Mappero has always been distributed under a GPL licence. However, since when I started selling Mappero Geotagger (which is built from the same source), I decided not to publish the source code in a public repository, but only to provide it to those who made an explicit request to obtain it.

I spent some time reconsidering the matter, and I've finally decided to let the source code live in a public repository. I also setup a mailing list for it. And indeed I welcome code contributions, however there's a small catch: a CLA. While Mappero is distributed under the GPLv3 licence, I request that all contributors send me an e-mail in which they give me the right to re-licence their contribution under any licence published by the Free Software Foundation.

Since I believe that the busiest time for my involvement with speculo has passed, I expect to be able to spend some more time developing Mappero. The qt5 port is more or less working, but most of the cool features are missing, so it's little more than a map viewer at the moment (Mappero Geotagger, however, is fully working under Qt5!).

Here you can see Mappero running on an Ubuntu Touch powered Nexus 4. Pinch zooming and GPS are not yet working, but I promise they'll be there in less than a week. Also I found a nasty bug which can cause the application to crash when downloading map tiles, and I'll fix it ASAP (I'm mentioning it just so that I won't be flooded with identical bug reports now :-) ).

The last few months I've been dedicating most of my (very little) free time to a new project: speculo, a library which implements IPC (Inter-Process Communication) on top of shared memory. Since developers appreciate conciseness and minimalism, here's a description of speculo in a few bullet points:

• written in C
• POSIX (tested in Linux and FreeBSD)
• small (~850 LOC)
• well commented (~400 lines)
• good test coverage
• zerocopy
• lockless
• one writer, many readers
• data is written and read in chunks of arbitrary size
• a data chunk becomes visible to the readers as soon as the writer commits it
• data chunks can have an expiration time
• data chunks can be obsoleted by a newer copy
• garbage collector
• no file descriptors are permanently kept open
• no change notification

But here I probably need to write some paragraphs to explain a couple of points.  Except for a few memory addresses which hold the state of the memory area and which are atomically updated and guarded with memory barriers, all the data written to the shared memory object is immutable. This in particular guarantees that readers have a consistent access to the data, which will not change under their eyes. Data chunks are only appended, which means that the shared memory object can only grow. However, data chunks can be marked as expired (if they have an expiration time associated with them) or obsoleted (if a new chunk is said to replace their contents), which means that not all of the data which is written in the SHM object is actually valid. The readers' functions know this, and skip over the invalid data.
At some point the garbage collector will kick in, when the conditions specified by the writer are met or when the SHM area is completely full. All the chunks which are still valid will be copied over to a new SHM object, and then the SHM objects will be atomically switched. Readers will be able to complete their ongoing reads, and transparently move on to the new SHM object as they request to read a new data chunk.

The above means that speculo can be used in at least two ways:

• to implement a data stream: the writer fills the shared memory area with short-lived data chunks
• sharing changeable blocks of data

The first use-case doesn't need much of an explanation; it's usual message passing between a writer and some readers. The second use-case means having a writer expose one or more blocks of data to the readers; if the data gets updated, readers can re-read it and obtain the latest version.

On the minus side, speculo doesn't implement any mechanism of change notification: when the writer writes a new data chunk, or updates an existing one, readers won't be notified of it (though they will get the new data, if they access the shared memory area). This was done intentionally, because the scope of speculo is just to make using shared memory a little easier, and to integrate with existing IPC mechanisms, such as sockets or D-Bus (or even new IPC mechanisms).

The project is in such a state where the declared functionality is working, though I wouldn't swear about its complete reliability (more tests are needed). The current API is not fixed in stone, and on the contrary I'm thinking of a couple of changes to apply. Also, after seeing the implementation of shm_open in Linux and FreeBSD, I'm seriously considering dropping the usage of it in favour of plain open, which would then allow for per-user namespaces. So, I think this is a good time to join the project, to shape it the way it can be useful to the largest number of people.

Last but not least, the link to the project page: https://gitlab.com/mardy/speculo
There is not much documentation in the wiki yet; I recommend checking out the code and running make doc to build the HTML documentation (requires doxygen). To run the tests, use make check (requires pkg-config and check).
A mailing list is up here.

