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Tomorrow is Oxford Geek Night 31 and you should be there. As I recently mentioned on the oxford-geek-nights mailing list (and why aren't you on that mailing list? and why aren't you following the @oxfordgeeks Twitter account?) we've had a recent speaker switcheroo; but that's good, because we've managed to fit in another microslot, and a very timely one at that, about an upcoming academic conference that's looking for paper submissions.

I've given up these days on repeatedly and enthusiastically exhorting my website visitors to come along to Oxford Geek Nights: that's what the mailing list is for. After all, most people who read these blogposts are aware that, even though I have to go through the process of organizing them (always a bit like watching laws or sausages being made) I still think they're objectively well worth attending: arguably the best tech night out you can have in the county, if not in the counties beyond. And all that comes down to having such brilliant speakers: the invited keynotes, you expect to be quality; but definitely the local volunteer microslot talks are a heck of a cut above a lot of other events.

So, come along tomorrow, if you like; you'd be a fool not to, but that's your own business.

Yesterday was a great OxDUG meeting as usual. Mike Harris took us on a tour round the Drupal Commerce suite of modules, and even though I've had some slight experience of it when helping out with donations work on the CLIC Sargent build that Johan led, I still found it really useful to see an alternative (and arguably more shop-like and fully featured) installation of it. I followed this with a quick presentation of drush site-upgrade, including a sort-of live demo: I merely had the upgrade command running in the background while I talked about my recent site upgrade exploits.

But the punchiest presentation was organizer Finn from Agile Collective giving a quick runthrough the internationalization additions they've made to the build of the REScoop website. Again, we've used Drupal's core i18n options (largely in D6), but really only in a two-language context; regardless, it was inspiring to see these being augmented, with the localization client, menu translations and entity translation. i18n and l10n can often be pain points in a site build, so it's really nice to find out ways of making them less problematic in future.

Oxford Geek Night 26 happens in ten days' time. As tends to be the case these days, when I'm not panicking, I'm really looking forward to it.

We've got two fascinating keynotes as always. Simon Whitaker popped over to Reading recently to storm the Geek Nights there, and is back in Oxfordshire to discuss the lessons he learned, when he tried teaching coding to schoolchildren. Also, documentary maker and writer Michael Story will be explaining how the media can lie to us, and why they do it.

We've also got all the other usual stuff: four exciting microslots from fellow Oxford(shire) geeks; and a nearly full roster for our sixty-second, fast-paced open-mic slots in The Pitch. And there's free entry thanks to regular sponsors Torchbox, and a free drink per geek (while stocks last) thanks to OGN26 sponsors Historic Futures.

Stick a week on Thursday in your diary, then. And for more information about OGN26, and regular but infrequent updates afterwards, you should subscribe to the newsgroup or follow @oxfordgeeks on Twitter.

(Sorry for only going on about OGNs these days. With two site launches in the past two months, I've not had a chance since the last one to blog about anything much here: although I'm writing a few things elsewhere that might get a big reveal later!)

The 25th Oxford Geek Night is happening on Wednesday 29 February in the upstairs room at the (hopefully) newly refurbished Jericho Tavern. Despite a Christmas lull all round, we've finally got two ace keynotes organized:

• How to make rowing sexy: a web video case study, by Tom Wilkinson, Online Media Producer at the University of Oxford
• Getting geeks singing with Javascript, by Matthew Westcott, Senior Developer at Torchbox

They both broadly fit under the theme of "online video," so if you're at all interested in stretching your browser's capabilities in that area, or just want to see experts getting down with some interesting visual and internet technologies, you should definitely come along to OGN25.

If you want any more reasons to turn up, then: entrance is free (thanks to my employers and long-running sponsors Torchbox); and there's a free drink for every geek (thanks to OGN25 sponsors Historic Futures). We also hope to have a mystery raffle later on in the evening, if we can swing it; for more information about OGN25, and regular but infrequent updates afterwards, you should subscribe to the newsgroup or follow @oxfordgeeks on Twitter.

Meanwhile, I should start getting things organized. Now, where did I leave that microphone...?

Last Wednesday I gave a quick live demonstration to the Oxford Drupal Users Group at their monthly meeting. It was on "Drush and drush make": it was originally going to be just on the latter but I was able to add a few demonstrations of basic Drush commands to get the party started. And there ain't no party like a drush make party.

The slides, and the code examples for the Drush make part of the talk, are available in a github repository for you to download if you missed it, or if you'd like to learn how to produce and maintain your own makefiles. Given most of our internal work at Torchbox is now based on versioning drush make files rather than large repositories, and submitting patches to d.o so we can reference them in said makefiles, then I can only recommend you start using drush make, and certainly drush on its own, right away.

Wednesday 15 June is but six days away now, so if you're in Oxford you should make sure you have Oxford Geek Night 22 in your diary for that evening. Not only are my employers Torchbox sponsoring as always to make sure it's free entry, but Historic Futures are putting some money behind the bar, enough for a free drink for every geek. Doors open at the Jericho Tavern from 7.30pm, so get there early to make sure you nab a pint or similar before the thirsty geeks work their way through it all.

