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a year with Linux

Last week saw the first anniversary of my adoption of Linux on my desktop PC so I thought I’d write a quick summary of how things went in the last 12 months as I always enjoy reading real-life user adoption stories.

Initially, I installed Linux Mint 7 (Gloria) on my aged Dell Dimension and in the following weeks, I subsequently upgraded to Linux Mint 8 (Helena) in November and again in May 2011 when Linux Mint 9 (Isadora) was released.

Rooney heads for the exit

I admire Wayne Rooney’s skills as a footballer and I honestly don’t give a flying fig about his sordid, personal life. Unfortunately, I don’t think Wayne Rooney is blessed with that much intelligence. This isn’t a criticism, merely a statement of fact.

If Alex Ferguson says the sky is green, then the sky is green. If Alex Ferguson says you have an ankle injury, then you have an ankle injury.

Sadly, for Rooney and Manchester United, I sense the writing might now be indelibly marked on the wall for his career at Manchester United.

starting from zero

One of my favourite and regular UK bloggers, Jonathan Beckett had gone rather quiet recently so I assumed he must have moved blogging platform the the Nth time, gone on holiday or possibly his feed was screwed without his knowledge so I sent him a polite email asking ‘Dead or just resting ?’ and he informed me he’d intentionally changed blog address without telling anyone.

I think this sudden, unannounced, abrupt loss of service is an excellent idea for all bloggers - it’s a bit like writing ‘I love small, fresh, juicy satsumas’ buried deep in the middle of a technical report to be delivered to a client or pausing for 5 minutes, with your face in your hands, during a presentation at Oracle Open World. It helps to focus the mind and check whether anyone is actually reading or listening.

Habari development roadmap

StatusNet names all releases after R.E.M. songs so here’s my idea for future Habari release codenames. It’s a well kept secret that all Habari developers and users adore that popular beat combo - The National.

The Habari development roadmap in full

• 0.7 - October 2010 -Developer Release 1 (‘10/10/10')
• 0.8 - January 2011 (‘Pay For Me')
• 0.8.1 - February 2011 (‘Murder me Rachel')
• 0.9 - June 2011 (‘Lit Up')
• 0.9.1 - August 2015 (‘Slipping Husband’ aka ‘Slipping Release')
• 0.9.2 - November 2015 (‘Mr. November')
• 0.9.3 - January 2016 (‘The Geese of Beverley Road')
• 0.9.3.1 - January 2016 (‘Mistaken for Joomla')
• 0.9.3.2.1.3(Alpha 3, RC1) - January 2016 (‘Start a War')
• 0.9.4 - March 2017 (‘Afraid of Everyone')
• 0.9.5 April 2017 (‘Your Patches Were a Kindness')
• 0.9.9 - June 2017 (‘Conversation 1,000,016’ aka ‘Taxonomy revisited')
• 1.0 (Final) - Thursday December 25 2019 (‘Bloodbuzz Ohio')

Habari 0.7 developer release

Apart from a short-lived crisis of confidence - after losing a Draft post, I spontaneously migrated this blog to Wordpress as an interim hop before completing 99% of a full blown migration to Django-Mingus which I then immediately discarded - I have used Habari as my preferred blogging platform for two and a half years.

It’s been a while since the last major Habari release (0.6) but, because I run the latest 0.7 development code (using SubVersion), the lengthy gap and absence of a formal 0.7 release didn’t particularly bother me.

consolidation

Occasionally, I have posted stuff on Posterous and Tumblr because I didn’t really feel it ‘belonged’ on this blog, it wasn’t worthy or it was a throwaway one-liner and not a proper blog post. As I subsequently deleted my Posterous account (as I didn’t like their negative campaigning against Tumblr), some of this content has now been lost forever.

I think, from now on, I will post everything on this blog where it’s under my control.

iPoser

This morning, a gentleman was reading a copy of The Times on my South West Trains service bound for London Waterloo. Nothing too surprising about that.

However, this man continued to intently consume the day’s important news stories as he left the train and made his way down to the Underground network.

This chap wasn’t reading a newspaper though. He was an early adopter so he was reading the electronic version of The Times on an Apple iPad. Clearly, the content is so captivating, the display is so sharp and the font is so crystal clear that he simply has to continue reading the news as he descends the staircase at platform 4, tightly packed in a mass of humanity, down to the Waterloo and City line.

innocence of youth

I believe it was Tommy Docherty who christened the phrase ‘the innocence of youth’ when he described the joyful, attacking football of the newly promoted Manchester United team during the 1975–1976 season.

One of my favourite bloggers, Jonathan Beckett, also reminded me of ‘the innocence of youth’ recently when he recounted how he dare not tell one of his three daughters that the family was getting three new kittens imminently lest she responded by ‘jumping up and down uncontrollably'.

Papal visit

‘When you land at Heathrow you think at times you have landed in a Third World country’ - Cardinal Walter Kasper.

I guess the Papal entourage must have landed at Terminal 3 and endured the inevitable 20 minute wait for a bus to be brought up to the aircraft. If only the Italian check-in staff had put those red ‘Priority’ tags on their suitcases.

Still, it’s a bit rich coming from a man who wears a pointy hat and attaches the same importance to the ordination of women as to the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests.

drowning man

The Brightside family holiday in Spain was a very relaxing affair. For a period of 10 days, I didn’t watch a television, read a newspaper, stare at a computer screen or even turn my mobile phone on.

In fact, I sat by the pool, listened to music, swam, ate fantastic seafood, thought a lot and ploughed my way through the Millennium trilogy by Stieg Larsson.

One hot, sunny afternoon, my relaxation was disturbed by the most awful, horrible, blood curdling screams. I consulted my iTouch; ‘D-7’ by that popular 90’s beat combo - Nirvana. Ah that explains it. I returned to ‘The Girl Who Played With Fire’ and the exciting adventures of Lisbeth Salander.