My Move From Windows 8.1Pro With Media Centre To Ubuntu 13.10 (Part 1)

In this new series I'll be documenting my move away from Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Centre to Ubuntu Linux 13.10.

In th is first part I'll explain some of the reasons for my move away from Windows 8.1 Pro to Ubuntu Linux 13.10 & why I decided to go with Ubuntu 13.10.

Why I decided to go with Ubuntu 13.10

I decided to go with Ubuntu 13.10 as I'd already got the 64 Bit Ubuntu 13.10 DVD image on my HDD along with DVD image of Pear OS 8 that is a Mac OSX themed version of Ubuntu.  So after I burned both images to DVD's I booted up my trusty Toshiba Satellite C660-15R Laptop that I've had since 2010 with the freshly burned Pear OS 8 DVD in the DVD Drive and booted into Live mode and gave Pear OS 8 a quick look, but despite it looking very much like Mac OSX the icons don't look anything like the ones that Apple use in OSX as the Developers of Pear OS decided to use an iOS styled icon set, & the Windows buttons are too small compared to the OSX ones.

I then re-booted to the Live Ubuntu 13.10 session with the Ubuntu 13.10 DVD and preferred the more slick & polished look of Ubuntu compared to that of Pear OS 8, and since I've used Ubuntu on & off since about late 2009 to mid 2010 I felt at home with the style of Ubuntu, I've also been an on and off Linux user since about 2006/7 and used to love using Suse Linux then OpenSuse, but once the default Desktop Environment in OpenSuse KDE added the Plasma Desktop (Widgets) and made them unable to be switched off fully& then the way that there was 2 different Network Managers making it hard for new users or users returning to OpenSuse from a different Distro virtually impossible to get online. Also the Ubuntu Forums are very well laid out and the users are very knowledgeable and friendly compared to the poorly laid out but equally as  knowledgeable and friendly OpenSuse Forums.

 The reasons for my move away from Windows 8.1 Pro to Ubuntu Linux 13.10

I decided to move away from Windows 8.1 Pro to Ubuntu 13.10 due to an annoyance that seems to have popped up with the inability burn Audio CD's from both iTunes & Windows Media Player, which is annoying when I want to burn Audio CD's to play in the car, also the Metro UI Modern UI has made Windows Bloated and Annoying to use at times, especially when you want to do something quick.

Roland

Next

Spam Comments What's The Point?

Are the people behind the Spam Blog Comments that are just full of random words strung together that make no sense and full of random links stupid? Do they actually think that Blog Authors are actually going to approve these useless Comments that are

A) Don't make any sense and are full of Links.
B) Mostly off topic to the Post that they have commented on.

I can't decide if Spam Comments are by other Bloggers that haven't got as big of a following as the Blog that they Spam in hope of

A) Getting Spammed Blog down ranked by search engines due to Spam Comments.

B) Idiots that have nothing better to do with their time than leave Spam Comments on Blogs.

or Bots that just trawl the Net Spamming every single Blog there is.

But I thank god that I decided to use wordpress.com when I started Blogging as the Akismet Spam filter built into WordPress does a pretty good job of filtering out Spam Comments even though the odd one or two Spam Comments slip through the filter and every now and again I get the occasional off topic Comment.

But that still doesn't answer my question about What's the point of Spam Comments as all Spam Comments do is waste the time of Blog Authors who have to go through the Comments and delete all Spam, and that takes time away from them producing great content that people actually want to read, and it's a waste of Spam Commenter's time as none of the Spam Comments are actually going to get Approved by Blog Authors.

Rant Over

Roland

Microsoft LifeChat LX-2000 Review

 

Like the Microsoft LifeChat LX-3000 the Microsoft LifeChat LX-2000 is a combined Headset & Microphone, the only difference between the LX-3000 & the LX-2000 is that the LX-2000 is mainly a headset to use with a Laptop,  as it features a behind the head style headband and the Headset folds up and fits in an included case, like the LX-3000 the LX-2000 also sports an in-line remote, but it's a little more basic compared to the LX-3000 and the LX-2000 sports a pair of 3.5mm plugs that go into the soundcard Headphone & Microphone ports so it's not as neat a solution as the LX-3000 that uses a USB Port for connection, but for a headset that is more suited to a Laptop or Netbook it does save a USB Port that are rare on portable devices.

Roland

Microsoft LifeChat LX-3000 Review

This is my first review post in a while, and I've decided to do a review of the Microsoft LifeChat LX-3000 Headset & Microphone.  While this headset isn't a top of the range headset it's ideal for use as a gaming headset with or without the use of the Microphone, for listening to music while  working, watching movies, YouTube videos or DVD's, Video chatting using Google Hangouts or Skype and for voice recognition Dictation.

The Headset connects to a PC or Laptop via a standard USB cable and has an in-line remote has a volume Up and Volume Down button, a Microphone Mute Button and a Call button for Windows Live Messenger, but as far as I can see it doesn't seem to work with the Windows 8 version of Skype or any other  Windows 8 Voice Messaging app, it may work with Desktop  versions of Skype etc. but it still should work with Skype etc. without the use of the Call Button.

