Letting the blood run ... free

I've been on the hunt for a while now for an old Australian TV series called  Let the Blood run Free. It was on in the 90's or so and I have very little memory of it - other than finding it funny. The one thing that I can clearly remember is that it was a spoof show set in a hospital and the perpetual "patient" was shown as a man lying on the operating table except that his chest was just a ribcage. No skin, no organs - nothing. The man was clearly dead.

(Note that this was a low budget comedy show - they didn't have an actual cadaver, it was just intended to look that way.)

At any rate, it isn't available (EzyDVD sell it but are out of stock) but I was able to find someone selling copies on eBay. I've ordered one and will see if it was worth the $20 I dropped for it.

Getting back on the bike

Not that anybody really cares, but I've started to get back into the old exercise routine.

As usual, I've added a page on my site to publicly track my progress. We'll see if this progresses longer or not.

In other news, I've got my copy of Ubuntu Studios! Whee! I've already installed it and have been having a bit of a play with it. There is precious little documentation around for it, but it seems promising so far. I've already had a bit of a play with the drum machine that it comes with which is fun and reasonably intuative.

I am a little disappointed that I didn't find a good video editor (like Cinerrala) bundled in, but it remains to be seen if I'll be able to make any video clips during the holidays.

I've already shot a bunch of test footage with a camera mounted on the bicycle to make a filler video clip with, but I got nasuous watching the footage, so I don't know if I'll be able to use it or not.

We'll see.

Still no sign

Ordered Ubuntu Studios a while back. It's a Linux based digital creation suite. It has music and video software that should work quite nicely with my existing setup and get me streamlined and producing more music.

However, the first disc that arrived had an error on it and would not install properly. So arranged for another copy and it still has not shown up (this was in March!) which is starting to annoy me.

No matter, I have some time off coming up, I'll have to see what I can do then in order to get some stuff produced during the allotted time. If I can get hold of a camera, I'll see about making another video or two. That would be sweet. Still in discussion with others about collaborating, which will be awesome, but I need to get my own skills up first in order to make sure that I can keep my end up and bring a decent amount of talent to the group. Maybe.

Gotta keep practicing.

Getting Fit (again)

Well, back on the "let's exercise" train again. I'm going to do up a page on my main site (hopefully this week) and keep an on-line track of what I've done.

The current goal is simply to get <em>some</em> exercise each day (except Sundays). At the moment I have been doing okay, but it's winter and cold in the mornings so it's understandable if I miss a day or two (though I feel bad about it when I do).

Note to self: I also need more excuses to get out of the house and meet people.

Trying FireScribe instead

Well, this is my attempt to get more blogging done so that I can integrate my current (and much ignored) blog with my other assets.

I tried BloGTK for Linux and it was a sad, sad failure. It'd install but when I tried to run it, nothing would happen. Even updated the kernel and did a complete re-instal. At any rate, this is the first post to my blog from FireScribe

First post using w.bloggar - going to see if having an easier interface will make it easier to do updates.

WD Passport Essentials - pure garbage

Recently bought a Western Digital Passport Essential usb drive. It come's preloaded with something called "SmartWare" which is great - if you are an idiot or are happy to use the drive only in the Western Digital Approved way and only on Western Digital Approved operating systems.

I run Linux (Ubuntu). I also run XP and Vista and I run Windows 7. Yes, I have too many computers.

But when I buy a hard drive, I expect to be able to use it as a hard drive. I do not want to be locked into using some garbage software each and every time I plug it in. I do not like being lied to (moreso) about the amount of space on a drive. I do not like being forced to use garbage that does not do what I need it to do.

We already have to put up with hdd manufacturers fudging the numbers around so that they can claim bigger hard drive sizes. Having it use some of the space (230Mb) for their garbage is one thing. Having that be a lie since the actual space used is closer to 640Mb is a dis-service. Being completely unable to remove said garbage is like being spit in the face.

Sure, I can waste time and bandwidth downloading updates and programs from Western Digital that will turn off the GarbageWare but that's ALL it does - the garbage is still there!

I have previously only bought WD drives. They are good and reliable. If I can't get rid of this garbage or a full refund then I will not be buying any WD drives again and recommending to others that they avoid this brand like the plague.

On the tiny, miniscule, microscopic chance that anyone who is affiliated with WD in any way actually reads this - I DO NOT WANT SMARTWARE! I do not want to be locked into one way of doing things. I do not want to have to jump through hoops to use a product.

When I buy an external hard drive I want a hard drive that is external to my computer - that's it! Plug it in, transfer files, unplug it. Simple.