Even as I speak, our two keynoters are girding their loins and exercising their generic-brand presentational software for the benefit of Oxford's finest geeks. Louise Crow will mark the very welcome return of mySociety to the Jericho's stage by talking about their forthcoming project Fix My Transport. Next up will be Tyler Tate, UX lead and designer, who wants us to look at how people learn, and apply that knowledge to improving usability for everyone.

We've also got four excellent microslots to look forwards to, volunteered by four plucky Oxford(shire) geeks. They're a mixed bag of subjects as always, and we'll also have the even more mixed bag of The Pitch, our sixty-second open-mic slots. Anyone can use these to announce or advertise whatever they want for a minute. There are also still a few spare Pitch slots left, so if you've got something you want to get off your chest, email ogn@torchbox.com to reserve one.

Right. Only six days to go and I haven't even printed posters yet. Or done any of a dozen other things I need to get done before then. What am I even doing, still writing this stuff? I've got work to do. Now clear off and I'll see you on Wednesday at OGN22.

In two weeks' time it's Oxford Geek Night #21. Twenty-one, eh? Sooner or later we'll have to stop numbering them. We'll just have to refer in retrospect to "OGN: the classics collection", or "OGN: the difficult progressive-tech years".

You should be at OGN21. You should be at every OGN, but you should definitely be at OGN21. We've got two design-themed keynotes: Clearleft's Paul Lloyd talking about "styleguides for the web"; and Thoughtworks' Eewei Chen and Nicholas Bailey trying their hand at live rapid prototyping. There's also four volunteer "microslots", covering a typically usual broad selection of topics and technologies. 

Not only that, though, but OGN21, like every other, is presented by Torchbox: so entry is free! And not only that, but Historic Futures have sponsored a free drink for every geek, while stocks last. So free entry, and a free drink. How can you not be at the Jericho Tavern on April 13? You won't get a better offer than that anywhere else on a Wednesday evening in Oxfordshire!

(Disclaimer: better offers in Oxfordshire might well be available on the night, but geekier? I doubt it.)

Feast your eyes on this:

No, it's not photoshopped. What you see is indeed one of Torchbox's white Macbooks, running Ubuntu "Lucid Lynx" Linux. A few years ago, when I was looking for a new work laptop, Tom suggested in a moment of madness that I could get a Mac and run Linux on it. At the time I thought it was the silliest thing I'd heard of. Imagine!

Fast forward two and a half years, and the enormous Dell brick that I bought has started to become more of an annoyance than anything else - too big, too heavy, built-in mouse's buttons broken, battery frequently flickers down to 50% capacity - and it's time to decide whether I want to switch to another existing office laptop before some of our new hires arrive. That idea of Tom's (yes, Tom, if Stewart asks then it's your idea) strikes me again. Could it be possible?

In the end, it was almost ridiculously easy: after a fair bit of hassle resizing partitions; I managed to find relevant documentation online; the Ubuntu 64-bit Lucid Lynx "Live CD" booted the machine straight away so I could confirm (a) it worked and (b) the things nobody expected to work, didn't work; the install sequence took about ten minutes; and the solutions to post-install issues were exactly as documented.

There were only two major problems that dogged me much of the way. Each of them is somewhat stereotypical of the respective community or technology involved:

1. As mentioned above, OSX/Boot Camp steadfastly refused to change partition sizes on the machine. A graphical interface took me through some cute wizard with progress bars, then summarily told me I'd have to back up the machine and reinstall OSX. Then the OSX install disks said that I couldn't install OSX on this machine. What they both should have said was "Use GParted: it might not be as pretty as they make Mac apps, but you'll be able to work your way through using granular controls we won't let you touch." This is evidence of the standard internet trope OSX as a tamper-proof sealed unit.
2. Ubuntu's documentation is an absolute rat's nest. I can't even find the comparison matrix of Macbook and Macbook Pro machine types that leads you off into the relevant documentation pages. What I can tell you is that you'll need the catchily named "MactelSupportTeamAppleIntelInstallation" for most of your initial setup and installation, and "MacBookPro" for Macbook Pros or, er, "MacBook" for Macbooks, or Mac Books as the wiki would have them. This is evidence of the standard internet trope Linux as an unnavigably documented hobbyist's pursuit.

But really, if I were to make too much of either of those problems in this context then it would be cavilling. Partition resizing is easy to get horribly wrong; and that ridiculously complete level of documentation didn't even exist two years ago.

This has been a trial installation really, as I hope to eventually get a hand-me-down Macbook Pro to run it on. But this finished article has functioning wifi and a working webcam (both of which are proprietary monsters), great sound and the most beautiful DVI-powered second display I have ever seen. After coding on two huge LCD displays for nearly two years, I would still gladly switch to a wee Macbook monitor, typically closed and connected to just one of those large LCD displays. DVI seems to make all the difference over VGA, although I would have never believed it.

Now, of course, I want a Macbook for home use. Running Linux, of course: but maybe this was Tom's idea all along. Mactel Linux as a gateway drug. I can hold out, though; at least, I can wait for them to sort out package management first.