[Sussex] *Yawn* Morning

[Geoff Teale]

Good morning Slugs,

It's been awful quiet around here of late.  Time for some random spoutings
methinks.

Firstly, what is happening in terms of getting a venue to show the film
Revolution OS?  Last I heard someone was going to approach the Kings Head
with regard to showing it there.  Any news?

Secondly.. whats happening out there in the world of LINUX?

Linux Journal have started the big media ramp up to 2.6 series kernels, it's
coming real soon (code freeze has begun) and it's going to improve desktop
media performance no end - that's great news for all of you trying to play
DVD's on PII systems!

Gentoo 1.4 is still a few weeks, possibly even months off.  Originally
planned for January this is dragging on a little now, but Gentoo like Debian
works on the principle that it's ready when it's ready.  The full 1.4
release will feature:

* GNU/Gentoo Reference Platform binary installation. (This means very fast
installation of the core system and large packages, e.g, X, KDE, OOo).

* Hardware detection linked to automated kernel building (i.e. (if you wish)
your kernel will be custom built and optomised for your hardware without you
so much as having to lift a finger).

* Gentoo Kernels will move to 2.6 series.

* A new installer program (Gentoo 1.2 doesn't even have an installer
program!) possibly even GUI.

* Mainstreaming of some of the cool tools built around portage/emerge and
major upgrades to the portage system as a whole.

Finally, my mind is focussed on finishing up my time at Claybrook and
heading off to Cambridge Science Park for, what will now be a 2 week stretch
rather than the anticipated 2 month stay up there.  Following that I will be
moving into some office space of a company with whom I have no direct
relationship (until Cmed move to a new building).  Just to prove how small a
world we live in, it turns out that the IT requirements in that office are
serviced by none other than 3ait.  

A couple of things have happened over the last day or so to remind me why
I'm keen to go to a 100% Linux environment.  I think the real reason (other
than political stuff about free software) is the people.  

On the carrott side my new boss (or one of them at least) Tim e-mailed me
the spec of the PC he is planning on buying me and asking for any input I
had.  This is a pleasant change, usually you are deposited with whatever
piece of crud the previous guy had been working on for the last couple of
years, without so much as a clean user account!  More than that Tim
obviously understands that there are valid reasons why I need a 19" monitor
and plenty of RAM - I didn't ask for these things, he proferred them up. 

On the stick side, I've just this morning been asked several questions about
COBOL (fortunately I was able to side-step actually having to work on the
COBOL monstrosity as there are older people in this company who not only
know COBOL, but dillusion themselves that programming in COBOL somehow makes
them hardcore hackers).  I have so far kept stumm about what jargon file /
NHD has to say on the subject of COBOL, but following a conversation this
morning I am very tempted to bring it up.  I have just been lectured, at
length, about how Sinclair BASIC and other BASIC's on 8-bit platforms were
the most powerful programming environments that ever existed, and how C &
UNIX were crap because they didn't have as much power.  The crux of this
argument is that peek and poke allowed you to manipulate the memory of a
machine directly and C doesn't have these instructions.  

So I'm hoping, beyond all hope, that the sort of company that runs 100%
linux and employs geeks will not be riddled with the technical incompetence,
ignorance and downright stupidity that is rife amongst business developers
everywhere I go.

In a couple of months time I will be better placed to comment.

-- 
geoff.teale at claybrook.co.uk
tealeg at member.fsf.org

"An alcoholic is someone you don't like who drinks as much as you."
-- Dylan Thomas


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