tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57972122024-03-28T09:20:12.269+02:00nicu's FOSS'n'stuffa bit about Free software, a bit about graphics, a bit about design, a bit about photography, a bit about gadgets, a bit about life and many morenicuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11787116898361050437noreply@blogger.comBlogger31125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5797212.post-41804247646748831802013-04-10T16:58:00.000+03:002013-04-10T16:58:32.079+03:00LGM<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://libregraphicsmeeting.org/2013/" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://libregraphicsmeeting.org/2013/wp/wp-content/themes/lgm/img/LGM.png" /></a><br />
10-14 April, meaning right now, in Madrid is taking place the <a href="http://libregraphicsmeeting.org/2013/">Libre Graphics Meeting</a> conference, is the biggest event getting together developers working on and designers using Free and Open Source graphic tools. Is a very good conference with <a href="http://libregraphicsmeeting.org/2013/program/">program</a> packed with presentations, workshops and various meetings, making this community feel like a big family.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately this year a conjuncture of various live evens keeps me away from the conference and friends there, but I hope to meet them again at the next edition taking place in Europe (it will be a while until then). Have the best of fun and some fruitful time!</div>
nicuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11787116898361050437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5797212.post-76999990916172815092012-07-13T09:04:00.000+03:002012-07-13T09:04:21.635+03:00#FREEBASSEL<p>Have you ever used the <a href="http://openclipart.org/">Open Clip Art Library</a> or the <a href="http://openfontlibrary.org/">Open Font Library</a>? Both of those sites are powered by the <a href="http://aikiframework.org/">Aiki framework</a>, which was used with <b>openclipart.org</b> as its primary target. The main developer behind Aiki is <b>Bassel Khartabil</b> and he is in need of our help, being detained in Syria.</p>
<center><a href="http://freebassel.org/"><img width="640" height="426" src="http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4018/4670781482_d072301ef0_b_d.jpg" alt="freebassel"></a><br><small><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joi/4670781482/">Bassel</a> by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joi/">Joi Ito</a>, on Flickr
</small></center>
<p>His friends launched <a href="http://freebassel.org/">#FREEBASSEL</a>, a global effort to gather information and leverage that will help lead to his release, here's a quote from the campaign website:</p>
<blockquote><b>On March 15, 2012, Bassel Khartabil was detained in a wave of arrests in the Mazzeh district of Damascus. Since then, his family has received no official explanation for his detention or information regarding his whereabouts. However, his family has recently learned from previous detainees at the security branch of Kafer Sousa, Damascus, that Bassel is being held at this location.</b></blockquote>
<p>Myself, I have little faith (none at all in fact) in dictatorships like the Syrian one but I signed the <a href="http://freebassel.org/">petition</a>, think is a worthy cause and invite you to join. Solidarity is the best thing we can have in such situations.</p>
<p>I didn't knew Bassel directly, we exchanged mails on the OCAL mailing list, but I used his work, both as an contributor and used of both OCAL and OFL. But even if I didn't knew him, for crying out loud, he was detained 4 months ago and nobody, not even his family, have any info. That's not acceptable.</p>nicuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11787116898361050437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5797212.post-66664793681680231262011-10-25T18:14:00.000+03:002012-01-17T14:27:19.715+02:00The dice, the manga and the anime<p>I am not sure: the world is small after all or the little things we do really change it, even if a tiny bit. Either of those should be true.</p>
<p>Last week-end I was (with my camera, of course) at <A href="http://photoblog.nicubunu.ro/2011/10/nijikon-2011.html">Nijikon</a>, the anime convention taking place every October in Bucharest: there was cosplay, manga, anime, plush toys, really many things. And while wandering around searching for some photographer's prey, I noticed a wheel of fortune improvised at a manga booth:
<center><img src="http://nicubunu.ro/pictures/manga-dice.jpg" alt="mangashot" border="0"></center></p>
<p>Something there looked familiar, but I wasn't sure about it and had no way to verify it on the spot. In the evening, I was really tired arriving home, and forgot to check, so the next day couldn't ask the guys about it the second day, I checked only after the event ended:
<center><img src="http://clipart.nicubunu.ro/png/toys/dice.svg.png" alt="dice" border="0"></center></p>
<p>Yup, the dice image is part of my <a href="http://clipart.nicubunu.ro/">Free clipart collection</a> - one of my first drawings with Inkscape, made many years ago, so it looks quite weak, but still they found it useful.</p>
<p>Thise clipart images somehow managed to leave home, make a trip to <a href="http://nicubunu.blogspot.com/2010/12/clipart-spotting-hotforwords.html">California</a> and return home by the way of the manga. Yes, the world <b>is</b> small.</p>
