Margaret Frances Hoskins Long

My beloved sister born 1919, crossed the Jordan last night at 10.30 p.m. whilst being cared for in Cheltenham General Hospital. Two sons and their wives were at her bedside and she was comforted I am sure. I was in touch with her eldest son, David, in Forth Worth,Texas.
She will I believe, be re-united with her dear brother David and John her husband and all the family long since departed.

I shall miss her and so shall we all.

May she rest in peace and rise in glory. Alleluia

18th December Virtual Box

I spoke against this contrivance at the club on Wednesday, as I think a distro on a machine in its own right is easier to handle. e.g. I have several distros on memory cards and just swap the card for a diferent distro. But here I am with Kubuntu on my Eeepc900 along with Mandriva on the same card! It certainy works, but my poor brain is having a hard time!

I haven't used Kubuntu for ages, it uses KDE instead of Gnome. So if someone asks the question about the difference, we can see for ourselves using the vitual box.

So farI have Mandriva, Debian5, Mint, Xandros Ubuntu and now Kubuntu. I tried Crunchbang but it wouldn't boot!

Sunday 5th December

2 events worth noting!
Fay Zee has joined the Rustington lug mailing list. She is the lugmaster of the East Grinstead lug and also attends the Sussex and Surrey lug meetings.
She has also put me on to the Faversham luh (www.flug.org.uk) where many interesting things are going on.

7th meeting of the new rustington lug

We invited Desmond Armstrong to give a presentation at our weekly meeting and made an effort to publicise the event. We do have 27 names of people wo have attended or expressed interest and we had hoped for a good turn out. Alas the weather turned nasty and we had a few apologies. There was a plus in the fact that Derek had planned to attend another group on networking but due to the weather it had been cancelled!
In the end we were down to 7, but 7 is a lucky number.
Desmond and I shared mobile phone numbers and after 2 talks on the phone he agreed to set off. During the protracted waiting period my phone ran out of air time, but Derek was on the qui vive and answered Desmond once. He finally arrived at 4 pm and we were at the meeting by 4.15.
He kicked off with an introduction and then went for Pitivi, Flphoto, Gimp, Scribus, get i-player and then a Jacqui-Lawrence Advent Calendar! We overshot by 20 minutes so he had a full hour!
Fortunately the Woodlands Centre staff had gone home so we were ok. After a round of applause and a request for Desmond to come back again they let him go.
He stayed with us at home until he left ater lunch on Friday. I learned so much that my head is filled with Linux of all shapes and sizes. Especially Mandriva and F-secure not to mention Clonezilla.
Well done Desmond, a man with determination and a mission!

Thanks Desmond from all the rustington lug members.

How to finance the new lug?

I heard that the Arun U3A needed a beginners tutor. Whilst I have no qualifications for such a task, I decided to try my luck with Brian Wise who is the "IT Captain" of the Arun U3A. He agreed to send me one victim and then another
I am teaching Eldy, which is a marvellous way of introducing someone to computing. Enrico Neri one of the Eldy team approves!
I charge £2 for a one hour session, and I had my first session today. I wait for my second victim to book an appointment So far so good.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PHYNMG5ddsI/TJkQra_vUOI/AAAAAAAAAfY/ywXG3_oyTJw/s1600/imag0002.jpg

RUSTINGTON LUG

I have tried once before to get local interest in Linux. We had one meeting and several friends attended, but alas the number was small and I gave up for a while.

Now with Winter approaching I determined to try again. I found a suitable hall for hire and advertised in the paper, in the library and on three local websites. One of the Surrey LUG members gave me advice and support.

