Songs...

Some good music... I wanted to add a mixtape but favtape is down.

• Kasabian - LSF (NON official video on Youtube)
• Chemical Brothers - Let Forever Be (video on Youtube)
• The Verve - Love is Noise (video on Youtube)
• Harry Nilsson - Jump into the Fire (video on Youtube)
• Jet - Are You Gonna Be My Girl (NON official video on Youtube)
• Peter, Bjorn & John - Young Folks (video on Youtube)
  

How to localize Firefox 3.5.4pre (or latest)

You added Mozilla Firefox repositories to Synaptics and you're getting only the English version of the browser?
Searching for other stuff, I reached this place...

Get your xpi file and your Firefox will be localized!

Google Android porting on x86 - UPDATE

Google Android version 1.5 (Cupcake) has been ported on the ASUS EeePc 701.
Two members of Google Groups, beyounn and cwhuang01 created a Google Code group named Android-x86, in which we are "branching" the original Google Android source code in order to obtain an updated, fully featured and working OS.
We were trying to make Cupcake boot on different NetBooks and/or VirtualBox VMs. So we decided to merge our works.
Current status:

• Intel on-board VGA is working (with 2.6.30 Kernel it is possible to set the right resolution)
• GPS USB Serial device is correctly binded to OS
• LAN 100Mbit Network Adapter is working (both DHCP and static configuration)
• WiFi Atheros 5k Network Adapter is working (both DHCP and static configuration)
• USB Mouse (software mouse) and/or Keyboard works
• USB Pen Drive or Memory reader can be mounted as SD Card
• Audio is working (ALSA was not working due to a rebuild mistake in the Android Make System)
• OpenGL-ES are going to be supported, there's a group of developers sharing their code here
  

Firefox 3.5.1 still exposing bugs

Firefox 3.5.1 represents a step towards a faster browser.
Several benchmarks show Safari 4, Opera 10 and Chrome as the fastest browsers on the market - I heard "Webkit rules" - and they only seem to lack in the plug-ins feature.
I'm not taking into account IE X.x because... I think it already exists only because is bundled into the most common OS in the world. And there's no reason to use it.

Anyway... After the first exploit (more here) soon patched by Mozilla team, we got a bug in JavaScript engine, not well managed in 3.5.1.
The issue is well described here and this time it is not useful for executing code (at the moment), but "only" for a DoS.
Possible workaround? Disable JavaScript, No-Script plug-in or switch to the older JavaScript engine from about:config, disabling javascript.options.jit.content. Choosing the 3rd option, there will be a drop in the overall performances of Firefox.

Uhm...

Tara-ta-ta-taaaaaaaa... I'm lovin' it!

Porting status and Canonical developers' news

The porting process of latest Google Android sources to ASUS EeePc 701 is almost complete.
Current status:

• Intel on-board VGA is working ( 640x480 until 2.6.29 Kernel )
• GPS USB Serial device is correctly binded to OS
• LAN 100Mbit Network Adapter is working ( both DHCP and static configuration )
• WiFi Atheros 5k Network Adapter is working ( both DHCP and static configuration )
• USB Mouse and/or Keyboard works
• USB Pen Drives can be mounted as SD Cards
• Audio is not working ( surely an ALSA configuration issue )

Furthermore, our A.API is working. I cannot tell you anything more.

I read in some websites (ArsTechnica) Canonical developers are focusing their attention on run Android applications on Ubuntu.
That can be technically done by writing a Dalvik VM that lies over a Linux distribution.
Or using an emulator, but it exists and it is too slow. No optimization can guarantee a smooth execution of the applications.

Android on Eee Pc

I am porting a Android to an ASUS Eee PC (fully featured, from source code downloaded on 3rd April).
I'll post few tutorials or something similar in next weeks.


You can know more here.

Blender Project

That's the "Computer Graphics" course project.
It has been my first time using Blender. It is a great editing tool, but it has a weird user interface (I'm not talking about Graphical UI).
Mainly, you must become a "Shortcut God". After that, following tutorials and some experience, you'll get some results.

Enjoy!

Robochecker published on Google Code

We are proud to announce that the whole source code and documentation about our "lego robot playing draughts" is on Google Code, exactly here.

