GNOME 2.6.0 was released this evening, I anticipate that over the next 48 hours, I'm going to receive a lot of emails from people asking if I'm planning to do a GNOME 2.6 package set for SuSE 9.0. I'm going to try to head that off before it happens by saying that no, I have no such plans, I simply don't have the time to undertake such a project at this time due to work, and other life pressures. I know a lot of people are going to be disappointed by this (I'm one of them), but it's a side-effect of doing this as a voluntary effort.

Roger:

Let's go for it, perhaps this would be an appropriate Googlebomb:

Centre of the Universe.

Who's with us?

Alternatively, morally bankrupt.

Added Nat to Planet SuSE today. Reminded me of a conversation I had with jdub a couple of weeks ago. Planet SuSE seems, in addition to being a contact point for the SuSE community to keep in touch with what's going on, and the Ximian monkeys are more than welcome. We love you guys, and the work you do rocks hard! But, in addition to that, is filling void left by the (apparently) defunct Planet Novell (link offline).

This is therefore a call to anyone from Novell, who feels they would be at home with a blog appearing on Planet SuSE to get in touch. If you contribute, we want to know how. Anyone from SuSE too who blogs, or wants to, to keep the community informed, drop me a line, let's make this the biggest and best planet there is.

This is what it's all about:

The new camera arrived today (free next-day delivery - nice one cameras2u.com). Now, there's not much to snap at in the office, so to test it out, I just took this photo of my mug:

By default, the HP PhotoSmart 735 is configured to use PTP mode rather than be a USB Mass Storage device. Now, although it would work perfectly well under Linux as the latter (and indeed, SuSE would automatically add it to /etc/fstab when connected), it's much better in PTP mode. I simply had to fire up gtkam, and tell it to detect my camera. It did perfectly, and then I could quite easily view my images as thumbnails, and save them (along with the thumbs) wherever I wanted.

We had Overload by the Sugababes playing in the office this morning, and I realised that the song really concerns me. The chorus begins with the words

The train comes, I don't know it's destination

Now, this raises two thoughts in my mind:

1. She really should look at the information screens above the platform. They will inform her not only of the ultimate destination of the approaching locomotive, but also all stopping stations between her boarding point and the conclusion of it's journey.
2. If she still doesn't know it's destination, she really shouldn't board the train. She may not have a ticket that is valid for the whole of her journey. This, I fear, would constitute a criminal offence on her part.

Overload has a serious message about appropriate use of our railway network that I think we would all do well to heed.

Reordered the camera, this time from cameras2u.com, they seem a lot less dodgy than pixmania.com, and with P&P, only £3.50 more.

Reported a funny bug in Galeon, which turned out to be a libegg bug, roll on 1.3.15, and the switch to GTK+ 2.4.

Thinking I might try to do something artistic with the defunct hard drive, suggestions on a poastcard (or email) would be greatly appreciated. When the cam arrives, I'll produce a photo of it, maybe do a before and after thing for whatever I end up doing with it

Good to be back where my blog belongs. Thus far, the blog is all I've restored, would be massively slow (not to mention inappropriate) to rsync an entire CD of data from work to home, but I'll be setting about restoring everything else tonight. Looks like most things are ok. Result.

We're thinking we might finally get a proper digital camera, since the SiPix has a resolution of less than 1MP, a battery life measurable in hours, irrespective of whether you use it or not (and you lose any stored images if the battery goes or is removed), and the gPhoto drivers still aren't there. The recent hamster pictures have been taken using Cat's cam, which has a USB smart card reader, which works just lovely as USB Mass Storage under Linux. Thinking about the HP PhotoSmart 735.

Uploaded updated GIMP packages, 2.0 RC1. Won't be long now till 2.0 final I reckon, bring it on...

Added another ten photos of our baby hamsters to my Photo Gallery, they're so cute it's just not true...

Uploaded new Galeon and AbiWord (beta) packages.

Apparently I look like I could do with a good night's sleep. I could.

Gonna be an interesting week I think, at home tonight (might get an early night), then it's the School of Prophecy tomorrow night, I'm leading worship. Cell group on Wednesday of course, then Thursday night it's Marseille - Liverpool in the UEFA Cup, then up the M1 to pick some friends up from Luton Airport. Not at work on Friday, we're off to our church weekend away in Wales, should be a good laugh, especially if we avoid the 70s disco on Saturday night.

