beta 3 on the work laptop, which I brought home for the weekend. It’s a Toshiba Tecra M3, and the grub install failing apart (requiring some voodoo with Knoppix, amongst others), it’s worked really nicely. What I do like about what I see in SP1 :-

– New Banshee, with radio stations, task bar support and podcast support (sweet, Mr Bockover!)

– Firefox 2.02. Better Firefox, and the Beagle plugin works. Must be newer than the one published, which refused point blank to work with the 2.02 I downloaded on my home SLED10 FCS machine.

– Redesigned GNOME Main Menu, makes more sense than before, better flow abd grouping. That said, I’d still like to see an application browser to complement the Spotlight-type interface there at the moment.

– I think XGL has had some under the hoods tweaking too, some of the effects seem a lot more responsive than previously and there are some icon changes in Control Centre (hah! UK Spelling)

That said, power management is still an issue. Maybe it’s the wi-fi draining the battery, but I’m only getting a couple of hours max, even with SP1. I’d like to see this improve vastly, really. The iBook I used in Barcelona gave me 4 hours without breaking a sweat.

I still like where SLED is going, and the rate of evolution is staggering. At this rate, by SLED11, they will really be cracking heads together.

Away from Linux, Wigan win again and we move off that dreaded fourth from bottom spot. Still not as much daylight between us and the drop zone as I’d like, but better to be where we are than down there, for sure!

pummelled for being a global warming denier (for the record, I don’t deny changes are afoot, but I dislike the mass hysteria about it and I also question some of the “facts”) but I saw something today that made me guffaw quite loudly.

It turns out that quasi-Oscar winning mouthpiece and creator of the internet, Al Gore, ran up usage of 221,000KwH last year for gas and electricity for his 20 room mansion in Nashville. His folks would like you to know that since he’s hitched his wagon to the green crusade (probably to get up GWB’s nose), he’s change energy suppliers to someone a little more tree huggy.

Still, you have to laugh!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6401489.stm

a couple of weeks. Now then, what’s been happening….

Blair (as usual) e-mails a raft of people who had the temerity to sign a petition denouncing road tolls/congestion charging by telling them he’s going to do it anyway. Quelle surprise! What he singularly fails to grasp is the fact that we Brits abhor the idea for many reasons :-

– The levels of taxation don’t correspond (even roughly) with the levels of expenditure on public transport subsidies, improvements, rail links and improving roads.

– Out of 83p per litre fuel, roughly 50p or more of this is tax

– We also pay £170 or so per year road tax

– We pay the highest per mile rail charges in the whole of Europe, and some of the highest in the world.

I would have thought with any modicum of common sense that it would be quite easy to work out that if a country is more productive because they can do business easily by travelling easier, then this works out better for the Government in as much as less welfare state payments, more income tax collected, people in better health etc. etc. Many countries such as France and Japan have wised up to this already and run the transportation system at a loss, but the flipside of this are amazing, arrow straight train lines than run on time and roads in fantastic condition with little or no congestion on motorways.

I’ve said more about that than I was going to, but hey!

A little over two weeks to BrainShare – finished my presentations, had them proofed and glossed, it all looks good. Never before have I had much of a crisis of confidence, but I feel like a bit of a fraud. Here I am talking the talk about Linux, and haven’t much walked the walk. Perhaps I’m being a little unkind to myself, I suppose it’s all relative. With four sessions to deliver, I can’t afford to have this hanging over me, so I suppose my usual approach of all our honesty may win the day. Well at least it isn’t a boring sales pitch, or that’s what I’m telling myself, anyway.

Another fine win for Wigan today, I do hate 1-0’s though. Alan Wiley had a stinker, booking players on sight from our side, and it wasn’t even a dirty game (not like the Carling Cup Final later ;-)). That said, the John Terry thing was a little unsettling. Hopefully he will be OK. Anyhoo, we maintain the uneasy gap between us and the bottom three, whilst dragging Sheffield United and Man City towards us, it’s always better to look up than down in football.

Well done too to Liverpool, the win over Barca was much deserved. I do have a lot of time for Barca, having had the privilege of going around the stadium and museum, but they don’t half get up their own arses sometimes. At the risk of sounding smug, I did predict a Liverpool win beforehand, simply by virtue of the fact that Barca’s players have been squabbling so much lately.

Not much else to tell, been off work for three days. As much as I love my family (of course), three days of bickering, fighting and arguing is too much for me and I go back to work tomorrow feeling totally unrested, run down and stressed 😦 Never mind, things can only get better.

it’s now just 33 days to BrainShare. Sounds like a mile away and also frighteningly close in equal measure. My presentations (BUS222 and BUS226) are done and dusted, but I will be giving them the once over before the final deadline for submission. Still seems a bit odd really that all of this is happening, presumably it will sink in when I land at JFK and I have to wait hours for my connecting flight!

Wow, this is my first blog post for Feb. In the news, Blair nicks more Muslims, this time part of a beheading plot. I hope this turns out to be more successful than the Forest Gate raid, which cost millions and made all look stupid. Similarly the airline liquid bomb thing, that turned out to be a big fuss over apparently nothing. Mark me as highly cynical, but these major busts seem to handily co-incide with bad news for Labour, like the cash for honours probe. Blair now has blinkers on, has gone mad and will need escorting out of Number 10.

