On The Road with Vicky Lamburn

Around the web a search for Vista alone will yield many an article about the terrible experiences people have had, how much better Windows XP is, and how it’s just junk.

It isn’t.

I’m saying this as ever, as a new user to the system, and as a Mac OS X and Linux user too. I’ll wager many of those proponents of the ‘Vista sucks’ message are either those who need/want to drive up visitor numbers/advertising revenue and those willing to read that message to confirm a half baked belief that will vindicate them as right. But this isn’t about what is right or wrong, just the facts. Just the facts Jack.

Read the rest of this entry »

T-Mobile released it’s first Google Android powered device today snappily called the G1 and I don’t think it looks too bad. I prefer function over form in most cases.

However reading a few comments on websites, Apple/Mac-centric ones I came across the usual distubing comment that is elicited when a competitors product appears on the horizon pitched at a device Apple already offers (the iPhone in this case.) The comment simply read?

Should we feel threatened by the new G1?

Erm.

Read the rest of this entry »

So let’s see what I have running in my household (which consists of me, myself and I):

• OpenSUSE 11 on the laptop
• Windows XP and 2000 on the Dell
• Windows NT 4 Server on the other Dell which is a glorified NAS (Network Attached Storage) box
• Mac OS X 10.4 on the eMac
• Mac OS 9.2 on the iMac

A balanced lot I think. The top two get the most use in general. The time has come however to take the jump and start plugging away with Windows Vista.

Read the rest of this entry »

A post of lyrics again…

Way Out West – “Don’t Forget Me”

Read the rest of this entry »

As a change from my recent posts about music and photography I have finally decided to sit down and get together my thoughts about using OpenSUSE 11 on my ThinkPad T40.

A couple of points to note:

The first is that prior to OpenSUSE 11, I was still using Ubuntu 7.10 (and I would have preferred to stay on 7.04 to some respect) with the Gnome desktop environment. I had upgraded OpenOffice.org to 2.3, and Firefox 3.0 by the end. However I skipped 8.04 with the noises about the beta version of Firefox (which was a bizarre inclusion on a Long Term Support release) and PulseAudio (whatever it really is) being somewhat unstable. With 8.10 out soon, I will reveal whether I will be moving to that by the end of this review.

The second is that those of you with good memories will recall the ThinkPad T40, it’s about a 5 1/2 year old laptop now, unbelievably, that was one of the very first from Intel’s ‘Centrino’ revolution that rocked the world in early 2003. Since then the platform that the Pentium M debuted has taken over as the numero uno platform in today’s dual core, Core2Duo etc. systems. So I have an old notebook by some people’s standards. This however has yet to have bugged me as I still find it more than good enough. But the point I am making is my perceptions have been formed on a laptop that has a single core first generation Pentium M at 1.5GHz, 1GB RAM and the ATI Radeon 7500 GPU that was already dated quite badly when it was included in the basic T40 series in 2003. A lot has changed since then.

So to start…

In case you haven’t read my blog before now, I own Windows, Mac OS X and Linux machines. I get on pretty well with all of them with Windows/Linux being the main system and Mac OS X being there for my telly and media related shenanigans. Despite being something of a power-user and IT professional, I can largely narrow down what I do on a computer to the following:

• Web browsing: Not only browing pages but using Web 2.0 related apps
• Word processing: Speaks for itself, but varies between Word, OpenOffice.org Writer and LyX/LaTeX
• Text processing: Notepad/text editors are all I use for developing web pages and applications
• Image processing: Be that scanning negatives/slides and cropping or creating graphics from scratch, this features highly
• Music playing: I play music, a lot of music and this is important to me

And that is about it. Occassionally I will open a spreadsheet, and sometimes I will have a specialist piece of software. But that’s rare and so my needs are basic as they go. Apart from Photoshop, there is no actual application that I depend on to get by.

As such when you consider that the average Linux distribution comes with all of this software included by standard, and when your laptop like mine is a little long in the tooth for Windows Vista, Linux can for those people not tied down excessively to platform specific software could quite easily get by with Linux on their computers.

The main two preclusions to this have historically been patchy hardware support and poor usability.

OpenSUSE 11 is a breath of fresh air as it is simple to use and though it’s an old laptop, the hardware support has so far been impeccable.

I downloaded the installation DVD from www.opensuse.org and burnt it on my eMac as it’s the only computer I have with a DVD writer. Having done this I popped the disk in my ThinkPad T40 having backed up what I needed in case. The installation procedure was a complete breeze and without any event.

After a reboot I was presented with the login screen and dropped into KDE 4.0.4 which is what OpenSUSE 11 shipped with. This seemed to be fine and not having been a long-term KDE user beforehand (I was with Gnome) I didn’t have any issues with it. Considering the weak GPU in my notebook I was refreshingly surprised how well the machine performed with the extra graphics effects.

I then connected to the wireless network without hitch and also set up a crossover cable connection with my eMac and swapped over some files. This is something that under Ubuntu 7.10 I usually had great troubles with. The Gnome NetworkManager in its 0.6 incarnation at least is notoriously unreliable in my experience.

