Siccome stanno nascendo come funghi notizie su presunte certezze sulla data di rilascio delle prossima Debian Stable, meglio mettere le cose in chiaro. L’unica data certa finora e’ quella del freeze [1], ossia marzo 2010. Anzi, non e’ poi tanto sicura neppure questa. Ma la data di rilascio non si conosce di certo.

Il 18 ottobre sulla mailing list degli annunci degli sviluppatori di Debian compare questo messaggio di Luk Claes:

Proposing a new freeze date is not easy. Taking into account all of the feedback we have received, both online (by e-mail, IRC) as well as in person, and some challenging release goals we have set for ourselves, we propose freezing in March 2010.

si tratta di una proposta di stabilire la data di freeze della testing (Squeeze) a marzo 2010. Diamo per scontato che questo termine verra’ rispettato (anche se ovviamente non e’ sicuro al 100%).

Ora andiamoci a leggere quanto Steve McIntyre (attuale leader del progetto Debian) ha dichiarato a iTWire:

“It would be nice to have things done before we head off to New York for DebConf in July, so that we’re free of the release work while we discuss future plans,”

Insomma, sarebbe bello avere Debian Sqeeze rilasciata come Stable prima del DebConf di luglio. Io, sinceramente in questo non ci vedo ne’ promesse ne’ tanto meno certezze. Come e’ giusto che sia dato il lungo e complesso lavoro che si sta facendo sulla Squeeze.

Invece il resto dell’articolo e’ molto interessante, l’argomento e’ quello che avevo gia’ trattato in un altro post, ossia il legame tra i team di sviluppo di Debian e di Ubuntu sui futuri rilasci sincronizzati (per quanto possibile).

Riporto i punti salienti:

“In terms of the discussions with Mark (Mark Shuttleworth presidente della Canonical NdI) and the Ubuntu team, those are still happening here and there. As the major components of both our releases are shared, we’re hoping to be able to sync up on the same or similar upstream versions and spread some of the work. Exactly if and how that will happen depends on the teams involved, but we should be able to help each other. Maybe in future we’ll be able to sync more tightly, but that’s going to take time.”

si spera di riuscire a sincronizzare i lavori, forse in futuro la sincronizzazione (anche delle uscite) sara’ maggiore, ma ci vorra’ del tempo.

Riguardo la situazione attuale dei lavori sulla Debian Squeeze:

“That’s what typically happens in the middle of a release cycle. We’ve got some Bug Squashing Parties coming up in the next few weeks to help us kill off some of the release critical bugs in Squeeze, and I’ll be hosting one of those at my place in Cambridge next weekend.”

Questo e’ il contenuto del famoso articolo apparso due giorni fa (23 novembre) su iTWire, un articolo che non contiene nessuna novita’. Gli unici punti che potrebbero contenere informazioni nuove sono il fatto che ci si aspetta molto (come pubblico e non solo) dal DebConf che si terra’ a New York e che Steve McIntyre non intende correre per la rielezione:

“After two years of being nominally ‘in charge’ I’ll be happy to pass the reins over to somebody else. There are plenty of other qualified folks around who could do the job, and in my increasingly-tight spare time it would would be nice to do more technical stuff again,”

Invece a quanto pare qualcuno ha fatto qualche errore traducendo e ha preso speranze per certezze e notizie vecchie per novita’. Cosi’ risulta:
1)

“Steve McIntyre, project leader Debian, ha affermato che la prossima versione della distribuzione dovrebbe arrivare entro l’estate.”

2)

“Chi temeva in un ulteriore slittamento dei tempi di rilascio di Debian Squeeze si rallegri: stando alle parole di Steve McIntyre, il freeze dovrebbe avvenire a marzo, per permettere il rilascio della versione finale durante la prossima estate.”

3)

“Steve McIntyre, Project Leader ha deciso di rilasciare la versione 6.0 di Debian nominata Squeeze prima dell’annuale DebConf developer conference che si terrà a New York nell’Agosto 2010.”

Andandoci a leggere l’articolo in inglese (sul quale si basano i primi due articoli italiani, e indirettamente anche il terzo articolo italiano [2]) leggiamo:

The release does not take place until all RC (release critical) bugs are squashed.
McIntyre was hopeful that this would translate into a release sometime by the middle of the Northern summer.

Ossia: “Il rilascio non avviene finche’ tutti i bug release-critical non vengono ridotti al minimo (piu’ basso del valore massimo accettabile NdI). McIntyre spera che questo si possa tradurre in un rilascio entro la meta’ dell’estate.“
Il titolo stesso: “Debian looking at development freeze by March“, ossia: “Debian mira al freeze dello sviluppo entro Marzo“, indica un obiettivo, non una certezza.

