Ubuntu badges

I know why Acer computers are so cheap. I also know that although I like the principles of Ubuntu (the software, not ethic), I am not yet committed to the practise. The story started when I was looking to buy a computer. I got lots of advice (including from techies who should know the score) telling me what a great deal Acer computers are. They did compare very favourably with rival laptops, so I bought one. But now I have first-hand experience of one significant cost they’ve managed to cut to achieve their remarkable value for money.

In mid-June the laptop went on the blink after two and a quarter years of working fine. After pressing the ‘on’ button it ran a disk scan trying to repair errors, then just as it made it to the desktop the thing closed down and the whole process began again. Someone at work diagnosed dodgy drivers. In Safe mode I downloaded the drivers from the Acer site, some installed and some didn’t, obviously not enough to help. The same went for the drivers from Drivers.com.

At this stage, most computer owners would get out their back-up disk and either run a repair operation on the operating system, or start again and reinstall it. They would do this if they could find their back-up disk. I couldn’t, so I phoned Acer and was told that I should have burned my own when I first used the computer. Apparently the instruction booklet and a pop-up window tell you to do this. The sympathetic call centre man admitted that most people never look at the instructions and generally ignore the pop-up. About three weeks had passed and I was having to restrain myself from throwing the computer out of the window and then starting a site called acercon.com about what a con Acer are.

The computer was bust, but it seemed most unfair that I would  have to buy a new operating system. I did own the key to a copy of Windows XP, I’d just  forgotten to burn the software. This is when I heard of Ubuntu, this is a free operating system (OS) named after the South African brotherhood of man ethic. It is built using a Linux kernel, the kernel is the central component of an OS and Linux is a programming language that is ‘Unix-like‘. Unix is the language that is used to build the Macintosh operating system. So, at a bit of a stretch, Ubuntu is a Macintosh-like operating system – for free!

The ‘free’ side of the web appeals to me and not just in a download-all-my-music-for-free, take-what-I-can sort of way. Wikipedia must be one the best free things about the web and I contribute. Last week when looking up crumpets, I noticed a disputed point on the Anglo-Saxon roots of the bread, so immediately scurried to Google Books to see if I could find a source to verify the matter. Perhaps I could join the Ubuntu efforts too.

Ubuntu’s advantages over Windows operating systems include that it is faster and more secure. Oh yes, and freer. It starts up with African-sounding drumming and singing, and then you’re ready to go in about 10 seconds. As my windows took five minutes to get going at one stage, that is a big improvement. Rather than having a ‘Start’ menu, all the applications are found in menus on a top panel. It didn’t take too long before I was using it like a natural.

Unfortunately, not all software works on Ubuntu. This is not always a problem, for instance although you can’t run Microsoft Office, you can use Open Office an open-source version with very similar functionality. Also,  iTunes doesn’t work, but you can also plug your iPod into the free and open-source Songbird or even install a virtual Windows within Ubuntu and run iTunes on that. There is more of a problem when you own a gadget that runs using specific software – for instance, our dictaphone,  Speedo swimming MP3 player and Bluetooth dongle wouldn’t operate on it.

There were a few more annoying problems. The computer’s microphone and microphone socket didn’t like Ubuntu and wouldn’t work, so there wasn’t much point in Skype. The mousepad was far more sensitive than with Windows, which meant that when happily writing away at the bottom of the page I’d suddenly find myself in the middle of a word at the top. It also wouldn’t connect to my home wireless, although the work connection was fine. What should have been a jolly, positive thing was just irritating.

Ubuntu release a new version of their software every six months and last month the BBC News site had an article on the latest update. It mentions that Wikipedia use the software – another good thing. Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough to keep me on the OS. Perhaps it’s just a matter of habit or not having enough persistence to iron out the problems, but I’ve moved back to XP. If I could get the computer and software working properly with Ubuntu I might go back to it, unless Windows 7 tempts me.

Google allows you to find the meaning of a word or phrase by typing in ‘define:’ followed by the term you’re after. I thought it might be interesting to create my own google definition. I found this article explaining how to get included in Google definitions. Let’s see if it works.

Incidentally, I came with this yesterday evening, when the lovely Autumn and I went out for a meal. Afterwards she wanted to go to the pub for an ale and a cosy chat, while I carped that I’d rather go home. Autumn reckoned that going home didn’t have the same romance factor.

“Haven’t you heard of the ‘home date’?” I exclaimed.

She hadn’t.

So, supposing two people who are shacked up with each other can actually have a ‘date’ together, here goes:

Home date: a social activity of a romantic quality taking place at home, usually involving two people, who hope to enjoy each other’s company and feelings of ‘togetherness’. This often takes place in the living room, involving a hired film or an episode of an American TVshow from a box set.

Thanks to Wikipedia’s ‘dating (activity)‘ definition.

The laptop seems to have gone on the blink. While I get this sorted out, I’d like to draw your attention to this appropriate blog: the Fail blog. The site chronicles ludicrous misteps and misadventures from around the world.

On the piss

This afternoon I managed to combine sitting in the park with official business (by reading a book important for research), and heard this snippet from a grey-haired bloke talking into his phone: “I was wondering if you were in town. I’m on the piss at the minute. I’ve just finished with my lunch-time friends and I’m wondering what to do.”

Although it’s easy to get lost when the conversation turns to the finer details of the Java coding or the history of the Rebel Alliance, working with a bunch of techies does have its advantages. One of these is handy computer tips.

