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The Christmas episode of hashlugradio is available for download right now! This episode features a very funny message from, erm, me. It’s full of hashlugradio and LUG Radio in-jokes though, so be warned if you’re not a fan of either show.

As in previous years, I decided to donate a little cash to two open source projects which I’ve used lots over the year. I’ve always tried to find projects which aren’t high profile, partly to reassure the authors that their work is being used and appreciated and partly so I get to pimp cool bits of software to other people. I’ve always assumed that the “big boys” like GNOME get enough support from Novell, Canonical etc. that my relatively measly donation wouldn’t make much difference. Perhaps I’m wrong in thinking that though?

Having thought about it and looked back at my blog postings over the last year, I’ve chosen GIMP and Audacity. Both quite high profile projects, but big and complex ones too. I feel that I’ve got to grips with GIMP recently. I use it for processing all my digital photographs as well as processing scanned negatives. Its documentation is really handy and it has some nice new features and UI tweaks in the latest releases. I use Audacity when processing the LUG talks videos, using the tools for EQ, noise removal, mix downs etc. Like GIMP it’s had some extra functionality introduced in the latest versions and I plan to use its multi-track features more heavily next year.

The videos from this month’s HantsLUG meeting are available for download from the website. This month includes:

• a review and demonstration of the ASUS Eee PC running Xandros Linux,
• a review and demonstration of the Pinnacle/Roku SoundBridge and
• a beginner’s guide to using CPAN with Perl.

Head over to the website and check them out.

We went to Cardiff a couple of weekends ago and visited the Dr. Who exhibition and various places around Cardiff Bay where bits of Dr. Who and Torchwood have been recorded. There are a load of photos here, but just wanted to show off this photo I took of the statue/fountain in Roald Dahl Plass under the sky that was throwing down rain and hail all weekend.

There are a handful of variations on the theme too: