blog.mozbox.org - shared

[hackability] 10 random things I can do with my n900

Paul Rouget — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 15:48:00 +0100

If a program has not been ported, I can build it myself
I can use the command line, be root and connect to the device through ssh
I can run Firefox, browse the tabs currently opened in my Firefox Desktop (Weave FTW) and install extensions
I can create my own XulRunner application
I can plug the n900 to a TV or a video projector and use Fennec on a huge screen (You can't image how awesome it is)
You can call me through SIP, Skype or GSM, I won't see the difference (Chris dialed my official Mozilla number (SIP) yesterday, I received it on my n900, like a normal GSM call)
I can have several browsers (Webkit: Midori, Tear; Gecko: MicroB, Firefox; Text: Lynx ⇐ vital)
I can use Vim \o/
I can export my Display through X11 (DISPLAY=desktop:2) or through VNC
I can fix a bug and read the source code (I can hack my phone like I do with my Desktop Linux)

For example, I've build an ARM version of oggfwd and then i'm able to stream the n900 camera to an icecast server.

And you know what? It's legal! /me is looking at you, iPhone users :)

Firefox & XMPP

Paul Rouget — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 15:34:00 +0100

XMPP (aka Jabber) is a super extensible messaging protocol, supporting Push.

Mickaël Rémond (XMPP hacker, developer of eJabberd) wrote with his team a Firefox extension bringing XMPP to Firefox.

What does it mean?

you can talk to your Firefox through your IM client (remotely),
two Firefox can talk (synchronize tabs for example) in real-time :)

Enjoy: OneWeb demonstrates the power of XMPP inside the browser.

It's a proof of concept, imagine how far you can go :)

Feel free to grab the code, it's free!

Dev web, addons dévelopeurs, Mozilla a besoin de votre opinion!

Paul Rouget — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:54:00 +0100

(in French, the english article is here: http://hacks.mozilla.org/2009/10/mo...)

Mop mop,

Nous aurions besoin d'un coup de main. Deux à vrai dire. On essaye de faire en sorte que FIrefox déboite, qu'on ait un super moteur de rendu pour le web. On communique donc un maximum avec les développeurs web et d'extensions. On aimerait en savoir plus sur vous. Et c'est là que vous pouvez nous aider:

en remplissant ce sondage
... et en faisant du bruit autour de ce sondage :)

Mon boss, Chris Blizzard, aimerait avoir 5.000 réponses. Si on a 5.000 réponses, mon boss est content. Si mon boss est content, je suis content :)

Bref, je compte sur vous pour faire du bruit (twitter, identica, news par ci, news par là, blog post, ...).

Le lien tout beau tout verbeux et tout sérieux à propos du sondage, ça se passe ici: http://hacks.mozilla.org/2009/10/mo..., et y'a même le contact twitter: @mozhacks.

Faites péter les compteurs ;)

Merci les filles

Vivien Nicolas, super intern

Paul Rouget — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:32:00 +0200

Vivien, my intern, is awesome.

Today, his 100th patch has been commited \o/

Vivien is working on the front-end of Fennec.

Join me to congratulate him for his fantastic work.

Thanks Vivien ;)

See his bugs here.

Some new demos

Paul Rouget — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 19:08:00 +0200

I would like to show you 3 new features we have today in Firefox (trunk).

To try this demos, please use a nightly build: http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.....

If you don't, you should follow hacks.mozilla.org. More details are coming. We are also on Twitter: @mozhacks @paulrouget.

Orientation

If your computer has accelerometers, Firefox fires "Orientation" events in the Web content:

                window.addEventListener("MozOrientation", function(e) {
                   /* 3 values: e.x, e.y, e.y */
                }, true)

For more details, see Doug's blog post. Here are the demos:

Firefox Web page moving
Firefox logo moving
a Web page following the computer orientation
Daniel Glazman wrote some demos too. See here.

Orientation works with the latest trunk of Firefox. It works on MacBooks, on Windows on Thinkpad and Linux on Thinkpad (don't forget to modprobe tp_smapi && /etc/init.d/hdapsd start).

On the last MacBook Pro (5.1), the orientation is not computed the right way. We are working on it (but the demos still work, just the computed orientation is the opposite of the real one).

And here is a screencast of Orientation in action (flash version)

WebGL

We talked about WebGL: http://hacks.mozilla.org/category/w....

Here is a demo showing WebGL + CSS3 + SVG: http://people.mozilla.com/~prouget/....