I had a nagging PC problem and searching the internet didn’t seem to bring up much useful information. Rather, it brought up too much information, but it was difficult to know what was good advice. The issue was my laptop that was running slower than a snail working under the union leadership of Bob Crow.

Perhaps I should uninstall some programs, but which ones? I was also running Symantec’s Norton Anti-Virus software, but it was due for renewal. Luckily, the marvellous Richard Edmonds, who operates under the title of Traygon, made some excellent suggestions which have made noticable improvements. (Yes, he did tell me to write that, but it is true.)

Firstly, I had to replace Norton with a free Anti-virus software called AVG. Wowzers! Getting rid of Norton felt like taking off a pair of lead socks. It appears you actually have to pay Norton to slow down your computer. AVG combined with the Windows firewall is apparently enough security.

Next, there was a thing called CCleaner (the first ‘C’ is for Crap) which finds unnecessary… erm ‘crap’, in your registry files (that’s the database which contain all your settings and can get thoroughly clogged up) and gets rid of them. Finally, Auslogics free defragger gives your PC a much better defrag than the built-in Windows version. So now the computer has not only got rid of its heavy socks, but thrown out the platform boots that it was tottering around on, and is now sprinting around in a brand new pair of trainers.

Of course you can look at the ‘papers’ online for free, but it’s a bit more fiddly and not quite as easy to catch everything. The obvious answer is the old RSS feed aggregator. I’ve finally joined the modern world and signed up to that amazing gadget Google Reader. Unfortunately, there’s a problem here too. The sheer amount of postings coming in.

Although I’ve been looking at it most days, but already I have two folders containing (1000+) items and another almost there. Google Reader tells you how many posts each feed and folder has received since you last looked up to 999, after that you’re just told it’s more than 1,000… ie far too many to look at without getting a headache.

Slewfootsnoop again makes a very helpful suggestion for using YahooPipes or Feedrinse. The Yahoo’s application is ‘a powerful composition tool to aggregate, manipulate, and mashup content from around the web’, whatever that means. While Feedrinse allows you to ‘rinse your feeds by keyword, author, tag, etc, or filter profanity and more’, which seems to mean imposing a sort of boolean ‘NOT’ to RSS feeds.

I wonder what words to exclude? Feedrinse give some examples, but I suppose I’ll have to exlude ‘gloomy’, ‘crunched’ and ‘despair’… terms like that. Anyway, it’s more to get to grips with. It seems finding positive things can be quite hard graft.

Television is ideally enjoyed after sun down. It’s too dark to play in the park, the body calls for rest and the brain slows down. Night is also when all the best programmes are on – often the most inconveniently late they’re shown, the higher the quality. Of course, video recorders and SkyPlus have helped (for those that have these gadgets ). There’s the BBC iPlayer too, now you have a week to see all those BBC 4 docs whenever you want – mid-morning after you’ve rolled out of bed, early afternoon after a long boozy lunch, whenever. Unless of course you have the BBC iPlayer Downloader, in which case you have a lot longer to watch or listen to the programmes. Result!

Apparently the scene has been used on 150 odd YouTube clips, from Ronaldo leaving Man Utd to numerous stories from the US election. This version is very savvy – it covers the uploading of the list onto wikileaks and the mash up on Google Maps – as well as being pretty darn funny. I love the ‘I’m no racist…Something has to be done’. They even manage a dig at UKIP too.

The whole Downfallising phenomenon already has a section on Wikipedia and today The Times ran an article on it. It has grown so big it’s almost worthy of a media studies module. I can only apologize that I only heard about it yesterday and didn’t manage to put it up til today – so it’s almost Internet history by now.

Meanwhile in Gotham, the cheeky Mr Banksy opened up a pet store filled with curious animals. So strange were this creatures that the shop has already packed up and moved out. Luckily they were caught on video before being released into the wild.

When America sneezes, the rest of the world wishes they’d used a hanky…

The US economy looks like it might have a nasty cold and the rest of us are coming down with bird flu. What’s particularly galling is that we just have to put up with the nutters that Americans vote into power. They then steer their country and us up that famous stinky creek. Now you can have a go at voting at www.iftheworldcouldvote.com, where more than 500,000 people have cast their fictional vote.

Unfortunately, there’s no cure for the common cold.

Meanwhile the techies are fighting it out with a search engine freestyle battle.

“I saw the ‘best’ minds of my generation destroyed by marketing…”

I think it’s a bit out of date and might be based on the last census in 2001 as it records members of my family living in Cheshire, and they’ve moved since then. I’m also not sure if all countries are covered equally, because if you look up a South Asian surname like Mian you’ll find most of them live in north eastern Italy. Still, it’s quite fun. You can put rude names in too: the Penis family seem to be concentrated in Spain, while the Bums hang out in Austria. Ah, the joy of demographics.

In the aggressively competitive and highly mutable urban landscape you’ve still definitely got to pump up the volume to get heard. One London artist seems to have taken a ‘quiet is the new loud’ approach to urban art. Hear his booming whisper at his Little People blog.

That’s if I was walking from Keith to Barry.
View Larger Map

Now the police have produced a google maps mashup that allows you to see the crime in your area. Thankfully according to the Metropolitan Police Crime Mapping site I live in an area of only average crime. Phew.

Also, the makers of the hilarious comic Get Your War On have now gone ‘life in cartoon motion’, with a Get Your War On animation. Unfortunately as this is only the first episode, there’s no huge back log of clips to watch.