As I’ve mentioned on the show already, I’ve recently moved all the various Outlaw assets from Dan’s cPanel hosting to a brand new Linode VPS of my own. We are now running on the server version of Ubuntu Hardy and so far I’m really pleased with it. We are getting about 40 hits a minute on the box now and it’s holding up pretty decent for that. The server is based in Texas which in addition to being a very fitting location for us outlaw types should speed up access for our American listener base.

As already requested by some members of our community, I will write a longer article on the process of setting up the server with detailed examples once the machine has been banged on a bit more and can be considered reasonably reliable.

Just a quick note to point you to an article I just wrote up for the site on how to get Spore running in Linux with a patched and custom-compiled version of Wine. If been enjoying this game quite a lot lately and wanted to share my method for getting it to work on a penguin powered machine. It was a bit of hacking to figure it all out (especially for a compile-n00b like me) but the resulting howto should be easy enough to follow. I hope this helps a few people. We will also talk about this on Episode 54 of the show which should be released in the next few days.

I realise I haven’t posted here for a while, not since LugRadio Live that is. One of the reasons for this is the fact that I’m moving to a new place at the end of the month. I have also been very busy at work, trying to earn some extra money for some new furniture etc. The only personal free time I have left basically goes into research for and production of the show right now. Dan’s been very kindly helping out with editing the last few shows, but all this doesn’t leave me much time to do any other things nonetheless.

This has, some time ago, led me to the conclusion that I need to streamline my online presence a bit — I’m spread way too thin, so to say. I have therefore decided to close my personal blog since I don’t write much there anymore and am primarily using “micro-blogging” services like identi.ca these days anyway. Those are simply a way more time-efficent way to update people on what I’m up too. It’s also very liberating to write in these condensed 140-character blobs somehow. So, if you want to know what I’m doing right now, check out my identi.ca stream. There is also Dan’s presence and a general Linux Outlaws account where I post updates about the show’s production and aggregate Dan’s and my stream. Speaking of identi.ca, we have just recorded our second interview for the show, this time with identi.ca mastermind Evan Prodromou — it turned out really well, I think. Expect a release tomorrow. I am also working on setting up our own Laconica server so stay tuned for that as well.

In other news, we recently reached episode 50 as you might be aware. I have created a few torrents with all episodes up to #50 and some extra stuff to celebrate this, so check them out and seed the stuff if possible. I am also currently spec’ing out a project (I think I mentioned it once or twice in passing on the show) that will eventually play a big role in the re-organisation of this site, so please understand that I’m aware of the issues with the podcast feeds and the archive as far as access to older episodes is concerned and I am aiming to fix that in conjunction with the re-org.

As you can see, the show is continuing to go places and I expect to have more time for it again once I’ve moved into my new home. We are currently hovering at ca. 3,000 downloads per episode per week (mp3 and Ogg combined) and I am hoping we can increase this by further promoting the show and introducing some more interesting, new elements like the interviews. As always, please leave comments on any of this in the forums. I really hope you are continuing to enjoy the show and I’m looking forward to many, many more episodes and many, many new listeners. You’ll see more of me once I’ve settled into the new place. Until then, keep listening and stay free!

I am currently in the process of packing up my stuff for my flight to Liverpool tomorrow. This is quite exciting, not only because I don’t particularly like flying (I am constantly fighting the urge to shout “I ain’t getting on no plane, fool!”), but also because I will meet Dan in person for the first time after over a year of only communicating via email, IM and VoIP. Dan and I will attend LugRadio Live UK 2008 together and hopefully record a “live” show there. We will also try to pick up as many interviews as we can over the weekend.

If you are planning to visit Lug Radio Live, please feel free to meet up with us and attend the recording of show #48 if we can pull it off. We are looking forward to meeting all of you there!

I want to thank Campbell Barton and the guys from the Blender Institute’s Project Peach for sending Dan and me each a copy of their wonderful movie Big Buck Bunny which will be released online today.

I received my DVD this week and have watched it about a dozen times since. Simply put, this thing rocks! The artistic quality in the design, rendering and the score is amazing. It looks like something from Pixar and the story is on par with that as well. I literally laughed through the whole film when I first saw it (no spoilers here, but you gotta watch through the credits — there’s a very funny little twist at the end). One thing I especially love is the fact that the two DVDs are packed choc full with material: There’s HD versions of the film, the soundtrack, scripts, all the models and tutorials how to use them in Blender and much more. Since everything is licensed under Creative Commons, you are basically free the use all the stuff from the movie to play around with yourself. It’s amazing!

You can get the movie via torrents and directly from the Blender site, but please consider buying the DVDs to support these guys. They have definitely earned it and with all the content you get on the DVDs, it’s worth it as well! The only slight gripe I have about all of this is that the movie is only 10 minutes long. I really hope the guys are considering to expand on these wonderful characters in the future. I am really thankful to them for bringing us this brilliant creation and for the immense service they did to Free Software by doing it.

Note: Stay tuned for our full review in episode 41 of the show.