The software has been written in Java, using leJOS API for controlling the NXT Brick.
It is possible to use Java by flashing a custom firmware on it.

It has been a great chance to improve our programming knowledge in Java (in source code you'll find a lot of code as implementation of threading, class factories, interfaces) and have fun.

Google projects: permanent beta (or alpha?)

Google Mail: BETA!
Google Maps: BETA!
Google x | x is a Google project name.

Android was released as 1.0 version. No "BETA" word applied to it. But with the latest repository merge, they're loosing control of the huge number of sub-projects and modules of the project.
They are publishing code stubs, fulfilled with comments (not very useful in most cases), without any implementation example.

I hope Google is having strictly coupled information exchanges with big mobile devices manufacturers, or they'll soon branch the Android project, choosing their best way to implement what they need.

Merry Christmas Blog?

I don't know what happened...
But people are accessing this "almost empty blog" searching "merry christmas" or similar...

Ubuntu Linux x64

I am working on Ubuntu 8.10 x64 since 2 weeks ago.
This last release is something not comparable to other distribution I ever used.
Fedora Core 8 or openSuse could compete against it, but Ubuntu wins:

• for the excellent package manager (synaptic)
• because of the O.S. watches for user actions, always prompting the safest thing to do
  
• for the ease of installation process
• for gnome balance between performances and eyecandy stuff
• because of derived from debian
• ... much more!

What do you think about it? Let me know. Leave a comment!

When everyone would like to be a developer.

Some time ago, I was following the development of "Prince of Persia: Assassin's Creed" game.
An interview at GameTrailers.com caught my attention...
Impressive technical details, indeed...
Awful gameplay...
Jade Raymond as Game Producer...


What a Game Producer!

[UPDATE!] My access counter is listing this entry:

25.11.08 @ 15:24:48 Host ISP:Ubisoft entertainment - Canada

Animator vs Animation

Animator vs. Animation by *alanbecker on deviantART

Context switching...

Thanks to my thesis supervisor, I received a proposal for a project involving Linux kernels, ARM SoCs (and maybe x86 systems) and Android Framework.
I accepted immediately, cause of this is another chance for working on something real.
Obviously, this time I'll work at a lower level. No Java but advanced C language and compiling options on Makefiles.
So, in future, there will be some posts containing some info about linux kernel, unix drivers and so on.

Assembly language

...

MOV AX, 0 ;is weird
XOR AX, AX ;is l33t

... is just an example, or ...

MOV AX, WORD PTR [BX]
MOV DX, 10
MUL DL  ;is weird
MOV DX, WORD PTR [BX]
SHL DX, 1
MOV AX, DX
SHL AX, 1
SHL AX, 1
ADD DX, AX ;is l33t

... sigh!

I'll never win.

Android Developers. Thread Opened.

I choose to open a thread regarding Sun JavaMail, JAF and Android.
I hope it would be useful for all developers whose encountered issues or difficulties using JavaMail on Android.
There were few troubles:

• java.awt.Datatransfer class was missing (and related interfaces): they are available in the Apache Harmony SVN. There were some java.awt.Image dependancies, which have been removed.
  
• The lastest Sun JavaMail API was not working on Android: at build time, the APK popped up an error within an IMAP class. I downloaded source code of it (now Sun JM is opensource) and I fixed some classes.
• Sun JavaMail was working, but not at 100%: it was unable to manage Multipart elements of an email (so most of the email we receive). This API stored MIME-Types to/from Java Object association (a sort of mapping between them) in 2 files within the JAR file. Android is unable to read files in the classic way (due to security policy), so I decided to add the "MIME mapping" programmatically.

You can find the post on Android Developers here.

T-Mobile G1 is OUT!

First Android-based mobile phone has been released in US!
It will be sold from the 22th of October, priced 179$ (plus taxes and fees; two-year agreement required).
You can know more on this at www.t-mobileg1.com. Unfortunately, it will be SIM-Locked.
Some specifications:

• 3.2" Touchscreen display (480x320)
• QWERTY keyboard
• GPS
• 3.1Mpixel Camera
• Qualcomm MSM7210A running @ 528 MHz CPU
• 256MB ROM / 192MB RAM
• GSM/GPRS/EDGE
• UMTS/HSDPA (3G)
• WiFi 802.11 b/g
• Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR
• microSD Card Slot
  

I hope Politecnico di Torino will buy some of these devices. I'll ask if there's a way for getting a G1 for me (I'll pay it, I swear).

