A wee bit of time spent on JK2 last night and early to bed. I had to get to work earlier this morning which is a pain normally but I’m getting out of here at 3:30 to make up for it.

So. Quickly into town on the trusty steed (the express bus), to Static (quality gaming store) for some Call of Cthulhu CCG boosters and from there to Forbidden Planet to pick up the last four weeks worth of comics.

Oh, did I say that I got paid today?

BigAl

With less than half-an-hour to go at the place I laughingly refer to as “work”, all I can think about is how to idly waste away the evening.

We’re not going to the gym tonight as Ruth has a presentation to prepare for work tomorrow so it’ll be a few crafty hours on Jedi Knight 2 and some prep for picking up the monthly comics bundle tomorrow after work.

I might get a few beers in to help the relaxation along.

BigAl

Yeah, sorry. I forgot.

Two weeks ago I picked up a Creative Zen Touch (20Gb) and Ruthy got her Packard Bell Audio Dream (1Gb).

Ah, Bliss.

BigAl

10.5 million.

Ha!

Hopefully the sign of things to come.

And surprisingly, after going on about it for the previous week, most of the office tuned in to find out what all the fuss was about. And everyone seemed to love it! Looks like the power of suggestion is alive and well at the work.

I’ll have to try it now with Green Lantern, Call of Cthulhu and The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets. Go on, you know you want to.

BigAl

AAARRRGGHH!!!

Those bloody kids…

Ah. Must remain calm. Take deep breaths and I’ll be fine. Eventually.

Another quality evening of Spacehoppers is over (when I say evening I mean 1 hour, I think an entire evening would push my already fragile patience to the limit).

Still, I’ve got two weeks off from it. Hopefully the time away will help clear my mind and remind me why I do it.

BigAl

So.

The first episode of the new series has just finished.

And it was beyond expectations. Way beyond.

With an excellent performance by Christopher Eccleston and The Doctor and an unexpectedly brilliant Billie Piper.

The story was the reintroduction of the Autons and the Nestene Consciousness. The Autons are, to boil it down, evil shop dummies controlled by the Nestene. The Nestene this time are trying to control all plastic forms by using the London Eye as it’s transmitter.

It should be noted that the Doc and (now) assistant Rose saves the day…

Right, down to business.

Effects: Good. Still some room for improvement but much better than ever before. As Ruth pointed out to me, “With the job the BBC did on Walking with Dinosaurs, they have no excuse not to try their best now”.

Acting: Eccleston was brilliant. Plain and simple. I’m intrigued to see where this incarnation of the Doc is going. Billie Piper, as I’ve said before, was unexpectedly brilliant.

Sets/Locations: traditionally shocking, now realistic. But then the episode was based in London and not some far flung corner of the galaxy. As for the Tardis interior? Wow.

Script: Funny, exciting and fast.

Overall: They’ve boiled down everything that ever made Doctor Who worth watching and poured it into a 45 min mould.

I hope it lasts.

BigAl

With barely minutes to go, I’m about as excited as a wee boy on Christmas morning.

Indeed, if Doctor Who is as good as I believe it will be this will be the triumphant return of the greatest Science Fiction TV programme ever.

I’ll have a post match analysis in aout 50 mins…

BigAl

In a recent search for some GPL’d collaborative project management software, I stumbled across Convea, who, up until recently, produced a nice piece of GPL’d software. They have now ceased to use an open license:

“No more open source…

Having seen so many companies and individuals blatantly breech our licensing agreements and offer for sale rebranded versions of our software, future Convea products will not be released under any kind of open source license. “

Some people just don’t get it, do they. The license terms of the GPL clearly state that you can do what you like with the code, as long as you release the resulting code under the GPL. Rebranding, unless I’m very much mistaken, is not a ‘breach’ of the GPL, nor is reselling. The same thing covers ‘Luxuriousity Professional Office, which is a rebranded OpenOffice.org (with an _awful_ website, and a ridiculous pricetag).

There are ways to make money with Open Source Software - selling it is unlikely to be one.

mrBen

And he returns on Saturday, BBC 1 @ 7pm.

