I have created an Ubuntu package of Last.fm Player 1.0.5 (2.7 Mb). It also adds a Gnome menu icon in the ‘Sound & Video’ submenu (Thanks to Mr_T for help with that). If you don’t know Last.fm you should check it out, same goes for Ubuntu.

If you have any suggestions on things that need to go in the package let me know. I’ll try to keep an up to date Ubuntu package on the site from now on.

http://www.jinx.com/scripts/details.asp?affid=-1&productID=357

There has been some discourse online of late into which is cooler, pirates or ninjas.

Pirates’ pros

• Drink a lot of Rum.
• Talking parrot.
• Gold.
• Good at fighting with a sword and cannons.

Pirates’ cons

• Spend most of their time on a wooden ship with other pirates.
• Scurvy.
• Poor eyesight.
• Poor hygiene (I suspect).
• Lack of honour.
• Piracy on the high seas was a capital offence until 1998 (I guess that kind of ruins that point)
• Anyone can be a pirate, just steal a boat.

Ninja’s Pros

• Cool headgear (Which I’m lead to believe is made from a t-shirt)
• Shrouded in mystery.
• Have cool weapons.
• Years of intense training make them super-skilled.

Ninja’s Cons

• Mostly lots die in films.

All in all, Ninjas are cooler because there are less bad points.

I know almost everyone has a gmail account now but if anyone wants one let me know, I have 100 invites.

Mark Twain said, amongst a lot of widely quoted things that “The past does not repeat itself, but it rhymes”. How right he is. Today I found the gallery of the last 50 years of winners of the ‘World Press Photo’ competition. It made me realise that alot of current events are so similar to everything that’s been happening to the world for the last 50 years. So much for progress.

Some particular examples:

1966 - Photo of American Soldiers dragging a Viet Cong corpse behind their vehicle, reminds me of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo with their indecent treatment of humans.

1969 - Catholics and British police fighting in Londonderry (or just ‘Derry’ if you’re Irish), despite lots of talk it doesn’t really look like much is improving in Northern Ireland. At least there aren’t bombing campaigns now I suppose.

1972 - Children running from napalm dropped accidentally on the wrong area. Even with today’s precision missiles they still manage to hit civilians too often.

1974 - Hunger. Fast forward to 2005 and you have Make Poverty History to help people who are starving.

1977 - South Africa. Police fire tear gas at people protesting against their homes being destroyed. In Zimbabwe Mugabe’s government are now clearing peoples’ homes.

1980 - Hunger. Again.

1983 - Natural Disaster. I need say no more about that I suppose.

1989 - Tiananmen Square, ‘The Unknown Rebel’ a pro-democracy protester, rumoured to have been killed. Recently - Pro-democracy campaigner beaten ‘lifeless’ possibly dead, but no-one knows. (edit: he’s badly beaten but alive)

1991 - Soldier cries at death of a fellow soldier in Iraq.

1992 - Hunger. Again.

1995 - Children affected by fighting between Russia and Chechen rebels. Recently - Hundreds of schoolchildren killed by chechen rebels in a siege.

I think you get the idea.