Counter to Fedora 8 release?

[Rahul Sundaram]

Hi


Might be good to have a counter in the front page that shows how many 
days are left for the Fedora 8 release and do it every time a month 
before a major release.

Would be even better if this counter can be copied by others like a 
banner on their websites.

Rahul

[Jonathan Steffan]

Rahul Sundaram wrote:
>  Hi
>
>
>  Might be good to have a counter in the front page that shows how many
>  days are left for the Fedora 8 release and do it every time a month
>  before a major release. 
+1

http://countdown.onlineclock.net/ seems pretty simple.

>  Would be even better if this counter can be copied by others like a
>  banner on their websites. 
+1

With the new time based releases, I think this would be a neat idea.

Jonathan Steffan
daMaestro

[Andrew Myers]

Is anyone working on this?  If not I will have a crack at it.

On 21/10/2007, Jonathan Steffan <jonathansteffan(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote:
>  Rahul Sundaram wrote:
>  > Hi
>  >
>  >
>  > Might be good to have a counter in the front page that shows how many
>  > days are left for the Fedora 8 release and do it every time a month
>  > before a major release.
>
>  +1
>
>  http://countdown.onlineclock.net/ seems pretty simple.
>
>  >
>  > Would be even better if this counter can be copied by others like a
>  > banner on their websites.
>
>  +1
>
>  With the new time based releases, I think this would be a neat idea.
>
>  Jonathan Steffan
>  daMaestro
>
>  --
>  Fedora-websites-list mailing list
>  Fedora-websites-list(a)redhat.com
>  https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-websites-list
>

[Rahul Sundaram]

Andrew Myers wrote:
>  Is anyone working on this?  If not I will have a crack at it.
>   
Go ahead then.

Rahul

[Máirín Duffy]

Andrew Myers wrote:
>  Is anyone working on this?  If not I will have a crack at it. 
Hi,

Attached is a counter design in SVG with a bitmap preview.

If you look at the xml in the SVG, you have to change the element with 
the 'counter-text' id (it's inside the element with the 'counter' id)
to 
whatever number of days are left and the graphic will update accordingly.

You might be able to write a script in python using inkex to modify the 
value [1]... maybe use command-line inkscape [2] to re-render the PNG 
for display on the website.

Just an idea anyway.

~m

[1] http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/PythonEffectTutorial
[2] http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/ScriptingHOWTO, inkscape man 
page

[Kamisamanou Burgess]

Sorry, forgot the reply to all:
If we miss the release date what happens?


On 10/21/07, Máirín Duffy <duffy(a)redhat.com&gt; wrote:
>  Andrew Myers wrote:
>  > Is anyone working on this?  If not I will have a crack at it.
>
>  Hi,
>
>  Attached is a counter design in SVG with a bitmap preview.
>
>  If you look at the xml in the SVG, you have to change the element with
>  the 'counter-text' id (it's inside the element with the 'counter' id)
> to
>  whatever number of days are left and the graphic will update accordingly.
>
>  You might be able to write a script in python using inkex to modify the
>  value [1]... maybe use command-line inkscape [2] to re-render the PNG
>  for display on the website.
>
>  Just an idea anyway.
>
>  ~m
>
>  [1] http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/PythonEffectTutorial
>  [2] http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/ScriptingHOWTO, inkscape man
>  page
>
>  --
>  Fedora-websites-list mailing list
>  Fedora-websites-list(a)redhat.com
>  https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-websites-list
>
>
>

[Rahul Sundaram]

Kamisamanou Burgess wrote:
>  Sorry, forgot the reply to all:
>  If we miss the release date what happens?
>   
We reset the counter.

Rahul

[Andrew Myers]

Okay this might be a bit harder than I originally thought.  I was
originally thinking of doing something in Javascript but I think
Mairin's suggestion is awesome and I am still happy to have a go at
it.  I might be slow tho...


