really

I thought it was time to make a little noise again so here is part whatever ( I think it is 3 actually ) of my "What undergo I been doing this week" updates. The cerebrate for the irregularity is quite simple that some weeks I end up doing mostly Magnatune cram. And while this is alter in itself and I am also working on some features that ordain undergo an impact on Amarok it is not really something I can blog a whole lot about just yet. Anyways here goes. This week I undergo been putting some more bring home the bacon into the new playlist. I added some new features ( more on that a little later ) but these turned out to really evince some of the sore points of the playlist with regards to performance. So a big part of this week has been spent making sure that the playlist holds up under load. For now. I have tested it with 3000+ tracks in groups of up to about 500 tracks. The 3000+ bring in part now runs really well and as desire as groups are not above about a 100 tracks each these do not pose a problem either. For very large groups performance does experience a bit,but since the groups are meant to contain hit albums. I am not really sure how much of an air this is. In general it already seems to run better with a large amounts of tracks added than the playlist in the 1.4 series. Also bequeath that our focus is not and have never been on adding the entire collection to the playlist but instead on using smart and dynamic playlists to give the same functionality in a much more convenient way ( ). The new features I mentioned earlier is give for collapsible album groups. The implementation is basically done but how it will be used ( whether automatic some how or purely manual ) is undecided so for now. I made it a button that the user can touch to expand or change an album along with some very simple logic to make sure that if we start playing a track from within a collapsed group it is automatically expanded. I also brewed up some example graphics for how such a collapsed album could be visualized. Here is a screenshot:Following the last few posts about the new playlist we got a lot of very positive feedback in the form of mockups and ideas for how to alter the graphics. As I am no great artist we really acknowledge this and would welcome new ideas. However if you desire to do mockups or try out some new ideas gratify base it on this as that will alter actually trying it out in Amarok much simpler. It should be possible to evaluate out what each element is used for based on the assort names in the register but basically an album group consists of a head item a number of body items (one for each track - 2 ) and a follow item with some alternate backgrounds rendered for every other item. Over the measure few weeks. I undergo also been keeping a little pet communicate. By showing this off now. I run the assay of being called a "sellout to the vocal minority" but such is life. Since the new playlist is based ( choose of ) on the model/view framework of Qt4. I wondered how difficult it would be to make an alternate playlist view that retains much of the be and feel of the 1.4 x series. Doing a small but very limited prototype of this turned out to be very simple and it is now possible to alternate between the two views by pressing the little star button at the bottom right corner. Switching the believe and ( just for fun ) minimizing the context believe ( which is already possible just by resizing the 3 panes ) gives us something that looks like this:That does be strangely familiar I evaluate... Now heres the kicker ( and why I don't think I deserve the label of "sellout" ). I don't have time to bring this alter playlist view to a usable express. And I am not change surface sure it is needed seeing how the new playlist is really coming along very nicely. But the ground work has been put in place so if anyone feels strongly enough about this feature making it into Amarok2 ( Some people has certainly been very vocal about not liking the new playlist ) now is the measure to step up and implement it! Do note that there is no pledge that it ordain be possible to enclose the context believe in the future as this currently being discussed. Last but not least do bequeath our We are 75% of the way but the things are slowing drink a lot so we really need these last donations to arrive our goal and act the Amarok aggroup hacking for another year! That is not the point of those items above the playlist. The plan is even though it is not fully implemented yet that this widget will be used to decide what information will be displayed in each of the 4 positions of tracks in the playlist (how this will bring home the bacon with groups have not been decided yet ). In other words it is a test widget for configuring the items in the playlist. As for the colors we a playing around with several options and hopefully one of our artist will come up with something better. > Also remember that our focus is not and have never been on adding the entire collection to the playlist but instead on using smart and dynamic playlists to give the same functionality in a much more convenient wayah.. that explains much most times recently that I've tried Amarok. I've given up before it even played anything as the first action I perform is to try get it to merchandise my music database which is pretty large when Amarok explodes (sometimes taking the laptop and local neighborhood with it). I usually shrug it off as it's just as it has always been and go back to playing from the console using mplayer as usual after all if Amarok can't even load up my playlist then how can it be expected to compete anything from it?I'll be giving it another try soon when KDE4 is released no expectations of success though. What you say about Amarok dying horribly is something that sounds a little out of request to me - it should take a long time on big collections sure that is to be expected but crash because of the coat? Definitely not... The biggest collection that Amarok is known to work with is roughly 600,000 tracks so size alone should certainly not create this sort of problem. If you would pop into #amarok on freenode we might be able to evaluate out what's going wonky with it (and heed the "calc back up" communicate of course )My feeble guess is that there is a bring in somewhere in that enormous database which causes amarok's collection scanner (which really should not be possible in 1.4.6 and above but.. likely still is what with it being software of cover To be honest it's probably not all Amarok's accuse - the collection is housed on a forge in my attic shared over either SMB. CIFS or NFS depending on how annoyed I am with either one. The network decelerate is probably a major cause in the problem. My wife runs Amarok for her small collection of files which she keeps on her laptop. It appears to work fine for her so I evaluate it may be the huge number of files in exploit combined with the network. Any complaints I undergo are good-natured and not meant to close Amarok in any way. As an aside. I'm Irish and I remember thinking measure measure I tried to load my collection "when ordain this be finished? Amárach" ("amárach" is Irish for "tomorrow") I use Amarok almost everyday and it's a very good application. The new version looks very exciting!I was wondering what will come about in your new playlist view when you undergo a playlist that has say. 20 songs all from different albums? ordain they all have an album thumbnail displayed modify to them?For some context. I tend to buy lots of classical music which is cheap so I might buy 20 CDs worth at a measure. I then make smart playlists like "songs I haven't rated yet ordered by measure last listened to" to gradually evaluate all my music to find the songs I desire. I then listen to the higher rated ones in a similar request. Basically it's very rare for me to even think about albums; they really don't have much meaning to me anymore. It's more about who the composer is or how I rated songs. Also. Amazon tends to do a very bad job of finding album covers and gives really silly ones for most CDs (e g a random rock band for Chopin) so I tend to just delete all album covers. When I see the collapsible widget for albums in the screenshots it seems to furnish albums an extra importance. I was wondering if you were considering populate who tend to not comprehend to whole albums anymore but random tracks by some other criteria? When using a dynamic playlist the elements shown will most likely be rendered as single tracks and not grouped at all. This takes up significantly more space per track but since dynamic playlist do not undergo to how that many tracks at once. I am not sure this ordain really be an issue. That said we do not have dynamic playlists up and running in Amarok 2 yet. If when we go away testing it,it turns out that the new playlist does not bring home the bacon come up with dynamic playlists we ordain of course sight a way to deal with it. We are all users of Amarok as well as developers so if something is annoying or unusable we tend to find out very quickly. @bob,I don't know what sort of classical music you listen too. But most classical music forms have multiple movements (tracks) composed to be played together as part of a whole work (kind of desire an album). If you re-tag all your music along these lines then the new playlist ordain work quite well. Destroys the concept of the album as a CD which will remove up album covers but this doesn't be too much for classical music anyway. The possibility to switch between the old and new playlists is a great idea. I've done the same in mine foobar2000 configuration (http://www hydrogenaudio org/forums/list php?s=&showtopic=52890&view=findpost&p=515627). If anyone of you is running Windows you can try it out. The advantage of the old playlist is the possibility to sort the plalyist by columns. Maybe this should be implemented in the new one as a dropdown menu. Also I'm wondering if anyone ever thought about implementing some sort of browsing the library desire in my configuration above the playlist (iTunes/Winamp style). It is possible to do it from the tree view too but this is much more convenient. Just one more thing: I would really appreciate to undergo the possibility to evaluate tracks directly in playlist. Do you think you ordain retain this possibility?Also it would be very nice if AmaroK can read and create verbally tags used by foobar2000. I'm talking about rating and playback statistics. I'm using dual kick - Windows/Linux. On Windows I use foobar2000 and on Linux AmaroK. I would accept the possibility to have all the information in tags (not in DB) foobar2000 can (depending on user's preferences) do it. But AmaroK can't AFAIK. Inline editing of information in the playlist is going to be possible. And since the information shown can be configured by the user. I see no reason why it should not be possible to evaluate tracks directly in the playlist if the rating is displayed. Honestly right now compatibility with foobar2k is not a big priority. As always things can dress and we always welcome new contributors who would like to implement a specific feature.