Circa vinti dies retro, io vos presentava le resultato de un experimento culinari. Iste resultato esseva partial, perque io de facto non completava le experimento; lo que io obteneva esseva quasi edibile, ma io non esseva secur que le procedura esseva correcte e decideva de repeter lo.
Ben, ante dicer plus, io revela qual es le ingrediente mysteriose que io usava: glandes de robore (quercus, it: quercia, en: oak). Il ha plure arbores de robore in le proximitate de mi casa, e quando io vadeva a promenar me e io videva iste enorme quantitate de glandes que se accumulava al terra sub le arbores, io decideva de investigar si illos esseva in alicun modo edibile. Io jam sapeva que altere animales como scuriolos e porcos pote mangiar los, ma io nunquam habeva audite que illos es bon pro humanos. Alora, io discoperiva alicun cosas interessante, gratias a internet.
Le prime cosa que io legeva, es que iste glandes es edibile e de facto multo nutriente, ma quasi tote le varietates es multo (e a vices, terribilemente!) amar, a causa del tanninos que illos contine. Il es totevia possibile eliminar le grande parte del tanninos e render los plus appetibile, per lavar los longemente in aqua currente. Le nativos de America los mangiava post haber los tenite in le aqua de un torrente pro un anno, e on dice que illes apprendeva iste methodo per observar le comportamento de alicun animales, que poneva le glandes inter le roccas del torrentes. Isto, on dice, es le technica melior; ma si on non vole attender un integre anno, on pote usar methodos alternative, como le bollition.
Ma lassa me vader con ordine, assi que io presenta tote le procedura, e adde alicun photos.

Glandes in aqua; illos que remane al superficie non es bon

Le prime cosa a facer es eliminar le glandes que non es bon. Isto es multo facile: on submerge tote glandes in aqua, e on reguarda qual glandes remane al superficie: istos non es bon, e debe esser eliminate.
Postea, on debe essiccar le glandes, assi que il sia plus facile remover le cortice e extraher le nucleo. Pro facer isto, io lassava le glandes per tres dies sur le pavimento del camera del sauna, que esseva legiermente rescaldate. Ma un qualcunque fonte de calor es bon, si illo non es troppo calide. Poner los al sol es un optime solution (infortunatemente in Finlandia le sol de octobre non es bastante calide).

Le nucleos del glandes

Le procedura de remotion del cortice es lente e manual; io non ha trovate un maniera rapide de facer lo. On debe haber patientia.
Quando tote le nucleos ha essite extrahite, on debe remover le tanninos. On pone le glandes in aqua bollente, e on los lassa bollir pro plure minutas (circa dece), usque on vide que le aqua es devenite scur (marron). Alora on debe cambiar le aqua, e repeter le operation. On lo face pro tres o quatro vices, e al fin on poterea vider que le aqua non deveni tanto scur (isto indica que le tanninos ha essite eliminate). Io ha legite que il es importante que le aqua es jam in bollition quando on pone le glandes in illo; alteremente, si illo es initialmente frigide, on dice que le tanninos va esser bloccate in le glandes.

Post le bollition, le glandes debe esser essiccate de novo

Le bollition rende le glandes molle, e illos se rumpe multo facilemente. Alora, il es un bon idea poner los in un blender (tritator) e reducer los a granulos, como de farina. Isto debe esser essiccate, al sol o con un altere fonte de calor non troppo forte.

Mi "farina" de glandes, preste pro esser addite al torta

Le resultato final es un sorta de farina, que un pote usar pro facer pan, tortas o altere cosas. Io seligeva de cocinar le dulce que plus me es familiar, le ciambella:

Le resultato de mi enorme labor: un ciambella!

Le ingredientes esseva:

• 3 ovos
• 280 gr de sucro
• 300 gr de farina
• 80 gr de farina de glandes
• 16 gr de levatura (it: lievito, en: yeast)
• 150 ml de lacte
• 100 gr de butiro

On initia per miscer le ovos con le sucro. On continua a miscer, e on adde le butiro liquide (on debe rescaldar lo multo dolcemente, usque illo deveni liquide) e le farina. Postea, le lacte, le levatura e le farina del glandes. On pone toto in le forno, a 180 grados, e on lo cocina pro circa 40 minutas.

Benque Yulia non esseva multo supportative de mi effortios de laborar le glandes (al contrario, illa esseva quasi hostil!), post haber mangiate le ciambella illa ha cambiate opinion, e dice que io debe facer lo ancora. Isto es un bon signo, nonne?

Io vos presenta le resultato de un mi experimento culinari:

Que es isto??

Io non va revelar vos immediatemente que es isto; io prefere mantener le mysterio per alicun dies, assi que vos pote tentar de divinar que es iste cosa. Postea, io va scriber un altere articulo pro solver le quiz, e va describer le processo de preparation.
Totevia, considerante que:

• isto es le prime vice que io essaya cocinar iste cosa
• io nunquam ha mangiate iste cosa, e mesmo non sape si illo es trovabile in le botecas

alora, io non es capabile de dicer si le resultato que io obteneva es correcte o non. Ma io va probar ancora, e si io va obtener un resultato differente alora io potera decider qual es le procedura le plus correcte. :-)

Ah, io oblidava de dicer qual es le premio pro le qui solve le quiz: un pernoctation gratuite a nostre casa, e un producto a mangiar basate super iste experimento culinari (ben que io non sape, si isto es un premio o un punition!).

Alicun photographias de mi promenada habitual. Il habeva nihil de special a vider, alora io cercava de capturar le beltate del scenarios usual. Clicca pro aggrandir le photos.








Plus de photos es visibile in mi pagina in Flickr.