<p><small>For cosplay pics, I am sure my readers know where to look :p</small></p>nicuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11787116898361050437noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5797212.post-19126673680512161962011-07-18T15:15:00.000+03:002011-07-18T15:15:35.828+03:00Clipart spotting: 2D PhotographyNot sure how many of my readers remember how excited I was half a year ago when I spotted on YoutTube one of my <a href="http://nicubunu.blogspot.com/2010/12/clipart-spotting-hotforwords.html">clipart images being used by <b>the</b> Marina</a> (very few probably know she did it <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hclLV7J6M80">again</a> and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tv2MQwSOp68">again</a> and she even <A href="http://www.hotforwords.com/2010/12/02/i-used-this-guys-clipart-pencil-in-my-video/">blogged</a> about it - awesome!). Today is one of those days again: a friend of mine wanted to make my day brighter by showing a funny <A href="http://2dphotography.ca/blog/2011/07/rube-goldberg/">photography-related Rube Goldberg machine</a> and watching it I spotted something familiar: go to the 3:21 minute and notice a little cardboard rocket moving... it is <a href="http://clipart.nicubunu.ro/svg/toys/rocket.svg">my Public Domain rocket clipart</a>, part of my <a href="http://clipart.nicubunu.ro/svg/">free clipart collection</a>, an image for which I even wrote an <A href="http://howto.nicubunu.ro/rocket-inkscape/">Inkscape tutorial</a>.<br />
<center><img src="http://nicubunu.ro/pictures/rube-rocket-clipart.png" alt="clipart spotting" border="0"></center><br />
Not sure about the total number of views, but only on <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKpxd8hzOcQ">YouTube</a> the video has over 430.000 views so far, so I guess I made the world a tiny bit better. Then why do I feel so crappy?nicuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11787116898361050437noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5797212.post-20541441120843146552011-01-25T20:08:00.000+02:002011-01-25T20:08:37.720+02:00The Moods Project<a href="http://nicubunu.ro/moods/">Moods</a> is my latest free graphic project and in a long while the first not linked to openclipart.or of Fedora Design (from the first i am on <a href="http://nicubunu.blogspot.com/2010/11/creative-commons-retiring-public-domain.html">extended leave</a> and from the second on temporary <a href="http://nicubunu.blogspot.com/2011/01/on-strike.html">strike</a>). What is this project? Is best described with a quote from its own page:<br />
<blockquote><i>This project started after I noticed myself saying a lot <i>"pics or it didn't happen"</i> so the idea was obvious: make a drawing, based on my <a href="http://clipart.nicubunu.ro/">free clipart images</a>, to illustrate this classic line and then just pass a link to it. Obviously, as everything I do, it had to be Free and shared with the world. The next logical step was to develop it by adding additional mood images, which is a never-ending work, fuelled by own mood but also by the feedback received and the usage level, so use the images and it will be an incentive for me to add more.</i></blockquote><center><a href="http://nicubunu.ro/moods/"><img src="http://nicubunu.ro/pictures/moods-project.jpg" alt="moods" border="0"></a></center><br />
Of course, it is made with Inkscape and SVG sources are really easy to get hold of if you know where to look (or know my working style). And sorry, but CreativeCommons made me reinvent the wheel with the license.nicuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11787116898361050437noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5797212.post-86888877369961891972010-12-03T09:14:00.002+02:002010-12-03T10:02:34.552+02:00Clipart spotting: HotForWordsI do watch constantly a single one YouTube channel, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/hotforwords">HotForWords</a> where the "teacher" <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marina_Orlova" rel="nofollow">Marina Orlova</a> has weekly lessons about the origins and meanings of various English words, made in a funny style, with a very cute Russian accent and sometime with a sexy blond wig. The show has millions of viewers, is really popular.<br />
<br />
Today I was effectively floored seeing in the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ahWQoz-o3M">latest video</a> one of <b>my clipart images</b>, a pencil (used there to illustrate the term "-graphy", "write") appearing suddenly on the screen (around minute 1:19). I have no idea it was taken directly from my <a href="http://clipart.nicubunu.ro/">clipart collection</a> or from <a href="http://openclipart.org/" rel="nofollow">OCAL</a>, but this does not matter, my day is already <b>a lot better</b> see how my Inkscape made, Public Domain released, clipart is used in my favorite show and going to be seen by millions. In an episode about the origins of the word "porn", no less. I feel like I made a difference.<br />
<center><img src="http://nicubunu.ro/pictures/hotforwords.jpg" alt="hotforwords" border="0"></center><br />
<br />
<b>Update:</b> minutes after I published this, here is a <a href="http://www.hotforwords.com/2010/12/02/i-used-this-guys-clipart-pencil-in-my-video/">folow-up</a> on <A href="http://www.hotforwords.com/2010/12/02/i-used-this-guys-clipart-pencil-in-my-video/">Marina'a blog</a>. Thanks a lot.nicuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11787116898361050437noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5797212.post-21436168342119760112010-11-19T10:01:00.001+02:002010-11-19T10:02:20.311+02:00Creative Commons retiring the Public Domain dedication<center><img src="http://nicubunu.ro/pictures/bye-bye-pd.png" alt="bye bye PD" border="0"></center><br />
I strongly believe in <b>not</b> re-inventing the wheel, not only in the technical parts but also in licensing, this is why I <b>use</b> and <b>promote</b> Creative Commons licenses (despite their flaws) and this is why I supported using the Creative Commons definition of Public Domain for projects like the <a href="http://openclipart.org/">Open Clip Art Library</a>. And it worked well for a while.Until Creative Commons was unhappy with the Public Domain dedication, probably not branded enough for their taste and for their need for attention, and "invented" a replacement, <a href="http://nicubunu.blogspot.com/2009/03/i-dont-like-cc0-and-i-dont-want-it-used.html">CC0</a>, which was received not as warmly as they hoped. <br />
<br />
