Merry Christmas 2007
Wishing all our readers a very merry, peaceful Christmas And a happy, successful New Year… “Mr. Penguin and Mr. Goose, on a very frosty Hungarian day.”
Author: Garf
I want a really good website but I don’t want to pay for it!
Before you read any further, you need to ask yourself some questions. What do you actually want? A social networking site such as Myspace? A freebie site such as Moonfruit? A freebie to host pictures like Flickr, Photobucket or even GarfNet Pictures? Or do you want a fully functioning business website that you can edit…
FAQ | Journal | Linux | Technology
Wouldn’t it be better if there were only one Linux?
“The world doesn’t need lots of different operating systems” seems to be the prevailing wisdom of the moment. But I would question that. Why? Do we also need only one type of car, or one type of television? OK there are those who say the world would be a better place without either. But would…
Journal | Linux | Technology
XO (one laptop per child) rolls of production line
With all the misery in the world, I think this project is actually quite heart-warming. The XO laptop (AKA the $100.00 laptop), is the brainchild of Nicholas Negroponte from MIT and former United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan. It is designed for children in the majority world. The first machines started rolling off the Changshu…
FAQ | Journal | Linux | Technology
Cannot upgrade from Feisty to Gutsy
2007-10-18 saw the release of the latest Ubuntu & Kubuntu Linux, version 7.10, also known as Gutsy. Unfortunately a number of users are having difficulties with the upgrade. Seems that either the “Version Upgrade” button doesn’t show in your package manager… https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/15370 Or if it does show then you cannot go much further. Adept users…
Please may I have GarfNet Pictures account?
Editors note 2024-07-06: The old Coppermine gallery is closing shortly and we are no longer hosting users’ images on GarfNet. It has been replaced with a NextGen Gallery instance that is closely integrated with our WordPress based CMS, and only manages images pertaining to this site. We have a fairly large picture site over at…
FAQ | Journal | Linux | Technology
Ok so I installed Ubuntu but I hate the Gnome desktop?
If you want a version of Ubuntu that looks & feels like more like your familiar Windoze XP then try the free upgrade to Kubuntu. Kubuntu uses the KDE desktop. IMHO KDE is loads nicer and much more feature-rich than either Windoze or the Gnome desktop. As well as being highly customisable, KDE makes extensive…
Digital Images | Electronics | FAQ | Journal | Photography | Technology
Buying tips
These days I am more concerned with bangs-per-buck rather than the latest, greatest technology. This kit is so disposable nowadays and the technology changes so quickly that I think you need to adopt a completely different purchase strategy. This is my strategy for consumer durables such as digital cameras and computers… Do some research and…
FAQ | Journal | Linux | Technology
Will Google be the new Microsoft?
Well they say absolute power corrupts. On the other hand the two companies are quite different. The corporate ethos and the attitude towards creativity are almost complete opposites. For example, I never heard any Google execs reported as using expressions such a “embrace, extend and extinguish“… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Embrace,_extend_and_extinguish And I think or at least I…
What is the best image library management system for me?
Singapore vs SimpleViewer vs Coppermine? All three of these are excellent products. However, the expression horses for courses leaps to mind here. These are quite different in they way they work and are aimed at very different markets. Just because a particular product is better for me, it doesn’t mean it is neccessarily better for…
About GarfNet | FAQ | Journal | Site Blog
How does GarfNet manage its image library?
Editor’s note 2018-01-01: Coppermine has been deprecated and we are no longer actively adding to it, nor are we accepting content on it from third-party users. The following text is kept here purely for historical purposes. We’ve been using Coppermine (a free, open source PHP/MYSQL gallery & database system) for several years here on GarfNet….
