April 2'nd 2008

I haven't had such a laugh in quite a while : Yoda Dancing

March 23'rd 2008

Time just seems to fly when you are having fun, kids, loads of work and are tired all the time ...

I am still working on the ImageFlow application and am now getting the users home directory structure figured out and how to store Galleries in which folder and what the structure of the xml config files should look like and of course how to read and write those xml files through PHP.

The lag of progress is really in part due to the lack of functionality. I am progressing slowly but steady.

You can already move and resize the ImageFlow application and hopefully sometime this week you'll be able to create Galleries on your own as well as configure the look and feel of ImageFlow.

The MySQL database table is already in place and working and I have the rest of the internal structure in place. So progress should be somewhat faster now.

I also experimented with eclipse and the protoeditor to see if I could get xdebug set up such that I can debug the php part of AstraNOS.

March 9'th 2008

I come to the conclusion that I really do need to install a nice blogging software ... For now you have to read the progress through this little page though.

I investigated the real neat ImageFlow. Only issue is that it'll create temp images on the server through a small php script.

After one google search I found Reflection.js which is utilizing the <Canvas> tag and does the Reflection in the client.

So my thinking was along the lines ... ... shit, why do I have to ... and after one day of work, out came ImageFlowReflection with all the magic done client side.

So now all I have to do is to create a nice config tool around it, create user spaces on the server, design security and space limitation, and display ImageFlow in a nice manner on the desktop itself.

Phew, what did I get myself into this time ...

Oh and I had already people asking or e-mail access through AstraNOS accounts. Well first things first ...

March 5'th 2008

I added a new feature to allow AstraNOS to be run in fullscreen mode. This is the only way I run it now. You can enable fullscreen mode in the Desktop application, where you are also able to change the background image.

Once you are in 'fullscreen' mode you'll notice three changes.

  1. AstraNOS will be launched in a new window which covers the whole screen.
  2. You will see a small reminder to press the F11 key (put browser in fullscreen)
  3. Exiting AstraNOS will close the window

I found a realy nice application for your private images. Adding this app will cost me some time, as I have to create a users home directory handling etc. plus hook the app in such that it'll all work together.

There are some other tools I am currently investigating for incluion.

Weida would be sweet to add a development environment to AstraNOS in a way that would be non-destructive to my web site and pet project.

From my current point there is so much I should be working on. Where are the helping hands ?

March 2'nd 2008

Okay so you have not seen too much progress the past two weeks. This is mainly due to two things :

  1. Designing a new feature which affects the whole system architecture.
  2. Reading Practicat PHP Programming from cover to cover

Oh, I also added a new configuration application to change your password, and e-mail address. You'll find this now under [SystemMenu -> User -> User].

And last but not least I am working on the Setup dialog which goes hand in hand with the new features to come.

Don't worry, I'll be back :)

February 19'th 2008

I am still alive and kicking. I just had to finish up my DVD authoring suite for Linux and though there remains a ton of work to be done I will start to direct my free resources back to AstraNOS.

I have a lot of new and great ideas to get started on. Of course first off I want to finish up the configuration manager for the desktop. So this is where I will spend my next effort.

Stay tuned as I am back ...

July 18' th 2007

I am back from Germany and am slowly starting to work on AstraNOS again. I want to focus now on the missing pieces for the desktop such as the Setup Dialog, and the minimize button.

So many things to do, so little time ...

June 30'st 2007

I fixed an issue with the z-index of the background. IE should now be happy again.

I also added a viral game called Boxorz which has cost me a few hours thus far. Granted I could have worked on astranos instead ...

June 27'st 2007

It is with great sadness that I have to return to Germany to bury my father who lived to become 73 years of age. I will greatly miss him and his presence even though we have been separated by the Atlantic Ocean for the past ten years.

He will always be in my heart and in my thoughts. I hope he has found the peace he truely deserves.

Rest In Peace, Dad.

With All My Love Varol.

June 26'th 2007

Okay I have been active in the background and was not making too much progress on the visible front. However I implemented two new games.

I started working on the configuration part of the system menu after which I will work on the minimize functionality.

And lastly I started a new IRC channel at FreeNode.Net ( the Support page )

June 20'st Aaargh I remember now why I do not like package manager. Why is it that I had to install close to 250MBytes of software only to get VLC installed ? Would it not be realy nice to have the choice between one shared lib version and one with a statically linked libraries ?

