System Requirements
Week from Monday 24th March 2025 - Blimey! it's FRIDAY already! This week's "COMPOSER OF THE WEEK" on Radio Three is THE greatest - GUSTAV MAHLER. But given that the 'show' goes out at a very inconvenient time these days (four in the afternoon, instead of the once traditional midday), I have chosen to bookmark all five episodes on the BBC SOUNDS app on my pad so that I can 'BINGE' listen to the entire week in one sitting. There were quite a few HISTORICAL INSIGHTS that I previously didn't know about and their choices of MUSICAL EXCERPTS were, without exception, top-notch headphone-filling delights from start to finish! In my books that's a jolly nice way to while away FIVE WHOLE HOURS on a Friday afternoon...
A couple of MUSIC PROJECTS of my own this week... I finished compiling VOLUME 165(!) of my Various Artists (but mostly KCrimson-related) "HOT TICKLES" series of seedydisks... As well as the most recent half-dozen "STORMY'S MONDAY SELECTIONS", there's a few soundchecks from the BEAT tour, a handful of official STICK MEN bootlegs and some 'leftovers' from the recent 7Dmedia/Bandcamp FREE DOWNLOAD.
...and I finally committed to CD that bootleg of THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION jamming with "RAHSAAN" ROLAND KIRK in 1969. The audio quality is a little variable, but the music shines through nevertheless. Towards the end of the fifty-odd minutes, the music succumbs to some extreme "WOW & FLUTTER" issues, that gurgly "Frequency Wobble" effect that befell many a cheap cassette back in the day, probably because the original (smuggled-in) recording device's batteries were gradually running down! But it's pretty good stuff underneath it all. It is ZAPPA, after all!
Week from Monday 31st March 2025 - Now's the time to install a new LINUX distro on my LAPTOP! The LTS (Long Term Support) on my current LINUX MINT 20.3 "UNA" runs out this month, so I'm downloading a few alternatives to try out before I do a completely fresh install. I wasn't at all keen on the latest version of the Xfce LINUX LITE (which has been a favourite in the past). The MATÉ flavour of UBUNTU is quite nice, but that's also approaching the end of its life. I also considered going for the Xfce version of LINUX MINT.
But in the end, once I'd established that I still fall within its "SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS", I stuck with what I knew and installed a more up-to-date MATÉ version of LINUX MINT, namely "WILMA", which is supposed to last until 2029. I'm now all set up for a couple of days of intensive 'PUTTING THINGS BACK THE WAY I LIKE THEM'. Luckily, I have a list...
It's fairly BRAINBUSY work which is best done in relative SILENCE. But some tasks for which I set aside a whole morning (like setting up the PRINTER and the SCANNER) turned out to be really simple and quick, thanks to the set of instructions that I left myself the last time I had to do it.
Other things turned out to be not so easy.
Along with most other things, I installed the current version of AUDACITY via the Mint and Ubuntu repositories. It's an application that I use almost daily, so a vital feature of my laptop. But I couldn't get along with the new one. It was really UNSTABLE on the new operating system and refused to do some of the things I ask of it on a regular basis, without CRASHING. Also AUDACITY's workspace/interface has had an (unnecessary) update, so I found it more difficult do things from an ERGONOMIC standpoint. I clearly had to find a way to run an OLDER and more STABLE version such as I was used to. I had no success running earlier Linux versions from "AppImage" files, so I eventually installed an older WINDOZE version to run via WINE and it does so rather well (touch wood... or rather silicon...) once I'd figured out where things were actually located, within VIRTUAL folders or locked away inside HIDDEN ones.
I then spent ANOTHER afternoon organising my FONTS. First of all, I couldn't get Linux's own FONT-MANAGER to run, so I tried some of the alternatives like FONTMATRIX and FONT-BASE. They either didn't work at all, or I didn't like using them when they did. Then I remembered from previous years' installations that FONT-MANAGER itself runs only if you launch it from the command line TERMINAL instead of via the graphical interface. Clicking on its menu icon does bugger-all! EUREKA! I was thus able to browse through the seven-hundred-and-fifty different TTFs stored on my hard-drives, installing the useful typefaces and deleting the useless ones (I don't think I'll ever find myself needing any of those numerous Gujarati, Georgian, Thai or other exotic oriental scripts!).
But I think I'm NEARLY THERE now, just needs one or two tweaks to the machine's new colour scheme... It was sort of important that I do all this BEFORE the weekend, as I'm booked in for my Spring(?) COVID JAB on Saturday. So I fully expect to be sick as the proverbial PAH-REEEET on Sunday and certainly incapable of any further intensive BRAINWORK!
