Posts by John

The netbook newbie's guide to Linux

Former DOS person's Saga

Installed Ubuntu - fine

Soon wanted to edit conf file. Access denied, search forums - need to be root user. Search forums - how do I become root? Use sudo command - but how i do run text editor with root privileges? search forums. Several hours later finally find answer with mental note most advice on forums incomprehensible, patronising or just plain wrong.

Install USB mike - doesn't work. It does after many hours fiddling (don't ask me why because I didn't take notes)

Installed scanner and webcam but it took a couple of hours (still issues with controlling webcam - wrong exposure but probably get there one day)

Network drives - yes could see them in nautilus (though it took a while to find out how make it remember them for next time) but I wanted to open stuff from applications

Thus I got into all this fstab stuff - many hours later finally mounted my server so that this works (none of the forum articles actually worked)

Music - having conquered the fstab issue I can finally play my mp3s (though not with Rhythmbox which is a waste of space for an idiot like me)

TV - Kaffeine is great except the recording doesn't work. Somebody suggested Myth to record - trying to install it screwed up kaffeine but finally tracked down various remnants of myth and got Kaffeine working again. Waste of an afternoon

Myth is the classic Linux issue - may be wonderful and do 18 things nothing else does (including guessing you want coffee, popcorn) but it's useless if you can't make it work (I can't).

I am an ex DOS person (batch files, HMA etc.) with reasonable hardware and networking knowledge but I have spent days doing things which take me minutes in Windows. The harsh truth is I cannot recommend Ubuntu to friends and family yet

Prison boss demands right to jam inmates' cellphones...

tis a problem

Back in Blighty it's a headache as well (even from from a bleeding heart liberal prison chaplaincy perspective like mine). Jamming signals seems the obvious answer - though one might mitigate the problem by reducing the extortionate pay phone rates for prisoners to phone home; one short call takes their whole weekly income.

Music biz proposes 'iPod tax' in return for format-shift freedom

Still too lax

As a lawyer, I feel these proposals lack bite.

Consumers should have to specify the device they use to play the CD and pay to register changes (home to car etc.). Furthermore, rearranging CDs on racks or shelves should be notifiable and chargeable

With the current recession looming, worried professionals need new revenue streams

Home Secretary in ID card gaffe

No internet access means wide open

On previous form, no internet access means thousands of civil servants will download the whole blank thing on to their laptops. And then guess what?

Web access, properly secured (like most banks now) is the only way to go. Which will come with a log, of course, so we know who asked what and why.

HMRC self-assessment online gets awards nod

improved a lot

Bad that it crashed, but unwise to leave things so late (and as somebody said, you can file now and pay later)

Doesn't do capital gains and various other things, but what it does do, it now does well. I have taken time to make comments and I notice most have been adopted over the years. No doubt others also commented, but it is nice to know somebody has taken the issues on board.

Leaked email reveals civil service laptop rules

properly administered database, anyone?

Obviously it will take months or years to implement but the real answer is secure database on a server and vpn style access for mobile users to get their needs on the move from some appropriate front end. Obviously a bit of encryption is all well and good, but we all know laptops and pda's are bound to get lost or stolen, so really the best answer is for the data not to be on the *??* thing in the first place

A relative (an IT contractor) has just been summoned by a senior mandarin demanding to know why data is being moved on CDs. Answer - you, O great one - have vetoed all the many proposals to move it some better way. Says it all, really...

Daring Register raid snatches key government URL

Danger!

In view of the obvious threat to national security posed by this exposure of incompetence, the intrepid hacks should be held incommunicado for 28 days until Her Majesty's Ministry of Truth spin doctors have corrected history. Of course 42 days or forever would be far more reassuring to the populace at large, but then I enjoy reading these stories.