I just discovered a neat way to resize an image from the command line. No doubt many people who might read this blog are already aware of it, but just in case it is new for anyone else I thought I would share it here.

A lot of the things I plan to use a portable computing device for are typing intensive. That's why I drifted away from my original plan to get a Netbook toward looking for a comparably priced laptop. Here is what I expect to do with my laptop: Surfing the web, chatting on IRC, text editing, and playing around with a little coding. Listening to some music now and then is also likely.

So here are the constraints:

• I'm willing to pay no more than $650 (pre-tax)
• There must be a high expectation of it running Linux smoothly

The Learning Quest Framework

This is a framework for organizing and motivating a self-study group around any particular subject/topic.

(1) Organize a group of people who are interested in learning about the subject/topic.

(2) Agree upon a text which everyone can obtain (the same edition).

(3) Define the scope of the quest with a definite start and a definite ending. This could be "the entire book" or it could be particular chapters, etc.

After some deliberation I have decided to teach myself common lisp. In order to get going with Lisp on ubuntu (and to do it in the traditional way) I had to install emacs along with some other tools like slime (the canonical lisp development environment). Using aptitude for this entire process is possible, but not optimal -- one will end up with an outdated version of slime and Debian will not be packaging lisp tools in the future. The best way to get started with a Lisp system on Ubuntu is to use cbuild.

This is my translation of caramelldansen (as it sounds to me). In order to get the benefit of it, you should open the following link in a new tab: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOzDi_DeXaM Cue it up, and follow along with the lyrics I have provided. Enjoy!

DooDooDooooo

Ohohhohhhyeaah

The rhythm and the beat grow a part a' me!

I'm gonna hold this can people see..

call me dumb

but dancin is a part a' me

(part of me)

So watch the little fellow tell her "Wahahah!"

A weekend and a half to "lala land!"

You're some being

See there's a melody!

OoWowooWahWow

Blogging functionality has been added to our Club Ubuntu community website! While our site is still under development this is a big step forward.

Members who have logged in should now be able to create, edit, and delete their own blogs. I've added the ability to use Tags as a taxonomy system -- to self-categorize your blog entry -- so that anyone searching for specific content can find what they have in mind.

This is just the beginning of many cool ideas that have come from many different people. I hope everyone takes advantage of the potential that we have brewing here.