Now we are at a new milestone: <a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/" rel="nofollow">Creative Commons is retiring their Public Domain definition</a>, they leave many of us, users of their licenses, in the dust, with only two options: embrace their new CC0 license or use a scary <a href="http://creativecommons.org/choose/mark/" rel="nofollow">Public Domain Mark</a>, plastered with "not recommended" disclaimers. Take the poison of your choice! That much for trust and continued services... I had better expectation from a community project.<br />
<br />
Now projects like OCAL are at a crossroad, having to decide a way forward. People like me are also in trouble: I used the PD dedication quite a lot to share many resources, now I have to update some of my websites and not sure how... I can see two ways:<ul><li>write my own dedication, as much as I hate re-inventing the wheel and writing one</li>
<li>use a more restrictive license, that will harm my users and the usefulness of the shared items</li></ul>. There is one thing that is guaranteed I won't do: migrate to CC0... on top of the objections I had before, now I feel Creative Commons betrayed me. And for betrayal, there is no forgiveness.nicuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11787116898361050437noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5797212.post-49429471171108867102010-11-05T14:25:00.002+02:002010-11-05T14:56:51.534+02:00Icons uploadedAfter a well deserved delay, I uploaded, complete with SVG sources, the <b>Public Domain</b> <a href="http://nicubunu.blogspot.com/2010/10/events-icon-set-released.html">Event icon set</a> made for <a href="http://www.worldlabel.com/">WorldLabel.com</a> to the <a href="http://www.openclipart.org/user-detail/nicubunu">Open Clip Art Library</a> and also to my own <a href="http://clipart.nicubunu.ro/?gallery=events">clipart collection</a>, download them from any of those sources, they are equally Free.<br />
<center><a href="http://www.openclipart.org/user-detail/nicubunu"><img src="http://nicubunu.ro/pictures/events-at-ocal.png" alt="event icons clipart @ OCAL" border="0"></a> <a href="http://clipart.nicubunu.ro/?gallery=events"><img src="http://nicubunu.ro/pictures/events-at-nbro.png" alt="event icons clipart @ nicubunu.roL" border="0"></a></center><br />
At least <b>this</b> circle is closed.nicuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11787116898361050437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5797212.post-75443599849171760822010-10-15T09:16:00.003+03:002010-10-15T13:59:04.089+03:00Events icon set releasedThe icon set for events, holidays and occasions is <a href="http://blog.worldlabel.com/2010/free-web-icons-for-events-holidays-occasions.html">available for free download</a>.<br />
<br />
Creating icons is not my primary field of expertise, I know about it enough to understand how hard it is, so I am contributing only a tiny bit to <b>desktop</b> icons, but when <a href="http://www.worldlabel.com/">WorldLabel.com</a> asked for this set targeted at <b>web</b> use I happily accepted, knowing I won't have to struggle with pixel optimization as such awful sizes as 16x16 and 24x24, but I can focus on the thinks I like: metaphors and shapes. Added bonus was the freedom: the set is truly free, released under the Public Domain (this is an experience we learned from the Open Clip Art Library), so people can use them absolutely as they like. In a couple of weeks the images will also hit the <a href="http://openclipart.org/">library</a> as well as my own <a href="http://clipart.nicubunu.ro/">clipart collection</a>.<br />
<br />
The icons were created with Inkscape 0.47, assembled into collages with GIMP 2.7.1 (beta), all under Fedora 13. They will be available as PNGs rendered at various resolutions as well as sources in SVG.<br />
<center><a href="http://blog.worldlabel.com/2010/free-web-icons-for-events-holidays-occasions.html"><img src="http://nicubunu.ro/pictures/event-icons_collage-96.png" alt="event icons" border="0"></a></center><br />
I propose two games, please participate to them in the comments below:<br />
<ul><li>look at the images, understand the metaphor and guess the event/holiday/occasion they are intended for</li>
<li>name your favorite - bet you like some more than the others, I saw very divergent opinions, let's make a top!</li>
</ul><br />
And, of course, do not forget to go to <a href="http://www.worldlabel.com/">WorldLabel.com</a> and <a href="http://blog.worldlabel.com/2010/free-web-icons-for-events-holidays-occasions.html">download</a> the good stuff.nicuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11787116898361050437noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5797212.post-31153698787239426132010-05-31T02:08:00.000+03:002010-05-31T02:08:23.579+03:00LGM 2010, Last DayThe last day of any conference is lighter on content, so that was also the case with <a href="http://www.libregraphicsmeeting.org/2010/">Libre Graphics Meeting</a>, but it still had a couple of presentations (albeit, they were not very technical):<br />
<center><img src="http://nicubunu.ro/pictures/IMG_4941.JPG" alt="lgm" border="0"></center><br />
And a panel discussion:<br />
<center><img src="http://nicubunu.ro/pictures/IMG_4943.JPG" alt="lgm" border="0"></center><br />
And plenties of "thank you" for everybody: participants, speakers, sponsors, crew, etc. (now is my turn to say thanks to <a href="http://snelting.domainepublic.net/">Femke</a> and the rest of the team): <br />
<center><img src="http://nicubunu.ro/pictures/IMG_4949.JPG" alt="lgm" border="0"></center><br />
And we had a last lunch with the leftover from the previous days (real food, here I come!)<br />
<center><img src="http://nicubunu.ro/pictures/IMG_4952.JPG" alt="lgm" border="0"></center><br />
And the conference ended formally with a planning session for the next year:<br />
<center><img src="http://nicubunu.ro/pictures/IMG_4970.JPG" alt="lgm" border="0"></center><br />
