To be Linux or not to be? That's indeed the question...

For many years I have been an avid supporter and user of Linux. I have not used Windows on my main desktop for nigh on ten years. Linux from then and now are completely different things. In the beginning it was pretty hard to install and run but today it’s almost a baby’s game. The Linux flavour called Mint which is possibly the most popular after Ubuntu, is very Windows like. However, one has to have a smudge of computer knowledge as installation and installing peripherals are not always straightforward. Being frank, I must say Linux leaves Windows standing by a mile, if not more! On top of that, it is a much safer operating system. The software has a firewall (UFW and GUFW) that is pretty strong. In fact it is based on software called ‘IPtables’ in which the more conversant operators can set their own rules.

I still have Windows on a laptop - an Acer, only because the wonderful manufacturer decided to  allow for Windows only. Any trial to install Linux just stops half-way. I can run Linux but only from a CD. The wonderful world of Mr Gates, the multi billionaire, thank you from the bottom of my heart, not.

Just wondering why so many computers, laptops, desktops, tablets and more come with Windows already installed? What is the deal struck with manufacturers? American commercial nous above all? I am sure Russian and possibly Chinese computers run Linux! NGINX, the Russian web server software runs best on Linux, wonder why? Fortunately NGINX is open source, meaning anyone can see the code underlying it. Or even tinker with it, called “Forking”. It is advisable though to not do that because if it is well-working and it does what the magician says it does, why bother? Open source software is the way the world needs to go. Oh I know Microsoft’s answer to that and it is that they provide work for thousands. True, but is it the best way? Today Microsoft is clutching at straws, look at Windows 11 which software came out after Microsoft strongly stated over some years ‘Windows 10 is the last OS, we will only update and improve”. Yep, that’s Americans for you. Never too slow to grab a bean! So, just take your chance, don’t bother with Windows at all. Move over to Linux. In the meantime as today is the last day of the year, have a great 2022. Happy New Year! Blwyddyn Newydd Dda!

Have a great 2022, looking forward to more political gaffes!

Possibly the last post for this year, I thought to mention something that is close to me, wokism and Covid. So, have a laugh or cry depending on how you feel!               Hahahaha, woke Britain is at it again. Well, why not cancel everybody? JKR otherwise known as the author of the world famous Potter books is battling to stay human.Well, that’s according to the wokies. Frankly I believe the lady is made of strong material. It really is getting stupid. Councils banning meat for fear of the vegan brigade. Pru Leith cannot say the word ‘calories’ for fear of upsetting people with eating disorders. I would have thought that people with eating disorders have other things to worry about and need medical help rather than the inane outpourings of the woke brigade. I would like to silence the woke brigade but I also believe fervently in ‘freedom of speech’. So, unfortunately the woke brigade has the right to speak, although it is still rubbish. I even read somewhere they want to cancel Father Christmas because he’s too white? Perhaps it is time to have a good look at how all these things are reported. Just don’t talk about it any more. When there is no platform for these stupid ideas they may die a natural death. I would say the same thing about the incessant BBC reports about Covid. Every bulletin is peppered with the stuff about how many caught it, how many have died and talk about what has been done in other countries. Who cares? If we are told we cannot travel abroad for the time being, what does it matter what France’s wonder of the world, Macron says?

On the whole I believe people have not yet grasped the changes that are happening. And necessarily so if we are to save humanity from the impending disasters. Make no mistake, the climate that we depend on is in trouble! Our lifestyles need to change drastically, even driving all electric cars is not nearly enough! We continually complain about rules infringing our freedoms but it is these unbridled freedoms that have brought us to this point. People on the whole have been greedy, it is in our make-up. More is never enough, those that are millionaires want to be billionaires. So watch what the billionaires do, if they start building concrete bunkers in the Himalayas begin to stock up on porridge oats and powdered milk. By the way anyone knows where Bill Gates is, not travelling to India I hope?

A New Year's thought...

One thought that keeps me awake is, what is my place in this Universe? Yes, I know I’m weird. But it is very important to know your place isn’t it? Sometime in the past I noted a question on the Question and Answer platform called Quora. Because I am a fluent Dutch speaker (obviously) it was on the Dutch variant. There is an English/American variation, as well as a German. But I digress, this question was “Where is the centre of the Universe”? At first you might think the person asking needs to see a psychiatrist quickly. That’s what I thought as well, but at second glance it is not as silly as you think. We know from observations more or less our place in the Galaxy or if you will, the Milky Way. We know again from observations that we are part of a cluster of galaxies and I suppose using triangulation methods we could figure out the centre of that. But that is still no way near the centre of the Universe. In one way Universe is a strange word. As we look around us during the night time we can see a multitude of stars, as far as the eye can see. With telescopes we can see much more and further away. But there is an edge to how much we can see. That is now called the ‘observable universe’. And the centre of the observable universe is, wait for it – YOU, if you are making the observations. But let’s arguably say that the centre is the planet, Earth. The truth is that we will never know the centre of the universe because we do not know what is outside the observable universe. For all we know there could be not much more or a heck of a lot more. There are even theories of multiple universes, something like a multitude of balloons floating together in an endless void.

