Tim Dobson's Blog

Crazy Times

Going into Glossop and meeting up with a group of friends to watch bands and stuff is fun!

If you are out this weekend, See you then!

Then and Now

A few months ago there was glorious sunshine which let me sit outside in the garden doing work. These days, in August, which is meant to be the hottest month, we have had some immense downpours and very little "good weather" to write home about. :(

oh well...

Today I got bored and turned my room into a music studio for the day.

I have

• A Yamaha Pacifica
• A Marshall MG Series 30 DFX
• A Yamaha Bass
• A Harke B200 Bass amp

as well as a load of wires, connectors, things that work some of the times and stuff.

I don't usually do this kind of thing, but I spotted an answer which Perfdave had put down which I really liked., and decided to do one for a change!

Why are you single?

I broke up with my ex a while ago, I just haven't got together with the right girl yet. In general, I'd rather be single and happy than in a relationship and very unhappy.

Tell me about the shirt you're wearing?

It's a white tshirt I got from TK MAX a while back, however it seems to have faded, a lot in the wash and most of the writing has faded from it's faux-faded look to vrai-faded look.

What's currently bothering you?

Erm, nothing much, a few odds and ends.

• My AS results a little
• The consequences of the Glossop Entry to the Southport 12 Hour Race 2008
• Whether DFEY will be a success
• Software patents etc.

What do you currently hear?

Pretty much silence. - The humming of my computer and the banging of my keyboard.

"Foolproof" instructions to install and run Phenny and phenny-speak on Debian, Ubuntu and derivatives.

• Phenny is free software, licenced under the Eiffel Forum License 2
• "phenny speak" is free software, licenced under a very permissive BSD-like licence.

Please show this to any other organisations or people who you think might be interested.

DFEY-NW (Digital Freedom in Education & Youth - North West) is a group focusing on young people and issues of freedom in the digital world, based in the Northwest of England at the moment.

In Brief

WHERE: Meet near KFC, Upstairs, Piccadilly Station, Manchester

WHEN: 12:30pm -> ~4pm

SIGN UP: http://is.gd/1ITm

CONTACT: Email - td at tdobson dot net

--

MAILING LIST: http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/dfey-nw-discuss

WEBSITE: http://dfey.freedomdreams.co.uk

An Update has been posted!

Digital Freedom in Education & Youth - North West (DFEY-NW), the North West of England's first group focusing on young people and issues of freedom in the digital world is looking forward to it's first meeting EVER in August.

What is DFEY-NW

DFEY-NW is a group formed in response from a growing need in the Northwest of England for a Group to encourage and promote young people's involvement with the free software community by creating a social space to make it more comfortable for young people to get involved with GLUGs and FSUGs.

The press release put out last week, seems to have resulted in widespread local coverage, which, I'm happy to see, has mainly focused mainly on the positive outcomes of the race effort.

The story was briefly picked up by Glossop.com and shortly afterwards my visitor statistics went haywire as solid mass of visitors arrived from there and other places.

Despite most of the coverage portraying the entry in a positive light, it seems that some people are puzzled at the reasons for the club withdrawing support, as "elegantly" summed up in this comment:

Why did Glossop Sailing Club withdraw its support?

As previously stated, I am unclear on this issue as this is one of the things, I seek to ascertain in the near future, as a result of a series of meetings with relevant people.

Nevertheless, The Glossop Chronicle covered the full story, and also apparently contacted a "spokesman" from Glossop Sailing Club.

SAVING THE DAY

FOUR young sailors from Glossop Sailing Club claimed a mammoth success in a marathon event that was surrounded in controversy.

A depleted youth squad from Glossop Sailing Club achieved 10th place out of a field of 28 - their best ever result in the annual National Junior 12-Hour Race in Southport recently - despite the club dropping an anchor in the works.

After the Glossop team's Southport 12 Hour Race's prerace publicity last week, a third party has put out this press release:

A depleted youth squad from Glossop Sailing Club achieved 10th place out of a field of 28, their best ever result in the annual National Junior Twelve Hour Race, held at Southport, despite their sailing club withdrawing their support and leaving them high and dry without a boat on the day of the competition.

Ben Griffiths wrote to the Open Rights Group discussion mailing list a few weeks ago:

I want to share a DRM story.

I was in Curry's in Plymouth a couple of weeks ago. A man was arguing loudly with one of the staff, his ten-year old daughter in tears at his side. From what I could gather, she had saved up her pocket money to buy an iTunes gift card - the songs she'd spent her money on, of course, didn't work on her mp3 player.
The man wanted a refund for what seemed to him a defective product; the staff member said that if the card had been used they couldn't give a refund.
The young girl cried and cried and cried.