Upgrades were flagged up that I allowed to go ahead and after a reboot I was now running KDE 4.1 which I kept reading was somewhat better than 4.0. It ran fine. I am also pleased to say unlike Ubuntu after suspend to RAM or disk (hibernation in Windows) network connections were restored every single time, something I also could not guarantee in Ubuntu 7.10.

After this I dived straight into OpenOffice.org Writer and Firefox 3.0 and was happilly flitting along without any problems. Everything worked. The only aspect I have yet to test is external monitor support (dual screens, projector and SVideo output.) This should be fine as you can use xrandr on the command line but I am hoping I will not need to resort to that.

In other words, OpenSUSE 11 is easily the best Linux distribution I have used. Better still you can choose to use KDE 3.5.9, Gnome 2.22 and Xfce over KDE 4.1 if you choose when you install so if you are allergic to this new desktop, you have options.

Considering the stability, excellent hardware support and out of the box usefulness, I have found OpenSUSE to be an excellent choice. It has been very easy to use and installing software such as LyX/LaTeX and WINE has been excellent. Notably I have installed Photoshop through WINE as it’s the only application that I cannot live without in terms of Windows/Mac dependencies. I know Gimp and Krita are there but when you have been using little else other than Photoshop for 13 years, it’s hard to adapt to something else!

I will have screenshots to follow.

In terms of my experience, I have very little reason to even look at Ubuntu 8.10, as I can wholeheartedly recommend you look at OpenSUSE 11.0.

A few days ago I got a surprise at work. “Hmm, no £60 rebate from the big bad government!” I was due £60 tax rebate like most other people on the basic tax rate (20% these days in the UK) — now not wishing to debate what I think politically of this, I was a bit perturbed. I had already earmarked that £60 towards my car tax which is due at the end of the month. Sadly us normal folk have it in one hand and out the other. But that’s the way it goes and whining about only leads to bitterness, then depression, and then a sense of ineptitude which is pointless.

So duly I queried this. Long and short of this when talking to payroll is that I’ve been paying too much tax for nigh on a year and a half, probably as much as almost 2 years. The reason? When I ditched my old job, I took on odd jobs to tide me through and this was late 2006. I continued one of these odd jobs on when I started my current job. Also, somehow I didn’t hand in my P45. Essentially I have been paying basic rate tax, that’s 22% last year and 20% this tax year with no personal allowance. In other words I have paid tax on every penny I earn. The personal allowance that was tax free last year was £5k odd in my case and now £6k or so. I think. It’s a grey area tax with me, hence why I didn’t notice the problem before.

I was asked, “How do you survive?” — my only answer was you make do, you budget and don’t spend a penny more. So it turns out I have a heft tax rebate on my way.

Doing a bit of calculator prodding I’ve worked out that I have been paid around £150 less than I should have been each month. Of course let’s face it, I didn’t know I was in a tax problem until Monday so chances are I have calculated that wrong too!

So I tried to gauge yesterday what I’d get back this month (for the tax year of 2008/9) and my suggestion of “couple of hundred quid?” was greeted with “Easily. Easily.”

So already spending it in my mind, I was thinking what could I get if I really was underpaid per se by £150 each month since April this year, and that again last year. That comes to a crazy figure of £2700. I’ve never seen such a large sum of money in my life in one go.

Now first of all, if you’re planning of assaulting me on the way to work tomorrow, don’t — I don’t have that money on me.

I doubt seriuously I will get that much, not even a fraction of. But I was thinking what could I do if I got say £500 back. A £1000 back. What about £1500 back? What if I get the whole £2700 smackeroonies?

If I got £500 back, I’d pay off a chunk of my credit card. If I got a grand, I would probably also use all of it on the credit card as in the long run I’d be the winner and debt free. What about £1500 though? Well I figured I’d pay a grand off on the credit card and maybe put the £500 towards a holiday in the sun or put the £500 towards the Voigtlander Bessa R3a I am saving up for.

But what if I got £2700. That’s in another league!

I could if I wanted pay for an EOS 5D Mk II but I have absolutely no interest in doing so. Give or take in most cases resolution wise the 5D Mk II beats 35mm film (except for the best of the best slow print/slide film shots on a tripod where it’s probably about equal) my EOS 3 is a better camera still. Sure it doesn’t record video but that’s not bothered me. Ever. The 45 auto focus points, weather sealing, eye control focus and so forth has though.

I have any interest in buying any digital camera.

So I figured that being the case I would probably pay off my credit card in full, pay off the remainder of my overdraft (paid off a £1000 of it in 8 months — saving is the key!) and if I feel very devilish splash out on a Zeiss Ikon ZI, the big daddy Bessa.

I expect though knowing my past history with money I’d be lucky to buy a Snickersbar.

But at little fantasy is a nice thought once in a while!

Morgan Page ft. Lissie West “The Longest Road” (Deadmau5 Remix)

This is the radio edit but this is probably one of my favourite songs of 2008. Fantastic surreal lyrics that i think I have made sense of! The full length version is fantastic.

Pure dead-beat Deadmau5 on this too.

