Of late, I have been thinking about doing something new.

This doesn’t necessarily mean something different from what I have been doing all this time – it could also just mean a different approach to it.

My commitment to the things I believe in and have been pushing remains unchanged. But maybe I should start looking at other ways of pushing it along.

It was Archimedis who said “Give me a lever long enough and a prop strong enough and I can single-handedly move the world”. What he didn’t tell you is that the position of the prop (or fulcrum) is equally important. If it is too close to you, you end up putting in a lot of effort with little effect, but if it is further away from you and closer to the thing you want to move, even the smallest effort will result in major action.

Over the past 5-6 years, I have essentially been doing things in more or less the same way. But in this time, the length of the lever on the side of the load has grown considerably, and I feel that my efforts to get things to move are less effective than they used to be.

Maybe it is time to reposition the fulcrum.

Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.
–St.Francis of Assisi (1182-1226)

Phenom has released another track from their album.

This time, it is their instrumental Resurgence, a track far more representative of their native progressive rock style than the earlier A Little Step that they released for Christmas.

The title, given the current world scenario (and not necessarily only the tsunami tragedy), seems apt.

Download the songs and give them a listen, and let them know what you think of them.

One reads a lot in the newspapers, and more in the blogs, about how things are on the ground in the tsunami affected areas.

Sadly, much of it is either overblown, distorted, or seriously tainted by suspect motives.

Not so this one. Jessie knows about organisation and logistics – read this and possibly make decisions about how to contribute, and when.

So the guys at Phenom did it – after a year on the cooker, they have released their first single.

They chose their most “un-rocky” number from the album (“A Little Step”) to be their vanguard number. One would have expected them to use CAP 5101, but they are right – it *is* Christmas, and this song is perfect for the occasion.

Even more perfect – the song has been released under a Creative Commons License. It helps having an avid Open Sourcer in the group, I guess.

They haven’t said if/when they will release the other songs as well – I guess they are waiting to see the response to this release.

So go ahead, help them out a bit – download the song, and spread it around. And let them know what you think of their work.

Damn, I was *dying* to make this announcement, and I finally got to do it today. Excuse me while I do a little victory dance round the totem pole, hollering like a demented red indian.

LINUX BANGALORE/2004 RECEIVES FULL SPONSORSHIP

We are happy to announce that Linux Bangalore/2004 has now secured full sponsorship for the event.

Thank you, Encore!

We had to wait to make these announcements about sponsorships (which have been in place for quite a while) for various strategic reasons. But now we have made them, and the effect has literally been like chucking a stone into an bee-hive – MAJOR BUZZ!!!

Have you registered yet? Can you afford missing it?

Heh – I didn’t think so.

Stay tuned for more announcements.

From Harald Welte’s blog:

“I’m happy to see an increasing number of high profile speakers at Linux Bangalore, and it’s now becoming (to the best of my knowledge) a big internationaly recognized Linux event.”

That, coming from someone who is a big name himself at all the major Linux/FOSS events, is high praise indeed.

Damn! Are we good or what? Go, Linux Bangalore/2004!!!

(Now back to writing press releases….)

And in completely unrelated news, The Times of India (or rather, its online incarnation – Indiatimes.com) becomes what must be the last publication on earth to offer its news in the form of RSS/XML feeds – probably in retaliation to guys who have been scraping their headlines forever and offering them as RSS feeds.

If you use an RSS aggregator like Bloglines, and if the (ahem) news offered by the ToI interests you, then go here.

OK, I agree, not everyone is interested in what the ToI has to offer. But the good news is – they also offer the Economic Times feeds. Now that is serious stuff.

Interestingly, this page has a pretty decent introduction to RSS feeds.

Apologies to all who have been emailing me and whom I have not replied to – my life isn’t in my hands right now. Way too many things happening.

Linux Bangalore/2004 is just round the corner. Have you registered yet?

Major announcements happening starting tomorrow.

I am still hunting for entertainment for the three evenings. Need a rock group for the final day. Has to be hacker-geek compatible. Phenom has been in that slot for the past two years, but this year they seem to be largely pre-occupied with this terrible disease called “work for a living”. Send us suggestions. Bangalore based groups preferred.

Need Indian entertainment for day 2. Ditto on the suggestions.

Anyone got a legal copy of any of the other FOSS movies (we showed Revolution OS last year)?

Or any other (practical) suggestions to keep a bunch of unruly hackers entertained? First one to suggest paintball or beer-drinking competitions walks the plank. Ditto dumb-charades. Someone suggested amateur night – get bunches of people who claim to know how to sing or play an instrument to have their 15 mins of in the spotlight. Dunno – what do you think?

Got bunches of new toys for the home studio, but looks like I’ll have to wait till LB/2004 is over to get cracking on those. Tons of new Linux-based studio software out there now, serious professionals now beginning to switch to this. Life is good.

Am going to check out NLS Strawberryfields this weekend (19/20/21 Dec, Palace Grounds) . NLS SF is India’s biggest rock competition. Promises to be fun, but strangely no publicity at all this year! Not even a website to link to!

Ah well, maybe they figured that if they make too much of a noise, some people might come asking to be paid their prize money from last year.

Make sure you register for Linux Bangalore/2004!