tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62713085767276452622024-03-13T08:16:46.869+00:00Wadsworth's WayPhilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00598760545422665782noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6271308576727645262.post-70243046730412191732012-07-16T17:11:00.000+01:002012-07-16T17:13:25.835+01:00Being a Cheapskate<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I think that sometimes </span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I am perceived as a bit of a cheapskate.</span> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I rather prefer to think I like to get value for money, better still, something for nothing !. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">For instance take parking fees. I avoid them whenever I can. I reckon that by judicial parking throughout the year i can save about £300 easily. By parking my car on the edge of a town and walking that extra 500 metres it is easy to save £2-3 per visit, particularly when you live in Cornwall where the charges are frequently extortionate. But I extend this principle to buying things as well. Now I have mentioned previously that I enjoy auctions and car boot sales and the bargains that can be had. Well I will not stop there at looking for discounted goods. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">If I believe that the price of an item is excessive with built in high profit margin I will always ask for discount. Now there are some places you just can't do this such as the high street multiples but there are many you can. Furniture shops, bed salerooms, some electrical retailers, tyre, battery and exhaust centres for example. If in doubt you can give it a go. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Now recently one of the "bargains" I purchased at a boot sale were several items of Piquot Ware. The upside is that they were very cheap and the downside was they had seen a lot of use, probably in a cafe somewhere. For those of you who don't know, Piquot Ware was a range of cast and polished aluminium/magnesium alloy tea and coffee pots, milk jugs and sugar bowls that were very popular in the 60's and 70's. They are now seeing a resurgence in popularity with their "retro" design helped by the fact that the manufacturers still make them albeit they are extremely expensive. A tea pot for instance is around £150 !. I have three coffee pots of two different designs, a sugar bowl and a milk jug, all obtained for just £20. However I do not think I will realise much of a profit it their present state as they need a couple of decades of scratches and tarnish polished out. And so to my current project and my renovation plan !.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I realised from the outset that hand polishing would not suffice. When I looked at bench polishers it seemed even the lowest cost was in excess of £40 and that was before buying the necessary polishing wheels, etc. Then I remembered my 35 year old Black and Decker two speed drill was made to go with various attachments and I was sure one was a horizontal drill stand. A quick look on ebay revealed a couple had sold in recent months but they were rare as "rocking horse s**t". </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">After a couple of weeks of searching I was beginning to believe my only option was to buy a bench grinder when lo and behold I saw just the item I required at.............wait for it...........a boot sale!. Only the item wasn't just the stand. Black and Decker had made it so it could form part of a wood turning lathe and the seller, a trader, had the whole thing for sale for £15. Now you might think this would be a bargain but remember, i'm a cheapskate. I offered him £5 and he said he wouldn't go lower than £10. Not to be outdone I waited until I had been around the whole sale a couple of times then returned to his pitch and offered him £8 saying it was all I had (I had £50 float in my wallet). He scratched his head and pondered. The whole thing was about a metre long, covered in grease and grime and still had a filthy greasy drill attached. I said how many offers did he think he would get for such a heavy greasy item. I asked him if the drill worked and he said he didn't know. I went for the kill............ I emptied my trouser pockets out and I had exactly £7.80 in loose change. I said this was his last chance as I was about to leave; it was £7.80 or nothing. He capitulated !. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I wrapped a paper hankies around the bits I held and struggled back to my car. On my return home and following cleaning, further investigation revealed that not only did the drill work fine but it was two speed and a switchable hammer drill to boot. And the one tool I didn't have at home was .........you can guess..........yes a hammer drill !.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Since then i've purchased an aluminium polishing kit on ebay and have polished my first coffee pot. What a difference. They should look like new when i've finished. So that's my current home project. And in the garage i've a very nice lathe for when I decide to take up woodturning as new hobby !. As I said, nothing ventured, nothing gained.</span><br />
<br />Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00598760545422665782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6271308576727645262.post-18290764755911537142012-07-12T00:23:00.001+01:002012-07-12T00:23:54.103+01:00Auction Day !<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Well today I indulged another of my hobbies............buying at auctions. One of the first things I did following my retirement was attend an auction.</span> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">It was something i'd always wanted to do but never had because auctions are nearly always held on weekdays and holidays were too precious to give up for such events. Anyway, I never had that much spare cash in those days, not that I have now mind you. The first purchases I made were lots involving pottery of various sorts. Job lots, boxes of miscellania, etc., mainly from house clearences. Anyway, I got lucky. I resurrected a seven year old ebay account and some innocuous pieces I bought turned out to be worth "a few quid" </span>. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I realised there was money to be made.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The interest in pottery of all types developed. The more auctions I attended, the more pottery I bought and the more I had to research it before I sold. Profits I made I ploughed back into not only buying more pottery </span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">but into expensive reference books</span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> to further my knowledge. I got good at identifying makers marks from memory, particularly studio pottery marks. This led to my starting a studio pottery collection with a focus on pottery from Devon & Cornwall. And so now my collection is valued at well over £1</span>,<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">000 and growing. Today I acquired another eight pieces. most of which will be sold to recover their cost but I think a couple will be finding their way into my collection again.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Inevitably the temptation has been to buy other items at auction apart from pottery. Thus I have gradually found myself bringing home antiques as well. Miners lamps, treen, Newlyn copperware, ships lamps, brass clocks, </span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">soda syphons, </span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">cloisonne vases, razors, powder flasks, cigarette boxes, an atoscope (you'll have to look that one uplike I did !) , a plessor (and that one !) have all featured as purchases. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Auctions alone were not enough and so I progressed to boot sales as a source of goodies to be sold at a profit or in the case of pottery to be added to my collection. </span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">There really is some good stuff to be found at boot sales. Trench art pieces have featured twice as purchases that have produced handsome profit. I have found that where pottery is concerned, joe public either as a buyer or a seller does not have a great knowledge where modern contemporary ceramics or studio pottery is involved. This has been greatly to my advantage. One piece I bought for £1.20p for example is worth between £90 -£120 !. Long may this situation remain.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I found that I was building such a surplus of funds that I was able to finance the purchase of all the equipment I needed to start my most recent hobby of canoing. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I started the buying/selling with a £100 float, now long since repaid and so it turns out that both my pottery collecting and canoing have in effect been self financing. Not only that but i'm having a lot of fun on the way.</span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></span>Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00598760545422665782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6271308576727645262.post-66908301088400071372012-07-08T23:11:00.001+01:002012-07-08T23:11:49.101+01:00Making the Best of the Weather<br />
