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  • Happy new year.. 2024 to 2025

     

    I wrote this ahead of time, so it may well be about 7 days out of date and anything can change. So you are hopefully reading this on the 31st December 2024, that means…

    Happy New Year

    I hope!

    So I’ll do this review thing, what happened?

     

    • Got promoted to CO4 from CO3 in July 2024, that was a really unexpected thing to happen. I failed my first CO4 interview but I was suffering at the time and so I was expecting it.
    • Learnt another trade at work. I was previously in Timings, I’m now in Train Crew and one of the things I’ve made a habit of doing now, is asking train crew for their diagrams and get feedback on how its gone, I’ve learnt a lot and so have they.
    • Actually volunteered for several events at work. Worked at Ascot, Portsmouth AND Twickenham. More than I did last year.
    • I don’t like talking about money, but that has got a lot better as the year has gone by.
    • Seen more of the UK, done the Far North Line (Inverness to Wick/Thurso) on a really warm March day! That was a big thing as its the furthest north I’ve been. Previously, it was Dingwall. Also been to the Isle Of Man for the second or third time in my life.
    • Finn and Bailey have now formed a very strong bond to me, these are 2 dogs, both setters that I haven’t talked much about but will do one day. Finn is particularly interesting as he is a rare breed.
    • Joined a gym!
    • Finally and this is a thing for me, been on a century old tram. Why is it big? Well, the only place you can find them next to the newer trams is Blackpool and every time I go to Blackpool, I miss them. I also did the Blackpool North tram extension not long after it opened by mistake.

    The bad bits though and thus missed the mark.

    • Still single which is really dragging me down
    • I’ve done one unexpected thing this year and I’m not proud of it, its to do with my personal life and very few know about it (I want to keep it that way).
    • I’m still living in my dads place – I live with my dad that I’ve probably never mentioned and sometimes, it gets very heated with how things go in the house. He has a physical disability but still can do things, but I feel I do a lot more than I should and it drains me.
    • I’ve not done as much Trainz work as I like.

     

    Now you may of noticed a theme, I didn’t mention the blog, which is the start. The reason I didn’t is because the first 3 bad points is the reason I started it, my mental health has been quite frankly appalling this year for stress reasons and for once, its not my job. Interestingly, I go to the office, I want to go in every day despite my dad telling me to work at home. I’ll even work as long as I can or need to on something and if I am knee deep in deadlines, I will basically work until something gives in, like I got pretty dry one day and started coughing as I was focused on my deadline. My fault entirely. Then my eyes started stinging so had to take a break. These are things I am bad at. I also bottle up a lot of problems, with the problem on the train, it  had been going on for 6 months and if I am honest, its a 2 way thing. I got an interest in this individual, I’ll be open about it but what worries me is the answer of “no”. Like a lot of things, I had someone at work about halfway through the year, I knew her name anyway but I wanted to keep it quiet, however I wanted to point out something about ASD, she may of dropped loads of hints of interest I am guessing, but I was cautious because I was worried that my interpretation of “interest” is different to theirs. It’s not their fault, its a compatibility problem between the genders that we can all learn from.

    Likewise, someone I travel with occasionally, yes, I have an interest, but as soon as I saw a ring on her finger, I didn’t bother, I also struggled to talk to her to begin with. However, more recently, I discovered more about her and was surprised that the ring wasn’t on her finger and interestingly, talked quickly about university and our immediate family, which I had to go away and think “Oh wait, what? I missed a trick there!”.

     

    This is where I wonder that in the office, am I really alone with single life? I was under the impression most (I’d say 95% of them) are married at least and with happy families – if I was really honest, I actually felt pretty much alone. Likewise with my ASD difficulties, I honestly thought they were not many on the spectrum in the office and more normal. I only recognised one and that was it. The interesting thing is, I am discovering I am not the only one, although I feel alone with my journey through life and my difficulties, I’m discovering I’m working with others who have the same problem and the discussions in the pub outside of work is proving it.

