Easily Distracted

Ubuntu Hardy Heron is out! [ Features | Download ]

If I disappear for a while, something probably didn’t go smoothly. I almost expect a problem with my wireless drivers… :/

*click*

Update: As I anticipated, my desktop had (and is still having) some troubles with the wireless. I’m currently able to connect to the Internet… but barely. I have an RaLink 2500 PCI card. For the previous version of Ubuntu (Gutsy) I was using the CVS version of this driver, because the one included in Gutsy was broken. This driver is being combined with a few other drivers and being rewritten as a unified driver, the rt2x00 driver. The good news is that this unified driver have been included in the kernel and they’re actively developed. The bad news is that (for me) they barely function. I tried using the windows driver through ndiswrapper, but that didn’t seem to work. I tried compiling the old CVS drivers again, and they don’t seem to work any more. So I’m back to the included driver in Hardy that limps along….

On the laptop side of things, everything went peachy… until I decided to try the binary NVIDIA drivers again (to play with 3D things). That was utter fail, and I remembered why I disabled them. But then.. my sound stopped working….? huh?

Temptation to do a fresh install rising.

Update 2: I’m not going to hold my breath on my desktop’s connection, but it seems to be doing better. Also, I solved the sound problem on my laptop. And I set up my tablet. Whoo!

• WordPress 2.5 is out! This one makes me overly excited because it comes with a built-in gallery!!! FINALLY! And with multi-file upload!! I was just playing with it and It looks like it will suit my purposes just fine. I guess I will continue avoiding the Flickrs and other such community-based photo sites, for now. I’ll probably have to update my theme a little, however… and see if there’s a way to set a maximum photo size.
• OpenOffice.org 2.4 is out and comes with quite a lot of improvements, including OpenGL transitions (perdy) and performance gains. OpenOffice.org 3.0 looks like it will be quite a massive release, aiming to sing and dance. Also see here (Thanks, Andrew).
• Ubuntu 8.04, Hardy Heron, is nearly out. Less than a month away! It comes with the recently released GNOME 2.22, Firefox 3.0b4, PulseAudio, and a bunch of other goodies, like using the excellent Transmission as the default Bitorrent client. I’m also really looking forward to the World Clock Applet – then I won’t have to think about Japan’s and Brazil’s timezones ever again. 🙂 Beta’s available now.

Stuff that looks good, but I have no experience with…

• Pencil – Open source, cross-platform 2D drawing/animation application.
• Hotwire – Smart shell.
• GNOME Do – Like quicksilver from OSX.
• ReInteract – Super python console.
• Faces Project Management – PM is something that’s lacking on Linux.
• Tracks GTD – If you’re willing to install it on a RoR supported server to help get things done.

Finally

I’ve been meaning to mention this incredibly well designed (because it’s simple) program to edit subtitles (for those totally legal foreign videos you’re downloading/transcribing): gaupol. Very slick.