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Well another week has gone by with yet again rain, rain and more rain but i'm trying to make the best of it. The sun came out on Wednesday evening so I picked up my new rod and reel which were Xmas presents from my wife and gave them an airing. Drove the short distance to Charlestown and went out on the west pier to see if I could bag a mackerel, spinning with a lure.</div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">No such luck</span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">. I didn't stay longer than an hour because quite frankly it was a little chilly with a firm sea breeze </span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">and I was getting bored. The telescopic rod was light </span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">and easy to handle and the reel silent, </span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">the line wrapping on the spool very evenly. So full marks all round. I can't throw my old rod away mind you, after all I have had it 47 years</span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> !. The old reel will go in the bin though</span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> as it is corroding at the edges.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Now today, the sun came out in the morning and a visit to Charlestown with my grandson Jack revealed the sea was very calm with only a slight swell so I decided that this might be an opportunity to test the sit on kayak on the sea. So off I went to Caerhays beach (Porthluney Cove as it is more correctly known) in the afternoon with the aim of a paddle along the coast to the harbour village of Portloe.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Oh I wish it were as easy as that. Everything takes so much time. There's the kayak to get out of the garage, unstrap from the trolley (i'll come to that in a moment) and tie on to the roof bars. Make sure i've got wetsuit, boots, cag top, gloves, helmet and towel packed in my holdall and put in the boot. Then the spare mobile and money put into a waterproof pouch. Paddle placed down the ski way in the centre of the car. Bottle filled with drink clipped into the holder on the kayak. Trolley put into the boot (yeh yeh I said i'll come to that in a minute).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Then after arriving at the beach there's the kayak to take off the roof and put back on the trolley again (...........you know what i'm going to say now don't you................). Then the struggle to put the wetsuit on. Now mine's a quality one but it's just so damn harder now i'm older (and more horizontally challenged). Boots on, buoyancy aid on, cag on, gloves on, helmet on. Paddle out of the car, holdall back in boot, lock car. Put waterproof pouch in hatch in kayak after putting car key in it. Ready to move.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Now I did mention a trolley didn't I !. Well back in the days when I canoed and surf-ski'd I would just carry the canoe or ski to the waters edge. On beaches such as Caerhays or Polzeath on the north coast, if the tide was out this could be quite a walk with +20KG over my shoulder. But I was younger/fitter/had hair then. Ah-ha but nowadays they make little folding alloy trolleys to sit your kayak on and tie down so that you can wheel the blighters down to the waters edge. Another expense of course, and not cheap at sixty quid but boy do they save the arms and back. Quite frankly without it I doubt whether i'd make it to the water. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">So of I went wheeling my kayak across the several hundred metres of sand to the water. Then when I got there I unstrapped it from the kayak, took the wheels off, folded it up and put the whole shebang in a 30 litre waterproof bag which I then secured in the rear compartment of the kayak. Job done, ready for off so you'd think. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Oh bugger. I still had my varifocal spectacles on. I'd forgotten to put my contact lenses in before I left the house. f****!?#!!**$*%!!#!!!!!!. Nothing else for it, I wasn't going to risk the loss of £350 spectacles; I had to go back to the car where fortunately I had an old pair of single vision specs and a sports headband stored away as a back up. So off I went, leaving the kayak near, but not too near, the waters edge, swapped my specs over and returned. Felt like I needed a rest and a lie down but I hadn't started yet !.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">After a quick launch I could see the water was not as calm as it had been earlier and there was a strong onshore/crosshore breeze. No worries. The kayak proved to be very stable and I lit out towards Portloe, keeping about 100 metres offshore to avoid the heavier swell which had also built from earlier. I soon realised that Portloe was a little too far with the headwind I was paddling into so I settled for West Portholland Cove as a final destination. Portloe would do for another calmer sunny day when I had more time. I returned after about an hour and a half on the water.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">So the trip was not quite what I was aspiring to but an excellent test of the kit on the sea for the first time and all in all I am well pleased with my new plaything. The trolley, although an extra hassle factor, was nevertheless a great success and did what it was supposed to do..... save me from physiotherapy and appointments with chiropractors. All I need now is some of those balmy calm summer days we used to have when I would get too hot in the wetsuit and would have to bale water over myself with my helmet in order to cool down. Aah.....those were the days...........</span>Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00598760545422665782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6271308576727645262.post-1240040314734940062012-07-05T00:39:00.000+01:002012-07-16T17:13:37.231+01:00A New Direction<div style="text-align: center;">
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It's been some time since I started this blog and it's really ceased to be a blog because I haven't been blogging !. Well i've decided to take this in a new direction now as things have changed since I last wrote.</div>
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For one thing, I no longer repair computers, least not for reward. </div>
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So this blog will no longer focus on technology but rather will take a broader view on the things that excite, concern, worry, annoy and otherwise stimulate my brain on a day to day basis. </div>
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To begin in this vain I will tell you of a recent trip I took out to enjoy my new hobby, canoing. Well it isn't really new in the sense that I used to canoe with a club but stopped doing so about eight years ago, some four years before I retired. I also used to surf ski, bodyboard and snorkel fish but just stopped doing them in my later employment years. I never owned a canoe and sold the surf ski I had but kept all the other essential watersports gear, wetsuit, buoyancy aid, etc.</div>
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Then earlier this year I saw canoists out on the river near where I live and it brought back the great memories of the times I had when I was "on the water" in sea and on river. Now I am not the fittest person there is and age is taking its toll, particularly because I admittedly get little excercise except gardening. However I am still healthy and with the exception of occasional muscle aches and having to wear spectacles for long distance I saw no reason why I couldn't get back on the water again. So I started looking at canoes on the web. To my surprise I found that the sport has changed in the past decade with the prominent availability of affordable "sit on kayaks". These can be fitted with removable seats and have no cockpit, the canoist simply sitting in a depression moulded into the polyethylene body of the canoe. Just what I was looking for. They are very stable, unsinkable and if you fall out on the water, it is comparatively easy to get back on, particularly if you have no one with you in another canoe.</div>
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So the decision was made and soon after I located the exact model I wanted, second hand on ebay. I also bought a new paddle, a folding trolley for those longer hauls down to the water and some waterproof bags for carrying stuff with me on any trips. A check on all my old watersport gear came next and although donning my wetsuit was a bit like putting a cumberland sausage into a chipolata skin, it still fit reasonably comfortably.</div>
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Now I used to wear contact lenses when I undertook watersports but hadn't done so for years so next was a trip to the opticians to determine whether I could return to using them. I didn't want to get lost on the water and have people saying "he should have gone to Specsavers" !. The news was good and I was given five pairs to try out and thereafter I can buy a pack of thirty pairs for £22 which for daily use will last me many trips. Job done. </div>
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My first trip was last Wednesday from Golant slipway on the Fowey river here in Cornwall to the Bridge at Lostwithiel. A fairly ambitious journey (14 kilometres round trip) for a try out, but in for a penny, in for a pound !.Weather was calm with sunny intervals and I was going up-river with the tide, the plan to be a Lostwithiel at high tide then return with the tide again. I met a couple of other canoists who launched just before me. They had sea kayaks but had decided the river was the better option on a day where fog was prelavent.<br />
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There is nothing quite like the peace which can be found on some of our Cornish estuaries. At one point I just sat and heard........nothing...... No bird sounds, not even a distant car or the gentle put-put-put of a boat on the river. The only time I have ever heard such silence was at the bottom of a 1000 metre shaft in North Yorkshire. Wonderful.<br />
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There was drizzle on the way but I was working the paddle and with my cag top and buoyancy jacket over my wetsuit I was quite warm. The tide was high enough to beach below the bridge and lunch was obtained from Lostwithiel Coop. The other two canoists did likewise and I got chatting to them sitting on the picnic benches. The gentleman canoist (the other was a lady) said he was 83 and had canoed much of his life. And there was me quietly wondering whether I was too old to take up canoing having not even reached state retirement age !.<br />
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Having listened to TV reports and read the newspapers recently, who the
hell wants to die in a rest home. Take risks and feel alive. So now I have my answer. Feel the fear and do it anyway. That's my new direction and we'll see where it takes me. I'll continue this blog from time to time so those that readers will know i'm still alive !.</div>
