Maximum PC recently ran an article titled 50 Skills Every Real Geek Should Have, I wanted to go through and see how I ranked in their skill list.   Let’s find out.

1. Name the Connectors – yes I was able to :)

2. Run your essential apps on a USB stick – no I don’t do this, I could – I just prefer to run everything in the cloud or on my N810 – which is with me most of the time.

3. Straighten Pins on a CPU – I have done this too many times

4. Know the 13 basic HTML Tags – well I kinda know most of them – I use freaking wordpress I hardly need to use HTML and when I do I look it up and hav ethe answer in seconds.   Though I do know quite a few by heart that aren’t listed in the basic 13.

5.  Get through to executive customer service – hey I read the consumerist.

6.  Beat quake in 60 minutes – maybe at one point in time, but I’m not big on FPS games.

7.  Build a Hackintosh – I know how, I just don’t the components that seem to work, and I’m a cheap bastard that won’t buy parts just to run OSX - I’ll stick with ubuntu as my alternative OS.

8.  Watch TV Online legally – um that’s how I watch 100% of my TV these days.

9.  Get around a content filter from a public computer – yes I know how, I’ve helped friends at other companies, it’s not worth it to do it at my own job though.

10. Recite Pi to 23 decimal places – nope – I have no inclination to ever learn either.

11. Replace the controller board on a hard drive – hey I did that once, it’s not a skill that comes up at parties though.

12.  Benchmark your computer – really?  Is this even on this list? Yes, I was doing this before I fully understood what the benchmarks meant on my 386 DX40.

13. Decorate your room with only printer paper – am I physically in the skill set to be able to do this?  Yes I am – would I?  No.  I’m more likely to decorate with NES cartridges.

14. Securely erase your data so it can’t be recovered – yes I am capable – it would be easier if you encrypted it first though.

15.  Get into a windows computer if you don’t have a password – yes I’ve done this quite a few times.

16.  Hide data from anyone – yes encryption, hidden volumes, stegnography (which I got bored with in 2001) – I am capable of doing all that – I’m more likely ot share my data then hide it though.

17. Explain what e=mc2 means – yes I would like the e=MC2 with a side of fries please – yes I am capable, but refuse to put in the details here since I want to make it through this list.

18.  Abstain from buying extended warranties – I may have bought one, once – it was on something i thoguht it fall apart though – so it’s all good.

19.  Use photoshop or gimp – yes I am capable.

20. Use a DSLR in full manual mode – I can – I’m just lazy and prefer it to do the work.

21. Mooch your neighbors wi-fi – my neighbor doesn’t have wi-fi but I’m ready to mooch when they do.

22. Protext your wi-fi – Wep2 currently – For a while I had mac filtering, I hated to keep getting mac addresses from visitors though.

23. Create an animated spray in Valve games – um – I don’t think I’ve played a single one for more then 5 minutes….so this one is a no.

24.  Setup RAID – yes I’ve done this a few times over the years for my home network.  Now implement Iscsi raid across multiple computers – that’s a challenge.

25. Calculate a Pitchers ERA – no I don’t know how – but I know google will give me the answer quicker then I can calculate it.

26. Run two Operating Systems – um I dual boot currently……

27. Install a hard drive in laptop – done before and some day I’ll do it again.

28. Pull off an elaborate prank – I think have the skill set and knowledge – I just never have – unless stealing street signs as a teenager counts.

29.  Rocket jump with a macro – um – I said I don’t really do FPS games – so no I can’t do this.

30.  Wire your home with ethernet – um every place I’ve lived with my wife we have had wired ethernet – we even used RG58 at one point.

31.  Know the 6 most important linux commands – yes I get command not found when I’m not thinking and run them in windows.

31. Rip your CDs to Flac – we did this for awhile then went back to MP3

32.  Stream Music, Movies, Pictures to any TV in the house – I’ve done this before – now we just carry our laptops around – shrug.

33.  Install and configure a VM – yes I’ve done this for literally years (maybe even a decade by now)

34.  Run multiple monitors – yes I use to dual monitor and run SWG on two different ones at the same time – I’m sad I know.

35. Run hacked firmware on a router – yes liek the rest of hte world I have a hacked linksys router /yawn.

36.  Pick a lock – I’m not good at it, but I’ve done it a couple times.

37.  Tell the difference between Dr. Pepper and Mr. Pibb – it’s been awhile but I think I could.

38.  Avoid DRM on everything – well streaming video legally that they talked about above seems to contradict this one doesn’t it.   However all my local video, music, picutres, and ebooks are DRM free.

