As not everyone likes Gnome, there is a part of the Ubuntu project that implements KDE. Installing it was a matter of running a command and accepting some options. It actually said there were some errors with some of the packages, but everything seems to be working nicely. It picked up my existing configuration that I had been using on Knoppix. For some reason I just prefer the feel of KDE, but that's probably because I have been tainted by years of Windows.

I sought medical advice on my shoulder and the opinion is that it's been strained. So I'm on painkillers, heat packs and rest. I've not suffered an injury this serious that I can remember, although I picked up a few aches at Aikido. I've managed to get through nearly four decades with no broken bones.

You may have noticed that the site is wearing a Make Poverty History band. I saw a few other sites doing this. It's a bit of Javascript that you can see in the page source and use on your own site if you like. I thought the Girl in the Cafe drama at the weekend put the point across well, even if it was an unlikely scenario.

I spent a while trying to get various things working last night. I had some success with RealPlayer (that I use for BBC radio) and Skype (for free internet phone calls). Both of these had problems on Knoppix with their sound. It wasn't all plain sailing. RealPlayer needed me to edit /etc/esound/esd.conf to disable auto-spawn and Skype needed me to install kcontrol (KDE configuration). Google and the Ubuntu forums were a great help. I would have been stuck with out them.

Other things I need to look at are audio (Ubuntu comes without MP3 support due to licence issues), digital images (organising my camera pictures), scanning, video (possibly Xine), personal accounts (GnuCash does the job) and various other stuff to keep the family happy. At some point I want to get into digital viedo and audio, but that's for when I have more time.

Weather news: big thunder and lightning storm last night. Then it poured with rain.

I've had a good play with Knoppix and it came pretty close to being what I wanted. Installation of additional applications was simple and I could manage the system well. There were just niggle like the sound not working properly. I had read several opinions that Knoppix was really designed as a Live CD rather than to be installed. The real buzz seemed to be around Ubuntu. This is also based on Debian, but comes in Live CD and installable versions.

So I downloaded the ISO, burnt it to one of my old CD-RWs and fired it up. The installation program is purely text mode rather than the flashy graphics that others use, but it's all very logical. I was able to select what I wanted to do with my existing partitions. I elected to keep my /home partition. After copying all the packages across the system rebooted and spent some time preparing them all for use. This part could do with a progress bar so you have some idea how long it will take. Eventually I got a graphical log-in screen. The system starts up with some pretty grahics and various noises. Personally I prefer my PC to only make noises when it's really necessary. It uses Gnome as it's front end rather than KDE, which I'm more used to, but there is an option to install that.

The initial menus are fairly sparse with a single option for each type of application, unlike Knoppix which overwhelmed you with choices. I only had time for a brief play so I ran Firefox. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it had retained all my bookmarks, cookies and even the extensions I had previously installed. Now I just need to install the various other applications I need.

So far, so good.

In other news, we decided to try a little bit of tennis with the kids in Bedford Park on Saturday. This was going well until I overstretched myself trying to return a shot and went crashing to the tarmac. I grazed several placed on my right arm and my hip. The shoulder is very sore, making just about any use of it painful. That will teach me not to show off

I'm going to mirror my Multiply film reviews here for now. At some point I may move them here.

This is a hard film to categorise and review. It's by the people who brought you Being John Malkovitch, which should warn you that it's a bit weird. It's about the writer of that film Charlie Kaufman and his fictional brother Donald (who gets a writing credit and was jointly nominated for awards). Charlie is trying to write a script for a real book called The Orchid Thief, but is having some problems. Meanwhile his brother decides to be a script writer too in a more mainstream way.

Nicholas Cage plays both of the brothers and Meryl Streep is the book author. It's basically a film about writing that film and so is a bit up it's own behind. However, I enjoyed it as a comedy. It made me laugh a few times and kept my brain working. It's tempting to investigate the characters further to see how close to the truth it is or if it's all made up.

I'll give it 3/5

Whilst reading about the new servers at the Internet Archive I thought I would check out what they had for my site. The results were interesting. They go right back to my early html fumblings of 3 years ago. I had forgotten some of that stuff.

At some point I am going to dump out all the stuff from my old Postnuke site into some sort of text/html so I can include it here for completeness. It's for my own reference even if nobody else reads it.

Coming up to date, I read this article at Leigh Dodds' site about giving people access to all your various web feeds. He's written a little generator to produce data for a FOAF. My first attempt did not work in the FOAF Explorer you can access from the top of the page, but after a short email discussion with Leigh I sorted this out. My FOAF now includes some details of sites I am registered on and RSS feeds from them. These are the same feeds I have on the site itself, but in a more semantic web friendly form.