But of course we said goodbyes, took photos, daid goodbies, shaked hands, said goodbyes, sometime hugged, said goodbyes:<br />
<center><img src="http://nicubunu.ro/pictures/IMG_4981.JPG" alt="lgm" border="0"></center><br />
and said goodbyes again for maybe the million time:<br />
<center><img src="http://nicubunu.ro/pictures/IMG_4992.JPG" alt="lgm" border="0"></center><br />
And if that was not enough, got in the city for the evening with a new round of goodbyes:<br />
<center><img src="http://nicubunu.ro/pictures/IMG_5033.JPG" alt="lgm" border="0"></center>nicuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11787116898361050437noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5797212.post-59050670474860234762010-05-30T12:27:00.000+03:002010-05-30T12:27:48.716+03:00LGM 2010, Day 3The third day of <a href="http://www.libregraphicsmeeting.org/2010/">LGM</a> was a tough one, I wasn't able to write about it at the end of the day (still, I managed well, some of us not only overslept, but AFAIK they are still sleeping now), so here I am, on the conference room, listening to <a href="http://rejon.org/">Rejon</a>' presentation and doing my blogging...<br />
<br />
The day started with quite a cultural shock for me, didn't expected to see such a bazaar on the streets of the Western Europe:<br />
<center><img src="http://nicubunu.ro/pictures/IMG_4901.JPG" alt="bazaar" border="0"></center><br />
But back at the conference... the highlight of the day for me was the opportunity to listen to presentation from I people who I respect for a long time and learned a lot from, <a href="http://jimmac.musichall.cz/">Jimmac</a> talked (unfortunately a bit too general) about creating icons with Inkscape: <br />
<center><img src="http://nicubunu.ro/pictures/IMG_4886.JPG" alt="lgm" border="0"></center><br />
<a href="http://prokoudine.info">Alexandre Prokoudine</a> presented a free solution for digital photography;<br />
<center><img src="http://nicubunu.ro/pictures/IMG_4906.JPG" alt="lgm" border="0"></center><br />
And <a href="http://andy.brisgeek.com/">AndyFitz</a> making the audience enthusiastic with his Inkscape world domination talk:<br />
<center><img src="http://nicubunu.ro/pictures/IMG_4911.JPG" alt="lgm" border="0"></center><br />
It was also the day for the traditional group photo, where everyone was invited (it was a bit rainy outside, but we didn't really care):<br />
<center><img src="http://nicubunu.ro/pictures/IMG_4914.JPG" alt="lgm" border="0"></center><br />
Late in the night we went to the movies: the Blender team gave us a preview of their upcoming animation film, <a href="http://durian.blender.org/">Sintel</a> and the audience was charmed (I will deny any rumour about someone sneaking a pocket camera, recording [pirating?] everything [while the developers looked the other way and putting their fingers in the ears to not hear anything about pirating] and planning to release it on the net)<br />
<center><img src="http://nicubunu.ro/pictures/IMG_4921.JPG" alt="lgm" border="0"></center><br />
And of course, we partied late in the night with the Blender/Project Durian people, why else would be so hammered in the morning? <br />
<center><img src="http://nicubunu.ro/pictures/IMG_4937.JPG" alt="" border="0"></center>nicuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11787116898361050437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5797212.post-74295491676822258402010-05-27T11:23:00.002+03:002010-05-27T12:15:55.305+03:00LGM, day 0.5Continuing the story from where <a href="http://nicubunu.blogspot.com/2010/05/warming-up-for-lgm-or-boys-will-ever-be.html">I left</a>, we finally meet <a href="http://pierros.papadeas.gr/">Pierros</a> and inevitably went for the <b>Delirium experience</b> where we got <a href="http://mso-chronicles.blogspot.com/">Martin</a> <b>Delirium devirginated</b>.<br />
<center><img src="http://nicubunu.ro/pictures/IMG_4660.JPG" alt="delirium" border="0"></center><br />
Then, after a night of profound sleep (not sure about the others, they choose softer beers but I gradually went from 8% to 9% anf 10.5%) we reached in the morning the <a href="http://www.libregraphicsmeeting.org/2010/">LGM</a> location, <a href="http://www.pianofabriek.be/">De Pianofabriek</a><br />
<center><img src="http://nicubunu.ro/pictures/IMG_4665.JPG" alt="lgm" border="0"></center><br />
Here Pierros got <b>almost</b> out of control with making customised buttons (more on that later, I hope):<br />
<center><img src="http://nicubunu.ro/pictures/IMG_4674.JPG" alt="delirium" border="0"></center><br />
And then the conference began:<br />
<center><img src="http://nicubunu.ro/pictures/IMG_4678.JPG" alt="delirium" border="0"></center><br />
Now I'm off to work, have to do some small tweaks to the Fedora presentation that will be delivered later today, around 17:00.nicuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11787116898361050437noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5797212.post-50611372886830587512010-03-09T09:25:00.000+02:002010-03-09T09:25:30.315+02:00OCAL 2.0: Finally, an usable Open Clip Art LibraryThis is new and awesome: the new interface for the <a href="http://openclipart.org">Open Clip Art Library</a> is at least what we waited for all those <b>6 years</b> since the project was founded. Not the images can be browsed visually (can you imagine an image gallery lacking such feature? OCAL was it...)<br />
<center><a href="http://openclipart.org"><img src="http://nicubunu.ro/pictures/ocal20.png" alt="openclipart.org" border="0"></a></center><br />
The site is powered now by <a href="http://www.aikiframework.org/">Aiki Framework</a>, a "a new and flexible PHP+MYSQL platform that allows designers and programmers to easily create and work with content management systems from the web" (quote from the <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/clipart/2010-March/010104.html">press release</a>).<br />
<br />