39. Download a flash video and reformat it – yes I’ve done this – youtube videos locally stored on the N810 ftw.

40.  Get around in DOS – I grew up and DOS and resisted windows for a long time – so let’s just say yes.

41. Rip a DVD to h.264 – yes been there done that.

42.  Overclock your PC – yes I’ve done this my pride and joy was overclocking my AMD 133 mhz 486 to 160 MHZ – and it benchmarked and ran like a pentium 133 for half the cost.

43.  Use remote desktop – it’s part of my job – so yes.

44. Debate the merits of a star destroyer vs. the enterprise – yes, and the star destroyer would win.

45. Buld your own computer – built too many to actually count – I’m serious to – I worked at a small PC store and we sold hundreds – thousands of machines – so I cna build my own.

In irony they don’t seem to actually have 50 things on their list – so I think most geeks should know how to count also.

Picture from here

So I’ve taken over the position of webmaster for the VCMA (Vermilion Community Music Association).  This is going to start a new series as I’m going to use them as guinea pig’s for what I’ve felt non-profits need to do to survive and thrive in the web 2.0 world.   They are not a big organization, and I’m sure I received this position for my background and not my witty personality.

I’ve been working on the site for a couple of weeks and here is what I’ve found so far.   They had a private member’s section on the old site to share files and personal data.  This section was password protected, but the username field was just a front, as long as you nkew the password anything you put in the username field was accepted.  Since I’m a security engineer, this just wasn’t going to work for me.  I’ve ranted before the illusion of security and how illusionary security wasn’t worthwhile at all anyways.  The other problem was that their member page “password protected” section was just a javascript that rewrote the “HTTP GET” to a file named a combination of the requested page plus the password.   So if the page was index.tml and the password was “password” the ending HTTP in the “HTTP GET” command would be indexpassword.html.   Since it was still a plain text file without any encryption on it, in theory it could still be spidered and stored by google, thereby completely undermining any security it was giving them.

I’m working on a better and more secure solution while maintaining the balance of ease of use.   I don’t want to burden them too much on the security side.  I’m sure some of the older members would blink at me with a blank stare if I handed them secureID tokens to access their newsletters.

Picture from here

The next thing I discovered is that code each web page by hand, ugh.  There was no way I was going to maintain each HTML manually and hope for any semblance of style and continuity between pages (an issue they had in the past).   They had been using FrontPage and offered to buy me a copy.  First no, no and no – currently I’m using Linux on my main computer (Ok I dual boot into XP and between WoW and Netflix streaming I don’t get into Ubuntu as much as I should), so Frontpage was out.  They were insistent at first that this is how it was done, I however readjusted things.  I moved them to WordPress which I’m not using as a blog but rather as a CMS (Content Management System).

Picture from here

I manually migrated the data from the old HTML files, I spent hours converting the front page data to be “clean” data that i can migrate and copy paste anywhere.   I was a dumbass though, I should have just copy and pasted the text into notepad or a generic text editor, then I wouldn’t have had all the background crap.  This is my nore to myself to now be stupid next time.  I added images and a javascript navigation menu, but essentially the page was just a cleaned up (easy to maintain now) version of what they already had.

Now the next step is to migrate them to Google Apps for their member related information……

Somehow I always end up volunteering for Vermilion non-profits, now if only I could get one of them to pay me……

I was reading my Digg RSS feed and this strange story popped up, Best Buy Sells Ubuntu for Only $19.99USD.  Now normally getting on retail shelves would bea good thing.   This however is a disservice to most users since Ubuntu can be freely downloaded from their web site.  Now you would think this is where it ends, but not quite.

For an extra 16.99 I can get next day shipping, I didn’t find out how much an extended warranty was though (I had friends that purchased extended warranties on every CD they bought).  The kicker is you can get someone form the Best Buy geek squad to install it for you for 129.99.   Now I’m offereing to do it for 99.99 – a savings of 30.00.   It will be even greater savings since I won’t charge you for the software (don’t tell anyone).

Heck I’ll even install Open Office for an extra 5.00.

Yes I’m joking – but if you really want me to I will happily take the cash and do the work for you.

