Album Progress
Quick update on the album.
I have had pretty limited time recently to work on the album with being away for a week at the sprint in London, and then hectic most evenings. I was also kicked down with a cold for a while – headaches and loud, roaring guitars don’t mix! This week though I have had a little to work on some tunes, and made some good progress.
As I said previously, I am entering the second stage of the writing process – recording completed songs in their own project, with a click track and finalising various parts of the songs. I had one song completed at this stage, and this week I recorded another two, and the third one I wrote the bridge and ending to. This third song sounds pretty Pantera-like, with a nice fat (or *phat*, depending on your opinion and surfing experience) Hatebreed bridge and ending. All of these songs are providing oodles of creativity for vocals. Part of the reason I want to get the second-stage recordings done is so I can save them to my computer and write some lyrics on my flight to LA on Thursday. This album is going to say an awful lot about me and my life, and I want the lyrics to have as much care and devotion as the music.
Overall the music is sounding interesting; a mix of fairly accessible and rocky (not the boxer) arrangements, but with really thunderously heavy guitars and drums – its an interesting combination and difficult to pin what it sounds like. I suppose you could say it mixes Testament, Black Label Society, AC/DC, Metallica, Megadeth, Pantera, Mudvayne, Nevermore and a few other bands; and this is just the three songs I have written so far. If there is one thing I *do* know, this album is going to be pretty diverse musically and will have a palette of heavy and lighter moments.
I am hoping to get some more written tonight. 🙂
Stephen Fry…he says Yes
I have always had a lot of respect for [Stephen Fry](https://stephenfry.com), he is a talented, funny, intelligent British broadcaster, actor and comedian. A while back he mentioned Ubuntu in passing on his blog, and his [recent blog entry](https://stephenfry.com/blog/?p=39) has gone all-out in favour of Open Source. Good man. 🙂
I tried to see if he is free for [LugRadio Live](https://www.lugradio.org/live/) UK or USA but he is busy filming, which is a shame.
Effie’s MOTU Journey Continues
Great to see Effie continue on his MOTU journey with [his latest entry](https://effiejayx.velugmaracaibo.org.ve/?p=91) telling a really interesting story about how he was passed a bug to fixed, and how he figured it out as a new MOTU.
Curious about MOTU? [Go and get started](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MOTU/GettingStarted)!
Feast For The Senses
*Behemoth fans*
This weekend, I experienced two feasts for the eyes and ears:
* [Cloverfield](https://www.cloverfieldmovie.com/) – recently released, hyped-up Internet sensation Cloverfield, passed me by until I heard about it on TV a few nights back – I completely missed the so-called Internet marketing machine around it, but it looked interesting – a monster movie shot from the perspective of someone with a portable video camera. I really love atmospheric experiences, from video games such as Doom III, to rides at theme parks, to movies that take the Hollywood away and make it feel real – each of these takes you there. Cloverfield is an excellent, *excellent* film, and as a bit of a horror veteran, it made me jump out of my skin a few times and feel the intensity of the on-screen events. Well worth seeing, go and check it out. 🙂
* [Behemoth](https://www.behemoth.pl/) and [Suicide Silence](https://www.suicidesilence.net/) – very keen to see Behemoth, Steve (guitarist in Seraphidian) and I were also stoked to hear that [Kataklysm](https://www.kataklysmrocks.com/) were supporting, and then even more stoked to here in the queue that [Aborted](https://www.goremageddon.be/) may have been supporting. Well, it turns out that neither Kataklysm or Aborted were there, but we were there for Behemoth, and that was enough for us. Suicide Silence were a good support, pig-squealing death-metal vocals, Black Dahlia-esque guitars and thumping drums. Like many bands of that ilk, they good pretty samey pretty quick, but they were dynamic and I will check out some of their stuff. Behemoth then took to the stage. Despite being labelled a *blacked death metal* band, which insinuates a strong black metal influence (for the record, I am no fan of *recorded in a metal bin, take-ourselves-too-seriously, black metal*), I have always thought of them as a solid death metal band. They appeared on stage in their trademark outfits and white face paint, and proceeded to kick the living daylights out of every ear in the joint. Behemoth are not only a musically tight, cohesive unit, but they put in a real performance, geeing the crowd up with all manner of circle pits, crowd interaction and what-not. Coming from Poland, they have many bands of the same ilk to stand up to, but Behemoth have long been reputed as leaders in their genre, and they did not disappoint. One of the key attractions for me was watching their drummer, Inferno, doing his thing. While they sound-checked, we were treated to 10 minutes or so of Inferno warming up, and it was breathtaking. He is a stunning, *stunning* drummer, and if I could play to a fraction of his ability I would be delighted. One such example is *Slaves Shall Serve* that weighs in at 280BPM in parts – he pulls it off effortlessly; certainly one of the most proficient death metal drummers currently playing.
