Dinesh

Contact information

• Your Name: Dinesh

• Email Address: saidinesh5@gmail.com

• IRC nickname:
• Launchpad ID: saidinesh5
• Skype username:saidinesh5

• Webpage/blog: http://myonlinescratchpad.blogspot.com/

• College-University: DA-IICT (@Gujrat,India)
• Major: Information and Communication Technology

Project

• Project Name: A proper Smartphone managing suite for Kubuntu.
• Project Description: Your own description of the project
  • Firstly, here are the wiki pages, which would touch upon the existing problems.

    http://en.opensuse.org/Summer_of_Code_2009#Sync_with_Mobile_Devices

    https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SyncIntegration Basically i m interested in integrating the existing tools like obexfs, opensync-syncml to make a proper smartphone managing software for Kubuntu,as a part of my GSoC 2010 proposal. with this I aim to achieve the basic tasks of syncing photos, music, videos and PIM data in the native applications like gwen view, amarok , kontact with many smartphones over USB or Bluetooth. Also, since using a phone as a dial up modem via bluetooth is still a tricky task (without installing software like blueman), i aim to add this feature too... what i wont be doing is adding things like sending sms, dialing numbers from PC.(as of now, i have not much idea on how to accomplish the last 2 things). Right now, with the tools mentioned above, i was successful in syncing data from most nokia phones (S60 and S40). and hence, at the very least this project will be useful for atleast 50% of the smartphones in the market.(statistics from wikipedia: symbian has 50% market share). Even though i aim to shoot a moving target, with the market share of the phones changing rapidly, this project will still be useful to a great majority of people, and the remaining platforms like iPhone, Android etc.. can be made to support this application via. writing native phone applications.

• If you would be willing and able to do other projects instead, which ones?
  • Sound theme creator (and sound improvements). felt the need for this while submitting the fLight sound theme for lucid, and because i ve made a sound theme, i am confident that i know all the minute details that are involved in making the sound theme. Ubuntu One KDE client. (so that i can learn more about syncing data and problems involved in syncing.) But, selecting another project means, i would have to give this dream project of mine only a part of my time this summer.
• Why did you like this idea?
  • A simple statistic right here from my college: right now,there are lot many people around me, who have ubuntu on their PC's and a really cool smartphone. yet Sticky notes, last pages of the notebooks, and college walls are their primary means for maintaining PIM data. and PIM(according to me) is something that needs to be available to a person all the time. before giving a deadline for an assignment, a student must be in a position to check his google calendar if thats some one's birthday. After coming back from a fun filled vacation, with lot of snaps on his 5MP N95, any human should not have to boot into his windows just for the Nokia PC Suite. After a long night out with a long playlist of music, for a long journey, a person must be able to say to his linux box (without using the terminal ,ofcourse): "I like this song.. send it to my Sony Ericsson Walkman Phone" . (funniest of all) A person need not have internet to know how to connect to internet using his/her phone as a bluetooth modem. Most importantly, a general user should never have to know about things like sdp, syncml, obex etc.. for getting their every day things done. these are the basic motivating factors for me.
• Please describe a tentative project architecture or an approach to it and Give us details about the milestones for this project:
  • Right Now, i plan for implimenting 3 main things in the software: 1) Mounting the phone filesystem as a folder in the filesystem and successfully integrating with applications like Digikam, Amarok, without having to deal with fussy things like changing the usb permissions and using cli to fire up obexfs. (really wish this feature is available in kbluetooth). (mounting and moving data is a trivial task using obexfs and magic folder plasmoid, Integration with Digikam/Gwenview and Amarok : dont YET know how to). (2-3 weeks)

    2) Successfully syncing pim data between the smartphone and kontact.(this is the main thing i aim to finish off as a part of my summer of code, have gone through stuff related to opensync-syncml and successfully carried out the stuff @ http://en.opensuse.org/OpenSync/SyncML-OBEX-Client , so i am confident that i will be able to accomplish this task with some proper guidance)(1 month) 3) Also, if the phone supports it, use the phone as a modem for DUN(I know ubuntu supports it directly via. usb but had to use blueman/some scripts from internet for doing it via. bluetooth).(since this one is already implimented in the popular software called Blueman(for gnome), implimenting this one shouldnt be a hassle, if i checkout Blueman's codebase).

• Why will your proposal benefit Ubuntu?
  • Even Ubuntu ONE supports pim data , with the main objective that PIM data must be available to one , wherever he/she is. and i m sure that this project will be helpful to ubuntu one, even thought i m not writing a plugin to sync stuff with Ubuntu One. Also, properly advertised(and made easier), this project has the potential to set ubuntu users , start using the PIM on their smartphones if they arent yet using it, and hence making things simpler for everyone.

Open Source

• Please describe any previous Open Source development experience.
  • Sadly None. Though, i actively participate in things like giving seminars involving stuff like basics of python etc...
• Why are you interested in Open Source?
  • Keeping the Sentimental reasons of freedom etc... aside, for me, it is the best and fastest and most efficient possible way to impact our everyday lives by solving the problems we ourselves face.

Availability

• How long will the project take? When can you begin?
  • My current semester ends at the end of april and my college re opens in the first week of august. So i ll start working on the project in the first week of may
• How much time do you expect to dedicate to this project? (weekly)

  • On any typical day, i spend a minimum of 8 hours on my computer. Assuming a 40% efficiency, i can give > 20 hours to this project per week.

• Where will you based during the summer?
  • If i get into GSoC, most probably i will be spending it in home. else i ll spend it in college doing a research project, and will try to finish this project side by side.
• Do you have any commitments for the summer? (holidays/work/summer courses)
  • As per my college curriculum, I need to complete a research/industrial internship of 6-8 weeks this summer. Apart from this i don't have any commitments. And fortunately, GSoC, can count as an industrial internship. So,if i get selected in GSoC, i wont have any other commitments, else, i ll have to take up a research project(hopefully in computer graphics) and finish it.
• Please designate a back up student (in case you need to withdraw your application).

Other

• Have you ever participated in a previous GSoC? (describe your project)
  • NO. Last year, I didn't have enough knowledge to even understand what half of the projects ideas mean.
• Have you applied for any other 2010 Summer of Code projects? If yes, which ones?
  • I will be applying to other organizations like KDE etc..mostly on the same idea.
• Why did you apply for the Google Summer of Code ?

  • Actually wanted to develop a good PC Suite application, which would solve the problem of keeping (y)our contacts upto date(a phonebook that updates itself,when the person changes his/her phone number, status etc... so that we always know (when) to call him/her and where to call him/her..(something like facebook for mobiles!thats probably where i got the inspiration for my idea!)) for my software engineering course this semester(i am aware of the fact that this would be better if it were a cloud service, but, with my current knowledge levels, it will take lot of time to get there). (Sadly,) due to unforeseen reasons, couldn't take up that project. So thought to take GSoC as the stepping stone to there. and hence here i am, to implement a proper syncing solution first

• Why did you choose Ubuntu as a mentoring organization?
  • Again, putting the sentimental reasons aside, i think this is 1 project which would greatly benefit because of the really large and really really diverse community(and hence a wide range mobile phones). Also, with my current knowledge level i think, implementing this for a single distro(first) would be easier than to try making a general solution for all the distros out there and whats better than the very distro that i primarily use for my everyday work.
• Why do you want to participate and why should Ubuntu choose you?

Same reason why i applied for GSoC , and why Ubuntu would benifit because of me. Also, i am quite confident about my programming skills, because never till now did my coding skills draw me back from completing any of my college's assignments.