Hardy Release Parties – Bring. It. On.
24/4/2008. *24th April 2008*. **April the twenty fourth two thousand and eight**.
Get that date in your head – it is when the next version of Ubuntu is released – Ubuntu 8.04, the Hardy Heron.
As with previous releases we would love to see our incredible Ubuntu community hold release parties. So, people, get your engines fired up and lets start seeing some release party foo going on. Organising a party is simple, just follow these easy steps:
* Go and read [this guide for running a release party](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BuildingCommunity/RunningReleaseParty ).
* Work with your local [Ubuntu LoCo Team](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LoCoTeamList), Linux User Group or just work by yourself to get everything in place and organise a party.
* Update [this page](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardyReleaseParties) with the dates and location of your party.
We had a record number of parties for the *Gutsy* release – lets kick arse and take names with this release and really make some waves. 🙂
Langridge. Fail.
Interesting conversation yesterday:
* **Stuart ‘Aq’ Langridge** – “*Yeah, its pretty wicked, y’know, because, I listen that site that streams Commodore 64 music, it is unbelievable greatness.*”
* **Jono** – “*Commodore 64 music! Can you hear yourself? You are the saddest human being I have ever met! You are Sad 2.0 gimp-a-lot prime.*”
* **Stuart ‘Aq’ Langridge** – “*Yeah, because metal is soooo much better…yeah, lets live in 1985, muppet!*”
* **Jono** – “*…*”
* **Stuart ‘Aq’ Langridge** – “*…*”
* **Jono** – “*1985?! Erm…Commodore…64…music!*”
Nice one there, ginger man. 🙂
Couple o’interviews
For the bored, last week I did a few interviews:
* [The Bungee Line](https://bungee-media.s3.amazonaws.com/audio/The-Bungee-Line-2008-11-Jono-Bacon.mp3) – interview with my good buddy Ted Haeger covering Ubuntu and our community.
* [Linux Link Tech Show](https://www.tllts.org/audio/tllts_236-03-12-08.mp3) – long interview, covering LugRadio, Ubuntu and more.
Thanks to both shows for the airtime. 🙂
If you are not into Pedigree Chum, you are not my friend
Before, I shared with you with [this find of death metal comic mockery](https://archivedblog.jonobacon.com/?p=1108), and thanks must go to the people who mailed me about this nugget of perfection:
Death Metal Puppy – Watch more free videos
*Can’t see it? See the [vid here](https://www.break.com/index/death-metal-puppy.html).*
My dogs…not like that. It appears my dogs are simply *not metal enough*. And the training begins…
If you spot any more amusing metal videos, [send ’em in](mailto:jonoAtjonobaconDOTorg).
More exhibitors, prizes available, banners…oh my
Time for an update on [LugRadio Live USA 2008](https://lugradio.org/live/USA2008/) happening on the 12th and 13th April at The Metreon in San Francisco!
I can now confirm a raft of additinal exhibitors, this now takes the list to:
* Google
* Dice
* GNOME
* PostgreSQL
* O’Reilly
* OpenSuSE
* Linden Labs
* Magnatune
* Neuros
* Sun
* Texas Instruments
* South California Linux Expo
* Komputers 4 R Kids
* San Francisco LUG
* BytesFree.org
* Ontario Linux Fest
* Frets on Fire
* OpenNMS
* One Course Source
* Haiku
* Hyperic
* BitRock
* Hyperic
* OpenStreetMap
* FreeBSD
* Ubuntu
* Inkscape
* Mandriva
* One Laptop Per Child San Francisco
* KDE
* Linux Pro Magazine
* San Francisco Community Colocation Project
* (we expect to confirm another ten or so more too)
…plus don’t forget to check out the [incredible list of speakers](https://lugradio.org/live/USA2008/speakers) that we have!
