Running popular mobile platform SDKs in BlankOn 64 bit

For Linux developers, at least both Nokia and BlackBerry suggest to use 32-bit installation. This is to avoid incompatibilities because they only provide their tools in 32-bit. However, it is possible to run them in 64-bit installation by following the guidelines below. The key is to install correct 32-bit packages. These SDKs provided tools are unfortunately very silent when they are missing some packages. The list of packages here were obtained by doing tracing and troubleshooting with strace and ldd tools.

I use 64-bit BlankOn 9.0 Suroboyo alpha daily release. It is compatible with Debian Sid, so the guidelines here applies also to Debian or Ubuntu or other Debian derivatives. The method described here is the multiarch. By using this guide, I can successfully run Nokia Web Tools for Asha and BlackBerry 10 Native Development Kit.

First, we need to register the i386 architecture into the dpkg system:

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386

Then we need to refresh the package database:

sudo apt-get update

Then we start to install the necessary packages. The packages we install are the GTK+ and friends, Bluetooth, SSL and XUL runner packages:

sudo apt-get  -f -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-overwrite" install ia32-libs gtk2-engines-murrine:i386 libgtk2.0-bin:i386 libgtkmm-2.4-dbg:i386 libbluetooth3:i386 xulrunner-7.0:i386  libstartup-notification0:i386 libssl0.9.8:i386

And that's it. Now you can install the SDKs and enjoy coding for the platforms you desire.

My book is out

Yes, I know many of you think that development environment evolves very quickly and not suitable for printed books, but printed books is still better than having nothing for the developers who have hard time to get a decent internet connection.

Enough said, here it is: GNOME 3 Application Development Beginner's Guide

Icons which are meaningless to (most) people today

Nowadays, too many people in young ages use computers, be it a laptop, smart phone or tablet. Yet, the software are still using icons which are only meaningful to older people. How old? It depends. The line is drawn until a certain person knows or has access to the technology or the metaphors represented by the icons.

Let's see one by one. Note: the icons are not mine, they are from openclipart.org and wikipedia.

Floppy disk for Save

When was the last time you saw this old man's USB stick? Maybe never. Yet, the floppy disk is still used to represent save operation.

Phone handset for Phone

When was the last time you saw this handset? Maybe we still have this in some countries, but I haven't seen it in the last 3 countries I visited in last 3 years (except in museum).

Magnetic tape reel for voice mail

Did you see Mission Imposible TV series in the 1960s? Then you are familiar with the magnetic tape reel :D But how come the object become the voice mail icons?

Hourglass for waiting

This may make sense for most people, but maybe not. In another hand, hourglass shows remaining time left, and not to say that you need to wait. Even if you use hourglass in your apps which the audience is toddlers or kids, maybe they will not get it immediately and will start to hit and punch the device when they're tired of waiting.

Desk calendar for calendar

This is another rarely seen object around the house. If you have the days and dates shown on the icon maybe it is fine, but if just shows tables, maybe it is not.

Rolodex for address book

I personally never seen this in real life, so I event did not get what this thing suppose to mean :D

But hey, we forgot the most important thing. Do we need to keep them or replace them? If we want to replace, replace with what?