     

    So, 2025, I already know of some big changes,  the company I work for is going from private to government ownership and the phrase that is being used is “Lift and Shift”, now goals I have:

    • Lose weight
    • Apply and become a CO5
    • Actually be a bit more confident with women in particular, at the moment, I have no confidence in myself in approaching women or even talk to them, maybe make friends with them rather than look at them as potential dates? Which may lead to dates? Maybe I should start with the person on the train and just somehow get talking to her?
    • I also got a lot of cleaning up to do at home and I’m selling a lot of stuff that basically has no use for me, despite my large computer collection.

    The last one has been a challenge, I started this year but I’m trying to go further and further. One of the biggest things I’ve done is basically digitalise everything and whatever loose papers I have, shred them, its saved a lot of shelf space and its something I want to keep going with. Perhaps digitalise my books now I got a Kindle.

    Oh and here is some hopefully interesting photos of 2024:

  • Talking about old buildings

    Its coming up to Christmas as my older and myself have an affectionate view on a building that sadly was long demolished. It also comes up in my work environment..

    (more…)

  • Small problem I have (Part 2)…

    So I wrote a few months ago about my issues with a lady who sits opposite me and getting the body language confused (this post). Well, it gets more curious – now she knows my name. I’ll be honest, ASD doesn’t help me here and I am not one to talk to someone unless I find something common to talk about (hard when you are on a train) to get over that first bit of anxiety.

    I know this person has a couple of friends that join at Haslemere occasionally. I mean, like once in a blue moon. I was talking to someone about my anxiety with this issue who I know, what doesn’t help me is that I often have staff around me. Some that fall asleep on the train. Guess who is the rude one to wake them up?

    Yep, that’s right – me.

    So, left it at that, since then, a number of things have gone wrong to get the pattern absolutely right, avoid them, I know her friend has referred to me in the past as I have a table all to myself, I only ever use table seats due to my high laptop usage.

    Now more recently, I started seeing her friends (not the person concerned) and the question was, “Are you going to sit next to <my real name>?”. I didn’t hear the response however, so I don’t know what it was, but I’ve heard myself being referred to twice. So the more I think, the more I’m curious. However, there is one big disadvantage I have, age.

    With myself and women and still being single, some other interesting problems have come up. They’re being trying to understand one of the people I work with. Admittedly, I know them more and have a little interest, but some of the conversations I’ve had with them and its taken me a long time to talk to them,  mostly if I am honest, I’m scared to even talk/ask someone out, especially with the company I work with due to 2 reasons A) the public interaction I have, B) actually get into trouble where someone puts in a pretty serious complaint (often blown out of proportion), end up in a bout of depression and again, cycle repeats which I may of explained before. This is the problem I face with office and railway romance, not that I won’t consider it (there is some I’d like to date and move on with), but the risk without getting any help is just too great – that is what scares me.

    In fact, worried me so much, I finally brought it up in private with my manager in a recent TWYM – the railway doesn’t have appraisals, we have TWYMs (Time With Your Manager). These are mandated twice a year by the company, our department (the TPU) mandates them 3 times a year, one manager does them 4 times a year, which is good as it helps get any problems you have off your chest. TWYM’s are a way for my manager to explain how the company is performing, what the future holds and as we are the next TOC to go under Operator Of Last Resort, this is one of the points that would have been discussed, what happens next and what it means for us. We also discuss performance, discuss progression, discuss problems at work and one I brought up and I thought it would be good, is my current anxiety with women. Oh and to be clear, I’m straight.

    So at work, I described someone incorrectly, not deliberately, but I couldn’t find the right words. I mentioned the problems that stayed between the 4 walls, floor and ceiling of “The Snug” which I’m not talking about it on here or who, but what took me back and shocked is that actually, my boss had a lot more understanding about the problems. Genuinely, I was in a good way.