Planet SuSE has now moved to planetsuse.org.

Great day, church in the morning, Martyn spoke on Spiritual Gifts, and then we just chilled out for the rest of the day. Called my mum (it being Mother's Day) and we finally counted the baby hamsters, there are eleven. Also took some more photos of them, which I'll add to the photo gallery tomorrow.

Sounds like Luis had a great time in Nuernberg, it's a trip I never managed to make while I was at SuSE, but reading about his experience, and having started to look at the 9.1 betas gives me a warm fuzzy feeling about the GNOME situation. It's not 100% perfect, but hey, it's Beta 1, and there's people like myself, Luis, Dave, etc, etc, etc who are going to be contributing ideas, suggestions and patches to Holger.

Watched Love Actually and Donnie Darko on DVD today. Quite enjoyed Love Actually, although it wasn't as funny as I expected. Actually found it to be rather a sad movie, I think I focussed on the unrequitedness of a lot of the love in it (yes, I know that a lot of the couples came together at the end, but by that point the feeling of hopelessness had set in. Wonder if that says something about my state of mind...). Donnie Darko was just plain weird. Just as it's ending and you think you've figured it out, there's that weird twist, and basically my brain hurts now.

Wedding anniversary tomorrow. For six years now I've had the privledge of being married to the most wonderful woman alive. I couldn't be happier.

Warning: this may not make sense, thinking out-loud...
One thing that has occupied my thoughts a lot since starting usr local bin, and more so as time has gone on, more and more people have started using the applications hosted there, and especially using ULB GNOME has been, to coin a phrase of the moment, "What's my exit strategy?". That's not to say that I want out, or I plan to quit running it any time soon, but the simple fact is that if my plan comes off, and this summer I get selected to train for ordination, I'm simply not going to have the time to be so directly active in the community anymore. Oh, I'll still be running Linux (SuSE of course), reading lists and helping folk when I can, but package building, testing, configuring and releasing is simply not going to be on the cards. The flow of ideas, code and patches across Novell between Ximian and SuSE potentially provides me with a way to feel less bad about this. I think that when 9.1 comes out (Disclaimer: I am on the SuSE beta program, but as yet have not looked at a 9.1 beta, only just managed to download the ISOs), we're going to see a GNOME install that, well, sucks less than before. Not only that, but I wouldn't be surprised if we get sane GNOME updates inbetween distro releases. Wouldn't that be neat? If that proves to be the case, then if I wrap ULB up this autumn, I can do so dafe in the knowlege that the GNOME living SuSE guys will be well looked after. Of course, it's a moot point if I don't get selected.

ULB is something that in a way I wish I didn't have to do, I wish GNOME in SuSE had always sucked less, interesting how something born of neccesity has become so well loved in the community.

• Added Luis, Dave and joe from Ximian to p.SuSE. Will switch it's location to planetsuse.org real soon.
• Offer of help from Luis on the GST/SuSE integration work, it's been on a serious backburner recently, but I finally got round to taking a hard copy of my b0rked GST::Users code so I can read it more easily and try to debug it.

Finally, YaST is going to be GPL. Some of us have wanted this for a long time, and it used to be an occasional topic of hot discussion when I was at SuSE, but it was never seriously on the cards back then. It's terrific news that this is happening. I don't believe that the fears of a thousand SuSE clones appearing like Red Hat clones will come true, but actually, it will benefit in the same way that other GPL software does, more people will use it, hack on it and test it seriously. YaST is already a great config tool (although, obviously GST with a decent SuSE backend will also rock), it will only get better now.

Novell have announced the release date and details of contant of SuSE 9.1. Looks pretty cool, and this has really dominated p.SuSE today, it's also been on Slashdot, including a reference to p.SuSE getting modded as +5, Informative, niiiice...

Justin has registered, and is hosting planetsuse.org, which p.SuSE will be moving to. In fact, depending on whether your DNS server has it cached or not, you may be able to see p.SuSE there already. The current location will be replaced with a redirection to that one tomorrow, and I'll start letting people I know link to it know about the move, mostly other Planet maintainers.

Had a big tidy of my desk today, I'd forgotten there was wood-effect underneath the huge mounds of paper with a monitor poking out that I sit at every day.

