It's simply marvellous

After several months of fighting with various installations of SuSe Linux Enterprise Desktop I finally made the switch to OpenSuSe 10.3. It is quite simply amazing. All the problems I've had trying to get WPA working in Linux were solved in one fell swoop. All I had to do was install the firmware for the bcm43xx chip and restart the interface and lo and behold it worked. No need for poxy ndiswrapper solutions any more, it works with KNetworkManager and the WPA encryption is on! :)


So if there is anyone out there having difficulties with wireless and Linux I would highly recommend that you switch to OpenSuSe immediately. Not only has it resolved my wireless issue, but the Build Service is amazing and contains all the packages I've been installing from source, so I can now install them using YaST.

*big grin*

It's getting to be an obsession.

Not only did I watch all six of Kevin Smith's Jersey movies in one night, but over the last couple of days I've also done both Evenings With Kevin Smith. I think I might be close to overdosing. You'll know it's happened if I get arrested for peddling weed outside a video store, or calling a small child a fucking cunt rag.

Still having problems with getting WPA working on my damn wireless card. There must be somebody, somewhere that's had the same problem so I can google it. Needless to say, my search continues.

Harsh news about Heath Ledger. He was a damn good actor, and will be missed.

It's another thing crossed off my list.

My list of things I absolutely have to do has one less entry.

I sat down on Friday night with a few friends and watched the entire Jersey trilogy (I know there's 6 of them now so it's technically two trilogies). The last time I did it there was only Clerks, Mallrats and Chasing Amy and we did the drinking game. We only managed to get to halfway through Mallrats before we pretty much passed out. It's vicious. Needless to say we did not even attempt a drinking game this time.

Out of probably 15 people who attended it came down to just me and Hannah who managed to stay up until Clerks 2, admittedly I passed out about half way into it, but as I've seen that many times recently I think it still counts as job done.

For extra geek-ness I made the Clerks: Lost Scene and Chasing Dogma comics available for the sake of completion. :)

At the end of it all I have to say is: Mr Smith - I salute you.

It's astounding

Dante said it best 'A bunch of savages in this town'.

What kind of world is it where a bunch of teenagers have nothing better to do than smash up a shop. I can't believe that scumbags like this are allowed to wander the streets. If left to their own devices they're going to grow up into the next generation of lager louts who beat the shit out of each other and anyone who gets in their way.

My solution:

Give a week's notice to anyone who doesn't want to get involved to leave town. At the end of the week, seal off the town and quarantine it. Air drop in some automatic weapons and leave them to it for a week. At the end of that week, send the army in to mop up the survivors. Problem solved.

It's not just grim up north

It has been absolutely awful the last couple of days. The river outside of our house nearly spilled over again. We came within a couple of inches of being flooded during the last lot of bad weather. This is what it looked like from just inside our front door:

Thankfully it wasn't quite as bad this time and the river didn't actually spill over onto the path.

I must say how much I love roleplaying. It's been a hobby of mine for over 20 years now, and it still hasn't lost it's appeal. Now I'm not talking about Dungeons and Dragons here where me and a bunch of my friends sit around battering orcs and collecting gold pieces and xp. At the moment we're playing a game set in the future but in a parallel universe. It's basically futuristic magical steampunk, which is awesome, lots of airships and the like. We've just discovered Atlantis and it turns out that it might be Hell.

I'm still having problems with my wireless network and Linux. I've managed to get it all set up and working, but when I try to use the WPA encryption my laptop won't connect. So I'm left using MAC address filtering which ain't very good if anyone nearby knows how to spoof a MAC address. Despite much googling I still can't seem to get it to work using iwconfig. Hmmm.... Ah well... I'm sure I'll crack it eventually.

I ran into another odd problem the other day while transferring old VHS tapes onto DVD. There appears to be some sort of archaic copy protection system that will not allow me to back up my videos onto dvd. As soon as I start the tape playing and record on the dvd it says 'Copy Protected' and stops the recording. I guess I've become so used to ripping cd's and dvd's that I'd completely forgotten that copy protection is such an issue.

Only for weeks now until we go to Paris or our 5th anniversary. Can't wait, I'm going to have to see how much it's going to cost to do the Eiffel Tower and the Louvres.

It's a start.

I suppose the first thing to get out of the way is the fact that I hate my job. I make this clear from the outset so that, from here on in, I don't have to mention it again and can concentrate on more important things. Suffice to say it is the one thing in my life I would change in a heartbeat. I know people will say that it's within my power to change my own position, and I am trying, but the world is not very forgiving of silly mistakes made in employment choices over the years.

That said I am looking forward, not due to any half-baked new year's resolution that I'll forget in a few weeks time, but as a result of my re-invigorated focus on things that really matter to me.

I've spent the last few months finally getting my head around Linux, something which I have been meaning to do for nearly 7 years now. Now I'm up to speed with it and plunging neck deep into C++ and KDevelop (another thing on my to do list for several year's now).

As well as geeking out, I'm currently working on several creative projects, including a tabletop RPG, a LARP and a couple of screenplays and short stories. As per usual I'm spreading myself a little thin and finding it a little difficult to concentrate on one thing at a time.

I'm hoping that actually sitting myself down to write this blog will focus me and give me a bit of direction on whichever task I'm currently working on.

Anyhoo... not getting too in-depth this evening, it's already ludicrously late and the chores commence anew in the morning.