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<br /></div>Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00598760545422665782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6271308576727645262.post-83165184320460511572010-04-15T00:06:00.003+01:002010-04-15T00:24:18.462+01:00* Your Never Too Old.........Had a call from a chap yesterday asking me to "fix" his notebook computer. It was a little slow particularly when browsing the net and he wasn't happy about the screen resolution.....the fonts were too large. So I picked it up from his house, did the necessary and returned it to him today. He invited me in to look at a porcelain figure of his pet terrier of which he was very proud.<br /><br />He then mentioned in addition to the notebook he had a desktop PC as well which he mainly used for writing letters and emails but preferred his notebook for surfing the net. I told him that all was well with his notebook now although I found it heavy to carry compared to most because it was a high end widescreen Toshiba. He showed me out and through his garden, up steps to where he had put a newly purchased Magnolia. I had guessed his age to be a fit 70, perhaps slightly less as he didn't wear glasses, had no hearing aids I could see and walked well without a stick.<br /><br />As he shut the gate behind me and bade me farewell, he added he was 93 years young and going strong !. I didn't doubt it.<br /><br />Take note those who say they're too old to learn how to use a computer !!.Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00598760545422665782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6271308576727645262.post-23444014377132005912010-02-11T21:36:00.003+00:002010-02-11T23:10:45.220+00:00*Can you Bank on your browser ?!.Do you ever get exasperated by the failure of technology to meet your requirements. Well I do and i've just had a bona fida first class example of it today. <br /><br />Now i've banked with my current provider for over 30 years. At first in the local bank, then by telephone when they were the first to introduce such a system and then online, when again they were at the forefront of online banking. I have never had a bad experience with them, never incurred a charge, always been able to access my accounts and never been frozen out.<br />However, within the past year both I and my wife have needed to open savings accounts with another banking provider and boy has it been frustrating but nothing compared to the experience I have had over the last two days!.<br /><br />Now two days ago my wife and I both accessed our accounts online with the new provider and checked the amounts and details. We then accessed online our long standing bank and transferred sums from our established accounts into the accounts with the new provider. Everything ok so far right. However we also had a large sum of cash which we needed to put into our new provider savings accounts and the only way we could do this was go to our local branch and make a deposit.<br /><br />Then the shenanigans began ! To make the deposit we're asked to use our bank card in the pin reader. Lord knows why......think about it; the money is cash readies, we have the numbers of the correct accounts and we know we're in the correct bank. What could go wrong. So we comply and I put my card in the chip and pin machine and enter the pin code. Incorrect code !. Try again. Incorrect code. I protest the code isn't correct. Its the same I use for other accounts elsewhere and have done so for 20 years. (..........I know......I should use different pins for each account to be safe and sure......) I tell the nice lady behind the bullet proof glass that it's the correct code, that it's engrained in my memory and not written down and I haven't made a mistake. <br />She asks me if its the original pin code sent to me. I say its the one I use online when I bank with them. She says "not that pin code, that's a different pin code". I tell her i've never used the card itself in a pin machine and don't know any other pin code but it's the one they call "pin code" on their online banking site. After a short but confusing exchange I have to acknowledge it won't work with the pin code that I have, for whatever reason, and agree to the bank issuing a new pin code by post. Since my wife's card will be exactly the same we agree to her's being re-issued as well.<br />I question whether this will affect the pin codes we use online and am told definately not. I ask why there has to be one code for online and one for the card and she says she has no idea. <br />She then says she can do the cash deposit for us without us using our bank cards. Saints preserve us !. So why ask for our bank cards originally ?. Bank policy. Doh !.<br /><br />She then tells us the money can only be transferred into our joint current account and not into the savings accounts which are online only and so we will have to do those ourselves when we get home. I have an uneasy feeling that this isn't over by a long shot yet.<br /><br />So we travel home and I go online. I enter the usual codes and passwords in the usual screens and guess what........it says incorrect pin code or password entered. I try it again but same answer, incorrect pin code or password !. *!?***/?!* . Expletives deleted as Richard Nixon said.<br />It tells me i'm locked out but helpfully if I enter various data into the following few screens it should confirm i'm whom I am and will get me the access I require.<br /><br />So I start filling in the boxes, full name, DOB, postcoe, etc, etc, including current pin code and password. It's almost like applying for a new account !. I complete it, it submits the information, comes back and says everythings ok and presents me with the normal login screen asking for pin code and password.<br /><br />Hooray, or so I think. I put the information in the boxes and hit next...............incorrect pin code and password !!. *!?***/?!*.<br />I do it again...........same result. *!?***/?!* *!?***/?!*.<br /><br />I ring the online help desk. A nice lady verifies who I am . She asks for key characters from both my pin and my password which check out as good and unlocks the account for me to try again. I ring off, go online and go to login again.<br />Incorrect pin code and password !.<br />I try again. Incorrect pin code and password !.<br />I'm locked out again but helpfully if I enter various data into the following few screens it should confirm i'm whom I am and will get me the access I require.<br />I get that feeling of deja-vu.<br /><br />I ring the help line again. another nice lady goes through all the usual question to verify whether i'm suffering from the early on-set of alzheimers disease or just a total dork. After verifying that I know what i'm doing and again that the pin code and password are correct, she presents me with a rather unbelievable but possible explanation as to why I can't get online access to my accounts.<br /><br />She asks how I get to the online banking webpage.<br />I say I have the bank's homepage bookmarked in my browser and the online banking login link is on the homepage.<br />She says that is probably the problem.<br />I say I can't believe that could be the problem.<br />She says it probably is.<br />I say how can it cause a problem as it's only a saved web domain link in a browser, the one i've used for many months successfully.<br />She says she doesn't know why, just that its what she was told in their training.<br />She says type in the login page address directly into the browser to access it and it should work.<br /><br />I get the feeling i'm being fobbed off with an excuse and a rather implausible one at that but i'm tiring fast and need to exchange the virtual world for the real world soon. I agree to give it a try.<br />She never mentions whether it matters what browser i'm using and I wish i'd asked.<br /><br />I do as she says and type the address directly into the browser bar and go through the login process. Ureka.........its works..........i'm in !.<br />I log out and my wife logs in ..........same result.<br /><br />So what conclusions can I draw from this.....<br />1. Something on their homepage/login pages has changed because using the bookmark has worked many times before.<br />2. Whatever it is is a bug of some sort in the webpage construction that prevents passage of the login data to the server.<br />3. It's probably a cross browser bug.<br />4. The bank know about it.<br />5. The bank are keeping it to themselves unless they absolutely have to admit it.<br />6. They are unable to fix it....at least for the present.<br /><br />The bank is a mainstream high street bank. Ten years ago they had 500,000 customers banking by internet.....lord knows what it is now. How many are having to go through this experience. The most worrying thing is if the webpages have bugs that do this , is there anything happening that could compromise security ?.<br /><br />I guess i'll never know.Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00598760545422665782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6271308576727645262.post-85663327449702080482009-11-30T19:36:00.004+00:002009-11-30T20:27:17.616+00:00* Photo Sharing with Opera Unite<p>I have a 0ne year old grandson called Jack. Now Jack, like many of his age in this digital world in which we live, has probably been photographed more times than there are blades of grass on my lawn. He's been snapped by his mum, his dad, his grandparents, his uncles, his aunts, etc, etc., .....ok...you get the picture. Excuse the unintended pun.</p><p>Of course the whole family wants to see these photos and share them so we don't miss a moment. So when my daughter had asked me for the latest batch we had taken at his birthday party (yes, he had one complete with balloons, cake, candles, etc., although he would be the only one who didn't realise that it was a birthday party), I thought there must be an easier way than putting them on a flashdrive and passing them to and fro between us as we had done before. I never seem to know whether my daughter has copied some of them already and there is always stuff on the flashdrive I don't want to delete. So I thought I would upload the lot onto my largely unused free "Adrive" cloud storage account so she (and others in our extended family) could take what they want when they wanted. Seemed like a good idea at the time.</p><p>Wrong !. First it wouldn't accept more than 1000 photos at a time. Ok, I know it's a lot but you get 50GB of storage free and I did tell you there were a lot of photos !. So I cut it down to 700+ and started uploading. Couple of hours later, ....still uploading. After 600+ and nearly 4 hours.......failure. Some kind of connection problem I think. Back to square one.</p><p>Then I thought of Opera Unite. Now Opera v10.10 had just been released which was the new Opera Browser which included Opera Unite. I run PCLinuxOS2009 so I checked my repositories and there it was, newly included. A few minutes later and it was installed and running.