Testing another distro
Given that I had my desktop PC stolen, and that I also have no internet access at home currently, I decided to rebuild my gateway/router/firewall PC as a usable desktop machine for now (they took the desktop PC but not the monitor/keyboard/mouse). I used this as an opportunity to take a look at the much-talked-about Fedore Core 2. Took a while to install (kept having problems reading the packages from the 2nd CD, but could have been a dodgy CD burn), but after plenty of retries, it got there. Initial impressions are that its got the basics covered (X, Gnome, Evolution, OpenOffice, GAIM etc), the Bluecurve theme is nice and clean, and it looks simple enough for my little brother to use. I'll see how it performs over time.

In other Linux related news, I managed to soilve the problem I had about not being able to compile anything that used POSIX threads. Turns out that an installation of either WINE or winelib had overwritten the pthread header file with its own implementation. Anyway, once I figured this out, I re-emerged (Gentoo speak for downloading and compiling!) glibc and it restored the original header file. Lo and behold, I can compile OpenLDAP at last, and hopefully from there, Ximian Connector (or Novell Connector as its now known)

Today's Online Game Of The Day
Fun little online game today comes courtesy of my old friend RedSapph, who pointed me in the direction of the addictive little puzzler Santa Balls 2 (free registration required, minimal spam so far).

[Listening to: Various Artists - DEMOVIBES 2]

Computer stolen
Had my house broken into and my desktop computer stolen. I have a very strong idea as to who did it and the matter is now in the hands of the police.

Mono and Wine
There are two types of people in the world. Those that have managed to get System.Windows.Forms working under Mono, and the rest of the world's population minus that one guy.....

iPod iAccident
Aaaargh! Just accidentally wiped off all 1000 songs from my iPod except the one that I was trying to add in the first place :-(

UPDATE: Managed to use ephPod to rescue 993 of the songs - turns out the MP3s are still there and it was the iTunes Database I wiped out. Still need to get the last 8 though...

More mono malarkey
Trying to get System.Windows.Forms working on Mono, but it won't - anyone know the trick to getting it going?

[Listening to: Astral Projection - Nilaya]

More Linux coding
I got MonoDevelop built and working on the laptop today. Seems very nice, but can't wait for an integrated GUI designer. I'll continue to use Glade for UI design until then. Getting some odd messages about being unable to locate the theme engine, but I reckon this could be a GNOME 2.6/GTK issues rather than anything from the Mono/MonoDevelop/GTK# combination. I'll fiddle around with it and see I can stop the warning - the app stil works, but compiler warnings are generally good to remove!

[Listening to: Timeok - Autumn Trance Mix ]

Gnome 2.6 Nautius Spatial Windows
If anyone has tried the new Gnome-2.6 and hates the spatial windows that nautilus uses, there is a fix already installed in the new Gnome 2.6. All you need to do is this

open gconf editor-->apps-->nautilus--->preferences--->and check "always use browser" nautilus will behave like it did in Gnome 2.4.

[Thanks to Frank_Drebin on the LinuxQuestions.org website for that one]

Evolution Connector now GPL
Novell has made a press release stating that it will be releasing the Evolution Connector for Microsoft Exchange under the GPL. Another nail in the coffin for Microsoft.

Disconnected
I have no internet connection at home any more, so excuse the lack of updates.

Social engineering with chocolate
Forget sophisticated, AV-disabling network worms masquerading as an e-vite party link from a college friend. Next time you want to access someone's computer system without permission, just offer candy.

A recent survey of 172 office workers waiting for commuter trains at a London financial district transit station found a shocking 71% turned over their passwords in exchange for a chocolate Easter egg. Some even gave up the goods for a pen.

Piracy hurts recording industry. Record industry hurts artists
NY Attorney General Eliot Spitzer agreed with the RIAA on one point - artists WERE being deprived of money that was rightfully theirs. But Spitzer managed to find $50 million for performers without shaking down grandmothers. Spitzer's culprits? A Who's Who of the nation's top recording companies - members of the RIAA - who failed to maintain contact with artists and stopped making required royalty payments.

[Listening to: Elwood - Beyond the rainbow ]

Mono Beta 1 is out

Says it all really - release notes and download page available for your browsing pleasure.

[Listening to: Kaba - access denied ]

Introducing Malcolm...
I am now the proud owner of a Magellanic Penguin. His name is Malcolm, and he lives in Chile, in a little burrow that has his name on a sign outside it. I adopted him through Bliss Gifts.