Credo sia giusto quando leggo qualcosa che reputo sbagliata intervenire, o direttamente (con un commento) o indirettamente (con un post). Ovviamente non e’ unilaterale, quindi se ho scritto idiozie o se ho sbagliato, segnalatemelo.
[1] Quando una relase entra in freeze, non vengono piu’ aggiunte novita’, ma ci si concentra solo sui bug release-critical. [^]
[2] Non segnalo i link, sarebbe di cattivo gusto, anzi, eccoli qui:

1. Debian 6.0 Squeeze entro l’estate 2010?;
2. Debian 6 Squeeze arriverà prima di agosto 2010?;
3. Debian Squeeze verrà rilasciata nell’estate 2010.
4. Debian Squeeze 6.0 entro l’estate del 2010

e vedremo chi altro. [^]

[^] torna su | post<li> | 

En una entrevista de ITWire realizada al project leader Steve McIntyre, este quiere lanzar la versión “estable” de Debian 6 “Squeeze” para julio de 2010.

Como antes habiamos mencionado, en este año, Debian adoptó el lanzamiento de sus versiones por calendario, de la misma manera que Ubuntu y otras distribuciones más, a diferencia de la forma anterior donde solamente habia una versión “estable” solamente cuando esta estaba lista. El último lanzamiento fue en febrero de 2009 con “Lenny”.

En la nota dice:

“Seria bueno el tener las cosas listas antes de la DebConf en julio, para poder estar libres de la presión de la nueva versión y así poder hablar de los planes futuros”

De acuerdo con la nueva política Debian va a congelar la introducción de paquetes para las versiones estables cada año impar, donde al siguiente año (el año par) se dará el lanzamiento de esa versión que sucedera alrededor de la primavera del año par. Esto se empezará a utilizar en este año, por consiguiente en Diciembre de 2009 se hará el congelamiento de paquetes para Squeeze y durante el primer semestre de 2010 será el lanzamiento de la siguiente versión estable de Squeeze. Esto se hace cada dos años, por lo tanto el próximo congelamiento de paquetes se dará en Diciembre de 2011 con su respectivo lanzamiento durante el primer semestre de 2012.

This universe was not made for you.
You are unallocated in list of
Participators and only consume… and we’ve entirely forgotten about you.
You do nothing.
You deserve an even smaller potion of happiness than the
Everything you neglect,
A unit so close to zero, it can only be limited to
The lowest number you can squeeze out of
your tube.

Most of the doors are shut at your approach, and we’re
Glad to see your nose close, but far
From the other side of plexi.

If they destroy you, and when they will –
Nothing will happen; you’ve allowed the science
And majesty of prediction to take the place of
Sweet, unreasoned faith.

Die, fruitless laborer. Crumble into your dry skin and
Rot.
Snap your femur with the flat plate of head-bone
Before you go,
And limp… limp into the dark underworld you hardly deserve,
But where else can they put you?

Sejak 3 minggu lepas; aku mengalami satu situasi di mana aku dapat rasakan seolah jantung aku kena squeeze lepas tu dapat aku rasa deruan darah mengalir di bahagian dada. Ianya seperti lu orang squeeze air kotak yang masih penuh dan deruan air meluru keluar dari straw; lebih kurang gitulah. Tak sakit cuma rasa semacam adrenalin rush ke apa tu; lu orang pernah tak masa tido bermimpi lu orang jatuh dari tempat tinggi? kira macam gitulah rasanya.

Dalam sehari tak kurang 5 kali aku rasa macam jantung aku kena squeeze untuk beberapa saat lepas tu dapat aku rasakan deruan darah yang mengalir melalui salur darah… serius. Selalunya terjadi masa aku dalam keadaan tenang; tengah duduk lepak layan movie ka TV series ka, masa baring mau tido ka; secara amnya bila aku dalam keadaan tenang benda tu akan terjadi… serius… tak sakit bila itu berlaku. Kepada pakar jantung yang layan blog meraban aku ni; apakah maknanya itu? Aku ada problem jantung ka? Keyword di sini aku tak rasa sakit bila itu berlaku, serius. Aku tau macam mana rasa sakit di dada sekitar area penempatan jantung; 3 tahun lepas aku pernah alami satu situasi di mana ada masa bila aku tarik nafas; seolah-olah rasa macam kena tusuk seribu jarum kat dada aku ni, masa tu aku pikir kalau aku terus tarik napas gerenti jantung aku stop sebab aku dapat rasa keperitan yang menggila; jantung aku seolah bagi signal ke otak…

“kalau mamat ni tarik lagi napas gerenti aku(jantung) akan stop berdenyut. Lu(otak) suruh mamat ni take it easy”

So beberapa saat kemudian otak menghantar signal supaya berhenti dari menarik napas untuk seketika; aku pun slowly breathing. Macam mana rasanya ketika tu? Aku tak boleh gerak; kalau aku gerak, jantung aku rasa macam nak pecah.. serius. Semua tu berlaku dalam range masa 5 saat hingga seminit.

