Mid July ramble

OK, Microsoft backed down and the domains seem to have been returned to the control of No-IP. However, I ended up changing to a new dynamic domain from the guys there - who were pretty quick to offer domains which had not fallen foul of MS to their members.

Seems to be the way of the future though - our Government here in the UK are now rushing through - with cross party support! - a law to allow the UK to spy on our communications. Whilst I am not some radical terrorist or maniacal right wing (or left wing or whatever wing) bad guy, my emails, phone calls and even web browsing can be collected and spied on by the various branches of the UK (and USA of course) secret services.
Pretty scary isn't it? The Apologists will always say that if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear. But my view is that I object to my (non bad guy) interweb use being collated by these secret organisations.

Well, I am getting to the point where I shall pull the plug on the web here - I don't need it and my connection is so slow that any interference will bring it to a stop.

Dear Mr Cameron - Piss Off trying to spy on law abiding citizens. K Thx Bye

No-Ip and Microsoft

SO Microsoft flexed their muscle (i.e cash and power) to get 22 No-IP domains removed from the web - including the one I was using (no-ip.biz).

MS claim that bad people were using these no-IP domains in connection with malware.

Well Microsoft, in case you haven't noticed, these malwares, naughty though they may well be, presumably only run on Microsoft OS enabled computers. So it could be argued that you yourselves are permitting malware and perhaps the flaws in Windows are what should be addressed rather than removing legitimate websites (mine is simply a database of a specific surname) from the internet.

I do not use MS operating systems, so I don't have any problem with malware. Perhaps, if you are using their operating system, you may wish to consider something better, such as the Apple systems, Linux or a BSD?

Long time, no post!

Blimey! Just popped over to my blog to find out what I had written about my experiments with the Raspberry Pi and my old webcams - seems I didn't even note that I had the Pi!

I might get around to updating you all about the Pi soon (and I have two of the things now).

Meanwhile, a quick update. I have removed the Three box thing - it was OK, but the internet here is so slow that it just loses any sort of sync on a call after a few seconds. Easier to just turn it off and hang in a window to get signal.

Anyhow, I am off to play with the Pi and webcam!

iPhone phun!

Having had an Android phone for two years I was more than happy to continue with Android as I like the freedom to fiddle with the system. However, the market for Android phones is now so confusing with each company producing several similarly named models which means lots of Googling to find the differences. I got fed up with that idea and, based on the build quality, I went for an iPhone. I did have to think long and hard as I dislike Apple as much as Microsoft with their proprietry locked down OS, but I went for the iPhone anyway.

So, the iPhone has, so far been perfectly OK. Runs iOS 6.1.3 and I am quite happy. Until last night.....

Last night, a red blob (the famous "badge") appears on my Settings icon. When I look what it means, I discover that Apple expect me to install iOS 7. Not only do they want me to install it, but they have pushed the software onto my phone already! I didn't specifically download it -nor do I want it.
So my storage space (not expandable of course!) now has an extra Gig + of data stored which I cannot remove.
There is no way to clear the notification either - except by downloading the update. 

Hopefully there will soon be a jailbreak for this version of iOS on my phone so that I can install something to get shot of the notification about the update. For now, the Settings icon, together with the annoying red badge have been stuck onto another screen - so I don't have it peering at me on the main home screen.

Apple have just lost me as a customer for the future with this petty annoying little trick.
My next phone will be an Android again - but probably a decent quality one.

UPDATE:

I now have the stupid iPhone jailbroken - thanks to the hard work of the jailbreaking guys.
All is now relatively well. The phone is more under my control and the annoying badge issue - and the loss of space - are sorted!
Because my 3G connection is several times faster than my "broadband", and I get unlimited data on my phone, I use the phone when I need to download large files. It is a pain to locate them once downloaded (and to ensure all is deleted once I have transferred the files), but most handy!

And, as a matter of interest, Android also now act as some sort of "benevolent" guardian - they no longer allow you to download apps that they feel affect their profits - so no ad-blockers etc.
I have an Android tablet and had to root it to avoid my retinas being burned out by advertising.

Very very sad that Android and Apple both seem to feel that their users are commodities to view spam.
I expect this from Microsoft, but Android? Really?

Well, when my phone contract expires, I will not be getting a new phone.

Home Signal Update

OK, well I have been running the Home Signal box for a couple of days and thought I should report back on it.

Coverage around the house is good, rather than amazing - I get a decent signal all over,  but only 2 or 3 bars in the kitchen for example, rather than the full 5 bar signal I get in some areas.

