Morley's blog page

Lighthouse Workday

2011-10-06T20:44:00.002+01:00

So today for a change we had the first of a hopefully a monthly get together for home workers of the Midlands.

The Lighthouse some of you might know from LRL. It has a simple usage policy you buy drinks and food from their cafe and you get to use the work area for free.

So first impressions are good, plenty of light, WIFI was now locked so worked well for a change, power was provided as were tables and chairs. It was altogether a pleasant experience.

Bigcalm came across from Telford and together we sat and worked, had a chat about what we did, had a laugh and a joke about the fact that we both ranted at our machines for not doing what we wanted, enjoyed the food and finally had a nice day. My thanks to him for taking the time out to come :) , and my commiserations to the people who wanted to come but then couldn't due to work :(

If your a home worker in the Midlands why not come along to the next one scheduled for Thursday the 17th of November once again at the lighthouse Wolverhampton. If you're interested ping me on freenode username davmor2.

QA COP

2011-08-21T22:33:00.002+01:00

So Canonical sent it's QA team members from across the company to meet up compare notes and make improvements.

This is really good on several levels most important being these are people you work with every day but may never meet. It was good to finally meet up with the Chris's, Diago, Rick, Ursula and my team as always.

It was good to collaborate and hopefull make everyones lives better, oh except for Cr3 who magically needs to make everything work.....Have you done it yet Marc?

Heres to next year when hopefully extra team members from other teams will be able to attend and we can continue to grow the tools and friendships.

Kill the zombies

2011-08-11T16:43:00.002+01:00

No not applications that refuse to close.

The new game in Ubuntu Software Center is Atom Zombie Smasher it's a tower style game where you need to position your pieces to save the humans. The concepts simple the game is addictive and sometimes frustrating when things don't work the way you planned it.

You can buy it now in the Software Center and enjoy for many, many days, enjoy all you gamers out there.

Did you know.....

2011-05-17T20:06:00.002+01:00

...Ubuntu Software Center (USC) has for purchase games and apps?

Did you know how easy it was to get them? No!
Well here's how, in Natty Narwhal 11.04 Open USC from it's icon in the app launcher and click on the "for purchase" tab in the left hand side of the app then click on an app.
Click on "More info" and then on buy.
Now sign in or up for an Ubuntu Single Sign On Account.
Now type in your name, address and your card details in the secure app.
Now type in your password to install the app and done.

OMG!Ubuntu have been pretty good at reporting on the apps they like and why not, how ever you can have the same impact by simply adding a review to the app you purchased to let other users know what's hot and what's not.

By the way some you might like to look out for:
Uplink: a classic game where strategy and speed will keep you out of prison while you race around hacking the world.

Family Farm: The sims go to farmville you know it can't be bad right :)

Steel Storm2: Top down classic shootem up, it's fast pretty and explosive. Oh did I mention addictive?

Darwinia: One of the prettiest god games I've seen.

Fluendo DVD Player: for everyone that needs to have a good dvd player on their box

Codec Packs: They do what they say on the tin

World of Goo: If you haven't heard of this where have you been in a cave? A great physics based game

and more....

Keep checking in though as USC gets more apps on a fairly regular basis and I'd hate for you to miss out on the one that is perfect for you :)

Now go enjoy you computer in new and funky ways.

Merry christmas and a happy new year

2010-12-25T10:05:00.001Z

Unity thoughts.....

2010-10-30T20:13:00.000+01:00

I like elements of unity and if going forward it can improve on the elements that I don't like so much then it will be awesome, well for me at any rate.I'm not going to make any kinda real judgement though until the ball starts rolling. So many elements will be changed for desktop unity that I think it is unfair for anyone to make rash judgements based on the unity that was designed purely for the netbooks.I think that people are forgetting that whether Ubuntu went with Gnome-shell or Unity-shell there would be a new learning curve for the latest desktop. Unity I think though will be less steep as users have it on their netbooks already but not only that it feels kind of familiar.It would be nice if the search feature did files, applications and web all in one rather than having to have icons for each type of search. With nautilus becoming the file manager again that gets rid of the issues I had, having to breakout of the unity file manager in order to share stuff through Ubuntu one ( an awesome feature by the way guys). The side bar I think is fantastic, as a quick launch mechanism I find it less fussy than some with some nice features. I think the quick menus will just just add to the usefulness.I for one can't wait. After hearing some of the features planned for Natty I can hand on heart say it's gonna rock....... hard! I hope that all of the developers and community are as fired up about this release as I am. It is sounding like it's going to be one of the most dramatic releases to date.....Bring on alpha1

Evolution 2.30

2010-05-26T23:28:00.002+01:00

Wow what an improvement. Well done evolution team can't wait to see the new version if this is a sign of things to come.

I'm throughly impressed, it's much faster a lot more stable.

For those who may of missed it

2010-04-29T19:58:00.003+01:00

Ubuntu has today released a new version. Please rise for Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx)

This is by and far the best Ubuntu Release to date I have no idea how they have done but you know looking at it that it has been a lot of blood sweat and tears.

To that end I want to thank the developers not only of Ubuntu but Gnome, Kde, Debian and all who have made this release possible.

This is the desktop we have all been waiting for now go and use it, see you on the purpler side of life.

Tick Tock, Tick Tock, go the hands on the clock

2010-04-08T11:12:00.002+01:00

It's the time of year when the release is close
Nothing is stirring not even a mouse
But along comes a loud mouth... oh wait that is me
To remind everybody, "UBUNTU IS FREE!"

There are many things you can do
With a great OS, like Ubuntu
The lynx is the best, it's better by far
So okay it can't make you coffee or drive your car.

Without further ado I give you this countdown
To remind yourself it is released really soon

Ada Lovelace Day

2010-03-24T11:45:00.004Z

To be honest I only know a few women in technology circles. So here are the 2 that I have worked with the most:

Laura Czajkowski: She's funny, informative, helpful, organisational etc etc etc everything you expect from an Ubuntu community member. Of course her real star quality is she puts up with me :D

Ara Pulido: Ara is part of Canonical's testing testing team so has also put up with me lots, she is full of incite, helpful, hard working etc etc etc.