Then there are observations that say the universe is expanding. So taking the ‘balloon’ hypothesis to hand you could think that galaxies at the edge of your observable universe moving along with that expansion would eventually disappear from sight. In the meantime they would show a ‘red-shift’. Also another thought I had was that as everything is moving at speed in our universe, including us we would be moving away from certain visible galaxies. Those would be directly opposite our cone of view from Earth. We would be moving toward others. It depends where we are moving to. We are part of a much greater whole and that is moving too! But the centre of the universe will be forever an unknown.

In the meantime have a great Christmas and a very happy Covid-free New Year.

Nadolig Llawen a Blwyddyn Newydd Dda - Prettige Feestdagen en een Gelukkig Nieuwjaar!

Is the law an ass or is it someone else?

It is great to read something about the problem we have in this country with anonymous people making complaints about someone else who said something they did not agree with. There are quite a few examples. Also the Sun national newspaper published an article by Mercy Muroki. A well written article highlighting the strange way police forces react to such complaints. Highlighting the case against a retired policeman Mr Harry Miller who tweeted some hard stuff during 2019 and had to endure three years of what can only be called persecution. I don’t know what he tweeted as I am not active on Twitter or Facebook but what bothers me is that the accuser has been allowed throughout to be anonymous. How can that be right? Surely if we all believe in free speech then as long as messages, tweets or such like are within the realms of decency and respect then that should be fine. For instance, can you call someone a moron? Why not if not? I have called politicians idiots and frankly by the way some of them behave I would think correctly. Although the problem is that loads of people who are on social media platforms, have little or no education! How can you put forward a reasonable view in one or two lines of text? On top of that if you cannot spell or are too lazy to use a spellchecker? 

As Mercy said in her article ‘It is NOT a crime to have views that people do not like’. I expect there are loads of people who do not like my views, that’s fine but explain to me lucidly why. I am only a stupid man of continental extraction living in the best country in the world, Wales. Yes, it’s part of the UK and that’s OK for now but I hope that sooner or later we can make our own laws and become part of a federation with Scotland and England. Well, quoting Mercy again, the police force in question spent some quarter of a million quid on the case, the question we should ask is this – how can a police force spent such money on cases that are NOT a crime? Just going on an anonymous call? So, to end this, can we ask that the accuser’s name be made public? I am also certain the policeman in question is made of sterner stuff, and should be an example to the hierarchy. They should have known better.  

But as we know the top echelon of business and governmental agencies including local government are all to happy to pander to a vociferous minority who have no other aim but to transfer the world in their way and ONLY their way. So, wokies where are MY human rights?

Hello wokies, and goodbye!

It seems that many wokies (woke people that is) are moving from London to other hallowed places. They are now turning up everywhere. We are having heads (is that still allowed to say?) of schools cancelling boys and girls. Hurrah! Not before time, we want more unisex stuff. I am not sure what I am any more either, I have to look in the mirror when coming out of bed to see if it is still hanging. Then I remember. It is getting more difficult, my memory is getting hazy. So it is good to cancel male and female genders. Lovely, I must thank the head of that school in Manchester for her (sorry! it’s) decision.

Seriously, how did it become a head? Probably with a degree in home economics? Or possibly in the new Panto module now being offered by some high flying University? There is something unpalatable about all of this, for a start there are too many women (sorry, non-binary beings) teaching in schools. Not many men (sorry, two-legged monstrosities) take up the cudgel. I wonder why. Possibly for fear of having to become non-binary or simply cancelled out all together? I have been cancelled out, not sure who did it but it was an enjoyable experience. Like flying over the bare desert watching camels going by. Nevertheless as a Piers Morgan aficionado, it is high time that we call an end to this frivolity. Call men, men and women, women. Girls and boys and frankly if any head of schools persist in pandering to wokism, SACK them! In the meantime can I ask the government of the supposedly butch PM to take the BBC to task? Perhaps Boris might regain some kudos and stay a bit longer before galloping off into the sunset! Above all do not cancel out Christmas or even try to make it woke! I heard some are trying just to do that. So get truly stuffed like a male turkey and keep on putting the rubbish on Twitter. So I can easily cancel them!