I selected a hall that I knew had a pull-down screen and visited it with the lady responsible for hiring. She didn't even know that there was a screen available in the room. All went well until we discussed internet access. That brought the "manager" of the "meals on wheels" program into the picture. The organisation was the WRVS who had a lease of the building from the Sussex Conty Council. I was rather brusquely told that the person ale to give a ruling was on holiday for a fortnight. End of conversation. Next I was told that my car with trailer was dangerously parked outside. The lady responsible for the hiring came outside as I was leaving and apologised for the "manger's" behaviour! To enable internet access I bought a wifi modem which worked very well/
We had a first meeting and because of the sunlight and lack of curtains we could not decipher the image of the computer desktop! We soldiered on and hoped that people weren't too put off.
So in preparation for the next meeting we worked out a strategy! We would use a 40" TV as a monitor. A meeting was arranged by the WRVS "Worthing Manager" and I presented my case. Internet access was out and we discussed putting a TV on the wall. Next day, one day before the LUG meeting I was given a formal interdiction for bringing ANY TV into the hall. On the grounds that a license was needed. (exception "training" see TV license rules)
Fortunately I found a friendly Parish Council who had hall for hire, and who agreed to everything and so all was set up.

I had a problem telling the prospective attendees that the venue had been switched. Thanks to a friend who stood by the WRVS door half an hour before the advertised time of the meeting and did a noble job of redirecting.

The new room is fabulous and we go from strength to strength. Next week one of our group will give a presentation.

In spite of many spanners in the works, the RUSTINGTON LUG goes forward! This means that I don;t go to Horsham or Juniper Hill or even Guildford now. We have our own home brew LUG!

21st September

A picture from our visit to Clivedon, this is "The Fountain of Love" which was one of the first features that we came upon. Ursula is posing for me!

Back at home, and getting back to normality. Grass to be cut, apples to pick up, tomatoes to pick...all the usual garden chores.

An interesting e-mail from a friend who had been delighted with the Angmering web site. Had a look and found it good too. Our local one is very interesting and useful. Let's say the Angmering one is pretty professional. I left a message in the Angmering site guest book so we will see whether there will be a reply.

Horticultural Club Jolly to Chesterfield

Off for a 3 night stand to Chesterfield. Visited Clivedon en route. Our room overlooked a motorway. The noise was very bad at times. Opening the windows to get the tempersture down brought in the noise. There was an adjacent disco which ran through the night. We should have asked for a room change but were too polite to embarrass the tour organiser, who is a friend of ours.

The restaurant menu in the room was excellent, at table we had a different one, a typical charabanc special. Water for whisky appeared in pint tumblers. There was a resident idiot who declaimed in the bar. He liked to wear his hat all times.

There were many conference rooms, a ballroom even a swimming pool. But sadly the hotel wifi worked for windows OS but not for linux. Happily Chesterfield Station wifi is accessible from the hotel and worked well, so the day was saved.

The lift is probably 1920 vintage but does function quite satisfactorily.

Our room had a communicating door to the next one, on our last night we had what might have been a honeymoon couple in residence. There was a wedding reception at the hotel. We were somewhat embarrassed, it added to the motorway noise and the disco noise and sleep was in short supply.

Tuesday 24th 2010

Went to Lewes by train. At New Road saw the pliumber at work, also the electricians. Telephone conneition restored. Elecric point for router in gas cupboard, also router positioned there. All in working order. WiFi works ok. Came back by bus to Brighton, then walked to station just missing one train. Met by patient Ursula at EP and so hone for the happy hour abit later than expected. I am a fortunate man to be so well cared for!!

Wednesday 17th August

Pam in the cafe before lunch

A trip with Meditour to Christchurch had been planned. We hoped to meet up with Pam Radford, Christina's Godmother. A matinee at a local Theatre had been arranged, but alas there had been some vandalism and the show was re-organised to take place at the Ballard School New Milton. Helena had been staying with us and fortunately a spare seat was found for her on the coach. We met up with Pam, had coffee and a flying visit to the Abbey before lunch in the Boathouse restaurant, where I used their wifi!

The show was hilarious, Pam and I were in the front row and she was coaxed to dance with one of the cast right at the end of the show. Her blue eyes did it, she was the Belle of the Show!

