Moving into the modern world

Well, moving to the updated Blogger interface anyway.

Although I was quite happy with the old interface and template, the new versions will be forced upon me eventually (as Google did with the ghastly Gmail new version), so thought I would give it a go.

And this is the result. It looks a bit like the old version (I like the black background, but not keen on the "surround" stuff - will look into fixing that!) but allows me to add stuff like the Follow widget (which isn't available easily for the old version).

Internets

Sooo.... with the imminent removal of the 4G trial (to be removed on Friday apparently), we were all advised to check our old ISP connection. I must admit that I didn't get around to it until yesterday, when, horror of horrors, the 4G connection went down! Actually, it went down the previous night but it was very late and nobody was really using it.

To appease the girls, I turned on the old 512kb connection and - nothing!  There was no attempt to sync the line or even connect by the looks of things.
After some fiddling, I tried connecting another router to the line - still nothing. Then I tried an old telephone, expecting to get a dial tone - but no.

This made me suspect the ADSL filter, fitted to the line. Luckily, as all good techies do, I have a stack of spare filters! One filter replaced and - voila! Internet back up and running.
Sadly, the speed hasn't improved. Coming from the 4G trial will make it seem even more shocking too.

Anyway, we are still using the 4G at the moment, but not at all looking forward to Friday.

4G end in sight

Sadly, the 4G trial is ending on the 29th of June. This means we will leave the modern internet and return to the backwaters of 512kb as the headline speed (which is more like 300kb at best in reality!). For that "service" we are expected to cough up £25 per month and accept a limited download. 

Frankly, I think that is a rip off and if it was up to me I would simply tell our ISP where to stick their service. But the kids expect a broadband service - even if it is almost unusable - so I have to keep paying for this crap.

Shame the various companies seem to argue about the 4G provision, instead of simply getting it out there to the customers! Here in Cornwall, we were amongst the first to have the analogue TV turned off and be forced to use the infinitely poorer digital TV. The idea was that the freed up bandwidth would be used for stuff like 4G, but sadly the various companies are all pissing about complaining that "they have more bandwidth than us..."  Pathetic and holding back those of us in rural Britain.

Update on HP laptop and the daughter's one too!

I forgot to update on the laptop which I mentioned a few weeks ago. As I said at the time, we suspected the problem with slow running (and maybe even failure to charge the battery) was down to a broken up power socket on the laptop motherboard. Well, a spare was found on an old motherboard and eventually (we needed a more powerful soldering iron!) swapped with the broken one. A slight snag happened when the cable for the touchpad and buttons was damaged during reassembly, but that was bodged fixed with some soldering too!

The repair worked!  The laptop now runs really fast and - as an added bonus - the battery charges and is actually rather good, holding a charge in general use for 3+ hours!

Daughter's Lenovo laptop is still working perfectly since I removed the dead battery. She has to use it plugged into the mains of course, but that is a mild inconvenience compared to buying a new machine!
It also earned me kudos with her!

Laptop fixed!

Older daughter appeared a week or two ago to tell me that her laptop died suddenly when she removed the power supply lead. After I explained to her that yes, laptop batteries do die pretty suddenly as a rule and that was the isue in her case, she stated that she was going to buy a new battery! "OK", says me, "but they are pretty expensive...". A few minutes later and I gather from the ranting that she finds £80+ for a new battery for a several year old laptop a bit much!

So life settled down to her using the thing plugged in to the mains charger. Then, one day, I am informed that the laptop has died. After further questions, it seems it randomly cuts out - simply shutting down instantly. I gave it a quick once over - waggling the power supply etc to check for loose connections - but nothing seemed obvious.
The machine was indeed simply stopping at random - somethimes Windows could be used for a few minutes, other times it was dying before the splash screen even loaded. Tried a live Linux disk - same issue, so not a Windows problem (but I didn't suspect that anyway as it was too sudden a shut off).
Ran Memtest+, but the machine died part way through. It didn't seem to be overheating (a common cause of this type of thing) and I had removed and cleaned out the fans about three or four months ago anyway.
So I went back to Computer Technician class theory and began removing non essentials to see if it made any difference. Having seen problems with laptops and batteries before, I took off the dead and useless battery.
The laptop didn't shut off! Despite running the machine for  hours, no shutdown! I gave it to my daughter who ran the machine all evening and then left it running overnight until she finished work the next afternoon - and it was still going strong!

