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.

At Cern again, this time on the PS booster accelerator!

I met Georgio Brianti again, he was my new Group Leader, he was welcoming to me. There were still many old friends around, but a slightly different atmosphere from the one that existed in the early days. The technique seemed to be to surround oneself with a protective ring of loyal advisers and hold the ring! Gearge's first task was to eliminate someone who did not fit in, not a good beginning but quite on a par with all the scheming that was going on to preserve the status quo
and the safety of the jobs of people in positions of authority.

to be continued

Anniversary Day!

We made it! 60 years of happily married life together. A wonderfull card from the Queen with a nice photo of her and a greetings text. We skyped to Helena and spoke to her and Christina and showed them the card over the video camera. We are quite overcome with flowers and cards and have been made aware of our friends and family's concern.

I would have enjoyed it much more if I had been fit. Kate and Chris visited us and daughter Christina came to us in the evening. As I had been up since 2.30 am I went to bed in the radio room at about 11 pm. To my great surprise I slept till 8 am. The first night's good sleep for a week.

Slowly but slowly,I am miraculously being retored to health. Someone must have been praying for me!

I spoke to David Long for a while and had his congratulations.

On the 31st.with Christina here we tried the cake that Helena had baked for us. It tasted as good as it looked, here is a photo.