In the meantime I would wish for all readers, friends, associates, man or woman, boy or girl to have a brilliant Christmas and a very happy Covid-free New Year!

Goodbye Boris, I hope you will find a job soon...

There is nothing so funny as to listen to a bad loser trying to explain why! Take our hallowed PM, the once favoured politician, he tried to explain why a once an unassailable Tory seat that had a thumping 20,000+ majority was lost to the Liberal Democrats who got a majority of nearly 6,000! Meaning that 30,000 plus turned their backs on the Conservatives. And he has the gall to ask why! 

Well PM even I, from my cosy armchair can see why! On top of that he has been reported saying “Constant litany of stuff about politics and politicians” overshadowing the government’s successes. Interesting take on a defeat. The frank truth is that he seemed not to know what everyone else knew. The politicians who were caught in the act of defying the law, the politician who was paid to ask questions in Parliament. The politician who nearly had his trousers down in the office! Need to know more PM? Then his blatant attempt to whitewash or deny anything happened. 

Perhaps we should have seen his character before we got rid of another dishwasher called Theresa but all of us wanted Brexit solved. And as it stands, yes that’s his only victory. From then on it was full-speed downwards. To me it shows that yes, he is basically full of bluster, a man who glories in his position without taking the full responsibilities it entails. Let’s be fair if you are PM, you will not have any friends. You are a lonely island in a sea of sharks. Boris wants to be friends with sharks and now has got bitten. He might have lost a leg or two but he is bleeding badly. Will it be too late to remedy the position? 

Well, that remains to be seen, I fear it is too late. It will most likely turn out an early departure. It might not be so bad for him personally, a nice wife, a new baby to complete the half dozen. He will need a proper job, I heard they need loads of ambulance drivers in Woketown (London) where Omicron rules the roost. Good luck Boris, it was nice knowing you, not.

A Nail in the Coffin? Hmmm...

Well there it is. The big nail in Boris’ coffin. Called the by-election loss in North Shropshire. It is how democracy works. As PM you can act like an idiot for only a short time. It is really incredible isn’t it? Like thousands of others, even die-hard Labour voters, I voted Boris in and as we thought, with a proper sound Conservative government. And what do we end up with? A buffoon who does not know the difference between right and wrong. We end up with a load of people who believe they are somehow above the law. How deep we have sunk. It is endemic all over Europe. Across the water we have another idiot who believes he is called Napoleon. Far off it seems but I begin to see great similarities between now and the time before World War Two. The period of 1933-1940 was just as idiotic as it is now. The Dutch would call it ‘losbandigheid’. A general disdain for rules. Also rule of law weakened due to judges’ incredible sentencing. Where life sentences are simply a joke, killers off within 10 years or so to start all over again. It is called ‘Slap on the wrist’ judgements. Sentences should be a reflection of the severity of the crime committed. 

We have now a society that has become like a canoe in a rapid river, wildly tossed all over the place. The oarsman has gone AWOL and is partying on shore. One thing I also note, this Covid Omicron virus is rampant in London. Probably due to the behaviour of the woke liberal elite. Well, keep it there wokies, hoping the right-minded will stop the wokies from travelling to far-flung places to protest. So, as I am not really a betting man I will bet my money though on the coming change of government and its leader. The present incumbent to leave before April is out. The only problem though is I cannot really see a suitable new Conservative leader. We can dismiss the Labour party they are even less capable of putting together a sound government. The Lib-Dems they are just a joke, so we are in the doldrums. Let’s hope a good person will show up before the country goes bankrupt.

Edit: Losbandigheid = unrestrained, ungovernable.

Government in a muddle? Noooo, surely not.....

Oh dear oh dear, haven’t we got ourselves in a muddle. No, not us, the general population, it is the government of this hallowed country. Just look at them. Let’s start with those work-shy civil servants. Working from home to them means more time with the bottle of gin. Long paid foreign holidays which must not be disturbed. Not even when World War 3 erupts. As Dominic Raab showed, why bother about Afghanistan? Just another backward country. As another of his minions showed and stayed on holiday for a further week. But what was important, repatriate some hundreds of dogs and cats. That was showing the old British mettle innit? Blimey we forgot the translators, ah let’s not worry, they’ll find another job quick. Unless the Taliban got to them first.

