Well, I have redone my vocals on the Free Software Song and I am much happier with it. It was always destined to be growled all the way through and now it is online and waiting to be Slashdotted. 🙂

Tonight I pretty much finished the charities document, and I am going to get it looked over by some people before I release it. I will then let the world know about it and try and encourage people to send it out to charities to guage a response. If it helps one charity it will be worth it. 🙂

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Just woke up and wandered onto some news sites and it seems that a group have got an exploit to run Linux on an unmodded XBox and it is fairly simple. Awesome stuff this. Microsoft are none to pleased though, and I can imagine why. I on the other hand am gonna save up and buy an XBox to use as a media center for the TV running Linux. Cheap and fast PC in a stupid box I think.

I woke up and ache like a bugger due to the karate. I am gonna do some practice moves today though and I also need to do some writing, finish of the charities doc and mainly work on some PHP. PHP is causing me headaches with it’s config.

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Well Sooz and I went over to the Karate class…Hai!! Ahhh…soo…judo chop.

Well actually its nothing at all like that. We went over, took about 15mins to figure out how to get in and then we went into the hall. Before each class the group do a ceremony to make the dojo sacred ground and pay respect to the sensai. We then started learning all manner of punches and kicks, and then at the end started stringing these movs together. We then sat down to do some stretches, some more kicks and then finished with the ceremony.

It was all in in all a pretty cool experience and we are looking forward to more. 🙂

Tonight I have been working on my charities paper some more, and I now need to write an article.

Well, the other night Sooz and I decided to sign up to a Karate course. It all came out of the blue, but our first session is in about an hour. Should be interesting…a bit nervous at the moment but I am sure they will all be impressed with my ninja skills. 😉

I am just fiddling about with some PHP that my brother has written. It is using the Smarty tags system and seems pretty cool. I am just getting my head round how it is all layed out. I think I will be emailing him a bit later to check a few things out.

I am also planning on finishing this charities document at some point today. I want to get that in a state where it can be released ASAP.

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At about 4am this morning I decided that I wanted to write a paper on how charities can get away from proprietary systems and move to free software. I think if this paper can get sent out to enough charities, we can really make a difference. I have ranted many a time in Linux Format about how charities can really benefit from Linux, and I am hoping this paper and some people to push it will really help.

I am hopefully gonna get the paper finished tomorrow and then I will export it to a variety of formats and make an announcement over the next few days. I think I will get some people to read over it first. It is nearly done but I am stopping tonight because (a) it is 5.40am and (b) my hand hurts. :/

In other news, I got through a book by Andrew “Bunnie” Huang called Hacking The XBox. This book was written and published by him after Wiley dropped the book due to DMCA problems they may face. Bunnie stuck to his guns and is flogging it himself. It is an interesting read to say the least and if it does get banned it will be a real shame for freedom of speech. OK, I am not gonna get too hippie on you folks now…
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Well, today I submitted another article and I am now just doing some PHP. I am trying fix some DB problems, but I dont know if I have nailed them properly. Time will tell…

I am currently downloading the LNX-BBC (Linux bootable business card distro). Wayne from our LUG brought us a stack of business card sized CDs and I am gonna stick it on there and have a play with it. If it is anything like the mighty Knoppix it should be pretty damn good. 🙂

I had a bit of a play on my guitar earlier and have come up with some new riffs for Seraphidian and my own stuff. One new song I am working on (my own stuff) is really Power Metal styled. Sounds quite like Hammerfall at the moment. 🙂

Right, I have stuck the new and improved (!) Free Software Song online in MP3 and OGG format. It will be interesting to guage the response on this. I posted it to Slashdot but I dont think I can be lucky two times in a row. 😉 I am also gonna mail it to RMS and ask if he can put it on the GNU site. 😉

Right, off you tod then…go and install it. Let me know what you think. I need to hack some PHP now. Seeya soon. 🙂
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Well folks, I hope fame and fortune are coming my way. I have got my article about Debian (which is on SitePoint) posted on Slashdot. I have also managed to get my KDE booth writeup on dot.kde.org and the Debian feature on DebianPlanet.

Had a band practice today, and unfortunatly I didnt get to record my vocals for the free software song today. I plan on recording them tomorrow and then mixing it and putting it online tomorrow. 🙂

Well today has been an interesting day. Sooz and I spent some time getting the house tidyed up and then I worked on some PHP code.

Recently I have been thinking of doing a new version of the Free Software Song that RMS is famed for singing. To be honest, and this is no disrespect to RMS (well it is not intended to be), I am not a big fan of the original song, and thought it needed “metalling” up a bit. I popped into my studio and came up with a new version that uses the same lyrics RMS wrote and it sounds cool. 🙂 I just need to do some vocals (it was a bit late when I finished recording so could not scream into a mic – I dont think our neighbours would like this).

In other Stallman related news, I emailed him today about some questions I have about the XBox and other concepts of the equality of Free Software. This was spurred on from a chat I had with Georg Greve (head of FSF Europe) at the Linux expo. I await a reply. 🙂

Well, I just wrote up a report on how the KDE booth got sorted out for the expo in Birmingham. I just posted this to the dot, so I suspect there may be reading this than usual. 🙂

In more writing news, my SitePoint Debian article has hit the electronic press. I am looking forward to hearing some feedback about this.

I spent some time today working on some commercial PHP work. I am working on some software with my brother for a project and started coding it today. As this project develops, I hope to make some more details available. I also fixed some bits of this site to ensure it is actually valid HTML instead of me saying it and it really being invalid.

I have also been thinking about the concept of forking software. I think that in some ways software forking is wrong unless suitable development has been made. I could for example, fork the Hurd project and make a French version called ‘erd that is no different other than me changing the name as a pisstake. This of course is silly and stupid (don’t act surprised) but is something I could do and undermine the Hurd project when it is released in 2010.
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