Posted on May 17, 2008 - by jono
Life ain’t dull
Right now I am over in beautiful Prague for FossCamp and the Ubuntu Developer Summit. Running and attending these events is always a real treat – there is always a genuine feeling of free software in action; a real meeting of minds coming together with a common ethos. Part of why I love the FossCamp/UDS trip is that it involves a huge amount of diversity. Here at FossCamp we have people from a tonne of projects, including Ubuntu, Jokosher, Sun, EFL, Terminator, Strigi, Xesam, Ubuntu Brainstorm, Linux User Groups, GNOME, Glom, gtkmm, Campware, KDE, Amarok, KOffice, Edubuntu, Xubuntu, Ubuntu Studio, Tango, Novell, Red Hat, Inkscape, freedesktop.org, OpenSuSE, OpenChange, Samba, Debian, MOTU, swfdec, gvfs, OpenOffice.org, eBox, LKSCTP, Elisa, HAL, dbus…
Its been a busy time recently and I have been out on my travels over in San Francisco, Boston, Cambridge, Detroit and London. Its been a hugely fun time, and I got to meet some incredible people – thanks to everyone who made me feel exceptionally welcome. I also want to give a quick shout out to the folks at ubuntu-ma, PenguiCon, CommunityOne, Creative Commons, Mako, Matt Lee, Barton, and my friends over in Lexington who are making Ubuntu work on things that live in your pocket.
Oh, and as a slight postscript, I have finally fulfilled one of life’s little ambitions – to not only meet, but a share a photo with the venerable tron guy:
Not only did I have a photo taken with tron guy – he came looking for me to deliver a parcel with a fake beard in it. While it was happening I felt like I was in some kind of acid trip. We then had a serious and detailed conversation about MOTU, while he was stood there in full tron regalia. Just when I thought my world crazy, it got a little crazier… 
I was going to finish this entry here, but sod it, here are a few other things living in my brain right now:
- The Severed Fifth machine continues to roll – the server is up, the mailing lists are on their way, the announcement is written, the logo ideas are flowing in, the photo-shoot is in post-processing, and the content is nearly there in terms of initial work. Thanks to that group of amazing people that are making it happen.
- You know, gyms never really had an appeal to me, but I have been a few times recently – I had a really good session in there a while back and figured it would be fun to repeat.
- Wow, it seems this post of mine caused a bit of a stir over what is considered music. Always amazes me when people accuse creativity that does not meet their taste as being unintelligent or just noise. I am not expecting people to like the music I like, but I am expecting people to understand and respect the work that goes into any art-form, irrespective of their taste. Everything is worth listening to, even Cannibal Corpse, lounge style or flute beatboxing.
- Someone should invent an “anti-mint”, something you put in your mouth to take away the taste of mint. Imagine those situations when you wake up in the morning, brush your teeth and then want to drink orange juice. Personally, I want both clean teeth and orange juice and to not sacrifice one or the other. Someone…the anti-mint…lets make it a reality.
- I bought GTA4 and it rocks. It also drove me to be involved in a police chase, but that’s a story for another time.
- While in video game news, I got totally whipped at Guitar Hero III, and while despite fervent denial, I got completely annihilated. Mind you, I spent more time posing and prancing around the living room at my competitors apartment than focusing on the game in hand. Well, that’s my excuse and I am sticking to it.
- Recently jonobacon.org seems to have been picked up in some of these “top blog” listings. You are as surprised as I am, but for my regular readers, thanks for helping to push my little chunk of randomness up in the blog ranks. It really does go to show how many bored people are populating the Internet.
- You know, Cancun is an amazing looking place, would love to get over there sometime.
- Thinking of a new phone – Nokia N95 8GB or a Blackberry? Any thoughts? It should be good for email, have a decent camera, preferably have a GPS and preferably have an alpha-numeric keypad.
I think that’s enough for now.
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May 17, 2008
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One mans noise is another mans music. (Gerald Barry anyone? )Kinda sad about the situation. Lots of people blog about other interests on planet.gnome and don’t seem to get much slack for it. Horrible plug here but there is a thread on Ubuntu forums which has been started up and the underlining goal is to collaboratively redesign the Rhythmbox site. Seeing as you live communitizing the community ;D and music maybe you could through in a suggestion or two. http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=793285
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May 17, 2008
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ps, just started listening to lug radio and I am slowly getting through the backlog but glad you got your adds back
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May 17, 2008
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pps . http://www.microsoft.com/ireland/getthefacts/default.mspx ironic that. Funny but I don’t think google like you if they are leaving advertisements for windows server 2003 on your website.
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May 17, 2008
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Wish I was there partying with you guys this go round. Penguicon was a blast, and thankfully I haven’t seen any wild pictures from say the pub where we went that one night (was that MC Hammer I was singing? can’t remember).
Hope you guys have a blast there in Prague!
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May 17, 2008
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The Tron guy didn’t deliver the parcel, I did. He did guide me to you, however. Photos: http://www.acme-delivery.com/orvan/galleries/2008/penguicon/index3.shtml
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May 17, 2008
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How about a Neo Freerunner for your new phone? It wouldn’t be as sexy or polished as a Blackberry or Nokia, but it’s got that sweet taste of freedom and hackability! (Plus we’d love to have your input as a user going forward!)
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May 17, 2008
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My solution to The Mint Problem is have the OJ (and rest of the breakfast) first, then brush my teeth. OJ is more pleasant than water to start the day with, so I drink it when I get up. It’s acidic, so it’s good to get off your teeth, so I brush my teeth afterwards. After that, I’m ready to face plain old tap water, which nicely washes away the mint taste.
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May 17, 2008
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The N95 runs python … decision made.
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May 17, 2008
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I love the Mr. Lazy T-shirt! Where can I get one? Or did you just xerox it off the book and print it yourself?
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May 17, 2008
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oh man, that devil horn gesture makes you look so cool.
grow up.
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May 17, 2008
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Get yourself some Fennel toothpaste from Kingfisher http://www.kingfishertoothpaste.com/ I can’t stand mint toothpaste, horrible stuff and the work of evil that I cannot comprehend.
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May 19, 2008
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Regarding your phone.
I have a N95-1GB and I love it. Reasons why.
The firmware updates from Nokia have polished this thing until it gleams. The 8GB model hasn’t had the same amount of love so far and remains a bit buggy.
The expansion slot means you can upgrade it way past 8gb. 16gb cards apparently exist for it and I believe 32gb is on the way.
DIVX playback works via official Divx player and you can play videos encoded for pc on the device itself. The “pay-for” Coreplayer apparently is even better.
There are a ton of community apps which offer additional functionality which is quite nice as well.
Main downside is the battery life. Make sure you get one with the newer higher capacity battery. I have a 850ma battery which doesn’t last much more than a day. In fact, if I use 3g and the gps for any length of time, it won’t last the day.
Big + for the 8gb model is DLNA support for UPNP. It means you can browse and play video the same way a PS3 is able to do it from a network share on a pc (example Mediatomb or MythTV).
Remember the uber N96 is just around the corner!
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May 19, 2008
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It’s not the mint in the toothpaste, it’s the foaming agent Sodium lauryl sulfate or similar which is a detergent and anti-bacterial. This produces the orange juice effect.
It would be quite easy to make mint toothpaste without this effect – it’s more to satisfy the consumers’ belief that if a toothpaste doesn’t foam, it isn’t working.
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June 11, 2008
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Hey – Anti-Mint? Try a sip of parsley tea.