CSS Transition

We now support CSS Transition. Here is a demo including CSS Transition + the video tag: http://people.mozilla.com/~prouget/....

Follow us!

If you want to know more about these demos, please follow hacks.mozilla.org, more details are coming :)

[Mozilla Camp Europe] The Developer Track & Web-Platform Round-Table

Paul Rouget — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:00:00 +0200

Brian King and I are in charge of setting up the Developer Track for the Mozilla Camp Europe (see here for more details about the event).

I'm proud to announce that we have at least 14 sessions planned.

Another good news: a Web-platform round-table will take place on Sunday morning.

Here is the current schedule.

Dev Track

Firefox.Next, the future of Firefox
Firefox in Europe
Firebug, web development evolved
Thunderbird 3.0 and beyond
JetPack
Fennec Addons
How to Update Extensions for Thunderbird 3
SeaMonkey 2 - A show-off
KompoZer: enhancing Mozilla Composer
Mozilla Weave - integrating services with the browser
Fennec
Stratified JavaScript - High-level concurrency abstractions for JavaScript
Prism, what it means for Mozilla
Songbird
HTML 5

You can look at the list of sessions (with details and speakers) here.

Web-Platform Round-Table

We want to bring together Web developers (the panel) and Mozilla developers. Vladimir Vukicevic (Firefox developer) is going to lead the discussions. The panel consists of 8 Open Web Gurus, experts in different areas (offline, canvas, geolocation, video, accessibility, ...). And, of course, the audience is welcome to take part in the discussion.

Share with us your real-world uses and success stories of modern web technologies.

What we are looking for (quote from Vladimir):

• We are interested to hear what you think we could be doing better at, in terms of support for current or emerging web standards. Are there existing features in other browsers that you want to take advantage of that we don't support? What about those features is compelling?

• What's missing from the web platform? Where do you want to see us take it? If you could pick one capability to add to the web, what would have the biggest impact on your web app development?

• Of the currently supported standards, what's painful? What would you like to see us focus on improving, whether through enhancement or through change?

If you are looking for more details about the round-table, see here.

Thanks, geonames.org, for opening your web services!

Paul Rouget — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 18:55:00 +0200

Today, I was playing with GeoNames webservices. But something was painful.

As you may know, if you want to do a request from your website to another domain, you have to use some ugly hacks to make your XHR working, due to security concerns.

For some services, this does not make sense, as they want to be reachable from everywhere. You can open your webservices to all or part of the web: HTTP access control.

I've sent an email to the GeoNames team. They've added a new HTTP header:

Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *

And now it works :) I can use my XHR without any ugly hacks.

(Thank you so much Marc).

Some homework for you guys today:

if you are a developer of a webservice, consider allowing Cross-XHR;
if you use a webservice, contact the author, talk to them about that they can open their webservices.

I love the web

Paul Rouget — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:34:00 +0200

... because it's open, hackable, and above everything, super exciting ;)

Do you love the web too? If so:

Download the posters at www.mozilla.org/onewebday
Put your poster up at a prominent place, then take a picture of it
Upload and tag as #owdposter (on flickr.com, twitter or identi.ca)
Enter the contest (Mozilla laptop bags to be won!)

Celebrate the awesomeness of the web

Prague DevDay 2009 - Friday, October 2nd, 2009

Paul Rouget — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 15:53:00 +0200

If you are a web enthusiast, and if you don't live too far from Prague, you have to join us at the Prague DevDay :)

We are going to talk about Mozilla Addons, the OpenWeb, Firefox, Fennec (Firefox for mobile), labs... and so many cool stuff. We are also panning to have a Mozilla Labs Hack session.

Mozilla is organizing an informal developer-oriented conference in Prague, Czech Republic on October 2nd, 2009. The Mozilla DevDay will be an opportunity for developers, open source enthusiats and web aficionados who live in and around Prague, to meet Mozilla staff and learn about the Mozilla Project and its technologies

More details just right here.

The event is free and open to the general public.

See you there dear hackers ;)

Your HTML5 story

Paul Rouget — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 11:51:00 +0200

If you're from Europe and use HTML5 in your web app, please contact me. I want to hear your story. My email address is paul at mozilla com.

Save the date! Sofia (Bulgaria) DevGarage - Nov. 7-8, 2009

Paul Rouget — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 12:36:00 +0200

Sofia DevGarage is a Mozilla Add-ons Workshop organized by the community.

