New Ubuntu Members
Congratulations to the recently approved Ubuntu Forums Members.
Earlier I approved 11 applications for Ubuntu Membership applied for based on forum contributions. The process is still new to both the forum and the Forum Council, but we are always looking to improve it, so if anybody has any recommendations they'll gladly be taken on board. We're also looking to have almost a rolling approval process in the near future if possible, and dependent on how many people feel they can, and want to apply via the forum route.
So once again, congrats to the new Ubuntu Members, hopefully we'll have more applicants soon 
Posting Code How-To’s Online
This is something I've given quite some thought to in the recent weeks. I recently moved for a job in software development, and as I'm sure many of you can imagine, sometimes you get stuck coding and turn to your favourite search engine for advice. More often than not you'll get taken to StackOverflow, a blog post, forums/message boards and finally, official documentation.
All of this got me wondering...when you post code help via StackOverflow, or how-to's on a blog, is it done with the intention of actually distributing that code to others for use how they see fit, be it in a commercial application or a personal project the reader might be working on. I think it's a very grey area when you delve into it, after all, I wouldn't mind other people using my code in any shape or form, in fact I'd find it quite the compliment! Sure it'd be quite nice if they sent an email or left a comment to say "hey, this was just what I was looking for and I've used it for XYZ" - it's nice to know that you've been able to help someone solve something.
On the other hand, if I was being picky about this, especially as my line of work currently sees me developing in C# (and not via Mono either), I could throw licensing into the mix and say that people are free to use my code as long as they have my permission and reference that they've used it somewhere. This in turn would present a company with issues as to whether they could actually use it or not, because that kind of license would almost certainly be some sort of Open-Source license, meaning that they almost certainly wouldn't use it, because it would then mean they'd have to contend with satisfying the requirements of an Open-Source license.
I think there's several issues here that I haven't even touched upon, but it made me stop and think about it, so maybe it will provide you with some food for thought too.
New Forum Council Members
Due to current and upcoming vacancies on the Ubuntu Forum Council, we (the FC) were in need of 3 new members to make the correct number of members.
Previously, the FC was chosen from the staff team by the current FC, and then put forward to the CC to vote on whether or not to approve said members. Recently, the forums and the forum council have been undergoing various changes to allow forum members to be approved as Ubuntu Members by the FC, and ultimately, have the FC elected from these Ubuntu Forums Members. This process still has some kinks to iron out, and is the primary task that this FC will be tackling throughout the term, in order to get a solid process in place before this term is up.
I would therefore like to welcome s-fox, Artificial Intelligence and Iowan to the FC. I'm sure they'll do a fantastic job and look forward to the obligatory cake that each new FC member has to buy for the others 
Just One Of Those Days
You know, those days when you can't be bothered to do the work you so desperately need to finish by mid-day the next day?
Well today is that day for me, having to write a report on Knowledge Based Systems, which I have less than no motivation for doing. Until about 2 hours ago, I also had no papers to reference in the report. The university module this is for just doesn't make me want to do any work, I've not liked it from the outset. Thankfully - excluding the exam - this is the last bit of work I'll have to do for it before I can go back to working on my project!
Here's to hoping I find some motivation (and something to write about) soon!
My Thoughts On Unity: 1 Month On
Well...almost
Since my last post, I have kept up-to-date with the latest development news on 11.04 via both the forums and Planet Ubuntu. I've been doing this, not just because I genuinely think Unity is a good idea, and I think that for me at least it will be a big step forward in productivity/usability, but also because I'm interested in seeing what the next version of Ubuntu will be like. I have some sort of irresistible pull to start installing and trying out Ubuntu+1 about 2 (or sometimes, 3) months before the release. It's been this way since Intrepid
The install process was fine, and once again - as mentioned previously - it crashed far too frequently upon login. Then I managed to install the nvidia drivers, which helped...a little. After I'd ran update-manager, and installed all the latest updates, things seemed to settle down a little, and the crashes were less often, but still present. This did, however, allow me an opportunity to try things out properly, and for the last 5 days or so, I've effectively been running Natty as my main OS (having 2 hard drives is handy...).
