bordagen

On Monday night I went back to Ubuntu – forsaking Windows completely and starting anew with my favourite flavour of Linux (based on my experience of Suse, Red Hat and Fedora).

Complete with a format and full system update and installation of video drivers, I had a full working Gutsy Gibbon system running in an hour and a half. Not bad going when you compare it to Windows installations which have taken me slightly longer in the past. And only 2 system restarts.

Luckily, this time I didn’t have the fun of trying to get my network drivers sorted (which last time took me nearing 3 days!) – it just went straight through, enhancing my love for Netgear products!

Next it is time to install World of Warcraft…

I had been reading about this application called PlayOnLinux which is a friendly frontend for WINE. At least, that’s what it says…

For a start, it’s all in French – which I’m not really good with. I can guess a few words and phrases (‘Hello’, ‘What time is it’, ‘How do i get to the bank?’) but that’s basically as far as it goes. It doesn’t really help when I can’t install from the DVD as Ubuntu doesn’t see any of the .exe files or folders – only the install archives. I then need to operate a mount command to read the CD using ISO9660 and only then, can I see my executable install file.

However, even after this had been sorted, PlayOnLinux still couldn’t install the game because it couldn’t find the bank (as I said, my understanding of French is limited). In the end, I gave up with this frontend and just used the command line to install it, and lo and behold – installed first time. Managed to download and install The Burning Crusade add-on without a hitch too. I just need to patch it and I’ll be good to go.

My next task tonight is to download and configure Compiz-Fusion. By default, Ubuntu 7.10 includes some effects from the package, but doesn’t actually let you customise them, meaning I have a pointless piece of transparency at the top of the title bar which for some reason annoys me.

I have just hit the 5000 point mark with my GamerPoints on my Xbox 360. I have many games that I regularly play, BioShock, Half-Life 2, Halo 3, Assassin’s Creed, what gets me through the barrier? Bomberman!

That was my task for the weekend – what do I do tomorrow?

Liz also managed to break the 2000 barrier on the same achievement I got.

After reading Neil’s blog today, I realised that I too hadn’t posted anything in a while.

Unlike Neil, I actually have some news.

Lets start small, my car passed it’s MOT yesterday (except for a couple of bulbs) and it had it’s first service (under my ownership). I actually ended up with a courtesy car from the garage because when they ordered the parts for my Citroen Saxo for the service, the parts that actually arrived were for a Renault Clio. Not really what you want to hear just before you need to drive back from work – but this administration error can’t be helped I guess. So I was given a Rover 25 to play with for the night. A bigger engine (1.4 as opposed to my 1.1) makes all the difference. I could hear myself think at 70 on the drive back to Haxby.

Now though I have my car back and it wasn’t that expensive which is even nicer!

I am now permanently employed by the company. Since my line manager is leaving, that in essence leaves me as head of web development (delusions of grandeur much?) – and has warranted slightly more money which is nice, especially since Liz and I are storing money away for a deposit for a mortgage.

Grr and argh!

I’ve just realised that I haven’t have my Google Analytics code in the bottom of my page since I changed the theme for my site – including the time of the earthquake!

It would have been nice to see who was visiting my site that day.

Anyway, it’s back on now. Also, my Twitter feed (that shows the latest Twitter) is viewable here.

I’ve just installed the latest version of Windows Live Messenger and to my shock… nothing immediately new (except this desktop blog writer, WL Writer).

Apparently the WLM team have made some changes to the AV elements of the software so they work on the Mac client better.

Well I finally got my monitor back from repair, and it actually turns out to be a new one, judging be the fact that the DVI/power ports are the opposite way around to what they were.

Anyway, with any luck I won’t have the lovely cyan line down the screen and I can enjoy my 20″ LG screen.

On a seperate note, Liz and I just made our first Xbox 360 game purchase – Lost Odyssey. She obviously gets to play it first, no matter. I’m not really paying attention to what she’s doing, so I’ll wait and play through it myself later. It’s 4 discs so it should keep us busy for plenty of time…