As I’ve mentioned on the show already, I’ve recently moved all the various Outlaw assets from Dan’s cPanel hosting to a brand new Linode VPS of my own. We are now running on the server version of Ubuntu Hardy and so far I’m really pleased with it. We are getting about 40 hits a minute on the box now and it’s holding up pretty decent for that. The server is based in Texas which in addition to being a very fitting location for us outlaw types should speed up access for our American listener base.

As already requested by some members of our community, I will write a longer article on the process of setting up the server with detailed examples once the machine has been banged on a bit more and can be considered reasonably reliable.

As you can see, I just finished the redesign of this site and the forums. The old themes were only meant as a placeholder anyway since I wanted something in a brown-related colour scheme. I think it matches the outlaw/western theme perfectly. As some unknown drunk famously said on Firefly:

“Your coat is kind of a brownish color…”

I hope you like the new look! If you have comments, or suggestions, please leave them here.

As you might have noticed, the new Ubuntu version 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) will be released in exactly two weeks. Since Dan and I are both avid Ubuntu users — as you might have guessed by now — we are planning to do a special release day episode for this event which will be out on the same day, October 18, if all goes well. We will try to give you an overview of the new features and might also talk a bit about our experiences with Ubuntu in general.

If you are currently an Ubuntu user or if you are interested in moving to Ubuntu, it would be great if you write us a short email via the contact form. You can ask us questions or tell us about your experiences with Ubuntu (positive and negative) and what you expect from this release and we’ll try to get whatever it is you have to say on the show. Anyway, we’re looking forward to Gutsy and hope you are too!

Dan and I recorded episode 3 yesterday. While Dan was in his usual place at his home in Merseyside, things were a bit more complicated on my end. Here's a little glimpse behind the scenes of the chaos that I call "producing a podcast": I am currently staying at my parent's place in Duisburg and I had brought my recording setup with me to hastily assemble it in my old bedroom for the recording of the show. In absence of suitable furniture to put all the stuff onto, I spend over an hour sitting on the floor amidst a great chaos of cables, having the microphone propped up on a chair to talk into — it wasn't comfortable at all, I tell you. If you click on the image to the left you can see the whole mess in all its glory. The things I do for this project...

On top of all that I also had trouble with Skype. I couldn't for the life of me get the damn thing to accept the microphone input from the mixer. Since I could record fine but Dan wouldn't be able to hear me, I had to use an USB headset with a second mic to get Skype to send my voice signal to Dan. That's why I'm wearing headphones and a headset around my neck on the picture. What a mess! I have no idea why I had this problem now all of a sudden since everything used to work fine for weeks beforehand but maybe I made a mistake connecting it all back together this time. Anyhow, we recorded a great show and as soon as I've got it edited (probably by Monday evening) I'm putting it up.

Dan has put out a pre-release version of our new theme tune on the Feeble Force site and it sounds absolutely amazing! He took my little guitar riff and the crappy drum machine parts and turned it into an incredible rock song complete with organ, bass line and a much nicer solo than my original one. He even used a Tele without me having to tell him so. Smart man! Look forward to the new tune on the next episode of the show.

Dan is a really talented musician and it shows, I’d even go so far as to calling this the best podcast theme I’ve heard so far. If you enjoyed it as much as I do, I’d recommend you check out Dan’s music site — there’s lots more great music on there.

Linux Outlaws is now officially listed on iTunes. You can subscribe via that service by clicking the link on the right hand side under the heading “Podcast Feed” and we should also turn up when you search for us from within iTunes. Furthermore, I added the podcast to the Podcast Alley directory and I would appreciate it very much if you voted for us on our page over there.

I sincerely hope you enjoyed the first two episodes we put out. I am really looking forward to recording the third one later this week and Dan has also just told me that he is nearly finished with the improved version of my theme tune, so maybe you’ll hear it on the next episode.

I just released the first episode of Linux Outlaws — I decided to use my own preliminary version of the theme music to get the first show out today. Dan is still working on improving the song, though, and I will substitute the improved version for this one as soon as possible. Keep that in mind, when you hear my slightly sloppy composition and feeble guitar work.

I hope you like the show and have at least as much fun listening to it as Dan and I had while we were recording. If you would like to subscribe, please click on the podcast feed buttons on the right. You can also paste the feed URL directly into your podcatcher to receive the shows within that client when they are released.

We currently don’t know when exactly we’ll record the next episode, but now that I have the workflow figured out, at least the editing should be much faster. Feel free to send us story ideas if you have something you want us to talk about and feedback via the contact form is also appreciated!

I have just finished editing our first introductory episode and it’ll hit the feeds as soon as possible. We are definitely looking at a release date some time this week. If you come across any stories you’d like us to cover on the podcast while you’re waiting, please tag them with for:linuxoutlaws on del.icio.us and we’ll get them. We definitely appreciate any story ideas you send us since we are hoping for an active dialogue with our fellow Linux users. Once the podcast has started for good, you can also check out all the stories we talked about at del.icio.us/linuxoutlaws.

Dan and I just recorded the first episode of Linux Outlaws earlier today — I think it went rather well. The audio quality seems to be excellent from what I've listened to so far and apart from some slight floundering on my part it sounds like it could actually turn out to be a listenable podcast. I plan to edit the show this week and release it as soon as we got the theme music worked out. Don't quote me on this, however. Who knows what'll happen during the editing process... To sweeten the wait a bit, here's an exclusive preview of the album art for you. I hope you like it. I sketched it myself, scanned it and redrew it by hand in Inkscape. The background is a touched-up shot of the Australian outback from my travels earlier this year.

Just wanted to let you all know that we are still on track with our production. The plan is to have the first episode released this month. I recently tested my recording setup and I think I have now tweaked everything to my satisfaction. I also just send Dan the guitar and drum tracks I have recorded for our theme since he has kindly offered to come up with a bass rythm for it and mix it all together on his setup. If everything goes according to plan, I am also thinking about doing the first recordings in the coming week so stay tuned for more news and eventually the first episode of Linux Outlaws!