I'm currently sitting at a table in the still empty Qt Software / KDAB booth, listening to the awesome KDE Linuxtag team get the KDE / Amarok / Kubuntu presence behind me ready for another day. Throughout all of Linuxtag they have been, and will continue to be, proudly showcasing what we have collectively already achieved and helping new contributors make their way into our community so we can do even greater things in the future, with their help. Today the conference program features a KDE track, full of diverse and interesting presentations for a wide range of audiences. Claudia, Luca and their team have done an amazing job getting this conference presence and the many talks lined up. KDE is again making a very good impression, I think. Yeah, us!

The joking and chatter behind me has reminded me how much I'm looking forward to the Gran Canaria Desktop Summit next week. It will be great to catch up with everyone, like every year, but unlike every year, this time I'll also be able to catch up with friends from outside the usual KDE circles, since many friends from Gnome and related projects will be there. I'm sure this co-located event will be awesome and will bring our two communities, which share so many of their core goals and ideals, even closer together. I'm going there a few days early to do some hanging out on the beach, diving and general R&R. Good times.

But now I need to get going, the KDE track starts in a few minutes and my presentation on transitioning from Qt/KDE 3 to 4 as a developer is the second one.

As I mentioned in my previous post, one of the key contributors to KDE on Windows for many years is unhappy with the way we, KDAB (and our partners at Intevation and g10code) have handled our collaboration with them. In particular, Christian writes:

I'm also disappointed by the role of the firms involved in KDE/windows development. Two years ago they asked us what they can do for us. We told them that we need:
*a continuous build like the buildbot from Dirk Müller
* a proper dbus/windows implementation
* a server to place our binary packages

Since Christian Ehrlicher expressed his unhappiness with our (KDAB's) efforts in the area of DBUS on Windows in this blog post, I thought I'd clarify some things. The work that we announced in

Since I was in the US anyway, I thought I'd fly to North Carolina and verify something that has had the KDEPIM community wondering for years. Does Allen Winter, in fact, exist, and look like the picture, since no one has ever met him in person. Well, after a 2 hour plane ride from Chicago and another 2 hours in a car, I can attest that he does, in fact, exist, and is as nice in person as he is online. Photographic proof below. Your reporter will write more as events develop, now it's lunch time.

When I got home, late last night, I was greeted by a parcel addressed to me that contained a book.

I'm currently on my way back home to Berlin from a hit-and-run visit to the Osnabrück 7 KDEPIM meeting. It's just close enough for me to take a very early train in the morning and still be back home before midnight, which was the best I could do this year, due to other commitments. I'm really glad I did, as I'm leaving the others hacking and discussing with the kind of warm, joyous feeling of fulfillment one gets when a long and slow process seems to be coming together nicely and things align beautifully.

Did some tumblin' a few days ago, as a result of me and some tram tracks at Hackescher Markt disagreeing as to the general direction of the front wheel of my bike. This resulted in a banged up wrist and rib, but no damage to the laptop or head. So while I'm still able to perform my primary function at work, namely talk, I am somewhat useless in my primary function at home, namely as a holder of hands while our daughter learns to walk.

Like every year, so far, and as befits a patron of KDE, KDAB is covering the travel and lodging expenses of all KDABians who want to attend Akademy. Yeah, for Kalle . A few of the KDE folks in KDAB have chosen to stay behind, this year, and keep the customers happy, but most of us will be there. The current list includes myself, David Faure, Kevin Ottens, Laurent Montel, Andras Mantia, Volker Krause, Pradeepto Bhattacharya, Thomas Moenicke, Thomas McGuire, Andreas Hartmetz and Marc Mutz. We thought of renting a bus, collecting everyone in Berlin and then driving over, but the logistical aspects of that seemed dauting, for a bunch of geeks. So planes and trains it'll be. The talk schedule looks particularly interesting this year, but the best thing, as always, will be to catch up with old friends, make new ones and generally hang around the nicest, smartest, most enthusiastic and engaging group of people ever. Magically diverse, but filled with a common spirit and love, this community continues to fascinate and inspire me, as it does, I'm sure, all of my colleagues. See you soon, at Sint-Katelijne-Waver.

speaking of logos, and while I'm in 1:N communication mode and have your kind attention, large and lovely N that you are: we're in need of a vector version of the current Kontact logo, for purposes of blowing it up indecently in size for use in a poster or two (for Linuxtag). If you, dear k \in N, happen to be in possession of such, or happen to know j \not\in N, but the creator of said artwork, or happen to be j \in N, said creator, yourself, please get in contact with me at your earliest convenience for the overall furtherance of the ascent of the K (assuming |K| > |N| without loss of generality).

As Tom announced a few days ago, the Akonadi team is looking for a logo and an icon for the little system tray application. So far we have three submissions, but us kdepim hackers at KDAB thought we'd give folks an extra incentive by donating a Canon Powershot digital camera, new and unused, to be given to the creator of the work we will chose in the end. This fine and only slightly out-of-date (as digital cameras are doomed to be the moment one takes them off the shelf) piece of gear can be yours, yes, yours, if you add your submission to the techbase page and we end up selecting it in a process that will very likely be utterly subjective, unfair, unprofessional and morally objectionable. So there. Keep those submissions coming!