Windows, Apple and Linux

Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were genius's, but both had their flaws. Bill Gates made Windows, a wonderful graphical interface for computers, which opened the way for ordinary people to use computers without having to learn some basic commands to type in to get the computer running the programme they wanted to work. His flaw was that although the human race had gone from no flight to space flight in 60 years and from computers that took up a whole room, to one that could site on your desk, he did not have the foresight to realise that computer internal memory would not be restricted as he allowed for, which in later versions of Windows did cause some problems. Microsoft build some great interfaces for normal users, 3.11, XP, were two great examples of stable clear systems, then we had 95 and Vista, which to me were absolute crap. We now have Windows 7 a good replacement for XP, relatively stable, but then we now have Windows 8, to me this is what I call 'prettyware' no better than Windows 7, just made to appease. I have no intention of going touch screen as long as possible, the skin produces oil to protect itself, hence smudges on your screen, I do not want to have to clean my screen every few minutes because the light has caught fingerprints all over my screen.

Steve Jobs, the other genius made another glaring error which is being continued by his company. He could have made his Operating System available to ordinary PC users, instead it could only be supplied for those who had an Apple computer. When Apple changed to the Intel chipset this was the ideal opportunity to come into direct competition with Microsoft, but for some reason they have stuck with their policy. There was a second mistake, they have priced Apple computers beyond the reach of ordinary users. Yes they are pieces of art to look at, but I can get three laptops with high specifications for one Apple Airbook!

I used to use Windows as my main operating system, but over the past 6 weeks I have been using Ubuntu a Linux based Operating System almost exclusively. 12.04.02 has five year support and is extremely stable and extremely fast, loading in about 30 seconds compared to Windows taking up to two minutes. Almost all the software is free of charge and I have found only one thing I can do in Windows that I cannot do in Linux, and that is a real thought provoker. Tom Tom use Linux on their devices, but only provide Tom Tom Home for Windows or Mac's, how about that!

I am finding that more and more people are trying Linux and loving the experience. If you need help just type in your problem to your search engine and there are huge amounts of forums to help you out. It does take a bit of an effort to get used to certain things, like using the terminal, but you can get the help with the right syntax which you can copy and paste.

I predict that like the UKIP party in the UK people are fed up with bloatware in software, just as much as they are fed up with politicians who are full of bloatware, hence UKIP is growing in popularity at an extraordinary rate, so to is Linux. Itunes is a very good example of bloatware to me, I have an Ipod classic 160GB I just want to be able to drag and drop files onto the ipod, and I hate Itunes. I have found there are several lightweight programs such as Media Monkey or Winamp which are free, small and do what I want easily.

You do not have to load Ubuntu to try it, get a live cd from Ubuntu by downloading the Iso file, burn the cd then boot with the cd in the drive, you can use Ubuntu or many other Linux systems without making changes to your computer, just to get a feel of it. If you want both Linux and Windows it will also allow for a dual boot called a Grub loader to be installed which gives the option of which OS to boot into.

Dell - Going Backwards?

I have, for years, been a happy customer at Dell.com. My wife has a Dell laptop I helped her to customise for her personal needs, I helped my daughter customise a powerful desktop to meet her needs as an illustrator, I have a now aging Inspiron 1525 which I am seriously thinking of upgrading, so my first port of call was the Dell website.

I was horrified, you are no longer able to customise laptops to your budget and needs and meet that happy medium of getting the best within your budget. Dell have fallen into the corporate trap! By this I mean I went onto their chat with an advisor, and was given what I can only conclude was the company line, helpful and polite but useless.

I then got a phone call from Dell, again a nice person with an Indian accent. Now I am far from racist, but I instantly thought of The Big Bang Theory where poor Raj, who tries his hardest and is nice a person as possible, makes so many mistakes because of the nuances native English speakers understand.

Again I appeared to be fed the company line. We have listened to our customers and we have speeded up our delivery time by ready made laptops. Not what I want I said politely, I want to be able to choose options, such as CPU, colour, storage, ram etc. We have lots of options was the reply, yes but I want to choose options for myself I said, well to cut a long story down, I ended up thanking the nice person on the phone and stated I would look elsewhere, as he had stated that everyone now does this.

Within 5 minutes of searching I found that Sony allow customisable laptops, Novatech in the UK also have a good reputation and will help you, and System 76 have some stunning laptops each one customisable as Dell used to be.