Sofia DevGarage will be the first development garage in Sofia. If you want to learn more about the following topics:

* What is the architecture of Mozilla Firefox and Mozilla Thunderbird;

* How and why to start writing extensions for Firefox and Thunderbird;

* and to write your first add-on during the event

More details: english, bulgarian.

Extend Firefox Contest - Hack & Be Creative

Paul Rouget — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 17:27:00 +0200

Do you know how to write addons?

Ready to make the next great web experience?

Take part in the Extend Firefox Contest!

Firefox has been developed with hackabilty in mind. It means you can add new cool features and change all the existing mechanisms. You can create your own rules, upgrade the User Experience and adapt Firefox or websites to your own needs.

Everything is possible with add-ons.

Extend Firefox 3.5 is open and runs through October 2nd, 2009.

More details:

Be creative, hack!

[Mozilla Camp Europe 2009] Developers & Advocates - We need you

Paul Rouget — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 16:23:00 +0200

In October, the Mozilla Camp Europe 2009 will take place in Prague (see William post for details). The MozCamp is a meeting where people from the community and the Mozilla staff can meet and share ideas... and have fun.

A MozCamp means talks, talks mean speakers. It's where we need help.

Dev Track

I'm personally working on the Development track with Gandalf and Brian King. We are looking for speakers. Let me know if you're interested in leading a session. You can reach me at <paul at mozilla dot com> or on Mozilla IRC #addons.

Advocacy Track

Patrick Finch is in charge of the Advocacy Track. He's calling for speakers too:

Calling all evangelists, marketeers, advocates, community organisers, bloggers, activists…

Details here: http://patrickfinch.net/2009/07/24/...

We look forward to hearing from you!

Madrid Mozilla Technologies Course - on-site courses done

Paul Rouget — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 23:14:00 +0200

The Madrid Mozilla Technologies Course is a three-months course on Mozilla technologies, organized by the Mozilla Foundation, Mozilla Europe and the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos. It started July 2009 and will finish September 2009 and had an on-site part in Madrid last week.

The course is divided in two parts:

on-site courses: overview of the Mozilla project (13th to 18th July)
team projects (end of September)

If everything goes well, the students will receive a Diploma at the end.

On-site

28 students from Europe (60% from Spain) joined us at the University for 5 intense working days about Mozilla technologies.

The teachers were:

Pascal Chevrel - Mozilla Employee: Web localization, community building
Paul Rouget - Mozilla Employee: Technology Evangelist
Gregorio Robles - OpenSource teacher at the Juan Carlos University
Vivien Nicolas - Mozilla Europe intern: Fennec developer

The program

The main topics were:

How do the Mozilla project and the Mozilla community work
extensions & XulRunner
How to write code for Mozilla (Bugzilla, code workflow)
Layout engine (HTML5)
Fennec

Details:

Monday:
- Welcome: "How the course is organized"
- Introduction about the Mozilla project: "What is Mozilla"
Tuesday
- community, overview of the project organization: "How we work together"
- bugzilla: "How to write code for Mozilla"
- HTML5: "What is HTML5"
- Chrome: "Gecko renders web pages, but the Firefox UI, too"
- XUL & extension template: "Playing with code"
Wednesday
- extension: "How to write an extension from scratch"
- XUL & JS & CSS: "The Mozilla languages"
Thursday
- Fennec: "What is Fennec, how is it different from Firefox"
- Gecko: "How does the layout engine work"
- XulRunner: "How to write a XulRunner application"
Friday
- XPCom: "How to use XPCom"
- XBL: "What is XBL"

The on-site part was an introduction on Mozilla technologies. We taught them all the things they need in order to be able to work on a Mozilla project.

That means:

overview of the technologies
how to contribute
how to work with the Mozilla community
where to find documentation
where to find help

Now, they have everything to start a project.

The projects

All the students have to work on a Mozilla-related project. Pascal, Vivien and I will be responsible for different students. Here is a short and unsorted list of some projects students want to work on:

Fennec UX
Fixing Fennec bugs
Contributing to Ubiquity
Geolocation-related extensions
Firefox l10n for es_BO
Implementation of HTML5 elements
MDC Documentation
BugTrack extension (Bugzilla & Trac)
Improving the password manager
Todo List manager for Fennec & Firefox through Weave
... and more.