Both these Women I have a lot of respect for, I've worked with them, laughed with them, been cheered up by both and seen how much good they do for the Ubuntu Distro, Community and Linux in general.

Thank you both, keep up the good work.

Wow: Guys you rock PPA'S to try

2010-02-07T23:51:00.002Z

So today I've been playing with some new new software via PPA's, for all the guys doing this many thanks.

Open up Software Sources. Click on add source. Type in ppa:name of ppa. Click on add.

Gnome-shell: 2.29.1~ Looks better, feels faster and more responsive much nicer than earlier attempts. ppa:vperetokin/unofficial-gnome-shell

Epiphany: 2.29.6 Wow is all I can say. As fast as Chrome/Chromium, open source, plugs into seahorse/gnome keyring for password storage, smaller font makes it much better for netbooks. ppa:webkit-team and ppa:webkit-team/epiphany

New Gwibber: Guys this is the release we want, this is awesome, everything is displayed sensibly, everything about it is pretty, great work. ppa:gwibber-daily

To all those involved in the creation of these apps and there improvements, many, many thanks. The work you do is really appriciated and I don't think thank you is said enough. Keep up the good work...

Exceedingly happy

2010-01-28T15:41:00.002Z

For a long time now I've been doing qa work with Canonical on Ubuntu and the iso's.

Now I have been offered a post with the ISD team at Canonical which sounds like one of the most interesting and exciting roles I've ever had. I can't wait to get stuck in.

I just want to thank everyone at Canonical for giving me a chance and everyone else for their congratulations.

I'll may even let you know more as I do :)

Many thanks again

Come on everyone Join IN!

2009-10-20T14:26:00.002+01:00

Hippo birdy 2 ewes
Hippo birdy 2 ewes
Hippo birdy dear Ubuntu
Hippo birdy 2 ewes.

And no you can't use the lines for naming ideas ;)

Congrats to all the people that have been in from the start and secondly to all those that have joined. You've made a consistently usable desktop that goes from strength to strength.

My thanks to you all and I'm sure the thanks of everyone else goes with that.

To Quote The Rock "Final the WUBI is back in Ubuntu"

2009-09-30T09:24:00.002+01:00

Big shout out to xivulon, evand and cjwatson if you see these guys at any party buy them a drink they deserve it :)

This cycle wubi working with Ubuntu has been the bane of their existence. Now however it's back baby. It's rocking with all of it's goodness and elegant simplicity.

Wubi is the Windows UBuntu Installer it creates a couple of virtual drives in your windows install and then proceeds to install ubuntu (replace with you desktop of choice) into them. This can then be remove from a windows install simply and easily using the windows add/remove tool. But more important means that if you need windows on your machine for work or college or university etc then you can, but you can also have ubuntu on there with out the hassle of partitioning etc.

This is a great tool if your forced to use windows during the day but need you daily hit of ubuntu at breaks on the train etc. Welcome back wubi :)

New, New, New

2009-09-10T22:00:00.001+01:00

I thought I would just say WOW!

There are little touches in Karmic that just make me think why wasn't this in before. This has actual got to the point now where I am seriuosly thinking of upgrading my main box.

Quicky on disc control:

When you have a pen drive that you drop on a copy of Ubuntu (insert your choice of desktop) on, wouldn't it be nice to name it and format it nicely and easily. How about we plug in the drive right click on the drive icon add a label and format the drive at the same time? Well karmic has this and boy you take it for granted once you start using it and move back to a jaunty box and don't.

How about faster Browsing:

With Firefox3.5.2 currently in Karmic I have to admit I'm impressed. It's by and far the fastest Firefox release so congratulations to them. But how about something a little lighter for your netbook, well the latest epiphany now has a webkit gtk backend this is easily as firefox but with one big avantage (in my opinion) on ssd drives it uses less disk swaping so it sits there happily producing pages without many hitches.

Empathy has some really nice touches:

I have to admit at first I thought that empathy was far too basic, it had flashes of genius but wasn't quite there. Well thanks to a lot of usibilty work it is now a lot easier to setup and less confusing, there still some work to be done but I have got to take my hat off to the devs this app goes from strength to strength. I can't wait for the full release of this app, I think it will be a really great start for it and Ubuntu, I can't wait to see what extra features get added for gnome 3.

LRL 2009 Hell Yes Baby

2009-09-07T11:12:00.003+01:00

It's true, it isn't a myth, It will Happen.

In a film, once upon a time, a phrase was created for just this occasion "If you build it, they will come"

Well we've done our part!

It's up to you to do yours!

Be there or be as square as the Spectrum Font

Get more news here NOW!!!!!!

Official Ubuntu Server Book

2009-08-19T10:05:00.002+01:00

OMG I ordered this book off amazon and I have to say it is a really good read. It is a well rounded book aiming at new sysadmin's but also covering differences between Ubuntu and other server products for senior sysadmins.

It gives a good overall grounding in the description of sometime overwhelming options and puts them in plain English which means the penny drops for a larger number of terms and options in other apps.

There are basic sum ups of the most common services mail, file share, print and web iirc which put everything into plain English once more.

Thanks Guys for this well produced book.

UDS Wow

2009-06-06T23:01:00.002+01:00

It's late I know but I was on holiday straight after.

Firstly, my wife and I would like to thank everybody that took time out to talk to her (Sue the woman knitting in the atrium).

Secondly, Wow uds was mad. The talks were great and full of information and laughs. But more important were the general sessions.

I mostly followed the QA track, and I was impressed to see how much thought has gone into the whole process. In general it was based on the process of automated testing and automated bug reporting using checkbox and apport. These are 2 awesome tools that are in their infancy still. By all accounts the if the features get added they will instantly mature the apps into a far more robust tools, hopefully with checkbox/apport integration for auto bugrepporting on automatic testing which will be really cool.

Day 1 and 2 in the Big Brother House UDS

2009-05-26T19:32:00.003+01:00

Dear diary,

Today I have been mostly in the QA Track. ~~Hopefully throwing a spanner in the works where possible~~ Helping out ;) Although some of the talks have been slightly more technical for me to get on with on the whole it's been great.