Also, don’t forget you can win an Asus EEEPC or Neuros OSD, O’Reilly books and limited edition LugRadio t-shirts! Simply encourage people to come to LugRadio Live USA 2008 and ask them to pre-register at https://lugradio.org/live/USA2008/register – when they do this, they will be asked for the person who referred them. In this box they should type in *your name*. Now repeat with lots of people. If you get the highest number of referrals (as in, the most amount of people that said you referred them) you will win your choice of an Asus EEEPC or Neuros OSD, as well as two O’Reilly books, and a limited edition LugRadio t-shirt. Also, each of the people you referred will get an O’Reilly book and a limited edition LugRadio t-shirt too – so everyone is a winner! We will also have a runner-up winner who will win the Asus EEEPC or Neuros OSD that is left – lots of opportunity to win! Thanks to efficientpc.co.uk, Neuros and O’Reilly for the prizes. 🙂
To help spread the word, here are a bunch of banners – folks, this is all community organised and community focussed, so we need your help to help spread the word about it! Here are some banners to add to your websites:
Available in:
* [728 x 90](https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3032/2331012838_c9402224d1_o.png)
* [500 x 62](https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3032/2331012838_3b5dc0ab18.jpg)
* [240 x 30](https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3032/2331012838_3b5dc0ab18_m.jpg)
Available in:
* [468 x 60](https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3273/2330186473_8ab93aaa92_o.png)
* [240 x 31](https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3273/2330186473_68147d1088_m.jpg)
Available in:
* [338 x 328](https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3092/2299106292_0c20ef28f4_o.png)
* [240 x 240](https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3092/2299106292_461d311811_m.jpg)
* [100 x 100](https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3092/2299106292_461d311811_t.jpg)
* [75 x 75](https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3092/2299106292_461d311811_s.jpg)
Spread the good love about [LugRadio Live USA 2008](https://lugradio.org/live/USA2008/). 🙂
Get people to LugRadio Live USA 2008 and win awesome prizes
**Asus EEPC, Neuros OSD, O’Reilly books and limited edition LugRadio t-shirts up for grabs. Read on folks.**
I wanted to let everyone know how you can win an Asus EEEPC or a Neuros OSD and some O’Reilly books for yourself as well as LugRadio t-shirts and O’Reilly books for your friends, while all the time helping to make [LugRadio Live USA 2008](https://lugradio.org/live/USA2008/) on the 12th and 13th April at The Metreon in San Francisco an awesome event.
The idea is simple – we want to encourage as many people to the event as possible, and we would like to reward you for spreading the word about LugRadio Live USA 2008. With this in mind, we have some rather nice prizes to give away. All you need to do is to encourage people to come to LugRadio Live USA 2008, ask them to pre-register and when they pre-register they will be asked for the name of the person who recommended the event to them. In that box they should enter *your name*.
The person who refers the highest number of people will win themselves their choice of an [Asus EEEPC](https://eeepc.asus.com/global/) or a [Neuros OSD](https://www.neurostechnology.com/neuros-osd), two O’Reilly books of their choice and a limited edition LugRadio t-shirt. In addition to this, the people that the winner referred will each receive an O’Reilly book and a limited edition LugRadio t-shirt. The next highest number of referrals will win either the Asus EEEPC or Neuros OSD that remains. Thanks to [efficientpc.co.uk](https://www.efficientpc.co.uk) for providing the Asus EEEPC and to [Neuros](https://www.neurostechnology.com/) for providing the Neuros OSD prizes, and thanks to [O’Reilly](https://www.oreilly.com/) for providing the books.
So, to re-iterate, getting involved is simple. Follow these easy steps:
* Talk as many people about coming to LugRadio Live USA 2008 as possible – spread the word, blog it, hassle your friends and colleagues and encourage them to come.
* Ask them to go to [this page](https://lugradio.org/live/USA2008/register) and pre-register. Tickets for the event cost only $10 for the full-weekend with full access to all the talks, exhibition and activities and a light lunch is provided.
* While pre-registering, they will be asked who referred them. Ensure they put your in your name in this box for it to be counted.
The winners will be announced at LugRadio Live USA 2008. Please note – only those people who actually attend LugRadio Live USA 2008 will count as referrals and all names must have a matching ticket – no trying to stooge the system folks.
Good luck and we look forward to seeing you at the awesome greatness that will be LugRadio Live USA 2008! 🙂
First LugRadio Live USA 2008 Exhibitors Confirmed!
Organisation for [LugRadio Live USA 2008](https://lugradio.org/live/USA2008/start) on the 12th and 13th April 2008 in San Francisco coninues apace, and we are in the process of confirming exhibitors. Our first raft of exhibitors have just been confirmed, and I can announce them as:
* Google
* Dice
* GNOME
* PostgreSQL
* O’Reilly
* OpenSuSE
* Linden Labs
* Magnatune
* gOS
* Neuros
* Sun
* Texas Instruments
* South California Linux Expo
* Komputers 4 R Kids
* San Francisco LUG
* BytesFree.org
* Ontario Linux Fest
* Frets on Fire
* OpenNMS
* One Course Source
We are currently working to add another *twice as many* exhibitors. If you would like to exhibit you’re project, organisation or company, get in touch with us at `show AT lugradio DOT org`.
