Update: Podcasts, Interviews, Distortion and Web books

Hey folks, damn it’s been a while hasn’t it? 3 weeks flew by and I didn’t even notice. Been pretty busy with the podcast and other things. We made it to episode 50 of Linux Outlaws which was amazing, I never expected the show to take off as it has and I’m very grateful for it. In fact we’ve now reached episode 52 it’s been so long since my last post. You would think this makes us a year old but not quite, we’re ahead of ourselves with more than a show a week so far. The podcast will officially be a year old on September 12th.

In our last episode we were lucky enough to have a long chat with Evan Prodromou (pictured) of the open source microblogging site Identi.ca. He developed the software Laconica which runs the site and it’s completely free software licensed under the AGPL, a specialised version of the Gnu General Public License tailored to this new networked world. Software is now often delivered as a web service through a site and not running on the users computer. Gmail is a good example of this. You can hear all the details and Evan’s much more enlightening explanation in Linux Outlaws episode 52.

My Open Studio project has stalled a little due to lack of time and focus but I’m still going to press on with it and finish, don’t worry about that. I’ve got a few problems with distortion and upgrading the firmware on the new audio card but I’ll master it… no pun intended πŸ™‚

I do have something interesting planned for this week, another review, it’s been a while but this time it’s a hardware review. I’ve been lucky enough to get my hands on an Elonex Webbook which my brother got with a phone contract from Carphone Warehouse in the UK. It’s a neat little machine and the really interesting thing from my point of view though is that it came with Ubuntu 8.04 pre-installed. Stay tuned for that review later this week, maybe the weekend.



So that’s it you’re pretty much up to date with my open source antics, I’m planning to attend the Chester LUG meet on Thursday this week (28th). It’s at the Old King’s Head pub in Chester, I’ll probably get there about 7pm, so if any of you Linux lovers fancy joining me for a pint please feel free. I’ll be back later in the week with my Ubuntu web book review. Until then, take care and keep it frosty, Dan

4 Comments

  1. Ah awesome can't wait for the webbook review! It sucks when we g33k's dont have enough time to get our daily dose of computer'y stuff!

    When the Real world calls πŸ™ hah. Keep your blog up to date Dan!!! πŸ™‚

    lol Peace <3 Linux!

  2. Thanks mate, I will do don’t worry. I’m gonna have to get in gear and make some time for more distro reviewing got a lot to catch up on, you’ve been warned πŸ˜‰

  3. As I am presently debating between the Acer One which I’ve tried for a week and the mythical Dell mini 910, I wouldnt mind seeing the netbook remix that Ubuntu did in action since that will be the Dell’s OS.
    Is the Elonex running the regular Ubuntu 8.04 or the Ubuntu Netbook Remix?

    The Linpus Lite is really a wonderfully intuitive kiosk display (as well as a way to get regular XFCE desktop) which kids loved and neophytes understood the 4 split sections concept easily as well.
    I really think having a two speed OS is important. How easy is the Ubuntu netbook ‘dummy mode’?
    How easy is it to get to the regular interface (the Acer is requires basic terminal access, simple as all heck but still seems outdated) from the easy mode?
    I had some friend who hated their EEE’s Xandros and I installed them eeepclinuxos.com and PCLinuxOS MiniME so Im curious how Ubuntu has tailor made their distro for the netbooks because what I can install later on is not the question but how good the default distro is.

  4. The Elonex machine just comes with standard Ubuntu Hardy Heron installed, it’s not the netbook remix sadly. I would install that to try it but I’ve only borrowed the machine so can’t really. It doesn’t have kiosk mode it’s just the standard Gnome desktop with everything available. I’m gonna publish the review in a couple of days so keep an eye out for it πŸ™‚

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