Installing Windows 7 sucks

I have been running Linux Mint on my laptop for the whole summer. It is fast and quick to install and update once installed, you can do the whole process in an hour or so. In addition to this the software centre allows you to find the programs you want quickly. Best of it is free and it is actually rather nice to use and you never get the feeling that someone is messing about with your computer in the back ground.

Unfortunately for me like many other people I have to use Microsoft Windows for my work. This is not something I want to do but have to do because everyone else uses it. This requires me to have a Windows 7 machine at home I can use to, to supplement my now ageing Mac and the other IBM PC compatible machines running Linux Mint.

So yesterday I started the process of reinstalling Windows 7, a process that I still doing now some 6 hours later. This includes two fresh installs after the first one refused to update at all. Now the initial installs themselves are fine it what happens after that is the problem. It is the updating process itself with it's hundred  and eight patches to the operating system. 

Currently the machine is downloading 444.3 megabytes of  updates. In the last hour it has download eight percent of the those updates, that is just over 36.5 megabytes. This equates to a download speed of  1.3 kilobits per second on an internet connection in excess of 5,000 kilobits per second. If the machine is true to form then sometime in the next 30 minutes the whole process will fail completely. That is what happened the first time.

The question I would like to put to Microsoft is "If the Linux people can do do the whole process so quickly, what stops them doing the same?" without all the excuses. While I have been waiting I have been doing some research and I'm not the only one with this problem and it goes back years to Windows Vista. All I have found are so called Microsoft engineers blaming peoples internet connection speeds and never accepting responsibility for the problem being at there end. 

Well I find this unacceptable especially given the security record of Microsoft products. The last thing you want is a machine with lots of security holes sitting on the internet unprotected from those threats even as a home user, let alone a business user. Updating should be fast efficient and immediate and not slow. 

With Windows 8 being just as bad for updating as Windows Vista and Windows 7 the solution to this  problem is going to go away until the release of Windows 9. That is if anyone buys Windows again after the mess they made of Windows 8 which most of my colleagues working in IT technical support claim they won't consider using in a business environment. 

It is no wonder given the problems with recent release of Microsoft Windows so many people at home and in business are still using their Windows XP machines and not planning to swap to a new version of the operating system. If Microsoft are not careful the slow match to Linux might become the big rush.

Surveillance Britain 2014

Today the Conservative led government introduced the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act 2014 after just seven days of discussion and debate in Parliament by rushing through the new law using it's emergency powers. Just the whole speed of the process makes you wonder what the Government are really up to that they need to rush through such an important piece of legislation. 

The Government has decided to fast-track the legislation due to concerns that communications service providers, such as fixed line and mobile telephone network operators and internet service providers, would start deleting communications data that they are obliged to retain under the Data Retention Regulations of 2009. This followed a ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union that keeping data on individuals was unlawful and invalid on the basis that it was a disproportionate interference with the fundamental rights of individuals to a private life and to protection of their personal data. Other counties have accepted Court of Justice of the European Union judgement while the UK have taken moves to oppose it.

Basically, communications data can provide a very intimate picture of a  your life – who they communicated with; by what means; the time and length of the communication; where the communication took place; and the frequency of the communications. The Court of Justice of the European Union ruling said: “those data, taken as a whole, may allow very precise conclusions to be drawn concerning the private lives of the persons whose data has been retained, such as the habits of everyday life, permanent or temporary places of residence, daily or other movements, the activities carried out, the social relationships of those persons and the social environments frequented by them”. It is this sort of data the Government wants to fixed line and mobile telephone network operators and internet service providers to keep on us.

The new act requires companies in the UK to keep and provide the authorities the following data upon request for an official body:

• data necessary to trace and identify a source of communication such as user IDs and IP addresses; 
• data necessary to identify the destination of a communication such as the user ID or telephone number of the intended recipient of a call through the internet; 
• data necessary to identify the date, time and duration of a communication, such as the date and time of log-on and log-off from the internet or an email service; 
• data necessary to identify the type of communication, such as the email service provider or internet telephony provider used; 
• data necessary to identify users’ communication equipment, such as the calling telephone number for dial-up internet.

Currently it doesn't allow for content of data to be stored, but this can be requested to be provided in real time if a warrant is issued, much in the same way that allows telephones to be tapped. As we know from past reports in the press this data has also been given to other government bodies, including local governments and not just used by the police and the security agencies.

