My time in Maemo - personal reflections
 

I noticed just now that I've finally hit the 800 'thanks' mark here on TMO, and, as well as saying thanks for the thanks, I thought it'd be nice to do a little reflection on why I'm here, what I've done, and what I'm doing - a little soul searching, if you will. ;)

Where I've come from
My background before Maemo was not that of a mobile enthusiast. Quite the opposite. My phone was ancient, I never really paid attention to tech news, and I was quite happy. I was still an open source hacker then, though: amongst many other things, I used to be a developer on what I'd nowdays say were quite boring things like InspIRCd, an internet relay chat server.

Gradually, my interests shifted towards other things - amongst many others, I started to experiment with Qt.

Some years ago, that started to change a little, though, as I was introduced to Maemo by Stskeeps (who I've known for many years now). This was (I think) around the time of the n800s, possibly n810s. It caught my interest a little, but I didn't want "yet another device", so I drifted away off onto other things again for a while. Until August, when the n900 was released...

...when I preordered ASAP and proceeded to go insane with geek lust until I finally got my device early December.

Arrival
So, I got my device, I started experimenting, playing, and loving it. PyQt, PySide, Python, C++, I played with them all a bit, and I still do whenever I get the chance now - increasingly often releasing the stuff I toy with too. (http://github.com/rburchell/). Sooner rather than later I started to get increasingly interested in the wider Maemo community - and the Qt community (since I was already there) and started helping out with random things for random people, e.g. application developers when I could.

Partly as a result of my changed interests, I changed jobs after some months, to start working in the area of mobile devices for a great company with some great people, at Collabora.


Today
I won't say I'm perfect, but I'd say I've helped out a fair bit and I'm aiming to do more moving towards the future, through things like the MeeGo developer engagement work - i.e. helping other developers, as well as writing lots of random bits and pieces of code which have proven useful to myself and hopefully many others.

I plan to keep getting involved, to keep helping others, and to keep spreading the knowledge I have - for both my own enjoyment, and so that others can help spread that further.

The Future
I plan to continue my development work, my evangelism and education work, and I'm really looking forward to getting my teeth into the MeeGo handset UX release - hopefully not long to wait on that one. I have grown to love Maemo, MeeGo - both the people and the ecosystem.

Thanks for listening. I hope I haven't bored you all with my brief history and braindump.

... So, what's your story?

Re: My time in Maemo - personal reflections
 

Ok - I won't even try to approach this level of detail. But I was never a mobile enthusiast before getting an n95 several years back and getting a glimpse of what the future could be like. I then replaced it with an n900 and started messing around with Xterm and Linux. My primary reason for buying the n900 was the community. I knew that despite its shortcomings I would love it b/c of the discussions and constant desire for improvement here.

What have I contributed so far? Far less than w00t and the other talented developers around here.. But I try to help out wherever I can, whether its pointing a new user in the right direction, sharing knowledge with an experienced user, or testing apps and providing feedback. Above all, I try to promote a positive and productive environment here.

I do plan to attempt some development at some point when time permits, but I haven't done any coding since C++ and Visual Basic in high school so it should be interesting :o

Re: My time in Maemo - personal reflections
 

You're a very bright spot in what is increasingly a very gray and depressing community.

Thank you. :)

Glad to hear it. :)

Re: My time in Maemo - personal reflections
 

(MeeGo news kind of distracted me, so I forgot to reply to this.. I have some time while m-i-c sits and swaps in my VM though, so here goes. ;))

And... are we worth it? :)

More seriously: do you enjoy your time hacking? your device? I know I absolutely love it.

I'd like to jump on this and put things back to equality: I'm by no means what I'd call great. I'm a talented amateur. I enjoy tinkering with things and making them better - and that is something that I truely think that anyone with the right effort and mindset can achieve.

Exactly the thing we need. Thank you!

Keep an eye on the MeeGo Developer Engagement stuff. I (or the others) would be more than willing to help provide you with a support network. IRC/forums/email etc are all full of very helpful people happy to help :)

Re: My time in Maemo - personal reflections
 

Anyone else want to share their stories? This could be an interesting perspective exercise, so.. :)

Re: My time in Maemo - personal reflections
 

Thanks for the praise -- I just hope I can keep living up to the reputation. ;)

Re: My time in Maemo - personal reflections
 

@ w00t yes, the community is 100% worth it. Even on the darker days, it is always entertaining. :p And loving the hacking/modding I've done so far. I was a Linux n00b (well still am I guess) prior to the n900 and am actually rather enjoying learning Xterm. :eek: Methinks Python is next.