So last night I did try to turn my laptop into a hackintosh, and it didn’t turn out so well.  After installation I seemed to have an issue with my video not working (ironic that it works for the installation screens).  I futzed with it for awhile and since have given up on it.    I’m willing to work around issues and change my methodogy to do something becuase I’m not using it the way it’s supposed to be used (part of the mantra of everything I do – My old home network used to have 16 PC’s on it).  I can only go so far in futzing before it’s more a nuisance and get’s in the way of getting things done.

After following the Kalway steps that should have enabled to work, I relented and went back to Ubuntu Hardy Heron 64 Bit – a fresh install (plus the addition of 2 GB of ram) has mad it more “peppy” then it was before.   I guess my next step will be working on getting VMware working so I can get the couple windows programs (Finale) that I want to work with running on my laptop.   One great thing about a fresh install is that Ubuntu detected my wireless NIC right away – that took a couple hours to get working when I first installed Gutsy Gibbon.

Xie had been having issues with Vista and we salavaged her data and loaded Ubuntu on her laptop as well.  She remarked to me that it seemed to simple.   I explained how complex do you need your operating system to appear?  We’ll see how it goes with her, if she likes it, and if she’ll stick with it.   She has become a bit more like me in the belief of the cloud computing dream and as long as the browser functions as well she’ll learn to work around everything else.

I can say that I did have mixed feeling migrating to OSX since I wouldn’t be able to test Gnome Conduit anymore (except the N810 port), which would make it alot harder for me to work on documentation.   Regardless it seems I’m now a linux for life type of guy, though it’s not like I don’t have an XP desktop 5 feet away from me, a 2k3 server in a basement, a first gen mac mini in the next room hooked to the TV, and my work assigned Mac Book Air next to this laptop.   Maybe since the N810 is linux based I should have done a BSD on this laptop?   I do think I’m very comfortable switching between OS’s and machines.

So most you know that I was running Ubuntu Hardy Heron, but during some patching I hit some data corruption that caused my laptop to go all screwy.  The first thing I noticed was the touchpad stopped working.   Um….ok.   Then I was getting errors on boot up, more or less when I logged in some packages kept crashing and wouldn’t restart.   Upon trying to fix and reinstall packages I managed to loose gnome and then I couldn’t do anything.

I did manage to get into the laptop last night with a Hardy Heron live DVD, after getting i I setup an FTP server and managed to save everything I cared about in my home directory.  With this migration and the thought that I’m going to have to reinstall Linux anyways (yes I could sit down for more hours and repair the ubuntu installation, but I’m originally a windows guy I’ve saved my data it’s quicker at this point to format/reinstall),  that I would try to get OSX working on my laptop.   I have heard with the Intel GMA video driver there is some mouse artifact issues, but I didn’t notice any problems when I booted up the install DVD (this was when I was trying to decide my course of action and before I saved the data).  Since I’ve read that the wifi works now, and the toushpad and audio should work, I don’t really give a care to the fact that the built in web cam might not work.

I’ve been using my work Mac Air most the time at home and figured it is time to take a plunge to try to go more OSX based.  I’m going to try to dual boot between OSX and Ubuntu, but I think that’s mostly to stick around for gnome conduit since that’s the only unique app worth me sticking around for.   I do have it running on my n810 and I’ll still have linux on there, so I’m it’s not like I’m running.  It’s like I’m experimenting around.

So after I’m done I’ll let you know how successful I am.

A couple days ago I asked the blogosphere should I get an N810 and like the blogosphere normally answers I got nothing back. That’s fine, I’m used to talking to myself on my blog.  However I decided that I would give it a go.   I knew that if things didn’t work out I would return it.   It arrived last night and I thought I would describe what I went through.   It is also interesting that this morning from the blogosphere I got a comment on my article that was crossposted to my vox blog (hey I’m sorry vox users get weird characters).

Hyphn on vox asked:

Nice article. I’m in a similar situation to yourself. I’ve got a Palm TX and an Nokia 770 (& N95 8GB).

I use the N95 8GB for all of my music and podcasts (it automatically downloads them over the air). I have a Palm Infrared keyboard for my TX, which is nice, but the problem is that you just can’t really see the screen when you are out in bright sunshine. – Is the N810 screen readable in bright sunshine?

The N770 is ok, but it’s a bit slow and the lack of a keyboard (of any description) is a killer…. Not sure I can justify the extra 280GBP for another device thought…. (?)

So I’m going to cover this comment in this article.

