Weblog: Archive

One of the key complaints about iPad has been its lack of multitasking. With it you can only run one application at a time, though music for example will still continue to play while you work. This is not how computers have traditionally worked, but it may not only be a bad thing. Om Malik notes:

In many ways, the iPad’s lack of multitasking ability makes it worthy of focusing on just the task at hand. In my brief usage of the device at the time of its unveiling, I felt a near-complete interaction with an email or a document or a web page. That was near nirvana when it came to consumption of content.

This is close to the way I work on my Ubuntu Netbook. When I use an application - be it a web browser or a code editor - I run it maximized, trying to rid my screen of unnecessary distractions. This is what makes the netbook my work machine.

My work machine is not a communications tool. For that I have my N900 universal communicator, a second screen with beautiful multitasking capabilities. The N900 is the hub of all the potential distractions - whether you call me, IM me, or ping me on IRC, the little notification led will start to blink. If I don't want to be distracted I simply leave the communicator in my bag.

So yes, in an increasingly distracting world, single-tasking may have a new purpose.

The past two weeks have been pretty hectic for me - Midgard Gathering in Poland, some meetings in Berlin, and the Linux Collaboration Summit in San Francisco. And then, thanks to the Eyjafjallajökull eruption in Iceland and the resulting flight cancellations, the trip back became a little bit more complicated.

My original KLM flight on April 17th was cancelled, and as the best offer from the airline was to get me home on 27th I made some quick decisions while still on the San Francisco airport. As it was certain that there would be some days of delay, New York felt like the best place to wait for the dust to settle.

After a failed attempt to get across the Atlantic on an Indian airline, my current plan is to fly tonight to Moscow with Aeroflot, and then hopefully to continue to Helsinki from there, either by plane or train.

In the meanwhile, thanks to Gregor and Google for graciously providing me with office space while I'm stuck here!

As an afterthought: if such disruptions in flying would continue, that would be a huge boost for high-speed rail, fast ocean liners and telepresence. And that might not be such a bad thing for the future of mankind.

Two weeks ago we had the Midgard Gathering in Poland, and some big decisions were made there. I've been meaning to blog about them, but the volcano eruption in Iceland kept me busy by providing an interesting trip through New York and Moscow.

Midgard2

The next Midgard2 release, 10.05 "Ratatoskr" will be a long-term support release, intended to provide a reliable base for building web and mobile applications utilizing the content repository. It will consist of:

Midgard Core, the actual content repository library that abstracts database connections, provides object-oriented storage and retrieval interfaces and handles things like D-Bus notifications of content changed by other applications.

Midgard PHP and Midgard Python, language bindings providing the Midgard content repository services to these popular scripting languages. This means the Midgard content repository can easily be used within any PHP web application, Python maemo application or with the Pylons MVC framework.

Midgard Mono, C# bindings to the Midgard content repository allowing better interfacing with Microsoft technologies.

GObject Introspection allowing us to provide other language bindings including Vala and Javascript.

Midgard MVC, an elegant framework for PHP web applications. Midgard MVC includes interfaces for loadable components, hierarchical sub-requests, a forms system and much more. You can see it in action for example on Qaiku.com

Midgard Runtime that combines the Midgard MVC, a PHP application server and a WebKit UI to provide a full Midgard web development environment on the desktop.

Once the release is in shape a major focus will be put in ease of installation and documentation. We already have Midgard2 running on Windows in addition to Linux and Mac, but it will remain to be seen if the port makes it in time for release.

Midgard3

After having a stable LTS release of Midgard2 out there the community will start working on Midgard3, which takes the concepts from Midgard2 even further with several important additions:

Workspaces, kind of "layered virtual databases" inside one content repository. These can be used on the CMS level of Midgard a bit like git branches are used.

Binary GUIDs for more efficient storage of the unique object identifiers in Midgard.

MgdSchemas stored in the database instead of XML files. This will make schema editing, sandboxing and replication between installations a lot easier.

MidgardQuerySelect, the new better database select interface to replace Midgard Query Builder.

Midgard CMS, the content management user interface built on top of Midgard3 and the Midgard MVC. We will provide interesting new concepts like UI constructed fully based on introspecting the CMS-generated pages and a git-like model where anybody can edit but pushing to production requires additional privileges.

Most applications will need to be adapted to work on Midgard3, which is why the LTS release will be there to ease the way, just like we did with Ragnaroek on the Midgard1 series.

The estimated first release of Midgard3 will be in December 2010.

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" was released yesterday. Among other new features it includes the Me Menu, bringing your social networks right into the desktop. Qaiku, the Finnish conversational microblogging service is included:

All in all, Lucid seems like a very smooth Linux desktop experience. I'm also happy other changes we've pushed for like PHP 5.3 are included. Maybe in the next release cycle we can start thinking of bringing geolocation to the desktop...