I wish I was using Wordpress now really, unless anyone can tell me a way to get asides on Blogger?!
Well anyway, that's not what this is about. There's an interesting article on BBC which is a correspondent describing their journey to their new posting in China, by train, from London! It's a good read and a really cool thing to do in my opinion...
See why I want asides now? How short was that!
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Free as in Freedom!
This is a double post:
firstly, you have to check out wikisource and wikibooks! We all know and love wikipedia but how many of us know about these sister projects? Wikibooks aims to create textbooks and books in the same way wikipedia was created and wikisource is similar, at least I think it is, to project Gutenburg.
Secondly, I found Richard Stallman's biography at wikisource recently and am reading it there at the minute. It's called Free as in Freedom and is really interesting - not normally in to biographies either.
firstly, you have to check out wikisource and wikibooks! We all know and love wikipedia but how many of us know about these sister projects? Wikibooks aims to create textbooks and books in the same way wikipedia was created and wikisource is similar, at least I think it is, to project Gutenburg.
Secondly, I found Richard Stallman's biography at wikisource recently and am reading it there at the minute. It's called Free as in Freedom and is really interesting - not normally in to biographies either.
powered by performancing firefox
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
A movie about trusted computing...
Ok this is really cool...well I thought it was. For a start it's just a cool movie with cool animation and soundtrack. Secondly it's a good introduction to "Trusted" computing and makes it quite clear how trust has nothing to do with it. I wish I could upload it to here, infact...
Never embedded a video on my blog before but it's cool so hey! Here's a link back to the original as well so you can see if there's more there that interests you (you can find the video's original copyright info here too). Also, for anyone who refuses to play proprietary formats I've converted it to an ogg theora file and hosted it at my website but please only use this if you have no other way of watching it - I host my podcast here and don't want to lose all my bandwidth to this video!
Never embedded a video on my blog before but it's cool so hey! Here's a link back to the original as well so you can see if there's more there that interests you (you can find the video's original copyright info here too). Also, for anyone who refuses to play proprietary formats I've converted it to an ogg theora file and hosted it at my website but please only use this if you have no other way of watching it - I host my podcast here and don't want to lose all my bandwidth to this video!
powered by performancing firefox
Science and Relgion episode released!!
I've just posted the latest episode of the Questions please... podcast. This time around the subject is Science and Relgion and the guests are Russell Stannard, David Bartholomew and David Wilkinson. Russell was the head of physics at the OU and has written and edited many books on the subject; David B is ex vice-principal of LSE and a professor of statistics (as well as author and editor); David W is the principal of St.John's college Durham, author and editor, theologian and astrophysicist.
It's a really interesting listen and covers a wide range of questions including ones on Dawkins, mind & brain, evolution and also some of the failings of science. The address is http://questionsplease.org
Enjoy :-)
It's a really interesting listen and covers a wide range of questions including ones on Dawkins, mind & brain, evolution and also some of the failings of science. The address is http://questionsplease.org
Enjoy :-)
Monday, January 15, 2007
Bluehost - argh!!
I'm becoming increasingly disallusioned by my hosting provider! Not only have I found that downloads are painfully slowbut I have discovered that my site is actually down tonight...I'm damn pleased I didn't release the new episode tonight. Haha, and as much as I'd like to believe slow downloads and the website going down is becuase my site is so popular I think this is very unlikely.
So what to do?! I have paid for two years of hosting so I can't see myself moving to a new host so I guess I'll just have to complain lots - maybe they'll give me some sort of upgrade :-) Or even better - money back!
So what to do?! I have paid for two years of hosting so I can't see myself moving to a new host so I guess I'll just have to complain lots - maybe they'll give me some sort of upgrade :-) Or even better - money back!
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Photos!
I was just looking through my flickr account at some old photos and I found these two. The first one was taken in Paris from the Eiffel Tower and is the best photo I've ever taken, at least in my opinion!
The second one was taken in Swaziland, summer 2005 and I just love it - it might not look as arty as the Eiffel Tower one but this photo is so frickin cool! Brings back all the best memories of that trip...now to find something else to do before I start to feel nostalgic!
The second one was taken in Swaziland, summer 2005 and I just love it - it might not look as arty as the Eiffel Tower one but this photo is so frickin cool! Brings back all the best memories of that trip...now to find something else to do before I start to feel nostalgic!
Friday, January 12, 2007
FC6 on Acer Aspire 1300
Just thought I'd write a quick note to remind myself, and to help out anyone else who has a similar problem, that when I installed Fedora 6 on this laptop I needed to change the default run-level in /etc/inittab to 5 to get it to boot graphically. Also to get it to run at the correct resolution use the "Hardware" tab in the Display GUI (found in System>Administration)...
I expect I'll be editing this soon to include how I got my wireless card going; saying that there are plenty of good walk throughs for this already.
I expect I'll be editing this soon to include how I got my wireless card going; saying that there are plenty of good walk throughs for this already.
Friday, January 05, 2007
Do something!
Ok, this is simple: you can visit Oxfam's website and find lots of easy actions that don't require any money or much time and make some kind of a difference. While you're there, sign-up for e-mail campaign updates and do what you can each time something comes up. They are campaigning on really important issues as well: for example anyone familiar with Free Software and their stance on patents and intelectual property will be interested to discover that IP doesn't just cause problems for software, it also causes problems for people in third world countries who can't afford medication due to patents!
Don't just stop at Oxfam either: there are many organisations that need your help such as Amnesty International and Friends of the Earth; both of these have similar "easy" actions which don't require much time or any money. Saying that, if you can afford to give a little money why not!? I'm sure it will be greatly appreciated and will certainly make some kind of a difference.
The point of this post? Do something! Anything! It doesn't matter what as long as you, from time to time, make an effort to do something.
Jon
Don't just stop at Oxfam either: there are many organisations that need your help such as Amnesty International and Friends of the Earth; both of these have similar "easy" actions which don't require much time or any money. Saying that, if you can afford to give a little money why not!? I'm sure it will be greatly appreciated and will certainly make some kind of a difference.
The point of this post? Do something! Anything! It doesn't matter what as long as you, from time to time, make an effort to do something.
Jon
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Questions needed: Science and religion!
I've almost made it to recording the second episode of my podcast. This time the episode is on the topic of Science and Religion and is featuring Russell Stannard, David Wilkinson and David Bartholomew as guests, hopefully answering and discussing questions submitted by people like you and I. Obviously for this to work properly we need your questions so please head on over to the site and http://questionsplease.org and submit your questions, or send them to yourquestions@questionsplease.org . In fact, you can even call in and leave a voice mail at 0121 286 9845 (this is a UK number so use +44 if you're outside the UK).
Hopefully the discussions will be just as interesting as last time and maybe the show will even have a bit more polish about it this time: I think I've learnt quite a lot. I'm also hoping to have smaller download sizes and a theme tune!! Exciting stuff hey!? Check it out!!
Jon
Hopefully the discussions will be just as interesting as last time and maybe the show will even have a bit more polish about it this time: I think I've learnt quite a lot. I'm also hoping to have smaller download sizes and a theme tune!! Exciting stuff hey!? Check it out!!
Jon
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
