Made In Chelsea

I have only caught glimpses of this horrendous programme but my thoughts are clear on it, it is made up of posers, sluts and wannabe's. I don't think that ten of these idiots together could do my job, in fact I would love to see them try!

These are empty, soulless people, take away their fashion and money and there is nothing left, just an empty sack of skin. To be a real person you have to have a soul and a real purpose in life. This is not jealousy, just an observation, they only care about themselves.

Let me have 10 of these fools to work in my area of expertise and see how long they last, I would give them 24 hours!!!!

Why Do Large Computer Manufacturers Make us Use Operating Systems We Don't Want

Well I have made it clear I hate Windows 8, to me the worst operating system ever produced by Microsoft. I gave my wife a nice Asus K55VD to replace her ageing Dell, she took one quick go of Windows 8 and demanded that I replace it with Windows 7. I can't blame her, I just paid £1,300 on a nice new Asus G750JX with very high specifications, which I immediately customised by adding another 8GB of ram and bigger and faster hard drives, (for a laptop its amazing it has room for 2!).

Unfortunately Asus insist that Windows 8 is the way forward so do not give me a choice of operating system its a take it or leave it attitude, which has spoilt my computing experience with their wonderful machine. They are not alone, it seems all the major computer makers have been instructed by Microsoft to use Windows 8, whether you have touch screen or not.

Windows 8 might have some good points, but for me the bad points far outweigh the good points. I hate all those screens that suddenly jump out at you, I hate all those tiles, and most of all I hate the lack of start button and the menu that came with it. As a result I had to purchase a small program called RetroUI to stop all those flying menus and to give me back my much loved start button with menu's I could customise.

If Microsoft had been run by sensible people, they might have made different flavours of Windows 8, one for tablets, one for touch screen computers and one for ordinary computer users, but they are brash and lazy and believe in the one size fits all approach.

My favourite operating system is Ubuntu, simple fast, effective, but I have to use Windows to be compatible with work computers and to be able to play Skyrim, but getting my new super duper laptop to accept dual boot with Ubuntu and Windows 8 was a nightmare, because Windows put in security checks to make this sort of thing difficult so that unless you are a bit of a computer nerd and willing to keep restoring from a backup, each time your attempt went pear shaped, it would defeat most would be Ubuntu or Linux people who want to learn and try this amazing free operating system.

It took me several attempts over two weeks to finally get both working perfectly. As usual for most of the things I do, I use Ubuntu, for work back to Windows 8, to play Skyrim, back to Windows 8. Don't get me wrong, Microsoft have produced some great operating systems, Windows XP was superb and still loved by many. Windows 7 was a worthy replacement and I came to love this just as much as XP, but in between what rubbish have we had to endure!

Almost everyday I have to download new updates for Windows 8, it is slow, laborious and getting a tad tedious, then you often have to reboot, then wait again whilst Windows configures the updates, then finally you might be able to use the computer. Ubuntu boots in under 10seconds from choosing from the menu to being able to use the program. If there are updates it is swift and runs in the background, rarely do you have to reboot and wait for it to configure itself. When I finally got the dual boot working I chose Ubuntu 12.04 because this has Long Term Support - 5 years, and they produce a Long Term Support version every two years like clockwork with other releases to try every 6 months. I had initially 335 updates to do for Ubuntu, it took no longer than 6 minutes from start to finish, with only one reboot!

When I buy a computer I buy a computer, I want to have choice over what operating system I want ON MY COMPUTER,  my computer doesn't belong to Microsoft, it belongs to me, I paid my hard earned cash for it, so let me choose what operating system I want to use.

These computer companies have to stop Microsoft from telling them what to do and they should grow a pair of balls. Microsoft want to dominate the world of computers, but until they produce good, stable, reliable software, they can kiss my ass.

12/09/13

After writing this, I got home after work and decided to have a little play on Skyrim, yet another prolonged update, which meant yet another restart, then about half an hour into the game Windows reported a fault, closed down Skyrim loosing all gameplay and all the items I had acquired. Yet another restart and more time wasted waiting for Windows to configure itself, and they sell this rubbish?

People wonder why hackers target Microsoft products, maybe its due to frustration at the inept coding of their products and to show the numerous flaws in this so called 'ready to use out of the box' product that stinks.

