PC Surprise!

Posted on 2 May 2012

I may only be a youngster, but I have used computers for about 30 years. Like many PC users I have used a wide variety of software programs, and on an Atari ST to a Windows 7 PC, with Acorns, Macs and Linux machines in-between.

Generally speaking no matter what platform I have been using, I’ve used the same core of software on all. So that means a web browser, an email program, a word processor, a DTP program, a music player, and a graphics program of some description.

Taking into account that PCs have increased in power and speed, but fallen in price in real terms, what I can do now on my newest machine is far more than what I could ever do on my old Atari. Some of what I do on a day to day basis, such as email, the occasional letter, and a bit of graphics could still be done on my old ST but with quite a few limitations. Of course web browsing in today’s world would be all but impossible on an older PC, photo retouching needs real processing power and the huge amount of audio work I do would be impossible on a lower spec machine. As much as I loved my old Ataris, and tolerated my original Windows 98 PC, they can’t really cut the mustard nowadays and they are boxed up and effectively redundant.

The house is semi-littered with old hardware and it’s getting near the time to have a major clear-out before it becomes too late. I almost gave away an old and very slow Packard Bell PC a few months ago, but there was delay and then another delay, and then one of the house netbooks which was running Ubuntu Netbook Remix decided to expire. Not wishing to spend much money on yet more hardware, and donate even more money to companies like Microsoft and Apple for their over-priced operating systems, I suggested to my daughter that we install the totally free Ubuntu 11.04 linux OS on the Packard Bell (PB), get her a dirt cheap monitor, recycle an old mouse and keyboard, and see how it goes.

Job done so I thought, Ubuntu 11.04 installed without fuss and seemed okay, but it’s actually quite hardware demanding and the PB isn’t really up to the job. So the other day my son and I having had enough of the almost daily complaints from eldest daughter about the slow PB and then finding her on our PCs all the time, decided to install a more cut down and speedier version of Linux on it. My son first installed Arch Linux and it was okay, although it took a few hours to download everything to get a sensible set-up. However, try as we might, we simply could not get video from YouTube and similar sites to play. As daughter really wanted this, we had to look elsewhere. I then remembered that some years previous I had successfully installed and run PCLinuxOS on the PB machine without any problems. A quick search in my files and I found the original LiveCD. A very quick install showed that all still worked fine, but this version was from 2007 and missing a lot of new stuff.

Simple answer was to install a current version, but I opted for the LXDE sub-version which means it’s a very stripped down desktop but therefore light on resources and ideal for older machines with limited memory and slower CPU’s. The PB also has shared video memory, so that’s a major handicap to start with. The initial PCLinuxOS 2012 install didn’t quite go as well as it could, but after a couple of semi-failed attempts it did install properly and the nice thing was that video and audio works immediately, no downloading of CODECS to worry about. A basic suite of programs is included and you can easily download thousands of other programs for free with a few clicks!

It’s been running now for almost a week, there’s been no complaints, the latest versions of Firefox and Thunderbird are installed. There’s AB Writer, a music and video player, even Skype, and a couple of decent graphics programs, so all in all an ideal set-up for a user that just wants to do the basic everyday stuff. I don’t think the hardware could cope with heavy duty graphics, or desktop publishing, but for everything else it appears to be up to the job.

Lots more information on PCLinuxOS can be found here, The distribution is well supported and kept up to date. And there’s even a groovy monthly magazine to go with it. It may not have the publicity and financial muscle that Ubuntu has, but I’ve had positive experiences with it over the last 5 years, and it may well be my Linux installation of choice in the future.

Posted in Atari, Computing, Linux | Comments Off

Not Swansea again he screamed!

Posted on 26 April 2012


With the end of Premier League season almost upon us, and Swansea City looking forward to their last home match against Liverpool, one Liverpool player won’t be quite so keen on meeting the Jacks again.

Step forward one Craig Bellamy, Cardiff born, Cardiff City fan and ex Cardiff City player. Never a popular person wherever he has been in the past, he’s had bust-ups with former managers and former team-mates. A round of golf with him could allegedly be dangerous, ask John Arne Riise about that. Even rival supporters have felt his anger, one Manchester United fan will well remember the punch Bellamy delivered to him when he made a pitch invasion during a Manchester derby game a few years ago!

Although a good player with undoubted skill, and a proud Welshman who has represented his country as both player and team captain, he’s never been popular in Wales outside of Cardiff and he’s probably much more popular in Sierra Leone where he has invested £1.2m of his own money since 2007 to help build a not-for-profit football academy in the Kono region.

Swansea fans will give him the usual reception they reserve for ex-Cardiff players should he play at the Liberty Stadium, especially one with the reputation Bellamy has and the fact that he was the last Cardiff player to score against Swansea only adds to the explosive atmosphere expected on the day.

A complex character with a very bad-boy reputation, it will be interesting to see how he will cope with life as his football career draws to end due to persistent knee problems.

Posted in Football, Wales | Comments Off

He’s after my nuts!

Posted on 21 April 2012


The cheeky little chap in the photo was spotted by my eldest daughter as we walked around Colby Woodland Gardens in Pembrokeshire. Apologies for the not so sharp photo, but my little compact camera was at full zoom and the squirrel was quite some distance away.