The venue is good apart from room 14 avoid it like the plague (It's like a walk in freezer). The staff and developers are great. I've meet up with some old friends and met new ones too.

It looks like there is going to be a lot of work going on to improve the automated testing suites we currently have and a lot more work going on to import these into checkbox. There should hopefully be some work to get all that info into a database that people can then use in multiple different ways. That's only from the first 2 days, tomorrow is going to be a day I can really get on with as most of the discussions in the qa track apply to me.

First ever flight, UDS and Barcelona

2009-05-24T21:41:00.002+01:00

So my first ever flight was today to get to Barcelona for UDS which starts tomorrow.

Barcelona is an intriging City a nice mix of old and new for a city of it's size.

Just can't wait for tomorrow now :)

So off to UDS...

2009-05-20T14:53:00.002+01:00

So I'm getting too excited now.....

First UDS and I can't wait.

I'm coming over with my better half, if anyone is taking theirs would it possible to meet up and let the better halves go shopping, site seeing together? If this is you feel free to drop me a mail at davmor2@davmor2.co.uk

Ubuntu One (Am I Missing Something)

2009-05-14T23:01:00.002+01:00

This is my own personal view only. You can tak a fence but a gate is more useful

Ubuntu is a trademark that belongs to Canonical...
That means it can be applied to any SERVICE they choose.

RMS when he first laid out the lay of the land said "And companies can make money from the services they provide".

This is Canonicals first atempt at user level services. I for one think they are doing the correct thing by linking this service to Ubuntu as that is the intended market. New users may know the Ubuntu Name but not that Canonical are their sponsor.

On a final note Why whine? If your not happy with it don't use it, vote with your feet! The fact of the matter is there are propriatary drives in Ubuntu and you choose whether to use them or not, why should this service be any different? To be honest I think that it will still be around it's too useful not to be.

Congratulations Canonical I hope things go well for your infant service and I can't wait to see what other features you'll add.

LRL09....

2009-05-11T12:10:00.002+01:00

So hopefully you will of heard that LRL09 is back again.....

It's happening on the 24th of October at the City Of Dreams (A.K.A. Wolverhampton)

Get there if you can as fun is had by all :) Honest!

Wow Well Done

2009-04-23T21:56:00.002+01:00

Jaunty has been one of the most awkward releases to test. Things that worked in the morning might get broken by updates in the afternoon. But as always the Developers have stepped up to the plate and fixed the issues as they arose.

My heart felt thanks go out to those who do stuff I can't. Congratulations, and believe me the journey with all it's ups and downs was well worth it.

Congratulations To Everyone that has worked on jaunty.

Especially the unsung hero's Charlie_tca Xubuntu's official tester, and lately to Jtholmes too (few more edges to knock off but you'll get there :) ), also to all the devs I've winged at over the last several months.

Special mention to Steve Langasek for the multiple re-spins of the iso's I couldn't of tested without them :D

Can you twig it

2009-04-09T14:11:00.002+01:00

.-.. .-. .-.. ----- ----.

Does it get any better?

Are you getting excited yet?

What's that Skippy

2009-04-07T23:04:00.003+01:00

In your best Skippy the bush kangaroo impression

Skippy: tut, tut, tut, tut, tut
Aussie: What's that Skippy, there's a raccoon in the mine and he's chinny
Skippy: tut, tut, tut, tut, tut, tut, tut!
Aussie: Oh sorry Skippy. You say there's a Chinny Raccoon In The Black Country

Tune in next week for more exciting tales from Skippy the bush kangaroo

END Skippy impression (No really Now! )

[MeMe] Rockstar: Ubuntu-Installer team

2009-04-01T17:50:00.002+01:00

I'd like to nominate the Ubuntu-Installer team.

Without them installing may still be back in the 80's. Great work guys and thanks for putting up with me ripping apart all your good work to find bugs.

Wow It really isn't far away.....

2009-03-27T23:48:00.000Z



......and counting

Wow......

2009-03-18T21:57:00.002Z

So 6 months gone a new Gnome out the door, features galore. Who'd of thought there was that much to add.

My hat goes off to people who can and do code. It amazes me the complexity of the new applications that go into gnome, kde and xfce. It also always impresses me that with all this complexity there is simplicity of use.

So to all the developers out there I give my heart felt thanks. You do things that I can't, keep up the great work and keep blowing my socks off with the amazing work you produce, develop and improve.

THANK YOU ALL

Shock News Flash:

2009-01-14T09:39:00.002Z

Mr Commmmmmunity community community is writing a book about Community.

Now I hear you say big news, NOT!

However Jono has had grief on several LugRadio episodes and at LugRadioLive's about not telling people how to successfully build a community. So to put non-to-finer point on it, about time dude.

I'm sure this book like his others will be educational, annecdotal, witty and after all the editorial rewrites well written ;) (Disclaimer: last one is just a joke to help Jono's head get through doorways).

I have a lot of respect for Jono (No, I don't know why either) but he instills his excitement about Ubuntu into everyone he meets or gets involved with.

So to that end I wish him (and the poor proofreader) all the best with this new book go look here and here for more info.

Merry Christmas To One And All

2008-12-24T11:41:00.002Z

I thought I'd get this in early!

Christmas is the time of year when everyone gets a little warmer and fuzzier inside, with that in mind I think Jono's blog post asking for people to say how much they Love Ubuntu was perfectly timed.

More import it's that time of year where we get new gadgets to try and get to work with Ubuntu :)

So to everyone THIS MESSAGE:

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

But lo what light through yonder, Windows breaks. Tis the east and Ubuntu is the Sun...

2008-12-22T16:10:00.005Z

Linux is the way forward, I realised this when my XP box broke to the degree that only a floppy based low-level HD formatter would fix it. Once I'd got my machine so it booted up again I used knoppix off cdrom till I bought Linux for dummies. (Yes people really do buy that book and it's great when you haven't got a clue.)

This gave me enough knowledge to do most stuff I was already doing in Windows, from that point on I never looked back.