I expect the following:

• That all of you will watch it,
• That it will be brilliant,
• That I’m going to unbearable about the series return for the next 3 days.

That sounds about right.

And as for the trailers?

Well, I’ve been trying to avoid all the hype for the last few months but as for this week? I’ve not been doing too well. Eccleston looks good in the role of the Doctor, Billie Piper seems bareable (which is really good for your standard companion), the tardis interior (the glimpses I’ve seen of it) looks awesome and everything else the BBC has shoehorned into the teasers looks really cool.

I’ve been waiting for a new series since 1989… I can wait another 3 days.

BigAl

I bowed into a bit of pressure from some guys at work the other day, and decided to give Counter Strike: Condition Zero a go. I’ve been having so much fun playing Enemy Territory with the LUGRadio guys, but sometimes it’s nice to try something new. (I’m also checking out True Combat:Elite, which is a CS-like mod for Enemy Territory).

Now, I know what you’re thinking. (Actually, I don’t. I’m not psychic, nor can I see into the future, it’s just a literary construct, really. In fact, you’re probably _not_ thinking what I ‘know’ you’re thinking, but you’re just going to have to put up with it). You’re thinking “mrBen has gone over to the dark side”. Perhaps you’re remembering my previous post on Half Life 2 not running under Linux. But I haven’t. I’m using ‘Cedega’ (aka WineX), which provides a compatibility layer to allow Windows games to run under Linux. And, I have to say, I’m impressed. The install was flawless, and it runs perfectly, with very little hassle. I’m intending to try out some other games too - there’s a huge support database over on Transgamings website.

However….. I have to admit a certain reluctance about using Cedega. I would much rather companies took the time to develop proper, native Linux ports, than just rely on people using software like Cedega. I have some (not complete) sympathy with the guys who suggest that we should boycott Cedega, suggesting that it is slowing the development of Linux games (among other reasons).

So here is my resolution: I do not intend to purchase any new games to play with Cedega, but may well play some of my older games (in particular Tomb Raider 4, which was an anniversary present from my wife _ages_ ago, and has never been played) using it. Actually, it’s not that hard a resolution to come by, given that I don’t purchase many games any way, and I have become used to, over in time, sacrificing some of the less important things in computing for the overwhelming advantage of running Linux.

mrBen

My sister ‘phoned last night to say that the vouchers to replace my mp3 player arrived yesterday.

And how much do I have to spend on a new one? Apparently, £249 and £11 to go towards any extended warranty I might get.

So Ruth and I have worked out what we might buy.

She like the look of the Packard Bell Audio Dream 1Gb which is a sweet wee device for £100. It has better playback time and features than most for the same price.

I’m split between an iRiver or either the Creative Zen Touch or Micro. problem is that I don’t think that Dixons/Currys/Pc World have much in the way of iRivers which is a shame as they support OGG file formats.

If I can’t get a decent iRiver looks like i’ll just have to settle on the Creative Zen. Shame.

Hopefully they’ll have the Zen Touch (20Gb of audio frenzy) in stock. And Al would be a happy boy…

BigAl

Neuromancer by William Gibson.
I feel really bad that for all the SF I harp on about, I’ve never read this book. This was the one that first really kicked off the whole cyberpunk thing and , after years of giving cyberpunk the widest possible berth, I’m willing to give it a try.

And so far it starts well. Hope it keeps the pace up.

253 by Geoff Ryman.
I’ve just finished this one but I’ll have to read it again before I even try to review it. It’s about 253 passengers on a train and each the book is split into the seven compartments of the train and everyone gets their own mention, regarding what they look like, their personality and what they’re doing/thinking and it all get’s tied up at the end. I think.

That’s why I’ve to read it again… There’s a lot to it and I think I read it too quickly…

And The Conan Chronicles by Robert E. Howard.
Which I will finish eventually. Somewhere around space year 2015.

BigAl

Spent the weekend with Ruth’s parents, just north of Aberdeen.

It was nice to get away from Glasgow for a couple of days of rest and relaxation. In fact, the only piece of excitement was when going home and just outside of Dundee the clutch went on the coach.

Whoo hoo, big excitement there.