The new act is meant to maintain the powers the Government had Data Retention Regulations and the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, however it goes much further. Under the old regulations and act data could only be requested from companies within the UK. However the new act  will allow the government to request data from companies and service providers outside the boarders of the UK. Those companies that fail to compile with such requests from the UK Government will face civil sanctions or criminal prosecution under the new act, which would result in directors facing up to two years in prison for non-compliance. This change will allow the Government to monitor offshore communications and give them access to data stored on overseas servers, such as Twitter, Facebook and forms of social media and email accounts such as Googlemail etc. 

Like the previous act it would seem any public authority will be able to request data under the new act.  Given the extra powers that have been added to the new act they local authorities will now be able to request access to content on social media sites. Given some of the court cases brought by councils against individuals who disagree with council policies this could be seen as a worrying development that could affect free speech in the UK, since it could be used to bully individuals by sometimes less than trustworthy local politicians or government officials.

Clearly with something as important as this and how it affects our civil liberties and human rights it is imperative that there should be an open public debate on the issue both in the nation and within parliament. However a deal was done between the three major political parties that effectively meant that the whole bill was done and dusted even before it came to parliament to be rushed through, which made a complete shambles of the idea of democracy. Even looking at the debate on the issue on the BBC website about purposed act when it was announced the majority of people seemed against it and the process of rushing it through.

The Governments on MP's are questioning the rush though of the act with Conservative MP for David Davis saying:  “This Act of Parliament was driven through the House of Commons with ridiculous and unnecessary haste to meet a completely artificial emergency. As a result Members of Parliament had no opportunity to either research it, consider it or debate it properly and the aim of this legal action is to make the Government give the House the opportunity to do what it should have been allowed in the first place. Proper, considered and effective law making. The overall aim is to create law which both protects the security of our citizens without unnecessarily invading their privacy.”

Currently there are plans to oppose the introduction with a number of organisations objecting to the way the new act has been introduced. Personally I wish them success in their endeavours and hope that the Act has to be overturned and a proper public can take without the spin doctoring of the Prime Minister and his supporters getting in the way. 

Linux Mint 17

Every summer for the last few years I have been ditching Microsoft Windows and attempting to live without the Microsoft Dream. Thankfully as long as you don't mind ditching some of the programs that only run on Windows it isn't such a hard thing to do as you would imagine. This summer I have selected I have selected the newly released Linux Mint 17 which comes complete with all the multimedia extensions you are likely to need and more.

Linux Mint 17 Desktop and Start Menu 

Linux Mint 17 Update Screen

Linux Mint 17 Software Manager

 Linux Mint 17 OpenOffice 4 Word processor 

Linux Mint 17 OpenOffice 4 Spreadsheet 

Linux Mint 17 Media Player 

Installation is a breeze compared to Microsoft Windows. All you have to do is download the software flavor you want and boot the machine off a pen drive or a DVD. Once up and running it starts in a live version of the operating system where you can test all is well before you install. The installation process from a pen drive takes about 20 minutes and your up and running complete with drivers for your hardware. In fact the only system I have had, in recent years, that didn't have the specialist driver for a piece hardware was an Intel Atom N2600 based system that lacks the graphics card driver because Intel refuse to release the code of the chip despite petitions by users.

Once up and running like any new operating system you will need to update it with security patches and fixes. This is as simple as simple can be. The update manager is available in the task bar and tells you when you need to update. You just click on it and enter your password and off you go. Updates occur at top speed and within 30 minutes of you starting your install you will have an updated working system. Future updates are then indicated in the task bar as and when they are required and this includes updates to the packages you have on the system.

Unlike Microsoft Windows the first thing you will notice is that the operating system comes complete with many of the applications you will need to use the computer straight out of the box. This includes a word processor, a spreadsheet, a database and various graphics packages. However if you want something that you can't find already installed there is a Software Manager that lets you search for the package you want by keyword or select from the most commonly installed packages. There are simply thousands to chose from Games to Educational software. Even if you are missing your favourite windows package you can always install a Microsoft Windows emulator such the WINE package or set up a virtual machine to run windows within Linux.

