Some of you may be aware that back at the beginning of the year I entered a competition over at LUGRadio called ‘Stupid Hat for Corporate Tat, and was one of 3 winners. Well, yesterday I got my tat!

/misc/Corptat.jpg

Contents:

• Novell T-Shirt
• Fluffy Tux (Penguin) keyring
• Lanyard
• 32MB USB Key
• USB Optical Travel Mouse

All, of course, Novell branded.

Yay for free stuff

mrBen

I thought, given that I had provided 47 consecutive days worth of entertainment, I would offer something a little different for the month of May. So - here it is:

Background
As you will all be well aware, I am a big advocate for the use of Open Source software. In the course of this, there are many obstacles and pitfalls, but many of these are in peoples minds, rather than in reality. So I thought a little challenge might be in order, as an experiment, and a kind of statistical analysis, might be in order.

The challenge revolves around OpenOffice.org, the free, cross-platform office suite. It’s 99% compatible with MS Office file formats, and is as feature complete as needed for the majority of users.

The Challenge
Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is this:

1. Download OpenOffice.org - if you’re in the UK you might want to install the British language pack. The download is 92MB ish on Windows (if you get the bundled Java/JRE stuff, which I believe is the easiest way to go), so you’ll need broadband
2. Install it
3. Use it for the month of May for every Office-related task (word processor, spreadsheet, drawing package and presentation tool) that you do. If you’re sending files to other people, you can, should you wish, save them in Office format.
4. If you have any questions, then they can be posted here, or emailed to me. I will then post a How-To on the ‘Moose to fill in any gaps of knowledge you have.
5. At the end of the month, should you wish, you can send me a review of your experience. Reviews will be published here in full, and the best review will win an exciting prize of some sort (as yet undecided)

My aim here is not to necessarily “prove” that OO.o can be a drop in replacement for MS Office, but rather to get some proper, first hand experience from users as to their frustrations, and difficulties, so that these things can be fixed and improved on.

NB - if anyone really wants to have a go, but does not have broadband, drop me a note, and I will send you out a CD

mrBen

It’s nice to see Mourinho being a good sport about Chelsea’s loss in the semi final yesterday.

Oh wait - that was in an alternative universe.

On a day when he got his tactics horribly wrong, and when Liverpool outplayed his side for long portions of the game, and contained them for most of the game, he still blamed refereeing decisions, and said that the better team lost. “Did the best team win? I don’t think so. In the last 30 minutes we deserved extra time.” (Source: BBC) Perhaps he forgot that a game cover 90 minutes, and you have to deserve it for that?

Anyway, on a less negative note, it was good to see Harry Kewell in good form again, making up for relatively quiet days from Gerrard and Alonso. And Luis Garcia’s finish on the goal was outstanding, although I still find him a frustrating player to watch. Cisse was his usual self - rarely threatening, and often in completely the wrong place. While he has his moments of magic, they are few and far between these days, and personally I’d rather have Robbie Fowler than him come the beginning on next season, although we would miss someone of pace if he left.

Anyway - I shall sit back and bask in the glory for a couple of weeks. Then the final, which I reckon will be against Middlesborough - which I think will be a tighter match than some would predict.

mrBen

One of the guys over in #lugradio pointed me towards a new (kinda) game called Tremulous. It was originally a mod of Quake3, requiring the Quake3 game to run. But since id software open source their older game engines, and have just open sourced the Quake3 engine, they can make the whole thing into a nice package for you and me to download (Windows and Linux only - no Mac that I can see)

Tremulous is a weird cross between a first person shooter, and a strategy game. You have to strategically build your ‘base’, and you can upgrade your weapons (or ‘evolve’ if you’re an alien). But upgrading requires your team to get kills.

Another twist is that it’s humans vs aliens, and the two have very different skills/abilities. Humans have weapons, mostly long range, whereas the aliens have to get up close. But the aliens are _really_ fast, can (mostly) walk on the walls, and automaticaly regenerate their health over time. Which makes for interesting battles.

Anyway - it’s a free (as in beer, and as in freedom) game, so go check it out! (Oh, and there’s a reasonable list of servers, many of which stay empty a lot of the time )

mrBen

(Demo video: Low quality High Quality

Thought this site would appeal to Jill and Morag (my sister-in-law) - a shop that only sells things that are purple…..

Purple Store

mrBen

When the rest of the known world is having a day off due to excessive chocolate consumption, muggins here has to go into work.

Yep, because people are selfishly continuing to consume electricity, I have to go in and work for my friendly-neighbourhood utility Behemoth.

I hope you’re all feeling suitably ashamed of yourselves.

Gits.

BigAl 

Well - I’ve made it. 47 posts on 47 consecutive days. There were moments when I thought it would never end, or that I would give up halfway through, but now it is finished!