Ubuntu - What a Gem

When I was off sick and lying on my back, I decided to really explore Ubuntu on my computer, I found myself falling more and more in love with it. When I was better and able to move around, as my favourite sport, field archery, had to be put on hold for the rest of the year, I decided to buy a new laptop, an Asus K55VD SX696H with 8GB of ram.

This is a very nice notebook and well within my budget, obviously I had no choice of Operating system thanks to the collusion between Microsoft and computer manufacturers, so I got my nice new laptop with one of the worst Operating Systems since Vista.

Because of the new EFI and GPT system I could not easily install Ubuntu alongside Windows 8, but after 5 days of trial and error I finally managed to load Ubuntu 13.04 alongside Windows 8.

Since then I have been playing and exploring Ubuntu and my verdict is this is a Gem of an Operating System, but it takes some effort and a willingness to learn, but once you get into the swing of it you realise just how flawed Windows really is.

The amount of software that is available is huge, from excellent smooth scrolling first person shooter games, platform games, to quality office programs and technical stuff. VLC movie player works well and my favourite programs are Krusader, a wonderful dual pane explorer similar to XYplorer, Deluge bittorrent works well with Tor and a simple sticky notes program called Xpad.

Libre office comes free and is simple and a joy to use, Live Mail for hotmail is available, and apart from Tom Tom everything seems to be supported, including my Ipod Classic. It seems to be blindingly fast and as stable as a rock, everything a good Operating System should be.

This does not take long to become intuitive, and if you get stuck just do a google search for what you want or are trying to do and there is usually an easy tutorial or help available. Ubuntu is improving at a fast rate, far faster than Windows, and the following of Ubuntu is growing is growing at the same pace.

I cannot recommend Ubuntu highly enough and recommend more people try it. If you have a new 64 bit computer and want to try Ubuntu and are prepared for a sharp learning curve the way I managed to install Ubuntu is here.

My scores are as follows:

Windows 8   3/10

Ubuntu13.04  10/10

Windows 8 - Another Disaster from Microsoft

I purchased a new Asus K55VD SX696H - 8 GB, I selected this notebook because it had good reviews and I could select certain flavours. It is a very nice machine, in particular when I changed the small slow harddrive for a Seagate Momentous XL 750 GB hybrid harddrive.

The one disappointment is I had NO choice of operating system, I had to have Windows 8, as it came pre-installed, to me this was against my consumer rights,my human rights and my basic right to choose. After playing with Windows 8 for several hours, my conclusion is that this is as bad as Vista was, if not worse.

Don't get me wrong Microsoft have produced some gems, Windows 3.11 was excellent, I loved XP, and I grew to love Windows 7 thinking it was a worthy replacement of XP, but Windows 8 is horrible, no start button and these silly apps.

Here it is time for an admission, I like Ubuntu (Linux), but I always had a dual boot system, so I could go into Windows and do the couple of things I couldn't do in Ubuntu, like use Tom Tom Home, because irony of irony, the Tom Tom unit is run on a Linux system, but their software is only produced for a Windows or Mac system, of course I complained to Tom Tom, and got a very nice reply, that just gave the usual company bullshit.

Why do Microsoft produce something good then replace it soon after with a piece of crap? Why do Microsoft and the computer manufacturers collaborate to take away the basic right to choose? I could understand if Microsoft did what Apple does that is produce their own computers with their own operating system, but this world dominance thing is really against all the principles of freedom of choice, so I shall be writing to Human Rights, Consumer Rights and Trading Standards to lodge a complaint against Microsoft.

I also had one hell of a job installing Ubuntu in dual boot load, mainly thanks again to the way Microsoft insist on their software being almost hard wired into the firmware bios. I did get around this problem and the solution is here.

I know many people who love Windows 8, but I think I know more who hate it and wish they still had Windows 7. I wouldn't be surprised if Windows 8 goes the same way as Vista, already I hear that this month there will be Windows 8.1 to restore the start button, but with more limited functionality that people are used to.

I am not against change, I am almost 60 and I love technology, what I hate is badly written software, or bloated software, for instance from pressing the power button and selecting Ubuntu to load takes about 20 seconds, Windows is at least 8X slower, and that includes login time. Updates in Ubuntu come down in seconds and install seamlessly in the background without countless restarts, and most of the software is open source and free and comes with Office compatible, Libre Office which is a joy to use as its simple and just gets on with the job at hand.

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.