Actually, I think is not very accurate to call it "OCAL 2.0", I think it should more like "3.0", the 1.0 version was the mess put together by us at first that compromised freedesktop.org a few years ago (that happens if you force artist types code :D), then 2.0 was ccHost, that was not really intended for images but for music and now we have a third version which is something usable... hmmmm, I can think about a big software company in Redmond which is famous for having its products usable only starting with the third version, it <b>must</b> be just a coincidence :D<br />
<br />
Now I think I should upload some more clipart...nicuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11787116898361050437noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5797212.post-24851727921291796852010-02-22T14:18:00.001+02:002010-02-22T17:07:26.729+02:0010by10by10: Support LGM2010!<center><a style='border-style:none' href='http://pledgie.com/campaigns/8926'><img src='http://stdin.fr/lgm/pledgie/pledgie_banner.png'></a></center><br />
<br />
I am in a hurry, working on some cool (for myself!) stuff which I will probably write about in a couple of days, so I will reproduce the announcement verbatim:<br />
<br />
<blockquote><i><a href="http://www.libregraphicsmeeting.org">The Libre Graphics Meeting (LGM)</a> is the annual working conference for free software graphics application users and developers. The fifth edition takes place 27-30 May 2010 in Brussels, Belgium. Teams from GIMP, Inkscape, Blender, Krita, Scribus, Hugin, Open Font Library and many other graphics projects gather to improve their software and discuss new ideas for interoperability and shared standards.<br />
<br />
LGM2010 has launched a fundraising campaign called 10by10by10 to raise $10,000 USD from grants, $10K from corporations and $10K from the community. The funds raised from granting organizations, public, and corporate partners will allow participants who have no other means of sponsoring their travel to Brussels to attend the event.<br />
<br />
Please contribute to the community campaign at: <a href="http://pledgie.com/campaigns/8926">http://pledgie.com/campaigns/8926</a><br />
<br />
All donations are tax deductible for US taxpayers. For larger donations from corporations and individuals, you can contact us directly at lgm AT gnome DOT org</i></blockquote><br />
This year we may have a healthy <a href="http://create.freedesktop.org/wiki/Desiging_with_Free_tools_in_an_Open_Community:_experiences_from_the_Fedora_Design_Team">Fedora presence</a> at the event... I should look into details and see if I can call that a FAD.nicuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11787116898361050437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5797212.post-87314026404319283122010-02-09T16:24:00.000+02:002010-02-09T16:24:05.822+02:00Some FOSDEM 2010 photosNow that I can see beyond <a href="http://nicubunu.blogspot.com/2010/02/back-in-trenches.html">the snow</a> is time to follow the <a href="http://nicubunu.blogspot.com/2010/02/fosdem-1-fad-and-beer.html">Day -1</a> with <a href="http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/photos/fosdem2010/">more photos</a> showing what happened <b>during</b> the event.<br />
<center><a href="http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/photos/fosdem2010/"><img src="http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/photos/fosdem2010/085-img_8320.jpg.medium.jpeg" alt="fosdem 2010" border="0"></a></center><br />
Travelling with a sponsorship from Mozilla (thank you guys a lot!) and being a rabid Fedora fanboy I shared my time between the Mozilla room and the Fedora booth:<br />
<center><a href="http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/photos/fosdem2010/"><img src="http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/photos/fosdem2010/096-img_8337.jpg.medium.jpeg" alt="fosdem 2010" border="0"></a></center><br />
<center><a href="http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/photos/fosdem2010/"><img src="http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/photos/fosdem2010/017-img_8201.jpg.medium.jpeg" alt="fosdem 2010" border="0"></a></center><br />
And hanged with people from both communities:<br />
<center><a href="http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/photos/fosdem2010/"><img src="http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/photos/fosdem2010/075-img_8305.jpg.medium.jpeg" alt="fosdem 2010" border="0"></a></center><br />
<center><a href="http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/photos/fosdem2010/"><img src="http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/photos/fosdem2010/117-img_8382.jpg.medium.jpeg" alt="fosdem 2010" border="0"></a></center><br />
Also, had the opportunity to take part in a planning for the upcoming <a href="http://libregraphicsmeeting.org/2010/">Libre Graphics Meeting</a>, where it looks like the Fedora Design Team will have a good presence:<br />
<center><a href="http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/photos/fosdem2010/"><img src="http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/photos/fosdem2010/099-img_8343.jpg.medium.jpeg" alt="fosdem 2010" border="0"></a></center><br />
It was impressive how many people have attended, many presentations had the rooms jam-packed, with more people in the audience than seats available:<br />
<center><a href="http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/photos/fosdem2010/"><img src="http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/photos/fosdem2010/013-img_8197.jpg.medium.jpeg" alt="fosdem 2010" border="0"></a></center><br />
Being there with two groups, one night I partied with the Mozilla people (food, drinks, bowling and laser tag):<br />
<center><a href="http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/photos/fosdem2010/"><img src="http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/photos/fosdem2010/043-img_8243.jpg.medium.jpeg" alt="fosdem 2010" border="0"></a></center><br />
<center><a href="http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/photos/fosdem2010/"><img src="http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/photos/fosdem2010/053-img_8267.jpg.medium.jpeg" alt="fosdem 2010" border="0"></a></center><br />