When in a call, there is a noticeable lag - rather like the old satellite links on the TV in the 1990s... perhaps half a second or so.Acceptable though - much better than being unable to make a call at all!

Problems -

The box decided to go off for some reason one day - I had no signal and when I checked, it had gone offline. Unplugging and plugging it back in fixed that.
The other problem I have had was more strange. We were testing out something on my wifes phone (which is with O2) and I tried to ring her phone - I didn't hear any dialing noise as I would normally and didn't hear her answer. I couldn't hear any conversation either. I tried ringing my landline - and still no dialling noise or anything.

When I looked at the Home Signal, it had a quickly flashing green light - as if it was in use, even though it wasn't.  I used the reset button to attempt to sort things - and that worked fine. But this problem is a little worrying because to all intent the box was working and my phone had a good signal etc - but was useless and could not make or receive calls....

I shall be watching the box more carefully for a while to see if that was a one off or a genuine issue.

Home Signal from Three

Well, the Home Signal box has arrived and thought I would pop a quick post about it on here.

The box wasn't the white, upright one I have seen on various videos - it was a black, lozenge shaped one.
First snag was trying to fit the ethernet cable into the back of the Home Signal - it is a pretty fiddly fit due to the size of the end of the cable and the overhanging cover of the Home Signal - but it went in eventually. It should have been an easier fit frankly, so if I was scoring it, it would lose a mark for that.

I had already read other peoples comments, so I reset the SIM card before going any further - some people found they were not fully inserted.

Once connected and turned on, I had a red light flashing slowly - lighting about once every second or two. Looking at my router settings, the Home Signal box didn't seem to be allocated an IP address and looking at the instructions which came with it, the slow single flash indicated that it is not connected to the broadband. So I used the reset button on the Home Signal to reset the thing and after 5 seconds, I released it and straight away I got the flashing green light which signifies that the box is starting to set things up.

After a few minutes, my mobile suddenly went from " No Signal" or at best 1 bar to 4 or 5 bars (seems to fluctuate a little but 4 or 5 is great!)  - and that is in the room below where the Home Signal is situated.

Not only can I now make calls from inside my home, but I assume the lack of struggling to get signal will help the battery life on my phone too.

I shall report again once I have played a little more.

Damn You once again Google!

Google has finally forced their new "Compose" version onto their users - just like when they stuffed us with this new look Gmail.

Until recently, as they do with all their changes, this was able to be reverted to the older version via the Settings or Options or whatever link.

Now the new Compose has been foisted on me - and frankly, just like the changes to Blogger or many other Google things, I don't like it.

Not only is it annoying to be forced to change whether I like it or not, but it will also mean that many "Techies" - including myself - will get calls from Mothers/Grannies/non computer litereate folks/ demanding help because..."Google/Gmail is broken!" or "My computer has a virus because Gmail looks wrong..."

If it wasn't for the fact that I can easily get my Gmail from anywhere and any randon connection, it would be gone from my life.

Totally annoying.

Update:  17th August and my mother has been on the phone confused about the changes to her Gmail....

Thanks Gmail.....

Customer retention? Nah....

Before I start this particular post, I was originally going to update one about Orange stitiching up their customers  - but it seems I didn't post that one!

So a quick resume is in order.

Not long after I signed a two year deal with Orange, they decided to up the prices - which was annoying enough, but the really annoying part was the text they sent to all those of us who were affected saying that it was in the tiny small print that they could do this and there was nothing we could do about it.

Their attitude in the text was enough to make me decide there and then to leave Orange as soon as my contract expired. A shame because their quick action to replace my phone when it went wrong was great (see one of the earlier posts about that).

Anyway, that was the background to this post.

So, contract coming to an end, I look around for another provider. This in itself proved annoying (the reasons are not really important - just down to the remoteness of my home and address issues).

But eventually, I found a good deal with the Three network. I have had a 3 phone on PAYG some years ago and got good signal all around and inside my home - ideal!
So, I signed my life away and awaited the delivery of my new phone on the two year contract I had just signed up to.
The phone arrives and I start examining it - really nice phone, but hang on.... crap signal!  I can't get any signal unless the phone is sat in the windowsill and then I can get one bar (or occasionally two bars in the kitchen window!). I can get a 3G signal in the kitchen, so run Speedtest on that - which tells me I have 3.8Mb/s compared to my home broadband speeds of around 1Mb/s at best....

