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No one knows what day Jesus Christ was born on. From the biblical description, most historians believe that his birth probably occurred in September, approximately six months after Passover. One thing they agree on is that it is very unlikely that Jesus was born in December, since the bible records shepherds tending their sheep in the fields on that night. This is quite unlikely to have happened during a cold Judean winter. So why do we celebrate Christ’s birthday as Christmas, on December the 25th?

Christmas’ pagan origins

Have a happy heathen Christmas, everyone

Joseph Barbera who, together with William Hanna, provided me and millions of other kids with some of the funniest cartoons ever made, has died at the age of 95.

He died of natural causes at home with his wife, Sheila, at his side.

With William Hanna, Barbera founded Hanna-Barbera in the 1950s, after the pair had earlier worked on the Tom and Jerry cartoons at MGM studios.

“Joe will live on through his work,” said Warner Brothers chairman and CEO, Barry Meyer.

“The characters he created with his late partner, William Hanna, are not only animated superstars but also a very beloved part of American pop culture,” Mr Meyer said.

One of my favourite tricks in Windows Explorer was to right-click and drag a file or files. On release of the button it gives you the option to copy, move, create a shortcut or cancel. I missed this since I switched to Linux.

But now I accidentally came across the Ubuntu alternative (or should that be Gnome alternative?): use the mouse wheel to drag and drop your files. On releasing it you get a similar options menu, but with an additional entry: Set as Background.

Set as Background doesn’t work when you drag a file onto a folder or a Nautilus bookmark. To use it just wheel-click an image file, drag it slighty to one side and release.

GateWorld.net has got some great news:

Prepare to step through the gate all over again! A third television series in the hit Stargate franchise is now in development, GateWorld has learned.

A production source informs GateWorld that the new series is in the concept phase, and is being actively worked on by the Vancouver creatives behind Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis. No concept for the show has yet been revealed.

I’ve been toying with the idea of building myself a proper multimedia box which runs Linux for some time now. The problem with Windows Media Centre is that, although more compatible with available hardware, it is too expensive and you have to play by Microsoft’s rules.

Enter the Hannibal Deuce +:

Nice. It comes with the following specs:

Intel Celeron 2.66 Ghz Processor
Geforce 6200 256 MB 8X AGP video accelerator
256 MB DDR 400 Ram
7.1 Digital Optical Audio
Micro ATX Socket 775 Motherboard with 3 PCI slots and SATA connections
Linksys 802.11 B/G 54 MBPS PCI wireless adapter
Hauppauge 500 PCI Dual tuner
18X DVD burner
9 in 1 card reader
500 GB 7200 RPM hard drive

It’s built on Ubuntu and is ready to use out of the box. Check the product page for some of the features.

There’s also the Hannibal Wicked Edition which comes with a second 500 GB drive.

Santa, if you’re reading this, it would be nice to find one of these under the tree on Christmas morning!

It’s only been a few days since the DUP’s assembly motion against the introduction of gay equality rights fell through. It was a tied vote, but luckily reason prevailed.

After a two-hour debate at Stormont, 39 assembly members voted in favour of a DUP motion and 39 against.

The party claimed the new legislation could place Christian-run businesses on the “wrong side of the law”.

Now the Christian Institute is taking the Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain to court to try and block the new legislation.

Colin Hart, of the Christian Institute, said the concerns of religious people had been “trampled over”.

Tough shit Colin. Gays’ rights have been trampled over for long enough. It’s sad that legislation like this is needed in the first place.

Religion is a personal choice, sexual orientation isn’t.