Thursday, July 05, 2012

The Higgs Boson

Well, what are your thoughts about the discovery of this new sub-atomic particle?

It seems that a lot particle physicists including Professor Brian Cox, are over the
moon about it. I have my doubts about it all, however ... but then who would
take my side ... an ignoramus like me? Could this particle be entirely man-made
... artificially created by these collision experiments?

I can see how this research can satisfy the curiosity of the top physicists, but
what 
is the practical benefit of it all?

Will it help us in future years, devise a safer form 
of energy production than
nuclear power, or help us become more effective 
at harnessing the power of
sunlight, the wind and the waves? This is the research
that we should be spending
more money on, and focusing all our attention on.


The fossil fuels that we take for granted: oil, petrol and gas, will gradually run out,
possibly in our children's life-time, which I think is a very worrying prospect.

The school "sports day" we went to last weekend, went very well ... it was well
organised and had an Olympic theme to it. It wasn't a sports day really ... it was
more of a huge garden party, mainly for the children. Some time next week, I'll
post some photos of the event onto my Flickr site, for you to see.

I mentioned already that I'm looking into using Ubuntu Linux on my Windows XP
PC, partly to improve the PC's performance (as it's become very slow), but also
to extend the life of the PC. I don't wish to scrap it when Microsoft stops
supporting Windows XP in April 2014, and then feel obliged to buy another PC
with 
Windows 8 on it.

What I've found out is that you can run Ubuntu Linux alongside Windows XP on
a PC or laptop ... and you can switch between the two, by a dual booting facility
set up by WUBI ... have a look at these links, if you're interested ...

http://www.howtogeek.com/96541/the-painless-way-to-ditch-your-old-windows-xp-for-a-more-secure-linux/

http://download.cnet.com/Wubi/3000-2094_4-10701841.html

I've also found this YouTube video all about Linux (one of many vids) ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6z6hn6wZlg



The good thing about this is that I will be able to carry on using Photoshop 
Elements on the Windows XP side of my PC, for processing RAW images, and
use Ubuntu Linux 
for everything else.

No need to buy Windows 8, and no need to buy Microsoft 
Office. Ubuntu has
Libre Office, which is said to be similar to Open Office (or I 
could switch over to
using OO, if I so wish).  At present, I use OO for creating text documents, PDFs,

slide shows and spreadsheets also ... no fancy "ribbon" toolbars that you see
with Microsoft Office.

I've already downloaded Ubuntu Linux (12.04) via WUBI onto my PC, but I'm
having to borrow a friend's wired keyboard, to be able to switch it into Ubuntu
mode when 
initially booting the PC up. I've got a wireless keyboard (with a wireless
mouse), 
so I'll be looking for drivers for these, so I can use them with Ubuntu.

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I use Ubuntu 12.04 now, but like yourself I keep Windows XP in a different partition on this computer just so that I can use Photoshop.

I now find that I can use use Inkscape in conjunction with Gimp to do far more that I could with Photoshop so I will be removing Windows now.

12:22 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Here are some Inkscape links in order of watching for you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUWAUfWVaOo&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_Kw10dDKkY&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8uTAvTYwDc&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyzdrBTDJ7M&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUj8_1LYJ9I&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vBLcCtLoVg&feature=related

They may be of some use.

12:27 pm  
Blogger justin said...

Thanks for your comments, Keith. I'll email you this weekend about using GUFW ,,, I don't understand how to set up various "rules" to allow specific traffic into my computer. (More about this in my email).
I have used Inkscape successfully in the past, to create a few colourful logos. I'll have a look at the links you sent me, this coming weekend. Ta very much.

10:00 pm  

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