I got home today and found a nice package in the mailbox. I always get giddy when there is anything in there other than direct mail ads and bills. This time the giddyness was fully justified. It turned out to be my package of schwag from The SouthEast LinuxFest. W00T!

I helped out with some of the graphics for the conference and this was my reward. Honestly, I would have loved to attend but it was just too far for me. I am booking in for the Ohio Linux Fest this September though so hopefully I can meet some of the wonderful people in this community.

Congratulations to Dave Yates and the rest of his cohorts on what by all accounts sounded like a complete and utter success. Indeed the reviews have been so glowing that I would think they’re wondering what they have to do to meet expectations next year.

Anyways, with yet another thunderstorm fast approaching, I decided to get my daughter to pose with all the SELF schwag for a quick photo. Kudos to all the SELF guys and thanks so much for the stuff, and for allowing me to help out.

Now I’ll have a clean change of clothes to wear in Ohio!

You just gotta love a world in which you can add both Frogger and Asteroids to your website with a simple cut and paste of some html code.

Now if only there were faithful flash versions of Omega Race, Galaga, and maybe a Scott Adams adventure. Jeez, I’d never get anything done!

I got the code snippets for these games (there are others) from http://www.neave.com/games/

In a second attempt to make more use of my Wacom tablet, and learn a little bit more about using the Gimp in the process, I sat down tonight and decided to attempt a little more sketching. I always liked doodling cars in my youth, so I did a quick sketch in the Gimp and one thing led to another and I ended up with this about two hours later (click it to get a slightly larger version):

There are a lot of problems with it if you look too closely (doing anything remotely attractive with the wheels is still completely above me) but it’s a starting point anyhow.

I got all inspired today at lunch after checking out stuff like David Boyle’s awesome portfolio, that has wonderful things like this.

So tonight I finally got familiar with using Gimp layers but I realized one thing:  I really need to study up on Gimp shortcut keys. I’m quite comfortable with keyboarding in Inkscape, but in the Gimp I’m pretty much hunt and click at this point.

If anybody does sketching like this with the Gimp and can give me any pointers, please grace the comment section with your wisdom.

While I make no bones about being a fan of Linux and Free Software, I’m also someone who tries, at least most of the time, to understand opposing ideas and differing perspectives. For instance, I regularly listen to the MacBreak Weekly podcast even though I don’t own any Apple products and likely never will. I think the show is entertaining and it gives me a feel for how “the other half lives”. I also realize that the show was created by Apple fans, for Apple fans, but I’m not sure you can throw out all reasoned judgement in the name of supporting Apple…  even on such a pro-Apple show.

First a quick observation about the show in more recent weeks. It used to be that Andy Ihnatko was as staunchly anti-anything non-Mac, at least that’s how I remember it. But he is impressing me more each week with his reasoned observations and his willingness to call a spade a spade when it comes to things Apple could be doing better, or even things that Microsoft is doing well. His recent appraisal of the benefits of having more hardware choice in the PC (Windows) world, and the benefits of the netbook are refreshing to hear. I could be wrong, but I also remember him picking Ubuntu as a software recommendation as well some weeks back. I’d like to say it happened, but checking the mbwpicks.com site, I don’t see Ubuntu even mentioned. Maybe I just dreamt it.

Now take all of the sunshine in the preceding paragraph, invert it into darkness and evil, and heap it onto Scott Bourne. If you want to hear from a staunch Mac zealot, unwilling to entertain reasoned arguments for the other side of any issue no matter how well supported, then Scott is your man.

Case in point, Windows and viruses.

The standard argument is that Windows XP and Vista are virus magnets (and Windows 7 will be better but in no way immune). This is Scott Bourne’s response to just about any Windows related suggestion - sure, the netbook might be useful, but you’ll be so overcome with virus and spyware problems within 10 minutes that the machine will be rendered useless. Andy countered that the problem is “manageable”, and that while it might be severe if you had an old XP machine back on Service Pack 1, anything newer was not perfect, but simply manageable. Of course there is also the perfectly reasonable argument that Windows is 95% of the market and targeted much more so than any other OS. I’m not sure if all of this logic and reason is simply lost on Scott, but it appears so.

