Posts by Ben

BBC botnet investigation turns hacks into hackers

@ FlatSpot

Is it ever not flavour of the month to bash the BBC?

How to upgrade an Acer Aspire One netbook's memory

If I can do it..

Most people can.

I remember being sat there in front of me, the day I'd bought it, with it completely gutted, and wondering if I'd manage to put it back together. I did - however I encountered a few problems during my upgrade - mostly my fault.

1. The whole taking the keyboard off thing. It's a fine line between too little and too much pushing - I managed to push them too far, and they had to be 'reset' through a lot of poking about on the underside. Unfortunately one of them can't be accessed, so a corner of my acer keyboard is slightly higher...

2. I managed to thread a screw on the mobo, meaning I almost couldn't lift it out. In frustration I was rather tough with it and it came out.

3. Tip - Make sure you follow ALL the steps on the way out - I forgot to relink the track pad or something and had to open it back up. Doh!

4. It's possible to add bluetooth - which'd be useful for 'net off my mobile.

I love my Acer. I got it for travelling and even then batteries haven't really been an issue. It's currently being used by a reporter friend in Kenya.

MPs grill BBC heads over Manuelgate

All I can say is..

You wanted blood (judging by the majority of the original comments on here), you got it - and then some. Using this issue as a trojan horse to attack the BBC generally was always going to turn out badly if it meant making a pact with the Daily Mail and Murdoch. Now the whole thing predicatably looks like a media scare. Useful idiots comes to mind.

I'd say scrap the BBC if I thought it'd stop the Brits moaning, but I'm sure they'd then suddenly lapse into misty eyed nostalgia for the good old days.

Lehman Excel snafu could cost Barclays dear

I feel for whoever is responsible

We all make mistakes and it was probably the usual tale of too much work and not enough time - albeit this is a pretty big, nausea inducing, job losing clanger of a mistake.

Dell launches Inspiron 9 mini laptop

Balls

Just bought an aspire one, and while pleased with it, it looks like I may prefer the look of the Dell. But then I needed something by next friday, and there's always a new kid on the block (I just wish they'd aimed for back to school).

Anyway, I've got the HDD version of my aspire for £230 from PC World, have put on Vista absolutely no probs from USB, and am tomorrow adding an extra 1GB of ram that cost £14 from Crucial.

Going to be reasonably spec'd.

eBay changes anger smaller sellers

We had someone from eBay come into work recently to give a talk

Apparently they are making PayPal payment compulsory as it cuts down the risk of fraud. Right. So it's got nothing to do with the exorbitant fees?

Last couple of times I've sold items I've been shocked by the chunk ebay took, only then to have even more taken by paypal. Sellers obviously try to build this into their P&P, so I just use Amazon used for books these days. It's excellent

Dell to launch 'Eee PC beater' today

Vs Acer Aspire One

To be honest I've been so pissed off by stock problems concerning the Acer, I'm tempted to hold on for the Dell. Hopefully Dell will actually release it at the price they originally state..