Anyhow, I hope I can get th mozilla plugin working for Firefox and then I'll see what I can do with it.

June 19'th 2007

I had a few nice days at the beach, which fortunately kept me away from the keys. But do not worry, I wrapped up the polishing of the menu and tonight I will work on the actual menu contents.

Still some things need to be implemented, like the configuration part and the MySQL based structure. For now I will hardcode the menu contents and move forward.

I hope that by tomorrow I will be able to resolve the IE issues and thus make AstraNOS available to some 85% of the rest of us.

I resolved the IE issue and now even those folks from the 'other side' can use AstraNOS to it's full extend.

Also the guest login does now work and I will have to add a nightly reset of this accounts setting so it won't get screwed up over time.

June 13'th 2007

I invested the past two days working on the SystemMenu and am now starting to see real results. There is still a lot of polishing to be done for sure but you get the picture.

One of the features missing from the System Menu is the configuration part, where you can define colors, animation attributes and size.

Next I really have to focus on cross browser issues. IE does not like the FishEyeBar which is a problem that desperatly requires my attention.

June 11'th 2007

Thankfully we have browser built in Security. Unfortunately this also restricts AstraBrowser. in that I can not pass the current location of the browser frame to the locationBar.

I also checked in the sources of AstraNOS yesterday though by now they are outdated to some extend again. What can I say a fast growing project :)

And lastly I continued with the SystemMenu and need only implement the logic for the SubMenus to wrap this one up. I also need to consider a few visual choices, such as background color, icon size, text Color etc. But this can wait until all functionality is in.

June 6'th 2007

Sit tight, yesterday QooxDoo anounced the release of version 0.7 final and I converted AstraNOS after some strugling to this version.

I will now continue working on the browser application before I move on to replacing the Chat application with something more suited.

I would also at this point welcome Alexander Turner to the AstraNOS team. Well he is the first person to join so not much of a team :)

Now that AstraNOS is purring on 0.7 I will fill in the SVN and allow public access to the source tree.

June 3'rd 2007

I continued on the SystemMenu and got the scroll in/out animation working. Next are the scroll buttons for it and then the implementation of the ApplicationButtons and the MenuButtons.

May 25'th 2007

I started with the SystemMenu and included the button for it on the lower left hand side. I hope to get this working soon as I have a ton of apps I would like to add.

I also fixed the 'Chat' button which is now again pointing at the Chat application.

On the news front, I put a new Image viewer into place which I would love to integrate with AstraNOS. I just have to find the time to get all the other things working.

And finally I continued the work on IE compatibility for AstraNOS. There seems to be an issue with the MouseMove callback function which does not work. You can however look at the buttons ... (well at least the icons and the exit button are working)

May 20'th 2007

I added a one of my favourite game to the desktop :
FrozenBubbles

I will remove this icon as soon as I have the left-side ApplicationBar working ( right after I improved the Desktop app [ right after I have worked on cross browser compatibility ] )

For now simply enjoy the game :)

I also added a empty page starfield for 404's and I reworked the main log in page to be IE compatible.

For those poor souls coming here through the grace of IE : I hope to have you up and running sometime this week :)

May 18'th 2007

I added the basic ChaNT chat system. This still needs some tweaking. I want to automatically assign the user definitions to it so you will not have to sign up again in/for AstraNOS only to use one additional tool (even if it is a kinda cool tool).

After some toying around with ChaNT I found some serious issues with the tool, which will force me to rewrite the GUI part. So I guess I will end up writing a whole new app in QooxDoo.

May 14'th 2007

This is the first entry to the progress page of AstraNOS.

Welcome to my world ... or should I say to my Universe of WebOS. This project is intended to find the final frontiers between OS and the Web, Where is the overlap, where is the disparity. What is real and what is hype.

So far it took me one month to get to a point where I had Icons, Panel, Tetris, Chess and some other more web centric apps running.

Once the base foundation is in I want to start building my tower of babel. A communications focused WebOS that will blur the borders between fat client app and web based app.

As always with a young project, I have a lot of ideas and not a lot of time to implement them. So let me stop blogging here and get right back to the nuts and bolts of it.

See you soon.

Varol Okan :)