“Giddy up and gold dust, all the cars turn to rust You’ve got no means for wanderlust.” — Stunning.

This will be a short post as I am tired and need to get some kip.

I recently acquired a Mamiya C330F Twin-Lens Reflex medium format camera. That is a camera that takes an image on a frame larger than 35mm format in a very crude definition. In the case of the Mamiya TLRs that’s a square 6×6cm image, which is over double the size of a 35mm frame. The bottom line is purportedly better image resolution.

I acquired the C330f, a Cokin A adapter especially designed for the Mamiya, the 80mm f/2.8 and 55mm f/4.5 lenses for well, under £150. Seriously good bargain especially as it all has 12 months warranty.

First dabblings – Fulking Escarpment

First experiences with it properly were on Saturday where I went back to my favourite little local bit of Sussex (I have so many, but I’ll settle on one for now) – Fulking/Poynings/Summer Down and the South Downs Escarpment. (Note I didn’t mention Devil’s Dyke — too busy and the pub though a welcome sight when I walked the South Downs Way, is a bit of a blot on the landscape.) Give I haven’t found my spare camera strap I trudged up the steep escarpment slope with the C330f in one hand and it was not particularly easy going as I like my hands free when I am walking.

That said though, it was good working with it. I had it pretty much set to infinity focus and dabbled with metering according to the Sunny 16 rule. I also had my EOS 3 to confirm my estimates at shutter and aperture values — as it turns out I was pretty much bang on most of the time. A result!

After I went along the scarp slope for a while and the back again and down into Fulking for a pint of hoppy brew and read the paper (The Independent no less) in the latent summer sun. Great stuff.

Second Dabblings – Steyning Bowl

I have been looking after a friends house and cats whilst she was away in Cyprus so I was in East Worthing for over a week. That’s about 2.5 to 3miles away from where I am in West Worthing, which is a fair distance to add to a walk if you choose to explore the Downs towards Sompting Abbotts and to the east of Cissbury Ring.

So being as I was over the right side of Worthing that’s just what I did.

I have to say, it is just fantastic out that side of things, utterly beautiful and so peaceful. Largely this is because it’s quite cut off. You only have the Bostal Road from Steyning which touches down on the other side on the dual carriaged A27 bypassing Sompting. Otherwise there are no other roads and it just feels somewhat cut off. It’s a bit like a Devil’s Dyke Road without all the people and the nonsense

Anyway, it was a peaceful walk and again I was pretty much on the ball with getting right exposure off the top of my head (I think, by then I had moved onto Velvia 50 and I think I’ll have screwed up badly as that’s one tough cookie to expose.) At one point a couple of kids with their mum or something came up to where I was looking down the valley and the boy said, “Cool camera!” to which I just said “Yeah it’s an oldie but it does the job” – he said “That’s why it’s cool, it’s retro!”

I must remember the tat that I have is not tat nor is it old, it’s retro.

Once I had meandered slowly up the valley to Steyning Bowl (by now 5pm, I avoided the road you see which means some zig zagging) it was beautiful, warm but with a snap of September chill in the air. I also walked onto part of the South Downs Way that I had trudged along back on a very very hot day at the end of July on the Washington->Pyecombe leg. It felt so special to be back. And actually, I was really quite tearful. And no it’s not pathetic, it was a little bit of pride that this was part of the path I had accomplished something on, but also because I am so lucky to have such a beautiful part of the world within a stone’s throw of my home-town.

Alas the C330f was a joy to shoot with, even though something went very wrong with the Velvia I had loaded up. I managed to partially rescue it but I may only have 3 maybe 4 usuable frames as a consequence (I have no idea what happened, it just went wrong… it didn’t wind on properly etc.) Alas all was fine in the end and it was refreshing to slow down my shooting with such a camera.

I don’t expect masterpieces back this time, it’s more of a dummy run for exposure calculation.

Either way, walking back in the low golden September sun, I walked through the fields still abuzz with butterflies flitting through the cool blue air and it was just wonderful.

I have to say without a shadow of a doubt, that if the Lancing/Sompting/Worthing by-pass ever does resurface or happen, I’ll only support it through a tunnel or through its current path by bulldozing houses on the current route. Houses are temporary, but the landscape is too wonderful to savage with a road. It really is a special bit of Sussex in amongst the Brighton-Worthing-Littlehampton strip (supposedly the second most densely populated part of the country, population of almost half a million) that just feels like you could be miles from anywhere.

I’ll keep you posted of the results!

x x

I’ve heard some fantastic music this year, not all of it from this year even (sometimes I catch up on things I missed a year or two ago) and Massive Attack’s “Live With Me” is one such track.

It has a depressing message but one though ‘repulsive’ is queerly compelling (at least to me) to watch, it’s a gritty message no one perhaps likes to acknowledge but it’s out there and it’s happening. I also love the video itself the way it is shot, low saturated colour. the angles of view. I love the through the bottle shot. Anyway, on that happy note I need to get ready for work:

I do have a strange fascination with all in life that isn’t well!

This film ever since I first watched it in Media Studies in 1999 at the lovely endearing age of 16 means more to me day by day by day…