On 21/10/2007, Máirín Duffy <duffy(a)redhat.com&gt; wrote:
>  Andrew Myers wrote:
>  > Is anyone working on this?  If not I will have a crack at it.
>
>  Hi,
>
>  Attached is a counter design in SVG with a bitmap preview.
>
>  If you look at the xml in the SVG, you have to change the element with
>  the 'counter-text' id (it's inside the element with the 'counter' id)
> to
>  whatever number of days are left and the graphic will update accordingly.
>
>  You might be able to write a script in python using inkex to modify the
>  value [1]... maybe use command-line inkscape [2] to re-render the PNG
>  for display on the website.
>
>  Just an idea anyway.
>
>  ~m
>
>  [1] http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/PythonEffectTutorial
>  [2] http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/ScriptingHOWTO, inkscape man
>  page
>
>

[Máirín Duffy]

Andrew Myers wrote:
>  Okay this might be a bit harder than I originally thought.  I was
>  originally thinking of doing something in Javascript but I think
>  Mairin's suggestion is awesome and I am still happy to have a go at
>  it.  I might be slow tho... 
Oh you could do it in Javascript too in the SVG file, something like this:

http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/DRAWINGS/clock2.svg

~m

[Samer E. Ziadeh]

That last one is awesome, but I think it would confuse everyone without the
labels and all those gears.
Marlin's design is really nice, we should go with that one I think.

[Máirín Duffy]

Andrew Myers wrote:
>  Okay this might be a bit harder than I originally thought.  I was
>  originally thinking of doing something in Javascript but I think
>  Mairin's suggestion is awesome and I am still happy to have a go at
>  it.  I might be slow tho... 
Okay, here's what I got (see attached files)

run counter.py like so:

python counter.py [input SVG] [number of days to update counter to] 
[output SVG[

so for example:

python counter.py fedora-countdown-banner.svg 37 fedora-countdown-banner.svg

Anyone want to run with this? hehe, maybe could set this in a cron job, 
then also write a python script to convert the svg to a png using inkex?

~m

[Máirín Duffy]

Máirín Duffy wrote:
>  Andrew Myers wrote:
> > Okay this might be a bit harder than I originally thought.  I was
> > originally thinking of doing something in Javascript but I think
> > Mairin's suggestion is awesome and I am still happy to have a go at
> > it.  I might be slow tho...
>  
>  Okay, here's what I got (see attached files)
>  
>  run counter.py like so:
>  
>  python counter.py [input SVG] [number of days to update counter to] 
>  [output SVG[
>  
>  so for example:
>  
>  python counter.py fedora-countdown-banner.svg 37 
>  fedora-countdown-banner.svg
>  
>  Anyone want to run with this? hehe, maybe could set this in a cron job, 
>  then also write a python script to convert the svg to a png using inkex? 
Oh haha, or if you could install inkscape, you could do:

inkscape -z fedora-countdown-banner.svg 
--export-png=fedora-countdown-banner.png

I'm attaching a modified version of the svg so you'd only need one font 
- Isabella - the rest of the fonts are converted to paths. Isabella is 
available here and is LGPL-licensed:

http://www.thibault.org/fonts/isabella/

So here is how this could work, sanity checks welcome:

- need a script to:
   - call counter.py with the correct value, incrementing that value 
every time it's called
   - regenerate the svg
   - run the inkscape command above to export the svg to png

- need a cron script to call the above at say every night at midnight.

- need counter.py and the attached updated svg

- need to install the Isabella font

If the png is saved out to a directory accessible to the web then anyone 
wanting to display the counter could simply use that image.

Makes sense? Is this do-able?

~m

[Máirín Duffy]

Máirín Duffy wrote:
>  I'm attaching a modified version of the svg  
Sigh, this time for real.

~m

[Andrew Myers]

How far in advance are we generally going to display the counter?
Would it be preferrable to batch generate a file for each date in
advance, then have some server side code that includes the correct
one?

