Windows V Linux

As I am stopping doing this I have decided to publish some work-in-progress notes. This being one of them.

I have seen Microsoft Windows 7, as it is currently dubbed, the other day as I installed in in a VM. What I saw did nothing for me that my operating system choice already does in a better way with less resources and has done for at least 2 years or more.

The Linux based platform has come a long long way since it first appeared. The kernel is now more robust than it ever was and the desktop much more user-freindly. The whole experience is quite simply much better than it was only a year or two ago.

I install many operating systems for people I know and for people of people I know who I don't know but now do and many friends and friends of friends etc. Then there are the installs for family added to the mix. Some have a preference for Microsoft  while some prefer a Linux distribution, others ask for a dual boot setup so they "can test the waters". What they mostly all want is something  "that just works for what I need to do" on the system they have and a Linux distribution fits that bill perfectly in 99% of cases.

In years gone by getting a Linux based operating system to play nice with some of the more estoic hardware available could be a challenge but as more and more hardware companies move away from proprietory software standards to a more open standards world this challenge has been almost eradicated. There still remains a stubborn pocket of hardware makers that are going against the flow but as more and more machines are installed with a Linux based operating system they will eventually wither and die away or join the growing band of hardware makers previous mentioned. Installing a Linux based operating system now is as easy, if not easier, than installing a Microsoft created operating system.

Microsoft still hold the top spot in users of their creations but not because of any other reason than they buy their way onto machines sold, thereby creating a false sense of people bying their flagship software operating system. Some call this the "Microsoft Tax". Myself just finds in an annoyance that is swiftly eradicated and replaced by something I call much better but that fact, of course, does not suit everybody and I now appreciate that fact. Another fact I now appreciate is that not everyone wants to rely on someone else to keep their machines running. Microsoft Windows, of any flavour, and a Linux distribution both need someone that knows what they are doing to help them get to grips with the operating system installed be it a Linux based one or a Microsoft based one. What I find now is more people want to become more self reliant in this area. Of course, there are, and probably always will be, some who cannot survive their operating system usage without someone  else who knows what is what and why something happens when it should not.

A Linux based operating system now can be set up in such a way as to keep both sides happy and in some cases can be setup so that it can automatically do everything itself, save for those who are most likely and determined to kill whatever is in front of them on their monitors

If you run a Microsoft based operating system or a Linux based operating system both have the option of running another operting system within their chosen one. These are called Virtual Managers. So. There is a way to run the opposite without the need of a dual boot setup or removing the installed operating system.

So, go on. If you run a Microsoft operating system or a Linux based operating system give the opposite one a go. There is now nothing stopping you installing one of the mainstream Linux based distributions, but remember it is not anything like MS Windows so all the brain washing that that has given you is useless. It is a new and slightly different way to get the same things done. As long as you remember that basic thing then you will enjoy the freedom it offers you.

The major difference between the two option is that of cost. Most Linux based distributions are free while all of Microsoft flavours cost anywhere between 80UKP and 400UKP. If cost bothers you then there can only be one choice. Go for it.

This happens in life.

Bye bye.

I have enjoyed the experience but I can no longer be bothered. Replies are all but none existent and the emails that where coming thick and fast have all but died off.

This says to me that people are not interested in my ranting or observations so it seems the best thing to do is to go away and do something else which I surely will and am doing. I fully understand and have no animosity towards anyone for failing to amuse and/or entertain.

Actually, I feel like Microsoft may be feeling. That is it has been good but losing traction is not an option. Unlike Microsoft however, I an quiting while there is still a little interest. Microsoft on the other hand will flounder and splutter and eventually die away, a sad lonely business that once ruled the world.

Whatever, thanks for all the fish and goodbye.

4 men rule the world.

I have said it before and I will say it again and again. It has never been more clear that a very very small section of men rule the world. Financially as well as every other possible way. These 4 men pull the strings of governments the world over and it is these 4 men that have orchestrated the mess the world is in right now. It has never been more clear. Never.

Take a look at the worlds financial markets and you will see for yourself. Take a look at the worlds business markets and again the same pattern emerges. As scary as it sounds that is how it is. Whether these 4 men be Jews or some other denomination matters not at all. The fact that they are pulling not only government strings but yours too is what matters.