So, when faced with a laptop which has no obvious issues with clogged fans or intakes etc, but it is still shutting down randomly, it is well worth removing the battery to see if there is some issue with that!
Several years ago, my wifes laptop had a dead battery and suddenly started having problems - but they were different - CPU running at 100% all the time etc - but caused by the dead battery.

4G conference

Attended a 4G conference at Trerice on Friday. Unlike the one back in November, this was solely for the Government bodies and other parties involved in the future of the 4G spectrum. MPs were supposed to have been there, but due to a late sitting in the House on Thursday, they didn't attend. On the other hand, there were several senior Civil Servants plus Ofcom members as well as some other bodies.

The event was most interesting and four of us "Trialists" gave our views on the technology, equipment and what the 4G connection was like for us.

Met up with several BT and Everything Everywhere management people who I have met before - which allowed me to push for extension of the trial (especially when Ofcom were there too!).

No, Google, no!

I hate the "new look" Gmail. I do not want it, yet Google have enforced this eyesore upon us.

Perhaps Google's top designers didn't get the message when so many people commented about how ugly and unpleasant to use the new look was when first produced. Or perhaps they did - after all, they held back on making it compulsary to change until now. But surely, the number of people hitting the "revert to old look temporarily" button if the new look sneaked in, should have warned the designers that people hated it.

Now it is here - forced upon us with no "revert to old look..." button.
I suppose Google will just ride this backlash out - after all, most Gmail users will not find it a practical option to delete their accounts and move to an alternative. Although I have several email accounts, the Gmail one is the one I give out to general contacts - keeping my others for specific uses.

A good example of why "cloud" computing is dangerous. The guy with the server can call the tune and you dance as requested. I cannot understand why so many computing people are being sucked into the idea that storing files and data on some remote server is a good idea.

Can I also point out to Google that changes for the sake of it on other products is bloody stupid. They are messing with the Blogger interface now as well.....

I hate change for the sake of giving someone something to do - if it adds a missing required feature, then fair enough; but change simply to keep idiots employed in doing something is crap.

Laptops

Anyone who has read my previous stuff about laptops will know that my old Acer with its broken hinge threw its hand in a while ago. Being without a laptop is pretty frustrating as I am forced to use my main old desktop machine which is upstairs.
Luckily, my mate is a bit of a magpie when it comes to computer bits and, having been notified about my predicament, he has delivered a couple of lappies around to me.
Not state of the art, but not exactly old slugs either. The one I am currently using is a Toshiba Satellite M30, which has a 1.6 gig Intel M processor and an  nVidia graphics chip - so not too bad for a freebie! I have upped the RAM from the 512Mb which was in it to a gig (I had some old sticks here so put in what I could find). The only snag is a broken hinge on one side - which seems to be a common fault with these things doesn't it! It is possible to fix, but a nightmare involving stripping the entire lappie down.... so it might just stay broken!

The other laptop is actually much higher spec - it is a HP one. Unfortunately,  that one is currently awaiting repair. It works, but seems to shift into a "limp mode" where it slows to a crawl (e.g opening Windows Control Panel just gives the torch thing for literally minutes and minutes before - if you are lucky - it displays the CP). Three or four indicator lights on the laptop also flashed each second....
We did some research and it seems this is a fault which can be caused by power supply issues. Several folks report that another AC power supply (or running on battery) fixes it. I can't try the battery as it is dead, but we did have another HP laptop available with the same power adapter! Connected that one and booted the machine - only to discover the same problems were still there....
Initially confused by this, we looked at the actual sockets on the two machines to see if there were any differences. Surprise - the faulty laptop socket was mashed completely. The plastic parts were broken off (one bit fell out as we looked) and the connectors were broken and bent. Seems the laptop was limping with good reason!  Luckily, my mate happens to have a similar laptop available for spares (it has a busted screen) and he has pinched the socket from that one to fit onto my laptop. A small snag has arisen meantime - his soldering iron isn't man enough for the job, so a new one is ordered. Hopefully we can sort the laptop with this socket!  Fingers crossed - I will report back once it is up and running (or not!)