</p><p><br /></p><p>Now Opera Unite is a web server that is included with the browser which in effect allows you to host files for sharing through the internet. The bits I like best about it are ></p><ul><li>You don't need to know anything about setting up a web server at all; zero, zilch.</li><li>You enable access to only the file areas you choose</li><li>Access is password protected so if you give the passwords only to those you trust, only they can look at those areas</li><li>Photos, files and movies each require a separate module to be installed on your computer, each having a separate password</li><li>You can run the browser with Opera Unite (the server) enabled or disabled. If it's disabled, no-one can access your files</li><li>It takes only a minute or two to set this up. It's a doddle.</li></ul><p>So I set it up so my daughter could access all of 2009 photos and videos. Now she can pick and choose what she wants, when she wants. If the PC isn't on or Opera Unite isn't enabled, all she has to do is text me and it's sorted.</p><p>My previous post on this blog concerned cloud computing and trusting others with your data. Well my Opera Unite is my family's "cloud", i'm responsible for security and I trust myself to secure my PC and ensure I have back-ups of all my data. </p><p>Opera10.10 the browser is faster in my experience than Firefox 3.5.5 and the "turbo" mode can help greatly with some sluggish sites. The only thing that lets it down is lack of support for extensions and add-ons like Add-Block, LastPass, etc. Opera Unite however is an excellent application which works faultlessly and makes up for these shortfalls and I can recommend it to anyone who needs to securely share personal files as regularly as I do. </p>Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00598760545422665782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6271308576727645262.post-62107086175025830162009-11-21T19:00:00.003+00:002009-11-21T19:52:23.661+00:00* Who do you trust with your data ?!Well, by now anyone who has an interest in the alternative operating systems to Microsoft Windows will have read the numerous reports relating to the announcement made by Google concerning their development of the "Google Chrome OS".<br />It seems clear that their intention is to develop an OS that is based around Google services but more importantly where applications and data will be hosted in the "cloud".<br />Now lets be clear just what we're talking about here.<br /><br />The operating system will essentially be your Google Chrome browser and little else. Any data you need to save will be held on Google's servers somewhere in the world. Would you be happy with this arrangement ?. I expect that when you first load up the new OS or very soon thereafter, you will be asked to tick a box agreeing to their terms before you can proceed further in setting up your account. This is the bit where you will sign your digital life away to an organisation you will have to place your total trust in.<br /><br />Now anyone who has any sense these days will make backups of their computer data files of some sort, be it on external hardrive, CD, DVD or flashdrive. Those who don't may pay the consequences when their hardrive crashes or the trojans and viruses wreck their system.<br />So those that do take the necessary precautions of making backups and running antivirus/anti-malware programs can blame no-one but themselves if things go awry but in effect they have risk assessed their personal set-up and are happy the risk is both minimal and under their control.<br /><br />However those that delegate all their personal data security to unknown persons and systems elsewhere on the planet are not able to make any reasonable risk assessment of these servers security nor do they exert any control over such risk.<br /><br />So if we wish to move to the computing futureworld of Google Chrome OS we must put our total and absolute trust in the Google organisation. Just as I am doing right now as I post this on the Google Blogger site.<br />But there is a big difference in trusting a few chosen words of text to the "cloud" and that of trusting the "cloud" to hold our personal digital photos, personal finances, letters, videos, music, etc.<br /><br />Now this might all be irrelevant if as is suggested the Chrome OS will be free and open source with the code available for developers to contribute changes to. I am sure that if this is the case then someone would soon enable users to save data locally. For now we will have to content ourselves with the snippets of information released by Google and their partners as the OS development progresses.<br /><br />The development of a truly secure OS free from subversion by malware would be of inestimable benefit to society, particularly if it were based on free and open software. We have only to wait and see what the real cost to our personal data security might be.Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00598760545422665782noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6271308576727645262.post-17167969584458462502009-11-13T14:50:00.008+00:002009-11-21T19:52:06.245+00:00* Booting USB drives with PLoPVery occasionally I come across a utility that I find indispensable and a couple of weeks ago was one such occasion. I was required by a client to clean a particularly bad trojan from her netbook running Windows XP. Only problem was that all attempts to boot into safemode, restore or for that matter to open up Explorer were thwarted by the trojan. This was a really bad mother which had a tight grip on her system and wouldn't let go, clearly running as one of the first processes at boot. Now sometimes it is the case that a bit of malware (lets not be too specific to cover all eventualities........) is so prelavent that only a repair install/new install will suffice. However I wanted to avoid this scenario as I would have to backup all her files externally first.<br /><br />Now even if I had to do this it would necessitate the use of an external CD/DVDRW and there was no guarantee that the virus would allow this. So what I thought I would to do was create a USB flashdrive install of a LiveCD of a well known Viruschecker and boot from this. So I looked into the bios of the netbook and changed it to boot from the USB drive. But when I re-booted the netbook it just hung every time. I suspected the trojan was doing its dastardly work again !.<br /><br />So I resorted to a small utility called <span style="font-weight: bold;">PLoP Bootmanager v5.0</span>. (<a href="http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager.html">http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager.html</a>)<br />I will simply quote the introduction to this application from the website:<br /><br /><p> <span style="font-style: italic;">" The PLoP Boot Manager is a small</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> program to boot different operating systems. You can boot the operating systems from </span><b style="font-style: italic;">harddisk</b><span style="font-style: italic;">, </span><b style="font-style: italic;">floppy</b><span style="font-style: italic;">, </span><b style="font-style: italic;">CD/DVD</b><span style="font-style: italic;"> or from </span><b style="font-style: italic;">USB</b><span style="font-style: italic;">. You can start the boot manager from floppy, CD, network and there are many more ways to start the boot manager. You can install the boot manager on your harddisk. There is no extra partition required for the boot manager. </span></p><span style="font-style: italic;"> The PLoP Boot Manager was written by Elmar Hanlhofer. </span>"<br /><br />I will confine my description of this utility to its use in running it from the Windows Bootmanager.<br /><br />This is what I did:<br /><br />Using my notebook PC I downloaded the file <a href="http://download.plop.at/files/bootmngr/plpgenbtldr-0.7.zip">plpgenbtldr-0.7.zip</a> to my USB flashdrive. Then I extracted the files <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">plpbt.bin</span> and <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">plpgenbtldr.exe</span>. <ul><li><p class="western">On the netbook I pressed F2 at start-up and selected to boot to the commandline prompt where I was able to create a folder called c:\plop. </p> </li><li><p class="western">Although the netbook wouldn't boot from it, it still recognised the USB drive and again through the commandline I was able to copy <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">plpbt.bin</span> and <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">plpgenbtldr.exe</span> to the c:\plop folder. </p> </li><li><p class="western">With the current folder as c:\plop I then then started plpgenbtldr.exe<br />This program searched for the file plpbt.bin in the currrent directory and from this it generated the file plpbtldr.bin.</p></li><li><p class="western">The next task was to add the appropriate line to the Windows boot menu. (Bare in mind if you try this, Windows 2000 and XP are different to Windows VISTA).</p></li><li><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Using the commandline function "edit" I opened up the file c:\boot.ini and added the following to it on a separate line:</p></li><li><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">c:\plop\plpbtldr.bin="PLoP Boot Manager"</p></li></ul> <p class="western">Now I re-booted the netbook and this time the Windows bootmanager showed (it didn't previously) with the first line being Windows XP and the second line the PLoP Boot Manager.</p>I selected the PLoP Boot Manager but this time I received an error message indicating the plpbt.bin file was fragmented. Evidently this file must not be fragmented and a small program <a href="http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897428.aspx" target="_blank">contig </a>is provided on the PLoP site to defragment this file. After downloading this file to the flashdrive on my notebook and again re-booting the netbook to a commandline prompt I patiently executed this program to defragment the file.<br /><br /><img src="file:///tmp/moz-screenshot.png" alt="" />So now I was ready to try <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhZFKRehAIzCXPMqaDmdYoelPHGQAU-3GIBCZmHlsQP8mHQ4uTkuWxM27I_bcFzsnaXqvqM3-fO3rXfbdyZPayc_UuzNQqv74SBjvq4tCFMZhRxIiIx1buoQo_4XM6UupybHXoSaDfRLM/s1600-h/bootmngr5_1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhZFKRehAIzCXPMqaDmdYoelPHGQAU-3GIBCZmHlsQP8mHQ4uTkuWxM27I_bcFzsnaXqvqM3-fO3rXfbdyZPayc_UuzNQqv74SBjvq4tCFMZhRxIiIx1buoQo_4XM6UupybHXoSaDfRLM/s320/bootmngr5_1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5403627767277926290" border="0" /></a>to boot my USB flashdrive complete with Linux based viruschecker. When I re-booted the netbook this time I booted to the PLoP program successfully and it brought up the PLoP bootscreen immediately.