RECONNECT myself to the world...

The other day, while enjoying the awakening of a beautiful spring sunny day, I came to the realization that before the World Wide Web (1990) and the explosion of Internet around 2000, we had to rely on our family and friends networks to access information while today, we are 100 % dependent on Internet!

Awakening of Annecy Lake...

In France for example, if you need to know the opening hours of a bank, post office, swimming pool.... without Internet, you are pretty much facing a dead end. When calling these services, you end up waiting for considerable amount of time while being charge ridiculous amount of money. Same is true to book a flight, bus or train ticket, pretty much all reservation can only be realized online.

Don't take me wrong, I am not saying that Internet has no advantages. The recurring difficulty I find occurs when Internet access is not available. Without Internet for the past year and in the possession of a dying computer, who finally rendered his soul last October, I personally experienced the pain of being disconnected from our today's world; where all is virtually connected but solely accessible through the web...

The solution: purchase of my new computer, an Acer Aspire V5

This as been by far the most expensive purchase I made in a very long time... 

So far, so good. It took me a while to get used to the configuration of Windows 8. Since I have figured out the system, I quite enjoy it. I also upgraded it to Windows 8.1 as I was told that it is more stable.  

Now, the coolest part remains the acquisition of LibreOffice. This is a 100 % Free & Open Source Office suite. 

"LibreOffice is community-driven and developed software which is a project of the not-for-profit organization, The Document Foundation. 

The LibreOffice software is developed by users, just like you, who believe in the principles of free software and in sharing their work with the world in a non-restrictive way. At the core of these principles is the promise of better-quality, highly-reliable and secure software that gives you greater flexibility at zero cost. Beyond this, the driving factor behind the community is personal choice and transparency, which translates practically into wider compatibility, more utility and no end-user lock-in to using just one product. 

The community behind LibreOffice is the heart of the project, without which we would not have the resources to develop the software. The passion and drive that every individual brings to the community results in collaborative development exceeding expectations and, best of all, you can be part of it in a multitude of ways."