Dell have made a mistake only a novice marketing manager could make and will loose a small group of customers because of this. I do say small as geeky people like me are in the minority of wanting to customise their laptops, but any loss of custom should be avoided at all cost.

If Dell had kept a small section of the site for people like me (remember I am a returning customer) so I can play with various configurations to get the compromise to suit my budget. Another thing I noticed was that there is no complaint tab either at the top or the bottom of the screen, are they that good?

Did them no good though as Twitter and a quick search got me the email and Twitter address of Michael Bell (CEO and founder) so I hope he reads this blog. I am a manager, if I was to loose even one customer, I quite rightly get the third degree from my employer, why? How can this be avoided? What did I personally do to try and not loose this customer? As many who read my blogs (really not that many!) you know that I work in the service industry as a care home manager where income is extremely important, so is matching the care to each individual.

Mr Dell should seriously look at what has gone wrong and why customers like myself will now be looking elsewhere. My preference is System 76 as the way that you can make your laptop your own is very similar to the way Dell once were.

European Union - Greatest Historical Fraud Ever

The European Union was set up after World War 2 in the hopes that closer ties would stop another war of this magnitude, in that respect even the most sceptical has to agree that there has been no war in Europe of the magnitude of the 2nd World War since, but the price has been far too high.

I liken the European Union to a Ponzi Scheme of epic proportions, it does involve moving money around, it does involve certain people getting huge salaries, it does involve banks and it does involve ignoring the rights of ordinary people, who are cheated and scammed at every oportunity.

The saddest fact of all is that every political leader wants this to perpetuate, yet the financial world is in a complete shambles, whilst some countries are almost bankrupt and some countries are experiencing unemployment of epic proportions.

There are many well documented facts that back all this up. Greece forced to have food lines and unemployment so high that many are close to starving. Spain has one of the highest unemployment in Europe. Italy is in a complete mess and close to being bankrupt. Portugal is also close to being bankrupt. Eire had to suffer from draconian measures as did Greece  and finally the worst thing that could happen, came from the small island country called Cyprus, where the government stole the savings of people who placed their trust in banks and saved their hard earned cash, only to have a penalty placed on it to get it out of being made bankrupt by two corrupt organisations, the IMF and the EU.

In the UK we have FAT CAT leaders who are wimps and are completely out of touch with public opinion. Cameron has played a seemingly crafty game of offering a referendum, but only if he gets re-elected, if he had any morals and was as in touch with public opinion as he claims, he would not offer a carrot if he got re-elected.

European countries as a whole need to organise combined action against the EU, many of whom work for this organisation without the mandate of the people, so in effect there is no democracy and the ordinary people are not dunces who cannot be trusted.

Camoron at it Again

I have just watched a wonderful item on You Tube about the rise of UKIP. Camoron is still missing the point and is again letting this country down and democracy.

He is far behind what he needs to be, to win another term in power and frankly I hope he ends up on the scrapheap of has beens'. This could be considered inflammatory as Cameron and Co (Miliband, Clegg and Co) want to stop freedom of speech.

I am one of the fruit cakes, loonies and closet racists Camoron, yet here I am, a care manager running a care home for the elderly with mental health problems, because I really do care, I don't make speeches or look good for the press, I do something real. I also work for a Pakistani Muslim who owns the home and we have the greatest of respect for each other.

The EU cannot be more corrupt than it is. Its accounts have been signed off for what? 12 - 14 years? It is undemocratic, it is stifling growth, it is robbing ordinary people in Cyprus, yet it is allowed to continue to ruin lives with impunity.

What will it take to finally get out of the EU? Full revolution?

Morals

We have some very strange people on this planet of ours, we have politicians who have the morals of dictators who think that democracy is only a word and when voted into their position it can be discarded as they please. The EU is very like this, the rules come from people not even voted into power, but they are dictating to countries and taking away democracy at an alarming rate. Cameron has made a stand, or has he? What he has done is try to secure a second term for himself by stating a referendum to remain in the EU will be held in 2017. What he fails to realise is that the British people who make the votes count are not fooled, I will still be voting UKIP as I want a referendum now, not in four years, if he gets voted back in, and I am not alone.

The Taliban, moralist bastards, who think they have the right to kill and maim all in the name of God. These are the faceless, Godless, pig shit, scum of the world. Anyone who condones the shooting of a defenceless schoolgirl because she wants to learn isn't fit to walk this earth. They also condone acid attacks on women, scaring women, is this macho, is it brave? No it is the work of cowards and pig shit. Why pick on Christians? Jesus is viewed as prophet in Islam, surely who you decide to pray to is your right and shouldn't be decided by scum at the end of a gun.