OK, thinks me, the 3G is nice, but the signal inside the house sucks - so off to Google for some researching!
After a short while, I come across the 3 Home Signal device - basically a signal booster for the 3 mobile signal in the house! Great - I decide t oask 3 about it. After a lot of being pushed from Customer Service to Network to the Home Signal service people, I get through to someone who asks some questions and runs a network test on the mast near here.
All is well with the mast, so he proceeds to explain to me all about how the signal travels through the air and how anything in its path - trees, walls etc - can affect the signal.... (Thanks, but I have the A+ Computer Technician certification which covered this stuff.....).
He suggests that I CANCEL my contract since the 14 day cooling off period is still in operation! No, I say, I like the 3G speed here and I have heard about this Home Signal box....
Seems 3 don't issue them unless you qualify - and the qualification seems to include being out of the 14 day trial time. A bit stupid really, because if they had told me I could have this box straight away, it would have been great customer service and would presumably help to sway thise who were less convinced of the pros of the 3 Network. To tell me that I should CANCEL is simply terrible - and I am surprised 3 have any customers if they carry on like that.

Anyway, I am waiting for the 14 day period to end and then they are supposedly ringing me back to organise this Home Signal box....

Still ranting about 4G...

Yes, click elsewhere now if you don't wish to read my latest 4G rant!

Having complained to Ofcom and received a pretty poor reply, I went over the head of that lot to the Culture Secretary, Maria Miller.
Of course, I had to contact her via the Department for Culture, Media and Sport website, so I suspect my rant will be filtered out by some oik, but at least I passed my views on.

As you may know, there was a meeting on Tuesday between the various outfits involved in mobile rollout of 4G. They have agreed to get on with things without attempting pathetic blocking etc.

What they haven't done of course is agreed to roll out 4G to those who actually need it.

There was an article on the Beeb earlier - from their "technology correspondent". I have dropped the BBC an email about the article, inviting Rory to contact me or even come down to deepest, darkest Kernow to see what we have to suffer - despite being involved in the 4G trial.

I look forward to the reply - although I imagine I shall be ignored by both the BBC and the Culture Secretary....

I contacted Ofcom regarding the 4G rollout I mentioned in my previous post. They tell me that this is a commercial decision (as I suggested).
To appease my frustration, they did let me know that the Government are committed to providing 2Mbps universally across Britain by .... 2015.  Wow!  2Meg! When the average speed in the UK now is around 9Mbps, I can only imagine what little use 2Meg will be in another two years (and that is assuming we are not going to be somehow "forgotten" here in the backwoods....

Eldest daughter just had 30Mbps installed in her flat in Bristol - and I guess it comes with free calls etc and will cost less than the 25 quid a month I am forced to pay to Talk Talk for half a meg!

4G failure

So EE (the new catchy name for Everything Everywhere, previously Orange and T-Mobile) have announced their 4G rollout. Great news - IF you live in one of the major UK cities.

Yes, 4G is being supplied to those who already have superfast broadband connections, presumably so that they can remain superfast when on their mobiles walking down the street....

Well, as one of the triallists for the 4G in the first place, I was hoping that rural areas would be first to benefit.

Seems to me that economics is driving this rollout. EE will sell lots of nice shiny mobiles with 4G connectivity (I saw the HTC back when we were trialling here - and it was very nice!) and city folks will pay up for the connections. Here in the sticks, wages are low, few people live in the area, so economically un-viable for now at least I suppose. I can imagine that there is some haggling behind the scenes with the various companies asking the government for a bonus to rollout the service to the sticks.

So, my predicitions were right - good news for people who probably don't want or need 4G and bad news for those of us struggling on sub 1Mb/s connections

OK, for reasons I won't go into, I have decided to stick Xubuntu onto my EeePC.

Hilariously, the installer gives you some suggested specs "for best results". These "suggestions" are actually non-negotiable - if you don't have them, then the install won't happen. One of them is that you need over 4Gigs of disk space - which, for those who know the EeePC 701, is a bit of a problem....

You also need an internet connection - so my "straight to install" rather than "try me first" also fails as the wireless connection hasn't been set up....

So, back to the start. Created the USB live disk and used that to boot my Eee. As mentioned, I then had to head back to the Try Me option to get the wireless up and running. The other issue - the hard drive size - needs a bit more geek effort.

The HD size issue I did a quick Google on and discovered this -

http://gobitech.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/install-ubuntu-1104-on-asus-eee-pc-701.html

So, based on the info there (the 12.04 stuff is near the bottom) I had a go at editing the relevant file. I found it easier to open a terminal . then use sudo and nano as my text editor - bearing in mind that I am installing Xubuntu, rather than the straight Ubuntu with its Gnome tools.