In fact I’m so relaxed just now…. I… might… just… go… to… sleep………….

BigAl

Right. It’s finished. Cloud City arrived on Tuesday and we (Ruth and I) built it last night. And it’s brilliant.

I’ve seen a lot of quality Lego in my time and Cloud City is among the best. The attention to detail is incredible. And it always helps that Ruth picked up the Spiderman Origins set and the new TIE Fighter box on a quick trip to Toys Be We yesterday afternoon.

So it was like this:

• home from work,
• beer,
• build Cloud City,
• dinner,
• beer,
• build TIE Fighter,
• build Spiderman Origins,
• Stargate SG1 and beer,
• bed,

and that’s far too much enjoyment for a school night.

Tonight isn’t going to be half as much fun. I’m going to slog through DC Comics’ Identity Crisis (last years big event) for the first time since it came out. Hopefully I’ll make more sense of it this time.

BigAl

Oh, yes indeedy.

Friday was spent with the feet up, relaxing with a few beers after a long week. Some Stargate SG1 season 6, oh yes. Ah, relaxation central.

On Saturday I copied some software on to a CD for my Sister, Helen, who got her hands on an iRiver mp3 player but had no software for it. As they only have dial-up I put the drivers and software on the CD along with some standard stuff. Mozilla Firefox, AdAware, SpyBot, AVG and ZoneAlarm. You know, the usual stuff.

So off to Paisley we went, enjoying the surprisingly sunny weather on the unsurprisingly dire public transport service. Damn, I need to get my driving licence.

After the CD handover was complete and shooting the breeze about her shop, we made our goodbyes and nipped into a pub for lunch and a pint. Now, you know that way that if it’s a nice day there’s nothing like a pint in the afternoon? Well, that’s the zone we ended up in. And as we were going to the pub that evening to say goodbye to Neil, a fellow warrior in the ways of Prog who was leaving to work in New Zealand, we decided to head straight there after lunch.

And why not.

So in the Uisge Beatha on Woodlands Rd in Glasgow, we supped cool pints and caught up on some reading. The Conan Chronicles, vol. 1 but Robert E. Howard if you must know…

At eightish everyone else turned up and the evening got under way. Now, here’s where it takes a turn for the worst. As the consumption of many pints takes it’s toll I feel the call of nature and, on my way to relieve myself, hear my name called from the other bar.

And shock horror it’s an unwelcome figure from years ago called Sean. I couldn’t believe it. Of all the people in the world I never wanted to see again, it had to be Sean. And he hasn’t changed. This then made the next hour very tense as Sean has a way of going from barely social to unbearably antisocial in a blink of an eye. *
But, thankfully, he was not to stay for long. Which brightened my whole evening up.

Beyond that, the evening degenerated in to a semi-drunken madness, which was always good.

Sunday saw another day of lounging around in the quest for total relaxation.

Oh, and before I forget, we got our last two wedding presents yesterday. One was really nice and the other was a ceramic Snow Goose. A personal prog joke that one…

BigAl

*[ edit ] The funny thing about writing a blog is that sometimes you can look at something you wrote two years ago and realise that (1) I’m not that person any more and (2) my views at the time were coloured by inexperience and (I’ll admit) immaturity.  Not an easy pill to swallow, that one.

But as I don’t believe in rewriting history, the post shall remain with this additional comment to show that I’m not totally inflexible in my views.  And, I suppose, to admit that sometimes I’m wrong.  Not an easy pill at all.

And as for Sean?

How I felt the day of the post was an accurate reflection of my feelings (however misguided) and time has moved on since then.  “Unbearably antisocial” is a very loaded phrase and, with hindsight, incorrect.  And that’s not necessarily how I feel these days.
Why?  That’s not for me to tell.  You’d have to ask Sean about that… [/ edit ]

I have become a semi-frequently watcher of Channel Five’s ‘The Gadget Show’ (Fridays 7.30pm and repeated later that night, FYI). They’ve covered some interesting topics this series, and by and large their reviews have been interesting, although they have a tendency to try and do too much in a review, which has sometimes negated it’s usefulness.