A good time was had by all. Bring it on. 🙂
LugRadio Live USA 2008 Exhibitors Wanted!
As we descend deeper into [LugRadio Live USA 2008](https://lugradio.org/live/USA2008/start) organisation, we are now looking for projects, companies and other cool and interesting people to form our Exhibition area.
We are looking for Open Source projects, distributions, interesting hardware hacking projects, games, companies and more to come and form our exhibition area. We are particularly interested in cool things to see and do – demos, hardware to play with and other shiny things are all ideal exhibition candidates. That is not a requirement though – if you can come along to show off your project with a few laptops and some fliers, thats cool too. 🙂
Time and space is limited, so do get in touch with us ASAP if you can make it along – send us an email to [show AT lugradio DOT org](mailto:showATlugradioDOTorg). 🙂
Medicine Thoughts
I have had a cold for a few days. It has been unpleasant, very unpleasant. Like many, I have traditionally turned to the humble chemist to provide me with a potion that will cure my ills. This time round, I just sat it out without relying on medicine, but it got me thinking of when I had bronchitis a few years back, and I have developed something of an observation.
When I had bronchitis it really knocked me down for three weeks; I was off work, and in a pretty sorry state. Bizarrely, I went to see Chas and Dave while this ill, but that is a story for another time. I went to the doctor a few times, and had a few different doctors advise me on what to do. The first doctor recommended the usual concoctions in the shops; those with colourful labels, well known brands, TV ads etc. I tried a few of them to no avail. They had virtually no impact, and all tasted pretty yucky.
Then, I went to the docs and a new doctor recommended a strange sounding medicine (which I have forgotten the name of), which he assured me would “sort me out”. I went the chemist, ordered it, and they had one solitary bottle of the stuff, covered in dust, just in date. It was a while box with plain black writing on it. The doctor told me to only take one dose a day. Well, I got it home and just taking the cap off nearly made my eyeball pop out of it’s socket – the waft of ultra-chemical ‘orrible-ness nearly knocked me out. Consequently, putting some of the suspect looking substance down my cakehole was not something I was particularly looking forward to. It is by far the most disgusting substance I have ever tasted in my life, bar none.
Lo and behold, within a few hours it really made me feel better. Significantly so. I have no idea what it was, but the moral of this story seems to be that when you want your cold or bronchitis shifting – buy something that looks boring, stinks and tastes vile – that’ll sort you out.
Canonical and KDE
Recently, [Aaron Seigo](https://aseigo.blogspot.com/), a good friend of mine and well known KDE member did an [interview with ComputerWorld](https://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;885892575;pp;2). In the interview, Aaron said “*What I find unfortunate is that some companies dig into technologies. Canonical did not communicate well about long-term support and therefore neglected 35 percent of their user base. A user base they routinely neglect, but at KDE we ignore a lot of this*”.
