The first 2.4.4 alpha release ^[?] is now available here.

The main additions are enhancements to two of Awasu's most important features.

• Workpads: custom fields can now be defined for each workpad (e.g. Priority, Assigned to, Source) and values set for each by workpad items. These values will then be included in any reports generated from that workpad.
• Awasu API: a new entry point has been added that allows individual feed items to be retrieved from Awasu's database. And since it works off reports, you also get the extra functionality that they offer e.g. emailing or FTP'ing them off somewhere.

There is also a simple interface for managing the download queue for enclosures. They say necessity is the mother of all invention and I put this feature in since I got stung by a few feeds that I had subscribed to that turned out to have gigabytes of enclosures embedded in them

This beta cycle will be the last before the next general release - not long to go!

When the tumbleweeds start to take over the weblog, it usually means that I've been locked away in my cave, working on the next version of Awasu. Well, I've been locked away alright, but in my music cave instead.

Many moons ago, I wrote about jazz teddy bears, which started a chain of events that has resulted in my personal music web site being pushed out this week, JazzTeddyBears.com. It has a load of songs that I've recorded over the past few months (including a few new ones that haven't made it out to my SoundCloud page yet) and some tutorial videos as well.

The teddy in the picture used to belong to my sister and I tormented her when we kids by nicking it and playing footy with it around the house. She gave it to me years ago when I was hospitalized after a pretty bad accident (yah, OK, it was a really bad accident), while the cap was one that I wore at my very first gig.

I'm pretty pleased with how it's all come out, although given the amount of time and effort that's gone into it, you'd bloody well hope so Check it out, and in the meantime, I'll creep out of my music cave and turn around and git right back into my Awasu cave