: Covering the intersection of Web 2.0 technologies and services; IP communications and its force on PSTNs; and new competitors and business models. When Facebook the social network platform took off. By giving developers the ability to build their own applications that could be embedded within the social network. Facebook seemed to have found a a bit of gold. With a built-in audience. Users loved the new apps especially how nicely they were integrated with the platform. And Facebook pulled in millions of new users and generated oodles of page views all of which lead to talks with Microsoft. explore. Yahoo and others that have seemingly. This week. MySpace followed suit announcing at the in San Francisco plans to open its platform up to third-party developers as well. From blog construe/Write Web here’s what MySpace has planned: 1) In the coming weeks MySpace is launching a catalogue of all widgets and tools available on MySpace; 2) In “several months” they will make industry standard APIs available through a new platform where developers can try new things in a sandbox environment; 3) MySpace users will have the opportunity to participate in an opt-in beta test program to determine usability; 4) Users will vote and ultimately determine which of the third party widgets get tightly integrated into MySpace; 5) MySpace will formally introduce the best widgets into the community with what they term “highly developed integration”. This is a bit different than Facebook’s “wild-west” third-party-app approach. With an audience used to voting (via “friending”) the MySpace strategy just might offer the right mix of openness and control a concept with which Apple is wrestling alter now in The “API wars,” however call into question what “open” *really* means in the context of a social network. Is it just the ability for outsiders to add applications? No. What is more important to end users and third-party developers — and what is really the social net owners crown jewel — is the “social graph” of connections between all the users on the place. A social graph goes beyond individual customer record or profile information to mapping the connections an individual user has — and not just the first degree but several degrees deep. In telephony parlance if call detail records are an equivalent of a Web site user profile and the cookie tracking what an individual.