Conclusion of this week

Gregorio was in charge of the organization of the week. He did such a great job. 5 days of courses are exhausting, for both students and teachers. On Wednesday, we took the afternoon off visiting Madrid, playing games and continuing the fun until late at night. A very useful break.

The audience was heterogeneous: some students with very advanced technical skills, some with design skills, ... In order to engage everybody, it was important to:

have different topics, some very technical (like the layout engine), some less technical (like the Fennec User Experience, documentation or l10n)
give courses to the entire audience, but be available for small groups (thank you so much Vivien for this)

Courses can be boring. Especially long talks (7 hours of courses for a full day). So making students active is important. Let them write code. Mix workshops and courses.

We couldn't know what would the learning rhythm be. During the preparation, don't be too exhaustive. As days went by, we understood who the students are, what they can do and how to work with them. The planned schedule was really different from the actual one.

The students were really excited about Mozilla. They were interactive and receptive. They have so many great ideas about what we can do with Firefox and the Mozilla platform. We've learned a lot from them.

For short: it was efficient and fun.

This is just the beginning: Pascal Vivien and I will be working for the next 2 months with the students, and, hopefully, some awesome projects will emerge.

libre.fm and the

Paul Rouget — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:46:00 +0200

Libre.fm is a free music streaming service.

It's based on the <audio/> tag, OGG/Vorbis, and the code is under the GNU AGPL.

Matt Lee wrote:

Jamendo, one of the leading sources of free as in freedom music (see freedomdefined.org) makes a database dump available, we parse that dump, extract music under the licenses we want and import the stream URLs into our database. We also have music from other sources, such as the artists sites, Internet Archive, etc.

We have our own player, written in JavaScript around the audio tag in HTML 5. Anyone is free to use it on their own site, and we'll soon be making it really easy for people and bands to do this.

The music is streamed, in Ogg Vorbis, to the client. For us, Ogg Vorbis support in the browsers is key -- we're never going to stream in MP3 or H.264, because like Libre.fm, Ogg Vorbis is about freedom

ThePirateBay + HTML5 video tag = thevideobay.org

Paul Rouget — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 10:19:00 +0200

Awesome!

http://thevideobay.org
some details: http://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-...

MAOW Florence, let's start!

Paul Rouget — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 15:14:00 +0200

\o/

Video _face_ tracker

Paul Rouget — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 05:15:00 +0200

Hey, have you seen my last demo ?

See the Chris' screencast here.

Live demo + source code + explanation next week (If I have time).

Enjoy :)

Madrid Mozilla Technologies Course: Hack and learn

Paul Rouget — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 21:02:00 +0200

Hey European guys!

You want to learn more about Mozilla and the Open-Source ?

During July, in Madrid, the Mozilla community will give some Mozilla and Open-Source related courses. I will personally give some more or less technical lessons about Mozilla and OpenWeb technologies.

Join us! If you're not from Spain, no problem! Feel free to apply :)

If you're interested, here are the details: http://mozilla.libresoft.es/.

Mozilla Add-Ons Workshop, in Florence (Italy), time to register

Paul Rouget — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:26:00 +0200

What : Mozilla Add-Ons Workshop
Where : Florence, Italy
When : Saturday 27 June
Who : You !

Join us now : online registration.

More information : see the Mozilla wiki and the William's blog post.

blog.mozbox.org - shared

[hackability] 10 random things I can do with my n900

Firefox & XMPP

Dev web, addons dévelopeurs, Mozilla a besoin de votre opinion!

Vivien Nicolas, super intern

Some new demos

Orientation

WebGL

CSS Transition

Follow us!

[Mozilla Camp Europe] The Developer Track & Web-Platform Round-Table

Dev Track

Web-Platform Round-Table

Thanks, geonames.org, for opening your web services!

I love the web

Prague DevDay 2009 - Friday, October 2nd, 2009

Your HTML5 story

Save the date! Sofia (Bulgaria) DevGarage - Nov. 7-8, 2009

Extend Firefox Contest - Hack & Be Creative

[Mozilla Camp Europe 2009] Developers & Advocates - We need you

Dev Track

Advocacy Track

Madrid Mozilla Technologies Course - on-site courses done

On-site

The program

The projects

Conclusion of this week

libre.fm and the tag

ThePirateBay + HTML5 video tag = thevideobay.org

MAOW Florence, let's start!

Video _face_ tracker

Madrid Mozilla Technologies Course: Hack and learn

Mozilla Add-Ons Workshop, in Florence (Italy), time to register

libre.fm and the