It’s been an interesting experience; probably the most curious thing is which posts attract comments. It’s surprisingly random! Sometimes observations about the world will recieve comment, but other times they get nothing. I had hoped to find a pattern of some sort, but no luck.

So - what were your favourites moments, and least favourite moments, of the last 47 posts?

mrBen

Went to see this last night, and was very impressed. I’ve never read the comic book, so it was probably hard to be let down in that way, but I was impressed that they managed to keep it ‘British’, and that they kept that slightly subversive feel to it. Natalie Portman’s accent wavered a little, but not so much to be distracting. The effects were good enough not to be noticable, and Hugo Weaving did a stunning job considering that he has such an expressive face, but had to wear a mask for the entirity of this film.

If it’s still on where you are, I would highly recommend a viewing.

mrBen

I don’t know about you, but, while I’m in some ways a massively habitual person, I also have a tendency to float between different things in life - ‘fads’ as it were. My parents vividly remember the period of time when I wanted a BMX, although I don’t remember it at all. I can, however, remember lots of things that did pass by - cub scouts, judo, skateboarding to name but a few. Which is why I think it’s interesting to think about the things that I have stuck to. Here are some:

• Playing the guitar - despite the fact that they spent huge amounts of money for piano lessons, my parents still let me borrow a guitar from a friend and teach myself. And, for some unknown reason, the guitar stuck, whereas the piano didn’t, although I still play every now and then.
• Linux - I’ve been into computers for years, and many things were on and off. To be honest, there is a part of me that is surprised that I kept coming back to Linux, but it’s certainly something that has stuck, and, beyond that, become a large part of my life, and hopefully my future.
• Christianity - although an underlying part of my life for 20 years now, I can’t say that it’s been all plain sailing, but it’s definitely something that has stuck.

mrBen

2 days to go….

Picture it: a Good Friday and you still have to go to work. Knowing that everyone else in the known world is off you sneak on to the internet and seek out some inspiration for a post on your website.

Suitably inspired, you access your website only to find that the company IT Gestapo have blocked access to you site.

AARRGGHH!!!

Swine!

I was half tempted to e-mail the afore-mentioned gestapo and request they unblock it, but I can’t see that going down too well.

“Why do you want access to this non-work oriented site?”

“Ahhh, hold on a minute, I know the answer to this one… Because it’s the only thing keeping me sane and unless I get access I’ll go on a homicidal killing spree starting with, oh I don’t know, you?”

“Certainly Mr Bain, seeing as you put it so beautifully…”

I can’t really see it somehow, can you?

BigAl 

This morning I went to buy my season ticket for my daily commuter train to IBM, only to discover that they had installed a new ticket system. Now - there are benefits to the new system, I’m sure, like Chip ‘n’ Pin, but that wasn’t what struck me.

I don’t know if you’ve ever bought a ticket in Glasgow - up until recently they used these big machines which had what seemed like a couple of hundred buttons on them. But the ticket guys hands used to fly across the keys, and out would pop your ticket. This morning, it took about 10 minutes for the same process. Why? Well - I can’t say for sure what the exact details of the issue were, but ultimately it must come down to 1 thing: bad design.

I’ve talked before about bad design, and the DoET book, and I think that this is a big problem in technology these days. This presents a number of issues:

• It makes people feel stupid - they can’t work the new system. It’s new, so it must be easier, but they can’t work it…..
• Conversely, it makes them feel like new technology is bad, because it is more complicated. This is a continual issue with design of technology, and makes the number of early adopters decrease
• It promotes the existence of ‘experts’ within an office, whereas a well designed system should be fully usable by alls its users

While I’m talking about the station - I get really annoyed that they are running a PC in the corner of the ticket booth to display passenger information - basically a big, fullscreen graphic. And it’s running Windows, which seems to me to be a pointless waste of money.

Looking at the design of ‘everyday things’ is a gradual spiral to madness, but fascinating…..

mrBen

I’m sure I said that before the last series started and I’m sure I’ll say it again. As long as the good Doctor continues to have series after series commissioned I’ll keep on saying it.

After all, the fact that Doctor Who is even more successful after all these years is nothing short of a miracle.

Of all the Sci-fi series I’ve seen since the start of the year - Life on Mars, Battlestar Galactica, Firefly -  nothing gets me excited like Doctor Who. Even watching the trailer last night gave me goosebumps. It was like being a kid again.

So what will YOU be doing at 7:15, Saturday evening?

BigAl

…..until I get my 8MB broadband!