Now I’m strictly a Linux guy at home (Crunchbang FTW! ), but I’ve been using Windows XP Pro here at work for about 10 years now (and Windows 98 before that). I’m fully connected to the Internet, and surf daily using both Firefox and Google Chrome. I have auto-updates turned on but almost never use Internet Explorer (I think IE7 is installed on here). However, I DO NOT run any anti-virus or anti-spyware software over and above the standard Windows Firewall. And I have not had any virus, spyware or pop up problems on this machine in years. Funny, I used to have spyware and pop-up problems back when I used to use McAfee, Lavasoft something, and later on, AVG. But I haven’t used any of those programs in the past 3 or 4 years and I haven’t had any problems. I install new software now and then including bittorrent clients, irc clients, web and desktop apps, mostly Free software and not Shareware stuff. A-ha.. maybe that’s my secret!

So either I’m just damn lucky or maybe I’m just smarter than most - I’d like to believe the latter - but Windows hasn’t given me anything to complain about in terms of viruses and spyware. Make no mistake, it gives me plenty to complain about in terms of aesthetics and configurability among other things.

In the end I guess I’m just venting. The pro-Apple attitude at all costs approach just galls me. Enough so that even as a Linux fan I have to defend Windows in the face of blatant misinformation.

UPDATE: Per Chad Wollenberg’s suggestion, I downloaded and ran an anti-virus/spyware program (AVG Free Edition). It found about a zillion tracking cookies and nothing else.  And if anyone’s thinking we’re severely locked down here at work and that’s why I don’t have problems, I admit we’re behind a router, but I have port access for ftp, bittorrent, http, irc and streaming stuff, so I don’t think much is blocked.

UPDATE 2: It was not Andy Ihnatko that picked Ubuntu as his software pick.. Even better, it was Paul Thurrott on the Windows Weekly podcast Episode 104!! Ha!

One of the things I’ve always enjoyed doing is creating desktop wallpapers. I don’t know if it’s just my way of flexing my creative muscles, but I enjoy doing them. For the last little while I’ve spent quite a bit of (maybe way too much) time in the Crunchbang forums posting ideas and images in their artwork section. (They’re also in the midst of a logo design process too which has been great fun - for more info see this thread.). Anyway, I’ve probably posted almost 40 (!) of them so far (I did say maybe way too much time didn’t I?), so I thought I’d post some of the nicer ones up here. They’re looking at getting a community artwork team set up on Launchpad which I’d love to participate in. Also, I may get them up into a proper installable package (for Crunchbang) if I ever make the time to figure it out.

Incidentally, #! is the logotype for Crunchbang.. so you’ll see that symbol in many of the wallpapers I’ve done.

Also, I’m using the jQuery Lightbox plugin for WordPress to do this post. And while it does seem to function correctly, I can’t seem to get the thumbnails to display properly below. There seems to be a mile of whitespace between the first row of images and the rest of them. So you can either click on one of them and get the flash slideshow or scroll way down to see the thumbnails for the rest of them. If anybody’s got a better suggestion or any tips to help me out in this respect I’d really appreciate it.

If you like any of them, you can download an archive of the full size versions right here: http://rfquerin.org/cbang/cbangwpapers.zip

As usual, I’ve half-assed it, and mostly done them in 1680x1050 format. I probably should do at least 4:3 and 16:9 versions of each one but have wussed out in this respect.. at least for now.

Awesomely funny post over at Stuff White People Like.. here’s a tidbit:

One of the strangest side effects has been the puzzling situation whereby a white person will sit in an independent coffee shop with a Moleskine notebook resting on top of a Apple laptop. You might wonder why they need so many devices to write down thoughts? Well, if a white person has a great idea, they write it by hand, if they have a good idea, it goes into the computer.

Not only does this help them keep their thoughts organized, but it serves as a signal to the other white people in the shop that the owner of both instruments is truly creative. It screams: “I’m not using my computer to check email and read celebrity gossip, I’m using it to create art. Please ask me about it.”

While I’m a fan of using paper notebooks, I’m not an Apple guy, nor do I enjoy paying for overpriced coffee. But I do admit I wouldn’t mind people asking me what I’m writing in that notebook.

