By James Westwood
Thanks for dropping by my blog.
Here you’ll find a host of different articles/blogs on subjects in which I am interested. The articles are written out of personal interest and passion and are therefore crammed with personal opinion on what may be sensitive subjects (such as religion and politics).
While I hope that you’ll find that the articles are informative and entertaining to read, please do be aware that I have not moderated or dumbed down my comments on these subjects, so some people may be offended.
If you are likely to be offended by comment on such matters, do not read on. Otherwise, welcome to my blog.
By James Westwood
Intro
HowTo’s are not really my thing on this blog – I am just doing this to help my brother out because he’s just bought a new computer and has grown to despise Windows. He already has Windows installed and needs to install Ubuntu, however he doesn’t have a CD/DVD burner. I am pretty familiar with the methods detailed here showing how to install Ubuntu from a USB disk but I couldn’t find a complete tutorial on one page. – so I made this one.
I have compiled this tutorial from multiple sources in the hope that I can make a complete tutorial on how to install Ubuntu linux from a USB disk from within Windows.
This tutorial is pitched towards the Linux beginner -written with my brother in mind – so anyone can do it.
Read the rest of this article »
By James Westwood
Now I am aware that there are online Windows-Linux wars going on, all over the internet, but I just wanted to provide what I think is a balanced view of things based on my experience with both operating systems. I am admitedly a Linux advocate, but I also highly regard any system that “just works”.
Recently I bought an EeePC which I was very satisfied with. It is one of the most fit-for-the-job pieces of computing hardware I have ever used. I commend Asus on their product development. It’s cool looking, light, the battery lasts for ages and it’s powerful enough to be useful for the vast majority of things I want to do on a computer (emailing, blogging, browsing and light image editing).
A friend told me he had bought his EeePC a while back in the UK and was satisfied with it. His machine came with Linux pre-installed, which I believe he found userfriendly enough. So, being a user of Ubuntu already, I went shopping for a Linux loaded EeePC machine. Unfortunately, my efforts were to no avail because here in Malaysia (according to the computer vendors) Linux installed EeePC machines are not available. If I wanted my machine of choice I would have to go with XP. I was a little annoyed that I would have to pay the “Windows tax”, but that was just the way it was.
Upon returning home, I immediately set out to install a net-book specific Linux OS. I read good reviews about EasyPeasy and Eeebuntu. Since it seemed that EasyPeasy was more generally for netbooks of all brands, I went with Eeebuntu. I was all set to write to Asus demanding a refund for a piece of software that was useless to me and that I would not have bought given the choice. After I installed Eeebuntu however, the initial pleasure I gained from seeing such a nicely laid out desktop display was immediately dashed by the fact that the wireless networking wasn’t working.
Wireless networking has been the number one problem I have run into with Ubuntu. It’s a dibiltating problem because if your network isn’t working (and you don’t have another PC) you can’t search for a solution and download fixes. Here again in Eeebuntu, networking was proving a major problem right from the off as even the ethernet wasn’t able to connect. A little Googling on my other computer found a kernal update that fixed the problem.
At this point the Linux advocates will no doubt pipe up with “it’s not the Linux developers’ fault, it’s the hardware manufacturers not supporting open source” and other such arguments that are banded about. No doubt these are all true – it stands to reason that manufacturers distributing open source and OS independant drivers for their hardware would fix the problem. We know that’s the problem, but at the end of the day I believe we have to be more user-experience focued. In this situation the end user is there with a system that just doesn’t work.
Without some degree of technical expertise and understanding of Linux, the user can’t fix the system and would just move on to another product. The kernel update I applied didn’t fix the problem entirely. To this day, if my wi-fi signal is below about 65% the connection is lost – so throughout most of my house my EeePC is unuseable on Linux. So in my case, even with a degree of technical knowledge, I have just moved back to using XP.
There are many things I prefer about Eeebuntu over Windows XP. For a start its slick looking interface, optionally loaded with what they call a Netbook Launcher (NBL). The NBL fits nicely on the EeePC screen and it’s icons are suitably sized. When programs are open they are represented by on the panel (task bar) by a small button containing the icon of the program, so as not to take up too much space. I love the preloaded programs and additional security features such as stong encryption.