They have ruled the world for centuries. Telling governments what they should do and what they should not do. For century after century it is they who have ruled. Ask yourself a few questions such as why have governments the world over propped up the banks. The very same banks that caused the world financial markets to collapse. Ask yourself why your wages have gone up and up and yet buys less and less. Ask yourself why capitalism as we know it is dieing. Ask yourself these questions and they answers should be obvious.

The Western world is entering a new capitalism world where these 4 men can better control you. They will ensure that your money buys even less. They will tell governments that they should input as much money into the system as they can print  with scant regard for what this will do to the common man's  monitory value.

As your government officals meet in offices  around the world these 4 men will be present telling them what they can and cannot do. It has never been more clear if you will only open your eyes to what  is happening and also open your mind so that you can see what is happening and if you are very keen eyed you will see these 4 men standing in the background behind whatever leader they control.

4 men rule the world in every conceivable  way.

Health risks

And other associated crap proliferate at this time of the year. The question is why is that? My own answer is because at this time of the year people try and enjoy yhemselves so these killjoys try to damage that ideal as much as possible by spouting bullshit like this.

More and more things are being classed as damaging to ones health. In the last decade it was eggs, chicken and a few other bits and bobs. This year and the previous 2 or 3 it has been alcohol at the top of their hit lists.

Even the common vegatable has not been ignored. Maybe not the vegatable itself but the shit they spray all over them while they are growing. Nothing, it would seem, it beyond these killjoys as they try desparately each and every year to lable something new with the  moniker health risk.

It is bloody annoying.


Does anyone really care? Do these warnings actualy stop you from eaiting or drinking whatever it is you want to eat or drink? None of these warning every affect me and never will. i eat and drink whatever I want whenever I want and no, I do not put on weight and was given a clean bill of health only two weeks ago. Which brings me to if  everything they claim is as bad for you as they claim it is and given the fact I eat and drink whatever I want and give scant regard to what these killjoys say why am I not dead?

It is bloody annoying.

Ubuntu users.

As Linux gains ground on the desktop Ubuntu in particular is gaining in popularity. Partly because it has some ill-conceived helper programs. I say perceived because of they mentality they give to users. Users of the Ubuntu family of distributions are usually refugies from MS Windows so while the two may go together well, in reality those users are prone to giving out some outstandinly bad information when someone, also using Ubuntu, has a problem. What is worse is when I see someone I have known for years who after years and years of using a proper Linux distribution turns to Ubuntu and then ends up passing on bad information because he or she has determined that to get him or her self up to scratch on his or her new install he or she  starts to follow what he or she sees many others doing.

One of the main problems Ubuntu users have is when there is a need to compile something. As rare as this may be it does crop up from time to time. When it does the information given is usually poor at best and downright dangerous at worse.

I have seen it time and time again where a user it told "Do this as root" or "Do it via sudo". This is just plain wrong. No program on the Linux platform has ever needed root privilidges to build. To install system wide, yes, but even that is not always required. One can simply install to ones own home directory but i digress a little. This need to do any building of source code as root is just one of the many bad advice I see given out to Ubuntu users.

And the longer such bad information is given out the more it becomes ingrained that that bad information is correct.  And you wonder why I have a dislike for Ubuntu users even though my wife and eldest child uses it.

I have for a long time said that Ubuntu is dangerous for the whole Linux community and the more people who use it the worse the situation becomes.

Folly pure folly.

As Man grapples with Natures natural climatic changes in an effort to slow down the obvious impact on Man itself one has to wonder what nature herself makes of it all.

Species come and species go. That, by definition, is what Nature is all about. Nature can be brutal at times, mostly gentle at others but over the course of the last couple of years and no doubt in the future we are seeing her flex her muscles. Man can fight her all he likes but Nature will win. She always does.

Trillions of monies have been spent on fighting this most natural of sequences of events. Money wasted. But onwards the worlds great thinkers (tinkerers) go trying to work one over on Nature. It is all doomed to abject failure but that will not stop them wasting evermore money in their quest for absolute Human power over Nature.

