This is why I don't get any work done ;)

Get red and blue team variants in different sizes here. (source)

6 hours or so to go... Normally I don't make a big deal of my birthdays, not since I was about 12 or so anyway. But, this is my 19th one, which here in Canada means I'm of legal age to drink. And it's pretty much a defacto Canadian tradition to get so hammered you forget your own name on this special day. With that in mind, some friends of mine have volunteered to ensure that I get suitably drunk tomorrow, starting in the afternoon and ending sometime in the early morning. :) Thanks guys! I can hardly wait. :P

Ohhh man, it's 2:12 in the morning and I'm laughing my ass off and probably waking people up...

Why? Was it the video? Something else? I really don't know for sure. Is this video as hilarious as I seem to think it is?

(read more for video)

I don't know how many times I've seen people writing articles about Linux not being "ready for the desktop" and just wanted to bury my face in the palm of my hand. It's certainly ready for my desktop, it's ready for my father's desktop, my grandmother's desktop, your desktop too.

So when I read this "review" of Windows by an old associate from my Automatix days, I had a bit of a laugh, because this one is actually quite true. Go read it and get an idea what you'd have to go through if your laptop/desktop didn't come with any OS pre-installed and you had to install Windows yourself. And while you're at it, Digg it.

I know this news is a little late, but I've been busy :) Funpidgin is now known as Carrier Instant Messenger. This name was suggested by Peter Nikolaidis of the Fresh Ubuntu podcast and the rest of the devs and users we talked to all agreed that it was perfect. We're still working on a final logo, but at least we have a name! And soon we'll also have a new website.

Development-wise, we just recently released version 2.4.2, merging changes from Pidgin upstream and packaging our new features from SVN like webkit-integration for Adium conversation styles, or the old Gaim-style protocol icons. Read the features page and the release announcement for more details, or just go and download it now :P

Today I found out that you could directly upgrade from Ubuntu 6.06 Dapper Drake to 8.04. I know, I know... that should have been obvious given that they're both Long-Term Support releases. Anyway, moving right along... the instructions were found here and overall the whole process was very simple besides being constantly asked if I wanted to replace old config files with the newer versions. Looks like my concerns in this post were mostly moot, so far, no problems! *knock on wood*

Today I was interviewed on the Fresh Ubuntu podcast (listen to it here) about a little project I've been working on called Funpidgin (name subject to change). Overall the purpose was to clear up some misconceptions behind the reasons for forking from Pidgin, the program we're based on. I also wanted to share some of our plans for where we're headed. The interview was great, Nikolaidis and Harlem are excellent hosts, and my only regret was having to do it over the phone instead of Skype. Go ahead and have a listen, the first 11 minutes or so contain the interview.

Still working on a new theme for the site, as can be seen. There's still a lot of stuff that doesn't look right, I'm working on it. I'll be adding more graphics as soon as I'm feeling more creative.

Update: The new theme's feeling pretty complete now. There's a couple areas that still need some work, but for the most part it's done. Still trying to figure out how I can package it separately from it's Zen base-theme, but I need a name before I do that. Right now it's named Nails, because it was inspired by the layout on NIN.com.

Went for a nice little hike around my house today with my youngest brother, Chase. Sure is nice having nice enough weather for this finally :D I went to the bottom of Borer's Falls, which is pretty close to my house. I've lived out here for 14 years and until today had never managed to get down there, despite trying a couple different ways. Yesterday, while out walking with Lisa I noticed what looked like a usable path down to the bottom so I checked it out and it looked like it was possible to get down.

Turns out it was (although it sure wasn't easy!), and me and my brother got down to the bottom and then walked downstream to another path he knew about to get back. Turns out that wasn't as dangerous, but it was much more physically demanding. Oh well, good exercise if nothing else. I'm looking forward to going on more hikes this year.

Check out the other pictures.

Disclosure: I am a former member of the Automatix development team and primary web designer responsible for their web presence. Well, that was then, anyway.

While reading an old acquaintance's blog, I discovered what I feel should have happened a long time ago. The Automatix project is finally over, at least in it's current form. The official announcement says the remaining developers no longer have time to remain committed to the project, but I can't help but feel that they finally realized that their work is irrelevant, for all the reasons Iandefor listed. I certainly realized it, and so did most of the rest of the dev team, who left the project not long after I did. I won't get into all the politics that have gone on both behind the scenes and publicly in regards to Automatix. Most of it was petty anyway. I'm glad that they finally saw reason and decided to focus their resources on bigger and better things.