-based scripting interface that is common across GNOME applications. "I'm prepared to fund Python scripting interfaces for OpenOffice, Blender, AbiWord, Gnumeric and The GIMP. I'd really like to see the development of common document object model standards and terminology across OpenOffice, Abiword, Gnumeric, Sodipodi and other Gnome applications. This would accelerate the learning curve of someone who has already learned to script one app in Python, when they try to learn to script another."
Dr. Dobb's Python-URL!The December 3, 2003 edition of Dr. Dobb's Python-URL! is out. Take a look for the latest Python article links.
XML Mozilla Overlays: A New Way to Combine XML Documents (informIT)Nigel McFarlane describes XML overlays in an article on informIT. "What do you do if XML information is split across several documents? The Mozilla platform has a neat solution to this problem. Documents written in Mozilla's XUL dialect of XML can be merged automatically into a single, final document using a system called overlays."
Overriding Concerns (O'Reilly)John E. Simpson explains how to merge two XML source trees into one on the O'Reilly XML Q & A column.
RouteWord: An Interesting Diversion (O'Reilly)Andrew Odewahn explains his graph visualization system on O'Reilly. "For the past several months, I've been researching and developing a "graph visualization" system. That's the technical term for the burgeoning field of creating pretty pictures from relational data. To those of you not steeped in graph theory, "graph" in this context refers not to the familiar X-axis and Y-axis plots from high school algebra but instead to a set of "nodes" that may be connected by "edges" to indicate a relationship."
Five XSLT Basics (O'Reilly)Michael Fitzgerald has written an introductory article on XSLT. "I know what you're up against. You've just inherited a new project at work that requires you to learn XSLT, but you don't have a clue where to start. If that's your problem, this article should give you a leg up over the wall. It will quickly cover five basics of XSLT found in the first chapter of Learning XSLT, O'Reilly's new hands-on guide to get you using XSLT with XPath by close of business today."
Debuggers Kodos 2.0 releasedVersion 2.0 of Kodos, the Python regular expression debugger, is out. New features include a replace capability, a match all tab, code cleanup, and more.
Editors Quanta 3.2 Bleeding Edge AnnouncedVersion 3.2 BE 1 of Quanta, a web development tool for KDE, has been announced. "Quanta 3.2 BE 1 features a number of new improvements including an "awesome new CSS editor", KFileReplace support, auto save and crash recovery, and much more."
IDEs SimTeEc 0.9.2b online (SourceForge)Version 0.9.2b of SimTeEc, an Eclipse IDE plugin for generating source code files from velocity templates, has been announced. "The version 0.9.2b also offers a custom ant task for generating files from velocity templates. This feature is based upon the Texen tool from the velocity project."
Page editor: Forrest Cook |
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