Posting pictures on GarfNet Coppermine
Editor’s note 2018-01-01: Coppermine has been deprecated and we are no longer actively adding to it, nor are we accepting content on it from third-party users. The following text is kept here purely for historical purposes. Whilst most of this is already covered in the “General rules for posting material on GarfNet“, I would like…
Journal | Linux | Technology
Another reason to be cheerful
You can finally dump Windows! Several people people have written in asking questions along the lines of, "why are you dumping Windows and using Linux instead?" The answer is simply that we now have overwhelming technical, financial and perhaps most importantly, moral reasons for no longer wishing to use Microsoft software – if it can…
FAQ | Journal | Linux | Technology
How to install PHPRunner 4.0 on Ubuntu Linux
PHPRunner is arguably the best PHP scripting tool currently available. Trouble is that at time of writing, there is only a version for M$ Windoze. This explains how I managed to persuade it work under Linux using Codeweavers CrossoverOffice 6.1.0 – a comercial implementation of WINE. First, I downloaded PHPRunner 4.0 “Build 264” – the…
Journal | Linux | Technology
Windows applications running successfully on Linux using WINE
At time of writing, we have got all the following Windoze apps running very adequately on Linux – using either WINE or Codeweavers Crossover (a commercial implementation of WINE). Of course we have replaced many legacy Windoze applications with equivalent (or sometimes better) Linux apps. Other Windoze apps are currently irreplaceable. This is an assessment…
Journal | Linux | Technology
Vista woes might lead us to better things
We bought a couple of IBM Lenovo 3000C200 laptop PCs in 2007 May. These are fairly average 1700MHz laptops purchased from a UK supplier called eBuyer for around 300 quid a throw. These came preloaded with the basic version of Windows Vista. To describe Vista’s performance as dismal would be understatement of the year. Problems…
FAQ | Journal | Linux | Technology
Persuading ThumbsPlus for Windows to work on Ubuntu Linux
This is a crude but effective way to make one of my favourite Windows applications, Cerious Software’s ThumbsPlus! version 6 or 7 work reasonably well on Linux, by using Codeweavers Crossover. This is something of a bodge and it has come about more by trial and error rather than by rational scientific reasoning – so…
FAQ | Journal | Linux | Technology
FHS (File Hierarchy System) on Unix-like operating systems such as Linux
The Linux file system can seem a little strange especially for those coming from an M$ Windoze background. This is my humble attempt at debunking it and perhaps making it a little easier to understand. Several main differences… There are some important differences between the DOS/Windows type file system and the system used by Unix-derived…
FAQ | Journal | Linux | Technology
Can I get my scanner | printer | copier | teamaker | etc. working on Linux?
These days, seems a lot of folks are ringing or emailing me asking how to get their printer | scanner | trouser-press | etc. working under Linux. Surprisingly, some devices actually are very easy indeed to install under Linux. For example, almost any laser printer that has Postscript will work with the generic Linux Postscript…
All fixed now!
Apologies to readers who had difficulty accessing this site between 2007-07-12 & 2007-07-20. We suffered several simultaneous technical issues including a cock-up on the part of British Telecom and a hard disk failure in the GarfNet server. We also had some essential maintenance that needed doing, including to upgrading the operating system and various content…
About Joomla
Editor’s note: this article was written when GarfNet first changed from a hand-written HTML site to a CMS driven one. Sadly, Joomla failed us in many ways, not least the fact we went through several soul-destroying upgrades that took longer to sort out than if I had coded the site by hand. Today we use…
Go Trabi Go!
I found myself at the 50th Anniversary Trabifest in Zwickau in the former East Germany. Not sure I fully understand the enthusiasm for these funny little cars – though I did find myself becoming bitten by the bug. I guess there is a large cultural element to this phenomenon. It seems the humble Trabi has…
Summer in Pécs, Hungary
Summer in Pécs, Hungary. Trip to Tetye to meet Charles Barca, the guy behind Black Panther Linux.
Lunar Eclipse
A few snaps of this evenings lunar eclipse.
Digital Images | Journal | Linux | Photography | Travelogue
Riddings Drop-in and Lincoln Cathedral
Yesterday we drove to Lincoln to meet Robert Simpson, the guy behind the the Riddings Drop in Centre internet café. Today we had a day off, time to take some snaps of the beautiful Lincoln Cathedral.