I purchased the Headset for use while Gaming or watching YouTube videos instead of using the ear-buds that came with my phone.

Roland

Plusnet Unlimited Broadband Review

After Upgrading from the now discontinued Plusnet Extra Broadband with a 60GB Monthly allowance to the Broadband Unlimited Package last month we've been unable to get to anywhere near where we were when we were on the 60GB Allowance.

If you want a truly Unlimited Broadband Package that is good value for money then go with Plusnet Broadband Unlimited, but you will be better upgrading your Router to the Netgear DGN 2200 ADSL 2+ Modem Router as the one that  Plusnet provided is cheap and tacky with an Admin Control panel that isn't user-friendly or the most intuitive of UI's.

Since I originally wrote this review the Netgear DGN 2200 ADSL 2+ Modem Router that we were using suffered a major failure after doing a Firmware update and we have since replaced the Router with a Belkin one, and I'll do a quick review of the Router in a couple of weeks time.

This Review was originally posted on my old Blogger Blog, but I've decided that I should migrate it over to my WordPress Blog for continuity with the series that preceded it. Original Post date was 09/02/2013.

Roland

The One Thing That I've Enjoyed While Using Blogger

The One Thing That I've Enjoyed While Using Blogger is the lack of off topic and Spammy comments, but that's probably due to the fact that I never got any comments while I was actively used Blogger due to the fact that I couldn't get a decent amount of followers & viewers.

WordPress really needs to sort out its Akismit Spam filter as it's awful at filtering out Spam from legitimate comments, as when I re-started using WordPress this morning out of 40 Comments that I'd got 3 were correctly filtered to the Spam folder and out of the 56 that were filtered to the pending folder approximately half were in correctly filtered as legitimate comments that I'd then got to sort through manually.

Rant over

Roland

Blogger Vs WordPress And Why I Decided To Return To WordPress

In this post I'll compare Blogger Vs WordPress And Why I Decided To Return To WordPress.

I switched my Blog from WordPress to Blogger in late 2011 to explore all the tools that Google offer for Blogs and Websites such as Analytics and AdSense, but I was unable to build up a following similar to what I had built up on here.  Google then took it on themselves to block my AdSense Account stating that I'd breached the Terms & Conditions of AdSense, but never explained what I'd supposedly done to breach the AdSense Terms & Conditions. I then tried  to get Google Authorship & Author Rank working which it never did properly, but I still continued to write posts until this year when I just couldn't be bothered with Blogging any more that is until this morning when I decided to dust off my WordPress Account and start again.

The main reasons that I decided to ditch Blogger and return to Wordpress are:

Admin Console

• Blogger's Admin Console is to cluttered and not logically organised compared to the WordPress Admin Console.

Customization

• Blogger relies heavily on editing HTML & XML code to do a lot of the Customizing of a site.


• Most of Blogger's Themes are paid compared to WordPress that ether has more Free Themes or a 50/50 split.


• Blogger isn't as user friendly as WordPress to get to look how you want it.

Sharing

• Blogger only has the choice to share a Post with Google+ compared with WordPress where I can share with Google+, Facebook & Twitter along with other social services that I'm not a user of.

Post Editor

• Blogger's Post Editor is a simple lightweight editor.


• WordPress's Post Editor is a Feature rich editor that has all the options that you would expect in a Word Processor.

Categorizing Posts

• Blogger only uses tags to categorize posts which is a bit limiting.


• WordPress uses tags and Categories to categorize posts which gives you a lot more flexibility.

Themes

• Blogger's Themes seem to be highly geared towards the average user, but require HTML & XML coding knowlage.


• WordPress's Themes cater for everyone from the average user and are easy to customize to your exact needs via drag & drop widgets and don't need any code editing to get what you want.

Miscellaneous

• Blogger seems to be heavily geared towards users of Google's services who want to take advantage of Google AdSense to make money or Professionals who have money to invest in someone to code the Customization of their site just the way they want it, but they do offer unlimited free video & images in posts.


• WordPress is geared to the average Blogger who wants to just produce content, and has an easy to use set of settings for customization. WordPress also offers various Add-on Packages if you want more that the basics you get with the Free service.  WordPress has a very helpful Support Team and a very useful and friendly forum. WordPress also offers the WordPress Framework as a free download from http://wordpress.org/ if you want to self host your WordPress site from ether a leased Server or your own private server which is very handy if you are a company that wants to keep their Blog in-house or if you are just the average user that wants the greater flexibility that you get with self hosting ether privately or via a leased server.

I also found that getting any form of Ranking was totally impossible most of the time with Blogger, compared to with WordPress & no matter how much effort I put into tweaking the Title of a Post I could never get a Rank anywhere in Google compared to WordPress where a little Tweaking and re-tweaking if necessary I could get a decent Ranking depending on the Post subject.

Roland