I’ve never had a keyboard for the TX, I’m a fast on screen keyboard typer.  I knew however when my wife tried out the N800 it wasn’t for me since I’m more active online these days, the keyboard would be essential.  I never really wrote long blog articles on the TX so this is a hope for the N810.  I tried it the N810 outside today and in bright clear sky direct sunlight the screen was washed out but readable.  So I think the transreflective coating they advertise does work as designed.    For thoughts on whether the device is worth money, well I’m going to be writing about the device for the next couple weeks or so, what I find, how I make things work, and some things that people may not know because they are not widely published.   Hopefully yhis will help you make a sound decision.

New Toy

So everyone now knows I have an N810, I also added an 8 GB micro SD card (with mini SD converter card so it would fit).   Xie ‘anthia still feels that I’m going to feel cramped on space.   I unpacked the device last night and imeediatly had it flashed to the newest OS 2008 revision, curse the mobile ubuntu team for not having the port finished and ready to go.   I then paired it with my phone and installed everything that seemed interesting.

After trying to uninstall somethign I discovered that I had the rare N810 bug that sets the internal card read only and corrupts the data.   At this point I reflashed the device, formatted the internal memory card (virtual ram made it so I had to reflash before I hear any comments), and started over.   I had spent so much time installing software on the previous run that I wasn’t going to go through all of that again in one sitting.  Let’s however looked at what I did do.

I went through and chose a theme to my liking, I cleaned out the bundled maps and documentation.  I removed the demo music, video, and images.   I removed the map application and the welcome application.  In essence I stripped down the device as far as possible befoer starting over.    I didn’t need those things, and for map GPS data I plan on using maemo mapper, so I’ll get to that in a future blog article.

So what did I install?

Seeing as I have some guidance from Xie ‘lanthia on what is good and what is not so good, I followed her lead on some of my applications.  The first thing I installed was Pidgin, if you are unfamilar with Pidgin think of it as an IM product similar to Trillian.  It allows you to connect to many other IM networks at once.   The included chat progam bundled with the N810 really is good for gtalk, but what if I wanted more.   Pidgin right now is configured to connect to the following IM networks (some I rarely use) – Gtalk, AIM, MSN, Yahoo, and Myspace Chat.   Also I installed Skype, thought I would mention it here while I was talking about IM.   So the N810 allows me to connect six instant messenger networks at the same time.   I’m all about ubuiquitous internet communication, especially when I can talk or broadcast across everywhere from a single point.

Pidgin Screenshot from maemo.org

Next I needed a media player.   I had read that the Canola2 would subscribe to podcasts as well as scrobble tracks to last.fm (last.fm connectivity is important from me in this device’s grand future).   However there seemed to be a bug in Canola2 that wouldn’t allow either copying and pasting a url in to the subscription field, and it wouldn’t allow me to use the function keys, so that ment no forward slashes.   Essentially the data entry for podcasts is broken.    Well this thing is going to keep me from carrying an Ipod around so I wanted some way that was simple to get podcasts on to my unit.  I found a way, but I wouldn’t use simple to be an accurate description, I used the Gpodder podcatcher to handle pulling down podcasts.

Conola2 Screenshot from maemo.org

gPodder Screenshot from maemo.org

The thing that drove me nuts over Gpodder was the fact that I had no easy way to add subscriptions.  Sure they tell you just point to a directory.opml online, but goodluck finding one.  I think I spent an hour on this before I found an article that explained that I could setup subscription in Itunes, export the opml file, put it on my N810, and then subscribe to the correct feeds in Gpodder once I opened the opml file there.   *WHEW*.   Then it seems that gpodder isn’t a fast and responsive application if you attempt to queu two or more songs it hardly moves, so load your subscriptions one at a time for the best response.  I limited it downloading one podcast at a time but that didn’t make much difference.   The last problem with Gpodder was that it doesn’t (rarely) save the podcast in it’s naming scheme, it downloaded most of my podcasts in a 34598745893475.mp3 style format.   These aren’t bob’s podcasts, except for one or two they are all from twit or revision3.   I can say gpodder will work since it will be a set it and let it do it’s thing overnight application, I wouldn’t however recommend living in it.

The next thing I installed was rdesktop.  This allows you to use the windows remote desktop function, so last night I was able to access my Windows 2k3 server from my N810.   The responsiveness was adequate and I can definetly see myself utilizing this.   I use RDP quite often and I think this is a life saver.   If you want to know how to setup and see screenshots, I just found this article on another blog (I figured it out myself).