First impressions of Linux Mint 17 are more than favourable in fact it is easier to use than Microsoft Windows yet does all the same things but much much faster and without wasting the system resources such as memory. It boot in less than a minute so you don't have to wait around and once your on the desktop everything is ready straight away. As for looks it ticks all the boxes there too and it does the job required and you can customise it to be the way you want it and even add features like the launcher from Apples OS.X, which is in fact the only major operating system still using UNIX on which Linux is based. Multi tasking is fast and the multimedia support excellent with a choice of inbuilt media players. The only thing missing it that hated, by many, program iTunes which seems to get so much flack on the Internet in its Microsoft Windows form. 

And finally the best it is that it is all free and doesn't cost a penny to use. All the packages you need can be downloaded from the Internet and that the only cost is the subscription you pay to your ISP.  If more people used it in business and well as at home it would be the end of bloated and slow Microsoft Windows for good. May be when time permits I will do a side by comparison post and added it to the blog.

The National Museum of Computing

Anyone that knows me will know I have an interest in old computer, why today I went back in time with a visit to The National Museum of Computing loacted at the home of the code breakers at Bletchly Park near Milton Keynes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The museum is quite a sight and covers the period from the birth of computer, with a rebuild of a working Mk.2 Colossus, to the dawn of personal computer age and the internet. All wonderfully laid out and explained. It is well worth a visist, but what you get to see is only part of the collection. It is currently housed in one hut but there are other huts containing more old computers waiting to be restored. All they need is the man power and the money to help out and you don't have to be a electrionics expert.

ZX Spectrum turns Thirty

It is amazing how times have changed in computing over the years. One machine stands out as doing so much to bring computing to the masses in the United Kingdom and that machine is Sinclair ZX Spectrum and anyone still owning a working one will raising a glass because it is thirty years old today.

The Sinclair ZX Spectrum was realsed to the public on the 23rd April 1982 and brought the cost of computer ownership affordable to millions. It started a revolution that created the British software industry that still produces so of the console blockbusters on sale today. It made programmers of out millions that understood how to squeeze every ounce of power out of computer hardware.

The computer was programmed in Sinclair BASIC which was designed to be easy to use and made the most of the limited memory capacity of the machine. The version of BASIC it used was meant to be time saving allowing key words to be typed by pressing a single key, however this wasn't always the case when one had to search of a less common keyword. Back them data and program storage achieved by utilising an audio cassette recorder and an ordinary television set was used as a display.

The graphics were at best blocky by modern standards, and the resolution was limited by memory and the capabilities of standard television sets, however the basic principles of how the graphics were generated are still used today. Given the limitations of the graphics the games had none of the detail of those of today, however the gameplay was just as good and some of the games became classics such as Jet Set Willy, shown in the screen shot below. 

The ZX Spectrum managed to out preform its competitors in one basic area, price. There wasn't another computer of the same sort specifications on the market less than twice the price. This made it a massive success and it was achieved by innovation and by keeping things simple, such as the use of a rubber keyboard which kept the moving parts to a minimum. Many people said the keyboard was like typing on a dead flesh, but there was no other way of reaching the cost targets set be Sir Clive Sinclair.

One thing is for sure it started a generation programming as soon as they open the box and plugged in the computer. Unlike today you could be typing in our first program before a modern computer had even booted. It had all the simplicity that was needed to get people hooked and they would spend evening after evening typing away making their own games or copying games from all the computer magazines that were around at the time. The legacy of all this is the software industry we have in the United Kingdom today that produces some of the best software in the world.

I still have a working ZX Spectrum+ which will celebrate it's thirtieth birthday in two years time. It is still working as well as the day it was built. I powered it up again just last month to check was still working and true to from with in seconds the machine was booted and ready to use. What is more I can see it working in sixty years time as long as there is a television set that I can plug it into.

Time Out

It doesn't seem often enough that I take time out from the problems of life and immerse myself into another world. Being not the greatest television watcher and being able to not affording go to the theatre this means finding a game I can play that takes me to another world.

The game of choice really did take me to another world full of hostile aliens after my blood and that of the human race. The game in question was original Halo game, Combat Evolved, that was first released in 2001 with the launch of the Xbox gaming system which took the world by storm. The version I played tonight was the Apple Mac version launched a couple of years later back in 2003. Although owning the original Xbox version and an old Xbox to play it on the graphics on the even my old MacMini are better as is the sound. It still looks good and the game play is wonderful.

I'm just glad I have a machine I can play it on. The MacMini is one of the original machines produced in 2005. It is 7 years old this year and still going strong. In fact it is still being used for things like Facebook, general office work, web browsing and blog writing. I have plans to use it later in its life to play music and video via a flat screen TV when I can afford one.