<br /><br />I selected the "USB" option and hey presto, the USB flashdrive was accessed and my my external Linux viruschecker was up and running in a jiffy. Needless to say after an hour or so I had successfully cleared the netbook of the trojan as well as one or two other nasties and it was back to its fully working Windoze order.<br /><br />My main PC is fairly old with a bios that doesn't support booting from USB so i've tried this little gem here as well now and it works a treat.<br /><br />So if you haven't got USB booting capability or you run a netbook with no CD/DVDRW available I highly recommend this cracking utility. Install it on your PC and keep a bootable flashdrive with a Linux based viruschecker to hand. You never know when you might need it !.Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00598760545422665782noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6271308576727645262.post-68905641738143759062009-11-13T11:21:00.010+00:002009-11-21T19:51:47.399+00:00* On-Line Banking and LinuxI have been banking on-line for a long time now. Indeed I started banking by telephone with the Co-operative Bank when they first introduced it, well before any other bank had done so in the UK. I haven't actually been to my nearest bank (which is 48 miles away) for about 15 years. No need.......cash machines for cash at no cost, cheque deposits through the Post Office and of course the on-line banking for paying bills and moving money around.<br /><br />Although I du<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyp8R_spBre-cUnT2OsTLN3A3GU8QpKFpAXDbf9vuWkiMj6cwC5iz2n-oAP6EqzckCyWP5vg_3-RhzghK1ISUtQPndWttzpkNNv5HvVTkmzeV1b-NY1Ww5b-Z0df3CSMgGWwiG-AS45dw/s1600-h/virusalert.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 168px; height: 126px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyp8R_spBre-cUnT2OsTLN3A3GU8QpKFpAXDbf9vuWkiMj6cwC5iz2n-oAP6EqzckCyWP5vg_3-RhzghK1ISUtQPndWttzpkNNv5HvVTkmzeV1b-NY1Ww5b-Z0df3CSMgGWwiG-AS45dw/s200/virusalert.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5403565041533562130" border="0" /></a>al Boot PCLinuxOS with WinXP, I never use Windows for financial transactions of any sort, not even as a virtual machine within Sun'sVirtualbox. Even with firewall's up and viruschecker's/antispyware running, I don't trust my financial wellbeing to Microsoft's operating system. Why on earth would I ?. After all, the evidence is there to point to Windows being a very "leaky" system in this regard ............ but I won't labour this well worn argument further here.<br /><br />What I would point out is that if you visit any high street bank's webpages and review their conditions for on-line banking, they highlight the appropriate operating system of choice to be a Microsoft Windows OS, or occasionally the Mac OS. Rarely is there a mention of Linux anywhere to be found.<br /><br />Now this I find quite extraordinary in the light of the following statement issued in early October:<br /><p style="font-style: italic;">"UK online banking fraud losses rose 55 per cent to hit £39m for the first half of 2009, according to banking industry figures published on Tuesday (6/10/09).</p> <span style="font-style: italic;">The rise in banking fraud was largely blamed on more sophisticated malware-orientated tactics by cybercrooks, according to Financial Fraud Action UK (formerly the anti-fraud unit of banking payments association APACS). "</span><br /><br />So at this rate, on-line banking fraud will hit £100m for 2009 total, an astounding figure. And in most cases the banks themselves are footing the bill for this but then of course passing the cost back to the customer with the punitive charges they levy to those who incur them.<br /><br />Now perhaps I am just being stupid but might not the banks be a potential friend to linux with this much money at stake ?. If there is any group or organisation that could benefit from the adoption of Linux OS's it is surely the banks. I am sure that the likelihood of banks being able to force the use of Linux as the OS for on-line banking is negligable but perhaps more could be done by them to promote the use of Linux, if even only for on-line financial transactions.<br /><br />I am no Linux expert but how about providing a "barebones" Linux OS which in the form of a LiveCD, configures your internet connection wired or wireless, and provides a basic secure browser to access your on-line banking services. If small enough this could be issued in the form of a "credit card" sized CD you could keep in your wallet along with your other cards.<br />Or better still, a LiveCD that allows automatic install of such a compact LinuxOS to hardrive, minimally resizing your existing Windows partition to provide room for the new OS and giving you the dual boot grub screen at start-up. When users wished to bank they could simply re-boot temporarily into their Linux partition.<br /><br />Food for thought .............. what are your opinions on this matter ?.Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00598760545422665782noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6271308576727645262.post-20771467667611766032009-11-12T16:41:00.008+00:002009-11-21T19:51:33.409+00:00* Boot Windows XP in 20 secs !.One of my greatest niggles as a regular computer user was having to wait 2 minutes or more for my system to boot. It was actually longer than that because the wireless internet connection didn't establish itself for another minute or so. Now being a repair technician I realise that 2 minutes is good compared to many of my clients but it still seems an age. And then of course you never knew whether you would then be delayed as your system applied the usual Microsoft Updates only then to ask you to re-boot to complete the installation a minute or so later !. Wonderful.<br /><br />This was one of the reasons (amongst many) that pushed me to move to a Linux based operating system. Like most who try this move I was reluctant to entirely abandon Windows, after all i'd paid for it, albeit indirectly when I bought my PC; and of course there were those applications that I couldn't do without that Linux couldn't run despite the availability of Wine ( the environment to run Windows apps under Linux).<br /><br />So like many I became a "dual booter" with Linux and Windows on my hardrive with the selection done from the menu displayed when turning on the PC.<br /><br />Then I read a<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh5WbDhwV3GUXbLF494IdBtWvHqCpGHViuedUvzuogL6FXShS1rRqrX8ZlR2GGyzK6gyopZnoZlKbCnZ8lwnTAQsa7-tCUj_Nwd1mRId5U7WpDOBFYQlAgxrX3p7aR0Z9jM3FzDkWAdXU/s1600-h/snapshot4.png"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 149px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh5WbDhwV3GUXbLF494IdBtWvHqCpGHViuedUvzuogL6FXShS1rRqrX8ZlR2GGyzK6gyopZnoZlKbCnZ8lwnTAQsa7-tCUj_Nwd1mRId5U7WpDOBFYQlAgxrX3p7aR0Z9jM3FzDkWAdXU/s200/snapshot4.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5403270875834858882" border="0" /></a>bout Virtualisation, ie. the ability to create a virtual PC running almost ANY operating system within the Linux host system. Virtualbox was extolled by many as the application of choice for this and so with evidently little to lose and no apparent danger to my existing setup I gave it a bash. (unintended Linux pun there.....).<br />After a bit of experimentation and learning I now have something I thought i'd never have. The ability to boot into a full WinXP system with two clicks of the mouse. One to run Virtualbox and one to start the WinXP "virtual machine".<br /><br />How do I get up and running in 20 secs. Simple ..........whenever I close it down I save the machine state instead of powering off or closing down. Then the next time I start the WinXP virtual machine it restores the previously saved state and bingo, i'm up and running.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjutNcDM5lT5NBxGrsKRw-xULmL2wK3fMYTzNit0uvc4mBOiKYqcRuVvunEJjHcLj_eMEoqIRVeOhSdPfNjMTFahzq1yzo2u_4LU6Rnjv_9eGdDjJnWQqvns2j2TjtLm-_W4KUsUG0Xb1I/s1600-h/snapshot5.png"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 160px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjutNcDM5lT5NBxGrsKRw-xULmL2wK3fMYTzNit0uvc4mBOiKYqcRuVvunEJjHcLj_eMEoqIRVeOhSdPfNjMTFahzq1yzo2u_4LU6Rnjv_9eGdDjJnWQqvns2j2TjtLm-_W4KUsUG0Xb1I/s200/snapshot5.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5403271273476641442" border="0" /></a><br />Furthermore, all normal Windows applications run smoothly and my Wireless connection is instant as it piggy backs on the already existing Linux host connection. After configuring shared folders (the ability to read/write to existing folders on partitions outside of the virtual machine) and enabling access to my DVDRW drive, the only thing I can't do at present is access USB ports directly.<br /><br />I understand that you can if you wish similarly run the Mac OS as a virtual machine so you could have Linux, Windows and Mac OS's running alongside each other at the same time.<br /><br />So if you are a dual booting Linux enthusiast I can recommend giving Virtualbox a try. You never know, you may decide to give up that Windows partition after all and leave more room for your favorite Linux OS and your data.Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00598760545422665782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6271308576727645262.post-55601480428352148032009-11-06T17:25:00.004+00:002009-11-21T19:51:12.660+00:00* How Green is your PC ?<style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { size: 8.5in 11in; margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } H2 { margin-bottom: 0.08in } H2.western { font-family: "Thorndale AMT", "Times New Roman", serif } H2.cjk { font-family: "Andale Sans UI", "Arial Unicode MS" } H2.ctl { font-family: "Andale Sans UI", "Arial Unicode MS" } --> </style> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;">I am naturally inclined to be sceptical, particularly where the subject may concern environmental issues but I sometimes believe a major contributor to global warming may actually be the volume of hot air those in responsible positions often spout about their organisations' environmental credentials. This especially applies to where IT is concerned.