For a long time I went flitting from one distro to another finally settling on Ubuntu.
Once I'd settled I wanted to join in. I wasn't forced to, it just felt like the right thing to do. Once I'd started helping out I soon found myself being drawn further in.
I found out something incredible! You can't help but care about Ubuntu (and derivatives, alter as necessary) and the people that make and contribute to it.

I heard a quote from a wrestling game ad that ran thus... Alone we're good, together we're unstoppable.

This is how I feel, you can all be proud of the distro you help produce now lets go kick some ass.

Slowest hands in the west

2008-12-22T12:50:00.003Z

So my lovely wife is the warden for an old folks block of flats.

On Friday night she had the block Xmas Party with the entertainer Stevie G.

I was told he did his own tribute to dueling banjo's and thought I had to see it.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=QidBN9a2i2w&eurl=http://davmor2.blogspot.com/2008/12/slowest-hands-in-west.html

I forgot the plaents don't always allow vids so here's the link.

Enjoy :)

Congratulations the goat is out

2008-10-30T16:04:00.002Z

Today sees the release of the eagerly awaited Intrepid Ibex.

It's one small step for the ibex and one giant leap for goat kind.

To all involved I thank you for you hours of hard work.

To my friends in the QA testing team sleep well tonight.

For those going to parties around the world enjoy.

For those who Use Ubuntu have many hours of fun with it :)

Finally to quote Abe Lincoln in Bill and Ted "PARTY ON DUDE!"

Update news

2008-10-20T11:57:00.002+01:00

This morning I updated my main machine to Intrepid....

No big news there then, well the update fixed a bug in memaker so hopefully now I have a hackergatchi that looks something like me on planet Ubuntu :)

Gongratulations Gnome Great Release

2008-09-25T14:16:00.002+01:00

Well done all those involved in the Gnome project.

It looks Great keep up the Good work.

Global Testing Jam Don't forget

2008-09-22T09:03:00.003+01:00

Don't forget today is Global Testing Jam.

Come join us on freenode #ubuntu-testing.

For more info go here

Global Testing Jam

2008-09-18T08:55:00.004+01:00

After the SUCCESS of the global Bug Jam, the QA team thought it would be good to get a Testing Jam together....

So without further ado:

Can YOU install Ubuntu?
Can YOU use applications on Ubuntu?
Do YOU have a VM setup or a spare machine or your main machine?
Do YOU have some time?
Do YOU want to see Ubuntu become the best Operating System?
Do YOU want to help rid the planet of Bug #1?

If the answers to the questions above are yes then Join us on Monday the 22nd of September 2008, on the aptly named #ubuntu-testing irc channel on the freenode network.

Where we will be waiting to assist and inform you on how to make Ubuntu better.

The basic format of the testing will be as follows:
1/ Insert a live cd (Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu)
2/ See if there are any issues with the installer or any of the applications, if your using your main machine just trial the live session
3/ Report bugs
4/ Fill in the test tracker

The idea being more eyes, more faults. Then hopefully they get fixed before release and Ubuntu is made better because YOU helped.

ME ME naming

2008-09-16T09:57:00.002+01:00

Ditto with Lord of the rings. However being dyslexic means I spelt the names more phonetically.

stryder is my main laptop.
gandelf is my server.
smegal is my main machine.
boromir and faramir are my test boxes.

Doing and Saying for Non-Developers

2008-07-24T21:04:00.002+01:00

I often see the odd post about how non-developers can contribute.....

Well as an non-developer I can tell you there are plenty....

Write docs.
Qa.
Design.
Tell people about Ubuntu.

I will expand on these points briefly.

1. Can you write in English? How about another language? Yes...
Then you can write documents and become part of the Docs team, also you get to feel the buzz of contributing back to your distro of choice.

2. Can you install Ubuntu? Find faults? Write a structured bug report? Yes...
Then you can become part of the QA team and help the developers by triaging bugs and installing iso's a few days before milestones to help catch bugs before joe public does.

3. Are you an artist? Yes...
Well Ubuntu needs you.

4. Failing all the above have you thought that spreading the word about how good Ubuntu is, is a contribution in itself. Who knows the next brilliant developer, bug triager, scribe or designer could be joe bloggs who you recommended Ubuntu too.

So never say you can't contribute there's just no excuse :)

Thanks for your time.... Now go contribute and get that warm fuzzy feeling...

3 days to go

2008-07-15T14:45:00.002+01:00

There's this electrifying sensation in the air, as the excitement of a thousand Geeks explodes in unison. Hotels are getting fully booked people are beginning to pack ready for the greatest Linux event of the year.

LRLUS was just the preliminaries. Now Cometh The Hour, Now Cometh The Men.....

LRL 2008 UK Friday night kicks it all off and it only gets better from there :)

Be There To Say Farewell To The Four Large Gents.

4 Days And Counting

2008-07-14T11:12:00.002+01:00

It all kicks of this Friday night with the opening party at the Hogs Head Wolverhampton.
It just gets better from there on in.

LUG RADIO LIVE

Be There For The Last Ever Recording Of LugRadio
Be There For The Free Stuff In The NutSacks
Or Just Be There Cause It's A Fiver And Rooms Full Of Like Minded Geeks

In Answer To Jorge's hogheads

2008-06-25T09:30:00.002+01:00

Who cares it only takes one hogshead to drink gallons.

You can find out what I mean if your in Wolverhampton on the 18th at the hogshead.....

LRL UK (The Original And Still The Best) 3 1/2 weeks and counting

Muppets the lot of them..

2008-06-21T23:05:00.001+01:00

So LugRadio is running a Live event which means you can see the Muppets Live. Go Here For More Info

LugRadio Live News Flash

2008-06-10T14:24:00.002+01:00

LugRadio Live is happening on the 19-20 of July in sunny, sunny Wolverhampton.

So here is the news flash if you are planning on booking into a hotel you really need to do it this month. The details are here get signed up asap or you'll miss out on the discounts.

Severed whatsit

2008-06-09T21:52:00.004+01:00

Jono says meow, meow, meow, maw, Severed Fifth !!!!!!, meow, meow, maw.