David her son came and picked her up to take her home. It was a great day out and we arrived back at EP by 7 pm.

Saturday 14th August

I attended a very useful B&B for me at Juniper Hill. There were 2 talks which to be honest were a bit above my head, although if there had been a microphone it might have made it easier for me to hear. There was a good crowd of people there, at least another from the Sussex LUG. Alas no Fay, hope she is well!

To my delight Desmond Armstrong helped me with getting my new midget dvd/writer to work. He used it to install Fedora 13 on a 16Gb card for me. He also upgraded my Eeepc900 memory to 2Gb. He has offered to give a talk in East Preston for our club...might be a waste of his talents..but we will enquire!

Showed Eldy to 2 or 3 people, they were interested and slightly impressed.

At home there seemed to be a problem with the battery pack. I changed to the old original one and all is OK now. I moved the card onto Kate's old machine and Fedora 13 worked fine including the wifi!

I met some old friends and made some new ones. Home via the A29 by a navigational error. A27 as usual, full of traffic and came via Arundel. Took some petrol on the way home.

Monday 9th AugustD

Dustbin day, they never fail. Rain, shine, holidays they always do their stuff. Today was Bertie Day too, so we got rid of quite a lot!

Letter from Sarah, needed John's signature. He was not happy, waiting for the doctor and then frustrated as his pullover was in the wash. Put one on him, obtained the signature and left. The Martlets copied the document for me and I posted off the completed form. Picked up an Argus paper for Jennifer and ordered tomorrow's Argus for her too.

Dug 2 roots of the new potatoes, look fine, elongated style, see picture. Have forgotten the variety but it seems good.

Went on the 2 metre net and promised them a talk on Linux, Roy has recovered thankfully. Don i could hardly copy, Jim and Chris were on to. Peter Dodd's aerial still works fine.

8th August

We have tamed the summer fruiting raspberries and the Helen blackberry with the loganberries. They are all pruned, tied in and manured ready for hopefully a good crop next July/August.

It has been a bit of a job but with a bit of perserverance, bending, stretching, string and secateurs, we have at last finished. This is perhaps just one or two percent of the work to be done in the garden...!

Kate is with us, she arrived last night...in a celebratory mood as she had just signed up for a new house. Jennifer and Amy (from Hullavington) are still here. We shall mgo to Lewes at 11.45 for lunch and a visit to the refurbished house that was once Stephens. She is considering leasing it from Matthew if only it could be finished soon. There are some essential plumbing things to be done and time is running out.

Kate and Louise will visit Matthew next Tuesday and perhaps they will hammer out an agreement if Jennifer agrees to it all.

We shall be alone tonight as the wanderers return later on. Jennifer has her own car, a Nissan.

It hasn't been any trouble having 3 guests, but it will be back to normaity tonight!

Back at the Club!

Today I recieved a special parcel from Brian Cropp in Upper Hutt. He had made me a knife and holster for working in the garden sharpening sticks for supporting plants and so on. It is a remarkable creation, really beatiful with a Tasmanian blackwood wooden handle. I am really very pleased and delighted to receive it. He included a Pau shell and details of them and the firm that cleaned them up. Thanks Brian, I treasure your gift and appreciate all the craftmanship that went into its construction.

Here is a picture of me taken by Ursula in the garden, and another of the knife and holster!

29th July Home Sweet Home!

We left Hotel Interlaken yesterday and the manager gave us first a jar of honey, and then a lift to the station. Changed trains at Berne, a great bore, lugging suitcases down and up ramps, only just enough time for the connection. At Geneva airport the heavens opened, but we managed to find the lift and get checked in for assistance at 18.20. This gave us time to meet first Lyndon Evans and then Robert and Arline and then Lynda joined us. Had a good chat with Lyn, he retired two days ago. Has a viviting professorship at Imperial, a nuber of committees to look after, in fact just enough work to keep him happy. He is very proud that Linac 4 will be an H- injector. Also told of the nervous signing the FRS book with a quill pen, terrified of making a blot. Linda very charming, had been playing golf with Eileen Jones, Eiffyon's widow. One son in Marseiiles, sound specialist, one daughter working for the UN in Haiti. Lyn doesn't know aout Linux or Eldy, I told him!