And the other with my Fedora friends (food, drinks, jokes, photography)<br />
<center><a href="http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/photos/fosdem2010/"><img src="http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/photos/fosdem2010/132-img_8427.jpg.medium.jpeg" alt="fosdem 2010" border="0"></a></center><br />
<center><a href="http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/photos/fosdem2010/"><img src="http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/photos/fosdem2010/129-img_8419.jpg.medium.jpeg" alt="fosdem 2010" border="0"></a></center><br />
I don't know from which project they were, but some people seems they had partier even harder than us:<br />
<center><a href="http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/photos/fosdem2010/"><img src="http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/photos/fosdem2010/038-img_8229.jpg.medium.jpeg" alt="fosdem 2010" border="0"></a></center><br />
It was <b>not</b> all fun, jokes and trying to impress girls:<br />
<center><a href="http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/photos/fosdem2010/"><img src="http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/photos/fosdem2010/110-img_8360.jpg.medium.jpeg" alt="fosdem 2010" border="0"></a> <a href="http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/photos/fosdem2010/"><img src="http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/photos/fosdem2010/112-img_8366.jpg.medium.jpeg" alt="fosdem 2010" border="0"></a></center><br />
I even managed to get some <a href="http://nicubunu.blogspot.com/2010/02/fedora-webcomic-fosdem-special-lame.html">work done</a> (if you can call that work):<br />
<center><a href="http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/photos/fosdem2010/"><img src="http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/photos/fosdem2010/025-img_8212.jpg.medium.jpeg" alt="fosdem 2010" border="0"></a></center>nicuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11787116898361050437noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5797212.post-65325194611605742942009-12-22T10:05:00.004+02:002009-12-22T10:07:26.624+02:00Oh, the irony! Take better care of your avatar...I had the laugh of the day (of the week?) when <b>bmbogdan</b> showed me this:<br />
<center><img src="http://nicubunu.ro/pictures/photo-managers-lucid.png" alt="photo managers lucid" border="0"></center><br />
I found it very funny and ironic when you take your current avatar/hackergotchi, delete the <a href="http://fedoraproject.org/">Fedora</a> logo from his T-shirt, submit the SVG as Public Domain to the <a href="http://openclipart.org/">Open Clip Art Library</a> for everyone to use it freely and it ends as an illustration to an <a href="http://linuxers.org/article/proposed-photo-managers-ubuntu-1004-lucid-lynx" rel="nofollow">article</a> about photo managers in Ubuntu. That's sharing! Lets all hold hands and sing "Kumbaya".<br />
<br />
Note: the guy has <b>NOT</b> a happy face, maybe because of the <a href="http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2009/11/gimp-to-be-removed-lucid.html" rel="nofollow">GIMP removal</a>? (he definitely looks like a pro)nicuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11787116898361050437noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5797212.post-36191806948378164322009-11-25T09:10:00.000+02:002009-11-25T09:10:22.300+02:00Inkscape 0.47Even if this is pretty much a non-event for us, Fedora users who can make use of the development builds since before F11 (half a year ago), it is still a milestone and the <a href="http://inkscape.org/">developers</a> deserve congratulation for releasing at last the new and feature packed <a href="http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/ReleaseNotes047">Inkscape 0.47</a> (could you endure the wait?).<br />
<center><img src="http://nicubunu.ro/pictures/inkscape047-released.png" alt="[inkscape]" border="0"></center><br />
I for one can't endure such waiting, so I am glad I use Fedora and be on the bleeding edge.nicuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11787116898361050437noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5797212.post-65759886197473350392009-11-03T12:28:00.000+02:002009-11-03T12:28:37.325+02:00This is a small worldThis morning when going to work I somehow noticed (I usually don't look for such things) this small poster glued on the wall of a building close to my office (less than 50 meters away):<br />
<center><img src="http://nicubunu.ro/pictures/img_1615.jpg" alt="poster" border="0"></center><br />
Noting out of the extraordinary, some small firm advertising for pet services, but what drew my attention was the drawing in the top-right corner with a dog head. It was looking familiar, as it is one of my drawings published at the <a href="http://openclipart.org/media/files/nicubunu/7599">Open Clip Art Library</a> and it made my day!<br />
<br />
I made it years ago, exercising original drawing made with the mouse, so the result is not great, but I submitted it to <a href="http://openclipart.org">the library</a> anyway, as I do with all my drawings which are not made for a specific project. And I found awesome how a little graphic contributed to an international project found its way back to a few meters away of me. Either the world is very small or what we are doing is really useful for the people.<br />
<br />
Now to be honest, I can't say for sure if the image is taken from openclipart.org, from my <a href="http://clipart.nicubunu.ro/">own website</a>, where the images are also available, or from one of the many other websites redistributing, grace to the PD dedication, the openclipart.org content. But this is irrelevant, the goal was achieved.<br />
<br />