Another thing, I can post a question/issue and get 5+ helpful responses within minutes. I have never experienced that in another forum so thank you all!

Re: My time in Maemo - personal reflections
 

I've never seen a community so ready to pounce on a newbie asking the wrong question. I've posted very little here but I've been reading alot here since I got my n900.

Re: My time in Maemo - personal reflections
 

Depends what you're saying and how you're saying it.

Obviously, in a community full of Maemo enthusiasts, criticism that isn't phrased in the right way (for example) won't tend to go down well.

That having been said, there *is* a lot of negativity, and it isn't going to get better without those with a more upbeat view picking up the slack.

So, get posting. What are you waiting for? :)

Re: My time in Maemo - personal reflections
 

Well, I have always been somewhat an enthusiast in the mobile area - although I haven't and still don't consider myself a "fan" nor a "fanboy" of anything.
A few years ago when I took a look at the then-new (deleted since then) nseries.com site, I spotted an interesting thing - the N800.
Actually I didn't purchase one at the end, because I couldn't find good use for it at the time. In the end, I just bought an N95 and had a good time with it.

After using the N95 for a few years, I haven't felt the need for anything new - the N95 was such a brilliant device at the time that it could do anything. When the touchscreen hype came, most of the products were rather bloatware than actually useful or better in any way.
Although, when I saw the first articles about the N900 on the net, I immediately knew that I'm going to have one!
I waited till I could acquire one for a fair used price. I'm rather a practical person, so I don't mind if a device have been used by someone else if I can get it for 2/3 of the new price. :D

Nah, at first I just wanted the N900 to do generic stuff.

You know, music, multimedia, web browsing, MSN/Skype, and so on.
But I'm also a software developer who is infinitely curious - so, I started to do some little research about development. :rolleyes:
Since Qt was "the next big thing" at Nokia, I started off with that - now I also use some more platform-specific libraries alongside Qt.

I also very much like this community.

In august, I came here and read quite a few stuff - everything was very interesting. I definitely wanted to be part of the community. :cool:

I started off with a learning project that is still not complete. In the meanwhile, my first usable app (Sticky Notes) has just been released last week. :)

I also must say a very big thanks to w00t - without his help, I would most probably still be stuck with the basics. ;)
He is a good person who just helped with every random question I had. I also admire his patience and the fact that he didn't get pissed off even when I bombarded him with questions on IRC all day. :)
I can only hope that I can return the favor sometime in the future. :)

To my surprise, the app was found useful than more people than I expected - also there are great ideas flowing in from the users.

I pretty much like my users and it is a great feeling for me to create something that can be of use to others, or make their lives (even if just a little bit) easier.

All in all, I pretty much enjoy being part of this community and I definitlely hope that it will still be present for a long time.

Side note:
The only thing I don't like is trolls here.
However, I learned to live with them - I help out newbies if I can, while still figting against trolling in an educated, polite manner.

This post got a little long - sorry for that. :)

Re: My time in Maemo - personal reflections
 

I'll bite.

Past
I came here after finding the N810 a couple years back. Prior to that I've been an IT guy for various companies, and the U.S. Military - administering most commonly used operating systems that you can find. AIX, HP-UX, Many Linux flavors, Mac OSX, Winders, etc.

I spent about a month just lurking on, what was then, internettablettalk watching these people do amazing things with this little toy in their pocket.. (no, not that one, pervert :p).

Being that I had a strong understanding of GNU/Linux and computers I was able to determine, quite accurately, what you can and can't do with the N8x0 before it ever landed in my hands. I knew the possibilities, read problems on the forums and knew the answers (but didn't yet post), and realized that it was perfect for someone like me.

Since I wanted my first post to be helpful and "come in with a bang" so to speak, I got my N810, hacked away on it for a short while, and then posted My Debian Tricks - N810 xmodmap. One of the more annoying problems with deblet back then was a proper mapping of keys.. so I fixed that.

