100!

It has only been one week since we debuted the KDE-Artist.org website. I just wanted to announce a milestone that we just hit. Our 100th member signed up today!

Other interesting stats:
The site has had 33,347 hits and 300 posts to the Kollaboration forum.
The Plasma board alone has have 138 posts.

Here is some great screenshots I found on the Kollaboration forum that shows a bunch ideas that our artists, developers and dreamers have been working together on:

screenshots = a 1000 words

I just added a two new boards on the Kollaboration forum at kde-artists.org:
KDE Website Screenshots and KDE-Docs Screenshots.

If you need any screenshots for your projects website or for your documentation please post your request.

The KDE-Docs Screenshots board might be particularly helpful to our Docs translators...

lauri: ok, say I take four new screenshots in konqueror's doc... two replacing old ones, and two new... we freeze for 3.5 at that point... askie here, and his team, pick up the docs to translate to dutch and askie has to retake those screenshots, as nearly exactly the same as possible, but *in dutch* and there, the requirements are a lot easier: exactly duplicate what you see in the english screenshot, but do it with the language set to dutch

lauri: some teams (swedish :) do them pretty much as we do in english - usually within a day of a new screenshot in the english doc, the swedish one is updated, some do it as they go through the doc translation, some do it all in one batch once they're done
so it might be useful in those latter two cases, to have some help for sure so maybe for the dutch team to be able to ask "hey, can someone install the dutch i18n pack, and then retake the screenshots in the konqueror and kicker docs"

askie: It depends mostly on the translator.

lauri: and there *are* situations where I totally can't do the english ones either

askie: Some take the shots while translating, some take 'em after the entire translations. We don't have enough people-time for updating them when they come in.

lauri: but being able to post them on a page, might not hurt (worst case, nobody does them, and I keep nagging, right?)

Need artwork?

KDE-Artists.org has a section where KDE developers can request new icons. All you have to do is register at the site and start a topic in the Application Projects board on our Kollaboration forum.



Please include any ideas you have for the icon like symbolism, colors, etc. You could even attach a picture of your current icon and a link to your project's website. The more details you include the better. Then our artists can submit their icons to your thread and you can pick the one you like the best. Another benefit is that other kde-artists can give suggestions to make sure your new icon complies with our current Crystal standards and looks really cool!

Don't forget to check back often and particapate in your new "Kollaboration".

New resources urgently needed

I would like to formally propose that we start a new project. It would take the best ideas form KHotNewStuff and Adopt-a-Geek. You see there are a lot of KDE developers out there that are students, inbetween jobs or otherwise deprived of dating resources. Many of these folks overworked their underpowered social skills to help bring you an outstanding Open Source desktop. There are also appreciative users that are willing to donate their obsolete girlfriends to help the KDE project if they knew who needed what and where. In order to bring both parties together and thereby increase the productivity of these KDE developers, I suggest we start a project called KHotNewChicks. All we would need is a web page were we could list all these ex-girlfriends that would might make good matches for your favorite developer.


Check out the responses from this article if you don't think this is a urgent need;)

makes me happy

I found this picture I took of of the kids a few months ago and it just makes me happy.



I was giving the girls make-overs and they wanted me to pencil in their eyebrows. Then they wanted me to pencil in the babies eyebrows too.

She looks like Groucho Marx don't you think?

a few good quotes

"We must remember that one determined person can make a significant difference, and that a small group of determined people can change the course of history." - Sonia Johnson

IMO KDE is not just about this or that new feature or bug report. It isn't even about a hobby that I love. The work we do together gives people the tools to make their lives better. It gives _everyone_ the opportunity to use world class applications that are a pleasure to use.

"What moves men of genius, or rather what inspires their work, is not new ideas, but their obsession with the idea that what has already been said is still not enough." - Eugene Delacroix

Stupid fun quizzes

I have been wanting to start blogging again, but I am too sick today to write anything smart. Well at least it is fun:)

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

Your Linguistic Profile:

75% General American English

20% Upper Midwestern

5% Midwestern

0% Dixie

0% Yankee

btw I am from the Pacific NW part of the US. I have heard that news reports come here to learn to talk boring plain American English. I guess that is why I got a 75% score for General American English.

I think people don't realize how the different each region of the US is. A few years back I was a sales rep for the eastern part of the US. I noticed that the people from Georgia needed to chat a little before they could get to business and the people from New York would get very impatient if I even asked them if they were having a nice day and they talk so fast I could have used a translator.

found another fun quiz....

How Normal Are You?

You Are 35% Normal (Occasionally Normal)

You sure do march to your own beat... But you're so weird, people wonder if it's a beat at all You think on a totally different wavelength And it's often a chore to get people to understand you

This is a perfect way to spend a sick day:)

There is still time...

