I got this mail today and as requested am passing it on far and wide. Please don’t contact me directly about the role, I have nothing to do with it, I’m just a keen user of Etherpad.

For those that don’t know, Etherpad is an open source web-based collaborative text editor.

The Etherpad Foundation is looking to hire/contract a freelance javascript developer to do some work around the Etherpad project.

Kind Regards
John McLear
Inspector of overcharging Taxi’s
The Etherpad foundation.

You can contact the Etherpad Foundation via http://etherpad.org/contact/.

                          

As many of you know I enjoy listening to podcasts during my commute to and from work. One that I regularly listen to is Cranky Geeks featuring John C. Dvorak and guests. It’s also no secret that I’m a massive fan of Ubuntu. So today was a double-whammy when Ubuntu got a mention on the show.

More specifically Dvorak and guest Roger Chang briefly discussed the Ubuntu Software Center, and very positive they were too. I knew from previous episodes that Dvorak himself likes Ubuntu, and recently discovered (nsfw link from that tweet btw) via twitter that Roger Chang also uses it on his netbook.

You can watch Cranky Geeks episode 236 dated 15th September 2010 over at crankygeeks.com, the section about the store is about 24 minutes in. However I thought I’d transcribe it because it was only short. You can read it below.

Note the amusing part where Andrew Eisner (Director of Content and Community) at Retrevo singularly fails on multiple occasions to stick the boot in about Linux being old (relating it to Unix) and requiring the command line. Good, honest defence from John and Roger. Great fun.

…

Dvorak: “Y’know everybody always overlooks the fact that with a Linux box, an app store is built into Ubuntu for example, and most of the systems will have this.”

Dvorak: “People, if you haven’t loaded a machine with Linux you should get a little machine and put Linux on it.”

Dvorak: “So, you put Ubuntu on there and as soon as you get the thing loaded it goes to the internet and it takes you right to the app store and just says ‘What do you need?’ and it’s got everything!”

Eisner: “Like CostCo (unintelligible word)”

Dvorak: “Exactly! All this free stuff and variations, like you get five or six Word Processors. One or two of them are very close to Microsoft Word. And, you know, spreadsheet programs, all kinds of utilities, DVD makers, the whole thing, and just click, click, click, click, and it downloads them all and next thing you know your machine’s loaded!

Eisner: “Right, then try to use it (laughter)”

Dvorak: “It works”

Chang: “It actually works (unintelligible)”

Dvorak: “I think it works”

Chang: “I use one of those Acer netbooks when I put Ubuntu the Netbook Remix on it I downloaded everything I need and it works for the most, I mean I’m not doing heavy you know, video editing or photo editing but if I’m just doing like cropping or touching up or typing out a document it works.”

Eisner: “You’re not grepping?”

Chang: “Huh?”

Eisner: “You’re not grepping? Unix huh?”

Dvorak: “Nah”

Chang: “That’s the great thing, it’s almost seamless, there’s no terminal window that you need to use.”

Dvorak: “I’m actually very impressed with that. That to me is like the original app store that’s practical for computers because you get all these things and they’re all free and they work fine. ”

…

                          

I noticed that the videos from the most recent Ubuntu Developer Summit are now online, and thought I’d have a play with the new embedded HTML5 video stuff in Firefox 3.5.

Rather than view all the videos by downloading them individually I thought I’d make a page where I can view them all sequentially.

Here is the html I threw together. Guess it will look rubbish in anything but Firefox 3.5. Of course that’s no guarantee it will look any good in Firefox 3.5. Just, y’know, you’ll see the videos

                          

.. in the #ubuntu-release-party irc channel on freenode.

1. “Are we there yet?”
2. “When is <insert_release_code_name> out?”
3. “How many hours until it’s out?”
4. “What’s the _exact_ time of the release?”
5. “Has anything changed between the RC and release?”
6. “Where is the best place to find out exactly when it’s released!?”
7. “Give me the link!”
8. “Canonical is in the Isle of Man, what timezone are they on!?”
9. “Is the release time in GMT, UTC or BST!?”
10. “The countdown thing says it’s out, but I can’t find it!”
11. “(url) of mirror – they have it!”
12. “Will KDE4 be in the release?”
13. “But in my timezone, it will be Friday 25th!”
14. “Why isn’t Mark Shuttleworth here?”
15. “Is the version on the mirror, the real version?”
16. “Can I upgrade to Intrepid Ibex now?”
17. “C’mon guys, I’ve been waiting here all day to start the download!”
18. “How long until Zany Zebra?”
19. “Ubuntu sucks!”

Did I miss any?

Update: Seems I did:-

12:42:59 < Amaranth> Last minute update guys: We've delayed the release 6 weeks
12:43:11 < Amaranth> Please come back in 6 weeks for Ubuntu 8.06 LTS

For those that don’t know, there is a new release of Ubuntu out on the 24th April. The #ubuntu-release-party is a virtual place to hang out and chat in the lead up to that event.

                          

(not)

I previously blogged about the problem with the video card on my Dell laptop.

On the Friday I called Dell up having had no response from their website. They talked me through some tests which included reinstalling the device driver in Windows and reinstalling Windows itself. Neither of these I could do as I don’t run Windows. Besides which it was plainly obviously a hardware problem and not a driver/software issue. Anyone with just a few months of hardware maintenance skills on computers could figure that out!

As I previously blogged they arranged on the Monday for an engineer to come to my workplace on the Tuesday. On the monday afternoon I was taken ill and went home. Before I left I called up Dell and said that as I’d be at home on Tuesday – off work sick – could the engineer please come there to fix my laptop and not to my work address. The guy on the phone told me the engineer was already booked to go to my home address! Good job I was off sick!

So anyway he turned up and replaced the video card, so now all is okay.

Then today I get this email from Dell in response to my website contact. Firstly here’s what I sent to Dell via their website:-

***********************************************
System Label: XPS/Inspiron XPS Gen 2 Europe

Problem: Video Adapter
Operating System: Linux
Error Text: No error message.
Problem Description: The screen output is corrupted from the moment the computer is
powered up, before it gets to the operating system.
Trouble Shooting Steps: Run the Dell Pre-boot System Assesment Build 3017. It
technically passes the tests but the screen is badly corrupted. I have taken
photographs of the problem which you can see by visiting my gallery. The URL is

http://gallery.popey.com/gallery/DellInspironXPSGen2Problem

***********************************************

Here is their reply:-

Thank you for your email.

Click on start, right click on my computer, select properties from menu, click on
hardware tab.

click on device manager, click on plus to the left of display adapter, right click
on graphics driver,

select uniinstall, click on ok to unistall this programme.

restart computer and xp will re-install graphics driver.

check iff this resolves your  problem.

Thany you for your mail.

james.

xpx technical support.

Oh deary dear.