Monthly Archives: July 2007

Free Me v2

Just finished putting together a v2 of Free Me. Maybe more like a v1.5 – whatever, it’s an improvement.

Gnome Panel Mania

If you’re a GNOME user I expect you’re more than familiar with the panels that come as standard with your desktop; if you use openSUSE you’re probably also familiar with the slab menu that Novell have developed. There are, however, several other applications out there that can extend and beautify your Gnome panels.

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Understanding Media

I’ve just started reading Understanding Media by Marshall McLuhan, and while the first chapter was interesting, the second seems to have gone off the rails. In the spirit of Deschooling Society, which I read a few weeks ago, I’d like to ask someone to get in touch with me to talk about Understanding Media; maybe you’re an expert on the book, or teach a class, or are in a class which features this book, what ever you do I’d love to hear from you about this!

Either e-mail me (it’s at the bottom of this page), or leave a comment to this post, and you can help me to figure out this book.

Igbo

“On the 40th anniversary of the start of the Biafran war, in which more than 1m died, Emeka Ojukwu told the BBC that Igbos were still marginalised.”

TED

TED talks rock. This one is about “Open Source Architecture”; I especially like the idea of growing temporary structures for scheduled medical visits in Africa, providing shelter and food.

The Old Man and the Sea

Another book; it was only a short one, but honestly, I understand why Hemingway won the Nobel Prize for it.

I’m not sure what to say about it: the story is that an old, impoverished fisherman has failed to catch a fish for 84 days, and on the 85th decides to try and change his luck by going a long way out; a fish bites and it takes him the better part of three days to finally land it, almost killing himself in the process. Apparently there are a number of interpretations in existence, but regardless of how you feel about any of these I think it’s undeniably an unforgettable and thoroughly enjoyable read.

I’ve yet to start another book, though perhaps later. I do, however, have a long list of things to finish in the meantime, so perhaps I should direct my focus at those:

  • Tidy up the code for this theme and consider the suggested improvements and how best to implement them

  • Finish the other theme/website I’m working on which I’m actually going to be paid for (Delayed: Just about finished my part on this, waiting for client to get back to me after they’ve been held up.)

  • Do some more work on the Fedora Documentation Project – Revisor docs especially!

  • Hunt down funding for Free Me and get it finished

  • Write about free culture/web 2.0 in terms of Deschooling Society

  • Enjoy this evening out with my friends :D (Done: and it rocked!)

I’m certain there are others; these are all that come to mind for the time being.

LNDLIT+

An open literary festival for London: 29th June to 13th July.

Down and Out…

…in London and Paris is the book I’ve just finished reading. It’s by George Orwell, and like everything he does is a really great read.

The book is a memoir of his experiences with poverty in varying situations: from working for next to nothing as a plongeur in Paris to living as a tramp in and around London. A few parts of the book stick in my mind:

  • The priest who gave out meal vouchers under a bridge on the Thames, without waiting or expecting to be thanked; the response of one of the tramps was brilliant: “That f***** won’t ever make a bishop”, or words to that effect.
  • A fellow tramp called Bozo, who made it clear to Orwell that being a tramp doesn’t mean that is all you can think about: his mind always remained free by taking an interest in the stars and in politics.
  • The descriptions of the times he went without food for several days at a time, most often in Paris while in between work.

I’ll look up quotes to go with these sections at some point (It seems like I have a long list of things to do, I’ll have to get to some of them tomorrow). I’m now reading The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway – thoroughly enjoying it so far.

Say No to Paris

Mika Brzezinski rips up a report about Paris Hilton on MSNBC and refuses to cover the story. Thank you.