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!
Back To Ubuntu
I recently started my final year at university, after spending a year out on an 'Industrial Placement' at PepsiCo. The year taught me a lot, which I shan't bore you with, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The one thing I didn't like about the year was that I never managed to quite work out a good balance between work and spending time doing things I enjoy, such as participating in the Ubuntu community things...even if that 'thing' was just spending an hour being logged into IRC.
After finishing in September, and starting back at university in October, I've had to adjust to a totally different schedule (no university is ever 9-5, Mon-Fri...is it?), which has freed time on different days at different times. Thankfully, I've used this time to get back into the things I missed in Ubuntu, slowly but steadily. I still can't contribute as much as I'd like, because I know if I did I'd end up impacting my university work, but I'm content with what I'm doing now. Luckily, a lot of my lecturers are happy to support/discuss open-source, which obviously makes things easier at university...especially when one lecturer alone made it so Ubuntu was installed on every PC in the Comp-Sci department 
It also means I was able to remotely participate in UDS fairly easily, something I haven't been able to do very well in the past.
One thing I'm looking at getting back into now that I have the time (and now I realised how bad I've been at keeping going), is the Ubuntu Community Interviews that I conducted. I already have a couple of people in line, so hopefully I'll get some more of those up soon, and I look forward to being able to participate more than I have been
Dropbox
From what I recall, quite a few people have heard of, or even use Dropbox.
Dropbox is similar to Apple's iDisk, in the respect that it is an online backup/data storage facility. The only difference is, dropbox will give you 2GB of free storage, just for signing up. There's also an option to pay either $9.99 per month, or $99 per year, which will upgrade your storage capacity to 50GB. For me personally, I don't (yet) need any more than the 2GB, though I may consider looking into the 50GB option in future.
What I like most about Dropbox is that it's cross platform. For me this is fantastic, because I run Ubuntu (9.04 64 bit if you're interested) on my desktop, and my laptop is an aluminum Macbook. Now I had the problem of somehow remembering to put things in the Dropbox directory so that they would get synced to the server and thus between my 2 machines.
Solving that problem was a lot easier than I could've expected. No thanks to my friend Gabby, who told me what he had done on IRC. Using
you can create soft links to the directories to/from the Dropbox directory, and any changes you make to that directory outside of the Dropbox directory, get automatically synced. Put simply, if I make any changes to something in ~/Documents, it automatically gets backed up/synced to Dropbox. Awesome!!
If you're unsure of the syntax of
, as it is a little confusing, it's the following:
And finally, if you want to join Dropbox because you haven't already, following this link will (according to Dropbox) get you a little bit more space
Edit: I've just been informed (thanks Matteo!) that the referral links don't seem to be giving extra space any more. This is likely because Dropbox limits the amount they give out. Please feel free to use the link at the end of the post if you want, but don't feel obliged to if you do want to sign up. Join Dropbox
Jaunty Java
Ok so this post has nothing to do with Jaunty (Ubuntu 9.04) & Java as a whole, it's about the 2 separate subjects, and my lack of knowledge regarding them (currently!).
So I'm thinking that when I've got a bit of free time I'm going to try Jaunty in a VM, just because I've not actually tried it at all so far, I'm a bit disappointed in myself! From what I've heard on IRC and generally from people using it, there's been the usual breakage of some things, but that's to be expected. Other than that I've actually heard a lot of positive things about it, so I'm looking forward to actually installing it on my system 
As for Java, some of you may know that I'm on a Software Engineering course at University. This means I do a fair amount of programming and general sitting-in-front-of-a-computer-looking-busy 
. One of the modules on my course this year is OO (Object-Oriented) Software Development, for which we're using Java. Now I'm not a huge fan of Java, but I can appreciate it has many uses, and I don't mind coding in it. The only issue is that, from the lectures, I don't actually have a fantastic understanding of OO Methods and such. So I got a book out of my Uni library - Java in Two Semesters - so far, it's actually really good, and I already have a better understanding of things Now I just have to finish an assignment!
