About Me

Linux user since 2004 (Linux User #458827, Ubuntu User #19076). I'm interested in computer history, user support and audio/video production. Very technical but not a programmer (yet). Took a few introductory lessons in Debian packaging.

I try to make myself available to help anyone who is having issues or requires help. This allows me to get complete perspective of how the distro is used by different people, and collect opinions on specific projects. I am not shy to ask for help, experiences and knowledge from others. I find it efficient to engage in a conversation with others, which I prefer over reading documentation. I am highly motivated to learn more and to support others. As the Ubuntu user base will grow every day, more individuals and companies are switching to Ubuntu, which I am very enthusiastic about. I am dedicated to making Ubuntu a better distribution. I am currently trying to concentrate on community involvement, LPI certification and server competency. I feel that many users could benefit from my being an active community member.

I try to stay up-to-date on the bugs users of Ubuntu are facing so that I can help others effectively report, debug, confirm, subscribe and triage bugs. I have created a process, a work-flow if you will, to find previously reported issues. See the Custom "Ubuntu" Google Search which is helpful for searching bugs, threads and blogs relating to ubuntu (contact me to add a site to the search index).

My understanding of the Linux audio subsystem and the various audio projects involved has increased since starting with ubuntu. Besides supporting users and troubleshooting audio issues, I would like to improve my understanding of professional audio development tools and JACK.

I am interested in improving the state of video editing software for Linux; I try to be involved in projects like cinellera, kdenlive, lumiera and pitivi.

Certifications

• Digital Technical Production - College Certificate

• Linux Professional Institute - Test 101

• Ubuntu Certified Professional - Linux Professional Institute Test 117-199

Contributions To The Ubuntu Community

Documentation & Solutions

• Ubuntu Wiki/Help Articles:

  • Reinstall Ubuntu while preserving /home - Desktop CD

  • Reinstall Ubuntu while preserving /home - Alternate CD

  • How to run two versions of Ubuntu with a shared /home

  • Ubuntu on Asus eeePC (multiple contributions)

  • Linux Audio Subsystem Introduction & Troubleshooting Guide

Ideas

• Brainstorms:

  • http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/contributor/komputes/ideas/

• Blueprints:

  • https://blueprints.edge.launchpad.net/~komputes

Group Memberships

• Official Ubuntu Member since November 2009

• Member of the Unanswered Posts Team

• Member of the Beginners Team

  • Over 400 ubuntuforums.org posts

• Member of the 5 A Day Team

• Member of the Launchpad Beta Testers

• Member of the Ubuntu BugSquad

• Member of the Ubuntu Testing Team

• LoCo (Local Community) Member

  • Ubuntu Canada Team Ubuntu Quebec Team

• Launchpad Karma Breakdown

Ubuntu Events

• Ubuntu-QC Global Jam 2009 - Organizer

• Ubuntu-QC Jaunty Release Party - Organizer

• UDS Jaunty 2008 (Mountainview, CA) - Attendant

• Ubuntu-QC Intrepid Release Party - Organizer

Goals

Complete the LPI Level 1 Certification. I am interested in becoming part of the bug control team on launchpad as well as the forum counsel.

Long term, Interested in starting a community-maintained Hardware Database to improve the current state of supported hardware on Linux.

Proposal for Needs Packaging/Testing

• celtx - http://celtx.com/download.html

• madwifi drivers - http://madwifi-project.org/

• dmg2img - https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DMG2IMG http://vu1tur.eu.org/tools/

  • http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=343808

• tuxguardian - http://tuxguardian.sourceforge.net/

• WebcamStudio - http://sourceforge.net/projects/webcamstudio/

• NeatX - http://code.google.com/p/neatx/

• OpenNX - http://sourceforge.net/projects/opennx/

• pkremote - http://pkremote.sourceforge.net/

Proposal for 'Fix released' in Lucid LTS

1

• Copy-Paste doesn't work if the source is closed before the paste

  • https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/11334

2 - These need to be solved togther

• gdm 2.26 has no graphical configuration tool

  • https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gdm/+bug/395808

• No GUI to configure/disable login sound

  • https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gdm/+bug/437429

• Lack of an updated gdmsetup or "Login Screen" configuration utility (started in karmic) causes users to have problems accomplishing the following tasks graphically.
  • Install/Change the GDM Theme
  • Change the GDM welcome message
  • Turn on remote login
  • Allow TCP logins to Xserver
  • Enable multiple logins for a single user (used for concurrent VNC)
  • Change login sounds
  • Set a user to log in automatically
  • Remove Shutdown/Reboot option form actions menu

3

• Update Notifier icon would provide useful status information / new update-manager behaviour is annoying

  • https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/jaunty/+source/update-notifier/+bug/332945

    • Update: David St. Barth told personally that karmic would present a choice between old and new behaviour in software sources
    • Update: Unassigned from DX, assigned to Michael Vogt but was not acted on for karmic

4

• gnome-volume-control missing ability to customize session sound effects theme

  • https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-media/+bug/324700

5

• unlabeled partitions are mounted under their UUIDs

  • https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/devicekit-disks/+bug/390304