So, despite my strong preference for the Eeebuntu layout, for I am forced to use Windows XP with its inferior interface. To me it feels old (well it is), the icons and menus are much too big for the little EeePC screen, it has too many annoying notifications. In short, it’s a one size fits all solution that doesn’t fit very well on this little netbook. To make matters worse, my installation of XP, which is only about a month old has a bunch of other problems including:
* it often doesn’t shut down after being told to (causing me to need hit the power button)
* the network manager crashes, especially after the machine being hibernated
* it has already been infected by viruses (despite having anti-virus and firewall)
* it runs very slowly at times (probably because of virus scans)
Despite all of these problems and the security risks from using XP, it is a system that just about holds together enough to be useable and for most people that means they’ll never look for another solution.
In my experience, most of my friends and family use computers on the background of almost zero knowledge of how they work, and that is fine. I mean not understanding the internal combustion engine never stopped you getting from A to B in the car right? For these people, and I suspect the vast majority of computer users on the planet, a just good enough system is all they need to keep them from looking elsewhere.
For people who have a deeper understanding of any particular subject their perspective makes it is very hard to understand why other people just don’t get what they do. The Linux community is made up of people like this is seems. To them it is extremely hard to get the reasons why a problem which can be fixed by issuing a simple bash command would stop someone in their tracks. However, until Linux starts to “just work” and more useable from a complete novice’s perspective, then it can’t become widely popular.
By James Westwood
After looking around the internet for a while for a good place to put my articles I think I have found a great place to do it. Yes, there are loads of websites that will pay you for written or other content, but it’s hard to find the right one that pays out fairly. Now I think I have found one.
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By James Westwood
Sheer brilliance! That’s what I think about my latest discovery: OpenCourseWare (OCW).
OCW is an innovation in education which follows the same principles of opensource software. Read the rest of this article »
By James Westwood
The Island of Bali in Indonesia is a place that I fell in love with but on recent visit to the island I was shocked to see the extent of the pollution on the beaches. All the while, locals and holiday makers alike were apparently doing nothing about it apart from planning to get out of Bali – I saw several adverts advertising trips to islands with “unpolluted beaches”. Typical I thought, rather than solving anything, people will always just put up with it until it becomes unbearable then run away from it.
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By James Westwood
Personally, I hate the clutter, noise and distractions of services like Facebook, though one of the best things about it is that it reminds you of people’s birthdays. Everybody who knows me knows I am terrible at remembering birthdays – even my own sometimes. And yet, I know it’s so important to other people. So I just had to do something about it.
I looked around the net for something to help me out and found a really cool free service. It’s called Remember Your Friends. All it does is simply send you a reminder to contact your friends and family or remember their birthday. With friends all over the world, that’s just what I need, a simple reminder service to get in contact and find out what the people you care about are up to.
The service has been running for a number of years and I hope it continues to run for a good while longer!
By James Westwood
I just changed my theme. I like it a lot, though I still have a few modifications to make. Just put the monkey picture there as a header image.
Thanks to web-kreation.com for this cool theme.
I found web-kreation through this blog listing 100 cool wordpress themes.
If you’re wondering where my previous theme came from, that cool little number was from thecirclingsky.com. His site has a number of other cool designs.
By James Westwood
Green issues are increasingly becoming part of the public consciousness – especially in the west. In the news, there are usually several stories covering this vast issue every day.
Whilst running my own company an overwhelming realisation came to me that it is down to us, as business people, to be pushing changes to save our world. While I believe that charities, NGOs, government policy and green activists all have their part to play, it is entrepreneurial innovation, business and investment that will play a chief role in greening our economy and ultimately saving our world.
Within this blog I have written a number of articles about green issues. Now I am setting out to extend those efforts, increase my understanding and involvement in the green sector with the creation of bambooleaf.org, a website focused on green business in Asia.
In line with my philiosophy that says: a green project can only be sustainable if it sustains the interest of the people involved – bambooleaf.org will focus on people making money from green projects.
Making money is a time-honoured factor that has kept people working hard for projects over the millenia and there’s no change the rules now. As we are turn another corner in human history and move into an era of green business and sustainability, money-making is still the best way to engage people.
Read more about this subject at bambooleaf.org.
By James Westwood
Software in China
Most westerners don’t realise this, but the Chinese have a software alternative for pretty much everything we use. Instead of the ubiquitous MS Office, they have King Soft (WPS) Office (although the biggest competition for Microsoft is no doubt the Chinese pirate software companies). Do Chinese use Norton Anti-virus? Nope. There is ample protection from the popular Rui Xin apparently. MSN? AIM? Again, no! China has QQ messenger.