Of course, LugRadio Live USA 2008 is much more than just exhibitors, we have 35 speakers who will be speaking across three stages:
* Miguel de Icaza (Mono / Novell / Co-Founder Of GNOME)
* Ian Murdoch (OpenSolaris / Founder Of Debian)
* Robert Love (GNOME / Google)
* Aza Raskin (Mozilla / Humanized)
* Benjamin Mako Hill (Ubuntu / Debian / FSF)
* John Buckman (Magnatune)
* Val Henson (Kernel / VAH consulting)
* Christopher Blizzard (Mozilla / GNOME)
* Mike Linksvayer (Creative Commons)
* David Schleef (GStreamer)
* Matthew Garrett (Power Management / Kernel)
* Danese Cooper (Intel / OSI)
* Aaron Bockover (Banshee / Novell)
* Liana Holmberg (Second Life / Linden Lab)
* Emma Jane Hogbin (Hick Tech)
* Joe Zonker Brockmeier (OpenSuSE / Novell)
* Kristen Accardi (Kernel)
* Joe Born (Neuros)
* Selena Deckelmann
* Stewart Smith (MySQL)
* Dan Kegal (Wine)
* Ben Collins (Ubuntu / Kernel)
* Jason Kridner (Texas Instruments)
* Jeremy Allison (Samba / Google)
* Christian Hammond (VMWare)
* Ian McKeller (Songbird)
* Alison Randall (Parrot / Perl / OSCON)
* David Huffman (LVM)
* Brian Will (Pigeon)
* Belinda Lopez (Ubuntu)
* Ilan Rabanovich (SoCal Linux Expo)
* Eddy Mulyono (Packaging)
* Matthew Walster (Demo Scene)
It is going to be a kick-arse event. And remember it is only $10 for the entire weekend. Thats it. Ten bucks. If you want to come and join in the fun, please go and [pre-register](https://lugradio.org/live/USA2008/register), it guarantees you’re entry, and also includes a bunch of other benefits. Look forward to seeing you all there! 🙂
brainstorm.ubuntu.com, bow chicka wah wah
[Diggity Digg Da Digg Digg Diggity Digg](https://digg.com/linux_unix/Ubuntu_Brainstorm_Launched)!
One of the toughest challenges when building a Linux distribution is trying to ensure we are solving the problems and feature-gaps that are affecting our users – we genuinely want to make Ubuntu rock for everyone. In terms of problems, specifically defects, [people can report bugs](https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bugs), but in terms of *features*, gathering a decent collection of features, assessing their popularity, and weeding out the crack is a tough process. It really is a devilishly difficult problem. It is however, a problem that we have been discussing across a few teams for a while, and I am pleased to see the fruits of these efforts online – [brainstorm.ubuntu.com](https://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/) 🙂
The concept is simple – you can go to the site and see a range of ideas that have been submitted by the community. These ideas have a couple of arrows on the left side of the idea in which you can vote to add your popularity or vote against the idea. This provides an excellent means of us assessing the popularity of ideas and which things are affecting people. Everyone is welcome to sign in and add ideas, and we encourage you to get involved and contribute to the site – this is going to be the primary method of sharing your ideas with the community and with the Ubuntu development community. There are already a bunch of stunning ideas on there, and I can’t wait to see what you all add. 🙂
[brainstorm.ubuntu.com](https://brainstorm.ubuntu.com) will be a primary resource in assessing what we should be discussing at each Ubuntu Developer Summit (the [next one being in Prague](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UDS-Intrepid)). So, get along to [brainstorm.ubuntu.com](https://brainstorm.ubuntu.com) and get involved! 🙂
Installfest for schools in the USA
Just wanted to plug a rather cool looking installfest for schools that is using Ubuntu on recycled computers and organised by the [Untangle](https://www.untangle.com/) folks. They are performing a bunch of installs over a number of locations including San Francisco, Berkeley, San Mateo and Novato. It is happening this Saturday – 1st March 2008.
Check out the details of the event [here](https://www.untangle.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=351&Itemid=139) and sign up to volunteer [here](https://wiki.untangle.com/index.php/Main_Page).
The 5-A-Day Love In…Applet Style
You know what, it stuns me just what is possible when we all link arms and step forward together.
About a week ago [5-A-Day](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/5-A-Day) was launched, and it is kicking some rather serious arse (now…is that *seriously kicking* arse or kicking an *arse that is serious* – what would be the form of a *serious arse*?…hmmm I appear to have digressed). So yes, 5-A-Day is kicking arse and taking names, and we are seeing some incredible growth in the community with it, and lots of incredible bug work going on.
More and more people are getting into the 5-A-Day phenomenon, and as important as doing the bug work is sharing your 5-A-Day with other people. People are doing this via email signatures, blog entries and more.
Well, the always incredible Markus Korn has produced an awesome little panel applet that makes reporting your 5-A-Day progress incredibly simple – you simply drag Firefox tabs onto the applet and it adds that bug number to your log. Markus shows off his work in [this video](https://launchpadlibrarian.net/12228307/5-a-day-applet_1.mpeg). Check it out.
Thanks to Horseman Holbach, we have a delicious PPA with this little applet – the applet is called `five-a-day-applet`. It uses the same PPA as listed on the 5-A-Day wiki page. The wiki page will be updated soon with how to use the applet. 🙂
So, go and [do the 5-A-Day thang](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/5-A-Day). 🙂