There are no pictures today.

Evening.

I feel a rant coming on; brace yourselves for typos, probable swearing, and generally....well ranting and punctuation in inappropriate places.

So, the other night I decided I would have a preview of the next release of Ubuntu (Dapper Drake Flight 6 to be precise). Now, I know I have been a bit of an advocate of Linux in general recently and Ubuntu (and, sort of by default, Debian), but there were two completely unexpected outcomes of trying this...one of which was probably down to me (OK, was down to me) and the other definitely down to knowing more than just the basics when "f*cking with the system".

A favourite hobby of mine.

PRECONDITIONS:
i - I use an external USB 250Gb Drive for storing 90% of my media, personal and work files.
ii - I backed up /home (that's like "My Documents" and more for you Windows only people)
ii - I downloaded the LiveCD (that means it all runs from the CD)
iv - I am scared of messing with Boot Loaders (see GRUB)

METHOD & RESULTS:
1 - LiveCD Torrent downloaded very quickly and burnt [45 mins total]
[Take that Mico$oft!....did I mention that cost me nothing]
2 - Dapper is fast! Even with the LiveCD it's a little faster for many things than than my Breezy install.
[Breezy runs faster than XP on my machine!....Take that Bill!]
3 - So I ran the "This is GREAT! Install it" application linked on the Desktop. No problem....took about 30 mins [*bof*], looked good....restarted.

Everything was broken! Not even an Operating System.

Stuck the Breezy CD in, rebooted, waited an hour, ran Automatix, waited an hour.

[ *quak*]

Edit a file. Bobs your uncle all back!

CONCLUSION:
A - Learn a little more than the basics about your computer or find someone who does and that you trust.

B - F|_|cK Microsoft! Not literally....but why use them? Human usable Linux distributions do exist and they are not difficult to setup alongside or in place of Windoze! But make sure you get a Linux distro you can use as you want!

C - None of this cost me anything except a bit of time and a desire to go to the pub! If I'd been using Windows and it all borked I'd probably have had to pay (or steal) some of the software along the way! And it would have taken longer!!!

Some other fantastic news. Bristol Wireless have moved to the St Werb's Community Centre so I am hoping to get my CANtenna built at last....then I can connect for free at about the same speed as I have now....however I personally have some qualms about using a free access point, regardless of the professionality of the installation. I'm still going to do it though, if not at least so I can connect R (who has been thinking BBand)....wow, how about a repeater station on R's roof to a secure access point at mine, that connects back to the StWCC?!?

My brain hurts.

In other news, I removed the pink sofa from my lounge to the bin area for it to be collected tomorrow morning (for 15 notes to the council) on my own, but then collected loads of old boxes and big crap from neighbours and added it to the pile. A clean yard is a happy yard! Now I need to buy a dining table that can double as another work area (or vice versa)...

Tomorrow is the official day of conception of GuriNet...fully-fledged GuriMedia will be here with the arrival of EyeTV ;) and getting a decent WLAN bridge together...explanation and pics to come.

Scheduled a massive p!ss-up in Bruxelles for early May to celebrate the launch of a platform I had nothing to do with at the time....way to go I say!

Lil has more teeth coming so is red-cheeked and grumpy, but we had an OK time today....Sunday might be harder.

That is all.