6

• Not able to create a bootable USB key using Ubuntu 9.10

  • https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/usb-creator/+bug/415103

7

• Remote Desktop - "only accept from localhost" option does not work

  • https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/vino/+bug/275340

    • To set up localhost only, you have to open up gconf-editor and modify the following string value to be "lo" (without the quotes): /desktop/gnome/remote_access/network_interface
    • This was tested and fails for many, as well a graphical option for this needs to be made available

8

• nm-applet fails when another user is logged in

  • https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/network-manager/+bug/284596

Project ideas that need a developer

• Automation of Daily LiveCD/DVD creation for current release (not current dev release)
  • For testing purposes, someone needs a LiveCD to see if they can reproduce an issue on a desktop that has not been changed. Unfortunately the CD ISO (once released) is not changed for 6 months. LTS get dot releases (type of "bundled upgrade/servicepack").
  • This project would apply all updates and create a Daily LiveCD/DVD which has current packages and updates.

    • From persia: Easy way to do this today is: 1) run livecd-rootfs, 2) insert that into install image. The alternative would be to use something like http://bazaar.launchpad.net/%7Eubuntu-mobile-dev/ubuntu-mobile/mobile-scripts/annotate/head%3A/image-tools/edit_squashfs.sh . Add the -updates and -security lines to /etc/apt/sources.list, and run apt-get update; apt-get dist-upgrade. Still has the hassle of remastering the CD, but that's a well-solved problem.

• Record audio out (Working script needs a GUI or gnome-sound-recorder integration)

  • Easy to use loopback virtual audio device to record all output (and perhaps even input) mixed or saved in separate files/channels (advanced).

  • Simple little audio recording application used to easily record anything you can get into your soundcard direct onto your hard disk. Inspired from opd2d (Win).

  • Optional MP3 Support (encoding stream in real-time)

    • kees script (does the job great). creating a gui around it (basically a parec command). pygtk and quickly are supposed to be easy to use. Command is "parec -d "$MONITOR" | sox -t raw -r 44100 -sLb 16 -c 2 - ~/Taped_Recording_$TIME.wav"

• Offline Bug Holder
  • Apport Bug Client - For the "I am offline" use case
  • Allows users to keep their bug submissions to a later date
  • Allows users to type up a description to the bug while offline.

    • From persia: apport can already do this to some degree, there's just not a wizard (again, just a bit of glade and python). Because the .crash files are later recoverable. And you can (later) run apport on a .crash file and do the network stuff. Thats only for crashes though, I'm talking about doing Help>Report a problem offline too.

• Better Hardware Database

  • Brainstorm

  • Blueprint

    • From persia: Historically nobody seems to care about the data collected. Solve the social issues first, and getting the data becomes easy. The data is not being properly parsed, calculated and displayed, but it is useful.

• Thunderbird/Lightning/GNOME Integration
  • Thunderbird needs to have better integration into the GNOME Desktop
  • Calendar (Lightning) to EDS (Evolution Data Server) communication
  • OR
  • Creation of a new Thunderbird/Lightning applet

<persia> Mozilla isn't going to use EDS.  I'd recommend focusing on a sync-based solution.
<persia> And then, because of the magic of sync, it suddenly integrates with e-d-s and akonadi.
<komputes> I don't mind ditching evolution, the calendar applet and EDS all together
<komputes> every attempt to create a sync tool or mechanism fails miserably
<persia> Well, yes, but the u1 devs are well-funded to solve the problem.
<persia> (and expressed significant interest at UDS Karmic)
<komputes> I've given up on sync, I think the code for the applet can be rewritten to interface with thunderbird directly
<persia> That works too.  I'm less sure where you'd find a developer for that model

• Softphone: USB to GSM (SIM Card) Adapter
  • There are many SIM readers and 3G (DATA ONLY) USB adapters
  • Provide what is missing: Allow audio through microphone and speakers to make calls on GSM
  • Requires
    • hardware that allows voice communication
    • softphone application that has the same features as a cell phone

      • From persia: SIM readers don't have radios, and the 3G (DATA ONLY) modems *can't* do voice (hw issues). How it gets handled in other environments (e.g. N900) is that there are internal channels. The issue is that nobody sells the hardware as a pluggable module. empathy is the only project working on this I know that is fully open-source, telepathy has all the right channels to be able to handle it. The hardware is likely to come out as an integrated module first, as more and more "smartphones" get linux removable modules for laptops/desktops will probably come later (not that it's hard to buy 10,000 integrated modules and stick them in USB keys, but that nobody is going to do it because of how the carrier sales ecosystem works).

• PDF Editor
  • pdfeditor or Open Office PDF Editing Plugin does not quite work as expected, improve on these projects.
• Three part authentication
  • Password, USB authentication key, (and voice/thumbprint recognition) set up to log in.
  • Unlocks GNOME/KDE keychain, encrypted filesystem and firefox/email master password

    • From persia: Needs pam hacking. Given the state of consumer-available biometrics, it doesn't really add security to have the voice/retina/thumbprint stuff. But I remember password + passkey (either OpenSC or USB with encryption key) being documented on the wiki for Gutsy. Might need a refresh.

