So my attempt to listen to every LUGRadio episode ever failed big style. 
However LUGRadio Live 2008 approaches, so the time for planning is afoot. My hotel is booked (as of today), and it’s time to get the word out about the event.
(The things I’ll do for a yellow t-shirt!)
After much procrastination, and then frustration - the nice weather arrives, I want to get out there and do things, and I go and get sunburnt effectively curtailing physical activities for a while - I finally dragged myself out for a run again this morning.
I thoroughly enjoy running, although I admit to being a bit of a fair weather runner, but actually gettting out to do it can be a bit of a performance. First I need to locate all my running gear, then my pedometer, then my listening device of choice which of course needs updating with new tracks or podcasts, and while I’m at it I might set up a new playlist or tweak an existing one. Before I know it at least 30 minutes has passed since I made the decision to go out and actually getting close to leaving the house.
This morning I was better prepared: I knew where all my running gear was, and I deliberately chose to forgo the technological accoutrements that I normally take. No X300 Sports Tracker, no iPod Nano, no Nokia N95. I didn’t even take a watch.
Without all that junk, I found the experience quite liberating. I wasn’t worrying about my current speed, or which track was currently playing, and without the phone there were no other distractions. I just ran, and I definitely feel I ran better for it. Obviously as a card carrying geek I love the toys, and I love tracking my stats and performance, but it is easy to forget that they really don’t matter.
I’m not saying I’m going to be running ‘naked’ everytime, but I will be doing it again and I thoroughly recommend you try it as well. Just grab your trainers and go.
There’s plenty of GTA IV reviews out there,some with spoilers (!) and some without - obviously the latter are preferable. Therefore this is not an in-depth review, just how I came to own it and my experience so far.
Continue reading ‘Grand Theft Auto IV - Micro Review’
In contrast to Martin and Daniel, I really don’t care how you refer to me. My parents called me David, most people call me Dave, in my teenage years a few friends only referred to me as Murph or Murphy, particular ex-colleagues persist in using my childhood nickname of Smurf, and the vast majority of people I interact with primarily through IRC know me as Schwuk. Various other nicknames have also been used and discarded throughout my life. Schwuk, Smurf and the rest are as much as part of my identity as my given names, so I have no problem with others using them in real life.
One of the refreshing things about coming to Canonical from a more traditional company was the widespread use of IRC and the opportunity for my personal and professional identities to merge.
Then again, maybe I’m just strange. 
It was remiss of me not to mention it at the time, but during that traditional British pastime known as Easter Weekend I left the comfort of Cumbria and ventured south. After a completely uneventful journey (although there was KFC of the boneless variety) I found myself in the company of Alan Pope, Dave Walker, Ciemon Dunville, a significantly svelter (than the last time I saw him) Tony Whitmore, Laura Cowen, a bunch of audio equipment, several EeePCs, an Openmoko Neo 1793, and cake (no lie).
Such a gathering could only mean one thing…
No, not that!
It was the recording of the second episode of the official (because we said so) Ubuntu UK Podcast which, thanks to certain stars and planets being aligned (and the fact I was in the area anyway), I was able to take part in.
This was my third attempt at participating in a podcast - the first two involved (separately) a phone and attending the Linux User and Developer Exposition - and was very enjoyable. It took me bit to get used talking into the microphone and not at whoever I was talking/replying to, but I got there. I’ve met all except Ciemon numerous times in the past, so it really was more like getting together with friends than recording a show. Considering this is only their second episode, it all felt very professional.
I’d love to take part in more episodes, but geography is against that, so I’ll continue to be involved in planning, promotion and the site of course.
We’ve added a Twitter account for the show where we’ll announce items of pertinence. If you’re a Twitterer make sure you follow us.
Anyway, go listen, (hopefully) enjoy and more importantly let us know what you thought.
After upgrading to Hardy I noticed that my numeric keypad was no longer working. Not a huge inconvenience, but when you’ve got one you like to be able to use it don’t you?
This morning - after trying to use it again - I decided to have another go at fixing it. A quick Google provided me with the solution:
Go into the Keyboard Preferences (System >Preferences > Keyboard) Switch to the Mouse Keys tab Uncheck the box for Allow to control the pointer using the keyboard
Grammar excepted, a logical procedure but why (oh why) is it enabled by default?
The other day I upgraded to the Hardy Heron beta, and the experience - as expected - was mostly flawless.
I inititated the upgrade last thing at night and left it downloading. The next morning it was waiting for me to answer a question, which I did and then continued working while it proceeded in the background. It needed input from me a few times concerning configuration files, but for the most part no interaction was required. A while later it was complete and asked me to reboot. I did because it was a convenient time for me, but throughout the whole process I just carried on working with no problems at all.
I’ve no experience of upgrading (or even installing) OS X, but I know the same experience would be difficult to replicate on Microsoft Windows, especially when you consider that all my applications were upgraded at the same time as the Operating System.
Once Hardy is formally released - and I’ve got the opportunity - I plan to completely re-install this machine and wipe all traces of Microsoft Windows from it forever (Vista is still lurking around on here, wasting space along with a defunct recovery partition).
So if like me you’re waiting for the release of Hardy, add the counter to your website. Find the massively complicated installation instructions here.
Version 2.5 of WordPress has been released today, and I’ve upgrade this site accordingly.
The upgrade was pretty painless, apart from a weird bug that happens if you’re (like me) using the K2 theme. Everything works, except the admin dashboard. I’ve been meaning to develop my own theme anyway, so maybe this will be impetus I need to do so.
After dragging my heels for a bit, I’m finally getting around to releasing my code for generating WordPress eXtended RSS (WXR) files from Mephisto database.
I agreed with Stuart that it should be released regardless of demand, but it really did need some cleaning up first!
So, without any further ado, pomp, or ceremony I give you m2wp.py!
…
Oh, you actually want to see the code?
If you just want the file, you can grab it here If you just want to see the the code, you can see it here If you want to be all modern and distributed, you can grab the code using Bazaar like this*:
bzr branch http://labs.schwuk.com/m2wp
* Why aren’t I using Launchpad? Because I seriously doubt there will be any further development of this. However if people want to submit patches, they are more than welcome to and I will publish them in my repository.
A couple of caveats:
It assumes you’re using a PostgreSQL database. If you want something different, add it. Due to the wonders of WordPress, you can’t have tags and categories with the same name, but you can in Mephisto. You’ll need to fix this once you’ve imported into WordPress. The script is released under the GPL, and all that that entails.