Itu 3 tahun lepas. Tapi sekarang lain pulak berlaku sejak 3 minggu lepas; aku rasa jantung aku seolah kena squeeze untuk beberapa saat di susuli deruan darah mengalir di salur-salur darah di bahagian area dada yang aku dapat rasa aliran tu beb… serius. Tak sakit cuma tu lah macam aku kata awal tadi rasanya seolah jika  masa tido lu orang pernah bermimpi lu orang jatuh dari tempat tinggi; macam tu lah aku rasa setiap kali kejadian jantung aku seolah kena squeeze beberapa saat tu berlaku.

salud!

Ubuntu come sapete e’ una distribuzione piuttosto instabile, il motivo e’ semplice e avevo gia’ scritto un post su questo argomento. Per poter proporre una versione nuova con tale frequenza la fase di test, correzione di bug ecc. non puo’ essere fatta in modo approfondito. Per cui alcuni problemi restano sempre. L’utente lo sa e alla stabilita’ preferisce la novita’. Il problema rimaneva (anche se in misura leggermente minore) anche sulle LTS, le versioni con supporto a lungo termine, che si suppone siano piu’ stabili.

Per fare in modo che le versioni LTS fossero meno instabili si prendeva come punto di partenza il freeze di una Sid (la versione instabile della Debian). Restava comunque instabile, perche’ non risolveva a monte i problemi dei rilasci rapidi di Ubuntu. Ora le cose sono cambiate, la prossima Ubuntu LTS, che uscira’ ad aprile 2010 (Lucid Lynx), si basera’ sulla versione di testing della Debian, attualmente la Squeeze.

Non e’ una novita’, se ne parlo’ gia’ al Debconf9, durante il meeting il team di rilascio di Debian ribadi’ l’intenzione di rilasciare Squeeze (come stabile) entro il 2010. Il motivo e’ anche quello di sincronizzare il rilascio della Debian “stable” con quello di Ubuntu LTS per coordinare gli sforzi e per una maggior collaborazione tra i team delle due distribuzioni [1].

Si puo’ pensare che la testing avendo subito un lungo periodo di bug fixes e di aggiornamenti sia praticamente stabile. In realta’ non e’ cosi’, ci sono ancora molti problemi, dovuti anche alle tante novita’ che ci sono state (GRUB, init, KDE4, ecc.). Per essere una testing ormai testata a lungo non sono pochi i problemi di cui ancora soffre, tanto che il freeze di Squeeze e’ slittato da dicembre 2009 a marzo 2010. Dunque non sono sicuro che la Ubuntu 10.4 sara’ molto meno instabile del solito.

Anche perche’ nonostante la base sia una Debian testing, la LTS avra’ comunque software nuovo e altre componenti che danno i loro bei problemi di stabilita’ inoltre la velocita’ dei rilasci delle versioni di Ubuntu rimane elevata. Pensate, tra dicembre, gennaio e febbraio ci sara’ un’alpha al mese, a marzo la prima beta, ad aprile la seconda beta, la RC e la versione finale. Certo, si partira’ comunque da una testing di Debian e non da un freeze della Sid (unstable), ma come ho scritto, non e’ ancora molto stabile la Squeeze, quindi non lo sara’ neppure Ubuntu 10.4 LTS.

Bisogna sperare che la collaborazione tra il team di Ubuntu con quello di Debian dia i suoi frutti e consenta a marzo (data della prima beta di Ubuntu 10.4 e di freeze della testing) di avere una Squeeze stabile, cosi’ da avere ad aprile una Ubuntu LTS abbastanza stabile.

Non resta che aspettare e vedere come sara’ questa Lucid Lynx e se la collaborazione dara’ buoni risultati.

[1] Il video che tratta questo argomento e’ 991_Keynote_from_the_Release_Team.ogv, lo trovate qui assieme agli altri video del DebConf9. [^]

Approfondisci:

• squeeze release cycle?
• Re: On cadence and collaboration
• Release collaboration with Debian

[^] torna su | post<li> | 

Estes dois novos produtos já aguardam por você nas lojas Corpo & Alma. Um floral bem alegre, com as cores do verão ilustra o moleskine (caderninho de bolsa para anotações) e o squeeze.  Vale a pena conferir os kits da Corpo & Alma para o Natal 2009!

Self Portrait

I say, let us be squeezed!!

Let your creative juices flow!!

If you have lemons, make lemonade!!

