Garf, Author at Garfnet

“This Is HansinUngarn, from Pécs Hungary…”

ByGarf 2014-01-102024-07-18

“…playing his favourite music, I hope you like it.”

These are the first words you will hear when you connect to the internet radio stream of Radio Pécs International. And I recently had the pleasure of meeting the man behind the show, Hans Randau. His station is located in a small basement room in his lovely home, which overlooks Pécs, a Mediterranean style town about 200km south of the Hungarian capital, Budapest.

Digital Images | Hungary | Journal | Photography | Travelogue

Pecs at Christmas

ByGarf 2014-01-012024-07-18

Spent the Christmas with my girlfriend’s parents in Pecs, Hungary. They are lovely people and Pecs is a lovely place. And there is always something quite special about central European Christmases. (More pictures to follow)

2013 Retrospective

ByGarf 2013-12-312024-07-18

2013 was quite an interesting year for me, not least because we finally moved way from my tiny terraced cottage overlooking Southampton common, to a much larger place, where there is enough room for a reasonably usable home studio. Only moved 35km, but it felt like moving to another planet. Of course, it takes a…

Christmas Cards | Garf Technology | Journal

Merry Christmas 2013

ByGarf 2013-12-242024-07-18

Christmas card 2013. Ebenezer Goose at St Faith’s, Havant. In 935AD, Havant was known as “Hamafunta” – the spring of Hama – referring to the water spring to the south-west of St Faith’s Churchyard. The settlement was located at the crossing point of the track from the Downs to the coast and another track running…

Digital Images | Journal | Nature | Photography | Travelogue

Weald and Downland Museum

ByGarf 2013-09-082024-07-18

2013-09-08 we had a family outing to the Weald and Downland living museum, Sussex, England. In addition to being a very interesting place to take a camera, it is also home to a gaggle of particularly photogenic white Embden geese. Having a gander I always enjoy photographing geese. They are curious creatures and they always…

About GarfNet | Journal | Site Blog

Eighteen Years of GarfNet

ByGarf 2013-08-182024-07-18

1995-08-18 to 2013-08-18 Editors note: quite a lot of this article is obsolete. The site has changed quite a lot since 2013! GarfNet is penguin-powered and full of unixy goodness! Yep! we’re “open source” and enjoying every moment of it. GNU/Linux is serving us so well that there is hardly a whiff of the mighty…

Christmas Cards | Garf Technology | Journal

Merry Christmas 2012

ByGarf 2012-12-252024-07-18

Mr Goose’s (not so) secret Yuletide hideaway.

Digital Images | General | Journal | Photography

Pictures to sell a house with

ByGarf 2012-02-272024-07-18

Trying to sell our house and move somewhere with a bit more room. However the pictures taken by various estate agents (realtors if you are American) are nothing short of bloody awful. So I thought I’d have a crack at it myself.

Christmas Cards | Garf Technology | Journal

Merry Christmas 2011

ByGarf 2011-12-112024-07-18

Christmas card 2011. “Ebenezer Goose discusses his Christmas dinner.” More goosy nonsense courtesy of Mr.Goose’s infamous Webfooted Weblog:- https://garfnet.org.uk/mrgoose Take a trip down memory lane and browse all our earlier Christmas cards in our special on-line Christmas Card Anthology:- https://garfnet.org.uk/cms/category/christmas-cards/ Image was created/edited using GIMP, a free, open source graphics package bundled with many Linux…

Digital Images | General | Journal | Photography | Technology

Steampunk watchstraps

ByGarf 2011-07-222024-07-18

I seem to have accumulated quite a lot of old wrist watches that have no straps (or “bands” if you are American). So I needed to figure out a way of being able to use them. Then I saw these straps on eBay. They are genuine leather and they only cost a few quid a…

Christmas Cards | Garf Technology | Journal

Merry Christmas 2010

ByGarf 2010-12-252024-07-18

Christmas card 2010, “The Old Cemetery in the Snow.” The Old Cemetery runs alongside Southampton Common, about 800 metres from where I live and work. It is a beautiful and peaceful place at any time of year. However, it seems particularly photogenic after a heavy snowfall. Earlier Christmas cards:- https://garfnet.org.uk/cms/category/christmas-cards

Journal | Linux | Making an x16 Pro work on Linux | Technology

Novatech X16 Pro | Clevo W76TUN review

ByGarf 2010-01-092024-07-18

My first introduction to the Novatech *16 Series was in the Beginning of October 2009 when I bought one for my mum & put Ubuntu 9.10 64 bit c/w Medibuntu multimedia thus saving eighty-five quid (or more) Microsoft Tax. My mum is in her seventies and she really does not like computers at all. Interestingly, she…

Christmas Cards | Garf Technology | Journal

Merry Christmas 2009

ByGarf 2009-12-242024-07-18

Christmas card 2009. “Ebenezer Goose does his Christmas Shopping” Earlier Christmas cards:- https://garfnet.org.uk/cms/category/christmas-cards Mr.Goose’s infamous Webfooted Weblog:- http://garfnet.org.uk/mrgoose