    Now if you go back to what I said earlier about being scared, this is where attitudes need to change and I’m going to specifically relate it to dating. It is inevitable the situation at work is going to be “boy meets girl”, “boy wants date”, “girl rejects boy” and then it’s a HR thing and what worries me more is being lead on and of course, I don’t know the difference. Now my previous managers in my old role – well the role before my current one is the same, but before that, would only know the basics, they wouldn’t know how to treat someone with ASD correctly but the tick box exercise of “you got it, but anything goes wrong, we have to tell you off and bring you into the office for a stern talking to”. In fact, in all my previous jobs apart from the CO3 role and CO4 role, it’s the same. Not to say all managers were like that, but a lot were what I felt was rough and ready. The same could be said at college as well, university, I just avoided the issue of dating and my argument is how we deal with ASD is wrong.

    Yes, I accept the fact I’m going to make someone feel uncomfortable but what it has done , rather than make me as a person, its destroyed me as a person and my relationship prospects, especially with the way I am treated. The worst bit is, I’ve told them about it, but there is no support in going “this is the body language of how dating works”. “These are the signs”, I actually don’t understand any of that, I suspect it, I get very scared of getting it wrong and that just makes life so much awkward.

    And I know what happens:

    They wash their hands of the problem and go “its not my problem”.

    Yes it is actually, if you expect me to take responsibility of my actions, I expect you to do the same, not palm it off onto some process or some technicality that means you get away with it. In other words, A) stop hiding behind an entity (such as “the cleaning team”) – that really drives my head in because you KNOW someone won’t take responsibility, B) take this as a big learning curve and use it to treat other people a different way.

    As to my current managers, honestly, I can’t thank you enough, best group I’ve ever worked with and its so good, I’ve recommended the place to other staff. Honestly, the whole setup is so different, its not just treatment, I’ve even had managers even apologising for a small mistake they’ve made and not any manager, a very high up manager. That really says a lot.

    Now why am I bringing this up now? Well, progression and jobs have always been a sticking point and if I am honest and REALLY embarrassed, I kept applying for jobs, I kept getting rejected time and time again, not knowing what was wrong with me. The support I could have had from my family could be better and if I ever have kids of my own, I learnt a lot. First job, sit them down, look at what they are good at and pick loads of jobs out that you think “You’ll be good at that”, give them that encouragement and teach them how the job market works. Its not a case of “do it for them”, but equip them with the skills to be A) resilient to rejection and B) actually work out what they need to do. The education system goes only so far. Now I got that sorted and it took me 24 years to get where I am. I didn’t have my first job until I was 24 and that was through a friend.

    Before that, I was on benefits, that’s the bit I am honestly embarrassed by, because of the stigma that comes with it, Disability Living allowance, then Income Support with Incapacity Benefit with the shortest interview going. I was in the room for 30 seconds or less and the doctor made their assessment there and then. So why relationships? Well, I’m struggling. There is a goal I would like, just to be loved, that would say a lot. No, not from family, not from friends (as I don’t consider it the same way), but from a lady I can stay with and get married with, that’s ultimately what I am after. However, as far as I know of, there isn’t much in the way of that and with the mess I am in, I’m getting less and less hopeful I’ll get something, especially by the age of 40, which is as I write this, just over a year away.

  • Proton VPN and Linux

    Oh what a headache. Well, it was easy once I figured out what I needed. 2 versions, 2 tutorials, so as of October 2024, the easiest way I found to set it up is to use the Proton VPN gtk app from the AUR. I’m running Arch so, it was a bit more difficult.

    Anyway, you need to build and compile a lot of source files from the AUR. To make things super easy, I created a very quick and unprofessional script. It also saves you hunting around for the repositories. Tested on my computer and it works, I need one however, that I haven’t tested it.

