Google code

If you don't already know, I have been working on a little software project, that lets you publish images to Flickr and Picasa. What is different about it is, it works as a plugin in image editing software like Gimp and Inkscape; and now it also works on Nokia's internet tablets. Yesterday I released v0.5 of it.

But this post is not about my project, it's about its hosting site. I have done open source projects before on other hosting sites - xenen on Sourceforge, faint on Maemo garage - but I found their web interfaces very ... awkward. They look pre-historic compared to today's web 2.0 interfaces (Note: this is just about UI, SourceForge deserves lot more credit for what it has achieved beyond UI). So when I came to know about Google code I was extremely happy. When I came to know about it (that was already after 1 year it had lanched), the UI was still very simple. It didn't have all the features SourceForge had. But I had a gut feeling that it will have the finest features in the future to come, only because it is Google.

And I was right. One of the very useful they have recently added is source code browsing. Their previous code browsing was as plain as firefox's file:// browser. But I had a feeling that Google will be putting an extremely well SVN browsing interface that matches their style. And they did. Browse my project's source code here and see it for yourself. The browsing of entire source files, their older revisions and the diffs - everything is just how it should be. It just makes open source project development lot of fun. Thanks to Google code team for this new feature.

I have some good things to say about Google codesearch as well, but I will save it for next post.

Gr8 commercial

I always enjoy watching commercials that are genuinely thoughtful. I saw this one today on TV and just loved it.

The prime goal of a commercial is to capture the viewer's attention. These days ad-campaigns achieve this by showing something bizzare at the beginning of the commercial, however irrelevant that is with respect to the actual product. Then they do some lame spins on words (Comcast commercials) or some equally stupid things to justify themselves. Rarely seen are the commercials that show some innovation. Generally a good ad should start with a surprising, interesting scene and all the way should keep the viewer wondering about its subject. It is at the end where it differs from other mediocre commercials. It has to reveal the actual product in such a manner that it just fits the concept. It only helps to have a subtle climax.

This ad is an excellent example.

OSiM USA 2008, see you there

I just registered for OSiM USA 2008 for 11-12 March in San Francisco.

It looks very promising conference for whoever interested in Open Source in Mobile technologies. Here is the agenda for the 2-day conference.

Among the speakers there are some big names in Mobile world - Ari Jaaksi, Director of Open Source Operations, Nokia; Sean Moss-Pultz, Founder, OpenMoko; among others. Also there will be talks on many interesting topics including,

• Android (by Dan Morill Google Developer Programs),
  
• WiMAX and Open Source (by Brian Coughlin, Manager, 4G Product Development, Sprint Nextel),
  
• Panel discussion on "Raising Venture Funding for Open Source: The Investor Perspective" (Ira Kalina, Partner, Drinker Biddle & Reath; Patrick Walsh, Manager, Open Source Incubator Program, Intel Capital; Jai Das, Partner, SAP Ventures
• Panels discussion on "Taking Web 2.0 Technology to the Mobile Device" (speakers from ARM, Openwave, Sun)
  
• And many other talks on legal, technical, enterprise aspects of Mobile and Open source

Besides all these I am excited to meet the crowd that is interested in Open Source projects for the evolving mobile platform.

If you are attending, drop me a line, we should meet up.