Sony- piss off

Seriously - Sony racked up the prices for two "greatest hits" type albums by the late Whitney Houston?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17039076

Sony claim they were "mistakenly mispriced"!  Hmmm... Robbing bastards is how I view it.

Whitney's music isn't my thing - but I appreciate her amazing vocal talent (and her looks too if I am honest!) - but Sony - a company which has fallen foul of alleged rootkits in the past - are taking the piss

Mini distro fun

Just been playing around with SliTaz, a tiny (and I mean tiny) distro.
Although ridiculously small (around 30Mb download), it is actually a really useable little distro.
I installed it onto a 1Gb USB stick for now to play around a little (as well as having a live version in a virtual machine) and have been updating it, adding Firefox 10, Flash etc to bring it up to the spec which my wife would want on her EeePC (she is pretty cheesed off with the Xandros install on her 701 and wants an alternative on a SD card). We have tried various other light and mini distros - LXDE versions of the main distros mostly, but they all need well over 1Gb of disk space to install in - which on a little 4Gb drive isn't really useful.

Check out SliTaz - I think you will be impressed!

http://www.slitaz.org/

4G down!

Horror at our house in the last 24 hours!  The 4G signal had been turned off by the trial team so they could presumably sort out the problrms being experienced by a small number of triallists. But of course, that meant ALL of us were then left with no service - which, here, means lots of wailing and complaints from my daughters!

All back up today though!

We could have resorted to the old half meg "broadband" but with one of the daughters watching (or attempting to watch!) streaming TV stuff, there would be no point.

Alan Turing

For the few who have no idea who Alan Turing was, I suggest a quick "google" or "wikipedia" to enlighten you.

I was one of those who called (via one of the UK "e-petitions") for a posthumous pardon for Mr Turing.
Now, today, the UK Government has refused to grant this because apparently, in the 1950's, homosexuality was seen as a criminal offence and Turing was "properly convicted of what at the time was a criminal offence"

Without the efforts of Alan Turing and others, we would be living under the rule of the Nazi party today. I. for one, appreciate the work of this hero of Britain.
Shame the UK government.

Yet 2012 will see the issue of Royal Mail stamps commemerating the centenery of his birth...So they are happy to make money from Alan Turing, happy to live free from oppression because of Alan Turing and colleagues, but not write off the trumped up charges he faced (and the horrific "chemical castration" he suffered) simply because of his sexual orientation?

Pretty pissed off to be honest. I am not "gay", but this man was a major player in the UK war effort and in computing (who hasn't heard of the Turing Test?)

4G extended!

Great news for me here in the depths of mid Cornwall! The 4G trial - which was due to end at the end of January - has been extended until the end of June.
Like to think that those of us who attended the Trerice demonstration for the press and Ofcom helped a little bit in Ofcom taking the decision to keep us in the 21st Century for a little longer!

Blast from the past!

Downloading the latest Yoper Linux distro to see how my old mates there are getting on.

As I have probably mentioned, I used to be one of the development team on Yoper (back in the days of 2.1 and 2.2). Over time, with things changing to use a new package manager and various other changes - and with poor health, I dropped out of the team and moved on. I still watch the distro and download the current iso from time to time to see how things are going. Tobias and the guys are working hard, but with a small distro it is hard to keep up with the corporate might of the big three or four main distros.

One of the reasons I use PCLinuxOS as my main distro is because it follows the ethos of the old Yoper - and still uses Synaptic as the package manager with the rpms!

Anyway, off to play - I shall report back once I have given Yoper a run.

Updates

Not much to update as such.