    If you want to download the script, you can…

    proton-script.zip (440 bytes)

    Download it, make a directory (I called mine git), copy it to that directory, then type without quotes “sudo chmod +x proton-script.sh”

    Then

    “./proton-script.sh”

    It should work without any issues. You will need to put in your password in several times however, so you can always mod the script.

    If you don’t like downloading, copy and paste the below:

    (Awaiting plugin)

  • Freebie Mac

    Apart from the introductions, I thought I’ll open this blog with something a little more interesting, I tend to mess with old computers and this is one of them. Its quite wordy and long, however, you might want to have a laugh at my expense. I also have no photos of said machine yet (I didn’t think about that bit), but I’ll put one up later.

    I’m a big user of Facebook, I have to confess and I tend to look at Facebook a bit too much for my liking (note to self, find a different hobby) – but unexpected things do come up from time to time, especially freebies. Well, actually, this wasn’t free to me, the “seller” offered it out for free, I gave them some money for it because I am nice like that. I thought “some money would do” and miscounted.

    Anyway, it came up in a local group, saw it, asked my dad if I should get it, he was like “why not?”,  contacted a seller within one minute of it going up, arranged a time to pick it up when the rain eased off as it was chucking it down and I only had to walk 300 yards and collect the machine, box and all.

    For a freebie, it was complete, everything to get you started with a Mac, said the inevitable thank you’s and told them “the first thing I’m going to do is hack the (removed) out of it!”, I sort of have and use it as my main PC. I got loads of dust issues which is why and I’m trying to avoid using anything with a fan or anything that overheats too much with a fan. It also went a little like this:

    It spent the first week in my bedroom rather than office, so I plugged it in, switched it on (yay, boots!) and proceeded to try and wipe the hard drive..

    … someone got there before me (good!). But this was the start of my fun! “Oh well, get an ethernet cable, plug it in and see if it will download an operating system”.

    NOPE! 403 Forbidden!

    Ok, ok, maybe we try something else, the WIFI?

    NOPE! 403 Forbidden!

    What about my phone?

    NOPE! 403 Forbidden!

    Ok, what about the GL iNET modem?

    NOPE! 403 Forbidden!

    Ok, ok, got to think here, the problem is either my credentials are wrong as Apple want me to sign in with my username and password to my Apple account or the modem is blocking traffic, which I am getting with my windows PCs, as I cant set them up.

    So, a few terminal commands to find out what CPU it is, ok, it’s a Core2Duo E8315 (OLD – 2008) which means last supported is OSX 10.10 Yosemite which came out around 2014 or was it 2016?

    So downloaded a disk image from a third party site as I couldn’t find a first party site (Apple) that had the image available.

    Now it won’t boot from that drive. Dragged out an old mac (I have several!) and didn’t want to boot from that either.

    Right, trawl the internet for a DMG file, that was VERY difficult to do, found a site that would do it, can download it on one device but not the other – great.

    Lets bring out the MacBook Pro 15” 2013 – oh the USB ports stopped working now. Lets do a PRAM reset then an EMC reset, right they are working… oh they stopped again.

    Time to find the MBP 2013 13”..

    Success we got somewhere, lets plug the mac in, right we have 10.10 installing from the USB drive at last.

    Here it is in its new place!

    By this time, it took about a week on and off between work and a lot of head scratching!

    Installed OSX 10.10 and got some programs on it, went and searched for “opencore” and RDP… wait, half the keyboard is dead. Ok, right its only in Microsoft RDP, oh we only have 2GB ram so the machine was SUPER SLOW, with web browsers, get some more ram, can only address 6GB so got 4GB DDR2.

    Got opencore to install macOS 11 which went smoothly if slow, by now I am in week 2. Ram arrived in week 3 “You can upgrade to Sommia”, great, I’ll take that, left it overnight and it cooked itself the next day. Opencore to the rescue again and now working ok, if very slow, next fun part is to put my mac programs on – that will be fun and oh, I need Virtualbox as well.