I love it, I didn't think unity would be in a very functional state, reading about it the last few months...but having seen some of the improvements, and finally getting to test it properly on my desktop, I do love it. Admittedly, there's still quite a few things to be fixed, and compiz likes to randomly crash, but it's shaping up nicely, and just in time, too!
Unfortunately, however, I tried to boot into Natty yesterday evening, and it just wouldn't boot. It would get to the splash screen, and just stop. I can't figure out what caused it to do this (obviously an update of some kind, but which remains a puzzle), nor can I figure out how to resolve this without going for a fresh install.
With that in mind I think I'll wait until Beta 1, scheduled for March 31st, before trying again. Though knowing me as I do, it's quite likely I'll be drawn into it again before then. One thing's for sure though, and that's that Natty will definitely be getting installed on my Desktop as soon as I get the chance post-release.
Ubuntu 11.04 – My Experience So Far
I'm sure people are probably fed up of reading these by now. I know there's several threads on this topic over on the Ubuntu Forums, for example. Nonetheless, what I have experienced so far is this (don't worry, it's short):
Crashing. Lots of it, mainly compiz it seems. Yes, I know we're only on Alpha 2 and yes, I expect alpha releases (of anything) to contain bugs. But still, I don't even have to have done anything for compiz to crash! Admittedly, it could be my video driver (I have an Nvidia 9800GT) that's the cause, I just don't know.
This is the first time I've tried Natty, and I like the the idea of Unity, I really do. From what I gather through reading various blogs on Planet Ubuntu I understand it's come a long way since UDS-N, I just hope it can make it further than it is now in time for the April release. I know April 28th is a good 2 months away, but from experience, those 2 months will go far quicker than people often want them to.
Update: A comment from Jorge tells me why I experienced what I did: "Nvidia is broken on A2+, just waiting for the final Xorg 1.10 and nvidia drivers to land. (I’ve been keeping my Xorg bits held back this whole time)". I'll have to keep an eye out for when these land in Natty, and try it again then. Hopefully I'll have better look then! Thanks for the info Jorge
Upgraded WordPress
In an unusual move for me, I've updated the site to the latest version of WordPress soon after it was available, rather than forgetting and leaving it 5 weeks. As usual, everything went incredibly smoothly, if only all upgrades were this painless (I'm looking at you, Windows).
Hopefully I'll be able to get back to blogging on Planet Ubuntu again shortly, provided I changed my feed correctly! (If I have, you're probably reading this on the planet now)
Ubuntu Forums Downtime – 09:00 UTC
I'm merely posting this as a reminder to what Mike posted last week - the Ubuntu Forums will be offline for approximately 2 hours while we have new hardware installed to resolve some performance issues. Thanks to all those who have been so patient with us during this time, it's massively appreciated! We'll be back to normal again in a few days!
Selecting A Planet
I've decided to go back to the setup I used to have with my blog and Planet Ubuntu posts. The planet should now only pick up any posts in the 'Ubuntu' category on my blog. What this means is that anything Ubuntu related, or anything I feel would be of interest to people who read the planet, will be put under this category.
This should allow me (if I decide to) to blog about other things that interest me, while not spamming the planet in any way. Hopefully, this will motivate me into blogging about more things of interest to me, and get me back into using my blog. Whether it does or not remains to be seen, but I now have that option available to me.
Moving On
Some of you may recall the Ubuntu Community Interview series that I took on back in 2009. I'm sad to say that I have been pretty poor at keeping these regular, through one reason and another, and I'm disappointed in myself for that, it's a good series and very interesting to get to know the people behind the nick's.
Luckily, I was discussing this on IRC the other day with s-fox, a fellow Ubuntu Forums staff member, who kindly volunteered to take it over. I was happy to hand this over, as s-fox is quite clearly passionate about them, and has already shared a number of idea's with me about revitalising the series, which I genuinely cannot wait to see.
So it's with regret that I have to stop these interviews, as I really have enjoyed them, notably the interviews with Jono and Mako among all the others. Unfortunately, I no longer have the time to commit to them and keep up the momentum required. I'm sure s-fox will be able to do this much better than I have been.
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