Who knows

http://games.internode.on.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=90913

kind of a funny forum thread.

Manjit Boparai

How good is this guy? http://www.songaustralia.com.au/media/index.php# He's from India and moved to Australia in 1988 and is a taxi driver in Brisbane. How great is it that he loves this place so much and is not afraid to be himself and mix his heritage with Australian culture. If you follow the link I posted and select the first video clip on that page you can prievew his song. Its truly energetic and is truly great.

Keep up the good work Manjit.

Debian.......wow

Ok so I used to be a slackware advocate. I used to swear by its simplicity and the freedom it provides, but there came a time when I wanted to use a Linux system that was not ruled by a single dictator. Sure slackware has its upsides, but its outdated and doesnt seem to have a clear method of forming packages for it, from what i could see.

Whenever I installed, or reinstalled, slackware I would have to go through the dull task of trying to get the mouse to work and get the X server to work as well as sound and several other annoying things. I finally got to the stage when it just was not worth spending so much time just trying to make slackware work. This is where Debian comes in. After trying other linux distributions, like SUSE and Gentoo I decided to try Debian.

I installed using the business card cd of the testing "Etch" branch of the Debian tree. It downloaded from the mirror that my ISP hosted, allowing me to not use precious download limit, and was done in half an hour. I then booted to a lovely new gnome 2.14 graphical environment. My mouse worked, my graphics card worked, my sound worked. It was truly an easy experience. Now that I have discovered the apt package manager I realise how good it is, especially with the synaptic front-end. I can look through at everything I can download, out of a very large amount of choices, and just tick the box to have it installed within seconds, or minutes depending on the download size. Poeple complain that Debian has too many packages and is bloated. Why then did my base system with all the necessary tools such as web browsers, email, office and gnome desktop environment come in under 2GB and why does it book quicker than slackware did? If Debian is bloated it's because you filled it up!

Debian, so far, really seems to be a quality release by an experienced group of people who work for the common good, not the single wealth of a large company..... *cough redhat* *cough Novell*.

....Speaking of Novell and Redhat....... Ever used Suse or Fedora? Mother of mercy dont do it. If you have the choices a) Windows b) Redhat c) Suse, choose d) none. Just dont bother. Seriously stay away. These bloated distributions with poor package systems (dependency hell) are no where near on par with what a user expects of a Linux system. Perhaps they are a little easier to use than Debian, Gentoo, or Slackware......but heck, they sure pay for it.

Gnome compilation/complication

Ok so I have decided to compile the gnome desktop environment (http://www.gnome.org). It has proved to be a little bit taxing, but I believe I am getting somewhere with it.

To begin with I needed to create a special user with priveledges in the /opt directory because I did not wish to install on the /home partition. I chowned the /opt directory to the build user. In order to install to /opt I had to edit the garnome config file and specify that directory.

Major problem I ran into was a problem with a .png file. So I compiled a new version of libpng. I then, in order for the problem to be solved, had to go into the directories: freedesktop/fontconfig
freedesktop/libxft
freedesktop/cairo
freedesktop/shared-mime-info p
platform/glib
platform/atk
platform/pango

and use make clean and then remake all of them.

So far Everything is making fine.........just switched to my compile window......nothing has changed still having problems with the stupid png thing.

Joy!

Alright so this is a late writeup but I think it deserves publishing.

Saturday the 20th I was at Narangba tavern for a work shin-dig. So I was there and had had a few drinks when this rather largish lady from work won a meat tray. So everyone was really good about it and congratulated her, I mean good on her ay, she deserved it. So we were all yelling and cheering when Nathan yells "YEAH! GO JOY!"
I stared at him for a second and then said "Dude, thats not Joy!" Nathan looked at me and then said, "Oh yeah! Joy is the fat baker!" Needless to say we both laughed quite loudly and for a long time. Fuck it was funny. I guess the confusion arose from this lady looking like Joy, glasses and everything. Unfortunately though her name was Jenny. Haahahaha.

The night went on to include antics in the park where by I sat on a flying fox thing and simone sat on me and Nathan on top of us, I was heading backwards and the extra weight on the flying fox caused it to sag making the crack of my pants point directly at the dusty barky ground. Unfortunately the ground rose to meet my exposed behind which then was filled with all sorts of debris. Oh well.

Me and Nathan then played doorbell ditch, and shoved a broom stick into the screen door of the house so they could not open the door hahahahahahaha. That was sik as.

Overall it was a pretty good night.

A poem

I wrote this like near the end of last year. I just put pen to paper and thats what came out.

Upon the hill stood tall dark trees;
dancing wildly in the cutting breeze.
I felt you with me, sitting near;
for within you there was much fear;

I felt you tremble a tiny quaver;
your coldness made it all much graver.
There was a snap, something behind;
whatever stirred would not be kind.

Your body jumped, out came a gasp;
as if to call that evil mask.
What lurked behind our trembling backs;
was something of the blackest blacks.

The one true thing that threatens all;
that slippery beast, its cat-like call.
When alone it’s at its worst;
ailing you its deadly curse.

It drowns you in its swampy pool;
your mind will play you for a fool;
for in the dark we all have seen;
what has never really been.

Swooped by a bird?

Man. I was walking to the bus station today at uni and I got swooped by a bird. WTF ay. I was strolling along, minding my own business when some stupid bird goes "KA-KAAAWW!" and attacks me from behind. Its not like I provoked it in any way. And I dont believe it had a nest or anything. Coz I mean what stupid bird puts a nest where hundreds of people walk every day. I'm going to take that perhaps it was displeased with my hair so it felt the need to scratch at it with its grubby claws. I dont get it.

My trip home

Ok so I left my tutorial early today so I would catch the bus in time instead of wait for a fucken hour. So I made the bus and I'm sitting there quite content that I will be home early. I got off the bus and went to the trainstation at carseldine, only to realise I didnt have enough coins for the ticket machine. So I decided, "fuck it", and i hopped on the train when it came, without a ticket, only to see four ticket inspectors doing like a major raid of the train or some shit. Some guy was getting a huge fine for not having a ticket so I'm like, "fuck this!" and just before the doors closed I leapt off the train and bolted. So close to getting stuck on the train but ay.

So to pass the time till mum picked me up I went over to the adult shop and looked around. Then went to the fish and chip shop next door and bought a 60c iceblock. Because obviously I didnt have anything more than about 60c or else I would have caught the damn train wouldnt I. Turned out for the best though: It was a fucken damn fine ice block!

Peace out my train catching fiends... I mean friends.

P.S. I'm not poor, I just havent got my new car with which to not have to catch the train with! Stupid bank!