If anyone out there has any geeky stickers (or anything a bit random for a sticker) lying around, please send them to me!

I’d rather not put my address on the intarwebs, so please feel free to email me on martin AT sourceguru DOT net if you have something to send me, and I will happily send you out a Stamped Addressed Envelope.

The stickers will be put to good use decorating my laptop

Edit:-

I’ve just realised that sending a SASE to another country really doesn’t work particularly well, different countries use different stamps after all!!!!
I’m trying to think up a solution, but please let it be known that I am in the U.K., so if you’re outside and want to send me stickers, you may have to help me come up with a solution for getting round the whole stamp thing!

If this product should fail in your lifetime, we will replace it at no charge. If the proeducts is damaged by aggressive music listeners sliding a rail, sliding down the emergency ramp of your aircraft, slammed in your locker, slammed in your car door, run over by a car, running into a wall, getting run out of town, mountain biking, road biking, sky diving, beating your boyfriend unmercifully, getting beat down by the man, blown up in an accidental experimentation with flammable substances or damaged in any other every day experience, it means you are living your life the way we want our product used! In these, or any other damaging events, we will replace the product for a 50% discount from retail.

Skullcandy rock! – I’m loving my new headphones

So, seeing as my bed is at the opposite end of the room than my light switch, and I also tend to sleep on the side furthest from the light switch, my night-time habit would be something like this:-

• Turn on light
• Walk to other side of room.
• Walk round bed
• Turn on bedside lamp
• Walk back around bed
• Walk back to light switch
• Turn off light
• Walk back to bed, and around it
• Get into bed
• Read
• Turn off bedside lamp
• Sleep

Not exactly good when you’ve had a hard days work, and just want to curl up and read a book until you fall asleep.

On Wednesday however, I stumbled across a range of products on the net, and ordered a remote control light switch, and also a remote to go with it. My bedtime arrangements are now:-

• Turn on light
• Walk to bed
• Get into bed
• Read
• Turn off light with remote control
• Sleep

A lot more easier!

Have been playing with the remote from my office, and I think that if I were to order more switches, I’d be able to turn on/off all the lights in my flat from my desk.

Another neat feature about these lights? They can be programmed to use any button on any remote control!

Oh, and also, The Birmingham Jam is going pretty well!

My laptop’s one of those annoying ones that have problems, however, it seems Karmic has fixed a fair chunk of those. My wireless now works (though still only with WPA networks for some reason), I no longer have to boot with “nolapic_timer” (urgh!) and those annoying little niggles have gone. Also, Karmic is looking pretty swish. It’s new notification icons are stylish and minimal, and the xsplash looks good. Also, I’ve noticed that shut down time is drastically reduced! (2 seconds vs my old 10-15 seconds).
Boot time isn’t amazing, but it’s pretty nippy.

I’m lovin it.

I’ve seen a lot of homebrew implementations of something like this, I’m just wondering if there’s something that’s worth using already out there!

The Birmingham Bug Jammers at the Last event

The Ubuntu Global Bug Jam is just around the corner, and once again, the kind folks at the Linux Emporium have kindly offered the use of their offices to the Ubuntu UK team.

Last time, we focused on bugs, and this time it’s only slightly different.  Instead of it being a “Bug Jam” – it’s just going to be a “Jam”.  There will be people on hand to talk to about Bug Triaging, packaging, translating (and I hope we’ll get the whole of Ubuntu translated into English by the end of the Jam), and anything else you can think of.

So, if you’re interested in helping make Ubuntu a better distro, and live in (or can travel to) the Birmingham Area in the UK, then you’re welcome to come along.

The Jam is on the 2nd-4th October, and we’ll be around on all three days.  If you need more info, please feel free to email me on <mez AT ubuntu DOT com>.  Last year we had a great time, with refreshments (including beer) provided. Juggling penguins, and one person sleeping underneath the conference room table overnight.  Hopefully we’ll also have the live Video Streams up and running again for anyone who can’t make it (or other Ubuntu Jams) to join in with!

You can also find some blog posts about our last bug jam

(Potential spoilers – see full post for my take)

Ok, the image with the flashing and the stuff, pretty noticable. From what I know of the subject, it was meant to be. What noone seems to have mentioned was the fact that as it flashed, there was a brief tone.

I believe that the image wasn’t meant to actually be “subliminal” as he mentioned, “subliminal” images are “invisible”. It was meant to be noticed, but only to assosciate the tone with the image.

I also feel that the video did play a part. From what I can tell, an image (or text) was over/underlayed over the image of the rotating (fuzzy) lines, but had a very high transparency. This meant, that like the UV pen, you couldn’t pick up the image conciously, but you could unconciously. (UV pens leave a small residue behind that makes visible light reflect slightly differently. Try it, get a UV pen and write on a shiny surface. (like the back of a playing card). Looking head on at it, you don’t notice, but if you tilt the card, you can see the writing at some angles – the mind subconciously picks this up).

Tie this in with things like the wording used before the video, the trailers, and hidden wording/images throughout the show, and you have your whole thing. No “sublimilal” messages were used, but there were many uses of whatever that term that he used was (SVP?)

I have felt for a long time that the Ubuntu IRC team has become an elitist crowd, with a very cliquey inner circle, and those who are not in the inner circle being treated on multiple levels like second class citizens.

There are a lot of things that have pushed me to make this decision, and I’ve not made it lightly. I’ve voiced my concerns to the IRC Council previously, (via individual emails), and had no response.  I don’t see the situation getting any better. In fact, more and more, I see it getting worse.

I know that I’m not the only person who’s thinking this way, though I may be one of the only ones that feels that I need to lay down my cinnamon roll.  I’ve discussed these issues on multiple occassions with various members of the community (both in and out of the team), and with people linked to the Ubuntu IRC community in one way or another (Debian Developers, Freenode Staff, etc etc).

There are also other people who’ve come out of the woodwork after I posted my resignation. Within minutes of doing so, one member forwarded my mail onto the community council, and another replied with his thoughts and feelings regarding the matter.  I’m glad to see that there are other people out there who’ve seen what I’ve seen, and like me, also dislike it.

I will however, retain my @ in #ubuntu-uk.  This is a channel I participate regularly in, and the ops there are chosen by the LoCo Team, rather than the IRC council.