Mirrors in space, iron filings dropped into the worlds oceans are two such of their ideas. As the Earth slowly, wearily, cycles through its seasons in times long since past cataclysmic events have befallen not only Man but other predominant species of those ancient times curtailing their existence to the annals of history. In more recent times (10 of thousands of years)  temperatures have risen and temperatures have fallen but Man has always survived. Perhaps what is due to come will be the end of Man as the   dominant species. Is that something to be so scared of that we enable these tinkerers to do yet more damage to our fragile planet in their efforts to keep Man on top of the food chain?

To my mind no. They are simply stalling the obvious. The Earth moves in cycles and the time is coming when Man's very survival depends not on his will to survive but by Natures say so. Some would claim that by trying to stall the inevitable  we are showing a will to survive Natures onslaught. To that I say no, that is not correct. What Man is doing will simply drive Natures desire to rid herself of Man's interference on  every known species, and natural resources we have plundered, on this Earth.

Man has slowly all but destroyed this planet with its insatiable desire to be top dog and with Man's tinkering to stave off the inevitable Nature will ensure, no matter what Man tries to do about it that we die off. If not completely then with severely limited numbers left. So few that Man will struggle.

"The weak shall inherit the Earth". And we all know that "only the strong survive".

E.U. 1 : U.S.A. 0

Ignoring the wrong about file sharing (in the P2P sense) for a moment. It was good to see that the E.U. came down fair and square on the side of common man in a recent filing at the E.U.'s top court.

This link shows what I am talking about. It is only a matter of time before that sort of thing is enshrined in E.U. Law proper that all member states must abide by.

More here about a related thing.

There are many more things written about around the Internet that all boil down to the same thing.

The people living under E.U. rule are being afforded what should be a God given right and that is the right to expect to have their privacy private.

Oh and it is a poke in the eye with a red hot metal pole for the RIAA, MPAA etc and all their various tentacles around the world as it means they cannot submit John Doe court requests like they can and are doing in the U.S.A.

There is not much to celebrate about the E.U. and there has not been since its inception but every now and again they do something right and when they do it is worth celebrating.

This, is one of those times.

For crying out loud.

When is America going to realise it is not the centre of the world in anything?

That is right. Americans continually assume that whatever it is they do the rest of the world will automatically follow.

Take the contents of this article as a prime example of what I am talking about. In it they are reporting on a forum that was discussing copyright reform. The overwhelming theme is about the American copyright situation. No mention anywhere was anything about other countries and how thier copy write system works. They automatically assume that whatever changes are made to the American copyright system will carry over to the rest of the world. That is but one example. There has been many with the same underlaying theme.

It is bloody annoying! When are they going to get over themselves are realise that what is allowed in Law in America is illegal in many other countries.

That country, not the people, the commonman, is becoming more and more isolated. Which is probably why they keep discussing things that could have an effect, but not in the way they automatically assume, on the rest of the world as if they are living in a goldfish bowl.

The great EU - USA divide.

Is getting wider all the time.

As the U.S.A gets evermore embroiled in closing its borders to outsiders, whilst locking its own people in and at the same time making every American feel like a criminal, the E.U. continues to strive to open all its countries borders, with some exceptions.

The U.S.A. is threatening its people with the removal of all fair copying of CD/DVD (otherwise called fair use). Little England is considering giving its people this right. Contrary to what many U.K., not just England, dwellers think it is illegal here to copy, for ones own purposes only, any medium to another. Hence, why this change of Law is making so much news.

There are many areas where the U.K. and the U.S.A. differ. Many more areas now than at any other time in the two countries history. As the Internet makes news travel faster now than at any other time in human evolvement these differences are becoming evermore apparent.

The U.S.A. in an ever growing effort to separate themselves from every other country in the world wanted the E.U. to give over all manner of personal details about its citizens. The E.U. to their credit said go forth and multiply as what you are asking for contriviens several areas of the D.P.A. (Data Protection Act) in several countries within the E.U. It was a moment of utter paranoia so blatant the U.S.A. did not know, at first, how to respond. They had up to that point, in a show of typical U.S.A. brazenness, assumed the E.U. had the same goals as they did and to be refused was something they quite simply did not bargain for. But refused they was. It was at the time pure comedy.

The U.S.A. is closings its borders to outsiders and insiders while the E.U. opens their borders up and gives the people under their control a pat on their collectives heads in a fashion not dissimilar to how a father pats his son on his head.