Ninja Cat

http://view.break.com/572561 - Watch more free videos

Android Developers Google Group - A focus on ContentProvider

As requested here, I'm posting some example code for implementing a ContentProvider on which is possible to call openOutputStream and openInputStream.
My only question is: why must I store file path in a database field called '_data', if openFile implementation is programmer's burden?

ElementProvider.java

/*
 Copyright (C) 2008  Luca Belluccini

 This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
 (at your option) any later version.

 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
 GNU General Public License for more details.

 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
 along with this program.  If not, see .
*/

package polito.mailandroid;

import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
import java.util.HashMap;

import android.content.ContentProvider;
import android.content.ContentUris;
import android.content.ContentValues;
import android.content.Context;
import android.content.UriMatcher;
import android.database.Cursor;
import android.net.Uri;
import android.database.sqlite.SQLiteDatabase;
import android.database.sqlite.SQLiteOpenHelper;
import android.database.sqlite.SQLiteQueryBuilder;
import android.os.ParcelFileDescriptor;
import android.text.TextUtils;

public class ElementProvider extends ContentProvider {
private static final String DATABASE_NAME = "poli";
private static final String DATABASE_TABLE = "elements";
private static final int DATABASE_VERSION = 1;
public static final String KEY_ID = "_id";
public static final String KEY_DATA = "_data";
public static final String KEY_MIMETYPE = "mimetype";

private DatabaseHelper mDbH;

 private static class DatabaseHelper extends SQLiteOpenHelper {
     DatabaseHelper(Context context) {
         super(context, DATABASE_NAME, null, DATABASE_VERSION);
     }
  
 public void onOpen(SQLiteDatabase db) {
  super.onOpen(db);
 }

 public void onCreate(SQLiteDatabase db) {
         db.execSQL("create table " + DATABASE_TABLE + " (" +
           KEY_ID + " INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT, " +
           KEY_MIMETYPE + " TEXT, " +
           KEY_DATA + " TEXT" +
           " );");
     }
     public void onUpgrade(SQLiteDatabase db, int oldVersion, int newVersion) {
         db.execSQL("DROP TABLE IF EXISTS " + DATABASE_TABLE);
         onCreate(db);
     }
 }



public static final int ELEMENTS = 1;
public static final int ELEMENT_ID = 2;
public static final Uri CONTENT_URI = Uri.parse("content://polito.mailandroid/elements");
private static final UriMatcher URI_MATCHER;
private static HashMap ELEMENTS_LIST_PROJECTION_MAP;
 static {
     URI_MATCHER = new UriMatcher(UriMatcher.NO_MATCH);
     URI_MATCHER.addURI("polito.mailandroid", "elements", ELEMENTS);
     URI_MATCHER.addURI("polito.mailandroid", "elements/#", ELEMENT_ID);

     ELEMENTS_LIST_PROJECTION_MAP = new HashMap();
     ELEMENTS_LIST_PROJECTION_MAP.put(KEY_ID, KEY_ID);
     ELEMENTS_LIST_PROJECTION_MAP.put(KEY_DATA, KEY_DATA);
     ELEMENTS_LIST_PROJECTION_MAP.put(KEY_MIMETYPE, KEY_MIMETYPE);
 }

public boolean onCreate() {
     mDbH = new DatabaseHelper(getContext());
     return true;
}

public ParcelFileDescriptor openFile(Uri uri, String mode) throws FileNotFoundException {
 String[] projection = new String[] {
     ElementProvider.KEY_DATA
 };
 Cursor c = query(uri,projection,null,null,null);
 c.moveToFirst();
 String file = c.getString(c.getColumnIndexOrThrow(ElementProvider.KEY_DATA));
 c.close();
 File f = new File(file);
 int m = ParcelFileDescriptor.MODE_READ_ONLY;
 if (mode.equalsIgnoreCase("rw"))
  m = ParcelFileDescriptor.MODE_READ_WRITE;
 ParcelFileDescriptor pfd = ParcelFileDescriptor.open(f,m);
 return pfd;
 }

public Uri insert(Uri uri, ContentValues initialValues) {
     if (URI_MATCHER.match(uri) != ELEMENTS) {
      // !!!
     }
     ContentValues values;
     if (initialValues != null) {
         values = new ContentValues(initialValues);
     } else {
         values = new ContentValues();
     }
  
     if (!values.containsKey(KEY_MIMETYPE))
      values.put(KEY_MIMETYPE, "plain/text");

