Somnolence, painting lessons and Ubuntu ran

An increasingly somnolent day day due to an emerging migraine that fortunately could be addressed medicinally and through a temporary return to bed in the afternoon.

In between, there was an art lesson for Mrs and Miss T on my accrued Chinese Brush painting skills after our satisfying Sunday roast. I first demonstrated and then the two ladies endeavoured to follow, with fair success. We tried three of the four seasons; Plum Blossom, Bamboo and Orchid and I was most pleased to find that my persistence and practice throughout my course had paid off when compared to the passable efforts of the others in the family.

The late evening brought on a reminder of the weakness of the otherwise excellent open source Linux system when compared to Windows, namely deficiencies in some easy solutions, for example in running the BluRay player on my laptop.

Linux cannot currently play BluRay using the Ubuntu standard installations as of this date. This is apparently primarily due to attempts by the BluRay producers and other operating systems to limit access through Open Source software.

A search on the internet did suggest solutions using, amongst others, software named DumpHD. The false sense of security engendered by finding this amongst the applications in the easy to use Ubuntu Software Applications centre, was shattered by the non functioning of the software, primarily made additionally difficult by not being immediately apparent on any program menu.

However, I persisted and downloaded a separate version that required unpackaging and then running through "The Terminal". Being a novice in the use of the terminal language, i am reliant on instructions from others, with which I was able to finally install and run the DumpHD software, only for it to cease progressing due to its inability to access a further component. I did delve a bit further but came upon the wall of jargon and incomprehensible notes that made me give up in disgust.

Now, the cynical devotees or occasional readers of this blog my raise an eye brow at my comments to follow on the necessity for providing clear and simple information in a readily assimilateable form. After all, this blog delights in using superfluous vocabulary and convoluted sentences. However, this blog aims to do precisely that as an antidote to the more communicative and effective simple language in my other blogs - it is just for entertainment.

In contrast, the technical blogs that frequent the solutions panels surrounding Linux and other software solutions are often so far removed from the capabilities of even the modestly competent computer operator as to be near useless to anyone other than a few select acolytes in the chosen field. Personally, iI feel a Gold Award system should be introduced to give public recognition to those who can provide software solution descriptions at my meagre competence level!