They came with only one wheelchair and I took it. Ursula had to walk beside me. They took my half bottle of Dole but let me drink a glass before consigning it to the poubelle, (Thanks Bin-Laden). Seats kept for us on the plane.

At Gatwick two wheelchairs but only one man to push them. Nice chap, took us to the taxi. Home about 10 pm. Phoned Christina, e-mailed Nell. Garden is a desert!

I very much doubt that we will ever travel by air again.

Tuesday 27th July 2010

Our last day.Mercifully Diverticulus eased and we sallied forth to go to the Rothorn with the steam tran from Brienz. We had to wait an hour so had a coffee and a beer in the cafe and We shared a Wesh Rabbit cooked in a frying pan. It called something else in Swiss German but I now it now.

We went on the train up to 7.500 feet and it was very cold. We both had warm clothes but decided not to stay very long. The views were marvellous, and we were very pleased with our effort!

Back to Interlaken to buy a few bits from the coop and then tea in our room!

Still sore with the dreaded Diverticulitis but much relieved!!

26th July

A very nice e-mai from Amy! A lazy day after yesterday's marathon. Posted cards, paid most of hotel bill. Diverticulus not letting up, carrying on as if normal. Rain tonight, tomorrow is our last full day. The manager chatted us up, he appeared a few days ago and was pleasant to us.

On dir rien a dir et meme rien a ecrire, ceci le manager a dit a nous!

Sunday 25th July

We might have gone to Church at11.15 but decided to follow the advice of one of the girls at the reception desk. Bus to Iselwalt where we founf a fair in progress and some nice hotels. One such had rognons au riz! I just put it into memory. Then we had coffee and a look round at the Hotel Bellvue Iseltwald. It looks very nice.

It was rather a long walk, no walking oots and no sticks alas! Had lnch on a bench with a Swiss family and on to Giessach. Up in a tram to the top and then a long walk to the bus stop where the bus had alresady left. So all the wsay down again and then the boat back to Interlaken.

Happy hour, small supper and that was today.

Spoke to Brian and Jim from the hotel in Iselwalt, rian in NZ Jim in California and then a quick hallo to Amy in the bug hutch.

Diverticulitis worrying me today, hope it passes off in the night.

Kovely to have sunshineaagain after the two wet days

Saturday 24th at Hotel Interlaken

Sad news of the Glacier Express train crash. We have been on it years ago but not yesterday. My cousin David James has a birthday today. Facebook reminded me so we exchanged messages. A nasty day, but we don't mind too much. Must get our pictures from the shop today.

Will add to this if something interesting turns up.

Looking at this on the room TV using a cable supplied by the hotel technician!

Friday

Wet weather, many people have left the hotel so breakfast less congested. We went y bus to Interlaken West and took Ursula's film to be developed and printed. I took some from my camera too They will be done for tomorrow, we must be there before 4 pm as the shop shuts. We had a snack and coffee in Untersee
In the afternoon Ursula bought new shoes at the Coop.

Thursday 22nd July

Not quite sure what to do today! So took the train to Brientz and then went on the bus to Ballenberg. A crowded bus with standing room only. At Ballenberg we rode in a horse drawn cart, so saved our legs. We are becoming very lazy!!

We alighted from the cart, had our snack and then found ourselves at the other entrance, close to the chocolate factory where we saw chocolate being stirred. Had a coffee and caught the 3 pm bus back to Brienze. Did a bit of coop shopping and then walked back to the hotel. Mum's shoes are foutu so she will have to buy another pair tomorrow.

Now enjoying tea and some of Arline's lemon cake.