There is still time to enter the digiKam Superimpose Template Contest. The deadline is March 28th.

Making a Superimpose Template is easy.

1. Make a image any size you want.
2. The image should have at least one area that is completely transparent.
This way when you paste it on top of a photo in digiKam you can see some of
the photograph underheath it.

digiKam is a terrific program and can really use our artwork. Not to mention
that KDE could use more apps that are "fun to use for all of us"!
See http://dot.kde.org/1108131906/1108156751/

Here is a peek at a few of the entries we have received so far:

KDE-Look.org T-shirt Contest Winner!

The community has spoken and the winner of the First Annual KDE-Look T-Shirt Contest with 24 out of 81 votes is Nenad Grujicic with Green! Nenad has won the first Official KDE-Look T-shirt and an External 7 in 1 Memory Card Reader!!!!

Congratulations goes out to him and to all of you who entered in this contest.

Our new KDE-Look T-Shirt is on sale at Revelinux Gear with all the proceeds going to help out with the costs of running KDE-Look.



When we posted the vote to KDE-Forum.org they thought that they were experiencing a Denial Of Service attack because so many people viewed the forum at the same time! WE HAD 3,528 PAGE LOADS WITHIN 7 DAYS. They were a bit relieved and excited when they found out it was a KDE related quest.


KDE-Look... We overwhelm the world with beauty!

Just a reminder that the digiKam Superimpose Template Contest is in full swing. We are "looking" forward to seeing the artwork that this contest brings out!!!

For those of you interested in helping out on future contests please feel free to join KDE-contests mailing list.

Be on the" look out" for many more great contests and challenges coming your way soon!!!

digiKam and KDE-Look.org team up!

DIGIKAM AND KDE-LOOK.ORG ARE TEAMING UP TO HAVE A CONTEST FOR THE BEST NEW SUPERIMPOSE TEMPLATES TO BE INCLUDED IN DIGIKAM'S NEXT RELEASE!





digiKam's Image Editor now has a new plugin to use PNG template files
containing borders, frames, and composite images that can be added to or
superimposed on other images hence the name Superimpose Templates. The
currently selected image acts as a background and the templates can then be
selected and overlaid on the image. You will be able to see the image
underneath the transparent areas of the template. These templates can be
created using paint programs such as The Gimp or Inkscape.  


With this new Superimpose feature you can create some great images including photocards.
There is a screenshotof this plugin in action on theSuperimpose Templates section of digiKam's manual. Download the latest version of DigiKam and the plugin pack to experience this and many more of digiKam's awesome new features.



The last day to submitt your images to this contest is March 28th 2005.

Rock the vote

We are going to do our judging for the new KDE-Look t-shirt Contest a little different this time. The judges picked their favorite t-shirt designs and now we opened a poll (at kde-forum.org) for the whole KDE community to vote on the new KDE-Look t-shirt. 2 DAYS LEFT Feb 16 is the last day!!!!!!

Click the shirt to vote!

kde-contests

A lot has been happening lately. We have recently opened a mailing list called kde-contests and I have been given permission to resurrect the artist.kde.org website.

The mailing list will be used to coordinate all our future contests on kde-look. This list will provide a venue for artists and developers to interact on the guidelines and specifics of our contests.

I am inviting all you usability experts, artists and developers to subscribe. Developers that need artwork for their apps please join our list. Members of the usability list, we could really use your insights. Artists looking for a challenge or wanting to try your skills and improve the apps you love (and maybe pickup some killer prizes along the way) JOIN US.

Go to: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-contests to join the new kde-contest mailing list.

After we get the next contest under way I will be working on the artist.kde.org site. Anybody interested in helping on the website drop me an email at theobroma@revelinux.com. For more information about our vision for artist.kde.org see my last post on this blog.

And stay tuned for more awesome artwork coming from kde-look in the coming months!

Kollaboration

There are many of us artists at kde-look.org who desire to contribute to the KDE Project. We would like to work cooperatively with developers and existing artists who are building a beautiful, powerful and unified desktop environment. For our part I propose using a combination of kde-look contests coupled with a full featured collaborative web site.

Contests:
The contests we are having at kde-look.org just flat out work. We are attracting many talented artists a lot of whom have joined kde-look just to take part in the contests. Our last contest received 86 SVG wallpapers in a 3 week period. The artwork was amazing and the selection extremely diversified. A lot of the artists are looking for a starting point. The contests give them opportunities to make a valuable first impression. I have heard many people on the kde-artist mailing list say that we need more artists. I believe they have them in the artists at kde-look.org.

