Tip for Gnome Shell

English

Meta-key (Windows or Apple logo key) on Gnome Shell is very useful for this trick: 

• Point the cursor on an application (for example, a browser) 
• Hold the Meta-key and press either left or right arrow key set the application windows to either left or right of the half-screen 
• Wile still holding the Meta-key, press up to maximize the window of application.

Français

La touche Meta (logo Windows ou Apple selon les claviers) est très utile sur Gnome Shell avec cette astuce:

• Pointer le curseur sur une application (par exemple, editeur de texte)
• Enfoncer la touche Meta et appuyer soit la touche flèche gauche ou droite ce qui placera la fenêtre selon la direction choisi de la moiti&eacut; de l'&eacut;cran.
• Toujours en tenant la touche enfoncé, appuyer la flèche haute pour maximiser la fenêtre.

Upgrade to Fedora 17 Beta

Desktop CPU: AMD Phenom II(tm) X4 Processor 940 AM2+ Memory: 8GB DDR2-RAM GPU: Nvidia Geforce GTX 460 v2

Preupgrade failed due to a bug related to anaconda. I downloaded the DVD version of Fedora 17 Beta RC4 and attempt to upgrade the system. It turned out nouveau driver is broken for Nvidia Geforce GTX 460 v2 forcing the use of vesa driver. As a result, Gnome Shell ran on fallback mode until I installed Nvidia driver from rpmfusion repository.

Laptop Toshiba Satellite C650D APU: AMD E-350 with Radeon 6310

Running preupgrade was smooth. The newer kernel seems to resolve a battery consumption issue.

Tips for network scanning issue for HP all-in-one printers

English

Thanks to two people (VICODAN and tflink) from #fedora-qa helping me resolving the networked scanning issue with HP all-in-one printer, it turned out that hpaio driver name was missing in /etc/sane.d/dll.conf despite the installation on libsane-hpaio package. Once added, scanning applications like simple-scan will automatically detect a network scanner.

French

Grâce à VICODAN et tflink du canal #fedora-qa, j'ai pu résoudre le problème de réseau du numérisation (network scanner) des imprimantes HP type "all-in-one". Il s'est avéré que le pilote hpaio manquait dans le fichier /etc/sane.d/dll malgré l'installation du paquet libsane-hpaio. Une fois ajouté, les applications comme simple-scan pourront automatiquement détecter un numériseur en réseau.

Phantasy Star Online 2 Character Creation on Wine

Dowloaded Character Creation from Phantasy Star Online 2 (PSO2)  (not released yet) and installed via Wine version 1.5.1 from Fedora repository. The test was done on Phenom II X4 940 CPU powered with Nvidia Geforce GTX 460 v2 which replaced the aging Nvidia Geforce 8600 GTS (if a Nouveau driver driver is interested to get that videocard, please contact me. The side effect was a much smoother navigation on Gnome Shell.

With nouveau driver, PSO2 Character Creation is only rendered with a plain blue-grey sphere meaning the free and open source driver still has a way to go.

For the first time in 2012, I installed the nvidia driver from RPM Fusion repository with its quirk. Hopefully, RPM Fusion team will find a way to automatically switch from nouveau to nvidia. Firing PSO character creation through Wine provides this result:

Test was done in window mode at 1280x960. Wine is very impressive with its support to a recent Windows base games which could bring attention to game publisher themselves. Only downside is the sound that cannot be heard.
 With some optimization, Linux based operating system could bring attention to gamers. PSO2 can be optimized to run on OpenGL 2.x (there will be Playstation Vita version and also both IOS and Android) and above because it only needs DirectX 9 as minimal requirement. It looks like Linux gaming future is brighter than ever.

Gimp and CMYK

Reading an post about CMYK support on Gimp is fascinating. For years, GIMP is my image editor of choice in completion of Krita for web publishing, photography and desktop publishing. The CMYK support debate shows how many designers forgot they mostly work screen in RGB and CMYK is mainly for printing. Because of the different process of ink, there is no guarantee the colours from CMYK will be the same on every printers.
Thankfully, majority of printing computer requires RGB file to avoid headache.

Goal for/Objectif pour 2012

English

January is already over. For 2012, here is the goals I set:

• - Improve productivity for design department from identity to magazine.
• - Daily icon design inspired from artists like Jakub Steiner and more.
• - Sponsor some free and open source project like Blender with its incoming movie codenamed Mango and Gimp for fully switch to GEGL engine. - For business part, fully expand the use of free and open source tools.
• - For Fedora Project, work on opened tickets, active participation on Anaconda UI with more refinement, more fonts packaging and active usage of Synfig.

Français

Le mois de janvier est déjà terminé. Pour 2012, voici les objectifs que je me suis établi:

• - Amélioration des productivités sur le département infographique de l'identité au magazine.
• - Dessin quotidien des icônes graphiques inspirés des artistes comme Jakub Steiner et plus.
• - Subvention des projects des logiciels libre comme Blender pour leur film nom de code Mango et Gimp pour la transition complète au moteur GEGL.
• - Pour la partie affaire, étendre l'usage des logiciels libres.
• - Four le projet Fedora, travaux sur les tickets ouverts, participation active sur l'interface Anaconda, empaquetage des polices et usage active de Synfig.

2011 Bilan as Fedora Designer

I chose to review my 2011 years now. Although I have played minor role with Design Team, I realized my impact with them was important especially with the porting of Gimp 2.7.x in rpm format because the stable version does not cut it anymore.
I keep a close eye to anaconda redesign learning about planning, meeting and some terminology for user interface face though not the first time since my participation to One Laptop Per Child project.

The lack of blog is due to my focus on my own design business which was very challenging because it was an uncharted territory for me. The beginning was frustration with, for example, the selection of content management system (I ended up with CMS Made Simple) bringing demotivations sometime. I am currently working on a magazine project with a partner only using FOSS tools like Gimp, Inkscape, Scribus. I saw the post about Interaction Designer but chose not to apply due to my priority as part-time self employee. However, I will still contribute to the project which needs more spices in term of elegance.

Gnome 3 usability was straightforward despite the heavy debate that occurred within FOSS community. Granted it needs improvement, the shell appears to be the right path. Another window manager that is missing for Fedora is Enlightenment due to its failure to build for multiple releases. I attempted to rebuild with the newer release but multiple dependencies added much burden so hopefully another packager (maybe from E project themselves) will take care of it.

Brief message - message bref

English

It has been a while I wrote a blog. The reason is my intense work on a magazine project for my local area in Vancouver. I set my own challenge to only use Free and Open Source from Gimp to Scribus via Inkscape.

Français

Il y a longtemps que je n'ai pas écrit un blog. La raison est un travail intensif sur le projet de magazine pour la region de Vancouver. Mon propre défi est d'utiliser seulement les logiciels libres de Gimp jusqu'au Scribus via Inkscape.

Fedora 15 -> Fedora 16 Beta Release candidate

English

Both desktop and laptop are now running on Fedora 16. Gnome-shell extensions are removed due to crash prone the interface.

Français

Le bureau et le portable roulent maintenant sur Fedora 16. Les extensions de gnome-shell sont ôtées en raison des crashes dans l'interface graphique.