http://www.planetbods.org/blog/build/images/me.jpg 2009-11-28T16:13:28Z Computer hardware and software and other stuff that's semi-related. Unless it's to do with the Internet. Won't find that here... tag:www.planetbods.org,2010:/blog/Computers/6 Movable Type Copyright (c) 2009, Andrew Bowden 2009-11-28T16:13:28Z 2009-11-29T09:30:00Z tag:www.planetbods.org,2009:/blog//6.1210

Throughout my life, computers have always reigned supreme. The first was a Dragon 32, followed by a ZX Spectrum +. An Atari STE came next, then a 386DX-40. After that it all went a bit blurry, but there's been several upgrades and new machines. Our house now contains a desktop PC, two laptops (one nine years old) and a very shiny and new netbook.

Andrew Bowden 2009-11-28T15:31:48Z 2009-11-28T15:26:45Z tag:www.planetbods.org,2009:/blog//6.1215

I've never had any experience with 3G dongles, and I must confess I approached plugging one into my Dell Mini with some trepidation. I'd heard scare stories of faffing with config files and other horribleness. I remembered a whopping four page feature in Linux Format on "how to get 3G dongles working." I mean - four pages. That means it certainly wasn't going to be easy...

Andrew Bowden 2009-11-09T09:42:26Z 2009-11-09T09:18:02Z tag:www.planetbods.org,2009:/blog//6.1198

Every now and then when you have a PC you inevitably end up with some near heart attack inducing moment.

Andrew Bowden 2009-05-13T09:28:34Z 2009-05-12T22:02:32Z tag:www.planetbods.org,2009:/blog//6.1071

I recently broke the USB wireless dongle I use on my eight year old Linux running laptop PC. Without it, the laptop can't connect to the internet. Hmm.

Andrew Bowden 2009-05-04T09:50:49Z 2009-05-04T09:50:41Z tag:www.planetbods.org,2009:/blog//6.1064

there's a draw in the spare bedroom just of computer cables and other bits - full to bursting. All tangled up, and with no idea what was what. As such, an obvious bank holiday task was to actually sort it out. And looking through, I was amazed at what there was in there.

Andrew Bowden 2008-09-21T17:47:17Z 2008-07-13T12:06:25Z tag:www.planetbods.org,2008:/blog//6.879

Anyone following my microblog updates yesterday may have noticed a certain anger with the trauma centre that is iTunes. I've never been a huge fan of iTunes (bloated, slow, klunky), but after yesterday I now hate, loathe and despise it.

Andrew Bowden 2010-07-05T15:29:16Z 2008-05-17T10:59:52Z tag:www.planetbods.org,2008:/blog//6.865

Windows was slow, and whilst I felt that re-installing Windows XP might help, Muffin is only a 900Mhz Celeron with 384meg of RAM and a 20Gb hard drive. And I don't like Windows (although XP is far better than Vista) - I'm a Linux user and have been for years. And it was time for Muffin to get a conversion.

Andrew Bowden 2008-10-14T21:10:27Z 2007-06-23T13:11:40Z tag:www.planetbods.org,2007:/blog//6.764

As anyone who has read these pages before, upgrading Linux since the arrival of my new PC last year, hasn't always been smooth.

Andrew Bowden 2008-10-14T20:15:44Z 2007-03-18T10:47:46Z tag:www.planetbods.org,2007:/blog//6.738

Over the last few weeks, my broadband connection has been a bit slow.

Andrew Bowden 2008-10-14T17:36:15Z 2007-01-31T21:23:23Z tag:www.planetbods.org,2007:/blog//6.726

As a GNU/Linux user myself, the thought of the BBC's iPlayer being Windows XP only, wasn't one I particularly relished. So I was particularly interested in the reports that the BBC Trust have told the BBC management that iPlayer must take a more platform agnostic approach.

Andrew Bowden 2008-10-14T17:23:33Z 2007-01-10T21:28:42Z tag:www.planetbods.org,2007:/blog//6.717

So here's the story with getting the sound working again on my new Ubuntu Edgy Eft setup.

Andrew Bowden 2008-10-13T22:33:37Z 2007-01-08T22:38:31Z tag:www.planetbods.org,2007:/blog//6.715

I've just been reminded why I tend not to bother upgrading my Linux setup very often. It generally causes more headaches than benefits...

Andrew Bowden 2008-10-12T18:18:40Z 2006-06-26T21:43:24Z tag:www.planetbods.org,2006:/blog//6.677

Andrew Bowden 2008-10-12T18:16:09Z 2006-06-19T22:28:41Z tag:www.planetbods.org,2006:/blog//6.675

Well since by last post about going to Ubuntu Dapper things have changed.

Andrew Bowden 2008-10-12T18:11:25Z 2006-06-08T22:47:05Z tag:www.planetbods.org,2006:/blog//6.672

Last night I left the computer ugrading itself up to the latest version of Ubuntu. Okay I didn't quite leave it to do everything - actually I had to sort it out a few times in the middle of the night, but that's only because I was checking it whilst I was struggling to sleep due to the heat.

Andrew Bowden 2008-10-06T22:08:41Z 2006-04-16T14:16:15Z tag:www.planetbods.org,2006:/blog//6.660

Earlier in the week, I spent an evening trying to get my Hauppage PVR-150 to work under Linux. It's no easy task, taking me a couple of hours, and even now it's not exactly east. For starters, I'm only able to watch TV via Mplayer, whilst using a command line app to change channel.

Andrew Bowden 2008-10-06T21:46:28Z 2006-02-05T08:34:21Z tag:www.planetbods.org,2006:/blog//6.642

Sometimes I just wonder about the quality of documentation from the world of open source. Take this question from the MPlayer FAQ...

Andrew Bowden 2008-10-06T21:45:35Z 2006-02-04T10:29:24Z tag:www.planetbods.org,2006:/blog//6.641

Since getting my new PC, I've been taking stock and reviewing some of the stuff I've got on my hard drive - which is quite a lot actually. Old websites, copies of letters, and a bucket load of WAV files of goodness knows what. But most of all, I've been trawling through the several gigs worth of radio comedies that I've recorded from BBC7 and BBC Radio 4 over the last few years, and still haven't managed to listen to yet.

Andrew Bowden 2008-10-06T21:44:21Z 2006-01-28T12:48:42Z tag:www.planetbods.org,2006:/blog//6.640

What really annoys me about new computers is when they don't come with a Windows CD. Yes, okay, I use Linux, but having a Windows setup on my machine is occassionally useful, so I'd prefer to have a copy of it just in case anything ever goes wrong with the machine. Merely being able to "repair" from the hard drive is no good if your hard drive gets trashed!

Andrew Bowden 2008-10-06T21:41:39Z 2006-01-22T10:46:55Z tag:www.planetbods.org,2006:/blog//6.638

Well here we are. The new PC is up and running and I'm in the slowish process of migrating stuff off the old one and onto the new. More importantly, as is the *nix way, the new PC has finally been christened.

Andrew Bowden