L. K. Thayer

Muchas veces al instalar cualquier sistema operativo necesitamos instalar aplicaciones basicas para el uso diario….
Cosa aparte es cuando instalamos alguna de las distribuciones linux, muchas por defecto integran las aplicaciones basicas para que en nuestro ordenador podamos realizar las tareas que normalmente hacemos tales como escribir documentos, trabajar en hojas de calculo, realizar presentaciones en diapositivas…

Que hace de extraordinario un “One Liner”?

Realiza todo el trabajo de actualizacion de las fuentes de paquetes de el archivo “Sources.list”
descarga las ultimas actualizaciondes de los paquetes que tengamos instalados en nuestra maquina
instala los paquetes de software que nosotros ingresemos en el sin tener que seleccionarlo uno a uno.
sube tu distro a la ultima version disponible con un “inteligente manejo de dependencias de paquetes”.

Bueno si pero…. Como se hace eso?
Bueno aqui va el primer ejemplo que aunque sencillo es funcional!!!!

#!/bin/bash
apt-get update -y #actualiza la sources.list
apt-get -y upgrade #sube los paquetes a la ultima version disponible.
apt-get install ...
#apt-get install instala la cantidad de paquetes que tu le pongas lo unico que hay que tener en cuenta es #que cada paquete va seguido con un espacio para que install lo reconozca

les dejo mi One liner para que lo lean…!!!

En la actualidad cada vez mas se venden equipos de escritorio con arquitectura de 64 bits ya sea intel amd o de otras marcas…
sin embargo a pesar de la utilizacion masiva de este tipo de arquitectura, no es tanto el apoyo de parte de las empresas desarrolladoras de software hacia sus clientes….

Oracle es una de ellas… aunque casi siempre trata de construir sus aplicativos libres de plataforma (portables), este no es el caso de su base de datos por obvias razones..(rendimiento y demas…), pero resulta increible que no exista una instalacion como tal desarrollada para equipos de 64 bits…

Ahora bien hare un pequeño how-to de como instalar la base de datos oracle XE (eXpress Edition)…

Primero vamos a solucionar unas dependencias necesarias para ello:


sudo apt-get install libc6-i386
sudo apt-get install bc
sudo apt-get install libaio1
# si no lo encuentras asi revisa por el synaptics o el package manager que tengas


Siguiente a esto debemos descargar el .deb de la base de datos (para distribuciones basadas en .deb Debian Packages)
Lo podemos hacer desde Oracle XE

Cuando hallas descargado el .deb de la base de datos, no lo intentes instalar puesto que te saldra el error de que no es correcta la arquitectura, para poder instalarlo , debes forzar la aarquitectura en la instalacion…

dpkg -i --force-architecture oracle-xe-universal_10.2.0.1-1.1_i386.deb

luego vamos a tener que configurar la instalacion para ello

sudo /etc/init.d/oracle-xe configure

ahora editamos el archivo ~/.bashrc

ORACLE_HOME=/usr/lib/oracle/xe/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/server
PATH=$PATH:$ORACLE_HOME/bin
export ORACLE_HOME
export ORACLE_SID=XE

export PATH
export PATH

ahora ya puedes accesar a tu base de datos en la direccion http://127.0.0.1:8080/apex desde tu navegador web.

Original English guide taked from
Little Brain

I’ve been a bit busy so I’m catching up on some recent photos supplied via the Facebook group.

Thanks to KC for these ones – Marvellous!!!

Just because everyone does it, doesn’t mean it’s right?
Here are five cars parked on the pavement to avoid double yellow lines – a pet hate of mine!

It seems this is a recurring problem – a car parked in the same cycle lane/on the pavement????

The van parked in the cycle lane meant the bus couldn’t get by………….

…..so the van moved – further onto the pavement, unbelievable!!

(I like the compact car parked blocking an entrance as well… double wrong parking! – Warden)

Yup… I guessed you misjudged the space THE OTHER SIDE of the post….

These from PG from the Facebook forum – Cheers!

I haven’t looked up at how you play with LISP using Vim. Not really interested either since I’m committed to Emacs *rolls eyes*.
So, assuming you’ve already done aptitude install emacs23, Let’s go ahead and aptitude install sbcl cl-asdf slime. When in doubt aptitude show sbcl or aptitude show cl-asdf.

