Playing in partnerships

After an enforced hiatus, my badminton group started playing again last week. Kind critics would describe the standard of play as “mixed”, and the atmosphere is more one of a good-natured thrash around than anything particularly serious. I’d rank myself as one of the better players but because we mostly play doubles (and now the newly invented “triples” rules too) it tends to even itself out.

Playing with the same people over a long period of time means that even at our casual level you can appreciate people’s different strengths and weaknesses – don’t give that guy the opportunity to smash; she can’t return from the back of the court but will get to anything you drop short; if you give him the opportunity to smash, make sure he has loads of time because he’ll overthink it and hit into the net… and so on.

More interesting than your opponent is your partnership with your doubles partner. With some people I can discuss tactics, and we manage to play accordingly; but some people all the talk between points just doesn’t stick – neither my partner nor I manage to stick to our plan. With some players it is pointless to discuss tactics. This can be good or bad – one guy knows his way around the court so well that you can just play around him, or if you make a move he will play around you, with no planning needed. Another player seems intent on returning to the dead centre of the court making it very difficult to locate yourself in a complementary position.

On the face of it I might expect the quality of the partnership to be based on a combination of badminton skill and how easily you have a rapport with that person off the court, but neither of those things seem to predict who I gel with on the court and who I don’t. I’m sure there is a lesson there…

Test post

This is a test post. According to Google Translate, this is Latin for "after the test". Relax. There is no test. Watch out for the post though.

Broken Windows (not a riot related blog)

When I bought my laptop in 2006 it was bottom of the range. Five years later it was so painfully slow that it was barely usable, and all I use it for is surfing and typing.

I had almost reconciled myself to buying a new computer but I decided to try upgrading the memory instead. A very simple solution, but one that had literally never occurred to me. All that time spent Googling for solutions to having a slow computer, and all I got was “use CCleaner, remove software you don’t use, and defrag”. So, £25 later I now have eight times the memory (256 MB to 2GB), and it is a bit like having a new computer that actually works.

But the other thing that is even more like having a new computer is…

… not using Windows any more!

Oh yes, I am now one of the elite, more elite even than poncy Mac users.

Linux baby!

Specifically I am using Ubuntu, installed using Wubi. Ubuntu is one of the most popular Linux “distributions”, and includes both the OS and all sorts of software (Open Office, Firefox and so on) straight out of the box.  Wubi (Windows Ubuntu Installer) is a tool that makes it so simple to try Linux that you really have no excuse not to. You install Wubi just like you would install any old program in Windows (Skype, Flash, whatever). This then installs Ubuntu on your system. There are a few steps to go through in the installation wizard but nothing more complicated than entering your name, choosing a password, and selecting a language. From now on whenever you switch on your machine you have a choice of starting Windows or Ubuntu. And that’s it. You can still use Windows any time you want, and if you really don’t like Ubuntu then you can just remove it in Windows the same way you remove any other program.

The most obvious benefit is how quickly Ubuntu  starts up. Post-memory-upgrade, I timed how long it took from switching on to opening an email in my gmail inbox. In Ubuntu, it took 1 minute and 20 seconds. In Windows XP, 7 minutes 30 seconds. It takes longer to get to the desktop in Windows anyway, but the real difference is that it then spends 5 minutes metaphorically patting its pockets looking for its keys and wallet before leaving, and then returning twice to check that the windows are shut and the oven isn’t left on. In contrast, Ubuntu is packed and out the door and doesn’t look back.

One of the problems I have with Windows is how anti-virus software updates and scans slow everything down. There is none of this in Ubuntu.

Installing new software is so much easier. There is even a software centre on the desktop menu which lists loads of different programs under different categories so you can go straight to the software you want and be on your merry way.

The only downside is that the initial installation doesn’t quite have everything you need for everything to work straight away. As I understand it, because of the software licence that Ubuntu/Wubi is distributed under, only open-source software is allowed to be included. So the first time you go to Youtube you can’t watch any videos because Flash is proprietary software and hence not installed. When you click on the video is does say basically, “You don’t have Flash, click here to install”, and a two minutes later you are sorted. Ditto DVDs, it doesn’t come with all the “codecs” required, so these have to be installed in a similar manner. I actually had some problems with this but found the solution after some searching. I am still having problems playing DVDs, but I haven’t put much effort in to solving this yet.

There is a distribution, called Linux Mint, that apparently includes all the non-open-source software you need for it to work completely out of the box, but this doesn’t have the user-friendly installation option of Wubi. Combining the advantages of both would make Linux a lot more reachable for people not inclined or confident enough to go messing around with their computers.

If you are in anyway curious about the non-Windows options, or dissatisfied with the Windows experience, I would strongly recommend giving Wubi a try. There is no risk, you can easily switch back if you want to.