Full featured collaborative web site:
KDE-Look is a great place for the artists to contribute their contest entries and personal
artwork. As time goes on though we are going to need a place where these artists can go to for reference and more direction. Artists are very visual people. That is one of the reasons that KDE-Look works so well. The wiki, the kde-artist mailing list and the buglist are great for developers however artists need a more visual space where they can feel comfortable and work collectively.

A site like this would be a great space for developers to connect with our
artists (new and established) as well as great space to keep track of the current
state of various artwork projects. A collaborative web site could be a place for artists to submit ideas, talk to and learn from the masters, learn new "tips and tricks", find guidelines, find re-usable color palettes, find re-usable icon elements (add, delete, edit, locked, folder, page, etc) for the different icon themes, easily see which icons are missing, easily get involved with the "official development", talk about how things should look, vote for preferences, establish standards, help coordinate the look and feel of each release, develop art to go with different themes and styles, and a space developers could request specific artwork that they need such as icons for new programs or new versions of programs. The site should be a space used for “Kollaboration”:)

Specifically this web site would have the following modules news, reference, instructional, and a kollaborative modules for our kde artist and developers. We would use the forums to kollaborate on each individual project.

I would also like to start a mailing list called kde-contest. The reason for this is it is taking a lot more people to coordinate these contests as they are getting bigger. This could be an excellent starting place for many new and innovative contests to be held in the future.
We need a place...
1. for the developers to submit there contest requests.
2. to discuss the guidelines for the contests; as they can vary from contest to contest.
3. to coordinate the sponsors and prizes.
4. for the judges to discuss issues that arise during the judging process.
5. to discuss future contests.
I think this mailing list could also be a great place for others groups within KDE that are having contests to learn from our experience. We also be able to help them with finding judges and sponsors.

To summarize:
We propose to use kde-look contests to bring in fresh ideas and new artists. We are asking the KDE community for a visual space for developers and artists to Kollaborate. Specifically we would like to resurrect artist.kde.org for this propose. I am volunteering to set-up this web site and maintain it. We are also asking for permission to set up a mailing list called kde-contests.

Through this proposal we believe that we can help move KDE artwork and development forward while maintaining a unified community.

Janet Theobroma


Special thanks go out to Robert Wadley and the artists at kde-look for their thoughts and inspiration that helped shape this proposal.

KDE-Look.org T-shirt Contest Prizes

The first place winner of the KDE-Look.org T-Shirt Contest will receive a 7-in-1 External/Internal USB Memory Card Reader AND the new KDE-Look t-shirt featuring their artwork!

7-in-1 PRODUCT SPECS:



7-In-1 USB 2.0 Card Reader/Writer
USB 2.0 interface
Up to 480 Mbps data transfer rate
USB powered
Hot-swappable
Plug and Play
Power LED indicator
Access LED indicator
Microsoft, Macintosh and Linux compatible
Media support: Secure Digital, SmartMedia Card, MultiMedia Card, Memory Stick, Memory Stick,CompactFlash Type I/II Cards, IBM Microdrive, xD card
Retail Package Includes: USB 2.0 8-in-1 card reader/writer, USB cable,Driver CD, User's Guide,

KDE-Look's Distro Wallpaper Challenge

This month some almighty *nix distros released their new versions to the eager masses starving for the new features and apps. In order to pay homage and grovel at the feet of the almighty distro gods/goddesses KDE-Look.org and Gnome-Look.org held a distro themed wallpaper challenge. 42 wallpapers were submitted in just 11 days. The kde-look and gnome-look communities voted for their favorite wallpaper for each distro. We had 12 winners and a ton (907,184.74 grams) of great new artwork.

Here is a few of the winners:

PS tutorials

Here are some tutorials I hope to redo for The Gimp

pencil tutorial

Foood's tutorials

Lila Icon Theme

The Lila Theme is a community icon project, originally created by Daniel G. Taylor.

The theme is based around SVG graphics - which means they can be scaled to any size without loss of quality - and is inspired by the Gentoo Linux distribution. It is available in both a Gnome and a KDE version.

For all those that wish to contribute icons to the Lila Icon Theme, here are the general specifications.

Sodipodi and Inkscape tutorials

Sodipodi:
linuxcult tutorial
hawhtorn tutorial
zeus tutorial
video tutorials
linux-delhi tutorial (Click the tgz file - the pdf is broken)

Inkscape:
programmer-art tutorial

If anyone knows of some more tutorials please post a comment and a link.

Distro logos

Looking for logos to make wallpaper for your favorite distro? Look no further! Click these links to find logos for Mandrake, Gentoo, Debian, Slackware and Suse.

Here are small collection of logos I found on the Sodipodi site. There are logos for FreeBSD, Debian, Mandrake, Red Hat & more.

KDE - Clipart

Here is a link to KDE's Official logo and other KDE clipart.