Then, back to installing....

Success! I now get the revised "suggestion" of 3.0Gb (I have of course already got the wireless up).

Kudos to the gobitech blog! A neat bit of work sorting that out.

From here on in, I go with my usual EeePC selections - a single partition, Ext2 file system (i.e non journalised) and no swap space. I go for these because I believe that excessive writing to the SSD card shortens its life - and journalised filesystems and swap space increases writes. This is of course debatable, but I stick to this system.

Installing one of the Ubuntu family (or any other main distro) means installing a mountain of stuff I don't want on an Eeepc - it won't be connecting to a printer for example or to a scanner. Nor will I be editing pictures...
So I shall be doing some serious editing once the system is installed.

The command line is the ideal place to see how large the installed system actually is - bearing in mind that the installer wanted 4.4GB of free space!
The command line command is  df -h and when I run it on the installed system I find that 2.1 GB is used and, incidentally, there are 280 updates....

I am off to firstly cleanse the system of drivel (e.g fonts that I do not use, printers etc..) then look at the updates...

Will post later !

Return of 4G?

The news today mentions that Everything Everywhere - the Orange/T-Mobile link up who where part of the 4G trials here in Cornwall - have been granted permission by Ofcom to start offering 4G connections.
They are slightly different to our trial - these are a different frequency I understand - but still should be a lot better than the "service" I am getting from Talk Talk (alleged 512kb "broadband" which works for 75% of the time...).

The report on the Pirate FM website quotes one of the trialists from back in the summer and then says that the 4G service may well be available in Cornwall by next month....

I shall believe that when I see it!

It will be interesting to see how much a commercial roll out of the 4G system will cost. Bearing in mind the claim the other day that average broadband speeds in the UK are now 9Mb, the stable service we had on 4G was 4Mb - so in theory, we should be paying 4/9ths of the price on average? Even if we allow for the extra expense of setting up 4G, then how about a similar price as the 10Mb ish services offered by the main ISPs? So around 15-20 quid per month?
When asked during the trial, users stated a reasonable price as being 20 to maximum of 25 quid per month - and I am happy to pay that.
I honestly expect the 4G roll out to -

1) Only be available in London
2) Cost a lot more than £20 -£25 per month
3) Be unreliable at first, despite the trials.

I would love to have my Huawei 4G router back! It was relaible, reasoanble speed and a good service.

Damn you IE9!

Just when you thought it was safe to use CSS, IE9 decides to somehow cock it up again....

Anyone who has looked at the source code for the St Enonder OPC website will notice that, to get some little "flyout" menus, I have used CSS rather than javascript. To enable the CSS to work with older versions of IE, you need t oadd a bit of code which detects IE browsers and serves up a static version of the page - doesn't look as nice, but that is what happens if you use a non-standards compliant browser I guess. At least I coded in a bodge for those using IE....

Anyway, I have now had two different people report that neither the flyouts nor the static bodge work in IE9.

So I am going to have to find a laptop with IE9 and see what is going on there....

Will let you know how it goes!

The horror of the slowband...

Since the 4G was turned off, we have been using our old Pipex/Tiscali/Talk Talk ISP connection. Although the max speed is around half a meg, the problem is actually the random disconnections and ridiculous slow downs from time to time.

For example, tonight I decided to post about the subject here on Blogger. I ended up closing the browser tab and attempting again a few minutes later. Not once, but several times did I do that - just to get onto Blogger and make a posting!

I intend to get the MAC and move to another provider soon.  Back when we signed up to Pipex, they gave up unlimited downloads for our 512kb connection. Although it is slow, I often downloaded .iso files of new Linux distro releases - either to work on them or to test and review.
Each successive buyout - from Pipex to Tiscali and from Tiscali to Talk Talk - brought more problems.
Talk Talk reduced our service from "unlimited" to 10Gb per month and increased the cost from 20 quid to £25 per month. Yes, I know those of you with cable will be laughing as you suck up your unlimited downloads, TV and phone for £15....

Although I hate BT with a vengeance (they raped their customers by sticking them through Phorm), they offer the same download allowance (10Gb) with their Openzone wifi use out and about for £13 and some free months to start you off...
They also reckon (as they di when "broadband" first arrived here) that we can get better general speeds (750kb - 1Mb).

Although I really find it frustrating to pay the same as someone getting 8Mb or more, I will probably end up going to BT.

Totally cheesed off with the whole internet rip off at the moment. 

PS - this took about 10 minutes to actually post. I had to attempt it several times. And this is after midnight in the UK, so hardly peak times....

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.