Time for Weekly Rewind, number 43 and I’m horribly overdue this week. Things were busy Sunday and Monday but more on that in a minute. It’s Tuesday afternoon as I write this and I’ll try to update you on the events of last week (or should I say 9 days). A pretty quiet one by my standards, but it feels like the lull before the Christmas storm. Ho ho ho! Let’s get into it.

Last Monday we did Linux Outlaws live as usual and that became episode 126 “The Man With The Golden Laptop”, what a title. We were horrifically late for various reasons but we’re working on that and I hope it will improve. I played music for people on the stream while we were delayed and I enjoyed that a lot. It gives me more of a chance to practice being a radio DJ, something I hope someone will pay more for sooner or later. You never know. Maybe I should practice some DJ catchphrases like “pop pickers”, “not ‘alf” and “you ain’t seen nothing yet”. Anything Smashie and Nicey might say basically. I processed the audio and got it back to Fab for editing the next day, he did a great job as always. On Tuesday I took some pictures with our new local penguin and posted them here. Lots of people seemed to like that.

On Wednesday I spent a fair bit if time wrestling with Fedora 12 and trying to rectify my video problems, all research for my review. I got some serious writing done on that and edited it later in the week. I published it on Friday in the end and it’s been quite popular, lots of comments and discussion which is always nice. Not everyone agrees with me and I wouldn’t expect them to, it would be more worrying if they did. A bit of informed discussion is always good, but I make sure to avoid petty flame wars, they tend to be more counter productive than anything. I’m still on Fedora 12 as I write this but I will be moving to Linux Mint 8 shortly after finishing. Another review candiate.

My Penguin Friend

On Saturday I prepared for another Rathole Radio. Continuing that on Sunday and broadcasting the show in the evening as usual. It went very well and I was pleased to see so many people in the chat room. It was like a party, much fun was had by all I hope. I discussed a Rathole Radio live event on the show recently and I’ve been talking to a few people about that since. I’m still making arrangements, but it looks like it’ll be Friday 30th April 2010 somewhere in Liverpool. Everyone is welcome to come and I want to get as many people there as possible. David Rovics and Attila The Stockbroker will be headling the gig and I’ll publish more information about tickets as soon as I have it. If anyone wants to help out let me know, drop me an email to dan AT danlynch.org or leave a comment here. I’m thinking about what other artists to get on the line up and also possibly playing it myself, we’ll see.

Yesterday we did 2 live Linux Outlaws broadcasts due to an exclusive interview. I was contacted by my good friend Bradley M Kuhn of the Software Freedom Law Center about an upcoming case last week. We arranged the interview over the weekend and he managed to get us some information on Sunday night. It was all top secret and I was legally prevented from talking about it until the case was officially announced yesterday. All very dramatic and exciting. The SFLC has filed a law suit against 14 of the biggest companies in America for violating the GNU General Public License over Busybox. Busybox is a program that’s embedded on the vast majority of consumer electronics these days: TVs, DVD players, toasters, anything you can think of really. We interviewed Bradley and Aaron Williamson of SFLC about the case and it’s implications live yesterday. We had questions from IRC and lots of good discussion. Hopefully it helps clear up the situation for everyone. There’s a lot of missunderstanding about the SFLC and their work, they really do their level best to avoid suing anyone and these companies are not responding to letters. It will be included in episode 127 of Linux Outlaws, due out tomorrow. We recorded and broadcast that episode after the interview and again it went very well. Lots of laughs. You’ll be able too hear that soon. I also released the new episode of Rathole Radio late last night. Hope you enjoy it.

Today I’ve done some work on the recorded audio from yesterday and shipped it back to Fab. I will edit the interview over the next 24 hours while he works on the rest of the show. Stay tuned for that. Right, I think we’re up to date.

Next week:

I should probably say “this week” as we’re already well into it, but hey. I’ll be attending the DS Orchestra event at FACT on Thursday night, I blogged about it not so long ago. If you’re in the area come down and say hello. I’ll be editing this interview and we’ll have a new epsiode of Linux Outlaws for everyone too hear soon. I’ll also be testing out Linux Mint and writing about that in due course. Stick around, it’s gonna be fun. Till then, take care of yourselves in this wintery weather and wrap up warm.

See ya,

Dan