My motivation for this post in the first place was to document the quirks with the installation I was facing last night. If you happen to notice the following with the above aptitude install:

Setting up cl-asdf (1:20090819-3) ...
Reinstalling for sbcl
Recompiling Common Lisp Controller for sbcl
/usr/lib/common-lisp/bin/sbcl.sh loading and dumping clc.
; loading system definition from /usr/lib/sbcl/sb-grovel/sb-grovel.asd into
; #
; registering # as SB-GROVEL
;
; compilation unit aborted
; caught 1 fatal ERROR condition

Error running init-common-lisp-controller-v4: Lock on package SB-IMPL violated
when interning NATIVE-FILE-KIND.
See also:
The SBCL Manual, Node "Package Locks"
mv: cannot stat `sbcl-new.core': No such file or directory
FAILED
Done rebuilding
Setting up cl-swank (1:20090908-1) ...
Setting up emacs (23.1+1-4) ...
Setting up sbcl (1:1.0.25.0-1) ...
/usr/lib/common-lisp/bin/sbcl.sh loading and dumping clc.
; loading system definition from /usr/lib/sbcl/sb-grovel/sb-grovel.asd into
; #
; registering # as SB-GROVEL
;
; compilation unit aborted
; caught 1 fatal ERROR condition

Error running init-common-lisp-controller-v4: Lock on package SB-IMPL violated
when interning NATIVE-FILE-KIND.
See also:
The SBCL Manual, Node "Package Locks"
mv: cannot stat `sbcl-new.core': No such file or directory
FAILED

Your slime setup isn’t going to be functional. Fret not. Read on.

From Debian BTS bug #549528

=======BEGIN PATCH===================
--- /usr/share/common-lisp/source/common-lisp-controller/post-sysdef-install.lisp.orig 2009-10-21 14:42:00.000000000 -0400
+++ /usr/share/common-lisp/source/common-lisp-controller/post-sysdef-install.lisp 2009-10-21 14:40:59.000000000 -0400
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@
#+sbcl
(defun get-owner-and-mode (directory)
(when (eq :directory
- (sb-impl::native-file-kind (namestring directory)))
+ (sb-impl::unix-file-kind (namestring directory)))
;; check who owns it
(multiple-value-bind (res dev ino mode nlink uid gid rdev size atime mtime)
(sb-unix:unix-stat (namestring directory))
=======END PATCH=================

Followed by,

dpkg-reconfigure cl-asdf
dpkg-reconfigure sbcl

Append the following to your .emacs, if you haven’t already.
;; Slime
(add-to-list 'load-path "/usr/share/common-list/source/slime/")
(setq inferior-lisp-program "/usr/bin/sbcl")
(require 'slime)
(slime-setup)

And your Emacs is ready to roll.

From “Angry in Surrey”

I don’t care if it is your only vehicle. If it’s that big, then you should park somewhere that doesn’t block pathways designed for parents and children… and on a corner that blocks peoples views making it even more dangerous for parents and children to walk around! GAH!!!!.

Even if you REALLY had to park here… even though there were countless other spaces that would fit your vehicle, then you could at least park ALL THE WAY in the space.

I wouldn’t mind if they even took up two spaces (nose to tail maybe?) – as long as they didn’t block road and pathways! It’s free parking after all!!!

We may have our guitarist. And we might have a band.

I finally got a chance to meet Joe last Wednesday, and on first impression I like what I see. Joe is 60-ish, which means that he is old enough to have heard and played a LOT of music in his time. There’s nothing worse than playing with a relative youngster who can only stare slack-jawed at the mention of Traffic, Steely Dan, or Little Feat…

Joe also has the tools of the trade: a custom Gibson Les Paul, and five or six stomp-box effects. By all superficial signs, he is a player and I am eagerly looking forward to jamming with him.

If a guitarist plays in the forest and no one hears him, does he exist?

For the first ninety minutes, I can’t hear a note out of Joe. He initially has problems with his effects loop, and spends a good 20 minutes fiddling around with his stomp boxes. When he does begin to play, I don’t hear a thing.

Not a good sign…

A confident guitarist will turn it up to “11″ and drown everybody else out if you let him. In fact, the sign of a real player is their sense of tone and dynamics – playing softly and selectively, and then – when the time is right – letting it rip.

But an insecure guitarist will often turn down and try to play along without actually contributing anything. This is what I think I am seeing, and my stomach sinks.

Statesboro Blues to the rescue

But suddenly, as we kick into Statesboro Blues, Joe comes alive. The technical challenges that were plaguing him vanish, and he begins to play some snarly blues licks. With confidence. Stormy Monday is even better, with playing that is both sophisticated and powerful. JC and I glance at each other in relief – Joe is a player.

Some of the songs we played were: “Benny and the Jets” and “Rocket Man” by Elton John, “Statesboro Blues” and “Stormy Monday” by the Allman Brothers Band, “Tempted” by Squeeze, “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” by Bob Dylan, “Do it Again” by Steely Dan, and “Crazy” by Patsy Cline.

We have the pieces – do we have the whole?

We now have the individual components of a powerful band: two keyboards, bass, guitar, drums – plus male and female vocals. Will there be chemistry? Can we meld ourselves into a single musical unit? Can we do it quickly enough to begin playing out before our reserve of enthusiasm is exhausted?

Stay tuned!