</span></span></p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Recently, I visited the Microsoft website and clicking on “</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Environmental Sustainability Dashboard”</span></span><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> thought I was heading for a statement of MS environmental awareness, only to find I was looking at another product they wished to sell !. Quote “the Environmental Sustainability Dashboard for Microsoft Dynamics AX provides information that can help </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><i><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(businesses) </span></span></i></span></span><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> identify opportunities for cost savings and mitigation of environmental impact.”</span></span></span></span></p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;">I wondered whether this also included the environmental impact of using their software.</span></span></p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;">And there is indeed a significant and long term impact that the use of Microsoft Windows Home and Server Editions has had on the environment which is conveniently glossed over by many. Green computing is the environmentally responsible use of computers and related resources. Such practices include the implementation of energy-efficient central processing units (CPUs), servers and peripherals as well as reduced resource consumption and proper disposal of electronic waste (e-waste).</span></span></p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><u><b>Operating Systems – the main players</b></u></span></span></p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Let's examine this situation further.</span></span></p> <ul><li><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Microsoft is the single purveyor of licenses for the Windows series of operating systems. As of Sept 30, 2008, Microsoft had </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><b>94,286</b></span></span></span><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> employees. World desktop share estimated </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><b>91.11%</b></span></span></span><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> May 2008.</span></span></span></span></p> </li></ul> <ul><li><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Apple Inc. are the sole developers and marketers of the Macintosh Operating System (Mac OSX) a UNIX based operating system. In Nov 2008, Apple Inc. employed approximately 32,000 people with about 16,000 of these employed in retail stores. It is estimated that approximately </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><b>1,000 </b></span></span></span><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">employees are devoted to development of the Mac OSX alone. Desktop share estimated </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><b>4.73%</b></span></span></span><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> May 2008.</span></span></span></span></p> </li></ul> <ul><li><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(i) Red Hat is the largest contributor to the Open Source Linux operating system Kernel and as of February 29, 2008, Red Hat had more than </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><b>2,200</b></span></span></span><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> employees worldwide. Fedora is Red Hat's free open source Linux operating system. </span></span></span></span> </p> </li></ul> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> (ii) Novell employed approximately </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><b>4,200</b></span></span></span><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> employees as of Jan 2009. They market </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;">SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop/Server</span></span><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> and Novell Open Enterprise Server while freely issuing a Linux desktop operating system called openSUSE. </span></span></span></span> </p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> (iii) Mandriva develops a range of Linux enterprise solutions, integrated products and services for private and public-sector companies and by December 2008 had e</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;">xpanded to roughly </span></span><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><b>200</b></span></span><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;"> employees.</span></span></p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></span></p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;"> In addition to these corporate businesses there are in excess of 100 current distributions (flavours) of the Linux OS, nearly all developed and distributed by volunteers and individuals acting as part of their own communities.</span></span></p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;"> Total desktop share for all combined distributions is estimated at </span></span><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><4%></span></span></span></p> <ul><li><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;">One further point of note: As of November 2007, Linux powered 85% of the world's most powerful supercomputers compared to Windows' 1.4%. </span></span> </p> </li></ul> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;">So much for the numbers, albeit estimated in some cases. Now let's consider the environmental differences in running these different operating systems on our PC's at home and at work.<br /></span></span></p><p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Microsoft has established a reputation in the IT industry for developing “bloatware”, be it their operating system Windows, or Office applications, etc. It may only be extra lines of code when you get down to it, but more lines of code eventually means the need for a more powerful cpu and more memory resources, and that means more energy consumption and more carbon dioxide emissions. The scene was first set with MSDOS upon which subsequent Windows OS's were built. Too late to change now.</span></span> </p><p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Windows Vista requires a minimum of a 1GHZ processor, 512MB of RAM, 32MB of graphics memory and a 20GB hard drive. Windows 7 upon its eventual release will almost certainly require the same plus a further 512MB of RAM and at least 128MB of graphics memory. The average desktop PC running Windows now requires three fans to keep it cool; one for the power supply, one for the processor and one for the graphics board ! No change here then when many will once again find that unless they want their computer to run slower than before, any upgrade to their Windows version will require an expensive upgrade to their hardware. </span></span> </p> <p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Of course this is exacerbated in industry and government when IT departments are told their current version of Windows will no longer be supported. My last employer had to replace over 300 PC's and purchase a similar number of new Windows licenses to cover these. But was this really necessary ?.</span></span></p> <p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"><br /></p> <p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Most of the time, at work and at home, we put very little processing demand upon our computers. Our common tasks - writing letters and emails, accounting spreadsheets, surfing the Web, watching videos, playing CD's/DVD's—require very little processing power. Only graphic designers, avid gamers and research scientists, to name a few, may actually need expensive powerful processors and huge memory. In most cases their needs can simply be met by the addition of supplementary graphics cards. For many years now, the PC manufacturing industry has promoted progressively more powerful desktops driven by the necessity to meet the requirements of Microsoft Windows and supported by component and peripheral manufacturers riding the profit bandwagon.<br /></span></span></p><p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></span> </p> <p class="western"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><u><b>The Green Solution</b></u></span></span></p> <p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;">I am writing this article on a modest 3 year old Celeron desktop computer running a Linux operating system. The operating system and all the software were entirely free to download and install. The computer boots up at least twice as fast as it did with Windows XP and most of the applications run faster. It never crashes, I never get viruses or malware, I don't need to run a virus-checker (although I do run a firewall) and my cpu is rarely pressed. </span></span> </p> <p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Linux is the people’s operating system and the Green operating system and nearly all development has taken place in the absence of huge Microsoft-sized marketing budgets. Open source developers consider it a challenge to compile software that runs as efficiently as possible and consequently open source runs cooler and quicker and uses fewer resources. </span></span> </p> <p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Companies and individuals get their open source operating system via free download, which means that packaging waste is eliminated. The only material consumed is the CD/DVD used to copy the files to. </span></span> </p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Open source software documentation is almost always on-line or distributed inside the program and almost never printed into an actual book. Many distributions have their own detailed Wikipedia entries, regularly updated with comprehensive how-to's. Few trees die and little petroleum by-products are used in getting the desktop Linux OS up and running.</span></span></p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"><br /></p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Open source software is developed communally by individuals working in harmony, not by corporate entities, which means the developers are writing software wherever they're located. In their lunch hours, in evenings, weekends, holidays and, for some whose employment may be in the IT field, at work. No special offices are required, no corporate headquarters to maintain, no shareholders to satisfy, no capital and revenue budgets to expense.