26May2008
Posted by Christopher under: Family & Friends.
So having neglected The Girl due to overworking, I subjected her to My Day Of Awesome.
12pm Lunch @ Trof (caution, flash-heavy page) - if you’re ever visiting Manchester and don’t come here, more fool you.
2pm Buy Tent for Glastonbury
3pm Bodyworlds @ MOSI - real chopped-up dead people. A bit gruesome - the plastinated foetuses were especially moving, particularly given the current debate over the abortion age limit. Fellow WYLUG’er Tommy Hall has some great pictures…
7pm Dinner @ Wagamama. Awesome asian food and great atmosphere
9pm Mad dash over Snake Pass to see The Futureheads play the Sheffield Leadmill
It was awesome.
In other news, I’m now on Planet Fedora. :)
24May2008
Posted by Christopher under: Linux & Open Source.
When videoing people for use in marketing videos, zooming in and out, moving the camera about randomly and putting people in front who talk in monotone only serves to make the viewer seasick and sleepy. Please stop it.
Exhibit number one. Bad.
Exhibit number two. A bit better.
Exhibit number three. - (OGG) Awesome.
24May2008
Posted by Christopher under: Linux & Open Source.
So of course I wanted to watch carpet tube for the 20th time after installing Fedora 9. But couldn’t. Firefox 3 beta 5 ships with Fedora 9 but the built in flash installer doesn’t work for $REASON. After futzing around with swfdec (interesting results but not _quite_ ready, qv. ath5k) I headed back to the proprietary realm. Post rpm install, video worked, just not sound. Fiddled, poked, temporarily blamed pulseaudio. Sorry Mr Poettering. Googled, hit this then installed libflashsupport. Then discovered Flash 10 is on the horizon with support for the aforementioned pulseaudio etc.
I don’t even need to browse Fedora-devel to read the latest round of:
“Why do we ship borkened Fedora, I want puppies plz k thnx”.
For a good reply of why not I direct you to Yaakov Nemoy’s take.
23May2008
Posted by Christopher under: Travel & Leisure.
My new job requires me to do a fair amount of travelling. On a recent trip to Cornwall I was talking with my mother about not having the time to see anything whilst I’m down here. Its usually spent “Computer-whispering” as The Girl puts it.
“You have to make it count.” she said.
I knew what she meant so a couple of weeks back I returned to Cornwall and this time stopped off at the Eden project. The visit was a bit rushed but I managed to fit most of it in, particularly the strange hemp garden, grown behind a fence due to licensing laws. The rainforest biome was the star attraction, particularly the asian plantation section with various curry aromas sending my mouth watering.
Purchasing entry using gift aid means that you get a years free entry. I hope to return for a more leisurely visit. Pictures to follow…
23May2008
Posted by Christopher under: Linux & Open Source.
So …. NetworkManager in Fedora 9. Its been fascinating to watch the progression of this through subsequent releases. It was unusable in Fedora 7, intermittent in Fedora 8 so I was keen to see what had changed. Static IP addressing but most importantly, support for 3G/HSDPA modems such as the huwaei e220, of which I have one through work.
This works, out of the box. So well, in fact, that I use it in preference to my house WLAN when ath5k eventually grinds to a halt. As in:
Fedora experience: Plug in modem, wait 5 seconds, use internet.
Windows experience: Plug in modem. Wait for drive to mount. Wait for hardware detection to complete. Get confused when Windows says it is installed a CD-ROM drive. Run through software installation (must be Administrator to do this). Load up software. Watch as software declares SIM to be invalid. Restart software. Use internet.
That’s not the end of the tale though dear readers. I have an itouch dual mobile phone. On Fedora 8 when connected via USB the system speaker emits a squawk, prints a kernel bug to systems logs and charges. On Fedora 9 it identifies it as a networking device and makes it available for connection.
You mean I don’t have to type:
sudo iwconfig wlan0 essid “My Home Lan” anymore?