I find this very disappointing, and that we are alleged to *routinely neglect* our KDE user base. I want to make a few things clear here:
* Canonical invests in Kubuntu – Jonathan Riddell is paid full-time to work on Kubuntu and Canonical provides the hosting and resources to help Kubuntu development happen. Kubuntu is a community distribution, and has an excellent inclusive community, in which Jonathan does excellent work alongside the many other excellent Kubuntu contributors.
* Canonical pays for thousands of free Kubuntu CDs to be produced, all via [ShipIt](https://shipit.ubuntu.com/). Not only this, but we pay for the postage too. This has helped to get a professionally produced CD with KDE and Kubuntu in the hands of many users all around the world.
* Kubuntu is commercially supported by our commercial support service and Kubuntu 8.04 will get the same level of commercial support as Kubuntu 7.10, Kubuntu 7.04 and Kubuntu 6.10. Nothing changes with the commercial support commitment.
* I have had many phone calls and discussions with Aaron to discuss and settle concerns, as well as other members of the KDE project. I have also specifically actioned Jorge Castro on my team to regularly liaise with Aaron and report back concerns and methods we can fix them.
* In terms of investment in GNOME vs. investment in KDE, right now we have Jonathan working on KDE, and 2 developers working on GNOME. The vast majority of Canonical developers who work on Ubuntu, work on other areas.
* We select when to do an LTS based on a number of factors, one of which is the stability/maturity of upstream platforms. KDE 4.0, which is clearly one of the most exciting KDE releases in a long time, has openly acknowledged that it has rough edges and should be treated as such. With Kubuntu we are keen to include the KDE project’s best work, in the same way we want to include the best work of many upstream projects, and by including this work, it helps get it exposed to users and improve. So then, it comes down to this – do we make Kubuntu 8.04 an LTS and only include KDE 3.x (annoying users who can’t get 4.0) or include KDE 4.0 (annoying people who want an LTS). Well, we figured it would be better to provide users with the latest, greatest KDE.
I am, frankly, surprised that despite the above points, Aaron feels that we *routinely neglecting* Kubuntu users.
More LugRadio Live USA 2008 Speakers!
The [LugRadio Live USA 2008](https://lugradio.org/live/USA2008/) organisation continues apace, and we have some more speakers to announce:
* Miguel de Icaza (*GNOME / Mono / Novell*)
* Aaron Bockover (*Banshee / Novell*)
* Allison Randal (*Perl / Parrot*)
* Danese Cooper (*Intel / OSI*)
* Belinda Lopez (*Ubuntu*)
* Ian McKellar (*Songbird*)
* Eddy Mulyono (*Packaging RPM/Debs*)
This is in addition to our already announced speakers:
* Jeremy Allison (*Samba / Google*)
* Ian Murdock (*OpenSolaris / Sun*)
* Robert Love (*Kernel / GNOME / Google*)
* Dan Kegel (*Wine*)
* Val Henson (*Kernel / Intel*)
* John Buckman (*Magnatune*)
* Ben Collins (*Ubuntu / Former Debian Project Leader*)
* Aza Raskin (*Mozilla / Humanized*)
There will be many more, and you could be one of them! The [Call For Papers Is Open!](https://lugradio.org/live/USA2008/callforpapers)
LugRadio Live USA 2008 takes place on the 12th and 13th April at The Metreon in San Francisco.
Comments now fixed
Well, I just discovered that the majority of comments for jonobacon.com were being held in a moderation queue for the last four months – it seems my anti-spam filter was being a bit urgent. I have just approved over 400 comments – how annoying that this happened. Sorry about that folks.
Normal service should be resumed now. Comment on…!
ging++;
Well, it seems [Langridge](https://www.kryogenix.org/) has clocked up another year. Happy Birthday to him. Everyone should buy him a pie or something. Oh wait…
I wonder if he will be wearing his lucky red suit for his birthday, the one he loves at Christmas time:
Kept that one quiet didn’t you, Langridge? 😛
Happy Birthday, pal. 🙂