One final comment - I'll be changing my Planet Ubuntu feed in the coming week to include all posts from my blog, as I'd say that 99% of my posts relate to Ubuntu in some way
A Late New Years Resolution
I know we're well over 2 weeks into the new year, but I thought I'd post this anyway...partly as evidence.
Fact is, I procrastinate...a lot...and it's all too easy for me. So I've decided that when it comes to University work, I'll actually try and do it instead of sitting idling on IRC, browsing the forums, or going on Facebook. I mean...obviously I'll still be doing those, but it should be in between doing work. Not doing work in between doing those things.
I think this partly means I have to use Ubuntu more (yay!). Because I can never be bothered to fiddle with it all that much, but the main piece of work I have for Uni right now is to write a unix shell, so the 2 go hand in hand So that's my plan, and I'm sincerely hoping I stick to it.
Either way, there's now public evidence of me saying it, so we'll find out soon enough!!
Another Win For Ubuntu
So a little background - I'm in my 2nd year at University, studying Computer Science/Software Engineering. This year we have a "Systems Programming" module, which is basically learning low level things (inodes/filesystems etc). The computer labs for the module are Ubuntu labs with full root access, as requested by the lecturer. Needless to say these are separate from the rest of the network!!
So I was talking to my lecturer about Ubuntu in general (he's a fellow user) and I found out that hopefully, by the start of the next academic year at the University (Sept/Oct 09) the entire University should be in a dual boot situation with Windows, and all linked up to the network. However I'm expecting this to apply to only the Windows labs, and not the Mac labs
Either way I thought it was great that they'll be putting Linux on the desktops. I know that they run Linux servers, as I'm often connected to it via screen & ssh (coincidentally a fantastic combination), however to run it on the desktop is a big push forward. I have seen quite a few students running Linux this year though. For example the other day I saw somebody running Ubuntu on his eee, but I didn't stop to ask more
I'll post back when if I find out any more, or when I finally get to play with an one of the proper Ubuntu installs.
Still Alive!
I know I've been neglecting anybody that reads this blog a lot recently, for which I apologize.
I have 3 pieces of coursework for University due in around 2 weeks, I'm currently writing part of a magazine article for Linux Identity in the US (deadline is also 2 weeks!).
But don't worry, as soon as I get time, I'll be back and blogging properly like normal
Conky (Again)
So I've been asked by a couple of people to write a bit more about Conky such as, my config file for it. And how I installed it, how long it takes to configure, a few options that other people might like. So I'll be posting it in parts in the coming days/weeks (it depends when I get a chance, I'm a bit busy at Uni right now 
)
More to come soon!!
Back To Normal
So it's back to normal for most people and we're all back at work/college/university and all can't be bothered (me especially!!) so I figured I'd make a post in the 3 hours I'm free today.
I noticed last night that the Xbox Live issues everybody has been experiencing over the Christmas season still haven't gone completely, which is annoying...and there's still no news on that free arcade game.
Also there's been a lot of people on the Ubuntu Forums posting in "Internet Speak" e.g. lyk this n its hard 2 read sumtimes LoL!!1!  I'll be honest, and I'm sure I speak for most...it's annoying...don't do it I've been doing my bit to help all the newcomers that we've had over Christmas, so try to help us, and make the posts' readable
Ubuntu / iTunes
Ok so I'm using Ubuntu at the moment (which means I'm not using Windows Live Writer - incidentally, that is a brilliant piece of blogging software in my opinion!).
I have to say that I'm pleased with how well everything's gone with Ubuntu, everything works, I have flash & java installed, and it auto-connects to my home wireless and Uni wireless
One thing that I'm missing a lot is iTunes, as there's no native version for Linux (but why?!?!) Apple seem friendly to open-source development, anyway I'm using Rythmbox now, which reads all my music from my Vista partition which is nice...saves me a ton of space on the hard drive
That's all for now
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