Got a meeting st Soul Survivor tonight about CTP stuff for SitC and Soul Survivor C/Passion for Your Name in the summer. After that it's the Soul Man Curry Night. I'm probably not going to make it home other than to drop the car off before the curry, so I'm going to be in a suit for the whole night, feels weird...

As I predicted, the US (well, the leader of the Republicans in the Congress, who is #3 after Bush and Cheney) has said that the Spanish people have "appeased terrorists" by voting out the government that took them into war in Iraq against the wished of 90% of the Spanish population. I do hope that come November, American voters will do the same to the administration that not only took them into this illegal war, but lied about the reasons for it. Not to forget that almost 3 million jobs have been lost in the USA under Bush, the USA has not ratified Kyoto, I could go on...

This Saturday, it's the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, the Stop the War Coalition are organising a protest in London, or you can sign an online petition if, like me, you can't physically make it.

Have added Robert Love to Planet SuSE. Robert's a kernel hacker who works for Ximian. His main focus is on something called Project Utopia, the aim of which is to make Linux on the desktop kick even more ass than it already does from what I can make out. This work is heavily SuSE-focused thanks to the Novell connection. Welcome on board Robert.

Also, read with interest Rodrigo's latest blog entry. I wonder if it's Novell policy that their Ximian staff standardise on SuSE, or if it's just a coincidence. Also, Rodrigo, if you read this, SuSE has a thriving package building community, linked down the right hand side of p.SuSE.

Good day in Oxford yesterday, Wycliffe seems like a great college, and I could really see myself studying there for three years, but I didn't quite get the same vibe that I did from St John's. Went out with Mark and Celina in the evening, ate at Pizza Express (always good, American Hot, Mmmm....) and then wandered down to the Eagle & Child, which is one of my fave pubs in Oxford.

Have added Togan to Planet SuSE. Togan maintains the Unofficial SuSE FAQ Project, good to have you on board Togan.

Uploaded new GTK-- packages. Debating with myself doing GTK+ 2.4 (and Pango, Glib) packages. Erring towards doing so at the moment, but that may change, I'm fickle like that.

I've been added to the SuSE Beta Program, which is cool, means that I have a more direct way to contribute again to SuSE.

Off to Oxford shortly, think it's a slightly more formal college interview type situation than Nottingham. I guess that makes sense in a way, should be an interesting day anyway. I just love spending time in Oxford for any reason, it's undoubtably my favorite city, and after the day at the college, we're meeting up with Mark for dinner and dancing (okay, not dancing...).

Just to clarify about the ORBit2 issue that I mentioned yesterday, SuSE 9.0 includes ORBit2-2.6.x, and Evolution 1.5 requires 2.8.x at least. The problem is that nearly all GNOME packages depend upon ORBit2, so I'd have to take that big step of producing a full GNOME install, which

1. I don't have the time to do right now
2. Doesn't seem worth it, with 9.1 not far away
3. Doesn't seem worth doing for GNOME 2.4 with 2.6 just round the corner

• Uploaded new Evolution packages, 1.4.6 at last. Also decided to hold off from 1.5/2.0 until SuSE 9.1, bloody ORBit2 dependency. I also have decided to add an Amazon wishlist to my Think Geek one (buy me things).
• Added Roger W, another former SuSE UK staffer to p.SuSE.
• Oxford tomorrow
• Got given an old notebook by someone at church yesterday, the display's a bit dodgy, but it might do as an occasional downstairs net access point/out and about machine. For serious usage at college (assuming I get the nod), I'll need a more serious machine though, but a fantastic thing to be given.
• The new Spanish PM appears to have some guts which is good news. I just wonder how long it will be until Bush and Blair (especially Bush) start saying things like "voting for the opposition means the terrorists are winning" or even "voting for the opposition means you support terrorism".
• Did CTP for a Passion For Your Name one day conference on Saturday. Was a great day, and Tim had a couple of new songs, which were really, really good.

For me yesterday, not so good for Spain. My thoughts and prayers are obviously with the people of Madrid and Spain at this difficult time.

Nottingham was good, really liked the college, there was a great atmosphere, and a radical edge which appeals to me. Met up with Rachel in the afternoon, which was just great, so good to see her, also met up with some friends of Rachel (c/o having her with us), who I guess I must have prayed for at some point at Soul Survivor, cos he remembered me, and knew my name, his wife looked familiar to me too. Anyway, he's going to be the new Curate at St. Thomas' Lancaster - small world!

