Good idea: DEX

DEX: Debian and its derivatives, getting things done together « We'll see | Matt Zimmerman

I like that. There are a lot of different neat things in various derived projects. Ubuntu creates a lot of new things especially on the UI side (at least thats what I see from blog posts on the planet). So seeing all those changes go back to the root project is great. It's Open Source, as many people as possible should benefit from improvements made by individuals. There is no reason to duplicate effort here.

HTC phones are great

HTC make nice phones and use Ubuntu

HTC has the best phones since years. If you want an Android phone I can only recommend phones from HTC. The work great and SenseUI is awesome. I already have my second HTC phone and my next phone will be an HTC as well. So it's also nice to see that some people at HTC use Ubuntu. As a long time Ubuntu user I definitely like that.

Internal competition is healthy

Internal competition is healthy, but depends on strong and mature leadership

true in a lot of ways. From the blog posts on planet ubuntu/gnome I got a very similar impression.

Overlay Scrollbars in Ubuntu

Overlay Scrollbars in Unity - implementation from Canonical Design on Vimeo.

Nice!! Love how they rethink old UI stuff and improve it so much :).

Gnome 3 no ‘max’ & ‘min’ buttons

Gnome 3 removes ‘max’ and ‘min’ window controls – but why?

I welcome this change. I can totally understand the reasoning behind this change for Gnome 3's Shell. The linked posts are worth a read. I'm sure there are people disliking this as it is a very basic change of something that has been there for a long time. But there are nowadays just better, more intuitive ways to change the window size. And minimizing doesn't make much sense the way Gnome Shell works.

I'm still waiting for the Ubuntu button change to get justified.

Fully Illustrated - The Portfolio of Michael Heald

Illustration | Fully Illustrated - The Portfolio of Michael Heald

man, they produce some amazing artwork. Love the backgrounds of Stenches with the moon and the city. Great work ..

Nokia and open source

Nokia and open source – a trial by fire - The H Open Source: News and Features

ah yes, with open source it's ofter very tempting to reinvent the wheel. But in most cases it slows someone down and is just the wrong way. Participation and iterative improvement is key. Still a lot of people don't really get a few of the biggest benefits of OSS.

unintended Ubuntu product placement?

Recently I've noticed more and more Ubuntu hints on the internet. Like just now this Video:

A Day in the CloudFlare Office from CF Vimeo on Vimeo.

It's not like Canonical has anything to do with it. But still I tend to see it a lot on Videos like that. Mostly on technical related stuff but still I get the impression that this is a growing trend. It's like I stumble uppon them everywhere.

Power Of Research released

"Power Of Research": Onlinespiel führt in die Welt der Wissenschaft - derStandard.at (German link)

The Silverlight game I've been working on at TPM Games GmbH for the last two years. Good to see this finally released. Other German newssites wrote about it as well.

Other:
- "Power Of Research": Onlinespiel für Hobbyforscher - DiePresse.com (German)
- Gratis-Onlinespiel führt in die Welt der Wissenschaft - "Power Of Research" - krone.at (German)
- The new strategy game to encourage young people to careers (Slovenian)
- Power of Research: a new online game to inspire the scientists of the future (English)
- Power of Research: a new online game to inspire the scientists of the future (English)