It is all rather funny.

Actually, it is not just the U.S.A. and the E.U. that have an ever expanding divide. Look at the state of the world today. At this time in human history we have 4 great land masses that collectively we term the world. The U.S.A., The European Union, Russia and China and they are 4 totally separate land mases in so much as thy all have their own agendas and all 4 of those agendas are so totally different in their aims for their people and towards other countries people.

While all this is funny it also rings alarm bells. Are we heading for another world war? Perhaps Russia and China will combine against the U.S.A. and the E.U.? Whatever happens you can bet your last penny that the U.S.A. will start it or if not directly start it do something that forces the oppositions hand. Either way. The U.S.A. is dangerous.

Al-Qaeda

Oh the irony!

It has to be said

It has to be said that the so called "Land of the Free" are the most racist nation of people on this fragile green Earth.

Many more examples of proof of truly racist comments by, I can only assume the low end of educated Americans, are available all over the Internet.

This latest example is what prompted me to write this blog post. It is by no means the worst example of it but it is a shining example.

After some news that Mubadala Development Company, which is a front for the Government of Abu Dhabi some, not all, Americans on various news sites and blogs started coming out with all manner of utter racist comments.

It has happened before and it will happen again.

I really feel sorry for my American friends that there is this underlaying thread that spoils the view of Americans in the world outside of its borders. The popularity of America and its people is already at an all-time low.

To those that spouse racist rubbish like "So that is when our graphics chips will start to blow up in our faces and take out more twin towers." I say:

You are really showing that American racism right there.



Pat yourself on the back friend, you're part of the problem.

Good old England.

We, that is my family and I, came back from a week in Maryland, Ohio. The differences between good old England and the U.S.A. were striking to say the least. Maryland cannot be classed as mainstream U.S.A but even there the differences in every area were there to be seen. More than seen, the differences hit one in the face as soon as one stepped outside the airport building.

Almost every area was clean. Sure there are parts that one could term slums but every City on God Green Earth has at least one of those. The parks we visited where spotless and imacculately cared for. The streets in general where clean as well. One thing that really stood out was the number of police dotted everywhere we went. This alone is in stark contrast to good old England.

Just about every public service, police, paramedics etc where to be seen in abundance. Here, in England, you can go days before seeing a Police car let alone a policeperson walking.

Crime is the U.S.A. is really no worse than it is in England. Sure, gun crime is rife but other than that the two countries are comparable.

Houses, away from the City centre, are huge compared to houses in England. For what one could pay here in England for an average sized 4 bedroomed house one could get something twice as large in the U.S.A. and with surround green grass areas thrown in.

For me. There is no place like England. I love it here for all its faults. But, the U.S.A. is a great puller. I always said that if I was to emigrate I would emigrate to New Zealand but after our U.S.A. visit I may just have to rethink that.

Plants and Animals on the Brink.

There are plants and animals on the brink of extinction. There has always been animals and plants on the brink of extinction and there has always been plants and animals that have become extinct.

This simple thing is what evolution is all about. Some animals and plants die off and others emerge to take their place in a never ending evolutionary cycle that has gone on for millions of years.

The one sole reasons there are organisations with a vested interest in keeping plants and animals on the brink of extinction in the public eye is one of money. These organisation get millions every year to tell you, the glorious public, what we all know already.

In the end everything comes down to money and the more interested an organisation has in that something the more they force feed the general public with information.

This sort of brink of extinction is nothing new and has gone of for millions of years. It is quite simply evolution at work.

The World just gets worse.

I fear for a world slowly but surely, for whatever reasons, coming to the end of its life.

I fear for my children, aged 9, 8 and 7 months at the time of writing, and their children and if Man still exists by then their childrens children, growing up and living in a world where those with the power to uphold the law slowly but surely increase their firepower in the mistaken belief that to contain the bad elements of this world they must fight fire with fire.

The World stage has been the same for many hundreds of centuries. The West is relatively affluent with a decent standard of living while the East burns under the hot baking sun in lands made primarily of sand. Okay, those descriptions are not 100% accurate but that is how my Grandmother saw it and how she saw the world and how it would evolve when she was alive is scarily coming true.