No other three-minute song in existence takes you on a time-travel rollercoaster like this late 70s nugget from Squeeze.

The song, consisting of six verses separated midway through by a bridge, is a first-person narrative told by a guy who falls for a girl, has a kid, and eventually ends up alone.  A common plot trajectory for a pop song, right?  But it’s the WAY the narrator tells this story, more specifically his use of language and tense, which reveals so much more about the whimsical, unreliable nature of the main character than any other song I can think of, bar none. 

The first three verses and the bridge take place in the past, in a very stable, secure, well-established E major.  There’s a level of detail provided by the narrator that goes a little deeper than we really want to know, but it’s sort of charming, full of British witticisms.  At first, it’s a simple recollection of the night he met his loved one, “a girl from Clapham,” who he flatters by calling her “a lady,” to which she answers coyly, “I may be.”  Her suggestive answer, which hints that there’s room in her definition of “lady” for a little mischief, pretty much foreshadows what happens in subsequent verses (i.e. they get it on).  

Verse 1: I never thought it would happen / With me and the girl from Clapham / Out on a windy common / That night I ain’t forgotten / When she dealt out the rations / With some or other passions / I said you are a lady / Perhaps she said I may be

Sure enough, in the second verse, we can tell that the act has been consummated, because the narrator is already recalling how the couple soon after moved into a flat together and was considering “engagement.”  Of course, there’s no evidence anywhere in the song that any sort of marriage ever took place, naturally.  Nevertheless, we get hit over the head with the not-so-lurid description of their physical relationship (“we spent our time just kissing”).

Verse 2: We moved into a basement / With thoughts of our engagement / We stayed in by the telly / Although the room was smelly / We spent our time just kissing / The Railway Arms we’re missing / But love had got us hooked up / And all our time it took up

By the third verse, the narrator begins trying to convince us how honorable his intentions were, and boy does he load it on.  He gives all kinds of examples of his desire and his efforts to become respectable: he gets a job “with Stanley,” and so pumped is he to start working that takes a bath a full day before.  Alas, as we expected, his fiancée surprises him with some wonderful news, which comes at the end of his grueling, eleven-hour workday.

Verse 3: I got a job with Stanley / He said I’d come in handy / And started me on Monday / So I had a bath on Sunday / I worked eleven hours / And bought the girl some flowers / She said she’d seen a doctor / And nothing now could stop her

This news is so momentous that it demands the introduction of a new chunk of music, namely the bridge, the first act of musical non-repetition so far, which kicks off with nine successive chords without repeating any of them.  Just when we were beginning to feel all was well, being lulled into a false sense of security by three successive verses, we get this weird-ass chord succession: C#m – G#m – F#m – B – D – Am – Gm – F, followed by a build-up on A major (at “little kicks inside her”).  Again, the narrator, nervous now with the news that he is going to be a father, strives to show us even harder how diligent and hardworking he is in the face of impending fatherhood, even going so far as to sacrifice the television, which kept he and his fiancée so close together in the verse two.  His insecurity is reflected in the bizarre, somewhat non-sensical chord progression of the bridge (the verse, on the other hand, only had three chords total).  The narrator then takes us right up to the point of experiencing with him the first “little kicks” of his soon-to-be birthed baby.

Bridge: I worked all through the winter / The weather brass and bitter / I put away a tenner / Each week to make her better / And when the time was ready / We had to sell the telly / Late evenings by the fire / With little kicks inside her

Verse 4, which begins in the foreign key of D major, is where the time travel begins: the fourth verse kicks you directly into the present moment (“THIS morning at 4:50,” an ungodly hour, to be sure).  The big event of the song has arrives “thirty minutes later,” the birth of the daughter, but it doesn’t stop there.  Within the space of a single verse, the listener is dragged from 4:50, to “thirty minutes later,” to “within a year a walker.”  During this time, the listener is left without any real sense of what transpired between the members of the young family during this year.  (I mean, yes, the first year of being a parent can fly by before you know it, but this is ridiculous.)

Verse 4: This morning at 4:50 / I took her rather nifty / Down to an incubator / Where thirty minutes later / She gave birth to a daughter / Within a year a walker / She looked just like her mother / If there could be another

We come to realize that the ideal universe of verse 4, as represented by the move to the “unreal” D major key, wasn’t meant to last.  Okay, now hang on tight, because the time warp really begins with verse 5, when the narrator immediately jumps ahead TWO YEARS in the very first line, accompanied by a musical shift up a whole step up, back to the song’s opening key of E major.  This obviously, and intentionally, sets the rest of the song off from the previous action.

