On Sun, Nov 27, 2011 at 4:42 PM, Steve Obbayi <steve@sobbayi.com> wrote:

That cycle used to happen to me quite a bit long ago until I got more organized. I now use graph paper to prototype and wire frame any gui apps am working on and an A3 plain paper drawing pad to chart and take notes on the architecture before i start to code. Saves me load of time.

traditionally I dont do much kernel level stuff until now. My motivation? I needed to patch a Nvidia 3D graphics driver on Ubuntu. I got a new Nvidia card and am using it on a dual boot machine. on the windows boot I use a resolution of 2048 x 1536 while on ubuntu I get no more than 1280 x 1024 so i got fed up and decided to do something about it. On top of this I am also porting a graphics rendering engine that makes use of the CUDA/OpenCL capabilities of Nvidia 3D cards from 64 to 32 bit. currently its experimental.

Thanks for sharing those wise words. You are doing some really complex stuff, it must take a lot of motivation to even start on such. The Jedi order honours you as a code warrior for KE. I'm unable to find words of the famous Yoda in this context but am sure there would be some interesting ones. :-)

At least you are not one of those who will download say e.g. ubuntu only to discover that some USB functionality is missing, go the ubuntu knowledgebase and re-build using the latest kernel build. Then say they need funds to contribute code back to the community. Its never simple with such people.