This past Friday, as also commented by davee, they did a feature on Open Source software, also backed up by a short piece on their website by one of the presenters. They did try and cover an awful lot, looking at OSS on Windows, and and almost throwaway mentions of Linux, and they did suggest that OSS == free, which some of us will recognise as slightly incorrect, but ultimately it was interesting to see what an ‘outsider’ view was.

In comparison to the BBCs review in Click Online, I think they did a really good job. They mentioned all of the ‘big’ mainstay projects (OpenOffice.org, Firefox, Thunderbird and The GIMP), and it was great to see someone mention Knoppix as a way of trying Linux without installing. It was a shame they didn’t look at a couple of distributions, but, then again, their method was probably best for their target audience.

However, probably the best part about the review, can be summed up in some quotes from the online article:

• “And while I maintain that you need to have a certain level of technical knowledge to install something like the £35 Suse Linux, it offers so much for so little, it might actually be worth asking someone else to install it for you.”
• “Why change? How about ‘it’s fun to try something new?’”
• “But I’m in favour of the ‘give it a try because it’s different’ argument.”

The underlying theme of the review was that you might as well give OSS a try, because it’s not going to cost you anything to do so. Well done Channel 5

mrBen

I’ve just been off the ‘phone with the lovely people at Coverplan who deal with the Dixon Stores Group Service Agreements. And they were very helpful indeed.

And to start this story from the beginning…

On Saturday 8th Jan I contacted PC World Customer Service phone line to tell them about my faulty mp3 player. They told me that MP3 Player faults are dealt with through the store. Fine. I’ll just go in and sort this out.

So the next day I wander into the local PC World, the store I bought the offending player from, and explain the situation to one of the wonderful customer service chaps. Their words of wisdom were: “Oh no, we don’t deal with them in store. You’ll have to call PC Service Call and they’ll log the fault and arrange a pick-up time.”

Fine. So on Monday (10th) I call PC Service Call. And they don’t deal with mp3 players, only PC and related equipment. And they assure me: “Oh no, it’s definatly PC World you deal with.”

Fine. So the following Friday (14th), which I have off anyway suffering from a serious case of Sinusitis, I trundle into the same branch of PC World clutching my mp3 player and a bad attitude. After 2 hours and a headache which is pushing my mood through the floor they say: “You have to send it directly to the company who repair them, Microgenics.”

Not good enough. After another hour of listening to my ranting they take the mp3 player off my hands and send it themselves. Result.

Using our Fantastomatic Time Viewer we can move the story on a couple of weeks.

It’s now today, and seven weeks since handing over the player. The Service Agreement states that a refund or replacement will be give if the device isn’t fixed within six weeks. It hasn’t been.

So this morning I call Microgenics to check on it’s progess. No answer.

Then I call PC World to find out what’s happening. As you can’t get through to the store I get through to PC World Customer Service, the people I talked to originally. They contact the store who are as helpful as always and they refer me to PC Service Call who, apparently are the people who can sort this.

Apparently not. The guy I spoke to there checks with his Supervisor and says “For mp3 players you have to deal with the store.”

This, as you might understand, is not what I wanted to hear. He then says, “Perhaps you should call Coverplan directly. It’s outside the 6 week period so they’ll deal with it.”

Fine. So I call Coverplan. Explain it all. And Rose from Team 6, who was brilliant, tells me to contact Microgenics and tell them to write off the player as it’s outside the 6 week period and that they’ll take it from there.

“Really?” I ask.

“Really,” she replies.

So there it stands. At some point in the next week to ten days I’ll get vouchers to spend in any Dixon Stores Group store for a brand new mp3 player.

Oh, joy.

BigAl

It appears that I have been very hasty. In a previous post, I suggested that Bebo.com had broken their privacy statement, and that I was receiving an increase in spam as a result. Since then I performed a small experiement. With the help of davee from #lugradio I registered a GMail account. I left it for 48 hours, and then registered with Bebo.com again. In the following 48 hours I have not received any spam, and thus I have concluded that they were not responsible for my previous outbreak.

Apologies again. (Although I still think it’s ridiculous that _I_ have to register to be on someone else’s addressbook)

mrBen