I’ve just put a Realtek 8169 gigabit card in Solo, as I suspect it’s the onboard Intel Pro 1000CT causing the crashes, as it used to with FC4. I’ve decided that I’m going to learn C# properly, as in using Visual Studio 2005 instead of Mono, as you really can’t use the 2.0 framework from Mono (or VS.NET 2003 for that matter!). I’ve just been playing with IronPython on Linux, I was quite impressed that it ran, let alone installed with a simple “yum install IronPython”, and you can create executables to run under Mono, I tried a few simple Python programs and they ran without change.

I’ve finished patching Dad’s pool, and emptying the water. We’re going to fill it up again tomorrow after refilling the filter and cleaning out the last of the dirt. We’ve been trying to get the glass in the shell’s front door replaced, I’ve been sanding/Dremelling the wood frame down, and Dad even went to Pip’s to grind the glass down, but it still won’t fit, and it’s broken now – well there was a chip when we got it, then Dad dropped it, and then finally a big wedge broke off when we tried to fit it in place!

I’ve wasted a few hours today trying to get my WinTV PVR250 working under Fedora5. Well, I got a picture and sound a couple of times, but it turns out that old Greivous’ chipset (KT266) is one of those blacklisted for not being able to cope with the DMA traffic from a PVR card, explaining all the crashes and no signal when I was trying to use the card. dmesg shows “ivtv0 warning: IRQ: IVTV_IRQ_DEC_DMA_ERR” and “ivtv0 warning: invalid api mailbox”.

I’ve been applying for more jobs today. IronPython 1.0 got released, apparently VS2005 integration is not complete, i.e. you cannot use the GUI builder to make Windows.Forms applications, you have to hand code everything. Might as well just stick to CPython/Qt then! I’ve just been playing with MonoDevelop as I was going to write an FTP client in C# that would do auto filename truncation for the Xbox, but it turns out that Mono doesn’t support FTP transactions, so must still be targetted at .

I had Pip and Jacques over today for lunch, I did lardon salad, smoked salmon carbenara, and finished off with some of Mum’s blackberry and apple tart and icecream. It was very nice, Jacques didn’t seem keen though. Mum got me some new phones for my FreeADSL, Pip got them working with me today, so I’ve got five phones spread around the lounge, kitchen and my bedroom. Dad painted the front door on the shell today, it looks lovely, and it turns out that the glass bit of the door can open seperately from the frame.