SWAT's blog

Today I read this message on the mailinglist and it has apparently also been posted by someone on the Ubuntu planet, but I just have to show you these comics. Both comic strips are part of my daily batch of comics by the way

Ahoi landrots, when will you join our crew? Our ship is sailing towards freedom and infinate treasure! Get away from all that land and join us! We will sail around the globe and we will become one with the great sea (I just hope we will not sail too far and fall off of the world).
Do not forget Talk like a pirate day next year! It is just fun and makes your day a lot nicer. You will never forget the faces of the people you encounter, who do not have a clue
P.S. Take a look at this fine pirate

Before I even begin to talk about Gutsy itself, please remember that it is currently still in its ALPHA stage. The Gutsy BETA release will be available from September 27th and the FINAL release will be available from October 18th. Only the final release should be considered for production use. If you really want to use the alpha or beta release, you could expect things to break and that you have to fix it (remember: this means you need to have extensive Linux knowledge).
Gutsy will have numerous enhancements, increased stability and performance. I’ll quickly go over some of these enhancements:

• Bullet-proof X – A failsafe mode for X which will fall back to a VESA 800×600/256 or VGA 640×480/16 screen. Hopefully you won’t need to use the terminal again, if you bork your xorg.conf (although I love the terminal)
• AppArmor – Security software for Linux (developed and maintained by Novell) which enhances security and is an alternative to SE Linux
• CompizFusion – 3D Desktop software which will be enabled by default on Gutsy which will hopefully lead to an even bigger market share for Ubuntu (and thus Linux). I personally don’t like the ‘enabled by default’ part, I would rather see a ‘available with a simple click by default’.

There are some nice new packages in Gutsy’s repository like: powertop, filezilla and pidgin. Some programs had a nice face lift and it looks very slick at the moment. Here are some screenshots to keep you warm for the next month

P.S. Unfortunately my terminal did not get any graphical upgrades

Edit: I totally forgot to mention that NetworkManager finally works with WPA2!

I have spent the last two weeks on the beautiful Spanish island Mallorca in a town called Paguera and arrived back home last Saturday. Two weeks of rest, relaxation, fun, sun and drinking. I made some new friends and hope that we will keep in touch, the plans for grabbing a beer together later this year have already been made.

Since I have not had a proper vacation for 3 years, due to personal reasons, I was very glad I could escape my stuffy home and get a fresh perspective on things. The first few days I even had to learn to relax, quite a strange experience (alcohol helped a lot at this stage).
The hotel

I stayed at the Palmira Peguera hotel. The information provided at the check-in could have been a bit better, but the employees were very willing to help me out. There was a ‘internet corner’ which actually was one computer hooked to the internet, running Windows XP. (7 minutes of internet were priced at 0.50 cents, quite expensive) The food quality was mediocre, but sufficient, just stay away from the calamari. The rooms were clean and were cleaned every day, absolutely no problems there. I would recommend this hotel to anyone who wants to stay in Paguera, just do not expect too much from the food.
The town

Paguera (also called Peguera) is a town with a nice, yet small, collection of shops and bars. If you ‘really’ want to go shopping, you can take a bus to Palma and you will find anything you need. Paguera has a nice main street, 4 beaches (2 of them are the main beaches) and a nice scenery. If you just want to have a nice vacation without anything really fancy, this is the place to be.
The beach

The beaches are clean and the water is clear. In the main season, if there are a lot of people in the water, the water gets a little muddy (solution: go early in the morning or late in the afternoon). You can rent a beach parasol (3 euros) and two stretchers (each 3 euros) which really is worth the money. The guys who you pay for the beach parasol and stretchers also clean the beach and take out the garbage.
The nightlife

If you are fond of large discos, you will be disappointed. There are some clubs/discos, which was more than enough for me, since I’m more of a ‘bar’ guy. On my first day I found (IMHO) the best bar in Paguera and went there every night. We had loads of fun and I met some very interesting people there. Most of the bars close at 02.00 and the clubs are usually open until 06.00. If you ‘really’ want to go clubbing you can always take a cab to Palma, which costs about 40 euros (don’t forget the money to get you back home though).
It’s good to be back. I’ll try to get my normal rhythm back ASAP.