Bill Hoffman's post on Deploying on Windows with DLL Manifest Issues is something near and dear to my heart, I posted about similar issues last year in DLL Hell...The New DLL Hell? These recent changes will certainly go a long way to ensuring future developers can more easily validate Windows packages before distributing them. You can also check out my first post on visualizing the commit history of the VTK and CMake repositories in VTK and CMake Code Swarms.
I will get some more technical posts up soon too! Exciting things happening, still enjoying my new job at Kitware.
Disclaimer: The opinions and musings in this post are mine, and not necessarily those of my employer.
There have been lots of posts about Camp KDE on Planet KDE, along with identi.ca posts and a stream of photos on flickr. It has been a great event so far with some really interesting talks. I especially enjoyed Philip Bourne's talk on open access to data which is very close to my heart, but noted that many parts of the stack used are still closed source. My background in Physics and Chemistry tell me that this needs to change. Open access data without open source tools to create, store and view that data is only addressing one part of the problem. I hope to address other parts of this issue in the work I am doing at Kitware
Celeste's talk was also interesting, and I found out that I may be an OCD interface design guy (many of the points she outlined bugged me in projects I had worked on, especially consistency in interfaces, grammar, etc). Great talk, and illuminating for someone like me who has not worked with anyone in this field before. Then of course there was Till and Alexandra's talk on career opportunities in FOSS, which was a great talk and I found myself nodding along with them. My windy path was not quite so glamourous as rock star or opera singer, but I can certainly identify with them. I instead pursued a degree and a PhD in physics research (largely experimental too), only to find I was extremely passionate about developing software to edit and visualize the data, rather than spending months in the lab.
This is not even the end of the first day, and so you can tell it was a great conference. Jos talked to use about marketing and then Artur presented his take on KDE form the desktop to the pocket. I still really want my own N900 to experiment with taking scientific visualization to the pocket (I have the desktops, laptops and a netbook to play with already). The next morning began with Frank presenting his vision of open source in the cloud, I find myself using the cloud more and more (especially now I have a Droid), but share his concerns and wish to create AGP led alternatives that can be easily deployed by both companies and individuals.
I also really enjoyed Romain's talk on the state of KDE PIM/KDE Windows, with live demos (warts and all). It also nicely segwayed the need for automated testing in order to improve the quality of KDE on other platforms, as well as use our limited resources wisely. I presented my talk on CMake, CTest, CDash and improving the software process in KDE. I think the testing framework can really help KDE developers by providing continuous feedback about platforms not everyone has access to. There are already quite a few KDE projects on my.cdash.org, and I would like to improve that and possibly use subprojects to divide the projects up into manageable pieces.
More great talks from Leo, and we ended the day with plasma talks and demos from Marco and Chani. I don't want to reproduce the schedule, but needless to say we had a great set of talks (all of which were taped and should be available soon). Thanks go out to Jeff and the ground team here for organizing the event so well. Monday was taken up with some more technical talks, Will's talk on the build service is something I would like to use in the future and see if we can get it contributing build/test results to KDE dashboards. The day concluded with CMake training run by me. I really enjoyed the dialog that was present in many of the talks (mine included), and got some great feedback about the training afterwards. I would love to do this again at future KDE events, and from the feedback I received it would seem others would like that to. It was very strange not to talk about any of the scientific visualization work I am doing, one of the first conferences in years where I have not.
Tuesday was the traditional trip day, and we checked out Stone Brewery, tried some excellent ales and then had dinner at one of the longest tables I have ever eaten at. William was of course in attendance, as the youngest attendee. After that we braved the driving rain and winds to get back to the UCSD campus. I took the opportunity to catch up on some work, and recharge my batteries a little ready for the Qt training that is being offered by Till Adam of KDAB today. Looking forward to a day of learning and admiring the sun this morning! The company has been great, and I am very pleased I was able to make it along. This is my first business trip for Kitware, and I am very pleased they sent me along, and that NAMIC sponsored my attendance.
Disclaimer: The opinions and musings in this post are mine, and not those of my employer. Any mistakes/inaccuracies are also mine, that said I would love to hear what people think of this new work.
Kitware is very kindly sending me to Camp KDE. I will be giving a talk on Sunday about CMake, testing, software process and new features in the recent CMake 2.8.0 release. I will also be running a training session on CMake on Monday afternoon. See you all there!
I will also be available to talk about many other things, such as the migration to git, open source chemistry, open science and scientific visualization. Since I joined Kitware I have been exploring some crazy cool ideas in new areas of visualization too, hopefully my influence has not been too disruptive. I will be on the lookout for potential Qties to join my team of Qties at Kitware - be warned
Looking forward to my second Camp KDE! We should arrive in San Diego Friday afternoon, not looking forward to the security lines... I will of course be bringing my spawned process (now named William), who was but a bump at the last Camp KDE. His Mum will be in attendance too, having to travel on her birthday. I am in the last few weeks of my twenties, so be kind.
Bill Hoffman gave a Google Tech Talk on 7 December 2009 at Google's New York city office on CMake, CTest, CDash and CPack. Google recently made the talk available on YouTube.
I wish I could have made it down with Bill and Will to see Google's New York office. For anyone attending Camp KDE, I will be discussing some of these concepts there too, but with a focus on the software process and testing components of CMake.
The Wednesday before Christmas several of my new coworkers from Kitware went to see the new Avatar movie in 3D. I haven't been to the movies much recently, generally just using Netflix to watch movies at home. I have to say it was well worth it, and I have been trying to talk Louise into going to see it with me again. We saw it at the local IMAX, and the images really popped out of the screen. It was a little off putting that they use linearly polarized light, so that the effect is lost when tilting your head. I would highly recommend that you make the trip out to see it in 3D, and hope to figure out babysitters and all that stuff so that Louise and I can go and see it before it leaves the big screen.
The story was quite engaging, but I did find it really quite lame that the mineral they were mining was called "unobtanium", or that is what is sounded like. They could have chosen a better name, but it at least it seems to have been used tongue in cheek. That said I moved my head out of the way once or twice when an object swung around. It was also amazing how much emotion was conveyed in the characters, and how tough it was to tell where the CG and real sequences were joined.
I would love to have access to 3D of this quality on my desktop. When are the 30" 3D monitors due out with Linux and OpenGL support?!?
It is hard to believe the noughties are over - happy new year! It has been a decade of extremes for me on a personal level. It started with me going back to university, which was very challenging and rewarding. I attained a first class degree in Physics, and enjoyed it so much that I decided to stay and study for a research doctorate in nanomaterials. I was very look to work with Tim Richardson and Neil Cowlam who really allowed me to explore the field and go off on some really interesting tangents.
During my Ph.D. research I found the time to get involved in open source development, first with GentooKDE. I was lucky enough to be selected for a Google Summer of Code project in 2007 right at the end of my Ph.D. research. I spent most of my time working on Avogadro, Kalzium and Open Babel.
After that I was really hooked on open source development, and was offered a position as a postdoc by Geoff Hutchison in his new research group at the University of Pittsburgh in the chemistry department. This was a really big move from Sheffield, UK to Pittsburgh, PA in the USA. I learned more than I ever wanted to know about visas and working as an immigrant in another country.
These were certainly some of the high points of the decade, but it wasn't all good. In the middle of the final semester of my undergraduate degree we lost my little brother. This was a very difficult time for us all, and influenced my decision to stay in Sheffield over the next few years with my family. Then on the day I found out that I had been accepted into the Google Summer of Code program, as I was writing up my thesis for my Ph.D., we lost my sister unexpectedly too. I found out just how trusting and understanding relative strangers in the KDE community could be, and will always be thankful to them. Of course my friends and family were all there for us too.
During all this I met Louise (at the end of the nineties), and in 2005 we got married. Weeks before our wedding I attended a conference in Japan, and London was bombed the day before I returned from Japan. Roughly a week before our wedding Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt was bombed (our honeymoon destination). Even days before we weren't sure if we would be able to go on honeymoon. In the end we had a great wedding and an amazing honeymoon.
So much more happened, I think I have some great material for memoirs. I do worry whether people will really believe it all happened - the noughties were a real roller coaster ride. In 2009 my son was born, the birth did not go as planned, then at nine weeks he got a UTI that turned into E. Coli in his blood. I found out that I am an overprotective father, and that the doctors and nurses at the Childrens hospital in Pittsburgh are very good.
I also attended Camp KDE, met loads of amazing people including my future boss. Even that was far from simple, from an amazing start, to a suboptimal interview (I will tell you over beers), to the decision to hire me, then the visa gauntlet I ran to our eventual move more than six months later.
I have to say that we are extremely happy now we are in Clifton Park, NY. I love my new job at Kitware, the area is great and we have been made to feel very welcome by everyone at Kitware - especially Bill and Naomi. I think the next decade is going to be a good one, and have my fingers crossed for no really bad things.
I wish everyone a very happy new year. I feel very lucky to have such a great job working on open source code, with a generous hardware budget to buy new toys. If I could just talk them into getting an espresso machine everything would be perfect! We are on the look out for more Qties (pronounced "cuties"), and I am hoping to become lead Qtie I am really looking forward to Camp KDE in a few weeks, and all the work I will be doing at Kitware in the new year.