It beggars belief that our government has let things slip so badly. Going from one blunder to another. Did I not say in the past that most politicians are dunces? These people are not fit to hold a normal job. They have degrees, some will have a certificate of attendance from Eton (a wonderful dormitory somewhere close to London). Just look in what. Not many science degrees. It shows as they cannot manage a simple budget. Most did not know what a virus was and what it can do. That showed in the late start of the vaccine programme and even now most in the government are in favour of just letting it all go ‘nature’. Don’t bother with vaccines, just let the donkeys (us) acquire natural or as they call it, herd immunity. Forgetting of course that with this extremely virulent strain mutations happen on an hourly basis. Meaning you have to be quick to stay in front. Unfortunately the word ‘quick’ is not in the UK government handbook. 

You may ask, did we vote in a Churchill or did we vote in his bulldog? Boris the Churchillian or Boris the overfed stumbling arthritic bulldog? Politics is very unforgiving, Boris will just be judged on his latest performances and let’s be fair these were not so good! You cannot be a bit laissez-faire and joke your way out or say, ‘That did not happen’ when evidence shows it has happened. So, the knives are not out yet but if he carries on like he has these past few weeks, I am certain they will start sharpening them.

Edit 17 Dec 2021 - And lo and behold, the dagger sharpeners are out! If I was Boris I would guard my back and look in the mirror on an hourly basis counting the knives in my back. Perhaps I would just call it a day. If the by-election loss says anything, it says the people have had enough of the bumbling, incoherent, government led by an extrovert charlatan who cannot see the wood for the trees.

A muddle? Look no further than the UK...

How can a legal entity such as a government get into a muddle? Just look at the British Government. One gaff after another. It is due to badly thought out rules and regulations. Let’s look at the Covid muddle. What is Covid? Covid-19 is a nasty virus related to the common cold and flu. But this virus behaves a little bit different in that it attacks the airways much more severely especially the lungs. In some people with reduced resistance due to underlying illness the virus can be deadly. At best it can be survived with copious amounts of oxygen but even then there is evidence of long-lasting effects. So, a bit of a problem then isn’t it? Then we were faced with a plethora of laws and regulations most which were contradicting each other. The excuse? Ah we didn’t really know what we were facing! Look people, it was quite evident within a few weeks that this virus was incredibly fast in spreading, helped by our mania for travelling all over the globe. Most of it unnecessary. Did we stop it? No, certainly not. We waited to see what would happen. Now we know, we had to endure months of lock-down. If we had proper checking mechanisms at all the air and seaports, proper entry regulations and immigration procedures we could have minimised the effect of the virus. 

But we have opened Pandora’s box now and will have to endure whatever will and has already, come out of it. The frank truth of all of this is that there are too many people on this planet who insist on what they call freedom. Freedom to travel willy-nilly all over the place without restrictions. No-one now remembers the bubonic plague, basically brought to Europe including Britain by ships bringing lovely goods from the Far East including rats with fleas. The fleas simply transferred to humans and bingo! A disease killing millions because like Covid we had no resistance. It was new, it was like a maelstrom. Diseases such as that will find millions of willing takers, humans are served up like turkeys for Christmas. So, if we do not change our behaviour and do not change our approach then just go and sit down, smile and hope for the best. True, we won’t like what will be coming, we also won’t like all the restrictions, but if we, humanity, intend to live longer as a species beyond 2100 then there is really no alternative.

From navel-gazing to telescopes

Just for your information – is Britain the only country in the world with an excessive woke population? We must be the laughing stock of all times. A once great nation navel-gazing all day long! Tell you what, let’s invade France. That’ll put the cat among the pigeons! Grab Macron and send him to our new penal colony on one of the Outer Hebrides. Ah yes, I forgot, send Boris with him as well. That’s for allowing a party whilst everyone else was chained at home, not even allowed to talk to partners or dogs. Talking about penal colonies, you might remember our glorious invasion of what is now Australia, treating all the people there with absolute ‘kindness’. Slavery? Nah, we didn’t do any of that, we just put them to work without a salary. The working day was only 24 hours long. It was a doddle! Put that in your diary wokey people! Have a nice Christmas.

Something more interesting – I managed to get a reflector telescope. Not excessively large but a tidy one that will allow a splendid view of the planets as long as we have a clear night in Wales! That’s asking a lot I know but you can only hope. It came without a tripod, so I ordered one from a reputable company in London (any left though?). It needs calibrating but with the storms now I’ll have to wait. The finder scope needs to be set so that it aligns with the reflector and the whole thing needs to be stabilised, not forgetting to set the tripod towards North and also set the elevation to around 51.5 degrees latitude plus ensuring we set the positioning bubble right in the centre of the gauge. It is fun. Especially as my 10 year old granddaughter is very interested. In fact she tells me how to do it all. She also tells me how to behave and the things I can and cannot say anymore. I just wonder what they teach in schools today! At ten years of age she knows what non-binary means. Can you believe it? When I was 10 years old I was just worrying about the local football team - Ajax Amsterdam. Binary was another system to count like decimals.

