ubuntu

I've spent the last few days/evenings trying to setup a PC at home with Linux. I'm not one of those anti-Microsoft people, or an inveterate tinkerer, nor am I a free software advocate. I simply wanted to host a database driven website using J2EE technology on a secure, easy to maintain platform.

I'm a very experienced PC user and have used unix before – I once did an administration course for Digital Unix. However, I wanted a Linux distribution that was easy to use so I initially tried Mandrake. After a lengthy installation (which went OK) it would not even shutdown the PC properly. Oh and it didn't detect my (PS2) mouse. So in came Ubuntu. It installed perfectly from one cd.

But now comes my problem with Linux: installing software. It's a nightmare. To cut a long story short, I'm going back to XP where I can setup the PC, install and configure my software in a few hours. I haven't given up on Linux but next time I'll get a Dummies book to help me along.

it helps if you have long sleeves

Finally received ESPN NHL2K5 at the back end of last week. What a brilliant game. I've been tweaking the sliders to setup the game properly. So far I've played about 10 games as the Canadiens against Tampa Bay. The results have gone from being thrashed 4-0 a few times, up to getting walloped 7 or 8-1 (when I moved to All-Star level). More tweaking and I've gone from winning 2-0, 1-0 to losing 0-1 in OT. A few more changes to make both me and the CPU a little more potent and that should do. I'm looking forward to trying this online.

I'm stuck on the last level of Ratchet and Clank 3. The bit after the first round with Dr Nefarious is killing me.

Me and HP both played ICO for a while on Sunday afternoon. It's absorbing. I started on it again after she'd gone to bed. I got my copy from Ebay and it came without the instruction booklet so the first few times of playing I didn't know that: you can pull Yorda out of the black hole things and you can save your progress by sitting on the seat with her. Armed with that knowledge the game is even more enjoyable. Battling the smokey baddies gets a bit tedious sometimes but other than that it's a fantastic game.

chamber of horrors

Uuuurggghhh!! We had a blocked drain!

bohemian rhapsody

Budapest was great. There was snow on the ground and it was very cold (minus temperatures all the time we were there) but we enjoyed it immensely after a shaky start.

Things started badly when I realised we were flying from Luton and not Stansted. I'd already pre-ordered currency to collect at Stansted so I had to call and get that changed the night before we left. It got worse as we looked at the check-in screens at Luton and realised that I'd somehow got the flight time wrong. Luckily we still had time to catch the flight but only just – we had to jump the queue at the security checks.