linux-minidisc
This project was founded with the goal to implement a free software which allows to use so-called NetMD and HiMD MiniDisc recorders and players with Linux (and many other operating systems). Even though MiniDisc has been replaced by the majority of consumers with flash-based MP3 players and recorders like Apple's iPod, MiniDisc is still very popular among recording enthusiasts for live concerts and speech recording. The reasons being the superb recording and editing capabilities of the MiniDisc recorders as well their excellent sound quality and robustness. NetMD devices added the possibility to transfer tracks from the PC to the MiniDisc while HiMD added support for large capacities (1GB audio data per disk) as well bi-directional transfers when connected to a PC. Unfortunately, a proprietary software called SonicStage made by Sony running on Windows only is required to use NetMD and HiMD devices with a PC. This means that MiniDisc users are forced to stick to Windows (or at least have a dual-boot configuration) as there has been no replacement for SonicStage on non-Windows systems. In the past, there have been a lot of efforts by the community to write a free replacement for SonicStage, however, due the high level of obfuscation and encryption within the whole software stack of SonicStage and NetMD/HiMD, previous efforts failed soon before a real usable free implementation was available. Luckily, with eager and a lot of patience we have finally found a way to overcome the barriers and have created a first free implementation of NetMD/HiMD-compatible software which runs on Linux, MacOSX and as well Windows and more. The software consists of a library called libhimd and a Qt-based application called qhimdtransfer which allows to transfer tracks to and from the device. So far, we have only implemented transfers from the MiniDisc device to the PC but we have already written documentation on how to implement the transfer from the PC to the HiMD. Due to our limited resources, that is mainly the lack of time, we have not yet implemented the code for PC to MD transfers and are therefore looking for people to help with their coding skills. We will provide the applicant with all necessary documentation, live help in IRC and over our mailing list as well we will provide a Sony MZ-RH1 for free loan to test the code on real hardware.
GNU GPLv2
We are applying in GSoC for the second time, last year when we applied for the first time our project was not accepted. We have read about GSoC in the past, however our project had not yet made the progress in the past that would justify to ask external programmers to join. Especially, because we didn't know whether any of our efforts would actually yield any working implementation due to the high amount of clean-room reverse-engineering that was required to understand the original, proprietary software. We have now, however, enough understanding and written documentation so that a lot of things are already there but just need to be implemented. We hope, that with the help of GSoC 2011, we will find one or two very talented programmers which will help us to implement the next milestones for our free MiniDisc software so that we might get the software ready to get into the next release of the major Linux distributions like Ubuntu or Fedora. We have already set up a PPA (personal package archive) for Ubuntu and we also looking to get the software into Debian (via Debian Mentors) to spread the software to the benefit of all MiniDisc users which want to use Linux (or any other free operating system) and finally dump Windows. We will welcome *any* contributions but we hope that the applicants will help us to implement the next big milestones which we think can be done within the given period of time of GSoC 2011. To support the programmers with the help, we will be happy to send him or her Sony MZ-RH1 HiMD-Walkman for free loan together with some MiniDiscs so that he or she can test his or her code with real hardware. However, most of the stuff can also be tested without having to have the actual real hardware with the help of disk- images of real HiMD disks mounted as a loopback devices.
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The main (and only) mailing list of our project is located at:
https://lists.fu-berlin.de/listinfo/linux-minidisc
The list is hosted on a server of the Freie Universitaet Berlin (Free University Berlin). The list is public and the main language is English. All mails will be read and answered as we are always very happy to find people supporting us. Please also check the channel #linux-minidisc on FreeNode IRC network.
#linux-minidisc on FreeNode
The channel is hosted on the FOSS IRC network FreeNode and the main people involved in the project are always logged on. People asking for help or wanting to discuss can join the channel at any time but are advised that might take up to a few hours until a reply is received since we cannot be sitting in front of the computer all the time. However, during daytime in Europe, that is between 9 CET in the morning until well late into the night, chances are very high that at least someone from the project people will be around to happily answer all questions.
We have setup a small page in our wiki which provides an application template, it can be found here:
https://wiki.physik.fu-berlin.de/linux-minidisc/doku.php?id=gsocapplicationtemplate
In any case, we are open to all people who want to join and help so we leave it up to the applicants what information they provide about themselves. However, we would like to have at least the full name and e-mail contact information to simplify communication and be able to credit people for their code in the repository and our website (if desired). Our contact information can be easily accessed through our website.
We selected the people with most knowledge about in our project as mentors. However, we do not have a single mentor but everybody in our project will always be happy to support the applicant anytime during GSoC.
We want to encourage students to submit their contributions during the whole GSoC period as patches to our mailing list regularly. Since we can never avoid that students will drop their work all of a sudden, we want at least save as much as possible of the work done by the student in benefit of our project. As said before, we are happy about *any* contributions.
This will definitely not happen as our project is rather new and all people involved do their job with a lot of enthusiasm and eager. I don't think it is probable that anyone being a mentor from our side would disappear. Myself being the project founder know all the other main contributors of our project personally and I can say for sure that they would never just disappear.
We provide people with all documentation they need and with a Sony MZ-RH1 for free loan to test their code with real hardware. We credit people for all their contributions to the project and we are happy to share the money to them which we have received over donations. Anyone participating has equal right to make decisions and determine what things are to be implemented next.
We will do the same as we would do to encourage students to interact, that is what we answered in the previous question. Students can easily become an equal member in the project and make decisions, receive parts of the donations and claim credits. Also, we do not insist that students stick to our project since we keep things relaxed and open and do not want to put any pressure on our contributors. All we want is both contributors and end users enjoy the project and free software and the possibility to contribute to the MiniDisc community.
Both ffmpeg and the VideoLAN project support our efforts as our software allows to transfer ATRAC audio files which can be played back with ffmpeg and VideoLAN's VLC media player.
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From the ffmpeg homepage (www.ffmpeg.org):
"In 1992 Sony introduced the first Minidisc player. 17 years later it is now possible to transfer and play back the raw ATRAC data from the actual digital disc with the help of FFmpeg, tools developed by the Linux Minidisc project and official hardware (MZ-RH1). So if you have lots of digital recordings stored on Minidisc now is the time to archive it all."
VideoLAN is also planning to work on improvements for the ATRAC support in VLC/libavcodec which will nicely complement our software. In fact, we are currently cooperating with VideoLAN in order to help them improve VLC's ATRAC support during GSoC.
Google Summer of Code is just a great idea to bring more and more software and functionality into the open source world. It's awesome to have a large company like Google behind to support the community and encourage the people to develop, use and spread open source. We hope that with the help of GSoC we will find a few programmers which would like help and support us bringing MiniDisc hardware support into the open source world.
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mkarcher