Well, we went away this weekend to visit Sooz’s parents and siblings. It was fun seeing them again as it always is, and I am looking forward to seeing my family again soon also. My dad run earlier to say they are back from Florida so I am going to ring him soon.

It seems that Blender is now on for a solid 2.30 roadmap that will include UI improvements. A lot of people seem to really dislike the Blender UI, and while I agree it is a bit complicated, there is a common view in contemporary computing now that you should be able to pick something up without reading any kind of documentation. I agree that this should apply to word processors and spreadheets, but 3D modellers? I don’t think so.

I am just working on an IPTables tutorial at the moment. I had not used IPTables for a little while and it was good to catch up with some of the technology again. The range of GUI firewalling apps is pretty interesting too.
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Well, we had a LUG last night, and as usual it was a blast. We piled into the indian restaurant and made lots of noise, ate lots of curry and generally took the piss out of Aq’s beard. I was hoping the curry house would be a good location for the LUG, and (assuming they have us back) we will be in there next time.

We were discussing in great depth last night the concept of appdirs and how Mac OS X keeps apps in a single dir but Linux spreads files all over the place. Aq is working with a group to create ROX OS which will harness this appdir concept. I shared some critical views (read: I slagged it off) but I think if they manage to do it and get it approved by the LSB (read: get it in distros), it could really make things much easier.

I booked some train tickets for the expo next week. Pretty much all set now for getting down there. Its gonna be fun. 🙂

Oh yes, I am working on an RSS feed for the news. It should appear soon.

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Well, recently I have been configuring the new Seraphidian site and things are looking smooth. I still have a few things to do, but it is getting there.

We went to see Arch Enemy the other night with one of my top 5 bands, Nevermore, supporting. My god that was a good gig. 🙂

On the computer front, I have been hacking around with Smarty for PHP quite a lot, and I plan on possibly releasing Tobe over the next week or so. Things are settling down now after everything being so busy.
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What a metal weekend. Friday night we went to see my old band Conspiracy play in Rushden near Northampton and I got up and played War Ensemble and Reign In Blood with them. 🙂

Saturday night, we (Seraphidian) did a gig supporting Kill II This and Area 54. Got on well with both bands and had a blast. Really good gig, good response and look forward to playing with Kill II This again at the Kage Kharn festival with Speedhorn, Skindred and others next month. 🙂

Bring the noise…
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Last night I hacked Tobe some more. I have added some front page news and fixed a few bugs. I plan to hack on it tonight also. Today I have been working on the Seraphidian site and some other things.

I really have an itch at the moment to do more PHP. I have been busy writing recently and not had time to do this. I hope to scratch the itch with the Tobe code. I also have a few other projects I want to hack on also.

I went to a computer fair today and bought a 120GB hard drive for £65!! Can you believe that. It is mad how cheap hardware is getting now. Sooz has bagged the disk and she is gonna give me her 40GB disk. This also means that I have some disks to swap around so I can use one of them as a review disk for reviewing distros.

Looks like another child is going to be added to my network of children. The PC is getting lobbed by Lee Parkes in a LUG and if no one else has bagged it, it will be another server in the empire. Man, I am running out of hub ports…

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Today I have been configuring a PHP Nuke site for the new Seraphidian site and I have spent some time proof reading some of my chapters. I have some bugs to fix here and there and I am attempting to import a phpBB2 forum into a phpBB2 nuke forum. It seems that the problem lies with how users are handled with both systems. I will investigate tonight.

This weekend was fun. Old friends Soraya and Kieran came up to visit and my ex-bandmate and long time buddy Alan came up also. 🙂 On friday night went to the pub, and on saturday night we stayed in at our house.

Susan bought me one of those Eyetoys for the PS2. You basically plug the included webcam into the console and the included disc has 12 games to play. You interact with the on screen objects in different ways. Its pretty damn good fun. 🙂 I also got Medal Of Honor: Frontline for the cube.

Well, another week begins tomorrow and I am spending Monday proofreading some submitted chapters and some other work. I also plan to hack Tobe at some point this week as I was too busy this weekend. I have a few other little hacks to do regarding managing my work load. I might do this tomorrow if I have time. If it is any good I might GPL it and whack it on here. 🙂

Well, we went, we conquered, and now we feel rough. Last night mucho beer and curry was consumed and 15 of us piled into The Standard.

Thanks must go out to all who came to my birthday bash, and the LUG meeting was great. I am proud to have such a cool bunch of people in the LUG, and last night is without doubt one of the best meets we have ever had, if not the best.

The next major liver battering is the Linux Expo when Aq, Dan, Lee, James and I are heading down for the festivities.

Right, I must work…

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Well, it has happened, at 4pm this afternoon 24 years ago, my mother squeezed me out. Its been fun since then, and I want to thank all the people have sent birthday wishes such as Sooz, Emily, Annette, Jon, Dom, Jayne, Alan, Mark, Diane, Richard, Kelly, Ingvild and others.

I am gonna get out of my tree tonight. 🙂 I might have some pictures to show for it…

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Well, last nights gig was fun. We played for about 25 mins and it went down well. I got up at 9.30am today when our landlord came round to fix up our bath and I have just put my CV online.

You know, I can’t believe I am 24 tomorrow. Age is catching up with me and before long I am going to have to start wearing brown trousers up to my chin, watching 15 to 1 on Channel 4 and generally smelling musty…ahhh the joys of age. 😛

Busy week this week. LUG and birthday tomorrow, Karate on thursday and mates come up at the weekend for fun and games. 😀