On 22/10/2007, Máirín Duffy <duffy(a)redhat.com&gt; wrote:

>  Oh haha, or if you could install inkscape, you could do:
>
>  inkscape -z fedora-countdown-banner.svg
>  --export-png=fedora-countdown-banner.png
>
>  I'm attaching a modified version of the svg so you'd only need one font
>  - Isabella - the rest of the fonts are converted to paths. Isabella is
>  available here and is LGPL-licensed:
>
>  http://www.thibault.org/fonts/isabella/
>
>  So here is how this could work, sanity checks welcome:
>
>  - need a script to:
>     - call counter.py with the correct value, incrementing that value
>  every time it's called
>     - regenerate the svg
>     - run the inkscape command above to export the svg to png
>
>  - need a cron script to call the above at say every night at midnight.
>
>  - need counter.py and the attached updated svg
>
>  - need to install the Isabella font
>
>  If the png is saved out to a directory accessible to the web then anyone
>  wanting to display the counter could simply use that image.
>
>  Makes sense? Is this do-able?
>
>  ~m
>

[Samer E. Ziadeh]

Someone mentioned about a month in advance, it sounds just right. Any date
over a month would be too much

[Rahul Sundaram]

Andrew Myers wrote:
>  How far in advance are we generally going to display the counter?
>  Would it be preferrable to batch generate a file for each date in
>  advance, then have some server side code that includes the correct
>  one?
>   
A month in advance and use server side code that can be linked via 
scripted banners.

Rahul

[Nicu Buculei]

Máirín Duffy wrote:
>  
>  Attached is a counter design in SVG with a bitmap preview.
>  
>  Just an idea anyway. 
I like your ideea and I like your implementation. But obviously I 
couldn't stop myself and did my own (silly and informal) countdown graphic:
color: http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/artwork/funny/werewolf8_color.png
BW outline: http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/artwork/funny/werewolf8.png

(change .png in .svg to get the sources)

-- 
nicu :: http://nicubunu.ro :: http://nicubunu.blogspot.com
Cool Fedora wallpapers: http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/wallpapers/
Open Clip Art Library: http://www.openclipart.org
my Fedora stuff: http://fedora.nicubunu.ro

[Máirín Duffy]

Nicu Buculei wrote:
>  Máirín Duffy wrote:
> >
> > Attached is a counter design in SVG with a bitmap preview.
> >
> > Just an idea anyway.
>  
>  I like your ideea and I like your implementation. But obviously I 
>  couldn't stop myself and did my own (silly and informal) countdown graphic:
>  color: http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/artwork/funny/werewolf8_color.png
>  BW outline: http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/artwork/funny/werewolf8.png
>  
>  (change .png in .svg to get the sources)
>   
eeee! That's AWESOME!!!!

We can use that one too you know! Just put the id "conter-text" on the 
tspan (not the text) attribute that holds the number!

~m

[Nicu Buculei]

Máirín Duffy wrote:
>  Nicu Buculei wrote:
> > I like your ideea and I like your implementation. But obviously I 
> > couldn't stop myself and did my own (silly and informal) countdown 
> > graphic:
> > color: http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/artwork/funny/werewolf8_color.png
> > BW outline: http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/artwork/funny/werewolf8.png
>  
>  eeee! That's AWESOME!!!!
>  
>  We can use that one too you know! Just put the id "conter-text" on the 
>  tspan (not the text) attribute that holds the number! 
Thanks, I made my SVGs counter-enabled, if someone post a cron script 
maybe I will use it too...
BTW, if don't and I decide to bother and update it by hand (weak 
chance), the release date is still the one in the schedule [1]?

[1] - http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/8/Schedule

-- 
nicu :: http://nicubunu.ro :: http://nicubunu.blogspot.com
Cool Fedora wallpapers: http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/wallpapers/
Open Clip Art Library: http://www.openclipart.org
my Fedora stuff: http://fedora.nicubunu.ro

[Rahul Sundaram]

Nicu Buculei wrote:

>  Thanks, I made my SVGs counter-enabled, if someone post a cron script
>
>  maybe I will use it too...
>  BTW, if don't and I decide to bother and update it by hand (weak 
>  chance), the release date is still the one in the schedule [1]?
>  
>  [1] - http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/8/Schedule 
Yes. Can someone from the infrastructure team look at setting up a 
counter in the front page? We only have a few days left.