    Next step? Find a small(ish) SATA SSD and use that as the boot drive. Oh and the keyboard has gone completely dead on one side. I’ve got some Mac specific keyboards I can use, including a not-so-magic mouse, which I can use to replace the oh-not-so-mighty mouse.

    Edit much later:

    God, its soo slow! And the USB keyboard is well and truly knackered. ZXCV keys don’t work at all, I pulled out 3 keyboards from the “awaiting use pile” and all 3 ended up on the “dead keyboard pile”`, it also crashes a lot. So, cheap SSD and a good clean is required. I dread to think how much “dust and goch balls” are in that thing. I suppose I should give it to “the greatest technician that ever lived” to fix, but he is the other side of a big pond and its no fun for me.

  • WordPress sometimes

    The purpose of this blog is to be really simple, I.e. the site uses one method to display content (using NetObject Fusion – there is a custom template I plan to impliment at https://www.wessexelectricnut.co.uk/test/test.html to see what you think) and have it as an iframe on that part of the site as a different heading.

    Or maybe this will give you an idea?

    Small problem, I had to deal with the default profile for some time, as it has a lot of default stuff added to it (twenty-twenty four, I was not happy!). Trying to convert over to other profiles – i.e. simplistic ones to give a more consistent feel became a bit difficult as my site needed yet another update. Oh well, I’ve done it now, only took 2 weeks! Depends how busy I get.

    You might see some more entries soon, I wanted to talk about my experiences of “Blackpool, UK”, listed as one of the most deprived areas of the UK and how I would fix it – its bad. #not_recommended (unless you like trams.) and projects I’m working on, several I have started or restarted and most were missing one model to make them look the part. Plus the site may change IDC with the template I designed.

  • Welcome

    Welcome to my blog, its a new blog and it started from one problem with my life.

    I’m on the ASD (autistic spectrum disorder) and more recently, I have had a lot of issues with my personal life (thankfully, not my work life). I won’t go into the past but I have produced blogs before on this site and on previous sites (pre 2008 can be found here: (link to find – from Live Journal), most of this is between my teens and early 20s when I wanted to show the world the work I produced and back then, the frustrations I have with society as a whole and the unique way I see the world. I also wanted to talk about my frustrations about finding jobs which I eventually solved but that wasn’t the end of the story. (I gained my first job in 2010, started working in my dream industry in 2013 which is the UK railways, progressed and as I write this, I have progressed in the same company, now planning trains.)

    My mum suggested more recently as my mental health keeps collapsing, that should write about it and my trigger points, I also want to show the world what I have been working on despite being quiet on a community I contribute to – Trainz – these days. There is a reason, time management or lack thereof.

    I appreciate feedback, I may discuss topics like as I write this (21st July 2024) how the industry is changing as a result of politics pressure, within reasons as I have to adhere to my workplace’s social media policy. Some entries, I already have a draft and they are pretty heavy reading.

    IF you like it, please say and drop me a message, if you don’t, please do the same. I’m planning to allow my intermediate family (sisters, parents, I don’t have anyone else) to also add to the blog when required.

  • The hardest software/hardware I’ve ever tried to find.!

    And it was for an old laptop! In fact, it is for an old Panasonic Laptop, more specifically, a Panasonic Toughbook CF-18 (I love Toughbooks! But their optional extras can be a pain!). Mine is fitted with an additional item called a GPRS modem, or General Packet Radio Service or 2G (Or EDGE which is 2.5G if you like, but my Toughbook called it 2.75G!) I have 2 newer toughbooks and 2 newer laptops (a HP Elitebook 2730P and an Elitebook 2760P which is a US import) which have 3G modems installed in them (which is faster than EDGE and GPRS – you may of heard 4G and even 5G, these are just faster data standards). GPRS for my use as long as its not Youtube I found to be quite quick, if I could get it to work to begin with. Now these laptops have a Siemens MC75 USB modem in them, the drivers of which are dead easy to find.

