in Tech

tagged debian, kiwix, stickers

Kiwix in Debian, 2018 update

It's been a relatively productive year for the packaging of Kiwix, an offline Wikipedia reader, in Debian. My minimum expectations for the Buster release scheduled in mid-2019 are that all necessary C/C++ libraries to build the latest versions of Kiwix are in Debian.

  • libzim is at v4.0.4, and basically ready to go.
  • libkiwix is prepared for v3.0.3, but is waiting on the FTP masters to approve the new version that is in the NEW queue (fifth oldest binary-NEW package as of this post...). Once that is approved, I have the v3.1.1 upgrade prepared as well.
  • ctpp2 was a bit of a struggle, but is ready to go as well. However, it looks like the upstream website has vanished (it was inactive for years), so it's good that Kiwix is planning to replace ctpp2 in the future.

There are three main user facing packages that are in the pipeline right now:

  • zimwriterfs is waiting in the NEW queue. I'm hopeful that we can get this included in time for Debian Buster.
  • kiwix-tools is a bundle of command-line utilities, the most useful of which is kiwix-serve. There's one upstream issue relating to how JavaScript code is embedded, but the packaging prep work is basically done. It's blocked on the new libkiwix anyways.
  • kiwix-desktop or just "Kiwix" is the most interesting thing for typical users who want to read offline content, but it's probably the farthest away. I spent some time this week figuring out how to get it to compile, and mostly got it to work. Probably something to aim for the next Debian release. There's also work underway to provide it as a flatpak, which will benefit even more people.

I also created a "Kiwix team" in the Debian Package Tracker, so you can subscribe to different notifications for all of the Kiwix-related packages (though it might be spammy if you're not very interested in Debian internals).

And, thank you to the Kiwix developers for always being receptive to my bug reports and patches - and providing extra chocolate and stickers :-)

Gifts

in FLP

tagged journalism, worldpol

Human Rights Day 2018

This summer I participated in a study abroad trip where we went to Greece and Italy to report on the refugee crisis. In Catania, Sicily, they had a celebration for World Refugee Day that happened earlier in the week. One of the most memorable and overwhelming moments was when three refugees started reading the Universal Delcaration of Human Rights:

Article I: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article III: Everyone has the right to life, liberty and the security of person.

Today is the 70th anniversary of the signing of the UDHR, and it seems more relevant and necessary now than ever.

in MediaWiki

tagged books, wikipedia

The importance of Artemis Fowl

My bookshelf

Artemis Fowl, sitting right of center on my "favorite books" shelf.

Nearly two decades later, the Artemis Fowl movie is finally happening. It's hard for me to overstate how important Artemis Fowl has been to me. One of my friends asked me if I saw the trailer today and I pretty ecstatically said yes. Artemis Fowl Confidential, a website I registered with back in 2008, sent me an email as soon as it was released. Immediate nostalgia.

I read the original Artemis Fowl sometime in elementary school, by the time the final book, Artemis Fowl: The Last Guardian, was released, I had already graduated high school.

Sometime in eighth grade I joined the Wikipedia WikiProject Artemis Fowl - a group of editors dedicated to improve Wikipedia's coverage of Artemis Fowl related articles. I went through the archives and even found the original post, welcoming me to the project. Those were my first friends on Wikipedia...Calvin, Icy, Laptopdude. Miss y'all.

And at some point I learned templates, creating Template:AF Cite Book. Then that turned into the first ever bug I would file in Wikimedia Bugzilla (I still have bug 2700 memorized for some reason).

And then that Wikipedia thing spiraled out of control, and somehow I ended up with an actual, real, job. Definitely due to other things, but just a little bit thanks to Artemis Fowl.

Thanks Eoin, and here's to the next twenty years of Artemis Fowl!