COMPUTERS, THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY

[Stanley]

Sounds OK to me Tiz. Let's go for it Pluggy! Send me an email...... we'll arrange a date and time.

[Big Kev]

I've noticed a considerable speed increase when manipulating images in Photoshop, particularly when using the Image Processor function on multiple files, not bad for a machine made from redundant parts that were destined for the bin I do need to upgrade the network switch to handle the connectivity to the NAS but I can live with it for now...

My offspring is pleased with Stanley's old machine.

[Tizer]

I've been able to juggle some settings on the Ubuntu 18.04 to suit me better than the default. I found that installing Gnome Tweaks was useful for this. For example the default in 18.04 has the red `Close' symbol (X) on the R.H. side of every window whereas 16.04 and previous versions had it on the left. I find the left much easier to use and was relieved when I found it was simple to switch it over in Tweaks. All is going well. I was a bit over the top in my claim about booting in 1 second. Now I've timed it and have to admit it boots in 5 seconds and logs in in 1 second, haha!

[PanBiker]

I have an SSD drive in my Quad Core PC and that boots in about 5 seconds to Windows 10. Longest delay is processing the BIOS settings.

[Big Kev]

I have an SSD drive in my Quad Core PC and that boots in about 5 seconds to Windows 10. Longest delay is processing the BIOS settings.

The i5 machine I'm using is about the same Ian.

[Tizer]

Why do smartphones and tablets take so long to boot?

[Big Kev]

Limited processor and RAM...

[PanBiker]

Also because they have a lot of memory hungry background apps. Android is Linux based

[Pluggy]

I've been able to juggle some settings on the Ubuntu 18.04 to suit me better than the default. I found that installing Gnome Tweaks was useful for this. For example the default in 18.04 has the red `Close' symbol (X) on the R.H. side of every window whereas 16.04 and previous versions had it on the left. I find the left much easier to use and was relieved when I found it was simple to switch it over in Tweaks. All is going well. I was a bit over the top in my claim about booting in 1 second. Now I've timed it and have to admit it boots in 5 seconds and logs in in 1 second, haha!

I kept mine on the default side as its more mainstream with Windows traditionally sticking them on the right. (Heretic, burn him !!).

Upgrades on Ubuntu aren't anything like the nightmare they are on Windows 10. Some of my customers with slow laptops and who don't use them everyday are 2 feature updates behind because the machine isn't spending enough time turned on to keep up. A Windows 10 feature update (every 6 months) can take half an hour on a quick machine - its effectively an all new windows. Its best to leave the machine running overnight on a slow one. The favoured Windows 7 is 11 months from obsolete. All jolly good fun.

Android divorced itself from linux years ago. Theres way too much crap going on in a typical smartphone / tablet to get anything resembling performance. The insatiable appetite for profit and cheap doesn't do them any favours either.

[PanBiker]

Android OS Architecture

[Stanley]

Ubuntu is lightning fast on updates. 85mb takes about 5 minutes?
Am talking to Pluggy about a date. I have Val coming Wednesday for labour history so we'll do it after that.
Kev, glad the FM2 is still giving joy!

[Tizer]

I've added my Ubuntu Software Updater to the startup menu so that it checks and installs updates before I go online.
I should report that the upgrade of my previous PC to Ubuntu 18.04 was successful and Mrs Tiz is now using that machine.

I've got a couple of requests for advice on proposed purchases...
1. Mrs Tiz has decided she could do with a new monitor for her PC. I've looked on the web but there's all sorts of different types, a bit like the over-powering supermarket problem, and I'm not familiar with the various terms now used. All she wants is a straightforward monitor, 19-inch, not widescreen. We currently use LG monitors have found them good but the LG web site seems to want to mug us with models that are way over the top for our needs.

2. I currently use an external hard disk drive (Toshiba, 500GB) with it's USB powered connection to save backups. I'd like to get an external solid state drive equivalent but when I search on Amazon and elsewhere the sites keep showing a mixture of HDD and SSD instead of only SSD, and also showing internal instead of external. Any recommendations?

[Big Kev]

Is the HDD in your external USB drive SATA? If it is you should be able to replace just the drive in it. You may also want to check the external is USB3 as well (I presume the new machine has USB3 ports).

