August » 2006 » The Blog From Hell

Been a long while since I've posted a new story. Mostly because I have been too busy to write, but I did find a bit of time, and have finished two new stories which I am proud to now add to the literature (content/view/34/) section.They form two short ghost stories, meant to be read together. Although they tell different stories, they are related in subtle ways. On their own, I think each is pretty good, but together they are much better. They are: The spirit of the darkness (http://silentcoder.co.za/content/the_spirit_of_the_darkness.pdf) and the darkness of the spirit. (http://silentcoder.co.za/content/the_darkness_of_the_spirit.pdf)

Wow, it's been a very long time since I posted an OpenLab article, but with the beta release so close, I felt itprudent to give an update on a major piece that's finally in place.I have spent quite a bit of time working on this and I must thank developer Marcus Schaefer because without his expert advice it would not have happened, but the 4.1 beta will include one new X configuration mechanism – the famous sax2 (http://sax.berlios.de) toolkit from Suze. Since OpenLab integrates sax2 into our existing structure, this means that we can now detect even more hardware setups with ease by combining the strengths of various approaches. I have never found an X setup tool that didn't fail on at least one of my test machines (and sax2 is no exception sadly) – but by using them in conjunction – we can seriously up our abilities.However where sax2 gets even cooler is that it allows instant GUI-ised configuration of things like touchscreens, hence it is now integrated into OLAD to allow openlab (http://www.getopenlab.com) users access to those advanced setups.There are a few other goodies in there as well, which I hope will get us really good feedback so that we can make the final release rock like never before.

August 31 is international blog day. (http://www.blogday.org) On which bloggers from all over the world seek out five blogs they would like to introduce to others, and then post links and short descriptions of them – thus creating a flood of new readership. This year I decided to take part, sought out my five blogs, and wrote my short reviews. By sheer coincidence (and it really was) this year my list is all female. Not because I don't read men's blogs (my blogroll proves I read more men's blogs than women's) but simply because they were the ones I had not highlighted before, and felt I should share. Now read on for the list. ((blogday|Technorati Tag)) PLEASE NOTE: This entry has been updated since posting.

The Blog From Hell

A.J. Venter's weblog