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2007

Happy Birthday Bladerunner

Today is the 25th anniversary of Bladerunner. To celebrate, I’m off to watch the movie on the big TV with my laptop in tow to get some work done.

I was only 9 when this was released, but I still vividly remember seeing the re-release in 1992 at the Oriental Theater in Milwaukee when the Director’s Cut was released. I love everything about this movie, and can’t wait for the box set later this year.

I’m still working my way through the Library of America collection of Philip K. Dick novels. I’ve read The Man in the High Castle and The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch so far. I’m looking forward to Ubik and re-reading Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, the story Bladerunner is based on.

Quake Wars Update

I’m standing in Chicago last night (just after eating at a Chicago-style hot dog place, one of my favorite things to eat, but I digress) waiting for the train to take me to the airport when I get a call from a good friend informing me that Quake Wars beta keys were available.

Linux Games has an update from Timothee Besset at iD regarding the Linux client and lack of beta:

I don’t want to commit to any schedule for the ETQW Linux client at this point. Most of my time is spent working on the game itself, on the Linux dedicated server and on the network infrastructure.

Once those things wind down (in the upcoming weeks) I will start working specifically on the client. But fear not, ATI and NVidia have expressed interest in getting a Linux client early, so they can review how it performs and get their drivers adjusted. When we release, we’ll release a high quality product, just like we do on Windows.

In any case, don’t expect to find Linux binaries on the retail DVD. It’s hard enough for everyone to get gold masters done, there are enough things to check and worry about, I will not place additional strain on the procedure by trying to squeeze my additional set of files on there.

I have my key, looks like I’ll have play the beta at a buddies house for now. September can’t come fast enough for when I can play at home.

GNOME Journal

The latest GNOME Journal was published today. Articles include:

  • Fun with Gstreamer Audio Effects
  • Exercising Your Application With Accerciser
  • GNOME.conf.au 2007 Wrap-up

And most importantly, my first contribution GNOME Journal,

Creating the GNOME 2.18 Live Media: An interview with Ken VanDine. Hopefully, this will be the first of many articles I hope to write in the future.

I don’t know if I’ve ever told this story, but I first met Ken last February when I was trying to figure out how to build a new GNOME LiveCD. Dave Neary pointed me at Ken at one point, who was already working on this as well. After talking to Ken, he was lightyears ahead of my struggles as he was using the rPath toolset, which enabled him to quickly publish a GNOME 2.18 LiveCD. I helped out with the easy stuff, editing the LGO pages for Live Media, and the PGO page which was later committed.

Ken was so welcoming to the help, I gave Foresight Linux a try as he is the founder and lead developer. I had just installed it when I started the interview, and by the time the interview was done a month later, I was helping out Foresight with docs and website updates and other little stuff.

Three or four months later here we are, and I’m still going strong helping out, and I enjoy the Foresight community as much today as the first time I asked a question in IRC. I hope you enjoy the article as much as I enjoyed working with Ken writing it.

Barcamp Chicago Day 2

We’re back at Barcamp as of just after noon after 4 hours of sleep. We’re surprisingly awake and ready to go. We had a small hicuup trying to download the images needed for today’s Conary talk, but SpecialKevin bailed us out.

Ken is on in 10 minutes – the first talk is on Conary, and he will be demonstrating a MythTV appliance. (I’m so excited – I’m on vacation as of Thursday, and one of my projects over vacation is to get my MythTV box up and running finally. The timing of this talk couldn’t be better!)

Ken then continues on for another hour at 2:00 CST with the Foresight presentation. The day’s a little in flux, so we might push it back as people are still trickling in (we were up late….). And then at 3, the first US based GNOME usergroup meeting, a brainstorming session with SpecialKevin.

More to come soon!

Barcamp Chicago Day 1 Recap

Barcamp Chicago has been a blast. Saturday’s turnout was phenomenal – I would hazard a guess we had 200 people at one point. The formal presentation was always packed, and mini-sessions were going on all around.

There hasn’t been a lot of hacking per se, but lots of active discussions about everything from road trips to Linux distributions to brewing (and trying!) home brewed beer. I could have done some more networking, but overall, I am having a blast.

Unfortunately, my camera isn’t working on my PC or Ken’s – I’m getting USB errors when trying to import the photos, so those will have to wait until I get home to a card reader.

Ken’s been a big hit – lots of folks who have not only heard of Conary, but wanted to learn more, and he’s been in his environment talking away, and his passion and excitement has rubbed off on everyone around him.

We got back to the hotel around 5 a.m., so to say it was a fun-filled day, was an understatement.

Twitter

If you want to follow along at Barcamp via Twitter, it would help if you knew my Twitter username: silwenae or www.twitter.com/silwenae

Enjoy.

Barcamp Chicago

I made it to Barcamp Chicago successfully, Kevin and Ken were waiting at the terminal. Took the train to the hotel, unpacked, and took the train to Barcamp, and here we are!

The location itself is pretty cool – 3rd floor office loft, with lots of space. We’re currently hanging around the area that will be used later for the Installfest, and presentations are already going on. The formal presentation room is curtained off, with tons of chairs, that I doubt will be enough.

We walked in and setup, and shortly after a couple Google guys showed up with tons of snacks and even more beer to add to the existing 2 kegs – nothing like helping out hauling all that stuff up 3 flights of stairs!

I’ve started a set on Flickr of the photos I’m taking here at Barcamp. I’ll also be using Twitter for small updates, in addition to live blogging, so it can be just like you’re here!

The Foresight, Conary and GNOME usergroup meetings are all tomorrow afternoon, so we have some time to setup, kick back and meet some folks.

Here’s a picture of Ken working on the Installfest PXE Server, enjoy:

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