This is Llyn Y Cwn (SH 637 584) taken yesterday. You can just about see Moel Eilio on the horizon (centre).
I had a fabulous day on the Glyerau, starting with the North Ridge of Tryfan (including North Tower), onto Dexter Gully (I kid you not!) on Bristly Ridge, Castell Y Gwynt (just for a little exercise), and bagged Y Garn just to finish off. The weather was glorious and I am always happiest when I'm in the Ogwen Valley.
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Canonical releases 13.04LTS (Raring Ringtail) on 25th April 2013. Joey-Elijah Sneddon (of OMG! Ubuntu!) gives a nice summary of what we can expect from the latest release.
I'll try it on the 6400 to see if Canonical has fixed the virtual file system issues and then think about upgrading my desktop and file server. However, there's no urgency, support for 12.04 runs until April 2017.
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I'm in the process of refurbishing a spare pc for my new workshop. It's only going to be used for driver downloads, Google, and lightweight stuff such as email which is just as well: this puppy is ancient.
But, and here's the thing, it already runs Ubuntu 12.04 without breaking a sweat!
The Motherboard is an ASrock P4i65G so replacing the 40GB IDE hard drive is no problem because the board supports SATA. So, I've chosen the cheapest hard drive I could find: a 160GB generic device from Amazon for the paltry sum of £23.99 with free shipping.
I'm also upgrading the RAM from it's current 512MB (yes, you did read that right! Two un-matched 128MB sticks that can only be working as SIMM) to the maximum allowed on the board, 2GB DIMM. Again, nothing fancy and as cheap as chips: 2 x 1GB generic memory sticks by Komputerbay (whoever they are).
I needed a SATA cable (obviously!) and a Molex/SATA power adapter: all told, the total was less than £60.00.
Refit time is around fifteen minutes and installing Ubuntu will take an hour or so with update - that's pretty sweet.
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I love my little appartment, but I've been thinking for a while now that I need to add a wireless access point to my network in order to improve WiFi reception in my lounge. After all, I don't want to be sat in my home office all the time!
However, whilst reading December's back issue of Maximum PC magazine, I was reminded the there are cheaper options to try before getting out your credit card. Ok, so it's no huge revelation that you can change your WiFi channel, but sometimes the obvious just passes you by: inSSIDer is a utility designed for Windows (and Mac1) but you can also download it for Android from Google Play.
So, I downloaded it to my Samsung Galaxy Advance, sat in my lounge and looked for the best channel to use. The performance improvement was substantial, so I may spend more time on my couch from now on!
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For both personal and professional reasons I've been reacquainting myself with the various Windows operating systems recently and I chose Mike Meyers' tome for no other reason than it offered broad coverage of XP, Vista, and 7. However, this book proved to be far more than a Windows instruction manual and it has become one of the few books that, when I finished it, I immediately started re-reading!
I have previously been guilty of complaining that computer books are over-priced but this is clearly an exception. With a rrp of £40.99, each page (excluding Appendices & index) costs just 2.8 pence. Given the information density, illustration quality, and the fact that you are unlikely to pay the list price, this represents superb value for money.
Myers keeps the language accessible and eschews the gratuitous use of intensifiers that can make reading (and understanding) technical literature such a chore. This makes this an enjoyable (yes, enjoyable) read! Criticism is limited to Myers occasionally forgetting that the world stretches beyond the borders of the USA and a little too much advertising for his Company. Nonetheless, even if you have no intention of taking the CompTIA A+ exams, this an outstanding introduction to computing for aspiring techs or enthusiastic amateurs alike and I have no hesitation in rating it a five star publication.
This news is a few days old but I thought it worth mentioning. Canonical has announced that the non-LTS (Long Term Support) release cycle is being reduced from eighteen to nine months. The primary reason seems to be the resource load for supporting non-LTS releases.
The changes start from 13.04 (scheduled for April 25 2013): LTS releases will be supported for five years.
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So happy am I that I've integrated my Twitter feed into my new website, I've decided to add the widget to my blog!
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