New workstation

I love my new workstation; 3.5 ghz and 8gb memory. I think it's mostly the memory that makes a difference, but I've noticed that a lot of web sites make extensive use of javascript, and the faster (and multicore) processor greatly reduces the delay on those. So logging finds at geocaching.com is a lot faster.

I use terminals a lot; logging into a whole bunch of remote servers. For that, I want a lot of terminal in a small space, because I have multiple terminals. For that, Lucinda is the font to use, but Lucinda wasn't there. So I googled around until I found it, installed it with Yum, and not I have Lucinda.

I'm using Fedora core 19, which uses Gnome 3.8 as the user interface. I've gotten used to Gnome version 2, so I missed the multiple workspaces that I can instantly switch between - it's like having several computers on the same keyboard, mouse and screen. I googled around, and found that I can install extensions to Gnome,so I did. I've installed:

Applications Menu, Panel Favourites, Taskbar and Window List. Between them, they make Gnome 3.8 a bit like Gnome 2, which is what I'm familiar with.

I also installed my usual Firefox extensions - Adblock Plus, Noscript, and Tineye Reverse Image Search.

Still to do:

I need to install the HMRC tax software, and Flash (I hate flash, but there's one web site that I have to use, that requires it). Most of the time I can leave it disabled.

... later ... I installed Flash, after a bit of a struggle, but when I installed the HMRC software, it put a button on the desktop, but it doesn't seem to run. Oh well. I only need to run this once per month for a few minutes; I'll probably just run it from the old computer.

More things to do:

I've ordered a cable to take the parallel header on the board, to a DB25 connector on the outside, so I can plug in my faithful old HP Laserjet 6p. And I've got a (so-called) silent power supply; since I'm on the same room as this computer, (which I've imaginatively named "workstation 1") I would like it to be quiet, since my Raspberry Pies are all totally silent. I think the trick in having quiet fans, is for them to be large and rotate slowly.

My plans to go to Southend tomorrow have been scuppered. I've been roped into an expedition to London to buy bridesmaids dresses. Fortunately, I've managed to avoid getting involved in the actual dress shopping, but I do have to go to London to visit daughter.1, grandson.1 and the lad who, I'm told, isn't daughter.1's boyfriend. The explanation about why I had to do this was too complicated for a male brain to comprehend, but maybe I can go out on Sunday. It's always good fun to visit daughter.1, and I have my laptop there so I'm not without computer power.

... later ...

I downloaded libpng12-1.2.50-3.fc19.i686.rpm and installed it. And the HMRC software worked!