Over the past year Linux OS distributions have been going through rapid changes in how network connectivity has been managed. This in part is due to the boom Linux seen in Netbooks. All of a sudden it became important to get connected with Linux. In general much of my effort has been to help out in this area. Unfortunately we have seen a number of problems crop up however due to how successful open source software has become. Open Source normally works like a meritocracy - best software wins! Unlike proprietary software where a dominant player can block other potentially innovative solutions. But in this instance, a change made for a perfectly good and technical reason effected all users of the betavine mobile connect software running on the Ubuntu Linux distribution. In simple terms, applications requiring network connectivity would query a Network Manager about the network state. This would make it easy and lightweight for an app to discover connectivity. On Ubunutu this was a design decision made by the cool Network Manager team. The downside however was that even if the betavine software successfully creates a data connection with a 3G USB modem - the rest of the applications running on a Ubunutu Linux OS would be unaware of that connection. From a user perspective it's a failed app, a failed connection and an un-happy user. The OS community have since implemented a Modem Manager API. Which we are helping with and built our app to that 'modem manager' interface. But the issue has never been far from my mind.... I was alerted by a friend from Warp about a potential solution by Alexander Sack called Ntrack . He has written a small lightweight and easy to use library for application developers which reports on network connectivity by looking for changes to the network route reported by the OS. Brilliant idea! Meaning that app's can easily find out network connectivity state. Leaving the job of connecting to what ever app is delivering that service to you - be it Network Manager or even a specific proprietary solution. I have to say we at betavine have started experimenting with the application. If it's adopted by the community it would play a perfect role in allowing a far more open and free playing field for native applications written by third parties to provide that type of service. In my mind that's what open source is all about - giving choice back to the user. Regards, Nicholas Herriot.

Abstract Magic Lens is a client-server system for providing visual location information to mobile phones in indoor environments. The images captured by the mobile phone camera are continuously sent to a server along with the Wi-Fi signal strength as measured at the location of the mobile phone. The server analyzes the images and the Wi-Fi signals to accurately estimate the pose of the mobile phone within the floor plan of the environment and re-sends the image with dynamic location information overlaid. It is intended for use in complex buildings such as hotels and medical centers to help users navigate through them and provide users with location-based information. This way, it acts like a mobile information desk. Objectives -Facilitate the navigation process in long hallways. -Help people with cognitive impairments. -Help Blind people to navigate through indoors.

Vodacom and the Praekelt Foundation are pleased to present the Betavine Social Exchange Cape Town Developer Day 2010. The focus of the day is "Mobile Technology for Social Change" and will include a number of presentations from leaders in mobile technology. Tickets are free so find out more about the event here:- http://capetowndevday.eventbrite.com/

We are pleased to announce another Betavine release. Let me highlight two of the key changes we have made to improve the site:- 1) Maps - You can now navigate and locate Social Exchange 'Challenges' in regions and countries by using this new feature. Why not try it out for yourself now. 2) Messaging - You can now directly message another user! These messages will be available from the "My Betavine" menu when you login to the site. You can offer to help with a challenge or help with building a solution by contacting the owner. As always, we'd like to hear your feedback, so let us know what you think of these new features in the forum.

Dear friends, we are glad to introduce to you our brand new texture collection Liman textures vol.1 "Solid walls". Textures vol.1 "Solid walls" is a collection of 100 high resolution images of seamlessly tileable textures. This texture collection is related to solid stone and concrete surfaces. All textures have been crafted from original photography and made seamlessly tileable by hand. The textures would suit any environments that contain strong and solid elements. The textures are also crafted in a way to not constantly bring repeating details to the user's attention when tiled. Each texture has its own unique bump, specular and normal maps comprising of exactly 400 texture maps. product's page : http://www.liman3d.com/texturesvol1_overview.html www.liman3d.com

Hello everyone. I need very quick help otherwise I will have to switch back to windows so any help is much much appreciated. thanks in advance I will try to describe my problem step by step I installed vmc and umtsmon as well (suggestion from opensuse forums). At first I couldnt connect at all because in the shop they have me wrong apn. I discovered its PPBUNDLE.INTERNET. Now I can connect, the modems blue light keeps lighting. I try skype and it connects and works perfectly. however firefox doesn't work at all. It says its offline and file-work offline doesnt work. Oddly, yesterday I managed to connect properly. I just opened knetwork manager and with all the details it worked. But today it doesn't even try to connect. I am really puzzled and frustrated, looked everywhere and there seems to be no answer. I found a few people with a similar problem on this forum but no one really replied to them thanks everyone who tries to help denis

found the resolution... i downloaded the python-pyasn1 package for my distribution and everything started working fine.

Hi, i have posted this problem also so any help is appreciated. Regards Keith

Vodacom and the Praekelt Foundation are pleased to present the Betavine Social Exchange Cape Town Developer Day 2010. The focus of the day is "Mobile Technology for Social Change" and will include a number of presentations from leaders in mobile technology. Tickets are free so find out more about the event here:- http://capetowndevday.eventbrite.com/

We are pleased to announce another Betavine release. Let me highlight two of the key changes we have made to improve the site:- 1) Maps - You can now navigate and locate Social Exchange 'Challenges' in regions and countries by using this new feature. Why not try it out for yourself now. 2) Messaging - You can now directly message another user! These messages will be available from the "My Betavine" menu when you login to the site. You can offer to help with a challenge or help with building a solution by contacting the owner. As always, we'd like to hear your feedback, so let us know what you think of these new features in the forum.

On Wednesday March 3rd in Sheffield, Vodafone in partnership with Screen Yorkshire will host an afternoon and evening event, providing commercial and technical education, guidelines, Q&A and expert panel sessions around the Vodafone 360 mobile apps platform. On the day you will learn about JIL, Apps of interest to Vodafone UK customers and win hardware, software and cash prizes at the evening Hackathon. Find out more about the event and register for your FREE entry ticket by visiting: http://vodafonedevdaynorth.eventbrite.com

Are you a web developer wondering how you can use your industry skills to take on the mobile revolution? Or a mobile developer looking for a quick and clear route to market? If you are either or both then why not kick start building Mobile Widgets for Vodafone 360 with a FREE entry ticket to App Planet. On Monday 15th February 2010, during Mobile World Congress 2010, Barcelona, Vodafone will host the 360 Developer Conference at App Planet, an “event within an event”. Come along and find out all about Vodafone 360 for developers, tools and tips for developing across multiple OS and monetising your applications in the Shop. You’ll get to see loads of demos and code, and we’re giving away FREE entry tickets! But it's not going to be all presentations and one-way blah blah, they'll also be hosting a number of interactive sessions where you can question our experts and discuss the challenges of mobile applications development. On top of that they're hosting an Application Lounge where you can relax and mingle with fellow developers and the Vodafone developer team. Interested? Find out more about the event and request your FREE entry ticket here, http://jil.vodafone.com/app_planet