• Application CDs kmandla blog post

  • Application which downloads a package, its dependencies and it's sub dependencies onto a CD (make sure it is satisfied to be installed on a minimal ubuntu system) and write an ISO with an offline repo on it. When the CD is inserted into an offline machine they are offered the following dialog "This medium contains software intended to be automatically started. Would you like to run it? "The software will run directly from the medium "Application CD". You should never run software that you don't trust."
  • When the CD is inserted into an offline machine they are offered the following dialog "This medium contains software intended to be automatically started. Would you like to run it?" The software will run directly from the medium "Program_X_CD". You should never run software that you don't trust." The user can then easily create and distribute application(s) by CD.
    • This is probably a trivial modification to aptoncd. It doesn't solve the "I want to hand out a CD with a package to random people" part, but it does solve the "I have a slow modem" part. Basically, it captures the state of the target (offline) system, then uses *that* apt-cache to determine what needs downloading, writes a CD, and one can use that CD as a software source on the target machine to update / install / etc. Just intitiate an aptoncd session from the LiveCD of the release you expect the software to be installed on.
• Create a transparent daily image backup/restore system
  • Can be used while the filesystem is mounted and being used
  • Only backs up what it has to (progressive)
  • Saves data to an image file which can be dd'd or burned to CD
• Desktop Firewall interface with customizable "Zone Alarm style" notifications
  • Incorporating projects like Tux Guardian and moblock.
  • The goal is to make a very easy to use, yet very powerful which includes custom alerts through libnotify and per-application network rules (i.e. do not let program "foo" have Internet access).
  • Per process Internet configuration (blacklist by default, then whitelist traffic per process and specify IPs, ports or fully open.

    • From persia: devfil is around a fair bit. Maybe he could help you work with upstream to get notifications support. per-process limitations are basically GUI exposure issues. iptables *can* do it, but it's not obviously needed for most users. Same as why it took *so* long to get per-process volume controls into default UIs.

• Virtual video device
  • Very much like GTK-recordmydesktop it will allow the user to select a portion of the screen but instead of recording it to a file it will pass it along to a device file which can be used by a number of programs (seen by the program as a webcam).
  • This would allow you to use pre-recorded video OR cheese OR visualizer as your webcam input program.
  • This program should also allow a playlist of video files to be used as device which other applications can use.
• HD capable NLE (Non-Linear [video] Editor)
  • Linux native professional non-linear HD video editor
  • The community and many professionals are requesting a solid stable video editing tool.
  • Take a look at the Lumiera Project. If we can have GSoC students and investors add interest and development work on this project we may be able to advance this project.
• Nautilus Improvements
  • Improvements to the Nautilus File Manager
  • Allocates space before it copies.
  • Checks all the files to be copied before they are copied.
  • Resistant to inter-filesystem name errors, hidden files
  • Brings any issues to be resolved to the user before copy starts.
  • Does not stop in the middle of a large transfer to tell you there is an error.
  • File Manager should calculate and displays the size of directories in detailed list view.
• Firefox add-on that plays flv (flash video) on the site with ffmpeg.
  • This makes us work with a tool which is a little more open and less bloated than Adobe's Flash player.
    • Current workaround (add to .bashrc): alias playflv='vlc $(ls -tr /tmp/Flash* | tail -1)'
• Video Conference
  • Multiplatform
  • Multi-user
  • No port forwarding
  • Encrypted option

    • From persia: Main issue here is a coordination server (synchronisation of multiuser without a server is painful). There's work to be done on Ubuntu SIP integration. Encrypted SIP is something the ubuntu-voip team is expecting to have working for lucid. Multiuser kinda requires a server, just because of sync issues (but multiple simultaneous point-to-point should work). How well that handles pushing video is something to be investigated.

• Packet Trace Map
  • Live representation of internet packets, port numbers etc. on a world map (references geolocate IP database)
  • Shows all packets leaving and entering your computer.
  • Gives your ip, their ip, all bounces in between, dns info
• iPodHack
  • Use ipod wheel as FFW in movies or volume control for system

    • From persia: 1) expose the input to the machine (this involves fiddling the iPod driver). 2) use gizmod

• Splash screen customization application
  • Graphical application to create splash screen, custom throbbers and animations

Testimonials

David is a relentless community contributor. Although he is a Canonical employee at Support, he goes way beyond any of his duties by actively engaging the local community, filing bug reports and advocating Ubuntu user to anyone. David does not stand around watching and chatting, he MAKES THINGS HAPPEN. Be careful what you comment around him, if it makes sense and takes Ubuntu further, he'll do it -- FabianRodriguez

David has been of awesome help in organizing some of the latest events in Ubuntu-Quebec. He's not afraid to step in and make things happen, and go the extra mile to make Ubuntu and our LoCo rock -- mathieu-tl 2009-11-18 21:43:25

This section is open to anyone who would like to comment on my contribution to the Ubuntu community

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