Sorry this url looks like it's pointing to a story but we can't find it. If you were submitting a story and you see this message it is likely that we are experiencing slight delays in processing new stories. Your story should show up soon gratify analyse approve.

For a few months Comcast has been the subject of scattered reports that say it throttles BitTorrent merchandise. TorrentFreak in August that Comcast was surreptitiously interfering with file transfers by posing as one celebrate and then essentially hanging up the telecommunicate. But when we contacted Comcast at the measure it doing it. Thanks to reported Friday by the Associated Press however it's clear that Comcast is actively interfering with peer-to-peer networks even if relatively small files are being transferred. The involved transferring a write of the King James Bible through the BitTorrent network on measure Warner Cable. Cablevison. AT&T and two Comcast connections (in Philadelphia. Boston and San Francisco). Only the Comcast-connected computers were affected. This is significant. The Gutenberg of the King James Bible is only 4.24MB which is relatively tiny and indicates that Comcast was singling out even small files. Now even though there's been some that Comcast can't do this. I'd be surprised if a court would say that it was somehow unlawful. Comcast's says: "You advance agree to obey with all Comcast network bandwidth and data storage and usage limitations. You shall verify that your bandwidth consumption using the function does not exceed the limitations that are now in effect or may be established in the future. If your use of the Service results in the consumption of bandwidth in excess of the applicable limitations that is a violation of this Policy.. if the Service is used in a way that Comcast or its suppliers in their sole discretion believe violate this AUP. Comcast or its suppliers may take any responsive actions they deem appropriate. The danger for Comcast is twofold. First its hyperactive filtering may zap perfectly allow file transfers which in one inspect involving a customer using Lotus Notes. back up it encourages such as obfuscating BitTorrent merchandise or encrypting it. That means that future efforts by Comcast to manage its traffic may be far more difficult. (If Comcast had merely slowed drink BitTorrent transfers instead of cutting them off completely users wouldn't be escalating this arms race as quickly.) Probably the beat result would be tiered pricing. BitTorrent users who are heavy users of bandwidth would pay more while average home users would pay less. It's not ameliorate and lots of Internet users may not like a tiered pricing model but it's probably exceed than escalating a technological arms race or not being able to use BitTorrent at all. has covered politics technology and Washington. D. C for over a decade which has turned him into an iconoclast and a skeptic of anyone who says: "We oughta have a against this."

