A Little Diversion !

Over the last week, in between rides, I have had to find time for my latest interest. I have bought myself an I-Pad2 and have found it very time consuming but also fun and a great ‘big boys toy’ to play with.

It’s an amazing piece of kit with some great ‘apps’ and it’s very time consuming trying to find out what’s available. I think I have got most of the basic utilities now but if anybody has an i-Pad and knows of any useful cycling related apps they can recommend I would be pleased to hear about them.

This is my first blog post written on the I-Pad. It’s been a bit struggle finding my way around the WordPress app as it’s quite different from the PC version so this is a test posting. I hope it’s going to work out OK

Ubuntu Continued..

Thanks to some volunteered help and guidance from my nephew Andrew I now have the webcam working on Ubuntu and all seems well, thanks Andrew..

I have also got my scanner working now with the free scanner program, the name of which escapes me right now.  In fact it is far better and more stable the windows software that was provided by canon.. !!!  I always had problems with it from time time.  It was OK for 2 or 3 operations then just locked up but not so with this software.

Ubuntu..

Have been messing about the last few days installing the Ubuntu operating system on an old laptop.  It had Windows XP on it and over time it had slowed down considerably and I decided to give it a go.   So I downloaded the latest Ubuntu software and put it on a disc and installed it.  It seems just as good as Windows but the operating system and all the software is ‘open source’ and free.  I have managed to get connected to the internet OK via my home broadband.  The old laptop is back up to speed now.  I could have installed it in parallel with XP but decided to go the whole hog and scrap XP altogether.

The only draw back, for me anyway, is that any devices you install have to be installed via the Linux programming language and this is proving to be quite problematic for me as not only is the language hard to grasp but also the language that is used to describe how to program it on all the forums I look at.  I expect with a little perseverance and time I will crack it.  As I said earlier I have cracked the internet connection and printer connection so I guess thats all I really need for now.

It seems a good system to me so far.  It is not so vulnerable to hacking and viruses as Windows and the software is good.  On my present, everyday laptop I already use Firefox browser, Thunderbird e-mail and the full Open Source office suite that is equal, or so it seems to me, in every way to full Microsoft Office, enhanced by the fact that it’s all free.

I would probably consider converting this computer over at some stage and escape from the clutches of Microsoft, but not until I am fully conversant with the system.  I will have to try and find a website that explains it all with words and sentences that I can look at and not have my eyes glaze over and my brain go all fuzzy !!

By the way this blog is produced with WordPress which is also free, open source software