When it was first rumored the tablet line was going the way of the smartphone I was among many others saying "nooooo"... I didn't think a smaller screen would be as useful, and I didn't want to be required to pay a monthly service just to use the new tablet. I continued to help and support the N8x0 by setting up a Deblet repository, and being (one of) the first one to completely cross-compile the KDE4 desktop for the N810 before debian got it into their ARM repositories. I spent a lot of my time reading these forums and answering questions of new users.

Present
When the N900 released, Nokia addressed the latter of my complaints by not subsidizing, but became another problem for me since I had changed my mind since then and realized I really just wanted one device :D. So now it costed me a fortune to upgrade and I still have my monthly payments lol. As for the former (screen size), I actually don't have any problems with the size that the N900 ended up with. I thought it would be a huge deal, but I was wrong.

I had drifted away from the N8x0 and iTT for a while. Primarily because I had a huge disagreement with the way the forums changed when it went t.m.o. I absolutely hate the orange and white theme, and initially Reggie's stance was a more "Oh well.. deal with it." That annoyed me so I left iTT for a while and eventually stopped needing my N810. When the N900 came around I started poking around back here just to see what's going and realized probably the day or so after I stopped returning Reggie posted he had resurrected an all-dark theme for us "whiners" :D. (I still use that theme, btw. May it never go away..)

So, with my annoyances of the forum gone, and a new device to interest me; I again started reading on the new N900. Like the N810, my knowledge and experience let me understand quite well what it was, and wasn't, before I ever bought one and as such I was able to answer and help people before even having the phone. I decided I would finally start developing for Maemo and cross-compiled little pianobar for the N900 and then picked up PyQt4 to make it pretty.

Now we're all caught up - I just like to hang around the forums helping people where I can, and if I see a project that I want to work on I'll grab it and start coding.

Future
The future is, of course, MeeGo - and I plan to watch that develop every step of the way (even if I do think the new UI is a little.... ehhhh... yeah...). I will be contributing where I believe I can to MeeGo when I can and we'll see what becomes of our beloved Tablet line.

My opinions on the Handset Preview so far: I kept my expectations really low, I mean low. Basically I expected a typical X-window style box setup ... and the ability to make and receive phone calls. I had expected to use it since release, helping file bug reports and fixing bugs as much as possible from the start.

Unfortunately, I was both thoroughly impressed - and severely let down at the same time. Even keeping my expectations small what we winded up with is a very impressive and well built UI that is far beyond where I expected it to be... and absolutely 0 functioning aspects of it on, what I had thought, was the primary development platform for MeeGo. I was disappointed to see no cell phone or wireless support, rotation wasn't working, and installing it was largely undocumented (and gave me a black screen at the start that was a pain to get around.) Unfortunately, a lot of these problems come, I believe, from my main disappointment. Almost everyone that I've met actively working on MeeGo uses an unreleased, non-existent, "prototype" device from Intel - not the already released, with an active and waiting community, N900. Of course I understand alpha and dev release, and the things such as a black screen and random crashes don't bother me so much as the change in platform and seeming focus of MeeGo from what I had expected.

Anyway, that's me. I'm here, will continue to be here, and am helping Maemo and MeeGo in any way that I think I can.

Thanks for reading!

ETA: One side note that entertains me. I've run an IRC server for many years.. (very, very small ~10 people that we just hang out in). I started with UnrealIRCD for many years, came here to ITT - and found one of it's authors! Stskeeps! I thought that was awesome! I then decided last year sometime to switch on over to InspIRCD just for a change.. came back to T.M.O... and Holy Crap.. Found another of my IRC servers authors! w00t! Double awesome!

(sorry.. that thought makes me chuckle for some reason.)

Re: My time in Maemo - personal reflections
 

@ Fatalsaint - Please consider taking over the coding and updates needed for the following Google calendar applet for us diablo users.

Re: My time in Maemo - personal reflections
 

You know, the number of IRC people I run into around Maemo is just scary really.. Another name that may be familiar to you (perhaps more from InspIRCd, although also Unreal) is satmd, for instance.. a proud #maemo/#meego lurker and n900 user.. :P

Re: My time in Maemo - personal reflections
 

Wow! I don't think I ever noticed satmd's nick around here.. or if I did somehow the name didn't click.