So remember what Jono says kiddies and cross the road, oh wait wrong ad, and get your music safely. (Will that do Jono ;) )

Who in their right mind calls a project Severed Fifth. Oh that would be Jono then.

If you hear a distant rumble.....

2008-06-04T10:53:00.004+01:00

It's not thunder, it's not an earthquake...
Don't panic, don't hide, don't run...

Just follow the masses as they start the march on Wolverhampton.

LUGRADIO LIVE It's coming 19-20th July.

Parties, chat, make friends and influence people, more import have fun and learn stuff too and all for a fiver......

Damned assumptions

2008-05-30T13:42:00.001+01:00

Sorry about the big memaker head I'd assumed the png created was smaller than it was.

Please hand me a badge that says fail!

Hello World

2008-05-30T13:00:00.003+01:00

If this has worked then I should now be on planet Ubuntu :)

Who am I? I'm part of the testing QA team and for this work I was deemed fit to be an Ubuntu Member :) So now I can post here.

I've feed tigers

2008-05-12T08:52:00.002+01:00

Until your up close you just don't get how amazingly big, big cat are.
Lions range from about 8 to 10 feet and tiger 8 to 14.
I feed one of the Tigers at full reach so about the 8 foot mark an it just reached up and got it.

Photo's here

Tickled one behind the ear that was fun :D
But on the whole had an amazing day.

Final Testing phase get on board

2008-04-08T12:33:00.003+01:00

So Ubuntu has finally reached Release Candidate freeze which means next week we go into testing overdrive. So if you got a spare machine and you want to help out go to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing to find out what to do. Log on to isotest tracker http://iso.qa.ubuntu.com/ (if you have an Ubuntu brainstorm account you should be able to login with that). Test your guts out out and contribute to Ubuntu.

You know you want to, you do honest!

Ubuntu countdown

2008-04-03T17:59:00.002+01:00


Fingers crossed it displays something :)

If not then go here to see what your missing.

I'd forgotten the number 1 rule.....

2008-03-26T17:30:00.002Z

I'd forgotten the number 1 rule of linux. Flexibility.

Out there in the real world you need specific tools to do specific jobs. Linux is the same desktop distro's are great for day to day computer usage but what about when you need something more specific?

Well over the last few days I've revived my love of System Rescue Cd as a tool it's like the rescue/admin equivalent to a swiss army knife. As part of the iso testing I do for Ubuntu the windows installer Wubi and Migration-Assistant are hardly tested. So as I was requested to work on these for Release Candidate I thought there needs to be an easier way to do this other than installing windows over and over. So I thought about using ghost and then remember a similar project called partimage.

Partimage does pretty much everything ghost can do but cost nothing however it doesn't like copying a mounted file system at which point I remember System Rescue CD it's a great tool not only is partimage on it but it also now comes with a basic X session so you can run things like QTParted the partition magic clone.

This tool has been great and has saved a load of hassle I just up-date Windows XP setup my emails and bookmarks etc, then create a backup image and then run Wubi. Once I've destroyed the image I simply re-record it and start again.

:) Happy bunny (It takes about 15 mins to restore windows to it's former glory) and then I can start again :)

I was ill and still passed so now I'm Certified :)

2008-03-16T16:19:00.002Z

Most of the week I've been dying from some mysterious variant of man flu :(

However I couldn't afford the expense of canceling a rebooking my final A+ exam. So Friday for the first time that week I got up traveled to Birmingham and passed my second exam which means I get to show this off :)

Yeah I passed :)

2008-03-04T19:30:00.001Z

I took the first part of my Comptia A+ exam today and passed :)
The next part is on the 14th but when I pass that I'll be certified :) Yeah!

2008-02-29T22:22:00.000Z

Gvfs Backend support

At long last gvfs has support for things like ftp/smb/bluetooth amongst others. These aren't perfect but basic functionality is there.

This means that you can now browse your phone send images/file from one device to another all from the comfort of the bluetooth applet (hooray \0/).

This was about the only thing I found that was missing from the gvfs/gio duo. Now it's included I'm a lot happier with my desktop :)

gvfs backends package details

2008-02-29T16:41:00.000Z

test to see if gnome-blog is fixed

just a quick test to see if they have fixed gnome-blog.

Ubuntu-brainstrom

Kde 4 and Kubuntu

2008-01-11T20:38:00.000Z

I don't use Kde in everyday life. This isn't because I some simpleton but because I need to be able to just do stuff. Because Gnome work the way I need it to already I'll stick with it for now.

However I test iso's and one of the main set's of tests I do is with Kubuntu. I have run the live cd of kde4 for Riddell today too. I have to say I'm impressed. It still has all the tech that power users crave, but the base install works more like I expect. Rather than being asked do you want to do this or this it just does it :)

So I will note that KDE4 has and will be a big move forward. Congratulation Kde and Kubuntu.

2008-01-04T19:47:00.000Z

Blogger test from Gnome BEP

test to see if this fixes it.

Testing From Blogger

2008-01-04T19:45:00.000Z

Test to see if this fixes feed issues :)

2008-01-02T23:39:00.000Z

HD Rattle and Hum

Today Alex has invented a brand new Geek entertainment system.

All that's required is a decent Laptop and an unzipped rucsac.

The resulting imploded HD Platter Rattled a merry tune and gave the Lug members great amusement.

Never mind Alex Hope you sort yourself out a new one.

2007-12-30T15:17:00.000Z

Happy New Year

2007 Has been one of those years you'd love to forget for a lot of people I know. But now is the year of 2008 I hope that it is full of every good thing it can be for one and all.

Happy New Year Everyone :D

p.s. To quote Abe Lincoln in Bill and Ted. "....and Party on Dudes!"

2007-12-25T15:06:00.000Z

IIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTT''''''SSSSSSS Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone :)

2007-12-16T22:11:00.000Z

Wolves Lug Christmas Bash

Well It's on Wednesday so be there or be square.

See http://www.wolveslug.org.uk for details as to where and when :)

See you there Party Lovers :P

2007-12-05T17:24:00.000Z

So freedom for freedoms sake.

I saw a blog posted by Aq about epiphany (the browser not the game). I thought about what was said and read the comments and thought it might actually be worth having a look at it again.