Verse 5: And now she’s two years older / Her mother’s with a soldier / She left me when my drinking / Became a proper stinking / The devil came and took me / From bar to street to bookie / No more nights by the telly / No more nights nappies smelling

It’s interesting that the narrator crams everything bad he did within the space of about half of verse 5, whereas previously he took his time describing all his good deeds in the first half of the song and the bridge.  Not surprisingly, he’s not really at fault for his actions.  It was the DEVIL who came and took him “from bar to street to bookie.”  (Sure, pal.  I’ve tried that approach.)

It’s easy to forget at this point that we are still in the middle of a three-minute song, because we’ve been dragged from way in the past tense when the couple first met, carried all the way through their engagement, brought to (what we thought was) the present-tense birth of their daughter, jerked forward a year later when she first starts walking, thrown even further to two years later when all the relationships have already dissolved, back to the present moment “alone here in the kitchen” (verse 6), where we find ourselves being told everything we now know about this sad tale.  It’s staggering, but it works, and it’s very subtle (seemingly).

Verse 6: Alone here in the kitchen / I feel there’s something missing / I’d beg for some forgiveness / But begging’s not my business / And she won’t write a letter / Although I always tell her / And so it’s my assumption / I’m really up the junction

This final verse is obviously a summation, a let down of sorts.  It begins much more quietly than the other verses, with the narrator jumping into the NEW present tense.  We join him “here in the kitchen” (although he claims to be “alone”), witness to a bar-stool sad sack retelling of his tale to whomever will lend a sympathetic ear.  How or why we are so lucky to find ourselves on the receiving end, we aren’t ever told (I guess because we bought the record).   I find myself wondering whether the person the narrator is thinking of in verse 6 (“and SHE won’t write a letter”) is his lady or his daughter.  He kind of dismissed his ex-fiancee in an impersonal way in the previous verse (“her mother’s with a soldier”).  So now we are left wondering if he’s talking about his daughter not writing a letter, in which case time would have really jumped way ahead (in verse 5, she was two years old).  Now that’s time travel.

How fitting that the very last words we hear are the song’s title: “up the junction” (an English phrase whose American equivalent, I suppose is, “f*cked”).  Isn’t the song’s title phrase important enough to state earlier in the song?   This is somehow appropriate in this altered time-travel universe, where everything happens out-of-place, time wise. 

What’s truly fascinating is that the music doesn’t even attempt to slow things down.  In fact, it’s as though the band is trying to get through the experience as quickly as possible.  There’s no chorus or solo to be found, and only a brief introduction and outro fall outside the repetitive verse – bridge – verse structure.  The vocal melody lags constantly a step or two behind the musical accompaniment, as though the narrator is trying breathlessly to keep pace but cannot.  There’s the shortest of pauses at the end of each verse to let him catch up and take a breath.  The music is presented to us as simply and as undecorated as possible: there’s no extra ornamentation, harmony vocals, or studio gimmickry, just a bunch of blue-collar English lads pulling one over on us, really, throwing an incredibly complex song at us disguised as a throwaway.  Even among the catalog of a band who has received tons of accolades for songwriting over the years, “Up the Junction” is a step or two ahead of the rest.

Try not to get too distracted with watching the video.  Attempt to listen to the song on its own a few times, and you’ll see what I mean.

I’ve recently gone back to the roots and installed Debian testing to replace Ubuntu. I would like to keep the concept of a disabled root account from Ubuntu, I tried for a long time using trial and error until I read the fucking man page and found the solution to configure PolicyKit for sudo users. I’ve chosen to use a new group I called admin like the one from Ubuntu, although using the sudo group would fit the purpose on my single user machine.

As usual:
adduser <username> sudo
sudo passwd -l root
gconftool --type bool --set /apps/gksu/sudo-mode true

Create the group admin and join it:
addgroup admin
adduser <username> admin

Edit /etc/polkit-1/localauthority.conf.d/50-localauthority.conf:

Change this:
[Configuration]
AdminIdentities=unix-user:0

To this:
[Configuration]
AdminIdentities=unix-user:0;unix-group:admin

That’s it! I hope…

Some nice descriptions of what this product is and why you should use it for flash or other video converting for a website.  Click here.

If you are a video nut like me and have done any type of video post-production from your home Mac or PC, then you probably know how useful and powerful a tool Sorenson Squeeze can be. For anyone out there not familiar, Squeeze is one of the best one-stop-shop encoding programs available for digital video.  Not only is Squeeze compatible with a variety of different codecs, but I have found it to work as seamlessly on a PC as it does a Mac, a function that not many other programs can claim.

You can understand my elation, then, when I heard that Sorenson was releasing Squeeze 6, the latest and greatest in streamlined video encoding.

Here she is! Don't you love a tearing open a new software package?

Here are some of the amazing perks:

• Email and text message notification. Squeeze 6 can be programmed to notify clients, colleagues, friends – basically anyone you want – when a video has finished encoding.