Rahul

[Matt Domsch]

On Mon, Oct 22, 2007 at 06:23:24PM +0300, Nicu Buculei wrote:
>  M??ir??n Duffy wrote:
>  >Nicu Buculei wrote:
>  >>I like your ideea and I like your implementation. But obviously I 
>  >>couldn't stop myself and did my own (silly and informal) countdown 
>  >>graphic:
>  >>color: http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/artwork/funny/werewolf8_color.png
>  >>BW outline: http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/artwork/funny/werewolf8.png
>  >
>  >eeee! That's AWESOME!!!!
>  >
>  >We can use that one too you know! Just put the id "conter-text" on the 
>  >tspan (not the text) attribute that holds the number!
>  
>  Thanks, I made my SVGs counter-enabled, if someone post a cron script 
>  maybe I will use it too...
>  BTW, if don't and I decide to bother and update it by hand (weak 
>  chance), the release date is still the one in the schedule [1]? 
yes.

How does the date thing work?  Is it sufficient to:
 convert werewolf8_color.svg werewolf8_color.png
and post the png file somewhere accessible, once a day and it
automatically counts down?  if so that should be easy to get running.

(I note that convert in Fedora 6 will segfault doing so, but rawhide works.)

-- 
Matt Domsch
Linux Technology Strategist, Dell Office of the CTO
linux.dell.com & www.dell.com/linux

[Máirín Duffy]

Matt Domsch wrote:
>  How does the date thing work?  Is it sufficient to:
>   convert werewolf8_color.svg werewolf8_color.png
>  and post the png file somewhere accessible, once a day and it
>  automatically counts down?  if so that should be easy to get running. 
Well you'd have to input the number to the SVG generation script too so 
we need a script with smarts to figure out what the day value should be.

Also I think convert would work fine for Nicu's artwork but the banner I 
did will need to be modified to work with convert (only comes out right 
if you use command-line inkscape) - it's totally do-able just a little 
less blingy.

~m

[Andrew Myers]

Where can I access the website code to have a look?

[Ricky Zhou]

On Tue, Oct 23, 2007 at 08:31:45AM +1000, Andrew Myers wrote:
>  Where can I access the website code to have a look? 
Since
you're in the web group, you should be able to
git clone ssh://git.fedoraproject.org/git/hosted/fedora-web.git
and have push access.  

Right now, the idea is to use some python in the templates to point to
pre-generated counter images.  We're hoping to have a working version at
least at http://fedoraproject.org/_/en/ by tonight, then see about when
we can move the main website to use these templates.  

Thanks,
Ricky

[Andrew Myers]

Thanks Ricky.  I will look and learn. :)

On 23/10/2007, Ricky Zhou <ricky(a)fedoraproject.org&gt; wrote:
>  On Tue, Oct 23, 2007 at 08:31:45AM +1000, Andrew Myers wrote:
>  > Where can I access the website code to have a look?
>  Since you're in the web group, you should be able to
>  git clone ssh://git.fedoraproject.org/git/hosted/fedora-web.git
>  and have push access.
>
>  Right now, the idea is to use some python in the templates to point to
>  pre-generated counter images.  We're hoping to have a working version at
>  least at http://fedoraproject.org/_/en/ by tonight, then see about when
>  we can move the main website to use these templates.
>
>  Thanks,
>  Ricky
>
>  --
>  Fedora-websites-list mailing list
>  Fedora-websites-list(a)redhat.com
>  https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-websites-list
>
>
>

[Matt Domsch]

Several folks are working on an days-until-release countdown counter
for Fedora 8.  Cool stuff.


