Ok this is a bit silly… actually scratch that, it’s very silly but it made me smile. Besides, I’ve never needed an excuse to be silly. As usual I’m massively behind on my RSS news feeds and while going through a backlog of Lolcatz today I came across this one. It’s Linux related, kinda

Iz ok

Does Windows 7 come with Kitteh-Butt Login protection huh? I doubt it.

Dan

The Weekly Rewind

O hai, it’s time for another Weekly Rewind already. It’s been an interesting week punctuated by some very cool events. It all started with Linux Outlaws 88 on Monday night, as my weeks always seem to do these days. We got a bit closer to starting the show on time but unfortunately my ISP decided to cut me off just as we were due to start. There wasn’t a lot I could do about it but luckily we only started about half an hour late. For us 30mins late is practically early, if that makes any sense. We recorded about 2 hours worth of material and I managed to dodge the editing bullet this week, sorry Fab Despite the technical adversity the podcast was released on Wednesday night as normal, that’s mainly due to Fab’s hard work in editing. Read the rest of this entry »

Tux - Linux Mascot

Today I thought I’d continue my new series of Jargon Jam articles. In the first article I talked about the word Linux itself. If you missed that, firstly where were you? I expect to see a note from your mum. Secondly, don’t worry about it each article aims to be self-contained. As a series I hope it can add up to a crash course in Linux geek lingo. The word I’ve chosen for today is “distro”. I use it a lot and so do many people I know, without ever thinking whether it actually means anything to other folks. So here goes… Read the rest of this entry »

The Weekly Rewind

Well well well, now then, don’t worry I’m not turning into Jimmy Saville “now then, now then”; I’m just a bit shocked that it’s the 10th Weekly Rewind already. How did 10 weeks pass by so quickly? Anyway, much like good ol’ Sir Jimmy I’ve fixed it for you to read about what I did this week. So let’s get into it… As I always seem to start these articles the same way with Linux Outlaws on Monday, I won’t go on about it this week but you know what? We did Linux Outlaws 87 on Monday night, nuff said. We were late as usual but only by an hour this time, we’ll keep working on that. Somehow part of the technical equipment always breaks at about 6:45pm every Monday. I’m beginning to suspect sabotage… but then I remember how hopeless we are Read the rest of this entry »

The Pirate Bay

Yesterday saw some pretty monumental news as the administrators of The Pirate Bay – one of the top BitTorrent trackers – were convicted by a Swedish court and handed down hefty sentences. The trial had been going on for some time, and it looked as though the Pirate Bay guys were actually winning at one point; on the 2nd day in court prosecutors were forced to drop some charges. Yesterday though the guilty verdict was announced and the 4 men were convicted of “assisting the distribution of illegal content online”. The penalty was a year in jail for each of them and a $3.6m (£2.4m) fine. There’s been a ton of stuff written in the wake of this and I won’t bore you with the same critique as the major news media, but I do want to address one thing. The impact on artists themselves. Read the rest of this entry »

Tributes At Anfield

Hey folks, please forgive this off topic post but today (April 15th) is a very significant day. If you listen to the podcast or read this blog, then chances are you’ll have heard me mention my love for Liverpool FC. One of the local football teams, that’s soccer to some of you. I try to keep this blog on the topic of FLOSS and technology, occasionally music and politics creep in, but every so often I stray in order to mention something outside of that field. This is one such occasion.

Today is the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster. On the 15th of April 1989 ninety six Liverpool fans, men, women and children, were crushed to death and many more injured at an FA Cup semi-final game. They’d just gone to watch a routine game, leaving their homes in the morning as they would on any other match day. They never came home. I was 8 years old at the time and didn’t fully understand what was going on. It was a terrible tragedy that shook the whole football world and Merseyside particularly hard. What’s more, the failures of the local police and their part in contributing to the deaths has long been covered up. This lead to the creation of the Justice For The 96 campaign, which is run by families of the dead and it’s still going strong.

I don’t think there’s any need to go on about it more. I just wanted to post this information as my very small tribute to all those who died, and those who have had to suffer the pain of living on.  There will be a memorial service at Anfield today in a couple of hours. If you want to read more I’ve included some links below:

• Contrast.org/hillsborough
• Wikipedia Article

Thanks for indulging me, normal service will be resumed shortly but today, is a day to remember…

Dan