The picture is of the altar in a little roadside chapel moved to Ballenberg many years ago. Tried to skype home but no one there, will try again tonight! Later had e-mails explaining things. Skyped Amy and had a little chat.

Wednesday 21st

Another lazy day. walked to town, visited Migros. Sold an old gold filling for 42 Fr.S and came back by bus Then we had a violent storm and a leisurely supper. The photo is of the Castle garden and house nearby.

Tuesday

Had breakfast a bit late. All india and Arabia came down at the same time. A bit like a "dress" show. A Fin whose motor bike and side car we admired remarked that these arab are ordinary people, not the richest. Quite an interesting comment.

We went by train to Lucerne, made friends with a German couple from Essen who have a son in Interlaken Hospital, he may be a max fax also. Another one in Geneva. We forgot the war and I gave him a piece of my apple.

We walked on "The Bridge", picnicked by the lake and then went to see the Ramparts and the the Lion Memorial. I saw it once before and also in a dream. Read a bit from Google 600 Swiss mercenaries were slaughtered by the French Revolutionaries. Also 200 died in prison. One or two made it back to tell the tale. Dreadful story....


Back at 7 pm and now going for supper!

Sunday 18th July

Weather better again after the rain, Just had breakfast and tried for Saturday's Telegraph which was promised for today but will come tomorrow we are now told.

Here is a picture of Ursula with Robert and Arline at the chateau that we visited after lunch at Marianne's flat.

After we returned we went out for a snack rather than face supper and drank tap water!! It was a big mistake.

Still trying to decide what to do today. We are spoilt for choice!

We rested in the garden, and then walked to town, Had a a snack and the took the boat to Spiez. Visited the castle and the beautiful garden and then came back by train. We had to reorganise our tickets and pay extra for the trip from Interlaken West to Ost, but of course no ticket inspector appeared! Supper in the hotel and that's that.

Saturday 17th Hotel Interlaken

Getting ready to visit Marianne Simon. We will rendez-vous with Arline and Robert on the platform of the railway station at Gumligen at 11.33

Tried to buy tain tickets last night but the ticket office was shut. Was caught in a thunderstorm, but with a hotel umbrella and my anorak I was quite dry. New sandals on and no socks so all OK.

Had an enjoyable trip, a nice lunch and a visit to a chateau and back by 5 pm.

Interlaken

Continuing from the last blog, we had lunch at an Italian restaurant which had lots of seating outside, we preferred inside because of the heat. We sat close to the man making the pizzas. He said that he made 2 or 3 hundred a day. The waiters dashed past with plates of food and drink for the al fresco customers. Their shirts were damp with perspiration!

Afterwards back to the Suite Hotel where Ursula rested. I went to cern to meet up with Han. It was a difficult journey with change of bus and then going to the main entrance instead of the visitors entrance. I walked back 50 yards and then got in unofficially and had a telling off from the
security man.

Han fetched me and we did a little tour. Everyone seemed to be at a computer and all my old haunts just had that type of "work" going on. Linac 4 will be a monumental challenge, I am glad not to have to face it!

Han took me almost to the hotel where I was soundly chastised for being so late back. We went to town and after a walk about had supper at the Swiss Chalet. Strangly enough we had the Swiss equivalent of Welsh Rarebit.

Return to Geneva !

About 25 years ago I left Cern for the second time and entered my period of retirement.

Now on 13th July 2010 we returned for a few days to Geneva. Th easy jet plane was a bit late but we were met by Arline and Roert Simon and taken first to our hotel, the Suite, and then to supper at a restaurant just up the road. They insisted on paying the bill despite my futile attempts to settle it myself

It was very warm, ut tired as we were we enjoyed a reasonable night's sleep.!
Next morning , breakfast in our room and then off to town. We found our way to the Cathedral and enjoyed looking at the ruiins underground until we felt a bit lost and emerged having purchased a ook to understand a bit of what we had seen!