PlusNet are due to upgrade all 2MB customers to 8MB during April, on the day of their payments. I pay on the 15th, so by this time next week, I should have quadrupled my download speed. Shame the upload speed isn’t any good. But there you go - bask in the reflected glory

mrBen

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been replaying the game ‘Driver’ on my laptop (AFAIK Driver won’t install/play under WINE, so I am running it on the works WinXP install, I confess). Driver bears a lot of similarities to the GTA series, although you never get out of your car. You play an undercover cop acting as a driver for the mob, carrying out various missions.

The graphics look dated, the sound leaves a bit to be desired in places. But this game is better than a lot of much more recent games I’ve played, because it has something special - gameplay. It’s brilliant fun to play. The physics are exaggerated so that your car acts like a car in a 70s cop show - even simple corners have you squealing round, hub caps flying. In San Francisco, your car will detach itself from terra firma at the slightest bump.

Alongside the main ‘mission’, there are a host of side games, or you can just ‘Take a Ride’ around the city - which in itself can be a great laugh. Even better - everything you do can be played back as a video, and even edited in the ‘Film Director’ mode, so you can make your own car chase sequence.

You can probably pick up Driver for a couple of quid from Ebay. The system requirements are minimal (it is 5 years old), and, according to the reviews I’ve read, it’s better than either Driver 2 or Driv3r. Go forth and do dougnuts!

mrBen

We all know that the world would be a darn sight better without all these other people doing things wrong. This is aggravated the more people you have the misfortune to interact with, and thus as a worker in a large company, and a commuter, I receive much aggravation. So I thought I would compile a list of wrongness just to keep you right.

• Stand on the left on the escalator - The sign says stand on the right, but you know better. Besides, that 20 seconds of inane conversation with your mate is much more important than whether I make my connecting journey. And the sign that say ‘Fold pushchairs’ is just a guideline that doesn’t apply to you. And your enormous bag isn’t a person, so it doesn’t matter if it stands on the left.
• Don’t worry about train etiquette. Even if you travel on a train every day, you shouldn’t have to know better. And besides, your right to legroom is much greater than my right to legroom, even though you’re a flipping dwarf!
• Sit in my seat on the train. OK - this is probably borderline, but the fact is I sit in the same seat on the train every day. If you’re a regular you’ve probably noticed this. You know who you are.
• Leave the toilet cubicle in a state roughly akin to a tornado hitting the Andrex factory. They obviously don’t pay me enough so I am working on my toilet cleaning abilities to gain a second job. Seriously, there is a guy in my work who decides that he need to protect the velvety skin of his buttocks by layering the rim of the toilet with enough paper to print The Herald. On Sunday. Now, I don’t have a problem with using the paper, but I do have a problem when said individual leaves the paper there, and doesn’t dispose of it. Manky sod.
• Converse with me on the phone if you didn’t ring to do so. If I were a woman, then I expect that a little bit of conversation when I answer the phone is a nice thing. However, being blessed with the other set of bits, if you phone and you want to talk to my other half, then feel free to be blunt and ask for her. This does not upset my delicate sensibilities, and allows me to get back to my important work/watching the football/playing ET/eating my pudding. (OK - this is probably a bit harsh, and I do like a conversation on the phone as much as the next person; but I have caller ID, and I know you really don’t want to talk to me anyway……)

mrBen

Disclaimer - OK, this was a bit ranty. It’s not aimed at particular people (apart from the toilet one) (and the seat stealer) nor is it aimed to offend - I’m not SGM or Noelinho…..

Well - almost there. True to form, a bit of a summary-type post:

• LUGRadio Season 3 Episode 13 is likely to be out today - I’m preparing the mirror as we speak
• This morning I managed to preach a half decent sermon that tied in fasting with Palm Sunday, via Matthew 6:16-18 and Isaiah 58. Some readers of the site were there - some of them may even remember it
• Serenity is back on the big screen in Glasgow this week - the UGC/Cineworld on Renfrew Street has 2 showings on Tuesday. Book your seats and dig out your browncoats

Lets hope the last week is as good as the first Or something.

mrBen

After the excitement of the stats from the other day, it would appear that something is now broken, and so you might get an error message when you post. I am looking into it

mrBen

I spent some of today reading the rather tragic story of Jason Mewes’ (aka Jay) drug addiction problems, through the eyes of Kevin Smith (aka Silent Bob) on My Boring Ass Life. It’s a wonderfully told story, but really heart breaking in places. It’s definitely worth a read.

/me makes mental note to watch Clerks and Mallrats before Clerks 2 hits the screens.

Oh - and Kevin Smith runs Wordpress \o/

mrBen

I’ve been a frequenter of SerenityStuff.com for a couple of months now - it’s a great (wordpress-based) site for finding out everything that is happening on the retails side of Firefly and Serenity. Plus they have great competitions each month, which is, in part, the reason for this post.

However, regardless of whether I win, I do wish them all good fortune, and recommend that you all head over to check out their reviews and links. Dong ma?

mrBen