My first try with Epiphany ended very quickly as I just couldn't get used to the way it worked. This time however I was pleasantly supprised as I have been with many of the improved gnome apps. So I am going to stick with it for a while and see how things go.

Just goes to show that freedom for freedoms sake can lead to a more entertaining life :)

p.s. I just need to find a way to open all of one section of bookmarks into tabs as I could with firefox.

2007-12-03T16:26:00.000Z

Testing Testing

That's right folks it's that time of year again where testing my favourite Linux Distro Ubuntu has started again. Alpha 1 is released with it fair share of fixes and it's fair share of breaks but hey that's why it's the first alpha :)

The count is on.

2007-10-03T21:51:00.000+01:00

Tick, Tock, Tick, Tock, that's right people the latest and greatest release of Ubuntu is almost upon us.

2007-07-09T17:30:00.000+01:00

It's official LRL 07 Rocked. Next year there will be 2 LRL's. LRLUS, LRLUK. We know LRLUS will be cool but it won't rock as hard as it will in the UK :)

I got a nokia N800 for being me.... well mostly for working my bollocks off sortin' stuff out for LRL. Oh and we have already started planning next years :)

Finally I want to publically thank everyone that made the day possible the LR 4, speakers, exhibitors and last but not least the Crew. Many thanks one and all, you made the event interesting, unusual but above all else fun.

So see you all again next year good luck to the LR presenters in the US and see you all in 12months time in the UK :)

LRL2007

2007-05-06T14:57:00.000+01:00

So I'm going to be there how about you?

Lug Radio Live is the largest community driven event in the uk. The technical talks aren't so technical and are aim at users of all levels. So be there or be square.

How many times do we miss things

2007-03-04T20:12:00.000Z

How often when installing software do we automatically know that extra things are needed?
How often do report this as a bug to developers?

I noticed this with a few packages in Ubuntu recently. You know when installing certain packages that unless you enable a certain other package or libraries that you don't get a complete package. An example of this is checkgmail unless you install libcrypt-simple-perl you can only save the password in plain text but unless you try this you would never know.

So please let the developers know when you hit these issues, as they are not technically bugs but they are more annoying for new users than can be believed. If you don't know that there is a package needed for something, you don't install it. The down side being that if it isn't installed the program doesn't function the way you expect.

Finally I have recieved my pre-op date

2007-02-11T17:56:00.000Z

I have been waiting patiently for the last couple of years to get my shoulder fixed. Now I have my pre-op date it's the 8th of march. :)

Vista mostly sucks.

2007-02-06T09:00:00.000Z

The other day I got my hands on a Vista powered pc. Only because my mate couldn't get online with it, because the dns server wasn't configured by Vista. Apparently his router was set up wrong (worked on xp, works on Linux). So I had a good look round the system, and frankly this Vista Home Premium (the home edition with bling) Looked a lot like xp with a nice svg theme and the whole rotaty window thing. The only things I found of any use at all was:

1: The command prompt was easy to get at in order to use ipconfig because the graphical version gives you no information.

2: The Live review of minimised windows along the task bar.

IMHO Compiz has more bells and whistles and Mac OSX looks better and more intergrated than Vista ever will. Add to that the hardware issues that are about to arise and start kissing good bye to Windows market share as people get sick of the gui. Not instantly but slowly.

The growing pains of davmor2 aged 2 1/4

2007-01-23T10:38:00.000Z

I've been using a computer since 98. I bought a cheap 486 x66 laptop which by the skin of it's teeth I got win95 on. Then in 99 I made a new friend who sold me his old pc, then I have basically upgraded bit at a time.

Then I got my nice new shiney 64bit pc built up huray I thought. I'll protect this went out got a nameless security suite and installed it thinking I was safe. A boot secture virus latter however and I realised I wasn't. I had though a copy of Knoppix and thought what the hell so tried it liked it and thought could be the way to go. I went down to Waterstones and got the fist Linux book I could find that said it had a dvd with everything I needed, away I went happy.

Then for the last 2 1/4 years I have had to relearn everything I had gotten used to now however I believe I am past what I knew by a long shot and into the realms of the unknown.

Basically this blog page is to thank all who have help along the way it has been a steep learning curve but with your help I have got to the point where I am now. Many thanks.

Christmas Pressie

2006-12-30T21:03:00.000Z

My Wife and I both asked for money for Christmas cause we didn't know what we wanted. So Sue my wife said lets go to Pc World last night so we did and now thanks to her giving me her money I have a nice new Laptop :D So I got it home and place the ubuntu cd inside and low and behold everything work out of the box 3d/sound/wifi the lot :D. I Am Officially A Happy Bunny.

Christmas Bash Over

2006-12-21T09:55:00.000Z

That is the first Christmas bash at wolveslug where I have been incharge. Everything went really well and a good time had by all, at least I hope. Aq got up and told the "gorilla joke" under duress.

There were people there I have never seen but are old members of the lug that have moved away or otherwise engaged. The regulars were there as usual and I think the whole thing rocked.

I would like to thank Aq for the crackers contacting people for freebies and Kat for doing sterling work with the cakes. I would also like to thank everyone that came it was the biggest turn out I know of.

Many Thanks.

I'm wondering...

2006-11-28T10:29:00.000Z

I'm wondering just how to go about increasing the popularity of Linux? Does it start at grass roots and work it's way up or does it start at work level and work it's way out?

If you use Linux everyday at work would you be more or less likely to make the change? I thought about this long and hard and you know unless you brought your shiny new pc to play games then I see no reason why you wouldn't. But if your pc is for your work and the kids to play their games then your just not going to leave Windows. For families kids are always going to want to play games and until Game studios start making them for Linux and bringing them out at the same time as their Windows counterpart I feel you will never really capture the market of families at home.

If you start Kids using Linux at school however? This brings a whole new perspective on things. If the kids start using Linux at school and home then game studio's will begin to rapidly port their games over for Linux, why because their target is kids. Nobody seems to care about the opinion of the 30 + crowd until voting time, just look at the music scene, videos, tv, and the clothing industry. Everything is aimed at kids to twenties, this is where we (the Linux community) need to concentrate our efforts, I believe.