The Proliant 1850R server has an embedded NIC, which is monumentally horrid when trying to use Linux - it will cause lock ups on hardware probing and the like, a common point for this to happen in a grpahical install is just after YaST shows you the keyboard layout, but before the mouse type is displayed. In a text install, it will lock up when YaST says it is probing FireWire devices. To get SuSE 9.0 installed on one of these servers, you'll need a Compaq SmartStart^® CD to boot from initially.

1. Boot from the SmartStart^® CD, and use the utility to disable the embedded NIC
2. Install a PCI NIC that you know works with SuSE. I found a 3Com card lieing around and that worked fine
3. Install SuSE

Yes, it's that simple, but if you didn't know, you could spend hours cursing and hitting the server with big sticks. The cost of a NIC is probably a lot less that the cost of time spent trying to figure it out.

Will be heading off to Nottingham in about half an hour. Hope we find the college alright, I printed out a route plan from The AA yesterday, but then forgot to bring it home - what a silly person I am!

Cell last night was cool, due to a variety of circumstances we'd moved location first from J&H's place (the cell leaders) to Dave & Catherine's (Dave of the now infamous DSL500) and then at the very last minute to our local Starbucks. Having got to *bucks, we discovered they closed at 8pm, not 9pm as we had thought, so after a coffee there, we relocated to the Southern Cross for a couple of pints and discussion. All in all it was rather good fun.

Been ill the last few days, which is one reason I've not blogged since Friday - I've had nothing to blog about really, plus not had the energy. Made a wicked chilli on Saturday, we had Caz round, but this horrible flu/cold type affair really hit on Sunday afternoon, and I had to take Monday and yesterday off work. Feeling a bit better today, not 100% at all, but I made it into work.

Off to Nottingham tomorrow for my first interview, which is quite exciting, but it does mean I will only have been in the office two days this week.

Uploaded new AbiWord and GIMP packages this morning, as well as possibly the biggest news of the last few days...

I've added some photos to my photo gallery for the first time in about a year because Tia gave birth on Friday while we were at work. We're not quite sure how many are in her litter yet, quite difficult to count them at the moment, but we think there may be about eleven.

• On a low-scoring night, we were five points off winning the quiz.
• I think today is Tia's due date - she's well huge!
• Whoops, managed to kill internal mail delivery at work while distracted by ProFTPD.
• Tomorrow is my brother, David's engagement party. I can't be there, but congrats and all the best from both of us to him and Cheryl.
• Finally raised the issue I need answering before jumping into OOo.
• Spell Checking in AbiWord came up on SLE - pointed Keith in the right direction (that direction being Dom).
• Responded to a follow-up query to my entry on getting the Binatone DSL500 working under SuSE. Might write a little HOWTO, and, depending on the license on the driver, post a SuSE package.

Ever have one of those weeks were the things you love to do, you just don't feel remotely motivated for? I've not had any problem with motivating myself to do my job, but then, I don't like my job, but I have had no inclination whatsoever to do any hacking. Wonder if it's to do with the tiredness thing.

Tomorrow won't give me an opportunity to don my hacking trousers either, I'm going to be in a meeting (with food) for most of the morning and over lunch, which is my hacking time. Gyah. Still at least we're going to the pub tomorrow night to lose horribly in the quiz again.

I'm really rather tired, don't know why - I actually had a semi-acceptable night's sleep last night. Ah well. Cell group's been cancelled tonight, so at least I can just stop in and watch The West Wing, which we've just got totally hooked on the last few days, since Paul and Caroline lent us the first season and a half on DVD, we watched seven episodes on Sunday, and three more over Monday and Tuesday. I can't believe we didn't watch it from when it started on TV.

Last night was really good fun, was great to get the team all (well, nearly all) together, and just chill out. We played Family Fortunes, which was really fun and got bizarrely competitive. Thankfully, my team won, which of course, pleased me greatly.

Hey, Pete, two can play at the screenshot game!

So, below is my desktop at the moment, that's ULB GNOME 0.6.5-pre running on SuSE 9.0.

Out at Tim's tonight with the Word Projection team, he's cooking us a meal to say thanks for the all the work the guys do. We also are continually blown away by the way they serve week-in, week-out, and the great job they all do. if any of you are reading this, you guys rock my socks in a box secured with many locks carried by an ox pursued by a fox down by the docks.