     

    The software not so, for a start, you have 3 options:

    1. Create whats called a Dial-Up Networking profile (DUN) which is hard as I found out with Vodafone as the customer service agent couldn’t work out what I was trying to achieve, well the laptop is 12 years old at the time of writing.
    2. Use Panasonic checknet sofware (Available from here: ) but you need to still do the above. (From: http://business.panasonic.com/support-computerstablets-downloads-wirelesscarrier – and a right mission to get working in Windows Vista and Windows 7)
    3. Find the BVRP software, hard to find, trust me, the original software I used was Norwegian of which I know someone who would understand and know it, but they’ve decided to ditch me (in 2006) for better things which is the story of my life – I’ve changed since then a lot. I eventually found the software on this site: http://www.helpjet.net/Fs-75078872-19927365-95508474-extract.html

    A couple of observations, it works VERY well. But, it can be temperamental, for a start, you have to use the driver that came with the program or it won’t work, secondly, you may need to (as I use it in Windows 7 for which it was not designed for!) run it as an Administrator on Windows Vista or Windows 7. Other than that, it works. Just make sure your phone operator supports it, I know I had trouble with Three or otherwise known as H3G.

  • MOTs and weird problems.

    Its that time of year again, where one of my cars goes for the dreaded MOT. Naturally, it fails (well bound to), but I’ve checked the status online and this is a very interesting thing about the car. For the record, its a Renault Espace MK3, at last look, around one of 374 left on the road.. well, the variant I have anyway (Renault Espace Mk3 Privilege 2.2 DCi – and yes its a diesel.), I have another which is different (Renault Espace Mk3 Privilege V6 Auto – Petrol) but this blog post talks about some of the oddities which isn’t down to the garage, MOT or manufacturer, but how complex cars in general are getting.

    In November, the V6 Espace went for its MOT, I think it failed on a few items, but they were fixed. One it should of failed on, but didn’t is the SRS light. Now this IS why I wrote the blog post. These Espaces have early electronic dashboards and very interesting ones especially for its age. It sits in the centre of the car so your kids (if I had any) and your wife (if I had even a girlfriend, its just me) can see what the car is doing or when I had a girlfriend, fiddle with the radio and she loved hogging the radio while they can see that you are taking the speed limit with a pinch of salt. 70mph? Plus the new VAT rate! Thats beside the point. I do as much as possible try to keep to the limits mainly because I don’t want to loose my licence of have a smack, I’m trying to look after my old girls.

    The DCi Espace funny enough, passed as well on that part, but going through the history, I noticed this:
    “Supplementary Restraint System warning lamp does not illuminate”

    Now, to remember all car warning lamp combos is a bit hard, especially on the fly when you test hundreds of cars every week. The correct operation is:

    • If the lamp illuminates followed by the word “Service”, fail.
    • If the lamp isn’t lit and the dashboard then shows “OK” after the glow plug light, pass.

    But, the MOT manual throws a good one:

    From this link: http://www.ukmot.com/manual/5.4/Supplementary-Restraint-Systems-(SRS)

    “Method of inspection:

    ….

    2. Turn on the ignition and check the presence and operation of any Supplementary Restraint System SRS malfunction indictor lamps MIL.”

    So, work that one out. The MIL works and it also doesn’t. I know one garage who is familiar with these vehicles and follows the rule correctly (it doesn’t help that the guy is an ex Renault Master Technician.) and it proves you can have a car nearly unique but doesn’t follow the rules. In that case, you are in the position I mentioned, “Do I pass or fail it? The manual says this, but it does that.” The problem is that cars are now really complex and that means so does testing them.

     

     

  • Using a Raspberry Pi as a desktop computer. (Running out of ram?)

    TECHIE WARNING: This article uses a lot of jargon, so if you aren’t sure, ask questions or if you aren’t interested, read on.