Ah well, did I not say that the world has gone nuts? Or perhaps we in the UK are the only ones gone bonkers.

To be or not to be travelling...

With the renewed travel restrictions now going to be imposed the travel industry is complaining that it faces extinction! As its leaders stated, this is a hammerblow. Well, frankly what did they expect? You could argue that the government is letting all industry including the travel industry sort out its own problems. The government has always done this in this country. The coal industry in Wales and some other places was virtually closed down overnight without any thought of the consequences. Thousands of miners and support staff were just abandoned. Wales is still suffering the aftermath, problems with health, housing, infrastructure. I am afraid that the travel industry will also have to face a similar fate. Particularly in view of the damage aeroplanes make to the climate. Emissions of CO2 and other gases have to be eliminated. The problem of course is the same as happened in Wales. There will be thousands unemployed. There will be some help in that unemployment benefits are available but in the end everyone will have to find their own way. Various UK governments have been particularly bad at making decisions without effective research in possible aftermath scenarios. I suppose not just in the UK, it seems a worldwide problem with political decision making. In the past I have called this type of government ‘Stop-gap government’. You stop a gap, a problem solved. Great but because of that other gaps open up etc etc. The Thatcher era was particularly good at that.

Well, let’s hope that the government is not just using this way to curtail the travel industry and stop people flying but I am afraid inertia is rife in the hallowed halls of Westminster so don’t hold your breath just yet!

Hard lessons to learn?

You have to laugh at loud when you hear the TV news and read the editorials of the newspapers. I often think ‘What do people really expect?’ There is Putin parading all over the front pages among fears that he is going to invade the Ukraine. Friends, he might do that if we are going to behave as we did before WW2. Appeasement DOES NOT WORK. When will we here start to understand that? Appeasement will only embolden the adversary more. Of course the problems will not go away either but the advice is simple, just be aware and ensure your defences are up to scratch.

The frank truth about humans is also pretty simple, we are just animals but dangerous ones at that. Despite the very woke liberal elite who would have us think that everything is rosy if only we would stop swearing and have LBGT+ street parties. Basically on the whole we are quite efficient killers. 

I get my morning papers from a local Spar outlet and at around 7am the workers, drivers and similar are tanking up. It is incredible how basic most people are, obviously very little education and the language used seems one that the Atlanteans spoke. It makes me wonder how in all honesty we got where we are today. Because the greater number just don’t care a jot. Instead of worrying about whether we should be called non-binary or whatever, we ought to bother more about how we bring up the family. Celebrate the differences but also the equality of being human. Remembering we are not the only entity that matters on this planet. Where I live, in a small backyard town in the Rhondda Valley people throw more rubbish on the street than anywhere else. Plastics like cellophane from cigarette packs just waiting to be flushed into the river next to the road. Thrown by young people who protest about plastic in the seas and global warming. They might as well go home to bed and stay there. Dreaming about the next statue they want to topple into the harbour. Well, unless we all get a hard lesson, and maybe Covid is a lesson, things will not change. It will change when people start dying in huge numbers. Let’s hope we will learn our lessons quick!

Chickens coming home to roost? Well, maybe...

Are the chickens coming home to roost? It seems so, the legal case now performing concerning the question of whether Ms Maxwell procured underage girls for lovely days out on a sandy beach 2,000 miles away has undertones of our own Prince Andrew being allegedly involved. It remains to be seen whether he will get deeper into the mire. But as I said before and of course our legal system says the same, you are not guilty until proven. So, at present there is just a heck of a lot of circumstantial evidence, photographs of the Prince,oh sorry he said it wasn't him, in which case he has a very good double; and also evidence now given in Ms Maxwell's trial pertaining to him. 

It is quite the sordid case and shows in a big way the lifestyles and behaviour of the rich and powerful, both here and in the US. I don't know what you think, dear reader but it is about time that this swamp is drained. The carbuncle squeezed. There is no need to look up to these kind of people, they are depraved, deprived of any moral stand. They seem to enjoy molesting young girls and boys for their own enjoyment thinking they can get away with it because they're rich and are powerful. 

I don't want to take up a I am holier than thou stance but surely if we allow the rich and powerful to satisfy their depraved desires then we are halfway to destruction of our already fragile society. A society a lot of books have warned about. So, let's drain that swamp, indeed let's go after all of those 'friends' that 'enjoyed' Epstein's hospitality and throw the book at them. No matter how high and how powerful they were or are.