PS: is not wise to base your company logo on Public Domain clipart, but for <b>very small</b> companies this is not a real problem, they don't have real branding.nicuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11787116898361050437noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5797212.post-17513265096385564902009-03-24T16:20:00.003+02:002009-03-24T16:42:23.215+02:00Mission accomplished: OCAL 10K!The road to <a href="http://nicubunu.blogspot.com/2009/03/openclipartprg-aiming-for-10k-images.html">10K images for the Open Clip Art Library</a> ended today and I would say it ended successfully: in due time, March 2009, the 5th anniversary of the project and with a (shameless plug) <a href="http://openclipart.org/media/files/nicubunu/11838">mighty image</a>. Time to rejoice!<br /><center><img src="http://nicubunu.ro/pictures/ocal10k-done.png" alt="[ocal 10K done]" border="0"></center><br />...and keep the contributions flowing, do not rest on our laurels (at this very moment the counter is at 1009).<br /><center><img src="http://nicubunu.ro/pictures/ocal10k-proof.png" alt="[ocal 10K done]" border="0"></center>nicuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11787116898361050437noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5797212.post-2473428735421513642009-03-17T16:22:00.002+02:002009-03-17T16:34:07.877+02:00Another personal milestone in the OCAL 10K driveAnother personal milestone in the <a href="http://nicubunu.blogspot.com/2009/03/openclipartprg-aiming-for-10k-images.html">drive to 10K images</a> for the Open Clip Art Library: I <i>almost</i> finished re-uploading my images from the old site to the new one (that was a painful manual effort), setting my contributions at 575 images and the total uploads to 9630 (quite close to the target).<br /><center><img src="http://nicubunu.ro/pictures/ocal10k-import.png" alt="ocal 10K" border="0"></center><br />I said <i>almost</i> since I have some more images that were part of the old site, some <a href="http://nicubunu.ro/cards/">playing cards</a> (218 images, uploading them will set he goal to almost complete), which I am not sure <b>if</b> and <b>how</b> I should upload (and have not managed to get a straight answer form anybody).<br /><br />Well, this is almost all my contribution to the 10K drive (started with 420 images, got to 575), until the end of the month I may upload a handful more files (unless the playing cards will kick in), so is the time to pass the torch, who will carry it?nicuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11787116898361050437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5797212.post-889316078242867882009-03-09T16:59:00.005+02:002009-03-09T18:37:51.696+02:00Towards 10K: my 500-th imageOn the drive to <a href="http://nicubunu.blogspot.com/2009/03/openclipartprg-aiming-for-10k-images.html">10K images</a> for the Open Clip Art Library, with all its <a href="http://nicubunu.blogspot.com/2009/03/road-to-10000-or-cc0-only-over-my-cold.html">nasty bumpings</a>, I reached a personal milestone: my <a href="http://openclipart.org/media/files/nicubunu/11261">500-th clipart</a> uploaded.<br /><br />It is not by any means an artistic achievement, is just a re-upload from the old site and it is an image I made (but never used) for another project and re-purposed it to the library a few years ago. But is a round number and a good opportunity to rejoice.<br /><center><img src="http://nicubunu.ro/pictures/ocal500.png" alt="ocal 500" border="0"></center><br />I have in the queue some more re-uploads, about 75 images, so the increase can be notable in the following days if I will got the time (and also reinforcing my <a href="http://openclipart.org/media/stats">rank</a>), but there is no way in hell I would try do displace <a href="http://openclipart.org/media/people/johnny_automatic">John Olsen</a>, with his mighty 2016 uploads, from the top spot.nicuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11787116898361050437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5797212.post-91219839380427711482009-03-06T14:32:00.003+02:002009-03-06T15:00:21.376+02:00The road to 10000 or CC0 only over my cold, dead bodyAfter a few days ago I was so excited about the <a href="http://nicubunu.blogspot.com/2009/03/openclipartprg-aiming-for-10k-images.html">drive to 10K images at the Open Clip Art Library</a> I figured is the time to put my work where my mouth is, and planned a large contribution when I got disturbed by a talk about <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/clipart/2009-March/009018.html">moveing away from the Public Domain</a> dedication and towards a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/about/cc0">Creative Commons travesty</a>, a move I am highly opposing to.<br /><br />I was very close to to what I do when I am very unhappy about something: go ballistic, burn the crops and poison the wells. And nuke and the bridges. I think I have extensive experience in the area and can be pretty effective doing it. But having a busy day I didn't got time for that, instead I had the time to think more, cool down and come with a second strategy: consolidate my position as the <a href="http://openclipart.org/media/stats">second largest</a> contributor by counting the number of uploads to have a bigger soapbox when/if the proverbial matter will hit the fan.<br /><center><img src="http://nicubunu.ro/pictures/10kprogress.png" alt="[ocal 10K and NO to CC0]" border="0"></center><br />And as I rarely take the middle ground, my first contribution in this drive to 10K was a batch of <a href="http://openclipart.org/media/people/nicubunu/comic">44 new images</a> (new as images never published to OCAL so far, I still have a bunch to import from the old website so a lot of aces are in my sleeve).