I have a photography section on my website, and find that the Pinterest copies often are sometimes higher in search results than my originals. Indeed, a few times they have been appropriated by organizations (usually non-profits) for brochures and the like. Good thing that I'm not interested in "monetising" the pictures.

Best wishes,
Bob

It is from 2016. Now running LineageOS 18.1 (Android 11). No Google apps on it. I replace the battery once a year to keep it in good shape. This is easy since it is one of the last phones with a slide out battery. I've also had to replace the headphone jack module, again easy and inexpensive (15 minutes, £5.98). I've been happy with it.

Best wishes,
Bob

Gödel might have disagreed with this, although there are plenty of neo-logicists who would buy it, or something in the same neighbourhood.

Best wishes,
Bob

I found a big toe in the door, at least, and was surprised to find it. When my university moved to online teaching in March, using MS Teams, I thought I was going to have lots of trouble, since I only run linux. To my enormous surprise, there was a Teams version for Linux, which worked pretty well, and a more recent update of it, which works really well. It even allows for video4linux virtual cameras (so I can do some marginally fancy camera work, e.g., split screens, using OSB Studio).

Best wishes,
Bob
   

These are too big, too obvious.

Best wishes,
Bob

Background music, perhaps, although my notion of background music is along the lines of chamber music. Foreground music, not any time soon.

The last concert I went to was Haydn's Creation played by a good symphony orchestra and sung by a good choir (with exceptional soloists). Before that it was Mahler's 6th (Tragic) played by an outstanding symphony orchestra. I suspect that I'll be long dead and buried (burnt or composted) before anything like those sounds can be produced electronically, or even reproduced electronically (recordings are still pale reflections). Given that, I don't see any reason why it won't eventually happen.

Best wishes,
Bob

I was wondering why the last upgrade (Debian) on my server resulted (unhappily) in LibreOffice being installed.

Owncloud is very useful. I use it for file syncing, calendar, contacts, firefox (iceweasel) sync, etc. I've been using it for about 6 months, and, so far, it has been reliable.

Best wishes,
Bob
 

One of the neat things about having relatively powerful computers is that we can have standards in infrastructure while being able to tailor the interface to reflect our preferences. So, for example, I can use imap for e-mail, but have a wide variety of interfaces available. I use a full feature interface on a desktop (could be icedove; could be mutt), but a lighter interface on an Android device (K-9 mail). So, standardization across users is very well in its place, but its place isn't across the user interface. Thanks, Debian folks, for providing lots and lots of alternatives. (I use awesome window manager + rxvt + gnuit/gitfm + ....)

Best wishes,
Bob
     

More the bowdlerized version.

Best wishes,
Bob

I have linux installed on my Asus Fonepad side by side with Android, allowing me to turn my phone/tablet into a nifty little netbook (using a bluetooth keybord). I like having a full LaTeX installation available, if I want to do some writing. It isn't clear to me that I could do this without root (especially if I want to run services on privileged ports). If I can't do this with Android 4.3, I will have to rethink upgrading to it, when it becomes available.

Best wishes,
Bob

There are lots of licenses around, but I would say that if you can't fork it, it isn't open source.

Best wishes,
Bob

I suspect that you are correct. That certainly describes my situation and my wife's. I built a desktop with an Intel i3 2100 and SSD storage when Sandybridge mini-itx boards became available. I've no desire or motivation to change it. It does what I want. I run a lightweight "roll your own" desktop, using the awesome window manager as the base.

However, I have bought a number of computers since then: An Intel DM2800MT motherboard to build a router/NAS/owncloud/music streamer/etc., 2 x Raspberry PI's for dedicated NTP servers, 2 x Nokia N800 devices (used) for streaming music, 2 x Allwinner A10 based Android tablets for streaming music, and an Asus Fonepad for phone, tablet, ereader and netbook. (In netbook mode, the Fonepad runs full-fat linux and I use a bluetooth keyboard).

In the near future, I can see myself buying more low power (both in energy use and CPU goodness) computers for specialized tasks.much more easily than seeing myself buying another full-fledged desktop.

Best wishes,
Bob

I switched to linux from CP/M (ZCPR) when a linux distribution became available. One gets settled in one's ways and finds it difficult to switch to an OS using a completely different paradigm.

Best wishes,
Bob
     

One of the things I've liked most about linux (and other *nix systems, such as FreeBSD) is that a system is build up of small programs that you can combine in various ways to get someone that pleases you, the user. That's the unix way. For example, my "desktop" is a combination of a number of programs, including a display manager, window manager, terminal, and file manager. It turns out that I can replace one part (for whatever reason) and get an overall desktop that works in the same way. And it has looked the same for some time. Some might think it reflects an unwillingness to change, others might think it reflects a desire for some consistency and predictability. Take your pick.

This consistency over time is difficult to maintain with the monolithic, graphically orientated programs such as firefox/iceweasel, thunderbird/icedove[1], and the Gimp. This is sad making. What would be nice is if firefox provided basic services, e.g., a first rate rendering engine/Gecko, while making most of the rest of it (e.g., interface) simply a set of addons. That would be the unix way.

[1] For a variety of reasons, I had to move from using mutt and remind to icedove and iceowl. This was over a year ago, and I'm still trying to recover from the shock.

Best wishes,
Bob

Many courses have prerequisites and/or require a certain ability or talent. Not everyone will have the require prerequisites, ability and talent. Even good teaching can't overcome a lack of all of these.

Having easy access means that people can have a go, even if it looks, on paper, that they aren't qualified for the particular course. What matters is that they think they can do the work, or, at least, they hope they can do the work. The hope educationally is that some will succeed who wouldn't meet standard admissions criteria, and that more people will take the chance who wouldn't if the costs in time (including fitting it in with other responsibilities) and money were much higher.

My view is that we want to lower the risks to the students and the folks offering the courses while retaining very high standards.

Best wishes,
Bob