Running out of options
As the list gets smaller the options seem worse & worse.
He's going to end up in Sealand.
129 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Sep 2008
Lost of useful tools above this post, lots of great live CDs etc.
I use one of the zalman external usb enclosures:
http://www.reghardware.com/2011/09/05/geek_treat_of_the_week_zalman_zm_ve200_external_hdd_case/
This not only lets you carry round as many of the handy live CDs as you want, it has a write protection switch & with a large enough drive you can also use it to save the images you make with clonezilla etc on it. It's really a number of tools in one!
Only Issue I've had is either 1) crappy old BIOS which can't seem to boot from it because its a usb device and 2) if the ISO files are at all fragmented they wont mount properly.
Surely a simple solution would be inlcusion of a jumper somewhere. If the jumper is not set (default) then only a digitally signed OS will boot.
Change the jumper & when booting the firmware pops up a message to state 'unsecure boot' or whatever then carries on.
Only people who have an idea what they are doing will open up the chassis & start meddling with jumpers. You need hardware access to the machine to change the jumper so no nasty virus can change the setting.
The warning screen lets anyone who has had their machine physically hacked know that something is up with it.
Seems like a simple solution, but I can't imagine its in the best interests of M$ to do so.
On the other hand they could be staring down another anti-trust if they're not careful.
I've tried pretty much all the H.C. browsers on my Transformer & the one I've preffered so far is Opera.
All the other browsers just dont perform quote as well. The new Dolphin Tab is quite promising, but seems to siffer from the rendering problem which affects the stock browser (if you scroll too fast the page loads in in blocks).
Tried the FF beta a while back & wasn't too impressed. Might give it another go to see if it's much better now.
Still even Opera isnt perfect. Seems to often have buttons missing in javascript forms which sometimes means to can't 'submit' the form.
Although I'm guessing a high percentage of El Reg's readership are fairly switched on to this kind of thing, for any first time flashers a few words of advice.
1) Backup everything before flashing. And by backup I mean back it up to a seperate device. Some roms require that as well as wiping your phones internal memory that you repartition your SD card. You've just potentially lost all your photos, contacts, text messages etc.
2) Look for an unbricking guide prior to flashing. If you've just killed your only phone handset & still have 12 months to go on your contract it could be brown trousers time. Fortunately there is usually a way back from a bricked device, but better finding a guide specific to your handset & reading through it / watching a youtube vid BEFORE you start.
I do highly recommend trying new ROMs. I've loaded a Sense 3.0 rom on to my original HTD Desire. I get all the pretty interface action from the desire HD, with a phone small enough to fit in my pocket without getting any 'is that a phone, or...' comments.
It may not exactly be a netbook, but the Asus Transformer port of Ubuntu by Lilstevie is humming along quite well. Once it's 100% complete it'll be a pretty decent Netbook / Tablet which runs on a Tegra2 (ARM based) chip.
Not exactly Netbook priced, but 16 hours of battery life, plus the ability to detech the keyboard & use it as only a tablet makes it pretty good in my book. 3G model coming soon as well..
I couldn't find anywhere in uk with stock- to be honest I haven't rechecked Currys since I just ordered from Amazon with the promise of getting one when they're back in stock.
I know you can get the tablets in quite a few places but I wanted the tablet + keyboard combo.
Might have to cancel order & try from Currys instead.
I'm waiting for a Transformer which I've pre-ordered on Amazon.
While reading the comments about sticking *insert your favourite flavour of* linux on the Transformer I came across these guys:
https://www.alwaysinnovating.com/home/
They seem to have a couple of pretty cool Transformer like devices. The specs aren't as good, but hot switching between OSes? That's pretty awesome. I'm genuinely in two minds now...
As has been said countless times above changing to the Ribbon is a nightmare.
I actually found something helpful on the M$ website tho:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/guides-to-the-ribbon-use-office-2003-menus-to-learn-the-office-2007-user-interface-HA010229584.aspx
Half way down the page the 'Interactive Guides' are quite handy - its a wee flash program which displays the old 2003 toolbars. Click on the function you want & it shows you how to find the dammed thing in 2007 (May not be much use for 2010, I dunno).
If I saw a pop up that told me my computer was infected with a link on how to remove it I certainly wouldn't click it.
It sounds the same as every other fake antivirus pop-up.
While commendable on the part of the Dutch authorities I can see this not really working.
On the other had if people follow it & think that this is the standard when they get infected then nex time they do get a fake pop up they will reinfect themselves.
Aside from the issues of what crypto etc is used on these key fobs the thing that annoys me is the lack of a physical lock on my car door. I have a key to start the ignition, but if I'm being jammed, or simply have a flat battery in my keyfob I cant lock/unlock my car even though i'm standing right next to it with a key!
It's just annoying design on the manufacturers part. Of course they dont want to 'spoil the lines' of the car...
I recently moved from O2 to T-Mobile to get a Desire (had nothing against O2, but given that I was a loyal customer of several years the fact that they wouldnt even match the deal T-Mob were offering made me leave)
I still keep getting annoying O2 marketing messages despite several calls to customer service to inform them that I am no longer an O2 customer and do not want to receive thier texts.
Annoyingly the 'Text STOP to xxxx' doesnt even work as I'm not on their network anymore.
At least these are just text messages I can ignore, but I can undertand how hacked off people must be from getting silly network info messages popping up every 2 mins.
I wonder if they fact they were 'phished' will have any bearing on it at all.
If someone tricked me in to handing them my house keys and they went in & stole my furniture I'm sure my insurance wouldn't be too keen to pay out as it's my own fault for giving away my keys. It's not the same as someone picking my locks and breaking in.
Granted it's not a perfect analogy...
"only happened on 42 occasions when the machines were reported lost or stolen"
So in the case in question was the laptop reported lost or stolen? Why was the image taken of the kid?
Given the hints El Reg was dropping last week as to what the 'inappropriate behavior' was does it not seem more like perhaps a keyword has triggered some kind of alarm which has caused them to take the image.
Perhaps even more scarily they're just flat out lying and the camera are randomly monitored after all.
Seems like they need to be justifying why the snap was taken of the kid in the first place. Maybe it shows him doing something untoward, but the fact is *something* had to give them just cause to take it in the first place.
>Put a spike in the steering wheel then when they crash they remove themselves from the gene pool. If they are stupid enough to nick the car, they won't be wearing a seatbelt.
Why not go one better & install a Magnavolt
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyuKEK7wmsw (Poss NSFW if your boss doesn't dig Robo).
It doesn't even drain your battery...