Those in the West exploited those in the East. The East, while not getting poorer never got more affluent either.

As the world turns slowly but surely what my Grandma, she died 1982, said is now coming true. She said that the West would pay dearly for its dabblings in hot sandy countries like the Arab countries and South Africa. She always named these two area as volatile. She always said "Hot sun and commonsense never go together well." And that a "nuclear missile will come not from a powerful nation, though China, the sleeping giant, should be watched closely, but from a small none powerful third world country."

Looking at the world stage as it sits now some 25 years after her death she seems to have got most things right.

Closer to home we have a police force getting ever more powerful weapons in the name of security. They use these weapons not against bad forces but against their own peoples. National Security is the buzz word of this century and within that remit that countries own law abiding people get their freedoms curtailed.

I fear for my children's future. I really, really do.

Are they accountable?

For making the worlds people live in fear? I reckon they are.

Land locked newspapers and Internet based news outlets, far too many from both fields to list here but they are\all the same in this regard). They rarely note anything good. 99% of the news from those outlets is bad news. Another murder. Another knife attack. Another beating. Another robbery. Etc, etc, etc. Same sort of news reported day in and day out. None, and I do not include satirical news outlets for obvious reasons, have a 'Good News' or 'Feel good' page or pages or section. Sure, they may now and again, put out some article that is good news but the vast majority of news reported is bad news.

Take the BBC web site at http://www.bbc.co.uk as a prime example. Every single day the report the same bad news. From home and abroad, same old tired format. They split the World up into sections and the U.K is further split up into smaller chunks so you can read more bad news about an area closer to wherever you are! Very thoughtful I am sure.

What is stopping these news outlets from dedicating some space every day to some good news to cheer up their readers? Nothing. Well, nothing except bad news is good news for news outlets as that, they claim, is what their readers want. But, as a reader myself of several of the top online news outlets I can state I would rather read about some good being done somewhere than read about yet another death or fire or plane crash or war or whatever is happening in a given BBC mandated area that is bad.

'Welcome to the Good News only section of the <insert news outlet here>'. Will we ever see something along those lines in any serious news outlet? I doubt it. Are the worlds peoples so downtrodden and nasty that all they want to read about is something bad like someone being killed or an areoplane crash that killed all 203 passengers or yet another country is attacked by the U.S.A. because that country does not conform to what the U.S.A. considers correct? I think not. I think, and this is world over not just in the U.K., that if the news outlets produce a page or complete section relaying only the good things that happen in this world, and there is a lot, then that page or section will quickly become the first page a user goes to.

Our society is bad enough these days without these news outlets reporting on things that make our society seem much worse than it is. I'll ask again. Why can they not set aside some space to report only good news. I bet you that that space will be widely read and will probably get more hits then anything else they report on.

As an aside, my dear old long dead Grandmother always held that the U.K. is no worse now and no more violent than it was in her youth during the 1926-1936 than it is nowadays. The only reason is seems worse is because nowadays news travels much faster, the police are better equipt and that people are more inclined to report crime against themselves or a crime they have witnessed. Was she correct? She had a habit of oversimplifying things in such a manner but if you read the statistics then she was not far wrong.

Good grief.

And STILL they prattle on.

When is it going to dawn on scientists that all these natural, and the important word here is natural, things affecting the weather, sea temperatures etc etc are phenomena that no-one can control?

Temperatures are raising and have been rising for over a century. Sure, man has a little to do with it but that little is so miniscule as to make no real difference whatsoever.

Yes, our world is changing, as it has done many many times before down the years. Time and time again the weather temperatures have changed. It changed before we had 'industry'. It changed before we had 'motorised vehicles'. It changed before we had 'electrical goods'. It changed. Time and again. It changed. It went warm, cold, very warm, very cold, colder still etc etc. Over and over again it changed.

Rivers and seas where created during some of these temperature changes. Rivers and seas have been created and disappeared because of these natural changes. Whole swaths of mountain ranges have been created etc etc Our world was not formed in a day and is in fact constantly changing.

That cannot be denied.