Tired and achy, approximately 6 hours after jabbing; Sore arm around jab site; Loss of appetite; Drifted off to sleep in middle of film, approximately 20:00; Woke in night, shivery and with a twitchy face; Woke again in night, wretching but no vomit; Blood pressure down as low as 108/73, temperature up as high as 100°F; Hot and sweaty; Chemical odour in pee, sweat and snot; Hurty hands and feet, very stiff; Lots of sleeping; Lots of peeing; Fully awake at around 15:00 on Sunday.
A couple of MUSIC PROJECTS of my own this week... I finished compiling VOLUME 165(!) of my Various Artists (but mostly KCrimson-related) "HOT TICKLES" series of seedydisks... As well as the most recent half-dozen "STORMY'S MONDAY SELECTIONS", there's a few soundchecks from the BEAT tour, a handful of official STICK MEN bootlegs and some 'leftovers' from the recent 7Dmedia/Bandcamp FREE DOWNLOAD.
...and I finally committed to CD that bootleg of THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION jamming with "RAHSAAN" ROLAND KIRK in 1969. The audio quality is a little variable, but the music shines through nevertheless. Towards the end of the fifty-odd minutes, the music succumbs to some extreme "WOW & FLUTTER" issues, that gurgly "Frequency Wobble" effect that befell many a cheap cassette back in the day, probably because the original (smuggled-in) recording device's batteries were gradually running down! But it's pretty good stuff underneath it all. It is ZAPPA, after all!
Week from Monday 31st March 2025 - Now's the time to install a new LINUX distro on my LAPTOP! The LTS (Long Term Support) on my current LINUX MINT 20.3 "UNA" runs out this month, so I'm downloading a few alternatives to try out before I do a completely fresh install. I wasn't at all keen on the latest version of the Xfce LINUX LITE (which has been a favourite in the past). The MATÉ flavour of UBUNTU is quite nice, but that's also approaching the end of its life. I also considered going for the Xfce version of LINUX MINT.
But in the end, once I'd established that I still fall within its "SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS", I stuck with what I knew and installed a more up-to-date MATÉ version of LINUX MINT, namely "WILMA", which is supposed to last until 2029. I'm now all set up for a couple of days of intensive 'PUTTING THINGS BACK THE WAY I LIKE THEM'. Luckily, I have a list...
It's fairly BRAINBUSY work which is best done in relative SILENCE. But some tasks for which I set aside a whole morning (like setting up the PRINTER and the SCANNER) turned out to be really simple and quick, thanks to the set of instructions that I left myself the last time I had to do it.
Other things turned out to be not so easy.
Along with most other things, I installed the current version of AUDACITY via the Mint and Ubuntu repositories. It's an application that I use almost daily, so a vital feature of my laptop. But I couldn't get along with the new one. It was really UNSTABLE on the new operating system and refused to do some of the things I ask of it on a regular basis, without CRASHING. Also AUDACITY's workspace/interface has had an (unnecessary) update, so I found it more difficult do things from an ERGONOMIC standpoint. I clearly had to find a way to run an OLDER and more STABLE version such as I was used to. I had no success running earlier Linux versions from "AppImage" files, so I eventually installed an older WINDOZE version to run via WINE and it does so rather well (touch wood... or rather silicon...) once I'd figured out where things were actually located, within VIRTUAL folders or locked away inside HIDDEN ones.
I then spent ANOTHER afternoon organising my FONTS. First of all, I couldn't get Linux's own FONT-MANAGER to run, so I tried some of the alternatives like FONTMATRIX and FONT-BASE. They either didn't work at all, or I didn't like using them when they did. Then I remembered from previous years' installations that FONT-MANAGER itself runs only if you launch it from the command line TERMINAL instead of via the graphical interface. Clicking on its menu icon does bugger-all! EUREKA! I was thus able to browse through the seven-hundred-and-fifty different TTFs stored on my hard-drives, installing the useful typefaces and deleting the useless ones (I don't think I'll ever find myself needing any of those numerous Gujarati, Georgian, Thai or other exotic oriental scripts!).
But I think I'm NEARLY THERE now, just needs one or two tweaks to the machine's new colour scheme... It was sort of important that I do all this BEFORE the weekend, as I'm booked in for my Spring(?) COVID JAB on Saturday. So I fully expect to be sick as the proverbial PAH-REEEET on Sunday and certainly incapable of any further intensive BRAINWORK!
Tired and achy, approximately 6 hours after jabbing; Sore arm around jab site; Loss of appetite; Drifted off to sleep in middle of film, approximately 20:00; Woke in night, shivery and with a twitchy face; Woke again in night, wretching but no vomit; Blood pressure down as low as 108/73, temperature up as high as 100°F; Hot and sweaty; Chemical odour in pee, sweat and snot; Hurty hands and feet, very stiff; Lots of sleeping; Lots of peeing; Fully awake at around 15:00 on Sunday.
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