A couple of weekends back Malc held a little party at his country estate. Lots of music was made that included me doing some singing and drumming. I was impressed by some great dancing and singing by Justine. I took the kids and they enjoyed it, but that meant that we had to leave early, so I missed a few turns. Malc has listed the performances. I uploaded a few pictures.

The big musical news this week was Radiohead suddenly announcing that their new album is imminent after months of teasing us with reports from the studio. They even issued a series of coded messages before the announcement. The big deal is that In Rainbows will be released as a download next week and as a box set of CDs and LPs in December. You can set your own price for the download, but the box set is 40 quid! (Not Quids). It will be interesting to see what people will pay when given the choice. Sucker that I am I went for the box set, but I get the download too. I wonder what format it will be in and if it will be usable on Linux.

Sticking with audio, but on a different front, Skype announced a new version of their Linux client. It's still a couple of digits behind the Windows one and so still lacks the much-lusted-after video feature. It's supposed to offer better audio quality, but I have yet to test this. There have been major changes to the GUI. The menus have gone, but you can get at most of them via a non-obvious button. One thing I preferred about the old Linux version over Windows was the way it showed groups. It showed all contacts in shrinkable groups rather than one group at a time. Now there is no sign of groups and I can't see how to hide those who are off-line. I use Skype mainly for keeping in touch with people at work, but make the odd voice call. Video will be useful to see the new baby in the family, but I will have to use my Windows laptop for that.