<br /><br />PS: the illustration for this post was prepared with an <a href="http://koji.fedoraproject.org/koji/taskinfo?taskID=1220425">experimental Inkscape devel build</a> for F10, generously provided in addition to the Rawhide package by our mighty <a href="http://v3.sk/~lkundrak/blog/entries/inkscape-snapshot-rawhide.html">packager</a>.nicuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11787116898361050437noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5797212.post-40935659199859361132009-03-01T18:33:00.004+02:002009-03-02T08:54:32.854+02:00Openclipart.org: aiming for 10K imagesAfter a couple of relatively highly popular successes (<a href="http://nicubunu.blogspot.com/2008/01/quest-complete-rpg-map-tileset.html">map elements</a> and <a href="http://nicubunu.blogspot.com/2008/02/pac-man-baddies-with-inkscape-clipart.html">pac-man</a>, remember?), in the last year I was pretty much inactive at <a href="http://openclipart.org">openclipart.org</a>, as what I had on the TODO was boring and frustrating: re-upload images from the old site on the current one, with an awful interface and important core features missing.<br /><br />But now a couple of things are aligned and the Open Clip Art Library deserves a share of the spotlight: <br /><center><img src="http://nicubunu.ro/pictures/ocal10k.png" alt="OCAL 10K" border="0"></center><br />First, the number of images uploaded at this very moment is 9,323, very close to a round 10,000 (yeah, we still have some thousands not yet imported from the old site, but only those are easily reachable).<br /><br />Second, the project was launched in March 2004, so this month will mark its 5 years anniversary.<br /><br />Putting those two next to each other, the conclusion is very tempting: a joined effort to hit the 10,000 images milestone until the end of March 2009. I'm in, how about you?<br /><br />With the current upload rate, it may take 2 or 3 more months to reach the 10,000 target, so an effort, not a big one, is needed. We can do it, but only with contributor's help. When I will get some time I will upload at least 10-20 images on my own, most likely more.nicuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11787116898361050437noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5797212.post-18330227903189507002008-02-28T15:33:00.000+02:002008-02-28T15:50:18.688+02:00On a scale of evil from 6660 to 6666I know the real "evil" number is <b>666</b>, but the 666-th upload to the <a href="http://openclipart.org/">Open Clip Art Library</a> was <b>long ago</b>, so the best I can do is to try a surrogate, a replacement something looking close to it. So I uploaded another milestone:<br /><center><img src="http://nicubunu.ro/pictures/ocal/ocal6660.png" alt="[ocal]" border="0"></center><br />I am not sure what is "more evil", 6660 or 6666 or if they are evil enough to count, so I uploaded both the image number 6660 and image 6666 (both were imports from the old website), hope this make me sort of evil:<br /><center><img src="http://nicubunu.ro/pictures/ocal/ocal6666.png" alt="[ocal]" border="0"></center><br />As <a href="http://web.mac.com/johnny_automatic/Photos/About_Me.html">Johnny Automatic</a> noted on the <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/clipart/2008-February/008371.html">mailing list</a>, about February 2008: "this month has seen more submissions than any month since we began tracking them", we were up to something this month and still have one more day to go:<br /><center><img src="http://nicubunu.ro/pictures/ocal/ocal200802.png" alt="[ocal]" border="0"></center><br />What's next? I still have a lot of files from the old site to dump into ccHost, so I will continue my share of increasing the monthly uploads for a while. And I'll continue to be evil (or at least try to).nicuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11787116898361050437noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5797212.post-75948055144511145202008-02-20T12:44:00.003+02:002008-02-20T14:30:54.638+02:00Tons of clipart: openclipart.org daily snapshot<a href="http://openclipart.org"><img src="http://openclipart.org/cchost/ocal-files/skin/default/ocalbutton.png" alt="Open Clip Art Library" align="right" border="0"/></a>Quite late, a couple of years late, the 0.18 release of the <a href="http://openclipart.org/">Open Clip Art Library</a> got packaged for Fedora and is expected to hit a Rawhide near you (thanks <a href="http://skosi.org/~lkundrak/">lkundrak</a> for that).<br /><br />But that release is <b>ancient</b>, in the meantime we changed the site infrastructure (and lost the ability to do formal releases), gathered <b>thousands</b> of new images from <b>hundreds</b> of new users. What to do, lots of people want the images, we have them but no easy way to bulk download?<br /><br /><img src="http://nicubunu.ro/pictures/openclipartlibrary.png" alt="Open Clip Art Library" align="right" border="0"/>I present you <b>the daily SVG snapshot</b>: a large tarball containing <b>all</b> the SVG and SVGZ files from our ccHost installation. Today's (the first) snapshot is 156 MB (tar.bz2, it extracts in about 600 MB) and contain over 8.000 images (all of them released as Public Domain).<br /><br />As a downside, it does lack meaningful structure, the files are grouped in folders by authors, not by topics/keywords/tags and we don't have keywords metadata inside SVG, so searching is a daunting task. But this is the best I can do, provide at least the content.<br /><br />Note that this does <b>not</b> replace the old 0.18 release, is complementary and contain mostly images submitted after that release (even if this is changing at a glacial speed as some of us re-upload by hand images from the old site to the new one).<br /><br /><a href="http://openclipart.org"><img src="http://openclipart.org/cchost/ocal-files/skin/default/ocalbutton.png" alt="Open Clip Art Library" align="right" border="0"/></a>I forgot something? Yes, the link to the tarball, of course, the most important thing :D Go to the <a href="http://download.openclipart.org/downloads/">Open Clip Art Library downloads page</a> and get <b>daily_SVG_snapshot.tar.bz2 </b> (no direct link from my blog as I'm not sure if it's a good idea do for a 156 MB download).<br /><br />So use the clipart, enjoy it and maybe contribute back!nicuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11787116898361050437noreply@blogger.com4