Pootering
Week from Monday 24th August 2026 - There's been some more improvements to FIREFOX's anti-AI features, arriving on version 154. Not only can you disable any of the Fox's own robots from doing anything on YOUR browser, you can now stop yourself from embedding any of the BIG ONES from OpenAI, G***le, Anthropic, M!©r0$ofT etc. etc.
I'm skipping through this week's episode of Radio 3's "KEY CHANGES" (again), as it is entirely dedicated to the subject of VIENNESE WALTZES (ZzZzZzZz in 3:4)... This week, I otherwise need to spend some of my "MONDAY DOING MONDAY STUFF" time catching up with a couple of WHODUNNITS, which I couldn't fit into my usual SUNDAY session. You guessed it! because I was watching the CYCLING and doing some PROMing instead! "MONDAY STILL DOING SUNDAY STUFF"!
LA VUELTA hasn't been particularly exciting so far. In fact, the only remarkable thing that's happened was the cancelling of an entire day's racing due to freak weather. Everybody got caught in a HAIL STORM going into the Pyrenees! Brrrr! what a scorcher! Other than that, it's already clear that there's going to be another umpteen episodes of "THE POGGY SHOW". I've long maintained that the only way that Tadej Pogačar WON'T win any race he's competing in is if he has a crash.
He has a crash.
Following my experimentation with AV-LINUX, I treated(?) myself to the latest LINUX MAGAZINE, which is full of articles about stuff that I'm never going to encounter in real life... but it does come with a DVD containing 'live' versions of two more new DISTROS, namely the 'Cinnamon' version of LINUX MINT 22.3, and an Arch-based one called CACHYos.
The reason behind all this experimentation is that I'm on "TRY BEFORE I BUY" duty, as I plan to treat myself to a new laptop before the year is out. Possibly the first thing I'll do when I get it (rather as I did when I got my current Lenovo beast about thirteen years ago) is to replace the WINDOZE operating system which will no doubt come pre-installed on it, with something that I OWN rather than lease from M!©r0$ofT. Back then it was the useless Windoze 8, now it's the equally objectionable Windoze 11 complete with all the horrors of CoPILOT AI. Everything I've read about it fills me with terror. But in the meantime, I AM exploring the theoretical possibilities of KEEPING the Windoze platform, but stripping it down to the basics, just so I can (re)install a few of the Windoze-reliant MUSICAL TOOLS that I enjoyed back in the day. Hopefully, I can come up with something that doesn't have to connect to M!©r0$ofT at all, but DUAL-BOOT with the LINUX of my choice, for just the FUN stuff!
Week from Monday 31st August 2026 - It's a BANG-COLLAR-DAY, but I'm just doing my regular "MONDAY DOING MONDAY STUFF" as usual. I'm also continuing with my ongoing 'getting-a-new-laptop' "RESEARCH" and doing some more PROMS. There was some fairly mediocre MAHLER and a show by the Dutch/Turkish combo ALTIN GÜN. Now as anyone will tell you, I do likes me some Anatolian folk-rock, but this was absolutely ruined by sickly-sweet radio orchestra embellishment under the baton of JULES BUCKLEY (him again!). It rather got on my nerves after a while, so I checked out the GÜN's own albums on That Bandcamp They Have Now. I was relieved to find that their music is rather fab in its 'raw' state, unencumbered by all that "Friday Night Is Music Night" treacly sludge. Well worth exploring further...
With Poggy out of the picture, it's almost as if everyone else in LA VUELTA is suddenly starting to MAKE AN EFFORT. The race has opened up again. No longer is one rider 'wearing' ALL the jerseys. The time- and points-differences are suddenly a lot more manageable. MADS PEDERSEN was almost invisible for the first week, but then he got a second place in a sprint and has started to accumulate points again. MATTIAS SKJELMOSE finds himself in the top six on GC. It's getting INTERESTING, which certainly wasn't the case for most of the first week of the tour!
On Thursday, I have an appointment with the EXPENSIVE TEETH PEOPLE. It was to have been yesterday, which in turn was retro-re-scheduled from NEXT Thursday. Then on Friday, yet another routine BLEEDING at the phlebbo's...
I'm skipping through this week's episode of Radio 3's "KEY CHANGES" (again), as it is entirely dedicated to the subject of VIENNESE WALTZES (ZzZzZzZz in 3:4)... This week, I otherwise need to spend some of my "MONDAY DOING MONDAY STUFF" time catching up with a couple of WHODUNNITS, which I couldn't fit into my usual SUNDAY session. You guessed it! because I was watching the CYCLING and doing some PROMing instead! "MONDAY STILL DOING SUNDAY STUFF"!
LA VUELTA hasn't been particularly exciting so far. In fact, the only remarkable thing that's happened was the cancelling of an entire day's racing due to freak weather. Everybody got caught in a HAIL STORM going into the Pyrenees! Brrrr! what a scorcher! Other than that, it's already clear that there's going to be another umpteen episodes of "THE POGGY SHOW". I've long maintained that the only way that Tadej Pogačar WON'T win any race he's competing in is if he has a crash.
He has a crash.