Journal | Linux | Making an x16 Pro work on Linux | Technology

Novatech/Clevo E16 & X16 Wireless Networking under Ubuntu Linux

ByGarf 2009-12-092024-07-18

This was actually rather annoying. These days one rather expects wireless networking to work “out of the box”. Anyway, seems the fix is reasonably simple. These instructions are very specific and therefore need to be followed exactly. They assume you are using the 64 bit version of (K)Ubuntu. I’m also assuming you are using Firefox…

Journal | Linux | Microsoft Windows Tax Scam | Technology

Trying to buy a PC without Windows part 6 – Lenovo

ByGarf 2009-11-272024-07-18

IBM is not one of Microsoft’s biggest fans, particularly after it was well-and -truly shafted in the OS/2 fiasco. So it seems very surprising that its subsidiary Lenovo refuses absolutely to provide any refunds for unwanted Microsoft Licenses, thus completely ignoring the Microsoft EULA. 2009-11-26 12:57 Good afternoon Garfield Unfortunately we are unable to advise…

Journal | Linux | Microsoft Windows Tax Scam | Technology

Trying to buy a PC without Windows part 5 – Acer, the most shameful response so far

ByGarf 2009-11-262024-07-18

On 2009-11-26, I wrote to Acer UK to establish what its policy was regarding the Microsoft Tax. This was its response:- Hello, Thank you for contacting Acer. Regarding your enquiry, The value would be £33.95 for vista home premium. This can only be refunded within 30 days of purchase and to get it refunded you…

Journal | Linux | Technology

Struggling to make Ubuntu look good with Blubuntu

ByGarf 2009-10-232024-07-18

Editor’s note: This article is old and outdated. Blubuntu was eventually fixed in 2010. KDE4 also went on to be really rather good too. That was until they messed it up again with KDE5, but that is showing signs of being rather good now (2018-12-27) too. Seems that Canonical has woken up to the fact…

Journal | Linux | Technology

Stop software patents in Europe

ByGarf 2009-09-262024-07-18

Editor’s note: this petition dates back to 2009 and can no longer be signed. However, you can still visit the site if you wish. The patent system is misused to restrain competition for the economical benefit of a few but fails to promote innovation. A software market environment is better off with no patents on…

Journal | Linux | Microsoft Windows Tax Scam | Technology

Upgrade to 64 bit Goosebuntu (9.04 & 9.10)(Jaunty & Karmic)

ByGarf 2009-09-012024-07-18

This is a relatively quick and very effective way to beef up your (K)Ubuntu installation. In other words, it’s how to install all your favorite Ubuntu apps all in one go! Note this primarily applies to (K)Ubuntu 9.04 & 9.10 (Jaunty & Karmic), 64 bit versions. For (K)Ubuntu 8.04 please visit earlier (and possibly outdated)…

Journal | Linux | Technology

Upgrading Ubuntu 9.x to Kubuntu 9.x

ByGarf 2009-09-012024-07-18

Firstly, as ever, please back up anything that is important – as you would with any major upgrade on any computer system! Then you can either use the Synaptic package manager or in this instance it is probably quicker to install from a Terminal window. First you need to ensure the system is fully up…

Journal | Linux | Microsoft Windows Tax Scam | Technology

Trying to buy a PC without Windows part 4 – eBuyer

ByGarf 2009-08-092024-07-18

This is the fourth article in a series of case studies illustrating the difficulty one has purchasing a PC in the UK without being forced to pay a “Microsoft Tax”. We use Linux on all our PC’s and have done so for several years. Therefore we do not need, nor should we be forced to…

Journal | Linux | Microsoft Windows Tax Scam | Technology

Update – Laptops Direct

ByGarf 2009-07-142024-07-18

We eventually did hear back from Laptops direct. Amazingly, its sales team openly admits that it ignores the Microsoft EULA! So nil penguin points! But if there were a category for honesty then it would get plenty of penguins! The emails are in reverse order and since I guess the sales person is just “following…

Journal | Linux | Microsoft Windows Tax Scam | Technology

Why we object to the Microsoft Windows Tax

ByGarf 2009-07-142024-07-18

Rationale At the moment, everyone who buys a PC from a UK supplier has to buy a Microsoft Windows license whether they want it or not. One has no choice, it is included in the price one pays. So, even if you are using one of the many free alternative operating systems such as Ubuntu,…

FAQ | Journal | Linux | Technology

Surely Ubuntu Linux is only for a minority of geeks & programmers?

ByGarf 2009-07-122024-07-18

Minority interest? Yes. Only used by geeks & programmers? Not necessarily… Ubuntu is a minority interest insofar as it only has a fraction of the users that M$ Windows has. Moreover, despite great improvements in recent years, some configuration issues with Ubuntu are still a pain. However I disagree that you need to be a…

Journal | Linux | Microsoft Windows Tax Scam | Technology

Update – Dell

ByGarf 2009-07-112024-07-18

This is an update to the Dell OS-free laptop fiasco:- http://www.garfnet.org.uk/joomla/index.php? option=com_content&view=article&id=182&Itemid=331 Seems that whilst Dell cannot be bothered to respond to our enquires with regard to buying laptops OS-free, or whether it is prepared to refund customers for unused Microsoft licenses as per Microsoft’s EULA, it is however perfectly happy to spam its customers…