Next a visit to the Reformation wall in the Jardins des Bastion

Tuesday 23nd June

I have finally returned to Xandros on the main memory, but have now managed to configure other OPs on two 16Gb memory cards. One provides Fedora 12 with a dual boot including Xandros. The other memory card has Debian 5.

So the little Eeepc900 can now host 3 ops. Fedora has also been updated using Yum.

I intend to leave the Asus noteook alone for a while now!

My Eeepc900

I have been a bit unsatisfied with my notebook recently. So I bought a memory card with 16G to try and install another distro. I have gone back to Xandros for various reasons and wanted to get back to Ubuntu. I had two attempt to make it dual boot and both failed.

So I then installed Ubunto 9.10 and immediately upgraded it to 9.20. It seemed excellent and I noticed that the grub file picked up the new 16Gb memory card.

I was temped io install something else but decided to stay with a single boot and try things out on Ubuntu first.

Eldy works fine on XP, I had some problems with linux since it found the Italian version and not being fluent in Italian decided to abandon that for the moment. I have made a few friends on Eldy and chat to them when I can.

We had the Club open Day last Thursday and 2 ladies came from the Pulborough club. I demonstrated Eldy to them and they will take the message back to Jim Noble who is their teacher.

Ekiga still works fine on Fedora, I spoke with Brian the other day. Sadly he had been burgled and lost all his woodcarving tools!

I might have gone to the Surrey LUG BBQ tomorrow but could not find out where it is being held.

That is enough for now!

June 15th 2010

Much has happened since the last post election blog. We are now at Helena's house, really to see Jack our new great grandson for the first time. He is now 7 weeks old, a bonny boy. We also saw his mum, Susie, and her daughter, our great granddaughter Hollie.


Over the week end we had Anthony Long to stay, with his wife Julie and daughter Lizzie. She was "having a look"at Sussex University. She might read Chemistry.

I haven't had much luck in persuading people to use Ekiga. I had not been in touch with Brian in NZ for a while and when I did, I had very bad news. He had been burgled and all his woodwork tools had been taken.He had insurance so only the Insurance company will lose outy. But what a hassle! I am depressed to learn that such things could happen in such a Christian Country.

My sister remains cool after our trip to Dore, it seems difficult to get her to write or telephone except by prodding. She seems OK and she certainly gets out and about.

Christina is off with her friend Penny to Matthew in Budapest. We leave for interlaken and Geneva in July, so holiday time is nearly here.

I have spent hours in the garden and things are almost tamed. The soft fruit should be good.

It is very pleasant to rest here with Helena, it is so nice to do absolutely nothing at all apart from using the Eeepc900 and ordering sm memory so that I can put other linux distros on it apart from Xandros!

The Election Result

I really feel pleased to see the spin merchants leaving Downing Street at last. Probably they were only doing what was asked of them, but "Lord" Mandelson had been dropped twice from the Cabinet and was in my opinion (not worth much) brought back to steady the Labour rocking boat, which he did of course. Alistair was very unpleasant with the BBC and the incidents at that time reflect very badly on the Government.

The clock has been turned back 70 years and we now have an interesting coalition set up. It has started well with denial of airport extension which must be a godsend to those who live near them.

Again in my opinion a full inclusion of all parties in Government would be better still. As it is we have too many Scots, when they want to be independent of England what right have they to help govern us? I really have trouble understanding their thick accents and as for the Irish contingent who take the money and the office space and expenses but refuse to sit....well it beggars belief.

What with Health and Safety and the Data protection stuff we have been clobbered by New Europe thinking and spin. Heath must have been out of his mind to get us into Europe, Norway was much wiser. His house in Salisbury is nice and he had wonderful Lunch Parties with Royalty present. So he was a very good pianist, conductor and yachtsman. We have visited his old home as it was opened to public gaze.

Good bye to New Labour and especially to all those crook MP's. They really took us for a ride!

