I run Kubuntu Jaunty with KDE4 on my netbook. BasKet wasn’t doing it for me so I tried to get Tomboy happening. Problem was, it would abort with a SIGSEGV and complain about errors in mono any time I tried to run it. I couldn’t find anything out there that suggested a workaround, so I set about building a newer version than was in the repos from source. Couldn’t get that happening, but in my travels I installed the package gnome-doc-utils and BAM, it worked.

So, if you’re having issues with Tomboy refusing to start under KDE4, have a crack at:

sudo apt-get install gnome-doc-utils

Let me know in comments if it does the trick.

I’ve been lax in posting about it, but a few weeks ago I finally bought my first motorbike. I’ve been moving towards this for years, but it hasn’t come together, mainly for reasons of money. I finally pulled the trigger on a Sachs Madass 125. It’s a little bike, but it has a few main attributes.

• It’s cheap. $3500 on road.
• It’s light, so it’s dead easy to ride and manouver.
• The build quality is great. The frame has some really pretty welds.
• It’s cheap.
• The engine is a knock off of the Honda CT110 with a bigger head on it, so it’s pretty much bulletproof.
• It looks awesome.
• It’s cheap.

I can definitely see myself picking up a bigger bike in the future (the Triumph Scrambler, Husqvarna SM610 and the Honda CB1300 spring to mind. Mmmmmm.) But while I’m at uni this little machine is great for getting me around.

I’m also having a hell of a lot of fun riding it. My skill levels are improving constantly, and I’m pushing myself harder and harder to get better. Also, I dragged off a bloke on a Suzuki Across on Saturday. Sure, he was a learner who seemed to be struggling really badly, but I beat him nonetheless.

My technolust is raging for the Neo1973 from FIC and OpenMoko. It’s a Linux based smartphone with a retardedly high resolution screen, coming out in October. The developer version is already out (this isn’t vapourware), but it lacks a few features like WiFi.

I’m just really, really excited for a completely open phone. I’m currently using a Sony Ericsson k800i, which is a great phone, but it’s loaded with this goddamned Optus My Zoo Now java app that can’t be removed. The shortcut to it is located on the same softkey as the hang up button, meaning that if someone I’m talking to hangs up a call before I do, it loads. This wouldn’t be too much of a problem, except that it’s really, really poorly written and takes a good few minutes to load, during which time you can’t do anything else on the phone. If you try and kill it early, it usually crashes the phone. This is very frustrating behaviour.

Having a completely open phone will mean that crap like this doesn’t happen. Having a phone that runs on Linux will mean that I can use tools like cron. My dream is to have the phone set to automatically mirror smh.com.au/text every morning while it’s at home on my home WiFi network. That’s the main thing I use my data connection for anyway, and it doesn’t change throughout the day. I could have the entire newspaper sitting locally on my phone, loading lightning fast, and it wouldn’t cost me a cent. If I could get that set up the lack of UMTS wouldn’t even bother me.

Also, it would support SyncML meaning I could sync it up with whatever I please. No vendor lock-in like with ActiveSync, gah.

All in all, October is going to be a great month for geekery. Gutsy Gibbon drops and the consumer version of the Neo1973 is released to market. Glee!

I was in my local newsagent today buying a bus ticket when I spied this little fellow peering out at me from behind the counter.

Tux has been popping up in an awful lot of places that are completely unrelated to Linux lately. I wonder if there’s an undercover geek hidden away at Woman’s Day somewhere?

I haven’t updated in a while and I feel bad. I had electricians in my house for most of the day  today. They were nice chaps, but with the amount of time they spent here I’m really worried about the amount of money it’s going to end up costing. I haven’t been sent the bill yet and I’m worried. Owing a house really sucks at times.

Also, I went to the dentist the other day for the first time in about 8 years. It reminded me why I waited 8 years between trips. All he really did was check me out and clean off the tartar buildup, but that sucked. Now my teeth are constantly cold and it hurts. I think that tartar was like my mouth’s warm wooly winter blankey that the mean dentist man stole. Now they’re sad. I have to go back and get one filling in one of my wisdom teeth and a couple of fissure seals on my other teeth. I made him give me drugs since there’ll be drills involved.

Also, I’m going to go and testride a bike I’ve had my eye on for ages tomorrow. It’s the Sachs MadAss 125. Stupid name, but looks like a great little ride that fits my criteria of cheap, small and cheap. I just want something that’s going to be dirt cheap to run, that will get me from work to uni and back with the odd trip into the city and to the shops, and that will be small enough to park anywhere, filter easily and throw through corners. The bike is basically a postie with a big bore kit and a manual gearbox, so it should be a bit quicker than the standard CT110. That should mean it’ll cruise comfortably at 80 and get up to 90 when pushed. Fine for my needs. I just need to make sure that it’ll do it while carting my carcass up a hill. Thus, the test ride. I was going to go on Monday, but it rained all damn day. Tuesday I was at work so of course the weather was magnificent. Wednesday I had work in the morning then by the time I was done with the dentist there was no time. Today I had the sparkies in all morning then work in the arvo, weather again was glorious. So tomorrow morning, before work, should finally be the day, barring torrential downpour. I know I could go and ride it even if it rains a bit, but I’m wary of riding an unfamiliar bike in the wet, especially when my riding experience is pretty damned limited anyway.

Okay so this blog sort of fell by the wayside lately. I admit it, I’m crap. However, a new age is dawning.

Alex Dolton recently found this blog by googling his name. There are two things to come out of this:

1) Alex is really vain and he got sprung for it.

2) It reminded me that this thing was here and that I haven’t posted to it in ages.

So I’ll be getting back into the swing posting about junk. I’ve even got stuff to talk about, mainly geek related. I’ve switched to Linux (Ubuntu) in the last couple of months and I’ve been doing Wii related modding stuff. Also there’s been general Uni business and work  and life junk happening.
The other thing that may help me out keeping this updated is letting people know this blog exists. Up until now it’s just Alex that’s read it (without my knowledge) and bots that make spam comments about car parts and nudie websites.

So mark this day, non-existent readers. It will bring a new dawn!