• Review and approval workflow. Squeeze 6 will automatically send clients password-protected video files for review and approval.

• Publishing and syndication. When finished encoding, Squeeze 6 can automatically publish your video content to a variety of online destinations, including YouTube, Twitter, private FTP locations, and more.

In addition to all these amazing perks, the seamless workflow with Avid, Final Cut Pro, and iMovie make encoding a snap.

Ready, set... encode!

So, I know what you’re thinking. A few new perks, some fancy packaging, a sleeker user interface… is this really any better than the last version?  How is this going to help me in the long run?  What is my ROI?!

Well, if you’ve been paying attention, it’s simple really. If you set it up right, Squeeze 6 can literally cut out the middle man (that’s you) when it comes to the encoding process. Theoretically, once you have your system settings all in the right order, you can output a finished video file from your desired editing software and send it to a pre-determined folder. Squeeze 6 sees the file enter this folder and immediately begins encoding it for YouTube, Vimeo, Quicktime, and DVD authoring. When it is finished, it outputs the finished files in a predetermined folder, tweets it to your supervisor or client for review, and sends you a text message letting you know all of this has been done while you were on your lunch break.

Who’s laughing at Squeeze 6 now?

1. Have you ever noticed that people with the fanciest kitchens are the ones who cook the least? 2. My mother bought me a cookbook once. When I called to say that I had tried out a recipe, she was aghast. She said, “My goodness, I didn’t mean for you to actually COOK anything!” 3. My brother is so lazy that he uses his emergency flares to de-ice his windshield. 4. I knew a computer helpdesk person who told every caller that their problems were due to sun spots. It took six months for his bosses to catch on to what he was doing. But once they did, he was promoted. 5. I wish I had a dime for every time a newscaster says, “It’s the story that just won’t go away…” It doesn’t go away because you guys are continuing to report it! 6. Did you hear about the bar that’s selling Flu Shots? They are one-part tequila with a tiny sneeze, uh, I mean, squeeze, of lemon. 7. Martha Stewart is coming to town to promote her new book. It’s called “Martha Stewart’s Tips for Living in Your Local Tent City.” I understand she is going to demonstrate a project from her chapter on “Tasteful Territoriality” on how to build attractive rock barriers around your tent. 8. Cops is doing a new spinoff, “Foreclosure – You’re Outta Here,” where loan company executives square off against foreclosed homeowners. The special twist is, celebrity judges make the final decision about whether the foreclosure will go forward. I understand that Paula Abdul is having discussions with the producers. 9. I got a basket of fruit from a friend the other day. When I asked why, she said I looked like I could use a day at the peach. 10. The physical therapist was working on stretching out a patient’s injured leg. When the patient shrieked, the therapist said, “Did I hurt you?” The patient said, “No, I was just thinking about my bill.” 11. At a recent town hall, my Congressmen said, I’m prepared to vote my conscience. As soon as I can find it.” 12. When your wife gives you the forty-mile stare, it’s time to check your odometer. 13. There’s a new show on MTV. It’s called “Pimp My Scooter.” The first show will feature Mrs. Ethel Buxby, who loves her Scooter but would like something to help it stand out from the other Scooters at Wal-Mart. Can Xzibit deliver? 14. I saw a new product on QVC the other day. It’s a television remote control with a special setting which lets you buy products on QVC by merely pressing a button. It can be loaded like a cash card, or tied into your favorite credit or debit card account. The best part about it, it’s FREE! 15. I heard there’s a new cruise line that’s going to offer a dinner theater experience called “Pirates!” It will give the guests the chance to experience the chills and thrills of a real ship takeover. Call your travel agent to book your flight to Mogadishu soon! 16. Thoughts that keep me awake at night: If he who laughs last laughs best, why can’t you just keep laughing until the other person gives up? 17. The most effective insult is the one that is not recognized as such. 18. It’s too much to ask everyone to follow the Golden Rule all the time. Gold has become way too expensive. How about a nice Aluminum Rule — “Try to behave whenever people are watching or there are cameras rolling,” or a Zinc Rule — “I promise not to eat other employees’ food out of the office fridge unless I’m really hungry.” 19. My bus driver gave me a good tip yesterday. It happened when she unexpectedly turned the corner while doing her Sudoku puzzle. 20. I’m like to tip well at restaurants. But it bothers me when the server brings out my plate, and says, while he is still chewing, “You’re really going to like this.” It’s not like I need a food taster. Or do I? I sat down and made a few observations on current events and life in general. Reading it through afterwards, it reaffirmed my belief in the essential ridiculousness of the human condition. In a good way, of course! Have a wonderful day.

                                                              AnnieSoul

Mother of four, Grandmother of thirteen, Hotel General Manager and bipartisan ridiculer of ineptitude and pure stupidity.