Why British?

2006-11-21T09:52:00.000Z

Every form I fill in of late gives me one of two options for nationality U.K. or G.B.

I am neither I was born in Birmingham which is as near damn it the middle of England why is there no English on the forms? It is the language I speak, the country I was born in, the nation I live in and the country I support.

Scots are aloud to proclaim their love of Scotland, the Welsh are the same so why is it so bad to be English?

Rant over.

More work than I thought....

2006-11-21T08:31:00.000Z

I now see why Jono couldm't spend the time he wanted dedicated to the lug. Although it isn't all that much work wise it seems to take forever. It's strange but it is nice when it works well.

2006-11-20T08:46:00.000Z

Lugradio Pressure tactics work again.

Ade has opened up his secret blog and Ade its quite interesting. So will it be president Pope? Will the pressure be there?

2006-11-15T21:28:00.000Z

Hospital has sent a delightful letter.

It officially informs me that I may have to wait upto 6 months for the op on my shoulder :(

2006-11-09T19:58:00.000Z

Plans a foot for feisty fawn to have accelerated X by default :) Never has something so simple made me so happy. This could mean no more needing to install nvidia-glx which would be awesome plus 3d acceleration means I can play Neverwinter Nights, Doom3 and Quake4 out of the box. Brilliant! Nice one Ubuntu devs please do it you know it makes sense.

2006-11-01T22:18:00.000Z

Went to the hospital today.

I saw a new specialist who has said that he will do an exploratory op on my shoulder removing the hooked bone and seeing if there is anything else causing problems. HURAY!!! Now I just got to wait for the date :( and yet so :).

2006-10-27T23:09:00.000+01:00

Kubuntu Looking good.

I downloaded 1 of each version of Ubuntu bar edubuntu. I basically had a quick look through each version and I have to say that out of the three Kubuntu is definitely looking the best. I still don't like the way KDE works which means I will stick with Ubuntu and gnome, but it is always nice to look. One thing of note for Aq though Konqueror actually really does pass the acid2 test that was impressive I must admit especially after seeing the mess Firefox made of it.

2006-10-26T21:18:00.000+01:00

I went scrolling down the list of comments on various planet site's and noticed this on LugRadio's from loud mouth man.

And heres Mr Bacon in action !

A little harsh I thought until I saw this below

Then things made a little more sense.

2006-10-24T21:09:00.000+01:00

Off to Linux World tomorrow I am helping out on the Jokosher stand. It is my first time there but hopefully not my last:) If your going I will see you there if not then I won't;)

2006-10-23T18:58:00.000+01:00

Konqueror has actually managed to pass the acid2 test congratulations KDE and Konqueror. Other Linux news Ubuntu 6.10 is nearly upon us and to be honest it is a real change to see so much work going on to improve the way things work. It is not perfect by far but it at least a big step in the right direction. Congratulation Ubuntu devs keep up the good work.

2006-10-10T16:39:00.000+01:00

Been to physio today. When she heard my shoulder crack she simply said well that's something I can't help you with bye for now. Please inform the specialist that this is something that can not be helped with physio.

However she is a nice lady and explained that it will definately need operating on and there is a new nhs book and reserve policy in place. Where by if the specialist that can help the best isn't in Wolverhampton then you can book in and go to them where ever they are. So that is a load off my mind but in saying that I got my appointment to see the new specialist on the 1/11/06 so I am quite happy at the moment even with the expected blow dealt by the physio.

2006-10-06T21:21:00.000+01:00

Recently I read this all though I am tempted to agree with this article the gentleman doing the review has obviously never seen any of the latest samsung offerings. I only have a little 1gig player but the do players that pretty much match those of apples in size. The big advantage is, if you want something that looks sleek and stylish but can play .ogg vorbis files then you can't go wrong with one of their players. It has a fast access time it is easy to use and is a standard mountable usb hd under Linux. You can't go wrong.

2006-10-03T19:34:00.000+01:00

Yes got a date with the hospital.

Nov 1st I see the new specialist hurah.

Also a review Edgy Eft Ubuntu 6.10 release.

It rocks it's official too. No seriously there were a couple of key apps that were missing from dapper on the gnome desktop. the first was a decent cd/dvd burning tools, now in the repos for Edgy is a new Brasero (a.k.a bonfire) which will revolutionise Burning cd's in gnome. The only KDE app I ever could say way out striped a gnome equivalent was K3b but now Brasero is get close and quicklty to remedying this situation I would say that it is not as feature rich as K3b but it isn't far off and it's a hell of a lot younger too. The second was a good photo manager Gthumb the default was okay but not great now that F-spot has become the default (which was the app I would always install anyway) even this situation is now not a problem.

To top it off though there has been so much work gone on under the hood it is unreal. Upstart has reinvented the init wheel (init being the program that starts and stops stuff in Linux). This is an amazing piece of software the speed increase is so impressive it has to be seen to be believed My system would slowly wake up when I switched it on and slowly lie back down when switching off. Now however I am happy to say that my pc is up and running in approximately 34-37 seconds and shutdown speed is quicker still. It is amazing to think that the Ubuntu Distro is only just coming up on 2 years of age and has developed so much so quickly.

There is only one gripe that I have Launchpad seaches if I type in a symptom rather than a package as I don't know what the package is it doesn't find a bug. If I type in the name of a package I know to be faulty but the person who first wrote the bug didn't then it doesn't find the bug. I think then there is the problem of different peoples view on what the bug is doing. As an example the boot splash screen doesn't work so I looked for a bug and couldn't find one it turned out there was one but it was a more technical bug report about a seg fault which caused the problem. First message I get though is that this is a duplicate bug of xxxxx. Launchpad itself though is an awesome piece of engineering and I commend the guys behind it just need a more uniform way to report the bug so searches can more readily find bugs. This I think would then make launchpad an absolutely amazing app, which knowing Ubnutu is what they are aiming at.

2006-10-01T15:21:00.000+01:00

Edgy Eft Just Gets Better.