Pluggy is probably the best to advise, as he built it, but I thought I'd throw my tuppence worth in

[Tizer]

The new machine does have both USB 3.0 and USB 2.0. I don't understand your comment about SATA, the external HDD and replacing just the drive. My current Toshiba external drive for backups is probably about 10 years old and I don't know if it's SATA, there is nothing on the case. It's a metal case, looks like an old-fashioned cigarette case and has a short USB cable and it lives in the drawer of my desk. Perhaps I should be calling it `portable' rather than `external'?

[Pluggy]

Tiz's new machine is a SATA SSD. USB SSDs are basically USB memory sticks (aka USB flash drives) which is a well worn technology. You can get high capacity ones BUT (and its a big BUT) be very careful where you get them. Its a bl**dy minefield. If a 256GB is costing you less than £50 its almost certainly a fake. Its dead easy to make a small capacity one lie about its capacity and it will work well until its filled its real capacity and then its starts overwriting stuff. I'd steer clear of Ebay and Amazon. (Real Amazon will probably be OK, but Amazon's 'hanger ons' are a no no)

You can download free software to test USB flash drives which basically work by writing stuff to the stick until it reports its full and then seeing how much of it is actually retrievable. Look for h2testw for windows or FFF (find fake flash) for linux. You can do it manually using big files copied multiple times into seperate folders and when you've filled it go to each directory and see if you can get them back.

Did I say it was a minefield ?

Personally I'd stick with old fashioned 'spinning rust' USB hard drives for backing up stuff and live with the less than stellar performance.

Do not leave them plugged in all the time. If you get infected with a file encrypter virus (not really an issue in linux land but it could happen) it will happily encrypt the backup while its at it and you lose that as well. Its not connected to the PC at the time its safe.

[Big Kev]

I don't understand your comment about SATA, the external HDD and replacing just the drive. My current Toshiba external drive for backups is probably about 10 years old and I don't know if it's SATA, there is nothing on the case.

My external USB drive is a caddy with a 500gb Maxtor IDE HDD in it. If it was a 'newer' caddy that took SATA HDD the potential would have been there to swap or the HDD for an SSD and use the same caddy. Seems that yours is a different set up

[Tizer]

Thanks Kev for explaining that.

Pluggy, thanks for the warning, I'll get a good `old fashioned 'spinning rust' USB hard drive'.

Now, any thoughts about a new screen for Mrs Tiz? A 19-inch standard type that will be used for day to day PC work, email, browsing, viewing photos, writing documents.

Since writing the above I've read a web page about screens that says the 4:3 type that we use isn't sold any more.

[Big Kev]

No worries, just glad it made sense.

Plenty of deals around for monitors. This one won't take up much more room than your 19" 4x3 apart from being a bit wider

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/22-lg-2 ... id=3033768

It's a 'today only' deal (you've got until midnight to order it) and looks like a bargain to me.

Pluggy may be familiar with the company...

[Pluggy]

I think tiz will be familiar with Scan. I bought the parts for his machine there and I reused their packaging to ship the finished PC. It was still adorned with their branded parcel tape. Years ago when I was using BTBD you and pan-biker recommended them. Too many negative experiences with BTBD led me to them. I'm a fan now. Push comes to shove its about an hours drive from here. Their quick service allowed me to get Tiz his computer in a timely manner.

Make the most of having a desktop and get something 24" + . You might as well have a laptup if you've only got a small screen on a desktop.

[Stanley]

I agree about screens, much easier on your eyes, my iiyyama seems to be fine, never given trouble.
External HDD, I use a Samsung and another old brand which I forget and it's upstairs in the office. I always have them disconnected and not powered on.

[Tizer]

Thanks for the advice, guys. I didn't see Kev's post until this morning - the Scan web page now shows £77.98 is that more than yesterday?LINK

[Big Kev]

Thanks for the advice, guys. I didn't see Kev's post until this morning - the Scan web page now shows £77.98 is that more than yesterday?LINK

No, that was yesterday's price. Worth searching the site for 'Today Only' deals though in case there's a better offer

[Tizer]

I've just bought that screen at the £77.98 price and also a Seagate Maxtor external 1TB hard drive for about £40. I used their Live Chat to find out how I could see locations for click & collect delivery. They responded quickly and were very helpful. Thanks for the advice.

[Big Kev]

Good stuff

[Stanley]

Seagate! That's the brand of my second HDD Tiz and the same size. They were one of the early HDD makers weren't they. My screen is 27" diagonal measurement. Is that how they size them? It saved my sanity when I was going blind.....
Looking forwards to Pluggy breathing on me tomorrow......