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A rather depressing afternoon.  The Rupert Murdoch effect perhaps ?

Eaglescliffe, Stockton-on-Tees, UK.

And . . . . what about the TP in public toilets, eg : motorway service stations ?  I think a Donation Coder member with the necessary skills should produce a training video on how to get the paper out of the thing, never mind which way round it is !

I don't know if this helps ?
There is an outfit called Penzu.  You can set up a journal, make it private, and it sends you reminders to write something.

Thank you for the newsletter.  You even bestirred me to add two posts.  I shall now go and lie down in a darkened room for a bit. 

Well . . .

I see myself as non techie, but I succeeded in installing Ubuntu on a Toshiba Satellite 100 lap top without difficulty.  The original poster said, "I'm not too concerned about software".  Just make sure that is really true !  For example - I am "into" Family History" and the only Linux Family History programme that I have found is Gramps - and that does things differently from the majority of Windows based FH programmes.  This is not insuperable - but it needs to be reckoned with.

So do make sure that if you install Linux, techie or not - you will be able to do what you want to do.

Back in 1956 I remember sitting in an old hangar for our Saturday morning lecture.  It was about current affairs, and we were enjoined to read one or more "quality newspapers" on a regular basis in order to keep ourselves informed.

Well, I did, and I can't say it did me much good.

A couple of years ago our local newsagent closed (and took with it the local Post Office).  Their newspaper round ceased, was taken up by another newsagent a mile or so away, and then ceased again when the new people found they could not get boys or girls to operate it.

Since then we only buy a national paper infrequently at the local supermarket.  We had withdrawal symptoms for a short while but those have passed, and I now see the national papers as full of trivia.

The local daily "The Northern Echo" published in Darlington has some good (local) stuff in it, and we always buy the "Darlington & Stockton Times" - a weekly - for the local area's news, and the abstruse farming information which we do not understand but enjoy reading.  Each week they do a review of a local pub or restaurant which we can criticise if we know the place - or add to our list if we don't.

I think the idea expressed in our long ago lecture may have been good for a few more years after it was delivered, but became less and less in touch with reality as newspapers themselves switched to publishing opinion writers, and edged into the territory of what once would have been the preserve of womens' weekly magazines.

Ahem.

Have a look at this.  I have used it for some time and it suits me OK.  Free or Paid - your choice.  (I also use this from the same source - and it too is freeware or in a paid version.)

This is kind of off topic - but on it if you see what I mean ?

You don't ?

Oh.   

I have tried running two Family History programmes on Ubuntu 8.04 under Wine.  One would not work at all. The other sort of worked, but with all sorts of oddities.  So, I remain one of those who thinks that Linux is a Good Thing, but is of no use to me at the moment.  I certainly would not commit something important to such a system at the moment.

(PS. Yes, I know about Gramps, but that would need to be a separate thread.)

1.  Books collect me   

2.  I "collect" family history.  I set out to explore our family's history when I retired 10 years ago - direct relations, and people that I had heard talked about as a child.  There were a few bits of information about New Zealand, and a diary kept by one of my great grandmothers.  One of my projects has been to collect information about the people, places and things named therein.  As at today's date I seem to have about 2900 records of individuals, plus a great deal of background information from various sources.  This has also led to the "collection" of people, so that I am now in email contact with distant (distant in relationship and distant as in half a world away) people of whose existence I had no idea when I started.

But I do not know if this "counts" as a collection in the sense intended.   

Edit : 28 Apr 2008 :  Since writing the above 2 more unknowns of the "collection" have popped up - one from UK and t'other from New Zealand.

I think that if China is going to move into this sort of market - and surely they will/are/already have ? - it will throw a "whole new light" on the discussion about Microsoft's market domination.  Wait for news about Microsoft et al "outsourcing" and setting up shop there !

1.  Sarah in Tampa  http://www.sarahintampa.com/sarah/

2.  Clif Notes Freewarewiki  http://freewarewiki.pbwiki.com/  but this is perhaps more a newsletter

The other eight I just forget for the moment   

About three weeks ago here at home in NE UK we discovered we had no telephone, no broadband, no nothing.  We managed to report the fault to BT using a mobile phone after being warned that 0800 numbers incur a charge when used on a mobile.

The PC functioned admirably, but had I been using any or only web-based applications they would have been totally unavailable.  It seems to me that in the world as it is today, a few well placed explosive devices could scupper our communications entirely, and that to put ourselves in a situation where we rely on them is very unwise.

The ironic sting in this tail, or tale, is that the Orange phone network seemed to go defunct at the same time as the above mentioned fault - in fact I wondered if the two events had some common factor.  Once the phone line was mended Orange came back too !   

I have just found this thread via Darwin's introduction.  My pin is now in ? on ? the map (try NE England) and I have put a plug for the freethesaurus on my blog http://septuagent.typepad.com - I hope this is OK.  I am not a coder, but I enjoy reading the newsletter, and I stand in awe of all those of you who know what you are talking about !

Thank you for the review.

I have used the Microsoft products in the past (Office 97) and Word Perfect before that.  I am currently on Open Office.  This is quite satisfactory, but slow to load.  My main gripe with all these (and I am hesitant about mentioning this in such august company  ) is that they all do wonderful things which I don't need.

Power Point, Access and Drawing programmes, or their equivalents are superfluous to my requirements.  Recently Clif Notes nesletter mentioned a free programme called Jarte which I am currently trying out.  It seems to do all that I need to do (including spell checking), and fires up instantly.

Will you be covering this sort of programme in your later reviews - or are you falling about laughing at me ?   

[need]

Farmsteader has cracked it !  Thank you Carol for your message.  I had "investigated" your various sites in the past, and have just done so again.  Our outdoor sports are now limited to the long and adventurous trek from the car door to the adjacent pub or cafe.  Sometimes we have managed as much as 100 yds.

As for coding, well, I have made a slight, hopefully helpful, amendment to my signature using the British Broadcasting Corporation's code which I think is pretty clever (why does the BBC need a code I ask myself ?).  You can see that you have a man of talent here.

Well, hallo from Stockton-on-Tees in NE England.  I am just carrying out my assignments as tasked.  This is what I have just posted in my "profile" :

Retired, but blogging.  Retired C of E Clergyman, one wife, two children, three grandchildren, and four coronary artery bypass grafts. Like Moses, I keep on taking the tablets.  Born 1933.  Served in Royal Air Force for 20 years altogether.  Made Deacon (C of E) 1974, Priest 1975. Retired 1998 - Hooray !

And that is probably quite enough.   

1.  Family history research.
2.  Blogging - ie: writing my own.
3.  Blogging - ie: keeping up with other peoples'.
4.  Corresponding with people re Nos. 1, 2 and 3.