It was a great way to spend an evening, given there wasn't much else to do and at least it is more interactive than watching some rubbish on television of flicking thought the channels and not finding anything to watch. Playing it tonight I can see why Emily and her friends have fallen in love with the series of games. It is one hell of a game.

Enigma

Today I rebuilt an old computer that I could use to write the blog without having to be wired to the home local area network. As long term readers of the blog will know both of my Apple portables have be involved in accidents. The Mac Book has a broken screen and the iBook has a broken power supply, both accidents were Lucy related. The remaining Apple machine, a old Mac Mini doesn't have a wireless card making it hard to use in the living room.

Thankfully it doesn't take much processing power to write a blog. All you need is a computer you can go on the internet with. In this case a old single core Pentium IV class machine with a decent graphics card, a reasonable amount of memory, a small hard disk and an ancient wireless card. The trick is not to load it up with the latest operating system and expect it to be fast, but instead load it with a operating system and software that it was originally intended to use and watch it fly.

During the process of loading the operating system the original hard disk I was using failed and I had to use another disk that probably hadn't been used for 5 years looking at the date of the files that I backed up. It was one the hard disk of my main machine. On the disk was a simulation of an Enigma machine that was used by the Germans to code messages in the Second World War and lead to the construction of one of the worlds first computers. Emily was with me and I explained how it worked.

Codes have always fascinated for years and it is easy to devise simple codes you can use. The one thing about the Enigma code was it wasn't that easy to crack and without the work of some very great brains would have remained that way. Even the Boffin's at the famous Bletchley Park didn't manage to decipher everything. In fact, some of the coded messages weren't broken until over Sixty years after they were sent.

The enigma machines were a mixture of mechanical and electrical components. None of the computer components and mixture of electronics you would expect to find today. In order to show how it worked I typed in a simple message after setting the machine up and showed Emily the output:

GIDM TGXE WOYO GFYE NHEZ EHSX JCBU LNDN PWHU UYML GWBK UJCV GPRW URDE IFBX IWVO SQYO JSSY HPWB JGHS ICZU DKHJ Y

Then to show her how to decode the message I reset the machine and typed in the encrypted message and out of the machine came the original message as if by magic. It was part of the beauty of the system that the same machine could be used to encode and decode the message as long as you both had the same starting setup.

As someone that has always been interested in computing history, the story behind how the codes were cracked and how that lead to the construction of the first computers is a fasinanting one. Hopefully I manged to pass on some of that interest to Emily, who loves anything mathamatical. She seemed fasinated with the simulator and was soon entering her own messages and decoding them.

Another Great Passes

Seems that it the time of year that we lose some great people of the past. Today saw the passing of Dennis Ritchie another of the great minds in the computer world who helped shape the computer systems we use today. This time it is a computer scientist who worked in the area of operating systems and programming languages.

He is best known for being the creator of the Unix operating system and the C programming language on which are based a vast number of modern technologies. In fact many systems like the Apple Macintosh Computers still today have Unix at the core or of the operating system and it is from Unix that Linux at the core of Android operating system was derived. He is one of those names that few will have heard of but without his work we wouldn't be were we are today. The Unix is the operating system of choice for the internet and it kicked off the open source software movement which is so influential today. He was a inspirational man and like many great men he was humble and gracious.

Game Design

This might seem silly but I feel like a kid in a toy shop. I just starting to teach a course in game design and I feel so excited about teaching some thing new. Why am I so excited when it will mean lots of work, well it is the reason why I started programming computers in the first place. My first computer program was a space game based around the original Star Trek game that was written and played on mainframe computers. Although I never had time to finish it but what it did do was teach me how computers work and how to program them.

I spent many an hour in the school computer room which was no bigger than a cupboard typing away and missing the extra English lessons I was meant to be taking at the time, not that the Maths teacher cared, he was just glad to see the computer being used. For me it was a real eye opener and I was amazed at what the simple computers of the time can do.

Now I can take the enthusiasm I had then and give it back and I hope instill and motivate the students. Looking at the unit I'm teaching on Mondays I can see how interesting it is going to be to teach and learn at the same time. After meeting the students I'm so looking forward to the new challenge. I knew I was in the right place as soon as the head of department says that the best qualification is a love of game playing. I knew then I was teaching the right subject,