Category Archives: Technology

Meizu

After a brief excursion with a Samsung Galaxy, which I hated, I’ve reverted to a Meizu. My third such phone. And I love it.

Landfill

A while ago, I dropped down to one desktop PC. With smart TVs and other connected devices, there was no longer the need to have more. 

One old desktop didn’t quite make it to the tip, purely by accident. It hadn’t been used in years, so I was surprised that it booted-up this afternoon. 

I bought it from ebay for around thirty quid over a decade ago, but I think it’s around 17 years old. It’s running Ubuntu 12.04 and, if I remember correctly, couldn’t upgrade to 14.04 a few years ago. It’s something like a Celeron 5 or 600, with a half gig memory and a 60 gig hard drive. 

I may keep it. 

A moment

According to Wikipedia, a moment lasts around 90 seconds. Microsoft, on the other hand, has an entirely different definition. Around 20 minutes. 

I’ve used Libre Office for several years at home, Open Office for years before that. The former comes with Ubuntu and other Linux distributions. It’s free and it’s very capable. 

However, an offer via work led me to purchase Microsoft’s offering for only a tenner. While this remains much more expensive than Libre Office, I was tempted by the price. 

Unfortunately, it didn’t actually take a moment to install. 

I think that in a bit may have been more appropriate a message during installation. 

Convergence resurrected

I’ve said several times that I loved my Ubuntu phone. But we parted company shortly before Canonical abandoned Convergence, along with further updates or support. 

Since then, a couple of less ambitious ventures have set out to bring Linux to the smartphone. Sadly, nothing close to mainstream. 

It now seems that Samsung have a plan to achieve a workable compromise. An Android device which can be switched over to Linux when connected to a monitor and keyboard. Fingers crossed. 

Ubuntu

A couple of days ago, I got round to installing Ubuntu on the GPD Pocket. I’d bought the Windows version with the intention of adding Linux as a dual boot, but then I found that such a thing isn’t possible. 

And so, I had to patiently wait for the Ununtu download. While the computer worked great with Windows 10, I bought the thing with the intention of running Linux. 

Which it now does. I love it. 

Customer service

While I’m very happy with my crowdfunded GPD Pocket, I do still read the comments from fellow backers on Indigogo. 

Every now and then, someone will leave a tip about a decent accessory, a case, power supply, or usb stick. There’s also the occasional piece of advice about O/S downloads. 

I also enjoy GPD’s responses. For examply, when asked about the non-delivery of a replacement hall sensor, the response was as follows.

At least, I think that’s what it was about. Delivery in general is also a common cause for contact; recipients in Japan and Russia, in particular, seem to be experiencing delay. One backer, from Russia, recieved this reply. 

Windows

For several years we’ve run a Linux/Windows dual boot on the living room computer. I’d rather stick with Linux, but Windows sometimes (rarely) does things which are awkward in Linux. 

Since it’s been a couple of years since the machine was set up with Ubuntu/Windows 7, a clean install was overdue. 

As was a move to a more up-to-date version of Windows. Installing Windows 10 was surprisingly painless, although it was still a lot slower to get up and running than Linux. 

Yes, it did take a while. 

Ubuntu, on the other hand, was really quick. Which was impressive since that included the dual boot setup and the programs that need to be installed separately in Windows. 

Yes, it is fast. 

Pocket

While I’ve not had a lot of free time today, I’ve installed some essential programs on my new GPD Pocket. 

It’s running pretty well, better than I’d expected for something so small. I won’t post another picture, since its appearance hasn’t changed since yesterday. 

It’s still beautiful.