So, why do these scientists, who really should know better, constantly harp on about these changes and how man has affected it all and how 'Climate Change' is all because of man himself? I will tell you why I think they do it. They do it because they need funding. To get funding they must have something worth pursuing. Something worth pursuing does not need to be real or even tangible as long as you can fabricate the truth and scare people.

Our world is changing. That cannot be denied. Our world is changing as it has done since the dawn of time. That too cannot be denied.

And yet, there is report fter report after report claiming that the changes we are seeing are not natural but are in fact the after affects of what man has done during the last 100 or so years. What a load of utter rubbish.

Carbon foot print.

So, those who have a hidden agenda want all sorts of things banned because "they emit to much CO2". So, here is how it looks from a layman's point of view.

Anyone who knows a little about how life itself is sustained knows life needs CO2 to survive. No-one is disputing the fact we humans are outputting more and more CO2. Whether that is having anything above a marginal affect on the global CO2 output, and therefore the so labeled Climate Change, map is highly debatable.

Let us consider for a moment that everyone, everywhere on this earth stopped using and doing things that emit CO2. Plant life would die, trees would die, eventually, within a very short time scale in the big scheme of things life itself would die out.

Back before humans had food packaging, as we know it now, heating, computers, refrigerators any and almost all modern appliances man created lots and lots of fires. Fires that they cooked by, fires that kept them warm. Fires to see off the dead. Fires to 'see off' the dead. Fires that the farmers created to burn off their crops. Even street lamps where via fire, granted gas but flame nonetheless. All of those fires gave off massive amounts of CO2.

Nowadays we do not create as many fires, instead we burn off CO2 via other means like computers, heaters and other such none essential things.

Now, take those two together and they cancel each other out regarding CO2 emitions.

Man made climate change is a myth perpetrated by those with an agenda to fulfill and the cash-cow it provides.

How I escaped from torture in Iran - rubbish?

In this http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/coventry_warwickshire/6900435.stm article on the bbc web site (a 3 parter no less) there is a guy who recounts his experiences after being deported to Iran.

Does anyone else read the above article and think to themselves it is so contrived as to be nothing more than a story made up?

Read it thoroughly. It smacks of a tale one might tell friends in an effort to curry favour.

I am in no way saying what he claimshappened did not happen. What I amsaying is the way the story reads it reads as exactly that, a story.

New seven wonders.

So, they have finally come up with a list for the New Seven Wonders of the World and what a crock of shit it turned out to be.

There is no doubting that those 'wonders' chosen are indeed wondrous but there remains many better, more suitable, wonders around this globe we know as Earth.

I voted as did apparently millions of others but one has to wonder what the hidden agenda behind it all was. Oh yes, there was definitely a hidden agenda as can be seen from those 'wonders, chosen.

I am not going to waste my time typing out all the much better 'wonders' that can be found but suffice it to say there are many, many many many, much better 'wonders' to be seen.

As I opened with. What a crock of shit the New seven Wonders of the World turned out be.

Lies, lies and more lies.

Back in the 1970's, and I wonder how many readers go back that far, we were constantly warned that we were heading for a new Ice Age and that we must prepare for what is in store. There were programs on TV telling us what was the best way to survive in an Ice covered world etc etc etc etc. Then suddenly this all changed from an impending Ice Age to Climate Change and worse, Global Warming.



Why?



I'll tell you my explanation. It changed because the vast majority of the people did not care. They went back to the drawing board and created something much more alarming and this time the people did buy it. Now we have a multi billion pound industry around Global Warming. Oh and Man is to blame thrown in for added effect.



Our world is dying. Of that there is no argument. It may take many thousands of years to eradicate Man but it will happen eventually. The weakest will die first as we are seeing with birds then death and extinction will come to all species. But, that scenario, with the exception of a few lower species, is many many years in our future.



The debate over Global Warming is huge with both sides giving their all to the debate but sadly the various governments around the world have by and large succeeded in duping the masses into thinking Global Warming is happening.



Myself I strongly believe that our world is going through one of its normal phases and that what Man has done is add a tiny minute bit to it in the great scheme of things. No matter what we do to curb Mans desire for power and trinkets, no matter what our collective governments do or claim to be doing, the end will come regardless.



Right now, it suits our governments to play with our heads but sooner or later the people of the world will rise up and unite in a revolt against the lies, lies and more lies.