Gerard McGarry

Because Ubuntu is a free operating system, they don't feel the need to shove the version in your face in quite the same way their commercial counterparts do. So, when you're on the threshold of doing an upgrade, it's nice to know what version you're upgrading from.

There's a quick, command based way to discover what version of Ubuntu you're using:

<?phpcat /etc/issue?>

Alternatively, for a more detailed output, try this command:

<?phpcat /etc/lsb-release?>

This will return the version of Ubuntu that you're currently using. I used it prior to upgrading, and also after the upgrade to verify that everything had been successful.

It was this post about GDM themes in the new version of Ubuntu that prompted me to install the latest version of Ubuntu tonight.

GDM (short for Gnome Display Manager) themes are a fast and convenient way of changing the default login theme for Ubuntu with very little effort. Check out the Tech Source post I linked to above to see examples of sexy login screens you can simply download, install and use.

As usual, I'm going to walk you through installing a custom GDM theme in a few simple steps:

Sweet! A new version of Ubuntu is always an exciting occassion: the release schedule is always way more frequent than Windows, and there's always some fascinating development that makes the upgrade worth your while.

So, tonight I'm upgrading my older version of Ubuntu from 8.10 to the latest release, which is 9.04. Otherwise known as Jaunty Jackalope, although the emphasis on animal names seems to be significantly played down on this version.

With this edition, the upgrade process is its easiest ever. Here's a quick step-by-step showing you how to upgrade your version of Ubuntu over the Internet:

Last Wednesday I got dragged to France. I've never been to France, although I have tried their method of kissing before and even their ticklers once or twice.

Lisa and I had taken the kids to London for Easter weekend, their first visit to the city. That visit is another story entirely - hint: try dragging a 3 year old around London for a weekend with the Circle and District lines under repair. We returned home on Monday evening, went straight to bed. Upon waking the next day, the first thing to happen was a phone call to say that my father was in hospital...in LOURDES!

Information flowed quickly from there - he'd taken some kind of attack, been rushed to hospital, given tests (including an MRI) at which point word filtered out that he had "a 90% mass" in one of his lungs. A cousin delivered this news to me personally (which was appreciated, but unnecessary), although we'd already decided that I should fly out the next day.

Lisa - Our Lady of Internet Deals - made the booking and drove me to Dublin for my flight to France. My one-way flight to France. I didn't quite know when I was coming back.

There used to be a plugin that would scan your WordPress blog for posts that were past a certain age and close the comments functionality on them.

Why? Because when the conversation dies down, sometimes you want to move on. Plus, old blog posts are generally a target for spammers.

I'm not sure when this happened, but the ability to auto-close comments has been built into the core of WordPress now, and I'm going to show you how easy it is to configure this feature.

This is a picture of the Royal Chapel of St Peter Ad Vincula, which is located in a picturesque corner of the Tower of London.

An innocuous-looking building, it's a real joy to behold from the inside. On the day we visited, there was a soft light coming through the windows and illuminating the altar. It's an almost romantic setting...if you ignore the fact that underneath the floors are the bodies of three Queens of England and a number of Dukes and Lords of the kingdom too. Most of them beheaded, naturally.

A fascinating fact is that in order to make the bodies decay quicker - in order to make room for other headless dignitaries - the corpses were buried in quicklime. This shared by the excellent and entertaining Beefeater who gave us a brief but dramatic history of this small part of the Tower of London.

Who's buried in the Chapel?

Henry VIII was responsible for several of the inhabitants of the Chapel: his second and fifth wives are buried there - Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard can claim the Chapel Royal as their final resting place.

This is the National Gallery, which is situated on the north side of London's Trafalgar Square. The gallery was established in 1824, when the British government bought 36 paintings from a banker called John Julius Angerstein.

In the late 18th Century, there was a trend toward nationalising the royal art collections. This happened in Italy, Germany and France. However, Britain didn't follow this model and instead a series of events led to the establishment of the National Gallery.

First, Angerstein's collection became available. Then it was proposed in Parliament that the government buy the collection, strengthened by a generous offer by Sir George Beaumont to donate 16 paintings. Third, Austria repaid a war debt, which provided the funds to purchase the collection for £57,000.

The National Gallery was originally housed at No. 100, Pall Mall, but eventually moved to its current location in Trafalgar Square. The building was designed by William Wilkins between 1832-8, and the magnificent facade has remained virtually unchanged ever since, despite frequent expansions of the premises in the intervening years.

An ariel view of the Country Antrim village of Waterfoot - I took this on a hot summer's day back in 2006 by trudging up Lurigedan, the mountain that overlooks Waterfoot and Cushendall.

Needless to say, I was a hyperventilating, sweaty mess by the time I got to the top. And to add to my embarrassment, I was beaten to the summit by a group of giddy teenage girls who I'm sure were laughing at the half-dead guy crawling along at a snail's pace behind them.

All the same, I'm glad I did it. The view alone was worth it. Take a look at how square the bay is...you can only get a sense of that from above.

While I was getting my breath back, I broke out some grub I'd taken with me and sat on a rocky outcrop as a bird screeched and swooped over the valley. Even though I'm no Bill Oddie, let's assume it was some kind of bird of prey, alright?

Named after its architect, Charles Lanyon, the Lanyon Building is the focal center of Queen's University.

Lanyon's work is scattered all over Northern Ireland. You travel to the North Coast, and the magnificent Glendun Viaduct is his work. As was the coast road round to Larne. Before that route opened up, that part of County Antrim was pretty remote and wild. Some say it still is.

The Palm House in Botanic Gardens was Lanyon's design. He was the man who planted 1,500 trees on the Frosses Road to build a road between Ballymoney and Ballymena.

However, he'll probably remain best known for the Victorian building with the postcode BT7 1NN which sees thousands of students file through its doors every day of the academic year.

This is the statue of Sir William Whitla that graces the side of the Whitla Hall at Queen's University of Belfast.

For me, Whitla's name is inextricably linked to Queen’s - Whitla Hall was the first place I went to when I was matriculating (I think), I’ve taken exams there, and it was where I eventually received my degree in 1999.

I bet if you’ve been to Queen’s, you’ve probably never paid much attention to Whitla. So, in the interests of research, here’s very thorough biography of the man.