Perhaps the BBC will be reformed and the Today Program people who hang on long after they should be retired get the push they deserve!

To Hulavington and Serendipity

Left home at 9.50 went to Guilford and on to the M3, Rain all the way Came off the motorway near Wooton Basset and wrogly went to Wroughton. Managed to turn, retrace our steps and find a £5 a head linch at the Prince of Wales pub at Coped Hall nearby. Met a talkative couple qho told us about the heros and also wartime aces like Galland.

To Alisom's for coffee and biscuits and a rest until Kate came home. Met up with Kate and Jennifer. Phoned my sister and chatted a bit. Chis appeared and after a light collattion of in Kates VW to Box for a cncert at the Methodist Church. Very pleasant, back to Kate fort a goodnight drink and then back to Serendipity for a good night's rest.

Up at 8.30 to go for the paper and then breakfast. Then to Kates. Picked up David Long's latest blog from Chateau David, phoned Margaret and told her about it. To rthe concert in the evening, Ursula thought it was wonderful. Back to Kate for a goodnight drink and then ack to Alisons. This morning good breakfast,compimented Alison on her marmalade and was presented with a pot to take home. Church at Hullavington, met someone who was in Harare andsaw him later in th pub where we took Kate for lunch.

eft Kate ar 2 pm and home for 5 pm. Exhausted,,,,,!

Network Connection

For some time I have tried wireless connection to the network using whatever is on the computer or even an Asus usb "dongle". Some computers are fine some are not, some "disros" are fine and some are not. It depends on the kernel, on the device and on the patience that you can afford to display.

Tony Martin at our club told me about the mains wiring connection, and it is superb. I bought 2 devices from DLink and they are simply wonderful. Furthermore they run at 100Gb instead of 50 or so. Until something else comes along I will use them unless the wireless connection on the computer that I am using comes on immediately.

I have sent hours on many ditros trying out wireless and frankly it is a waste of time unless you learn something from enjoying yourself on the terminal or console.

If I had enough knowledge about unix and linux I could probably achieve everything. But the learning curve is long for many things, although very short for most. So I have spent all the time that I want on wireless connecting for the moment.

Saturday 6th February

A confession

I am told by my wife that I don't listen hard enough to give a good sensible answer to a question. She also tells me that I need a deaf aid! Well I gon't agree with her.

Recently I have become interested in ip cameras. In fact I bought one, made it work and then took it to my son as a Christmas present. It needed a local network and as he hadn't one I took a surplus sky router and used it off line to provide the network. It worked ok but we were unable to incorporate it in a system there.

Subsquently I had a tip from the LUG and found cheaper version. By a slip of the fingers I ordered 2 not 1. So having made it function I asked my grandson to try it out and produce an instruction sheet in English instead of Taiwnese. So far he cannot make it work wirelessly.

I din't find it easy, but made it work, took it to the club last Thursday and teased the members with it. Alas when I took it home I had some problems getting it going again! It works now, but I am convinced that my IT skills are equivalent to those of a monkey. If a monkey has enough time he will suceed in playing The Blue Danube, just by bashing away at the piano keys. So it seems to me that often I have some know how but miss a few important steps.

The same goes for Apache2, it is fine on Linux but a pain on Macintosh!

The learning curve gets steeper with age I fear!

Thusday 14th January!

Happy birthday to my eldest daughter Christina in Peterorough! She is taking the day off to celebrate the day. Ihope that our card arrved in time.

At the East Preston computer club today, simply ecause the thaw has started and it was easy to walk here. Paul is giving a talk on Excel, a data base program. I am at the back of the hall and cannot read what appeas on the screen.

I am running "Mint" on my eeepc900 as Uuntu 9.10 began to suffer I think from a virus! It manifested itself on the wireless connection, the applet began playing up. After several days of research I put Mint on and it all seemed good.

I tried Mandriva and Fedora both were fine, fedora had abbi word which I am not fond of.