Rectification and early 80s animation

I haven't blogged for a while (that's an usual line for me.. not), so thought best had.

Firstly, I'd like to answer a little bit of criticism about one of my previous posts on top 10s. Basically, my mate Tim Hall decided to have a little pop at me about it being quite sad that I posted my top-10 software apps, which is rich really considering some of his posts have been about his top 30 lyrics from songs that noone (apart from 23 people in Crewe Limelight) have ever heard of! ;-)

However, I think it's fair to say that he is probably right, as much as it pains me to say it, and, as penance, will obviously be posting an updated top-10 list of apps, but this time concentrating on linux, again in descending order to importance. Can't wait for the next post on Tim's blog, i.e. the top-10 signal buffers on class-5 rolling steam engines... ;-)

So, to continue, and since my decisions have changed dramatically over the last few months, not least of which is because of my continuing involvement in virtualisation products

• 10. Skype - Now that video is part of the linux client


• 9. Google Earth


• 8. Second Life - This has fallen somewhat, since I go on this far less than I used to, and I wish Linden would get around to sorting out the performance problems that the linux client has


• 7. Envy - A Python / PyGTK app for automating the installation of NVidia drivers for Debian-based distros


• 6. Evolution mail


• 5. Ubuntu Terminal (where would we be without the command line?)


• 4. LifeRea


• 3. VMWare


• 2. Qemu


• 1. Firefox

So, what else have we been up to? Well... of course, it's coming up to Christmas, and the kids are so excited it's unreal. In fact, just watched The Snowman, one of the most beautifully animated short films of all time. The amazing thing about this film is that it never looks or feels dated (despite being made in 1982), and it's a testament to both the author, Raymond Briggs, and the animators that, even now, kids such as mine will watch it and still be enthralled (as I was at their age).