g7uk » free

Blag Linux

GS — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 02:54:45 +0000

I would dearly love not to have to use Windows and absolutely dread the day when I may have to use Vista. For a long time now I’ve had my eye on Linux, trying different distros now and again. The most promising of these has always been Blag from the Brixton Linux Action Group.

I tried the latest version recently and the few niggles I had previously have all have been ironed out. I can honestly say that if I used my PC for writing letters and running my business, surfing and chatting, watching videos and listening to music, there’s absolutely no doubt I’d be on Blag right now and saying goodbye to Microsoft.

The sad fact is that Linux has nothing to match Vegas Video for video editing and Dreamweaver for web development. Two tools I simply can’t do without.

I know some Linux enthusiasts will point to NVU for HTML and CineLerra for video, but I’ve looked at those and they simply aren’t up to the job for one reason or another.

Get Bent — Manchester’s Alternative Community Pride Summer Festival 2007

GS — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 12:33:54 +0000

Preparations are well underway for Get Bent. An answer to the commercialism of Manchester’s mainstream pride event.

A weekend of free events, food, music, film, art, discussion and fun! Standby for the full programme of events, coming in the next few days. Everyone is welcome (see below).

During and after Get Bent there will be video coverage here on g7uk and on the Get Bent YouTube channel.

Website | MySpace | YouTube | Facebook

Happening: Friday 24 August – Sunday 2 September 2007

Grab a flyer or graphic for your website here.

What’s the thinking behind Get Bent?

* Get Bent challenges the notion that you have to act or dress a certain way to be accepted.

* Get Bent follows a DiY ethic, creating wide variety of programming by supporting diverse people to create diverse events.

* Get Bent provides an alternative to commercial gay spaces by creating a queer autonomous space that is sex-positive without being sex-centered, doesn’t depend on alcohol to have a good time, and is unafraid to put the politics back into pride.

* Get Bent fosters a sense of community by being inclusive: all ages, all incomes, all abilities, all ethnicities and cultural backgrounds, regardless of HIV status, those who are comfortable in commercial gay spaces and those who aren’t.

* Everyone is welcome to participate in this celebration of queerness!

I’ve gone high-definition (video)

GS — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 18:52:54 +0000

Check out my test footage from Friday:

Help needed after the fire in Lever Street, Manchester on 30 April

GS — Sun, 13 May 2007 11:14:04 +0000

On 30 April, just four days after I wrote about the Basement Social Centre in Manchester city centre and said what a unique and absolutely spiffing place it was, a huge fire ripped through a building to the rear of it.
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Bye bye Operation Fundraiser

GS — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 18:38:27 +0000

The Manchester Pride website reports that Operation Fundraiser will be ‘will be hanging up its buckets’ this year.

Check out the Basement Cafe and Social Centre in Manchester city centre

GS — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 01:43:08 +0000

It comes as a breath of fresh air to realise that there are still good people around in Manchester who are not focused on relieving you of as much cash as possible.

Update on the eye test/spectacles drama with Boots Opticians. But good service from Glasses Direct

GS — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 19:11:07 +0000

This is an update on this entry. Very pleased with the spectacles from Glasses Direct. I ordered a semi-rimless pair for distance (£25) and a pair for reading (£15). I placed my order by telephone on Wednesday 28 March and they arrived just over seven days later on the Thursday.

I’m going to order a second pair for distance and maybe some to use as sunglasses in summer. The prices mean you’re not stuck with only having one or at most two pairs of glasses — which has always been my situation in the past.

The problems have been with Boots Opticans, Market Street Manchester branch, whom I paid to
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Guardian, Lonely Planet, Hewlett Packard ‘photographic opportunity’

GS — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 16:40:09 +0000

Fifteen years ago, when I earned part of my living as a freelance photographer, the going rate for a cover shot on one of the small magazines that I worked for was £200. The magazine sold 12,000 copies each month and that payment gave the publisher the right to publish the image one time only.

Cowboy opticians and cheap spectacles (hooray)

GS — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 13:47:06 +0000

I could write a book about my bad experiences with opticians over the past twenty-five years.

Free books

GS — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 02:03:51 +0000

Project Gutenberg has 20,000 free out-of-copyright books online. Page By Page Books is also worth a visit.