Any GLSL Shaders gurus around ?

I am looking for one. You can reach me at firstname lastname @ nokia dot com I don't work for Nokia anymore

Amazing Vigeland Park/Oslo

Beside continuing my journey into Qt Quick and qt-components in Oslo last week (29.11-2.12.2010), I took some time off to go and visit The Vigeland Park or Frogner Park in Oslo. Being there and be part of the artists dedication and whole life work, with projects which took 14 years to realize from conception to fulfillment, I wonder if such magnificent projects can still happen in the age of today (read twitter and 5 min attention spans). Just wonderful to get a perspective to life and work.

Qt Web Runtime for N900

Some might have already noticed the "launch" of the Qt Web Runtime. What is Qt Web Runtime? Simply put Qt Web Runtime provides a runtime environment for web applications, applications written using HTML/CSS/Javascript.

A question which I get often is - what are web applications and how do they differ from just pointing browser at web pages or saving web links as application shortcuts and launching them in a browser (very much like native installed applications) ? Web Application working group is a good place to start.

Web Browser consist basically of 2 parts (simplified).

1. Browser application/framework (UI /chrome, process model, extensions, settings etc) and
   
2. Web Rendering engine. This is the part which does much of the work, like fetching web pages, rendering them, running javascript etc. This is the part which implements the various W3C specifications and standards

Web Runtime shares much of the characteristics of a web browser (in this case webkit/Qt), while focusing towards the needs of an application developer.

• Widely deployed, understood and mature web technologies html/css/javascript. (enables rich client side applications to be written by web developers)
  
• Emerging W3C specifications e.g Widget Specifications which provide the foundations for (hopefully) a standardized environment for web application developers in crucial areas missing from the web browser paradigm like widget API, packaging & configuration, digital signing, view modes among many others.
  
• Provides an execution and deployment mechanism (e.g how web applications are installed, executed, transition between various view modes, integration to platform UX/chrome etc)
• Rich API's comparable to native application developers enabling the use of e.g sensors, runtime info, calender, file system (among many others) etc while developing rich web applications.
  

Working on standardizing the various API's and specs through W3C would help unify web application development, which at the moment is quite fragmented (while predominantly using the same web technologies) e.g opera widgets, apple dashboard widgets, yahoo widgets among many others. This would also mean better return of investments for developers (while at the same time enriching choice for end user).

If you are a web developer and own a N900 , you can take the QtWeb Runtime for a ride. It is now available from maemo extras repositories . Writing a W3C complaint widget should be relatively straight forward (Just follow the above w3c specs). You can also find some simple examples in the source code.Code is available here. Developers can discuss and provide feedback at Qt Web Runtime Forum. Remember, this is work in progress !

Good service and Good at what you do, chances are you will succeed as entrepreneur

In Dec 2009, we decided to renew air system in our house. We engaged entrepreneur Pekka from RakAir to design and renew it. I am happy to say I have not been disappointed yet :) Pekka renews my confidence in what the title of the post says "Good service and Good at what you do, chances are you will succeed as entrepreneur".

Nokia’s Growth Economy Venture Challenge

Nokia’s Growth Economy Venture Challenge will provide a venture capital investment in the winning proposal of $1 million (USD). Bear in mind, this is not a gift, grant or prize. It’s an investment aimed at creating a strong, vibrant business that will also improve people’s lives.

Forum Nokia Calling All Innovators 2010 contest!

The Palm Hot Apps Program

The Palm Hot Apps Program will reward developers of the hottest webOS applications with a total of $1 million. The top rewards of $100,000 will go to developers as follows:

• The developer of the free webOS application that’s downloaded the most between February 1, 2010, and May 31, 2010 will receive $100,000.
• The developer of the paid-for webOS app that generates the most revenue during the same period will also receive $100,000.

Open position and great opportunity for a talented and gifted web developer

I am looking to hire (permanent position) a talented web developer. He/She need to be proficient in

• HTML (4/5), Javascript, AJAX, CSS (2/3)
• Javascript UI & Animation frameworks like dojo, jQuery, script.aculo.us or similar

If you are one and are interested to know more about the position, please send me your profile to Devesh Kothari (email is first name dot last name at nokia.com). Position is based in Tampere (Finland)

Active Web Analysis: Convenience for web masters, growing nuisance for website users?

Of late I see a trend in various websites to use site external web analysis products like google analytics or Site catalyst (to name a few) to track web site usage patterns, generate reports etc. All these products mostly work with page instrumentation e.g script injection or similar.

It makes me ponder, what makes web masters adopt external web analysis software compared to passive log analyzers like awstats, webalizer or similar ? Nice looking reports and charts ? Ease of configuration ?

Of what I understood about these products, 2 things concern me

• Active intrusion to site user experience in my opinion. Each page navigation generally would cause logging requests to these external sites, which at times can cause page delays. With more and more ad view/serve business models on web sites, it is already becoming painful to get faster and non obstrusively to useful content.
• Web 2.0 changes the concept of page views. In web 2.0 paradigm , we are looking mostly web app model, where page views are replaced by dynamic UI/DOM injections and AJAX data fetching etc. So the question, is in such web 2.0 scenarios, how affective is results and reports from such products?
  

BTW Piwik is an open source project which aims to create open alternative to commerical products like Google Analytics etc with open architecture and API's to extend it to your needs. Most importantly you keep your site usage statistics and data, your own. Maybe that will get some brownie points from privacy advocates.