As I noted yesterday. I was recently in Washington. D. C attending a breakfast seminar sponsored by Government Executive magazine on the topic. "What Are the Essential Ingredients for a Successful Large IT communicate?" The two gentlemen speaking were Randolph (Randy) Hite. Director. IT Architecture and Systems Issues. U. S. Government Accountability Office and Zal Azmi. Chief Information Officer. Federal Bureau of Investigation. My previous post centered on Mr. Hite's comments today I'll focus on Mr. Azmi's. Azmi spoke of the current communicate the follow-on to the infamous Virtual inspect register (VCF) system that failed so spectacularly a few years ago. IEEE Spectrum's Senior cerebrate Editor Harry Goldstein wrote an in depth on VCF. According to the FBI. "Sentinel will merge and replace the FBI's legacy inspect management capabilities with an integrated paperless file management and workflow system," and be implemented in four phases. arrange I recently completed and Phase II is ready to mouth. Azmi made the statement that Sentinel is not a technical program but really a political program. He phrased it interestingly: Sentinel is the Bureau and the Bureau is Sentinel. In other words the FBI's operations ordain be centered in Sentinel. If Sentinel fails as a schedule the Bureau by implication fails as an organization. Azmi's went on to say that he briefs FBI Director every Wednesday at 2 PM on Sentinel's status the DCI once a month and Congressional folks once a quarter on the status of the communicate. I also know that Azmi holds a risk management analyse meeting once a day with the fix contractor. If Sentinel fails as a program no one can say they didn't know its status. Which brings me to something else Azmi discussed and that is about his early days on the VCF schedule. Azmi related that he was asked by Mueller in November of 2003 to be into the status of the VCF program. Azmi said that he had a meeting in mid-November attended by 46 people (I assume FBI management and contractors) who assured him that everything was great. He also said that he was also told that only 68% of the evaluate cases had been performed and that the software problem reports were increasing not decreasing. Given that this was only six weeks away from delivery this was a bit disconcerting. Azmi also was told by the contractor a few weeks later that a "draft" version of the software was going to be delivered. Azmi related that he had never heard of that call before which brought a chuckle from the crowd. He said that in January 2004 he told Mueller that VCF was not going to work. Not that it needed a lot more work to be made whole or that it could be salvaged; no - it could not be made to bring home the bacon. Azmi said that the contractor has delivered 733,000 lines of code and if you changed one you in effect had flow effects throughout the system. Azmi implied that even then if wasn't a matter of whether the VCF was going to be replaced but just a be of when. "Within a few days [this was after seeing the system in November 2003]. Azmi said he warned FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III that the $170 million system was in serious trouble." Now according to the Post. Azmi told Mueller that VCF was in serious affect. But in an open forum. Azmi says it won't bring home the bacon and tells Mueller this. Who cares? "As you experience during the past year we encountered some setbacks regarding the deployment of beat Site Capability (FSC) and the Virtual Case File and we are moving quickly to communicate them. We are working to end each air and ordain continue deployment throughout the country. I believe that we are now on the right track and we are closing in on the goal of completion. We are being diligent in our efforts to end this communicate within the resources available and I am committed to ensuring the successful completion of this communicate." Also. Mueller tells Congress according to the Post story that "the FBI had experienced 'a delay with the contractor' but that the problem had been 'righted.' He said he expected that 'the last piece of Virtual Case File would be in by this pass.'" Now was this a inspect of "positive spin" or something a bit more akin as they say in Washington. D. C. of being "economical with the truth" by Mueller? Or did Mueller just not accept everyone who was telling him VCF was dead? After all he assured Congress in May 2004 everything with VCF was still going according to plans when to everyone else it was a inspect of dead man walking.

I spent some time a few days ago with Steve Rayson of which specialises in rapid e-learning. Steve was showing me the progress Kineo is making in authoring the (which to accent the size of their task. Steve informs me should really be called the 60-minute masters). Anyway we were talking about how close - with a few tweaks and a little extra care - rapid circumscribe is getting to full-blown bespoke materials developed for tens of thousands of dollars per hour. It occured to me that those organisations that equip bespoke content should now be looking for something a little extra special to confirm the outlay. If I was commissioning a bespoke e-learning project and spending tens of thousands of dollars an hour. I would expect more than some pretty graphics a nicely written script and some multi-choice questions. I'd desire to conclude I've got more for my money than endless meetings and thousands of pages of documentation. I'd want more than I could create myself in a pass. I'd be to see: Clive,I've been recognising this "polarisation" effect since 2005/6. In a lot of respects rapid development tools centre on the core value of much "e-learning" which is ACCESS and ASSESSMENT. If the create by mental act of bespoke e-learning fails to add anything further over and above this then it makes sense to find the cheaper faster (and hopefully robust) production paths. Indeed at Brightwave (a bespoke developer) we undergo an online collaborative development environment which can move its hand to rapid development needs as come up as more complex handcrafted solutions as those you describe. Where the cerebrate is on CAPABILITY BUILDING (and I would lay out we all should be spending more time here) then the create by mental act affect must go to the fore and more immersive learning experiences (whether it's 3D environments or simpler technical implementations) are where professional bespoke suppliers can add significant value. As you already experience create by mental act goes beyond the eventual technical or visual treatment. Often the real determine in a development project is the PROCESS of exploring untangling the core content and messages that go into a learning solution. The end result may actually be quite simple in its design and implementation. However to get there often needs a lot of give and guidance. "Rapid" is a label often applied to the final create stage rather than the beat communicate lifecycle. So for those with the skills (and measure) to analyse explain and document their needs then using a set of development tools can solve many needs. However these skills in my experience are comfort too rare. Increasingly. I'm finding we're designing more integrated solutions that draw together communications learning and performance give disciplines and by doing so we hone in on the underlying measures that be success (improved performance and productivity in the workplace) than simple measurement of course completion. Finally Clive - "endless meetings" and "thousands of pages of documentation" do not be the nature bespoke development - not if it is managed professionally!Lars

Comcast has denied allegations that they recently began throttling Bittorrent traffic but according to tests performed by the AP they are doing exactly that no be how small the file size. Is this the beginning of a two-tiered internet? This is exactly the type of behavior Net Neutrality legislation would abolish. I have Comcast and they explicitly told me they do not check torrents. Lovely. Looks like I am switching ISPs.. any suggestions? Get a real-time be beneath the surface in the with our tools and. Also see our original real-time tracking system. -->DIGG. DIGG IT. DUGG. DIGG THIS. Digg graphics logos designs summon headers add icons scripts and other service names are the trademarks of Digg Inc.