XBlast Developement Picked Up Again, 50 First Dates, PCMCIA Working
BlindMan (beware, hopelessly outdated!) recently bugged me again about the new xblast-tnt version and a Debian package for it. He also found out that some of the people working on the new version are hanging out in #xblast on freenode. So I joined there and found out that they have xblast-tnt extended quite heavily: Shrink hints in the timeline, central server for game coordination and player stats, colleted over 1000 levels and also quite some player models.
So I picked up my registered xblast project on sourceforge again to centralize the efforts and use some CVS and stuff. I've also resolved the two remaining bugs that was sitting in the queue. (I have another one open for historical reasons which might make sense for a woody upload. I am not sure if it will be accepted though so I am unclear about that currently.) During the next weeks I hope to come up with a new xblast-tnt package (or, if I think it is good enough as a replacement upload it directly as xblast -- we will see). I will put some status things into my xblast-tnt pool about the Debian packages. There is nothing yet there though except for the (forward)ported abort flag patch done by snowcrash. But that is worth a look anyway. :)
Watched "50 First Dates" yesterday. Was really nice and funny. If you watched "The Wedding Singer", you can expect quite the same, just with different story. Drew and Adam, Adam again written a special song for the movie and performing it. Though I liked the one from The Wedding Singer much more, 50 First Dates over all is really worth it.
About the PCMCIA problem I blogged lately: I don't know why, but it is resolved again. I hope it doesn't work again. After some hours of leaving the notebook turned off it worked again. It was definitely no overheating though, because the notebook was cool all the time.... Strange things happen these days.
Right before when I tried to plug my notebook into the network again it worked for some seconds, but then my cardbus seem to have broken immediately. The notebook froze completely, I wasn't able to do anything anymore, only after I removed the card from the slot again it started working. The card works perfectly in the notebook of a teammate, so it must be the cardbus. Unfortunately I can't afford to repair it, and I am not sure when I will be able to afford a usb networkcard (which is in contradiction with my desire to put my GnuPG key onto my usb stick, too...).
That given I am currently unable to do my Debian work (or anything else, fwiw. Yes, that includes mails). The desktop PC at home my wife used has some hardware problems too since some time, but I guess I have to debug them now. Unfortunately I am more or less forced to work on my way to or from work for Debian, so this doesn't help too much, and the ADSL line isn't that stable neither. I will have to find a solution for that, and if it means taking a break for some time. Sorry...
Some people have things like "currently listening" or moods in their blog. I think you can guess which mood I am now in, and if I would put something on I guess it would be "Catch Me" from Clawfinger: "I feel more alive dead than when I was alive". One of my alltime favorites.
It cought me: Star Trek — The New Empire layed a tractor beam on me. Unfortunately this game is German language only, but it doesn't involve much time needed and seems nice (at least the three ticks I played so far).
Finally the logcheck bug #193161 has been fixed for stable. There seem to have been lots of misunderstandings around this, but it still is a pity to see Steve giving up and handing the package over to someone else. I hope those persons will handle it like this nice package deserves. I've noticed that Matt uploaded the package with my name in the Changed-by: field as credit for extracting the relevant patch. Too generous....
I already raised interest in security work when Steve blogged about David Wheller's Secure Programming HOWTO but I guess that is too long for me to offer a translation. I will read it at least and try to help when I get informed that help might be needed like this time, again. Funny coincidence: I am thinking for quite a long time about packaging bricolage now for which Erich did some preliminary packages, and guess what: The main author is David Wheeler. At least (I hope) this package won't need any security update, then... :-) On the other hand, never say never.
Yes, I'm back from vacations. Work did wait, of course, and pile up.... Only thing I can offer you in this short "I'm back" message is this: At the IKEA Köln they have a special parking space for people like us! See:
It means: "only for IT workers". Some people try to convince me that there is just the M missing and it really should read like "only for co workers", but I think those are just envy because I found a special parking space for people like me...
On friday there has been the funeral of my grandma. The whole family was there except for my younger brother Gernot. He is currently working on board of the MS Deutschland in Oman and it is too expensive for him to come back just for the funeral. It was really nice, and I just can quote the song that started the Mass:
Wenn kein' Nacht nimmer käm',
könnt der Tag nicht besteh'n,
wenn's kein Regen nicht hätt',
wär' die Sonn' auch nicht schön.
Und das Leid ist wohl da,
das wir d'Freud' recht versteh'n.
After the funeral we sat together and talked about the various things that we remembered... The next day we went to her flat to fetch some things. The quilt my wife made for my grandma was given back to us, and I got a picture that was hanging in their living room since I was a small boy. I always liked it and it will help me to not forget the nice times we had, even the time before my grandpa died ten years ago...
On wednesday I will go on vacation for a week. Can't remember when I have been on vacation the last time — you don't think of taking a vacation when you (have to) switch jobs too often. I am glad that I am now for over one year again in this job and hope it will last for longer again. I will go visit the family of my wife (which in turn is now mine, too :)) in Bonn, but I can't tell yet if and when I will find the time for keysigning — they are a quite large family. I just know that we have to visit Ikea Köln but like I said: I don't know when. So please don't ask.... I have got the mobile number of towo and will notify him if I really find the time for a meeting, so best is to let him know that you might get informed, too. towo is his irc nickname, if you wonder.
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