Try as I might I couldn’t get the NAT traversal to work with the v1.1 patch. I read various blog posts informing me to use a STUN server but that seemed unnecessarily overkill.

I finally worked out the problem this evening! Epic added STUN support to v1.1 and added initialised the server variable in the configuration file to a dummy value which turns on the STUN NAT mode, breaking the existing NAT support.

To fix this change the:
“StunServerAddress=stunserver.org”
line in “My Documents\My Games\Unreal Tournament 3\UTGame\Config” to:
“StunServerAddress=”
and it should all just work

Some people seem to be in uproar about this but I can’t really understand why. At the moment many people die waiting for organ transplants. Many people die with perfectly good organs and no problem with organ donation but never got round to getting a card to signify their consent. This is, in my humble opinion, stupid and unjust.

Moving to an opt-out system would save many lives so if people have religious/moral/whatever reasons for not wanting their organs removed on death they can stop it happening. The proposed legislation also says that the family can object and stop the donation going through so I’m surprised by peoples’ opposition. Personally I’d like to be able to still have a donation card so my family can’t object as I don’t think it is their right to do so.

What do other people think? The state over-reaching again or doing something good? This seems to be working in Spain with organ donation up 250%. Does anyone know any more details of the situation there?

I feel proud but yet kinda guilty. Proud that some of my code is in (albeit only in kdepimlibs) but a bit sad that I didn’t spend more time helping with the release due to the business of the last few months. I think getting a KDE 4.0 desktop up and running will increase my motivation and the time I get to spend hacking on KDE.

To all the whingers: stop complaining, you were warned for a very long time that 4.0 wouldn’t have everything you wanted. 4.1 on the other hand will be the amazing epic you have been waiting for, just be patient! The developers are now especially glad that they have a nice, stable base to build KDE4 applications on.

Again, well done folks and thanks for all your hard work!

It makes it really easy to share your trees with others and the concept of local vs remote branches is really useful for when your branches don’t make any sense to the users of your code. You can pull my repositories from here or see my commits on my GitWeb. Git nicely imported all my changes from my Subversion repositories that I was using previously for my version control. Not everything in there is in a totally usable form at the moment but Git makes it far easier for others to send me patches (if they feel the need).

I hear on the wind that KDE is considering moving to a distributed version control system eventually. Some of the subprojects such as Amarok have been using it partially for development and it seems to allow some interesting new approaches to development and reduces the barrier of entry as a lot more can be done without Subversion-write access as Git is more orientated to sending around individual patches than Subversion is.

If you are a software engineer give Git a play. It is fast, well documented (now) and takes some interesting approaches for problems rather than just settling on being CVS+n.

If you are a Git pro and notice anything I’ve said incorrectly or configured wrongly then please let me know!

Like most people I’ve made a few New Year’s resolutions this year whilst trying to take on a few bits of advice on how to make them and keep them.

Anyway, here goes:

1. Hack more on KDE. I think the combination of starting a new job and not running KDE4 as my desktop (until recently) has made me slack from working on KDE. Once I actually am using it daily then I reckon I’ll be able to do more work and help with KDEPIM for 4.1.
2. Practise my bass more. Playing every two weeks with a bunch of music teachers and session musicians is making me feel a little insecure about my playing! I need to practise more, especially working on my soloing and probably buy a Fake book.
3. Study rather than just reading my Bible. I’m normally alright about reading my Bible regularly but I’ve just been reading it like a novel rather than actually using commentries and then like to properly study the passages. I’ve done this a few times lately and it is far more beneficial, I need to get up earlier and try and do it more often
4. Play less computer games. I do enjoy gaming but it is one of these activities that really benefits no-one except myself so I want to try and divert more time into things like hacking/music where I can benefit others whilst enjoying myself.
5. Be a better friend/boyfriend. Just generally take more of my time to try and focus on others and help them with their problems.
6. Become a better software engineer. Improve my knowledge of my main languages, maybe try and pick up some more and improving my algorithmic math skills.
7. Take more of an interest in politics. Now that Nick Clegg has been elected the leader of the Liberal Democrats I’ve felt myself want to try and get a little more involved and interested in British politics in the gradual run-up to the next UK elections.

I’m sure there are more but that’s all I can think of for now!