It’s the fifth year in a row that Google is running their Summer of Code program, and the third time Thousand Parsec is participating as a mentoring organization. We did great last year and we will sure try to do at least as well this time around.

So, if you are into turn-based 4X space strategy games and would like to help in game development, this is your chance. Take a look at our Google Summer of Code and Ideas for Programmers pages and get involved. There is even US$ 4500 to encourage you to take that step into the world of open source software programming.

Interested students now have a few days to get to know us better. You can chat with us on IRC (Freenode network, #tp channel) or write to our development mailing list. After that, starting from March 23 and ending April 3, student applications must be submitted. I’m looking forward to be a mentor again.

Tags: games, game, gaming, gamedev, 4x, strategy, turn-based, strategies, tbs, programming, google, summer of code, soc, gsoc, open source, free software

In the beginning of February Mandriva announced the creation of Mandriva Linux Assembly with aim of improving communication between users, contributors and Mandriva company. All to make Mandriva Linux distribution even better than it already is. I candidated as a representative of translators, although I also try to help as much as I can with testing development versions. Well a few days ago the results of the vote came in and after some shuffling of positions, to better represent different parts of community, I became a Cooker Chef, representing translators. Thanks to all who voted for me and thanks to Fabrice Facorat for transferring his spot to me. I’ll try my very best to do my job well. If any of you have any problem with translating and localising Mandriva Linux or have an idea for improving the process, do not hesitate to get in contact with us. You can find us on translation forum or mailing list.

Since this is my first blog post on Planet Mandriva, let me also say “Hi!” and introduce myself. I’m a 28 years old Free Software enthusiast from Bohinjska Bistrica, Slovenia. As far as Mandriva Linux goes… I’ve started using Mandrake with version 7.0, sometime around the year 2000. I began contributing to Mandriva Linux in 2003 by testing beta versions and reporting bugs. A few years later I also started helping translate it into Slovenian language and in 2008 I became the Slovenian translations coordinator. I’ve also tried to learn some packaging but didn’t have much time yet, maybe sometime later Besides this, I also contribute to two more Free Software projects: Thousand Parsec (a framework for creating space-empire-building 4X strategy games) and KDE. Additionally, I’m an active member of Linux Users Group of Slovenia (LUGOS).

Enough about me. Now let’s get back to making Mandriva Linux the best translated and localised distribution available.