4G -

Well, the speed has dropped down to 8Mbps download now as the BT guys decided that upping it affected stability for those further from the base stations. I had good reliable speeds of 15Mbps +  but others apparently suffered.
Went to the open day to demonstrate the technology to the press and Ofcom - and did lots of interviews. Spoke to various local press people, T3 magazine, The Register and all sorts of other folk. Very interesting day, with good demos of the technology in action.

Mobile phones

Well, my rather nice little Orange San Francisco (a re-badged ZTE Blade) Android phone decided to stop working correctly. The microphone has failed. I can use the hands free stuff, but if I try to use the normal mic, I get the faintest noise possible.

 So, I decided it needs to be repaired. One small snag is that I rooted the phone and installed Android 2.2 in place of the awful Orange badged and themed locked down version of Android 2.1, which is stuffed full of Orange's own "apps" - all intent on taking cash from users. So of course I rooted it and removed all the excess crap - which speeds it up as well as improving the looks of the phone.

Anyway, the general concensus was that Orange would check the phone and refuse to fix it because it had been modified - even though the phone hardware was untouched and at fault!  I was prepared to argue the toss as a technician (but not for phones I must admit). There have been similar things with other companies in the past - e.g Asus and their "adding a stick of RAM voids the warranty" claim with the early EeePC. These attempts to take money from users by having their own people do upgrades etc are always found to be unacceptable when challenged.

Anyhow, I didn't want the hassle, so I wiped the phone and re-installed the basic Orange software back on (and boy! was it fugly!).
I then rang them - expecting a load of arguing and tales of how many months it will take to repair and how I would need to deliver it to the only service station in the UK which is situated in the Mull of Kintyre and I will need to deliver it wearing just a pair of boxer shorts ..... etc etc.
Amazingly, they apologised for the faulty phone, asked when would be convenient for the courier to collect the old phone and hand me a new one tomorrow!

Normally  I complain about these companies, but this is great customer service. Well done Orange!

Speeding Up -oh, and Movember

Looks like the trial for 4G has upped the cap on our speeds. Folks mentioning 11, 12 and 15Meg speeds, so I ran a speedtest.

Got 11.78Mbps down and 6.74 up, so yes, it does seem they have upped the download speeds.
Seems very reliable too - haven't had any probs.

On the Movember thing - I decided to join this charity thing to raise awareness of male cancer problems. It involves growing a moustache for the month of November, but of course, I already had one - so I shaved it off and began from a hair free face! Feel free to donate if you like - or just watch the page to see how I get on!

http://mobro.co/kernowyon

Country fixed

Well, the 4G team have fixed the problem where attempting to access a website which redirected based on country of user (e.g Google.com or youtube.com for example) were sending us to German sites (e.g google.de instead of google.co.uk for UK residents). Not sure what they did, but at least I can now watch youtube videos which are blocked for some crazy reason in Germany (why is Kickapoo, the Tenacious D song blocked for example?).

Edit:  Not apprently fixed Blogger! I still get .de there!

Weather affected?

The 4G speeds tonight seem low - at least as far as downloading speed is concerned. From the 7.5 or more Mbps of other tests to 4.5 Mbps today....

However, the weather is pretty foul - with strong winds and plenty of rain and dampness. It may of course be simply the time I have chosen to test - around half past ten in the evening, which presumably means plenty of other trialists are using the connection. No idea if there is any contention ratio issues with this - but I doubt if there should be, certainly with the relatively small trial sample...

Uploading on the other hand seems fast - 9.34Mbps

Getting some interesting results. Still got problems with the German identification on many sites (e.g Google, Youtube....), but the 4G team are apparently "looking into this"....

More 4G reports

Well, still running at around the 7.8Meg up and down rate.
Interestingly, I did try booting my old XP install yesterday evening to compare with my usual Linux (I have XP on here as a dual boot for the very odd test) and I could not connect to the router with the USB dongle.

I discovered that dropping the encryption level from AES to TKIP allowed me to connect - so I guess my XP isn't running SP3 (which brought AES support) or my old dongle doesn't support it.

Seems at least one other triallist has problems with wireless, so I have passed on my findings - hopefully it will help.