</span></span></p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Think of the carbon footprint of 94,286 Microsoft employees.</span></span></p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"><br /></p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;">A report from the U.K. Office of Government Commerce in March 2007 about Open Source Software Trials in Government, found that servers running Linux could combat the rising problem of e-waste because they lasted up to twice as long as machines running Windows. </span></span> </p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;">The fact is that if National and local government organisations, education authorities, police, etc., moved to using open source Linux operating systems and software, much of their IT infrastructure would not require changing for some considerable period. When servers needed replacing you could use recycled or resurrected equipment instead of spending large sums on a new proprietary equipment.</span></span></p> <p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;">In tests run by Networkworld.com in September 2008, running multiple power consumption tests using Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition, Red Hat's Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5.1 and SUSE Enterprise Linux 10 SP1 on four, popular 1U server machines, testing pointed to Linux as the winner with margins that topped out at over 12% lower. This 12% would go a long way towards the UK governments carbon emission targets for 2020.</span></span></p> <p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;">The emergence in 2008 of the netbook using the latest Intel Atom/VIA Nano/ARM Sparrow processors, smaller screens and flash storage media has given new impetus to the need for more efficient operating systems such as Linux. Windows XP and Vista simply have the greatest of difficulty in running on these types of machines, although manufacturers and Microsoft are as usual bending over backwards in trying. Netbook manufacturer Acer points out that Linux has a quicker boot time and can extend the battery life of tiny Netbooks like the Aspire One. The most efficient air cooled PC's (excluding screens) running Linux may draw as little as 25 Watts power compared to 400 Watts for the average desktop of 2009. </span></span> </p> <p class="western"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Could this be the year that Linux breaks into mainstream computing ?. The combined attraction of the latest low cost, low power netbooks, corporate spending constraints in the world recession and the exponential rise in potential virus exposure to Windows users, could well sound the early death knell for Microsoft and a real beginning for “Green Computing” . However, those thinking that environmental concerns will primarily drive the take-up of Linux need to think again. Analysts at the IDC Research firm in Taipei summed it up by stating, “t</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">he engineers designing computers understand that if they want to cut costs, the only way to do so is to get rid of Microsoft”.</span></p>Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00598760545422665782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6271308576727645262.post-29398068655051003942009-11-05T23:59:00.002+00:002009-11-21T19:50:23.541+00:00* Got Another Virus ?.........There is an alternative<style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { size: 8.5in 11in; margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } --> </style> <p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-size:85%;">So your PC running Windows is slowing up again, taking ages to start-up and web pages seem to load slowly. Perhaps you've noticed that your hard drive light is flashing a lot, even when you're doing nothing; or that there seems to be a lot of activity with your internet connection even though you're not accessing web pages. Maybe your PC just locks up and needs re-booting or sometimes just turns off and re-boots on its own. Unfortunately these are the classic signs of viral activity.</span></p> <p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-size:85%;">Now you do have a fully effective firewall running don't you ?. And of course your virus-checker is always on and has automatic updates enabled, doesn't it ?. And you never open up emails from those you can't identify with, do you ?. What about that Xmas e-card that was doing the rounds last month ?. What about those music tracks on Limewire the grandson asked to download recently. Of course he knew to scan them with the virus-checker before he played them, ........didn't he ?.</span></p> <p class="western" style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><i>You're starting to worry.</i></span></p> <p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikBRzypAhN1do-RMklit5RzAxQbv97W53Td8aaPHFZ9t4jogqeJavHEwUCA_mgh1pBUNlss2HXkfz8V3M27SmM9tTFYmiGynb0uq6momnB2uzDfVsp1ZicjIE77f59IfDqgguFF662kvM/s1600-h/viruswarning.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 312px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikBRzypAhN1do-RMklit5RzAxQbv97W53Td8aaPHFZ9t4jogqeJavHEwUCA_mgh1pBUNlss2HXkfz8V3M27SmM9tTFYmiGynb0uq6momnB2uzDfVsp1ZicjIE77f59IfDqgguFF662kvM/s320/viruswarning.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5403257158559959010" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">And then your virus-checker flashes up a warning saying you have the “W32.motherofallviruses.trojan” or some such message and that it couldn't delete or quarantine it. So you go to the virus-checker website to read about this particular virus and it tells you that its probably logged all your keystrokes for the last month and sent your banking passwords, social security details, Tesco shopping habits, tax details, etc, to an organised crime syndicate in Lithuania. Your heart races as you imagine your credit card maxed-out and bank accounts drained by some sleaze-ball currently sunning himself on the sandy shores of some Black Sea resort.</span></p> <p class="western"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" ><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Now your r-e-a-l-l-y worried</span>.</span></span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></span></span> </p> <p class="western"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Your virus-checker website says they have a “removal” tool” for the “W32.motherofallviruses.trojan” so you download it and run it, reboot and think that's that sorted that. But your machine's still slow, still grinding away and the hard drive light and modem lights still seem to flash a lot. And then your virus-checker flashes a warning telling you that you have been infected with another “W32.motherofallviruses.trojan” and that it couldn't delete or quarantine it !. The real truth is........... it never actually left.</span></span></span></p> <p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"><br /></p> <p class="western"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">This is the situation being faced by so many people every day. Getting rid of a virus can be akin to trying to remove feathers from hands liberally coated with molasses. The Sophos “a to z of computer security threats” now runs to 53 pages. That's 53 pages on all the potential threats to your computer and how you </span></span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><u><span style="font-weight: normal;">might</span></u></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> avoid them. It doesn't include how to get rid of them.</span></span></span></p> <p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-size:85%;">A retired friend of my wife recently encountered a similar situation to the above scenario and not for the first time. Her security and antivirus software (a mainstream off-the-shelf package which shall remain nameless) pointed her to contact the vendor support service on-line, which duly she did. When they told her that they would remove the virus on-line but the fee would be £69.99 she told them to hold and rang me for advice. I offered to rid her of it for free and a day later she had a clean machine safe to use.</span></p> <p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-size:85%;">In doing so I removed a further four viruses undetected by her mainstream antivirus program, one of which was active and the other three were hidden within music mp3 files and would have been activated as soon as the files were played !. I will not explain here how I successfully removed these except to say it was time consuming, required considerable technical know-how and did take about four hours overall. An important point to note here is that even if you run an updated security package, this does not guarantee you are safe from viruses, trojans and other malicious content if you are running a Microsoft Windows operating system.</span></p> <p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-size:85%;">In this technological age we are ever more reliant upon our computers. Many of us bank on-line, buy presents, do our weekly household shopping, read newspapers, listen or watch radio and television programmes, etc, etc. For those of us who are elderly, retired, disabled and otherwise less mobile, home computing can be a great boon, once the fear of technology has been dispelled. </span> </p> <p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-size:85%;">However there is this new and ever increasing fear that what we do on-line might not be secure after all.</span></p> <p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-size:85%;">But there is a safe alternative out there for those willing to give it a try...........</span></p> <p class="western"><span style="font-size:85%;"><u><b>LINUX – the alternative to Microsoft Windows and the Apple Macintosh</b></u></span></p> <p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-size:85%;">Linux is a desktop computer operating system (OS) developed by Linus Torvaulds from the original UNIX OS that many mainframe computers have utilised for several years. This article is being typed on a computer running a Linux OS. There is almost nothing a Windows OS computer can do that a Linux OS cannot also do. I can surf the net, play music, play DVD's, copy CD's, email, print, scan, download and edit photos from my digital cameras, use a webcam, use Skype for phone and video calls; the list is endless. And all secure in the knowledge that I am extremely unlikely to ever be affected by any malicious viruses, trojans and other malware.