Following my experimentation with AV-LINUX, I treated(?) myself to the latest LINUX MAGAZINE, which is full of articles about stuff that I'm never going to encounter in real life... but it does come with a DVD containing 'live' versions of two more new DISTROS, namely the 'Cinnamon' version of LINUX MINT 22.3, and an Arch-based one called CACHYos.
The reason behind all this experimentation is that I'm on "TRY BEFORE I BUY" duty, as I plan to treat myself to a new laptop before the year is out. Possibly the first thing I'll do when I get it (rather as I did when I got my current Lenovo beast about thirteen years ago) is to replace the WINDOZE operating system which will no doubt come pre-installed on it, with something that I OWN rather than lease from M!©r0$ofT. Back then it was the useless Windoze 8, now it's the equally objectionable Windoze 11 complete with all the horrors of CoPILOT AI. Everything I've read about it fills me with terror. But in the meantime, I AM exploring the theoretical possibilities of KEEPING the Windoze platform, but stripping it down to the basics, just so I can (re)install a few of the Windoze-reliant MUSICAL TOOLS that I enjoyed back in the day. Hopefully, I can come up with something that doesn't have to connect to M!©r0$ofT at all, but DUAL-BOOT with the LINUX of my choice, for just the FUN stuff!
25/04/2013 - Finally took the plunge... A gorgeous sunny day wandering around Southampton city centre, and I found myself drawn into 'window shopping' for laptops. I looked in several stores, taking my time comparing specifications and prices (within my budget) and finally decided that a LENOVO G585 from Argos would give me the most bang for my buck. Needless to say, it comes with the hideous WINDOZE 8 pre-installed, but that won't matter to me, because this is for my LINUXMINT PROJECT. Out comes the plastic, thank you Mr Man, "SAY HELLO TO NADIA FROM BRATISLAVA..." - I was a happy little bunny as I got it home, but I was determined that I should take my time and check a few things on the forums and message boards first, to make sure there are no potential disasters on the cards... No reported compatibility problems... so the following day, I put the penguin-emblazoned Linux disk in the drive, ready to start my adventure. There were a few heart-plummeting moments at first, as the lappy is not set up by default to boot from the disk-drive - it is determined that I should enjoy all the pleasures that Windoze 8 has to offer and goes straight to the hard-drive instead. Groan... But a bit of fiddling about with the BIOS put an end to all that nonsense! Great satisfaction was had when the installation dialog finally asked me if I wanted to install Linux ALONGSIDE Windows or to REPLACE it altogether... Go on! reformat its ugly plastic LegoLand ass out of here!!! It's a WORK IN PROGRESS... I now have a working laptop loaded with LINUX MINT 14 (Nadia) CINNAMON EDITION 64-bit (Catchy title, Bob!). We have Firefox. We have an office suite. We have a whole bunch of other stuff that I may or may not need. Let the tweaking begin!
{{{wavy crossfade back to the present}}} While trying out the two OS-eseses on the coverdisk, I was quite impressed with CACHYos. It's solid enough, but it's very bare-bones basic and would need a whole list of extra things installing on it. However, it's interesting to read that the first LINUXMINT that I ever installed was a 'Cinnamon', because even thirteen years later, I still didn't warm to it - although I'm sure on a more powerful peecee it would feel a little less 'BLOATED'. I concede that it may be LinuxMint's most popular flavour, but there's nothing there to persuade me that it would be BETTER in any way than the version I eventually settled on (having also dabbled with LINUX LITE along the way). I'll probably stick with a newer version of the Mint's trusted MATÉ flavour, thanks very much! I understand that LINUX MINT 23 will arrive in December (I'm currently on 22, but 22.3 is available now), so I might time my purchase of a new laptop to coincide with the new update. (STOP PRESS: I've now ordered a new beast, but it'll possibly stay in its box until the time is right...)
Week from Monday 31st August 2026 - It's a BANG-COLLAR-DAY, but I'm just doing my regular "MONDAY DOING MONDAY STUFF" as usual. I'm also continuing with my ongoing 'getting-a-new-laptop' "RESEARCH" and doing some more PROMS. There was some fairly mediocre MAHLER and a show by the Dutch/Turkish combo ALTIN GÜN. Now as anyone will tell you, I do likes me some Anatolian folk-rock, but this was absolutely ruined by sickly-sweet radio orchestra embellishment under the baton of JULES BUCKLEY (him again!). It rather got on my nerves after a while, so I checked out the GÜN's own albums on That Bandcamp They Have Now. I was relieved to find that their music is rather fab in its 'raw' state, unencumbered by all that "Friday Night Is Music Night" treacly sludge. Well worth exploring further...
With Poggy out of the picture, it's almost as if everyone else in LA VUELTA is suddenly starting to MAKE AN EFFORT. The race has opened up again. No longer is one rider 'wearing' ALL the jerseys. The time- and points-differences are suddenly a lot more manageable. MADS PEDERSEN was almost invisible for the first week, but then he got a second place in a sprint and has started to accumulate points again. MATTIAS SKJELMOSE finds himself in the top six on GC. It's getting INTERESTING, which certainly wasn't the case for most of the first week of the tour!
On Thursday, I have an appointment with the EXPENSIVE TEETH PEOPLE. It was to have been yesterday, which in turn was retro-re-scheduled from NEXT Thursday. Then on Friday, yet another routine BLEEDING at the phlebbo's...
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