Just spotted this on Lifehacker:

http://lifehacker.com/5159336/diy-under+sink-cat-litter-box

As an experienced cat owner all I can say is just pray you never drop your toothbrush…

Lately, I’ve been reading and commenting on a post by Bryan of the Linux Action Show podcast titled “Why 100% Free Software Destroys Linux”. And while the title of the post is definitely (and purposely) inflammatory, I think it’s an interesting discussion. Just so you know where I’m coming from, although I’m a huge fan and user of Free (as in speech) software, I think I’m more of a proponent of its inevitability. But reading those comments brings up a point in my mind that I don’t hear often: Do you ever feel guilty using Free Software?

Now I have made donations in the past to free software projects, but by no means anything that would even begin to compensate the use I get out of them. And I’ll be the first to admit that if I were graded on how much money I gave to the free projects that I use, I’d fail with flying colours. And maybe I’m naive or just trying to make myself feel better about it, but I think the vast majority of free software users are probably just like me.

But the question is, should I feel guilty about using Free Software and not directly compensating those who create it? I don’t think there is anything in the GPL compelling me to do so (like just about everything else in this world I could be wrong about that), and if the people developing free software really wanted money in exchange for the result of their service, wouldn’t they take their toys and go elsewhere? 

I just think it’s an interesting discussion that I don’t hear a lot about in the circles I run in.

Troy James Sobotka has left a few very constructive and useful comments on my blog from time to time. We’re now doing a little back and forth related to how best introduce people to using Blender as a video editing application with some screencasts. And while I haven’t yet posted another quickie screencast on Blender (I’m at war with my arch nemisis Free Time right now) my discussions with him have led me to believe he knows quite a bit about it. But aside from that, if you visit his blog and read his ‘About Me’ blurb, you’ll see he’s got a penchant for creative endeavours. In fact, he just blew me away with this comment to one of my posts about the Flip Video camera and the resulting link:

Hard to believe it but some of those teeny, fixed plastic lens, fixed focus, disposable cameras can now do a relatively crude 720P HD!

It’s all your fault Richard! I started reading your Blender articles and decided I’d give it a go.

I set out on a project to create a music video (of sorts) out of the output from one of these cameras and post it onto YouTube. Here are the details:

$160.00 for a pocket, disposable camera like the Flip.
Two hours of shooting.
Four hours of distracted production.

Couple that with a few hundred Blender developers and you end up somewhere around where the following link led.

So Richard, without further ado:
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_XwOQELT20

Thanks for sparking the mind again.

Troy, I find it hard to believe you needed someone like me to ‘spark’ your mind. I am completely amazed at that video. Only two hours of shooting and four hours of distracted production?

You sir, need to screencast.

Although I have a whole bunch of  ”how the hell did you do that” sort of questions, I’ll keep it to just one or two:

- I’m assuming maybe you used a tripod for the rotational shots, but how the hell did you do the nice smooth pans? I refuse to believe it was handheld.

- The out of focus shots and the over-exposure type effects.. were they done manually somehow or was that some sort of effect processing done in Blender?

Simply beautiful and so well done Troy.

I now happily call BS on anyone doubting what can be done with video in Linux.

Last night on the way home I listened to a new Linux podcast called TuxRadar and I have to say I’m quite encouraged. The podcast is hosted by a group of guys who (I think) are from Linux Format magazine in the UK. I heard mention of it in a thread over on the Crunchbang forums about a recent review of the distro in LinuxFormat magazine.

I like LF magazine, but the only problem with it is its newsstand price over here. I find it hard to justify paying 15-20 bucks for a magazine (Car and TopGear magazines are the same, very nice, but very pricey). But it’s a pretty damn good magazine. I’ve probably bought 3 or 4 copies over the last year or so and enjoyed each one. But still, it’s a little hefty in the price department.

The podcast itself was good. It’s very..umm.. Lugradio-ish in some ways. And by that I don’t mean the accents, but more the group dynamic. There are several shortish segments to the show and it seems kind of aimed at evoking differing opinions from the various hosts which is a good thing. It’s not yet as free flowing or endearing as Lugradio, but hey it’s only the first episode, I would think that would only come with time.

So kudos to the guys over there for starting up yet another fine podcast to fill my weekday commutes.