</span></p> <p class="western"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">In April 2008, Symantec, vendors of Norton Antivirus, stated that approximately </span></span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><b>711,000</b></span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> viruses had been identified in the </span></span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><b>previous 12 months</b></span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> alone , an increase of 468% on the previous year !. The fact is that most viruses, worms, trojans and malware are written for Windows, but they can’t even run on Linux. At the last estimate there were fewer than 900 viruses “in the wild” that could effect Linux based systems. Those Linux viruses that exist today are nothing more than technical curiosities; the reality is that there is no real viable Linux virus in the wild. Most Linux users never use an anti-virus program and never get infected. </span></span></span> </p> <p class="western"><span style="font-size:85%;"><u><b>Trying Linux out</b></u></span></p> <p class="western" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><u>Questions and answers:</u></span></p> <p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><i>So how do I go about trying Linux rather than Windows as my PC operating system ?.</i></span></span></p> <p class="western"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Well, for a start, unlike Windows, with many Linux distributions (distros) available you can try them out without changing anything on your existing set-up by using what is called a “LiveCD”. You simply pop the CD into your CD/DVDROM, re-boot the computer, and if it is configured to boot from CD/DVDROM before hard-drive, the entire Linux operating system is copied into the computer's memory and runs from there. Granted, this is usually slower than it would be if it were installed on hard-drive but otherwise everything functions as it would do normally. Most LiveCD's then subsequently allow you to fully install to your hard-drive if you wish from within the LiveCD system. This way you know what to expect from Linux and know it works on your computer before you install. </span></span></span></p> <p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><i>But is it similar to Windows ?.</i></span></span></p> <p class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size:85%;">The desktop is fully configurable and some distros have “schemes” that enable the user, with a couple of clicks on a menu, to be able to set up a Windows like look and feel. </span></span> </p> <p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);"><span style="font-size:85%;">Where do I get a LiveCD from and how much does it cost ?.</span></span></p> <p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-size:85%;">There are many distros of Linux because of the free and open nature of the software source code. Communities of developers from all works of life have got together to build their own versions of the Linux OS, each group developing their own “flavour” with its own identity and target user group. However, there are a leading group of about a dozen distros of which two or three can be recommended for ease of use to the new user who is trying out for the first time. CD's can normally be purchased for a nominal sum, usually under £5 from the particular distribution's website. However, most people with a broadband internet connection prefer to download the LiveCD.ISO file for free from the same website and burn it to a CD/DVD with their current Windows computer and software. Comprehensive instructions are usually available on the website. Yes, it really is totally free but if you like it and stay with it, most distro communities readily accept donations towards their website running costs.</span></p> <p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);"><span style="font-size:85%;">What if I install to hard-drive and then change my mind and wish to go back to Windows ?.</span></span></p> <p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-size:85%;">If you do a full Linux install to hard-drive then you will lose Windows and all existing applications and data as you will be creating a new and different fully formatted filesystem. </span> </p> <p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-size:85%;">When changing operating systems the golden rule should always be:</span></p> <ol><li><p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-size:85%;">Back up all your data files to CD's, DVD's or another separate hard-drive. Don't forget your emails which may be in a different area.</span></p> </li><li><p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-size:85%;">Make sure you have your original Windows installation disk so you can re-install Windows from scratch if you need to.</span></p> </li></ol> <p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-size:85%;">If you take these steps you will be able to go back to what you had before.</span></p> <p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-size:85%;">An alternative for those who are more technically competent with computers is to dual boot Windows and Linux on the same hard-drive. This then gives the best of both worlds where upon at boot-up, you are presented with a short menu allowing you to select which operating system you want at that time. This can be very useful for those who have software that has no alternative in Linux, although these are few and far between. </span> </p> <p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="font-size:85%;">For those who have such an issue, there is also a Linux application called WINE that will allow the running of many Windows programs from within Linux. I use this for five such applications and they run perfectly normally.</span></p> <p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);"><span style="font-size:85%;">What support is there if something goes wrong ?</span></span></p> <p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size:85%;">The Linux community is enormous. Distribution websites each have their own support forums in which enthusiasts can pose and answer questions. It is most unusual for those who post issues not to have a reply from someone within the community very quickly, particularly if it is one of the more popular distros. Many of those who respond are system specialists, code writers and employees in the IT industry who enjoy helping those who wish to use their particular distro. Again, the popular distros have documentation on-line and available for download to read at leisure.</span></span></p> <p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size:85%;">Some final tips for those thinking of taking the plunge and trying Linux out: </span></span> </p> <ol><li><p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size:85%;">Google Linux and read up about it. Visit some of the main distro help forums.</span></span></p> </li><li><p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size:85%;">If you're not brave enough to install Linux onto your shiny expensive PC but have an old computer lying in that box room somewhere, dig it out, plug in your screen, mouse and keyboard and install it on that. Don't be surprised if it turns out to run faster and smoother than your main box as Linux is far more efficient in CPU and memory usage than Windows and doesn't need fast processors or huge memory to run well. You'll always have a virus free internet capable PC to rely upon for when your Windows PC crashes or is ridden with viruses !.</span></span></p> </li><li><p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size:85%;">Get your Linux PC set up just as you like it. If you don't like the set up as it comes from the LiveCD, configure the background, screen-saver, colour scheme, fonts, cursor, menus, panels, icons, etc., until it is just like you want it. The choices are huge compared to Windows. If the distro has available a MakeLiveCD application (and most do) run this and produce your own LiveCD. If ever you spoil your system in some way and can't get it back to how it was, run your personal LiveCD and install to hard-drive and hey presto, within 20 – 25 minutes you're back just as you were including all and every application you had ever installed. Try doing that in Windows !.</span></span></p> </li></ol> <p class="western" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><u>Recommended Linux Distributions for “newbies”:</u></span></span></p> <ul><li><p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size:85%;">PCLinuxOS2009 – my personal choice, easy to set up, very like Windows in look and feel. </span></span></p> </li></ul> <ul><li><p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size:85%;">Ubuntu 9.10 - the most mainstream and popular of all Linux OS's<br /></span></span> </p> </li><li><p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size:85%;">Linux Mint 7.0<br /></span></span></p> </li></ul> <p class="western" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><u>Recommended start point Websites:</u></span></span></p> <p class="western"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128);"><u><a href="http://www.distrowatch.com/"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">www.distrowatch.com</span></span></a></u></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> Categorises, ranks and reviews all known Linux distributions.</span></span></span></span></p> <p class="western"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128);"><u><a href="http://www.livecdlist.com/"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">www.livecdlist.com</span></span></a></u></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> Lists all Linux distros with the LiveCD function.</span></span></span></span></p> <p class="western" align="RIGHT"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size:78%;"><i><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Copyright 5th November</span></span></i></span></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size:78%;"><i><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">, 2009, Phil Wadsworth</span></span></i></span></span></p> <p class="western"><br /><br /></p> <p class="western"><br /><br /></p> <p class="western"><br /><br /></p> <p class="western"><br /><br /></p> <p class="western"><br /><br /></p> <p class="western" style="font-style: normal;"><br /><br /></p>Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00598760545422665782noreply@blogger.com0