     SQLiteDatabase mDb = mDbH.getWritableDatabase();
     long rowID = mDb.insert(DATABASE_TABLE, "notnull", values);
     if (rowID > 0) {
         if (!values.containsKey(KEY_DATA)){
            try {
             String filename = rowID + "";
       getContext().openFileOutput(filename, Context.MODE_PRIVATE).close();
       String path = getContext().getFileStreamPath(filename).getAbsolutePath();
       values.put(KEY_DATA, path);
       update(uri,values,KEY_ID + "=" + rowID, null);
      } catch (Exception e) {
       // !!!
      }
         }
         Uri newUri = ContentUris.withAppendedId(ElementProvider.CONTENT_URI, rowID);
         getContext().getContentResolver().notifyChange(newUri, null);
         return newUri;
     }
     // !!!
     return null;
 }

public Cursor query(Uri uri, String[] projection, String selection,
         String[] selectionArgs, String sortOrder) {
     SQLiteQueryBuilder qb = new SQLiteQueryBuilder();
     switch (URI_MATCHER.match(uri)) {
        case ELEMENTS:
            qb.setTables(DATABASE_TABLE);
            qb.setProjectionMap(ELEMENTS_LIST_PROJECTION_MAP);
            break;
        case ELEMENT_ID:
            qb.setTables(DATABASE_TABLE);
            qb.appendWhere(KEY_ID + "=" + uri.getPathSegments().get(1));
            break;
        default:
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("Unknown URL " + uri);
     }
     SQLiteDatabase mDb = mDbH.getReadableDatabase();
     Cursor c = qb.query(mDb, projection, selection, selectionArgs, null, null, "_id DESC");
     c.setNotificationUri(getContext().getContentResolver(), uri);
     return c;
 }

public int update(Uri uri, ContentValues values, String selection, String[] selectionArgs) {
     int code = URI_MATCHER.match(uri);
     int count = 0;
     SQLiteDatabase mDb = mDbH.getWritableDatabase();
     switch (code) {
      case ELEMENTS:
            count = mDb.update(DATABASE_TABLE, values, selection, selectionArgs);
            break;
        case ELEMENT_ID:
            String id = uri.getPathSegments().get(1);
            count =
                    mDb.update(DATABASE_TABLE, values, KEY_ID + "=" + id
                            + (!TextUtils.isEmpty(selection) ? " AND ("
                                    + selection + ')' : ""), selectionArgs);
            break;
        default:
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("Unknown URL " + uri);
     }
     getContext().getContentResolver().notifyChange(uri, null);
     return count;
}

public int delete(Uri uri, String where, String[] whereArgs) {
     int code = URI_MATCHER.match(uri);
     int count = 0;
     SQLiteDatabase mDb = mDbH.getWritableDatabase();
     switch (code) {
        case ELEMENTS:
         // !!! REMOVE ALL FILES
            count = mDb.delete(DATABASE_TABLE, where, whereArgs);
            break;
        case ELEMENT_ID:
            String id = uri.getPathSegments().get(1);
            // !!! REMOVE ASSOCIATED FILE
            count =
                    mDb.delete(DATABASE_TABLE, KEY_ID + "=" + id
                            + (!TextUtils.isEmpty(where) ? " AND (" + where
                                    + ')' : ""), whereArgs);
            break;
        default:
            // !!!
     }
     getContext().getContentResolver().notifyChange(uri, null);
     return count;
}

public String getType(Uri uri) {
 String[] projection = new String[] {
     ElementProvider.KEY_MIMETYPE
 };
 Cursor c = query(uri,projection,null,null,null);
 c.moveToFirst();
 String mimetype = c.getString(c.getColumnIndexOrThrow(ElementProvider.KEY_MIMETYPE));
 c.close();
     return mimetype;
}

}