Oh what a cracking weekend lies ahead!

#BBC #digin

It is a lovely sunny friday and I am working from home. No rushing around or commuting, tea and toast in the garden and generally chillaxing. La vie est belle. What better day could my seed pack from BBC dig in have arrived? I have just finished watering the garden and having a poke around trying to figure out where I am going to put all the vegetables once they are ready to go outside.

Summary of reasons to be happy:

-Friend staying the weekend.

-Seeds have arrived.

-New G1 Phone =)

-Beautiful weather.

-Fun webdesign project nearly finished.

-New IT support contract.

-New Intranet and collaboration development project.

-New website maintenance and development contract.

So for now I have a friend coming to stay from Sheffield and some fun webdesign work to do. Have a nice day wherever you are!

Sam the Techie FTW.

Google Wave Brainstorm Tips

Some rules of brainstorming
Defer judgement: Don’t dismiss any ideas. Nothing can kill the spirit of a brainstorm quicker. You can even delete negative feedback.
Encourage wild ideas: The whole point of brainstorming is to come up with new and creative ideas
Combine and improve ideas: No “buts”, only “ands.”
Go for quantity: Aim for as many new ideas as possible. Defer judgement: Don’t dismiss any ideas. Nothing can kill the spirit of a brainstorm quicker. You can even delete negative feedback.Encourage wild ideas: The whole point of brainstorming is to come up with new and creative ideasCombine and improve ideas: No “buts”, only “ands.”Go for quantity: Aim for as many new ideas as possible. "

Epic Win for Ipod Hackers

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn7085

[Linux] Do you Ubuntu? LiveCD Howto

Ubuntu has grown from strength to strength over the years and linux is fast becoming, if not already, a viable alternative to windows or mac for the average user.

How do you spend most of your time on the computer?
89% Facebook/Social Media, 7% Email/Chat, 3.7% Browsing and 0.3% Excel/Word/Powerpoint... Linux can do that.

Tinkerers should not be Linux haters.
Hack away! Just don't fail. That having been said, if you like to hack and tinker then your Linux system is going to need some extra love when you have borked it. Hackers and tinkerers you have been warned- no names *cough* Ro, Kal, Phil.

Linux?
If you are interested in Linux but have not yet given it a go then now might be a good time to head on over to http://www.ubuntu.com/ and have a look.

Live CD
The live cd feature boots Ubuntu on your laptop or desktop without having to install over your current OS.

1. Following steps 1&2 on this page to download and burn linux to disc:http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download
2. Ensure BIOS is set to boot from CD as the first entry otherwise the CD will not be checked before your OS is booted.
3. Insert the disc and on the ubuntu boot menu, select "Try Ubuntu without any change to your computer".
4. Enjoy.
Note: Although a LiveCD session is a good way to demo Ubuntu without making changes to a machine, a LiveCD will always be slower than a proper installion that runs directly from a hard-drive (because a CD will always be physically slower than a hard drive). LiveCD sessions are good for:
-a quick 'demo' on a machine before installing/upgrading Ubuntu
-checking if the hardware works as expected
-seeing if you like the look & feel of the distro

More info on LiveCD: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCD

Summary

Pro's
------
Linux is far more secure than windows.
Linux is free: http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download/

Con's
------
It needs a little bit of love to get going properly but then so do all computers.

Any questions or comments? Give me a shout.
Sam

22-simple-raised-bed

Take some old Pallets + unused space + soil + seeds = raised bed!

Materials Needed:
Soil, Volume (m^3) = Area of raised bed (m^2) x Depth of bed (m)
Wooden Planks
Wooden Pegs

The most practical design I know is:
1. Put a plank of wood (ripped off the old pallet) long side along the ground like standing on its edge.
2. then you put pegs either side to hold it upright
3. then fill with soil.

looks good, works great
takes like 2 hours tops

Old Pallets: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/lh/photo/Mr8m5VJ_5-aaJSAzQwsnXQ?feat=directlink
Proposed Site: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/lh/photo/AZd9OLyNTSu1dwrLYpD8PA?feat=directlink