Kodachrome keys

My wife wanted to be able to run Linux off a live disc to show people what it looked like without having to install it on their computers at the local IT club we volunteer at. In the past that would have been a CD or DVD that you would have used, but as so few laptops have an optical drive now, you can also do the same with a USB key. The file size of the image you need is basically around the size of a DVD, so you need a key that's just bigger than 4 GiB. Getting USB keys that small is now actually hard, the smallest size you usually find is 32 GiB now, which seems like a waste if you are only going to put 5 GiB on it. In the end I found a vendor selling a multi pack of 8 GiB USB keys and they are all USB3 standard rather than the older/slower USB2 which you typically see on small keys like this. I've put Debian KDE, Debian Gnome, Mint and Ubuntu on the keys so there is a selection.

The keys just happen to be in the red end of the colours, and when laid on the desk they came out quite fun. I imported them through the Kodachrome 64 filter, which improved the desk colour and did something subtle to the highly reflective metal coating of the keys.

Work remains incoherent this week, but I'm busy if nothing else...

At the weekend I'll use the Debian KDE key to set up an old computer for the IT club to use as part of a VPN network I'm designing for them to allow them to access their network securely from home, rather than having to be on site.

Tonight is the last episode of "Patience" on Channel 4, a pale and inferior copy of the French series "Astrid et Raphaëlle", which is on More 4 on Friday. A bit like "Professor T" that ITV did, both clearly copy the originals and change the settings to the UK, but neither are as good as the original, even though they have some good actors and locations in them - they just aren't as good.