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Happy new year 2010

Once again it is the time of year for looking back and reflecting and looking forward and planning. It is time to make my new years resolutions. Last year I made my new years resolutions very public so I thought I would look back and reflect on how I have done. Also I will again make my new years resolutions public.

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Get even more angry about things Well, this seems to be almost a cheat. Getting more angry appears to happen naturally as part of getting older. Still, I have achieved this so that is a check!

Blog more regularly and not only about things that make me angry. I have definitely inflicted my thoughts on you more regularly this year. I haven't always been as coherent as could wish to be. Coherence was not part of the resolution so I believe that I have also completed this resolution successfully.

Get at least an alpha release of Benchpress out there and GPL'd That's a big check-a-roonie! You can see it **here**

Replace the overly complicated (for my needs) Lifetype blogging software with my own based on Benchpress of course. Done that too. You are reading this on the replacement.

Learn more about Linux. I definitely know more about Linux than I did this time last year. Or rather I know more about the tools and services that run on the servers at home and work. Apache, MySQL, cron. nfs and things along those lines. The kernel is still a mystery to me so I think this is a pass based on my intention rather than statement

Try more distros – even getting a working Slackware install by the end of the year Oh yes! I have continued to be a bit of a "distro-slut" and I have had a few working Slackware installs. Currently, I have only one laptop running Slack and that is one I only use for playing. I find that Slackware requires a lot of manual maintenance so I won't use it for my day to day work. I have tried among others, Ubuntu, crunchbang, easy-peasy (all Ubuntu based), Debian, Open SUSE, SAM Linux, Slackware and PC-BSD which isn't a Linux but still counts

Have another go at getting in to C / C++ Well, I kind of achieved this but unfortunately I didn't have as much time for it as I would have liked. If I treat myself harshly that would be a fail. Then again I did say I would have another go, which I did so that's another one kept

Continue to try and convert Windows Heathens to the freedom that is Linux. Well, I have tried and tried and tried but with sporadic success. It is strange that freedom and all the goodness that goes with it aint enough. Show a Windows user a spinning desktop cube and they can't get enough! So I guess that's a win then.

Grow ear hair. Still no ear hair!

So overall, as far as resolutions go, not a bad year.

I've put on a lot of weight this year so in the next one I have got to lose it again. I don't want to be wearing 38 inch trousers! So given that my new years resolutions for the new decade are

• Lose at least 3 stone (42 pounds)
• Get fitter
• Have another go at getting in to C / C++
• Continue to try and convert Windows Heathens to the freedom that is Linux.
• Grow ear hair.

As well as those specific resolutions I will aim to improve my blog software and writing style and improve Benchpress. I know it has weaknesses. Who knows if the software driving this blog gets good enough, I may even GPL it.

Happy new year 2010 everyone. May it be better than the last.