From kde-active Fri Apr 26 13:18:48 2013 From: Thomas Pfeiffer Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2013 13:18:48 +0000 To: kde-active Subject: Re: GSoC proposal - Network management for PA Message-Id: <517A7EB8.10704 () autistici ! org> X-MARC-Message: https://marc.info/?l=kde-active&m=136698234606827 On 26.04.2013 13:45, Sebastian K=FCgler wrote: > Hi Jan, > > On Thursday, April 25, 2013 08:33:22 Jan Grulich wrote: >>>> 4) Add support for activities >>> >>> Why? What use cases do you have in mind? (I'm not saying it's nonsense, >>> just that it does not directly pop up in front of my virtual eye what >>> will happen here.) >> >> For example: 1) Home - try to automatically connect to your home wifi >> 2) Work - automatically connect to VPN >> 3) Travel - turn off wifi and mobile broadband or >> active mobile broadband connection >> >> The fact is, that NetworkManager automatically connects to some >> available and configured connection so maybe activities support will be >> useless. > > That could be very useful. I can also imagine to have it switched off (al= so > bluetooth, and everything), when you're on a flight or train and want to > conserve battery -- although that should be possible in any activity). While implementing support for Activities in network management sounds = like a natural thing to do, I'm not sure if it works so well with the = way Activities are used in PA. In PA, users are likely to have way more = activities then just "work" and "home" and also switch between them much = more often, since Activities on PA are useful as a container for each = larger task / topic instead of just one per _context_. Though of course = Activities can be used in both ways in any Plasma Workspace, the way we = designed Activites in PA leans more toward the former. However if I often switch Activities, I would not want the network = config to change each time. However, there is another PA feature which seems almost forgotten by now = because nobody worked on it since the end of the basyskom project, but = which I think could work very well with network management: The = Recommendations framework, with its plugin for the detection of context. If the systems detects "Ah, my information suggests that you're = currently on the train, where there is no WiFi anyway", for example, it = may recommend switching WiFi off (or maybe even doing it automatically), = until GPS information suggests that the user has arrived at her office = or home, where it switches on WiFi again and in the office case = initiates the VPN connection as well. We currently have all that nice code for the Recommendations engine = which continuously collects information, but which is currently not put = to any real use at all. This would be a good use from my perspective. _______________________________________________ Active mailing list Active@kde.org https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/active