The roads I take...

Here's a short summary of Mozilla-related work I've done in week 38/2012 (September 17 - 23, 2012):

• CSI:Mozilla / CrashKill:
  More testing of Firefox OS on my otoro and trying poking people so we get crash reporting working.
  That work on B2G crash reporting included a conference with UX and privacy teams on what the flow of crash reporting should be for users in a way that we respect their privacy (i.e. enable a really informed opt-out).
  Followed how the Socorro team fixed two bugs in their recent release and deployed those fixes fast, also helped testing that those worked.
  Filed a bug on getting more resilient against late ADU pushes again.
  Had some discussions on crashes with CyanogenMod.
  Added bug IDs to my topcrasher reports for ARMv6, Win8 and Mountain Lion.
  Watched data for the new Flash release coming up that week.
  As usual, watched new/rising crashes, caring that bugs are filed where needed, and made sure my custom reports keep working well.
• German L10n:
  Done some reviews for German L10n work.
  Synched core, suite and Chatzilla L10n with trunk.
• Web Apps:
  Made Lantea Maps available on GitHub, updated its screen shots on the Mozilla Marketplace, and did a blog post inviting contributions.
• Various Discussions/Topics:
  UA strings and hardware tokens, B2G wallpaper customization, Mozilla Dino head, etc.

Things are busy again, esp. due to deadlines coming up in the B2G project and the general pace of Firefox OS work picking up. I have we finally are on the breakthrough to also get crash reporting in this system in the right direction so we can more efficiently help to make this a damn stable experience for our users!

I just split my Lantea Maps web app out of my main git repo and into its own small one, one main reason being that I can place it on GitHub as well. This is not meaning that I suddenly love the GitHub site, but having the repo there lowers the entry barrier for potential contributors and I'd be very happy to have people help me with this app.

Lantea Maps is a prototype web app to display maps and record (GPS) tracks, and I found it works pretty well with Firefox OS, actually. It's one of the apps I keep installing on my test device for that system, of course from its Mozilla Marketplace listing.

The app is based on a canvas that displays a map (from OpenStreetMap, multiple styles can be selected) and on which the recorded GPS tracks are displayed. The start of the app is there and working, but it could need quite some improvement - like making zoom switches and probably map panning smoother by using some canvas magic, supporting pinch gestures, caching tiles not just during a session but also across sessions (using IndexedDB), and more.

As mentioned on the original Lantea idea wiki page, there's a quite nice app for the Nokia N900 called Mappero that is a good source for feature and UI ideas, for me it's one the the best apps in that space and I'd love to have something similar to it as a web app - which is basically why I started Lantea at all.

That said, I'm open for all kinds of ideas for it - and even more, to patches and pull requests!

Here's a short summary of Mozilla-related work I've done in week 36/2012 (September 3 - 9, 2012):

• CSI:Mozilla / CrashKill:
  Did some testing of Firefox OS on my otoro device, saw that it has some crash issues right now but reports are not sent atm, went on to figure out what we need to do to get them working. I posted a summary of the current state and road forward to the stability list and Dietrich.
  Followed Socorro getting ready for the "mobeta" push to production.
  Also followed their next big step - rewriting the UI in django.
  Did some preparation for the MozCamp session I did with bsmedberg, and attended the event, of course.
  As usual, watched new/rising crashes, caring that bugs are filed where needed, and made sure my custom reports keep working well.
• Web Apps:
  Did some style improvements in both apps for really small screens, like the otoro one. Also tested the apps on Firefox OS, and was surprised how smoothly Lantea Maps works there already.
• Various Discussions/Topics:
  Trying to figure out how to get builds onto the otoro, mobilizing Mozilla at MozCamp Warsaw, etc.

This was a week where most things I did outside of my routine were either preparation for MozCamp or of course attending it. Once again, this was a great event, energizing and mobilizing while at the same time quite straining due to short nights and the need of a lot of concentration in meetings. I demoed Firefox OS to a number of people, had a few conversations about its (upcoming) crash reporting story, stability work in general, as well as L10n and a few other topics I'm interested in. Of course, I also hosted a session on stability together with Benjamin Smedberg, and I think that was a good overview on what's being done there, which issues we're facing and where we need help. All in all, a lot for me has been circling around Firefox OS for sure, as I really want to help making that system a great success. And I hope there's a lot of other people willing to help there!

Here's a short summary of Mozilla-related work I've done in week 35/2012 (August 27 - September 2, 2012):

• CSI:Mozilla / CrashKill:
  Continued keeping track of Flash 11.4 stats - uptake is quite slow for this one.
  Followed the progress on B2G crash reporting, noted another needed mozconfig change in the releng bug.
  Followed the landing of the Socorro update for correlation versions.
  Took care that my custom reports run for the new versions appearing this week.
  Created a report to run for per-OS/per-arch topcrashers.
  As usual, watched new/rising crashes, caring that bugs are filed where needed, and made sure my custom reports keep working well.
• German L10n:
  Did the uplift/merge of central and aurora for the Mozilla 17 cycle.
  Made sure venkman and ChatZilla are in the right states for both central and aurora.
• Themes:
  While the 2.12 versions of EarlyBlue and LCARStrek are public on AMO now, I started work on the 2.13 versions (and fixed a bug seem in Firefox's Clear History window).
• Various Discussions/Topics:
  Following my otoro being shipped, importance and success of stability efforts, Mozilla Marketplace, etc.

I caught a bit of a cold over the weekend, but it looks like I'm recuperating fine in time for MozCamp Europe - which I'll be joining the upcoming weekend in Warsaw. I've set my personal mission for that event to be completely centered around Firefox OS as I really want to help it being successful. I'm looking forward to showing its current state to as many people as possible on this event and get to talk to many people about it and other Mozilla topics. Most of all, I'm looking forward to meeting a lot of Mozillians - hope to see you there as well!