The last thing I installed before fighting Gpodder to sync my podcasts for the next day was Maemo Wordpy this application is a blogging client (wonder what I want that for).  It allows me to post directly to my wordpress blog, like the test post I did last night before I reflashed the device.  It works, it’s a bit complex and you have to jump to different tabs for more options for you post but it works.  I had to however disable my myspace crossing plugin on my blog because I was getting duplicate post issues.   Wordpy still allows me to post a notification or blog post across about a dozen services (well my blog does all that work).   Wordpy does however support Blogger if WordPress isn’t you cup of tea.

Maemo Wordpy Screenshot from maemo.org

Some of the side things that I discovered last night.

• I can pull pictures directly off my phone, before I had to use esoteric software on windows or ubuntu to get them off via USB, with the N810 it just works via bluetooth (I have a RZR since I’m a cheap bastard and take the free phone).
• The Samba implementation on the N810 allows you to see hidden windows shares by default – good for me, bad for windows.
• Too many large files or directories in a share will absolutely lock up the N810′s file manager.
• The keyboard get’s easier to use the more you force yourself into it, with more training I may not need another bluetooth keyboard for “serious” writing
• Exchange Webmail works in the browser

Tonight’s goals (after I do some automotive repair unrelated to the N810) is to get a mail client working that I like (I’m leaning toward IMAP versus POP3, we’ll see how that goes.   I would also like to get a decent media player that can scrobble my songs to last.fm (who knows it might be great to find one that supports last.fm and pandora).  I did have some problems getting online via my cell phone so I’m probably going to following Xie’s article on how to set it up to properly use t-mobile as an internet connection.   I’m sure I’ll have some other information for you also.

Granted some programs are cross platform, like I use Firefox 3.0 on everything now.  But for the most part I can be with each operating system and work with it’s unique flow.   Sometimes I get privately annoyed that a tool is available for one OS or another, but that gets put aside quickly as I loko for the the right solution for me platform.

Because of this approach I am really looking forward to cloud computing and ubiquitous web interfaces.   I’m not sure the back end matters at all any more as much as it does when the functions are there to get the job done.

I’ve logged in and took out of drafted and posted all my life caching items, I’m startingto go throguh my other drafts and just feeling a little bit overwhelmed.   I have things in all sorts of different stages of draft form.  An article about my paternal grandfather is about 30% done.   A draft on my first day of work with symantec is about 10%.    I have a varied things to finish via life notes.   I have pictures I still need to scan from photo albums.

Arrrrggggg.

Then you have all the things outside of the blog and this writing that causes hassles.  I have house issues I need to worry about, pet issues, relationships issues, my laptop was crashed thanks to an automatic Hardy Heron update (fixed after 3 days of figuring it out myself thank you), community band, Gnome Conduit documentation I need to finish, and work related projects.   We’ll say that’s just a start – but geeze my life seems to be a whirlwind sometimes that doesn’t stop.

And then we’re back to the blog.   I’m actually bad.  I need to look and write on the blog more often.  It relaxes me.  It actually completesme in a Jerry Macguiresque way.  Getting more seriouswriting on my blog gives me the true fulfillment in my life that only two other things give me currently.   My wife, she is my stability, my rock, the one that inspires to be better then I am.  She has a higher view point of me then I do myself.   Even though I think she is wrong, I know her beliefs in my skills is not false from her point of view, just false from my belief in reality.   I love her deeply and compeltely.   The last thing that finishes off my triage of life and completes me is playing music in the two community bands I am a member of.

These are the three things that I attempt to focus on – to get out of draft – because it calms and centers me.  I hope the three of them are never finished.

Gnome Conduit is both one of the greatest utilities Ubuntu and the most incomplete pain in the butt utilities.  To give a quick run down to what it does here is what the project information says:

Conduit is a synchronization solution for GNOME which allows the user to take their emails, files, bookmarks, and any other type of personal information and synchronize that data with another computer, an online service, or even another electronic device.

Conduit manages the synchronization and conversion of data into other formats. For example, conduit allows you to;

• Synchronize your tomboy notes to a file on a remote computer
• Synchronize your emails to your mobile phone
• Synchronize your bookmarks to delicious, gmail, or even your own webserver
• and many more…

Any combination you can imagine, Conduit will take care of the conversion and synchronization.

