Archive - 2008
It should be fairly clear here that I can't draw. Never was very good. I did manage once to be able to draw a fair profile of Judge Dredd, but that was just his head.
If anything, I've regressed:
The results of your analysis say:
- You are driven and ambitious and tend to make radical moves to reach your goals.
- You are a thoughtful and cautious person. You like to think about your method, seeking to pursue your goal in the most effective way.
- You have a sunny, cheerful disposition.
I think the analysis comes more from your own interpretation of your drawing, rather that there being any computer analysis of it.
Found on the blog of another Paul Campbell. The one that writes for EastEnders and Holby. Not the one that was in Battlestar Galactica and now Knight Rider.
On the subject of writing, I'm working on the script for episode 7 of Estalvin's Legacy. Sadly, when I came back to revise the original scripts that I'd written for episodes 7 through 12 last November, I was very unhappy with the structure of large parts of it. I haven't thrown all of it out, I do like a lot of the elements I had in there. So those are being cherry picked for the new scripts.
The biggest change from previous scripts is a much tighter focus. Instead of trying to keep up with all of the characters in each episode, I'm focusing in on one set in the A story and an other in the B story. That will be a two part story, episodes 7 and 8. Episode 9 will then move on to a different set of characters.
If you want to consider Episodes 1 though 6 as the Mini-Series, where the universe is setup, and we are now into the actual series.
After spending a week working with some Acer Aspire Ones at work, I caved and bought one for myself. Okay, I lied. It was two and a half days.
Anyway, that isn't the point. The Linpus distro of Linux (some Fedora Core 8 deirvative) was very quickly and easily replaced with Ubuntu 8.04.1 through booting from a USB. (Creating a Bootable Ubuntu USB key).
There are a number of hoops to jump though the get Hardy working properly, but not too much. Most things just work straight out of the box. (Install Ubuntu Hardy Heron (8.04.1) on the Acer Aspire One).
One of the updates that I've followed is putting on the UME-Launcher and the associated Window Picker applet. A simplified interface with much less clutter than a normal desktop. But not as stripped down as the Linpus. You get the main menu items from the Ubuntu menu down the left side. When you pick one the contents of the menu appear as icons in the main area in the middle for the screen. To the right is a list of nautilus Places (bookmarks, USB drives etc). However when you click on one of these a nautilus window opens. Might be nice if that could be integrated to display the contents in the center area too. They are both under active development, with new versions appearing every few days.
I've also installed Sun's latest release of VirtualBox 2.0.4. No, not the Open Source edition. I want to be able to connect USB devices, like my iPod, into it. I have an audible.co.uk subscription, so I need to use iTunes. VirtualBox is the only VM that I've found that supports passing through USB ports to the guest OS, and thus to iTunes. Unfortunately the Open Source edition doesn't include this USB support.
Not that getting the USB to work was straight forward, but thanks the fantastic documentation from Ubuntu, I managed to get iTunes to see my iPod. (VirtualBox USB).
An interesting feature I found with VirtualBox, is what it calls Seamless Mode. It's fairly simple what it does, but the effect is impressive and I'll find it very usefull at work where I have to work in both Linux and Windows environments simultaneously. What Seamless mode does is removes the Windows desktop background. You can see and click on the windows in the background. This simple change (yeah simple to describe, the developers might have a different opinion) allows Linux and Windows apps to run side by side. And with the performance I've seen with VirtualBox, it does it smoothly.
On a side note, I've noticed that sometime recently there must have been an upgrade to the touchpad driver in Ubuntu. Now when you slide up or down the right hand edge (about 20% of the pad area) this now simulates a mouse scroll button. Takes a tiny bit of getting used to, but it is so worth it. I must admit that I really miss the scroll button when I find myself on a PC that doesn't have one.
Now in Public Beta - no special code needed.
Dropbox is another internet file space. With built in encrypted network traffic, sharing, and automatic synchronisation, you can work on your files in any networked computer.
What especially appeals to me is the Linux client complete with Gnome integration.
Did I mention that you also get 2.0Gb free space?
I've only just installed the client, but it looks very promising.
No, really. I don't. The three PCs and two laptops I have in the house are perfectly adequate. I mean, they all work. Okay, the laptop that is actually mine has a couple of loose keys after I converted it to Dvorak. But that really isn't enough to consign it to a cupboard. Is it?
No, I haven't been looking at an HP Mini Note from Efficient PC. Comes with SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 pre-installed rather than Ubuntu though. There, excuse found. Feeble as it may be.
But I am tempted.
For now, I resist. For now.
So Pathalogic is no longer supported on Drupal 5:
The Drupal 5 version of this module is no longer being supported. You may submit patches and issues for it if you'd like, but the Drupal 6 release is going to receive the majority of my attention. Time to upgrade, folks…
Now if only it was that simple. However there are several modules that my various site are dependent upon that have not been converted to Drupal 6 yet. I'm looking at you project, among others. Personally I'm quite patient, and am happy enough to wait till these things are ready.
So I could leave the module active and upgrade to Drupal 6 when I can. There is a problem with this however. The Update Status module will constantly report that I have an "Unsupported release". Which means that I will receive a steady stream of alert emails telling me to do something for the site. I won't know, without manually checking the status page, if there are any security updates needed. This leads to ignoring the alerts and possibly missing a critical security update.
Not good.
And Pathologic? Not that critical to be honest. I think I can live without it.
I've disabled the module and my Status Report is all green again.
When I can eventually upgrade to Drupal 6 will I use Pathologic again? Not if I haven't missed it. Chances are I will have forgotten all about it by then.
Bad move on the module developers part methinks.