    And it comes with a little pitfall if you don’t know computers that well. Mine was a slight issue which the operating system I was using, which is called Ubuntu Mate. I went from an AMD computer to a Raspberry Pi as I thought my AMD system which is by the way, an AMD A4-5000 based system, with 2 2.5″ hard drives, an ATI Radeon 240 graphics card and 16GB of ram, shoved in a case that hooks on to the back of a monitor.

    I changed because I didn’t want the distractions when having important stuff to do, like using eBay to sell stuff or my applications I’m suppose to be doing. The Raspberry Pi, or more correctly, Raspberry Pi 2 as a fully fledged desktop computer made sense. Add a Sony monitor, DVI to HDMI cable, USB keyboard and mouse, USB wifi device and a 16GB Transflash card with Ubuntu Mate and you have a perfectly working computer that actually isn’t half bad. Except one problem, too many programs slow the computer down. It took me a while to find out and the problem is actually a simple fix. Now, I strongly recommend if you are going to use the Pi as a general purpose computer, follow this. For me, I went to Applications > System Tools > MATE System Monitor then watched the RAM usage. The Pi has 16x less RAM than my AMD system. (32x than another system I own). So, its a little wonder when I used my Pi for a few tasks, it ran out of RAM. Its a surprisingly simple fix – create a swap partition.

    A Swap what?

    Whats swap? Simple, its like RAM  or memory. I assume you know the difference between Memory (Temporary) and storage (permanent). Memory isn’t where your files live. Thats a hard drives job. The Hard drive, in the case of my Pi, lives on a small Transflash card which when I remove any power to it, my files stay there no matter what happens.
    Memory or RAM is different, its temporary use, this blog was made in RAM which if I was to unplug my Pi, everything will be lost and I have to start again which is very annoying. But RAM is very fast temporary access, which is often very limited because it is expensive. Storage is much slower but you can buy more of it. So what do you do when you run out of RAM? The computer just simply stops without a swap partition. Lets say you have 512mb of RAM (temporary space). Your operating system will probably take around 100mb of that and an email client about 60mb, web browsing will consume 250mb and add a game which takes up another 130mb and then the computer goes “well, what do I do with the rest of the 28mb I need? I have no space!” and then crawls or locks up completely.

    A swap file or partition more like in this case, the Operating System goes “Oh, I got some space to use. Its slow, so I’ll put the oldest/least used files in there”. And then the computer doesn’t crash. The computer basically thinks it has more RAM than it actually does. It sounds great but there are at least 2 problems:

    1. For flash based drives, you’ll eventually wear out the drive far quicker with a swap file than normal read and writes. Its not a problem as it used to be as the drives themselves are often rated at 1m write cycles and unlimited read cycles. Besides at £10 per 16GB transflash drive, why worry?
    2. Its slower to access despite my Pi has a Class 10 card.

    But we still need it more. Or don’t use the humble £35 Pi as a desktop. (Which by the way, is a silent desktop!)

    To do this, open your favorite terminal, on Ubuntu Mate, it can be found under
    Applications > System Tools > MATE Terminal.

    You’ll see a text screen, get your password ready for this and you won’t see what you typed, you will need it. Type first “Sudo apt-get update”. Once that finishes, type “Sudo apt-get install gparted”. You are installing a partition editor, what does it do? Allocates disk space across a disk for different uses.

    Then type “Sudo gparted”, you should see a partition editor. You should see a button saying “New”, click this,  then under the partition type which is probably “ext4” by default, select “swap”. Set the size to either 1024 or 2048 (up to you), create it, then right click on the new swap partition as its called (the red outlined bit) and select “swapon”. Close, restart and it should be fixed. You can also resize your existing stuff to take up a bit more space if your drive is rather large.

    Now check with the “System Monitor” to see if it gives you the size of the swap partition and notice a huge improvement in speed.

     

    That should be all you need. No I don’t have any screenshots sadly. 🙁

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