Hmmm … well, there’s a thing … !!
He says …
I’ve got to admit, I’ve been over Movie Night Paul’s, today; bless him, he’s managed to get himself a second hand computer.
Quite a big beast of a second hand computer, actually; back when Apple introduced the Mac Pro*, they made a big deal of the fact it was cheaper than the equivalently spec’d Dell*, by about £500. 
And I’m thinking that’s what Paul’s managed to get hold of, IS one of those Dells!
Either way — and I’m hoping Kelly and Ronnie are paying attention — I know he’s managed to make use of the copy of Ubuntu Studio I’d given him a couple of days ago. 
Actually, I’ve got to admit, I’m mildly impressed with what I’ve seen of it.
I’d actually headed over to his place, with Allison — who needed to get out, after hearing about an old friends sudden and rather unexpected death — to see if any of the stuff I’d downloaded would be of any use. And to drop off the Jaunty Jackalope settings for an O2 mobile Dongle.
Paul, bless him is on worse money than most of us, so, from where he’s sitting, the O2 dongle on has a very attractive price … and a much stronger signal than the equivalent gadget from 3.
More on that, anon …
But Paul, Allison and I had a good natter, today, about all sorts of things; computer’s, ostriches, scooters and llamas included.
Don’t ask.
Just don’t!
But, at any rate, I do know Paul let me have a butcher’s at the Studio’d up Dell; which is where I learnt a few things.
For one thing, Paul’s got two small, but workable, hard drives in the Beastie; one running a pretty much standard installation of Ubuntu, the other running Ubuntu Studio.
Amateur musician that he is, Paul’s installed Ubuntu Studio with the various audio options — and applications — enabled.
And from I saw, that’s a bewildering amount of applications … ! Complete with various music players, mixing desks, at least one software based synth, loop generators and quite a lot of others!
Including a copy of open source recording — and music making — application, Audacity; untutored musical idjit that I am, Audacity is something I’ve used to make one-of-a-kind ring-tones for my mobile phone. Either through exporting looped bits of audio, or — for the most part — plugging a mic into the back of the Mini, and getting going.
Which was something I was able to share with Paul; all he’s got to do now, is connect up a guitar, and a mic …
•••••
Mind you, there is a downside to this, though …
That’s the simple fact that, unlike the regular release of Ubuntu, Ubuntu Studio is aimed at someone — like Paul — who’s at least semi-serious about using their computer as a pro-level digital recording studio.
The problem with that, of course, is that Ubuntu Studio doesn’t — out of the box — have the option to hook up to the net via a mobile broadband dongle.
For those of us with a touch more money, this isn’t a problem; it’ll hook up to a regular modem, in much the same ways as Mac OS X, Windoze, and even the mainstream version of Ubuntu.
That’s going to be an issue for him, I think, until he can afford a landline. But, if nowt else, he does have that extra drive, with the regular flavour of Ubuntu on it. Which — I’m guessing — means he’ll be getting a mobile dongle, and getting hooked on some of Facebook and Twitter’s sillier online games, just like the rest of us …
But it does put him at a disadvantage, for hooking up Studio …
Bit of bad form, on the part of Ubuntu Studio’s makers, I think.
•••••
At any rate, let’s move on, shall we?
Shall we?
Yes, let’s!
Something I do know is that I did get ticked off by Sara Bartleman, about the fridge-freezer, I didn’t know that we were supposed to make any arrangements with Brentwood Council, and then put waste out, on the day it’s due to be collected; otherwise things get seriously nasty.
There’s a problem with that …
It seems, from the natter me and me Mum had with Brentwood Council about it, we couldn’t have done it like that, anyway. According to the woman Mum spoke to, when she was asking about it, we’d’ve had to pay the collection fee for it — £16, in this case — and then left out the fridge-freezer for collection. Which would’ve been any day from the day after we’d paid the fee, up until five days later.
Hmmm …
Leave something like that indoors, to crowd your flat — which has very limited space — , when you don’t know when it’ll be collected …
Or find a friend with a small truck that doesn’t mind helping you up to the tip, with something like that. (I’m not sure how many of my friends actually drive, let along have a small SUV! I know I’ve only used my visitor’s permit a couple of times …)
Or put the blessed thing outside, whilst it’s awaiting collection. And get done for a technical breach of tenancy.
Hmmm … Yummy set of options … !
Oy!
•••••
Wonderful world we live in, isn’t it?
But at any rate, I do know that, if nothing else, somebody’s managed to catch the open source wave, and combine it with the Fairtrade movement. And come up with a drink for geeks!
My question?
* From what I’ve picked, over the years, the type of machine we’re talking about are known as work-stations, and are usually quite powerful, compared to the run-of-the-mill desktops you or I would have at home, or in the office. I know most of the Mac Pro’s have 1 640Gb hard drive as spec; all are capable of holding up to 4 terabytes, and being fitted with 16Gb of RAM. The top of the range monsters can hold 32Gb of RAM. This is before you start looking at the various expansion slots, and the extra monitors it’s capable of supporting … !
