These, are the voyages of the starship Turby D.

[captainhaddock]

hahaha Thanks Eddie, just talked to a carpenter who was ready to throw the whole new lap top with Windows 8 into the river Like me! But some people don't seem to have our problems like Jim, I think there's something wrong with my system anyway. I'd heard about Ubuntu but in another meaning (http://www.ubuntu.ie/)

I wonder if I can download this free Ubuntu?? my laptop? Must investigate but I already have the possibility to get rid of 8 and have 7 installed back on this laptop.

I installed 8.1 as well and it took all evening ??? but never found out if it's actually working....never found a difference anyway. Did the 7 settings back on 8, but still not sure why if sometimes does not show up and other times it does....Well Christmas is almost over, back to the kitchen now

[CitroJim]

Jaap, Ubuntu is free and freely available from here. usually it is very easy and quick to install and you can even have it duel-boot with Windows...

8.1 just seems to make Windows 8 a bit smoother, updates a few Win8-specific apps and gives a kind of a substitute start button back. It's very grudging.

I work in IT and spend my days deep under the bonnets of Win 7, Vista and Windows server OSs and my primary aim with Win8 was to get familiar with it for my professional life. I struggled hard to use it initially and I needed a Microsoft Certified Professional to give me a quick introductory and steer me in the right direction. Says it all I think. If I struggle then the average Joe Public doesn't have a cat in hells' chance.

I also believe, rightly or wrongly, that it is the future and good or bad, we need to embrace it. Microsoft stuff has a habit of becoming the worlds' default so however much we dislike it, the might and force of Microsoft will see that it becomes what we all use.

All I can say is a month or so into Win8 and really trying hard to like it overall (some bits are excellent) it is still a pleasure to come back to Ubuntu or Win7. It's a bit like getting back into an XM after a few days away..

One thing I will say is that I've seen Win8.1 working on a tablet and there it makes much more sense and seems to work more intuitively. It is believed that Win8 was made for tablets and is only vaguely backwardly compatible with those quaint old PCs and laptops with keyboards and mice..

Jaap, sorry to have hijacked your blog with all this IT stuff...

[captainhaddock]

No no! It cheers me up and Liz even more and I don't care being a public Joe. I'm not an IT pro and I will never be so I judge things from the user's point of view on an old fashioned (new) laptop. I love simplicity in all forms of life so a computer must be logical to use for me without lots of extra knowledge to achieve what I intuitively learned myself on older systems.
I'll go and check the Ubuntu when I leave the Netherlands in the old, now small looking citroen. I'm loading up the boot with niceties that are cheaper here or not available in Ireland.

[CitroJim]

If you like simplicity Jaap then I think you'll find Ubuntu will suit you perfectly...

If the XM is seeming small I guess you have a lot to load into her

Have a lovely trip back to Ireland!

[Eddie nuff]

I'm gonna have a look at this Ubuntu in the new year, when I get 5 minutes to myself.

[russ92xmsed]

This Ubuntu software sounds very interesting....useless for me, but for others with PC's, very good to know.
Sorry Jim for abandoning you back there... We were talking about it on the 25th, but Christmas got in the way!

This is another reason why I prefer macs, is the simplicity of how everything works with out fuss and annoyance.
I can't believe windows has once again launched a duff operating system. I know nothing about IT, but the one thing I want is a computer that works as it should.
I was using my Dads PC yesterday, no word of a lie, it took 5 minutes to load the Internet. It's due for the bin.

[Dieselman]

I was using my Dads PC yesterday, no word of a lie, it took 5 minutes to load the Internet. It's due for the bin.

It must either be very short of Ram or probably has some malware using all the system resources.

Perform a scan with Spybot, then delete unused files and defrag the hard drive and it will probably run a lot better.

[russ92xmsed]

Will, it is eons old and is so out of date, it's simply not worth it. Your quite right, it is probably riddled with everything and can't cope with norton scanning all the time.
NA!...Time for a new computer entirely with that one.

[captainhaddock]

The RAC wouldn't have been that good this morning....oh yeahh....it had to happen. Of course. Turby broke a little, broke just a little like ~ down....well after all it is a citroen and not least an XM

The drivers side window wouldn't go up BEFORE we even reached the customs in Hull. Of course the weather was very bad. Like Beaufort 8 and raining...The Customs had let us wait for what seemed to me, to be the good part of an hour, so not happy.

We shouldn't have been in Hull.

But due to the fire on the DFDS ferry, we were redirected back to Rotterdam from which direction we just came because DFDS had not reached us on our mobile.
They hadn't figured out that you need to dial the Irish country code in order to reach me on my mobile in the Netherlands????????????
Funny aspect of this all was, that we were interviewed by (what we didn't know at first) the Dutch news. So we were on the Dutch 20.00 national news being grumpy and got loads of txts of people who had recognized us I've seen it now, we're home after 2740 miles... The news people filmed us sitting in the XM so maybe that's good

Anyway, we spent the good bit of an hour in cold and rainy and very windy conditions, taking out the apparently broken window motor and prop up the window properly with a wooden wheel block (from a 2cv no less). This way we got to Cairnryan close to Stranrear in Scotland. Just in time to see 'our' boat at sea
The next good few hours we spent in the car dozing off and reading this book I never got round to..all by ourselves. Captain H. was so tyred from his night on the P&O ferry, he refused to go out of the car since he had involuntarily spent the night in a kennel with loads of other noisy dogs.



We upgraded ourselves in the stena plus lounge, where I typed this but at sea it lost connections. Home now, after 3.5 hours or so from Belfast, pissing rain here, what's new?

Oh by the way I picked up this old trailer (1969) but Turby doesn't seem to notice that thing at all, even with the bad weather today. It'll be a good run around for at home. Got it basically for free so happy days once again.

[CitroJim]

Pleased you're all safely home Jaap but what an 'adventure'

So, you're now famous with your TV appearance!