As part of a training session at work, we were shown a fun tool called Wordle that allows you to parse a set of textual data and create a word-based map based upon the frequency of the words. This concept is already used extensively on blog sites based upon the frequency of used tags.

I thought it would be fun to take a chunk of my latest posts to see what I’ve been going on about the most. Unsurprisingly, installing Linux on my laptop and my continually-growing contempt for IE6 seem to be particularly highlighted. :)

My old laptop has been showing its age recently (or so I thought). Every thing I tried to do in Windows XP seemed to take forever – especially once I started to use multiple applications. As a result, I’ve not used it for a while.

I recently wiped the whole thing by using the factory restore DVDs that come with the laptop but that installed so much Sony bloatware that it didn’t really feel any faster at all. Just a whole lot emptier! ^^

I’ve been thinking of trying to use Linux for a while but the one thing that’s put me off is the fact that there are some Windows applications that I still have a need for (and a couple of games). It was a few months back when my interest was re-kindled by Haz’s laptop running Linux. He showed me that he’d got some windows applications running natively on the laptop by using Wine and it actually seemed to work!

So… I’ve downloaded the latest distro of Kubuntu (I prefer the KDE environment) and I’ve installed it on my laptop. I even destroyed the hidden restore partition on the HDD to make more space. I’ve downloaded packages useful to me (networking just works without any hassle at all) and I’ve installed Wine.

The result is amazing – it feels like I have a new laptop again. The speed is amazing, I can switch between various running applications with ease and I LOVE the 3D task selection view. I’ve fallen in love with my old laptop again because it works as it’s supposed to.

Now I’m just trying to install the Windows applications that I need. I installed Internet Explorer 6 earlier and that runs without any problems at all. Fun, fun, fun!

Happy New Year 2009

Happy new year 2009!

It’s the start of the new year and I still haven’t got around to making my digital photo frame thingy. Ah well – something to blog about when I do it.

It’s -4 outside so it was nicer to enjoy the fireworks in the World of Warcraft (yeah, yeah, I don’t care if you think it’s sad) with my beloved than go out into the frigid conditions expecting to see any kind of firework in the skies of Carlisle. Let’s face it – it seems to be London that gets the public new-year’s firework display. ;)

Happy new year everyone! :)

I’m pleased to see that other people on the Internet are joining with me and rejecting the crappy standards support of IE6. Getting a website to look right in IE6 has been a pain in the bum for a long, long time and the sooner it dissapears from the face of the planet the better.

Sadly, as my workplace still insists on using it on every single computer in the building (except the newest Vista ones) I still have to make sure my tutorials support IE6. Booooo!

It’s just nice to see that others feel as I do.

I’ve just moved to new hosting facilities and I thought I should finally get around to rebuilding my personal website and blog. Until now I’ve been making use of Blogger’s service but I thought it was time to gather things together once again.

Hopefully I’ll update this more often (but how often have I said that?)