Category Archives: Uncategorized

Goodbye Apple, goodbye Microsoft… hello Linux

Not often I quote from a publication from Ireland, but this was quite an intriguing read. Someone who went from Windows to Mac to Linux (Mint)

Linux is everywhere – and will free your computer from corporate clutches

It was 2002, I was up against a deadline and a bullying software bubble popped up in Windows every few minutes. Unless I paid to upgrade my virus scanner – now! – terrible things would happen.

We’ve all had that right?

In a moment of clarity I realised that the virus scanner – and its developer’s aggressive business model – was more of a pest than any virus I’d encountered. Microsoft’s operating system was full of this kind of nonsense, so, ignoring snorts of derision from tech friends, I switched to the Apple universe.

It was a great choice: a system that just worked, designed by a team that clearly put a lot of thought into stability and usability. Eventually the iPhone came along, and I was sucked in farther, marvelling at the simple elegance of life on Planet Apple and giving little thought to the consequences.

Then the dream developed cracks. My MacBook is 10 years old and technically fine, particularly since I replaced my knackered old hard drive with a fast new solid-state drive. So why the hourly demands to update my Apple operating system, an insistence that reminded of the Windows virus scanner of old?

Apple is no different to Microsoft it seems.

I don’t want to upgrade. My machine isn’t up to it, and I’m just fine as I am. But, like Microsoft, Apple has ways of making you upgrade. Why? Because, as a listed company, it has quarterly sales targets to meet. And users of older MacBooks like me are fair game.

I looked at the price of a replacement MacBook but laughed at the idea of a midrange laptop giving me small change from €1,200. Two years after I de-Googled my life(iti.ms/2ASlrdY) I began my Apple prison break.

He eventually went for Linux Mint, which for a casual user is fine. I use Fedora and Ubuntu (and a really old version of Ubuntu since my workplace VPN doesn’t seem to work properly with anything above Ubuntu 14 – their way of forcing me onto either a Windows or Mac machine)

Source: https://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/goodbye-apple-goodbye-microsoft-hello-linux-1.3295781

Reviving running and new goal

I’ve been slacking in my running for a fair bit, and not doing my usual distances.

This last week, I’ve been through the painful process of saying goodbye to my uncle from the viewing in the mortuary, to the final viewing, the funeral, and the internment of the ashes.

Cancer is a horrible condition, indiscriminate and relentless. But it doesn’t always mean death. Research has allowed cancer patients a good quality of life compared to a few decades ago and it continues to grow as research progresses.

In 2014 I did the Royal Parks Half Marathon (completion post here). It was a painful experience, but one I’m going to attempt to go for again. I’m going to train up for another Half Marathon and this time nominate a cancer charity. The current primary charity I’m thinking of is Cancer Research UK.

CCleaner malware outbreak is much worse than it first appeared | Ars Technica

The malware backdoor in this story is quite intriguing. They are targeting specific companies (Samsung, Akamai, Cisco, Microsoft amongst them) and only attempting the second level attack if they are detecting they are being installed there.

The advice mentioned in the article is that anyone who installed the software on their system should REFORMAT THEIR DRIVE. Quite an extreme recommendation. My suggestion – stop using Windows.

Source: CCleaner malware outbreak is much worse than it first appeared | Ars Technica

Lunch Run | Run | Strava

Doing a run through the local area while playing Ingress, and found someone by the name of “Andy” had done a lap of Hadley Wood and back down into the village in the time it took me to clean up the village. Perhaps I need to get my distance back pretty sharpish.

Source: Lunch Run | Run | Strava

Pets are Family

Next time you or someone else think that pets are family, look at these. Sometimes, pets are more in tune than other humans.

In fact, pets can easily save people’s lives. It might have been too late for Kylie, but not for Eric.

Updating from Cyanogenmod to LineageOS (Samsung S5 – klte)

I have created a guide to update from Cyanogenmod to LineageOS — created as part of my attempt to update my S5.

https://blenderfox.com/updating-from-cyanogenmod-to-lineageos-samsung-s5-klte/

The foolproof way to never forgetting a name

rabyam's avatarThe Muslim Times

Source: BBC

By Renuka Rayasam

17 January 2017

In the early 1990s Mark Channon was working at a London bar, when a friend taught him a technique to remember names. At the time, Channon, who was an aspiring actor, could remember lines for a performance, but had a terrible memory for names.

One of the most powerful things is if you are able to walk into a room and use everyone’s names

With the name-memorisation technique, however, he was soon remembering customers’ names and drink orders even during busy nights. Within a few years he designed a game show for the BBC called Monkhouse Memory Masters where he would teach contestants memory strategies and they would then compete in memory games. By 1995 he had come sixth in the World Memory Championships, becoming one of the first International Grand Masters of Memory.

Today Channon teaches workers these memory strategies to…

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Keeping the Faith

I don’t normally write too many articles these days, but there’s a site I like to read from every so often to keep my hopes up

https://notalwayshopeless.com/

Take a browse and let me know what you think….

Why a MacOS user switched to Ubuntu Linux | InfoWorld

 

Also in today’s open source roundup: Ultimate Edition 5.0 Gamers distro released, and Android versus iOS for business

Source: Why a MacOS user switched to Ubuntu Linux | InfoWorld

How To Install Steam on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS – OMG! Ubuntu!

Steam was one of the many things that broke with Ubuntu 16.04 because of numerous changes in package names and dependencies. Fortunately, here’s a guide to fix that. Now, back to my Dungeon Defenders :D

Source: How To Install Steam on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS – OMG! Ubuntu!