I recently managed to break my Ubunto installation, totally my fault for trying to get KDE running beside my Gnome setup.  Since I couldn’t back out all the stuff I did properly I decided a clean install was my best option, with Linux this is nowhere near as painful as with Windows especially if you have a separate /home partition :0)

So I installed and tried out a couple of different distro’s from the gaggle of new releases that have been pushed out to the community in the past month or so.  There are some very nice distro’s out there and I think this is going to be very good news for the Linux community as we are defenitely going to see some new people coming over to the Linux world and this in turn will spur more innovation and enhancement in the future distributions.

I have settled on Linux Mint KDE community edition after my week of trials, this is mainly due to my familiarity with Ubuntu’s excellent package management and simplicity of getting all the 3D goodness going ;0)

There’s a few things you need to do in order to get this version of Mint running the 3D stuff.

• Install the Restricted driver manager - in Konsole type sudo apt-get install restricted-manager
• When complete run it from the console by typing restricted-manager and then when the manager appears, install the relevant drivers.
• Reboot if you installed the video Drivers
• after this you will need the xserver-xgl component sudo apt-get install xserver-xgl
• Another reboot
• after logging in I used alt-F2 to get the run dialog up and ran compiz –replace
• You may need to tweak the settings in Settings>Advanced Desktop Effects Settings off the system menu to get all the compiz goodness you need.

These instructions worked for me, your mileage may vary of course, if you find you need to do anything different please post your Spec and details of what you had to do as a comment to help others.

Technorati Tags: Mint KDE CE

The releases are coming thick and fast and a recent survey amongst beta testers shows that it is over 90% of the way there. i expect the full release soon. As I mentioned previously this is an amazing IDE.

Also check out this nice graphic guide to rails on netbeans which is on the edgy developments blog.

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For some reason I was expecting to write this post a lot later in the year and possibly even next year, but here it is. Visual Studio 2008 and the .Net Framework 3.5 has officially been released. Scott Guthrie has all the details on his blog here.

Technorati Tags: Visual Studio 2008

Netbeans 6 is getting closer to full release, RC1 is available to download from netbeans.org today.
I like NetBeans 6, as a ruby development IDE it is quite simply amazing and though I am an Aptana advocate even I have to admit that NetBeans does it better.

Code completion is second to none and the features included are making NetBeans the IDE of choice for many people and I’m fast becoming one of them. I still like Aptana’s Javascript CSS and HTML handling so won’t be giving it up just yet but for Ruby, Rails and Java, NetBeans 6 is my tool of choice.

NetBeans 6 is not NetBeans 5 with some new bits and bug fixes, this is a whole new development and it shows.

Technorati Tags: NetBeans 6

Dave Shea has a good article over on mezzoblue that highlights a coupe of basic faults on a site Starbucks have put together.  The lessons pointed out highlight a couple of the issues I am forever banging on about, especially browser detection on web sites.

Technorati Tags: Starbucks, browser detection

Just saw this on slashdot…

Bit of an embarrassment that you are on exercise and can’t spot a sub right on your doorstep…

In a bizarre off the wall conversation this afternoon my pal Lummie came up with Beerile, this is a new term for the condition otherwise known as ‘Brewers droop’ or ‘can’t get it up coz I’ve had too much beer!’ Fantastic!

Regular readers know I am a fan of the Prototype JS Library and the accompanying Script.aculo.us library.  Despite moving into EXT at work, I still like to stay in touch with Prototype and still use it at home.  1.6 is a big leap forward and includes some really nice changes.

Ajaxian have a long and reasonably detailed post on the subject so I won’t re-invent the wheel here, it’s worth checking the new releases out and there’s now a book that will help you get the most from this pair of awesome script libraries.

Technorati Tags: Prototype 1.6, Script.aculo.us 1.8

[edit: Looks Like I jumped the mark after all 2.0 RC1 has been released ;0) ]

I think I’m a bit slow on announcing this one, but EXT has been updated to 2.0.

EXT is a fantastic JavaScript library that really goes a long way to opening up the possibilities for anyone building a top JavaScript based application.

2.0 has been in Beta for a while but now it’s released we are going to see a huge improvement in applications offered using EXT as a base.

Anyone currently using EXT 1.1 should consider an update. The documentation has been revamped for this release so you should have little trouble updating. EXT 2.0 lays down the gauntlet to the other JS libraries available and bost an impressive array of customers including SAP (Research), Time Warner Cable, Sony Online Entertainment and CNN.

Anyone developing multi browser capable sites / applications using JavaScript should consider EXT a must as it covers the full gamut of common browsers including:

• Internet Explorer 6+
• FireFox 1.5+ (PC, Mac)
• Safari 2+
• Opera 9+ (PC, Mac)

Check out the documentation here and be sure not to miss the samples which do a damn fine job of showing just some of the capabilities EXT offers. You can access the samples from the main panel on the homepage.

Egg Nog Latte count: 2

Technorati Tags: EXT 2.0

You know it’s nearly Christmas when Starbucks get out the red cups.  Yesterday was a good day as I managed to get my first egg nog latté in and boy was it good!

I’m normally a strong black coffee kinda guy but in the build up to the season I generaly make an exception; I’m certain that there’s a million callories in one Venti Latté but hey it’s nearly Christmas ;0)

If you haven’t tried one yet I highly recommend you do (try an extra shot for a touch more coffee flavour)

I wonder if it’s going too far to buy some coffee cup decorations for the tree this year…

Technorati Tags: Starbucks, egg nog