I propose Nokia's new slogan:

"Nokia Internet Tablets, killing IRC one developer at a time since 2005" :D

Re: My time in Maemo - personal reflections
 

I'm afraid I'm going to need a link or a reference... Not sure what you are talking about.

I do still have my N810, though it gets very little love. I'm still working on porting my current radio app for it but have had little enthusiasm since most people seem to have N900's now.

But I do try and accommodate people when It's requested..

Re: My time in Maemo - personal reflections
 

This thread reminds me why I chose N900 and Maemo:

Community

As an enthusiast/user I looked long and hard at N900/Maemo and nearly invested in the Walled Garden instead, but something intrigued me about this website:

Here were a bunch of people using their skills and knowledge on a collaborative basis to improve and develop Maemo independent of the device manufacturer.

That's why I bought my N900. Nokia and I owe a big debt of thanks to all you good people as a result.

Of course being part of a community requires involvement, and I look forward to trying out and reporting back on some of the amazing developments you guys are making.

Re: My time in Maemo - personal reflections
 

Vote to get the thread title changed to "My Maemo Stories" lol.

Anyway, I'm no devel - just another user with hopes, wants and dreams. Though for some unknown reason I'm far easier to please then some.

For all it's worth, here's My Maemo story.

Past
I'm an Information Junkie, there's no denying that, and I have always thought that mobile computing was my holy grail in a sense - a way for me to get my info-fix anywhere, anytime.

Ever since I had enough money to buy my very first Palm (a Zire, which prolly tells people I'm new to the game lol), I have always been searching for something I could proudly and unashamedly call a full fledged computer in my pocket.

Then I slowly evolved into a true blue Info-Junkie and I went through a few Sony Clies to try to get this thing in my pocket to do the Internet dance.

Later I got myself something that seemed to fit the bill - the Dell Axim x51v and it blew my socks off. But even then, it Axim had one major problem. With no cellular radios, the Axim was tied down to WIFI hotspots. It needed constant access to power plugs too - I had 2 battery packs and it still wasn't enough as the battery life was so horrendous.

Thus while it nailed down being a pocketable computer, it was not really mobile in any sense of the word. And my need for it tapered off and it stayed in my bag more then in my pocket.

Enter the Nokia 5800, the device that - coupled with my discovery of the "unlimited data plan" - showed me that it WAS possible to get my Info-Fix while being mobile. But it too had its drawbacks, with it's limited memory, archaic OS and lethargic processor.

For me it stood on the other end of the spectrum compared to the Axim. It was mobile but wasn't truely a pocketable computer.

So I continued on searching for a solution, a device that combines the best of both worlds. I tried out an N97 mini for a while but while its keyboard delighted me, it was still just a tarted up 5800 in the end.

I started looking at and researching devices that seemed to fit the bill: the Milestone and the N900.

It was at this point in time that the N900 found me, literally - having been given as a gift to my dad who couldn't make any sense out of the device. He wanted something simpler, something he was used to, so I gave him my N97 mini for the N900.

And here I am.

Present

Currently having fun hacking the heck out of the N900, doing things I never thought I could EVER do on a mobile device. With it's (relative) openess and flexibility, it's the first device I could truely call a mobile computing device.

Sure, some sacrifices had to be made, namely phone related comforts I took for granted on the 5800 like 3G video calling, native MMS and J2ME. Also Ovi Maps/Sygic are poor alternatives to GarminXT on the 5800, at least here where I am.

But that doesn't change the fact that I'm loving the N900.

Future

I would like to learn how to code so i can solve my own pet peeves and help others with thieirs rather than jumping around looking for coders with free time and interest.

Sorry if it's a bit tl;dr.

Re: My time in Maemo - personal reflections
 

Here is the link to the developer, sounds like you can get code by contacting him.

http://www.gagnews.net/post.php?pid=1

Re: My time in Maemo - personal reflections
 

Looks like he/she is still working on it for diablo N8x0 users.

Re: My time in Maemo - personal reflections
 

Retire, relax, enjoy your family. It is just an OS. Not worth it.

Re: My time in Maemo - personal reflections
 

Some people actually consider the N900 an education device - it has helped so many people to learn to develop that it is really true.

I admit that I'm planning to launch a dev blog and publish some videos on it to help new people getting started. :)

Re: My time in Maemo - personal reflections
 

And yet: here you are.. :)

I'm interested as to what your story is, really.

Re: My time in Maemo - personal reflections
 

I came here in late 2007 when I needed help with my newly purchased N800. I was blown away by the cool tips and tricks here. When I had questions, the hackers here were incredibly helpful and supportive. I was just learning Linux then, and the N800 really made learning Linux fun.

I got interested in the attempts to port the Debian repositories to ARM, and I was fooling around with getting Debian running in a chroot. Then debernardis challenged the forum to get OpenOffice running, and shortly after it appeared in the Debian armel repositories, and I was hooked.

I have been fairly stressed, busy, and lacking in enthusiasm these days, but in general, these forums still tend to be more positive than negative for me. Cool hacks are still posted here first, and there's still lots of opportunities for me to keep learning and exploring cool new things. Coming here and trying out stuff like the WiFi hotspot or the bluetooth mouse hack helps keep me engaged in something when I feel frustrated and down.

Re: My time in Maemo - personal reflections
 

I'll share my story, though I haven't been a very "community facing" maemo-ist. It's long and rambling, but this seems like an appropriate place to share it.

I was a Linux enthusiast from my mid-teens, and bought (and later won another in a programming contest) a Sharp Zaurus SL5000D to try my hand at mobile programming. I wrote a couple of small Qtopia apps, released my very first open source application, and installed a LAMP stack that allowed me to locally serve php/mysql pages to keep track of my bird list.

I upgraded to a Zaurus C1000 and continued php/mysql programming on device. Right around the time the N810 was announced I was interested in a more connected device (the Compact Flash wifi card in my Zaurus died). I followed the forums here trying to decide whether to pull the trigger on an N800 or wait for an N810.

Since all my previous mobile devices had hardware keyboards, I decided to wait for the N810 and bought it when it first came out. I was disappointed that there was no working LAMP stack off-the-bat, so I delved into GTK programming and wrote my bird list app using that.

While I learned GTK I decided to write some small applications I could release, and if memory serves "Large Statusbar Clock" was my first effort, borrowing the idea from wazd's blog. I was very encouraged by the reception I got from the community and listened to some of the suggestions for a better tablet experience. "Personal Menu" and "Personal Launcher" were born to fill some of the gaps the community noted. "Countdown Home Plugin" was a scratch-my-own-itch program to keep track of an upcoming vacation.

This was all OS2008 development, and I was pleased with the response theses programs received. After being admonished by my wife for not applying to go to the Summit (I think in '08) I applied for sponsorship to the '09 Summit with low expectations. I was surprised that I was considered important enough to attend, so made my first ever trip overseas and met my first ever community members in person. I was blown away by the friendly engaging nature of the community members

After (and before) getting an N900 I developed "Personal Dataplan Monitor," "Personal IP Address," "Personal Photo Frame," and ported "Countdown Home Plugin" to maemo5. I also ported Birdlist to maemo5, and got involved in Qt programming - both at the library level and application level. Of course, this involved porting Birdlist to Qt.

I look forward to writing my first Qt program for Meego, and hopefully a chance to attend the Meego Conference in Dublin. I have a lot less free time now compared to when I started - two young sons will do that.

I know I am not the most vocal member of the community, and I know my contributions can't match what I have gotten out of this community, but hopefully I can continue to make things people find useful. I hope to eventually increase my activity back to former levels, assuming my free time ever recovers.

Re: My time in Maemo - personal reflections
 

I'd just like to address something that comes out of this point, not directly to you, but to everyone as a whole.. there are those of you who look at the people who are pouring bucketloads of time into Maemo, MeeGo, whatever project, and think.. "well, I can contribute so little, what difference does it make?" and similar things, and, well, that's simply not true.

The work is always there, waiting for your expertise, and your skills, and you *can* make a difference, no matter how much and how little you can put into it, and the work you do manage to do is highly valued and appreciated.

Back to you personally, I'd like to thank you, both for your work, and for your story. ;)