On Mon, Oct 22, 2007 at 06:57:04PM -0400, Ricky Zhou wrote:
>  
>  Right now, the idea is to use some python in the templates to point to
>  pre-generated counter images.  We're hoping to have a working version at
>  least at http://fedoraproject.org/_/en/ by tonight, then see about when
>  we can move the main website to use these templates.   

As long as we're doing this, can we also get a countdown to End of
Life for Fedora 6 ? :-)  Days remaining until no more updates.  At
Fedora 8 + 1 month, that would be December 8.  December 7 would be
more fitting, and in fact is a work day (December 8 is a Saturday).

Thanks,
Matt

-- 
Matt Domsch
Linux Technology Strategist, Dell Office of the CTO
linux.dell.com & www.dell.com/linux

[Nicu Buculei]

Máirín Duffy wrote:
>  Matt Domsch wrote:
> > How does the date thing work?  Is it sufficient to:
> >  convert werewolf8_color.svg werewolf8_color.png
> > and post the png file somewhere accessible, once a day and it
> > automatically counts down?  if so that should be easy to get running.
>  
>  Well you'd have to input the number to the SVG generation script too so 
>  we need a script with smarts to figure out what the day value should be.
>  
>  Also I think convert would work fine for Nicu's artwork but the banner I 
>  did will need to be modified to work with convert (only comes out right 
>  if you use command-line inkscape) - it's totally do-able just a little 
>  less blingy. 
No, I don't think it would work for the _color_ version (but I can 
simplify it, remove gradients and drop shadow - they are less noticeable 
when the image is exported at a small size as it should).

You know, we can get to an alternate route: export the bitmap one time 
and then add the counter with imagemagick or gd and even leave out all 
the font availability problem by creating pre-rendered images for all 
the possible digits, from 0 to 9 (yes, it is old school compared with 
modifying the SVG on the fly, but is tried and true).

-- 
nicu :: http://nicubunu.ro :: http://nicubunu.blogspot.com
Cool Fedora wallpapers: http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/wallpapers/
Open Clip Art Library: http://www.openclipart.org
my Fedora stuff: http://fedora.nicubunu.ro

[Nicu Buculei]

Máirín Duffy wrote:
>  Attached is a counter design in SVG with a bitmap preview.
>  
>  Just an idea anyway. 
Now as we have the counter up and running for a few days already, how 
about when the count-down end? We can replace it with something like 
"Werewolf arrived"  or "the Werewolf has landed" [1]

A crack-idea, maybe doable for the next release: it would be interesting 
if in the last day we switch to counting the remaining hours.

[1] - not sure you know, "Werewolf" was a nickname used for the Soviet 
attack helicopter Kamov KA-50 - http://warfare.ru/?catid=260&linkid=1631

-- 
nicu :: http://nicubunu.ro :: http://nicubunu.blogspot.com
Cool Fedora wallpapers: http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/wallpapers/
Open Clip Art Library: http://www.openclipart.org
my Fedora stuff: http://fedora.nicubunu.ro

[Samer E. Ziadeh]

oh, i always thought it was the werewolf where the person turns into a wolf
at midnight, and the counter has 2 wolves howling. I think the general will
think it's the wolf thing not many people are familiar with military weapons

[Nicu Buculei]

Samer E. Ziadeh wrote:
>  oh, i always thought it was the werewolf where the person turns into
> a 
>  wolf at midnight, and the counter has 2 wolves howling. I think the 
>  general will think it's the wolf thing not many people are familiar with 
>  military weapons 
Sure, lycanthropy is the main meaning of the werewolf term. But some, 
like me, may find fun in exploring other less-known meanings, like the 
above-mentioned Soviet helicopter or the German (Nazi) operation during 
WW II.

-- 
nicu :: http://nicubunu.ro :: http://nicubunu.blogspot.com
Cool Fedora wallpapers: http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/wallpapers/
Open Clip Art Library: http://www.openclipart.org
my Fedora stuff: http://fedora.nicubunu.ro