I am sick of criminals getting soft options and complaining about their human rights. Criminals should loose every perk they have, no computers, basic healthy food, they should work hard 12 hours a day, preferably making big rocks into small rocks. Leisure should be a football or board games, nothing else, no computers, no TV, no radio, play classical music only. This is supposed to be a punishment, a debt repaid to society, so make it a punishment, no harsh treatment, but the withdrawal of all comforts, after all a lot of pensioners who have worked all their lives cannot afford half of what these pigs get, so make it uncomfortable, make it so they don't want to return, and rip up the Human Rights Act for those convicted of a crime, at least whilst they are serving a prison term.

EU and Obama can Drop Dead

There is so much going on at the moment, and most of it is negative. Just recently David Cameron (Flashman) was going to deliver a ‘KEY SPEECH’ on Britains continued inclusion in the EU, but conveniently got side tracked by events in Algeria. To say he is ignoring the British peoples wishes is an understatement. The last poll I saw stood at over 58% of the British people wanting a referendum of IN or OUT.

Cameron is running scared, he is finally realising that UKIP will not go away, and its support is growing at a rapid rate, enough to put the Lib Dems at risk of no longer being a political party, and the Tories loosing a lot of seats.

David Miliband has also shown himself to be out of touch and nothing less than a bumbling fool on radio. He has no answers, showed himself as a hypocrite, is using a chauffeur driven car costing huge amounts of money after attacking the Tories for their personal transport use.

Obama has interfered with British democracy by stating that Britain should stay in the EU. His own country is in a mess, but he has time to direct Britain. This man is undemocratic, he is a tyrant, he must be part of the New World Order. What right does he have to direct Britain, he supports Argentina over Britain regarding the Falklands, despite the wishes of the people of the Falklands wishing to remain British. This man is a sham, and has no right to offer advice or his opinion to Britain, he has done his image over here massive damage and has shown himself to be more a fraud than ever for the right of democracy.

Finally we get to the clown of British politics, Nick Clegg, there is not much one can say about Clegg except go away little boy. Everyone knows when he looses his seat he will run back to the EU gravy train which is why he is so pro EU and cannot see the damage it is doing not just in this country but throughout Europe.

The latest poll shows that Britain has the highest claimants on benefits in Europe leading the Daily Mail to say or suggest we are the most workshy. What has not been broken down are the percentages.

British born claimants

Asian immigrant claimants

EU immigrant claimants

If this were conducted I think we would see a far more scary picture, that would be blocked by the EU as it would show that the greatest number of claimants would not be British born, in my opinion, and in December the EU will free another bunch of claimants from Romania and Bulgaria onto our shores so our wonderful country will scream under the weight and pressure. Our once wonderful NHS is already at breaking point, the tax payers of this country are already supporting more than their fair share of immigrant claimants, and EU politicians claim huge salaries and expenses and live like pigs at everyone’s expense.

Revolution has to come in this country, and UKIP are the only way forward to make the changes needed. Whatever happens the whole political face of Britain is going to have a complete facelift in the next few years and many current MP’s will be on their last session in the House of Commons. Change is coming, it has been slow and painful, but finally it is coming I just hope it is not too late.

Britain is able to foster good relations around the globe without the EU, we will survive because we are strong and determined, not the slaves of Europe or the USA.

Who Invents the Silly Sayings?

The latest silly saying is the Fiscal Cliff!

What a load of bollocks, these politicians and their bunch of expensive hangers on seem to love coming up with new statements and sayings that no one understands, but the dramatic sound is supposed to send a message about the importance or dread of what is in store.

What about using good old straight forward English. If I get this right Fiscal Cliff could be better explained by this term. 'If we are unable to come to an agreement then the country could suffer financial damage which will affect everyone.' Not as catchy, but it explains things better.

I don't like these so called catchy phrases, invented by morons who want to appear to be clever, tell it as it is. Another one is from England, by Cameron, 'Global Crackdown'. Like thats likely to happen with the likes of Google and Amazon rushing to avoid paying tax. They are powerful enough to put two fingers up to the normal taxpayer and strike a deal on the side with politicians, what these sort of companies don't realise is if you have a poorer customer, they are likely to buy less, therefore their profits will not be as high, and all because we the taxpayer have to make up the difference, so in the end it is a no win situation for both sides, sad but true, but companies like Google and Amazon, to name but a few, are led and run by short sighted individuals where money is God.