"BeGeistert 19 was held last weekend in Düsseldorf and was, as far as I can tell, a great success. I've been to BeGeistert twice in the past (I think 2002 and 2003) and in my opinion the spirit of BeGeistert hasn't changed since then.


Maybe there used to be some more non-coders among the guests and the focus was more on applications; that was of course because Haiku was still in its OpenBeOS nappies at that time...


Today, the main focus lies without a doubt on the development of Haiku, which is currently in the exciting time leading to its upcoming first alpha release. Most of the European core developers were there and discussed problems and possible solutions that they could implement and transfer to the code repository right away, as the conference rooms had a (most of the time working) internet connection."

Wicked ... BeGeistert events have always struck me as really fun events ... you Europeans have it too good with your currency and BeGeistert! Well done Charlie and Team.

da Barrett over at Haiku-OS.it has written an interesting article on the basics of using Hey, a BeOS/Haiku program that allows calls to applications via their scriptable layer (BHandler objects).

Head on over to their site and check it out or click here for the Google Translate English version.

I need a Hero and soon you will have one.

So, what is Hero ? Hero (Haiku Environment Rapid Operations) is a scripting Language for the Haiku Operating System. With this language, you will be able to perform many simple tasks using English-like words.

The new project site is up, not much available at the moment, so in the meantime, why not enjoy the Bonnie Tyler classic.

Ever wondered why when using Firefox under Haiku, that the highlighting is a dark blue colour, which makes it hard to read what's underneath ... well I did and thanks to tigerdog (Doug Shelton), I was able to find out why and I thought it was time to share:-

"I think this may be a Haiku problem, not Firefox. I'm not quite sure why this happens. Firefox's default theme pulls colors from the system palette, supposedly. This seems to work fine under BeOS and Zeta but not Haiku. You can (of course!) install HaikuFox theme. HaikuFox uses hard-coded colors to look more BeOS-like."

So, there you have it. Get HaikuFox today ...

Haiku 7th B-Day has rolled around and here's a video demonstration showing some of the many ways Haiku can be used, including showing off Firefox's support of modern social networking sites such as Facebook and Plurk.

This video was also intially intended to air at Haiku Down Under 2008, the Australian Haiku Users and Developers Conference.