Now  we’ll start off with the fact that this isn’t even a 1.0 release so there are bound to be some issues.   Issues is what I’ve had all down long with this thing, even when it’s working properly.   In some ways this should be essentially rsync on crack – and sometimes it is.

Let’s go over the things I’m attempting to do with this utility:

• Sync Evolution Calender to  Google Calender and vice versa.
• Synce RSS feed items into my Calender
• Sync pictures from a specific local folder to Flickr
• Sync pictures from Flickr to Facebook

While I did attempt to do this all I did manage to partly get things working.  Let’s go down the list.

I did manage to somewhat get my calenders to sync.   The problem is that it never completes.  It picks a strange percentage point and just stays there grinding away saying it’s syncing.   I do see new items from one side to another so I don’t need to try to work with Evolution’s borked gcal sync (promised to be fixed next version).   I can say syncing from outlook to Gcal was one of the things I missed most migrating to Ubuntu from windows.   Since it never completely finishes I can’t say that this is working as designed.  If it ever does finish I’ll give this function a glowing review.

Syncing RSS items into my calender.   While I can do an overlay in Evolution attaching to a Gcaldaemon server on my network fro this function I want it natively synced by an all inclusive product.   The Gcaldaemon takes an RSS feed, transforms it to an ical format and I can then overlay it on my calender.   This allows me to life cache my rss items in an easy to use interface.   Going through the options it would seem that conduit can do this but it isn’t working.

Syncing pictures from a local folder to flickr, the sync part works but not as specified.   When I configure the local folder it starts to sync with flickr.  I then realize that it’s not syncing with the local folder at all, but the one on that is the parent folder for the one i am targetting.   Essentially I made a “flickr sync” folder in my pictures directory under my home folder.   The flickr sync is working on the pictures folder and not the sub folder I specified.    Ironically syncing from the same folder to Facebook causes the exact same issue.

Syncing directly from flickr to Facebook seems to work at first.   The problem I noticed that it states it’s refreshing and starts to go – but nothing is transferred.   So essentially it’s not allowing third party to third party with my machine playing the man in the middle.   Since the program should work exactly the same I don’t see what the issue is where this couldn’t work, but this functionality doesn’t seem to be completely flushed out.

Now a lot of these problem could stop causing me to pull out my hair if I just read the documentation.   The rub behind this is that the documentation is next to non-existent.   The developers in their infinite wisdon have failed to fully document you the functions and how they work either on the site or in the help file included with the software.

This swiss army knife of a program is more important then I’m sure most people realize since it could be on the next steps to melding the web to the local computers.   All of your mobile devices could be synced automatically all the time by this little program.  Home file back-ups to a remote server?  Synced automatically.  The general populace hasn’t seemed to yet grasp the magic that this program promises.    This could of course be the lack of documentation that I’m complaining about.

This program seems to auto load on start in Hardy Heron which I recently upgraded to.  I think though for it to be truly integrated with the final build when they get to it, that the documentation definitely  needs to be flushed out.  Now I could stay here and complain and be just another joe schmo on the street that gripes about the software.   The greatest thing about open source software though is getting involved.   After I finish this article I’m going to be contacting the project lead via e-mail and see if I can start working on the documentation and help out where I can.

I stand behind this project and think it is fabulous.   It pains me that the bugs I am dealing with cause me undue heartburn.   This is why I hate to love this product.

 Here  is one and here is the other.

I have to say with the download times that quick Ubuntu installation that keeps getting trumpted – the caveat that I understand that an ISO download would have taken a long time also (though I think that may have been quicker.)

So for about the last 2-3 weeks my sound card on my laptop stopped working.  I tried to trace down the path on how I managed to get it working in the first place, but it was a convoluted path and I don’t seem to be able to retrace my steps.   So failing this I decided to upgrade my Gutsy Gibbon AMD64 version of Ubuntu to Hardy Heron.   I didn’t know it was as simple as running “update-manager -d” at the terminal window.

When you  run this command it brings up the normal package updater but states that there is a new version you can ge – also giving the name and the version = Hardy Heron 8.04.  After this choice it then checks for compatibility issues with programs (including some it recommends being disabled on reboot) it also tells me that it dropped support for Nessus.  Personally I find the latter annoying but I’ll live.

Currently I’m waiting another hour and half for all the files to download (1235 to be exact).  I’ll post how it went after it is done.

Until then here is an Ars Technica article about Hardy Heron