Colby Woodland Gardens is a very nice place, I had never been there before despite it not being much more than 30 minutes drive away. I took advantage of the offer the National Trust are running where in exchange for your email address and other particulars you could visit selected properties for free this weekend. As Colby was one of the few local ones featured it made sense to go there. I am glad I did as it’s a very pleasant place to wander around. Here’s what the National Trust say about the place:


Set in a tranquil and secluded valley, this glorious, informal woodland garden with a fascinating industrial past is always bursting with colour and wildlife. Whatever the season, there’s something to delight.

Spring brings carpets of bluebells and an abundance of camellias, rhododendrons and azaleas.

Enjoy shady woodland walks, the wildflower meadow and colourful walled garden in summer, followed by the marvellous colours of autumn.

Explore the meadow with its meandering stream and abundance of dragonflies, butterflies and other insects, and discover more about the garden’s wildlife and its history in the new Bothy exhibition.

If you are ever in the area, give it a few hours of your time, more details here.

Posted in Garden, Pembrokeshire, Wales | Comments Off

Little Swansea!

Posted on 20 April 2012


Since Swansea City was promoted to the Premier League there’s been a flurry of interest from so-called football experts and part-time journalists who run various Premier League websites and write blogs about the beautiful game. Most of them support the long-established or fashionable teams and very few of them have much knowledge outside the Premier League. So when they have to write an article on Swansea City they are usually too lazy to do research themselves so they appear on the Planet Swans forum with a questionnaire which they hope forum members will fill in for them.

It’s all got a bit tedious as the season has progressed because most of these ‘experts’ seem to think that Swansea are a little team just enjoying a brief time in the sun before they fade back into obscurity in the lower leagues, where they really belong anyway. After all they’re not famous, they are not a rich man’s toy and worst of all they are not even English!!!

Not surprisingly the forum was asked recently to fill in one of these questionnaires to help out a Bolton website owner. Of course Bolton are one of those fashionable clubs from a nice part of England aren’t they. And of course us servile little Welshies were only too happy to assist this chap.

Here’s one of the replies forum member Barry_Island took a lot of time to put together to help our, more worthy of a place in the Premier League, opponent:

Your manager, Brendan Rodgers, has received praise throughout the season for the way he has had the team playing. As such, he has been linked with a variety of high profile jobs. Do you think he will be at Swansea next season and can you see him managing a top team in the future?

He already does.

Before your 3-0 win over our relegation rivals, Blackburn Rovers, last weekend, you had been on a run of four consecutive defeats. Do you think results will start to pick up again after that performance?

No our season is petering out after next Saturday and we look forward to a summer of laughing at the progress of Glamorgan Cricket Club at their posh Cardiff home.

Gylfi Sigurdsson has been superb for Swansea since arriving on loan in January. Do you think you’ll be able to secure his services again, whether permanent or on loan, next season?

Probably not, but we’re only here for a laugh and to deny a place to a more deserving club.

On the subject of transfers, Leroy Lita is a name that has previously been linked with Bolton down the years. Is he any good or have Wanderers had a lucky escape?

Leroy is an exceptional talent, he can balance 2 beer mats on his nose at the same time. Good for dressing room morale.

Apart from the obvious exception of Sigurdsson, which player(s) should Bolton be most wary of when you visit the Reebok Stadium on Saturday afternoon?

Gerhard Tremmel, he is bringing a screwdriver on Saturday as we quite fancy the seats in your dugouts. Any tips for getting rid of the word Roebuck off them?

Which Bolton player(s) do you think Swansea should be keeping an eye on during the game?

Hopefully all of them. If not I hope we concentrate on the one from the Hair Bear Bunch, Ivan Campo is it?

With Wigan’s recent impressive form and Wolves’ all but certain relegation, Bolton are involved in a three-way battle with QPR and Blackburn to avoid the drop. Which two teams do you see going down, or do you think Wigan could still be dragged back into trouble?

Hopefully Wolves, QPR and Villa will go down as we feel more comfortable with the Pie Towns (Wigan, Blackburn and Bolton. It’s a shame Burnley, Preston and Blackpool aren’t there to add to the hotpot.

Finally, give us a score prediction for Saturday’s game at the Reebok?

1-1 as our youth team is likely to feature, but they’ll still have over 80% possession.

ENDS…

Posted in Football, Swansea City | Comments Off

Euronet satellite radio

Posted on 17 April 2012

A few weeks ago I started scanning some of the many photographs I took over the years before digital photography came along. One set of photos featured the pioneering satellite radio station Euronet. The photos were taken during an eventful broadcast when Euronet pretended to be under attack by ‘them’, who were trying to close the station down.

I don’t think who ‘them’ were was ever revealed, it could have been the authorities, or could have been a rival radio station. Anyway, it made for a fun broadcast and some of us had a jolly good time banging doors and throwing things around the studio to simulate the sounds of a struggle going on!

The station transmitted via the Astra satellite and featured a huge variety of programmes. Being fair, some were pretty good to listen to, others were a bit so-so, and some were, frankly speaking, rather dire.

However, the station gave an outlet to some very creative and entertaining people, and looking back it’s a shame that the station simply couldn’t continue and give us something different to listen to in this day and age of safe and predictable tedium that passes for radio.

My series of photos can be found here. And Euronet’s chief of programming Chris England has a wander down memory lane here.

Posted in Radio | Comments Off