Every time I do an update on Ubuntu 6.10 Edgy Eft it gets better I know there are still bugs a plenty because of all the beta software in it but my god it's good. Now it has the included benefit of Brasero the latest gnome Cd/Dvd authoring/Burning app which just makes gnomebaker look like it's from the stone age. Thank Ubuntu and thanks Philippe for writting such a great little app. Keep up the good work everyone.

2006-09-27T18:17:00.000+01:00

Depression.

I've been pretty down of late due to hospital and pain and the lack of achievement in my day to day life.
So to overcome this I've set myself a short set of to do lists for each day and all bar one to date I've been able to do. The idea that simple achieving a goal no matter how small can cheer you up no end. I am glad to report that I have begun to pull myself out of this bout of depression. I have managed to setup a lamp server again after the failure of my firewall box I setup a download only ftp server and my next goal is to setup a mail server. I'm having great fun trying to understand all the technical gubbings involved but I am enjoying every minute of it. I dearly hope that I don't set a goal to high at this point but I will get things done one step at a time.

2006-09-22T23:09:00.000+01:00

I've been in touch with the hospital to find out why I haven't heard anything about my appointments. Apparently it is due to a 5 week typing back log. Need I say more?

2006-07-24T09:15:00.000+01:00

Well What Can I Say....

If you host it they will come. Boy didn't they. There were about 350-400 people at LugRadio Live this year that's almost double last year. I hope everyone enjoyed themselves, but as there didn't seem to be that many complaints I'm guessing you did.

There were a wide array of people from all sorts of backgrounds, there were Women (excellent talk by JEN,KAT and PHATED) newbies, developers, experts and of course beards (so Jono had to be mentioned).

The talks varied from usability to how to destroy open source. Best talk Had to be Bruno with the statistical analysis of LugRadio Swearing. It was hilarious (nice one Bruno) I'm hoping the videos will be out soon as there were some I want to see but missed. Probably the two most well attended talks were The LugRadio mass Beard shaving extraviganzer and Mark Shuttleworths talk about the direction he could see linux taking.

Another mention of thanks to Kat for the LRL06 Cakes for the Saturday night Party. Also a special mention of Thanks to the FOUR LARGE GENTS without you it just wouldn't be LugRadio:)

2006-07-12T21:24:00.000+01:00

I'm going. What is it I here you say It's a group of Like minded people getting together to talk Linux and drink. There are organised talks and Lightning talks held as well as B(irds) O(f) a F(eather) sessions. Last year was the first and was great this year will be bigger and better.

2006-05-01T21:48:00.000+01:00

I've been noticing of late just how familiar the two main Linux Desktops are preceeding. Memory utilisation, speed, multimedia and desktop drawing seem to be the four main targets in my opinion.

Gnome is now using a gstreamer/alsa configuration intgrated into esd (rather than recreating the wheel) Kde are going a different way though lets face it Arts Sucks, so now they are working feverishly on the all new Phonon which in theory is what esd has done but maybe more flexible?

Everyone wants the ability to drop a dvd in their pc and have it play and it seems that, that might be the goal of the developers aswel again gstreamer via fluendo are releasing a lot of video codecs to make things on Linux just work which is what everyone wants. Also Kde again are adding this feature which they never really implemented in Arts to Phonon.

Memory usage has been reduced in both Gnome and Kde not low enough in my opinion but then I'm no developer and at the end of the day it is a huge improvement. This improvement automatically brings to the fore the management of memory and therefore the speed processes run at and this is where the big gains have come in the latest releases of Gnome and Kde.

Finally Gnome is pretty much got Ciaro as a backend now for everything and KDE4 will be having Arther. What difference will this make I hear you chant this is a new drawing backend for Gnome and Kde which uses SVG (vector graphics) rather than more traditional and slow to draw Linier graphics. This give both desktops a huge memory boost without actually doing much to the system it may look the same it may act the same but it is the same.

In conclusion it is good to see that both of these huge Desktop teams have what I believe to be our needs in mind. I wish both teams all the best with these endevers and my only hope is that they meet the hype created and then surpass them all. :-)

2006-03-08T20:41:00.000Z

New Ubuntu Rocks.

The latest upgrades to Ubuntu have included Nvidia drivers that work. X no longer crashes horribly when shutting down now. Nice shut down sequence, same as the boot sequence but reversed. loads of games. All the latest gnome software. The amazing K9copy from KDE which is effectively a striped down version of DVD Shrink for windows, which is built on top of transcode which does the work. There are so many new and interesting app that it is hard to mention them all so click here and download the latest livecd and see if you like it.

2006-03-03T23:30:00.000Z

Hi all today I have mostly been making XGL and COMPIZ work on my system.

It looks absolutely fantastic. It is the first thing for a while that has put a great huge cheesy grin on my face. Playing with the desktop that spins fast than your average 3d game is great fun. Playing video footage on the corner of a box with 50 opacity just cause you can:-) I have called it everything under the sun and then I found this so if you are an Ubuntu user have a go if I can do it I am sure you can too.

2006-02-28T15:54:00.000Z

Wolverhampton is again to host the UK's most user friendly Linux Expo.

LUGRADIO LIVE 2006 the dates and venue are confirmed the speakers are signing up it only leaves buying tickets and the date to arrive for the whole thing to kick off hurrah.

To book tickets and for lots of up-to-date info click here

2006-02-21T20:16:00.000Z

Dapper Flight 4 is out.

yesterday I download Dapper flight 4 it seems more stable than flight 3 by a long shot. I am most impressed with it's progress so far I think it will become very popular choice amongst us all as it just seems to work and so much faster to boot. Boots up quicker programs startup quicker and a nicer looking desktop to boot. Only thing that hasn't worked correctly so far is the Nvidia-glx module, but I will let them know about that. Top Marks keep up the good work.

2006-02-16T14:50:00.000Z

Today I have mostly been........

Today I have started to play around with html again, with the unfortunate news that Aq has been unable to create a nice desktop video recorder to date I have decided to create a text based tutorial for beginners instead. Progress will probably be slow to start with but I am sure as I become more familiar with html that things will speed up. Progress can be monitored here.
The majority of the site is under development at the moment though.