I also found Blogdigger which lets you combine multiple feeds, but I haven't worked it all out yet. I'd prefer to do something on my own site so that I have control.

I just noticed that this version of my site has been up for a year now. I'll admit I started with ambitions of learning some Python so that I could customise the site, but have not done that yet. I think my version of Pyblosxom is a bit out of date. I ought to look at upgrading. I guess I could try running it on my home Linux box first. As always it's a case of finding the time. Well I did at least find time for 75 entries this year.

I have been a bit lax in blogging the latest Herts LUG meeting. It was another interesting meeting. I took along my PC for the first time. I gave a little talk about encryption, the why and the how, that went down well. Malc had his old Research Machines PC there and used it to test some SCSI drives that Nicolas had acquired.

I was after some help on getting my sound working properly. I had some success by running the alsaconf script. This got it working for Skype and RealPlayer that has previously been silent. I later found out that this configuration does not survive a reboot. I'm currently investigating what files and settings are required to make it permanent. From my search results it is obvious that I am not the only one to have this problem.

I've acquired a large selection of Linux Magazine back issues from folk in the LUG. They have some very good articles on setting up various software. I've got enough to keep me going for a while. There's still a lot about the concepts used in Linux that I want to learn.

On the upside I learnt two things today, one was about the Oracle COALESCE function that could be useful in my work, and the other was how to make playlists work better on my Palm using AeroPlayer.

I spend a lot of time listening to music at work. It helps block out the distracting noise and gives me some pleasure in the process. About 7 years ago I bought some fairly cheap JVC headphones to use in the office. They are lightweight portable headphones that I actually chose because they came with a fairly long cable that would reach the rear of my PC. They have actually been quite good, but now the foam is starting to wear out.

In my search for headphones for portable use I discovered Head-Fi. This is a meeting place for headphone obsessives, but contains lots of useful information. So far this has led me into buying my Sennheiser PX200 for use when travelling and to acquire my Koss KCS-55 for office use (but lost out due to comfort).

One of the most consistently rated headphones on Head-Fi is the SR-60 from Grado. This American company produces a range from the budget SR-60 up to some very expensive kit for the perfectionists. They seem to control the distribution channels to the extent that their products are a lot cheaper in the USA than everywhere else. The SR-60 retails at $69, but is more like £70 in the UK. I couldn't justify the higher price, but managed to find a supplier called The Sound Room who would ship them (free!) to a colleague in Miami. I was able to pick them up from him this month and have been giving them a good testing.

They look quite old-fashioned compared to the futuristic models from most manufacturers. They are more like something you would expect a WWII radio operator to wear. What I noticed at first was the very thick cable. This hints at quality. The cable ends in a gold-plated 1/8" mini-jack, but it comes with a gold-plated 1/4" adaptor. The headphones are easily adjusted to rest on the ears. The metal headband can be bent slightly, if necessary to adjust the pressure. The pads are a form known in the headphone community as 'comfies'. They are fairly soft and easily removed if replacements are needed.

Okay, I know you want to know how they sound. I'm not a great expert at describing audio sensations. All I know is that they sound great to me. The sound is extremely clear. You can hear every little nuance in the music. There is bass there, but it's not overblown and sounds very focused. These headphones are of the open type, which means that they will leak sound that others can hear at higher volumes and allow you to hear what's going on around you at lower volumes. That's okay for work as I need to hear my phone and when someone wants my attention.

I have found that they make my ears quite warm, but are otherwise quite comfortable. I may have to make them slightly less tight on my head.

So overall I'm very happy with them. Definitely a bargain at only £35 to me.

Incidentally, I had the opportunity to try some Shure E2C earbuds at the airport on the way home. These are a very different animal, designed for musicians on stage, but suitable for travellers who need to block noise. I tried them with the foam sleeves that act like earplugs, but they come with other types. In the short time I tried them they sounded good. Listening to a track with a driving kickdrum it seemed to be hitting right in the middle of my head. A strange sensation. I might consider something like this one day if I was doing more air travel. They sell for around $99/£60. I saw a few people on the planes with the Bose noise-cancelling headphones, but those are a lot more expensive at $299.

I think this article is just someone tossing an idea in the air about getting the next generation of consoles to contribute to distributed processing projects like Folding@home, but it has great potential. If millions of idle consoles were working on the project they could achieve a lot. The new consoles are more powerful than most PCs and come with internet connectivity, so are ripe for this. The issue may be persuading owners to install the software.