Blog Roger

My post redirect ended at the beginning of February, so on Friday I popped over to my old abode to see if there were any stray pieces of post (and yes there were – I got an invite from my university alumni association, offering me the chance to come for an open day. For just £20 I could get a days worth of tours… around my office and other places nearby).

The guy who took over my room opened the door and was happy for me to come in and check the mail. At that point, half a dozen or so kids came running down the street, kicking the lamp posts trying to knock them out. Man, I’m glad I don’t live there any more.

Today a new package was added to the “universe” repository for the upcoming version of Ubuntu Linux. This means that when the “Lucid Lynx” (the codename for the next release of Ubuntu) is released, anybody will be able to easily install sqlite3-pcre, which is an extension for sqlite3 that implements regular expression searching.

I didn’t write sqlite3-pcre, but I did package it for Ubuntu so I’m pleased it’s made it in before the deadline.

Thanks to all of the people on the #ubuntu-motu channel for their help.

When my car got hit, it wasn’t the end of the world because I’d bought a motorbike just a few days before. This is something I’ve been meaning to do for ages, so I’m glad I’ve actually got round to it. To give you some sort of idea – I was buying kit around this time last year, having done the CBT the previous September. I took a leisurely approach to doing lessons (and was busy)and finally took the test in July.

I’d originally planned to go for a Suzuki SV650, but it turned out that I’m the wrong size so my knees ended up in an awkward place on the petrol tank. After trying a few different bikes, I settled on this Honda CBR600F. It’s nice. It also looks good, unlike a significant proportion of the others I’d seen where the designers had decided that it’d be a good idea to see just how many colour clashes they could fit onto a single bike. Amazingly, this is the only photo I have of it.

Peak power (that’s actual power, not power to weight ratio) is more than my car was, which is a bit daunting, but that’s a 11,000 rpm and it’s pretty sensible at lower revs.

I’ve ridden a reasonable amount now, but nothing too interesting – mostly just going to work and back because, again, I’ve been too busy on weekends.

The sad thing is, of course, that it’s been locked up for almost two months now. Never mind riding on ice, I just don’t want it to go anywhere near the nasty salt that’s on the roads.

Roll on spring time!

There’s lots I want to write about, but that just means I never get round to writing anything.

So. Something that’s new – I have no car for the first time in about 9 years. Some bugger crashed into me on the way back from hockey (overtaking in a village at ~50 mph) and didn’t stop. The damage was reasonably minimal considering, but it smashed the driver side headlamp and put a big concertina pattern in the wheel arch. It was still ok to drive after getting a new headlamp fitting, but I wasn’t 100% sure of its structural integrity and the MOT was due mid December. With the damage and a few other problems it didn’t seem worth even trying for to get it through, so on the day before it was due I sold it for the staggering sum of £40.

I am looking for a new car, but it’s difficult to be enthusiastic about spending that much money. I want something at least half way reasonable, with better fuel efficiency, etc. etc. The damn scrappage scheme seems to have resulted in used prices increasing so there’s not much out there for me. I’m tempted to see how long I can manage without.

I got bored of my old blog and stopped updating it. Lots of things have changed since then and I feel like putting pen to paper again. I rejoined twitter (as ralight),but some times that just isn’t quite enough. I’m looking forward to using some of the many fancy features that wordpress has that my self coded site didn’t have.

The old blog is still online at old blog, and I’ve got rewrite rules in place so none of the old links should break. No guarantees though!