Microsoft launch Windows Vista. Had a brief play, I still think 6 versions is bloody stupid. It looks not unlike a Mac, so why not buy a Mac? The Aero interface is not as good as XGL in SLED10 (which latterly uses much less hardware) and half your current apps and devices such as PDAs, Cameras and iPods don’t work with it. Bloody marvellous. I know Microsoft bashing is an Olympic sport, but it is always good to laugh at their multi-million dollar expense.

Pre-ordered a PS3 from Virgin Megastores, however it ships on the Friday I’m at BrainShare, so hopefully my collection proxy won’t get any hassle from the pimply jobsworth that usually mans the games counter. All the accessories will be coming home with me from SLC, where they are half the price of the UK. We’re being robbed, I tell you!

Arsenal were lucky, but I’m proud of the boys. One last comment, if that “penalty” incident had have been at the other end, Dowd would have pointed to the spot. The big teams always get the decisions, fact.

Goodnight, Life on Mars is back!!

BrainShare sessions appear to have cleared all the necessary legal, factual and whatever else (oh, design) checks, and we have a green light for go! It was a process I wasn’t looking forward to, as I’ve been speaking regularly for a couple of years now and never before has it been vetted to such an extent. I’m trying to create a reputation as a plain speaker, but at the same time approachable afterwards for a chat and possibly a pint about it.

I don’t even mind if people pick holes in my arguments, as long as it’s explained to me why that persons disagrees. The whole point of presenting in my view is to stimulate and promote discussion, not stupify people, or drop them harmlessly into a coma after 10 minutes.

Wigan v Everton tomorrow, if we don’t get a result then frankly I fear we might be bothering Championship clubs again next season. I explained to Matt earlier that I’m less bothered about this than maybe I should be. I’ve been a Wigan fan for the best part of 25 years, and most of those were in the lower leagues, so what’s the worry?

to add just before Christmas that I met the Pawn Shop Kings, who happened to be supporting Rocco Deluca in Manchester at the Life Cafe. I have to confess that I hadn’t heard of them before, but I enjoyed their set immensely. They had superb vocal harmonies, and took the time to keep it real by mingling with the audience afterwards.

I had the pleasure of a quick conversation with them and found them to be very down to earth and happy to talk. In every respect, the total opposite of paying top whack to sit in the roof of the MEN and watch some act three miles away from you, who you will never get to meet. Good luck guys, you deserve the best luck!

On the other hand, Lucky Jim, the other support act, really wasn’t my cup of tea at all. I just don’t dig songs about how depressing life is and how we live life “through the bottom of a bottle”. Fcuk me, I wanted to slash my wrists afterwards.

On another track, I read some disturbing things today about the place I’ve ordered by PSP from, hopefully it’s just a couple of people shit stirring, but you never know. I thought it suspicious myself, hence using the security afforded to me by Visa.

a moron, or so goes the song. From the 1st Feb, his hike in air taxes takes effect, probably much to the detriment of anyone travelling anywhere by plane. Badly thought through, retrospective and ostensibly to reduce the “carbon footprint”. Oh get a life. You’ve taxed like no Chancellor in history and spent it on stupid causes.

Raising taxes does not stop people from making necessary journeys, it just makes the good people of the UK want to go and live in a country that doesn’t try and put them on a guilt trip for having two weeks away in Spain with the family. I don’t really agree with global warming as a theory, on top of the fact now the UK press is verging on the hysterical, with the UK Government doing all they can to fuel it. It makes me want to rip my arm out of my socket just so I have something to beat them with ( (C) Joey, Friends).

Found out my BrainShare conference fee has been refunded owing to my new found speaker status. The boss will be pleased!

of the day yesterday, went like this :-

Bloke A : Here’s a question – how do I get more spam in my mailbox?

[long pause]

Me : Why don’t you join a swinger’s website?

[no pause at all]

Bloke B : No, that doesn’t work

Away from that, got some neat artwork from Novell to put into my presentations, hope I can do all of this justice. Found a website flogging new PSPs for £75. Don’t think it’s for real, but I’ve ordered one anyway with my credit card. Anything hokey and I’ll let Visa deal with it, it’s why I pay them 17% a year 😉

Beckham off to LA, good luck to him.

and against all odds, my two sessions at BrainShare have made the cut! So as well as it being my first time in the US, first time at BrainShare US (duh!), it will also be my first time presenting there.

It all seemed such a good idea back in November when the call for papers opened and I submitted my musings for the vote. I never thought in a zillion years that it would make it to the vote stage, less actually get voted for by real, living, breathing people.

My sessions are BUS222 and BUS226, hopefully they’ll have the mother of all graveyard slots later in the week when folks will come along to get away from the constant lure of the coffee bar!

Tuesday and back to work, nothing much feels different (should it?). Felt remarkably fresh and full of energy in the gym both yesterday and this morning, perhaps two weeks away from it all has actually done me good.

Registered everywhere I can think of for a PS3, looking forward to hooking it up to my new LCD telly. We now start to look ahead to upcoming exciting things, like BrainShare in March. Wishing the year away already!