
Re: Mini Mouse
Isn't that appropriate, given the current owners of the Mini brand? ;-)
21 publicly visible posts • joined 20 Jan 2010
I love the slight banking as the plane separates - it would have been brilliant to get a camera into the plane also - imagine the footage from that (I've been reading though and know this wasn't possible - pity, it would have been breathtaking!)
As it is though, very, very impressive stuff.
I've been using Ubuntu at home since Dapper, generally have few problems, but for some reason the upgrade option never worked - to go up a version I'd always have to download and burn a CD and install from that.
This time it worked, I was delighted. Then again when I started it up I get a pretty dramatic freeze - so the thing is effectively bricked.
Aside: One thing I would like fixed - (it might be fixed, I just can't use the bl**dy thing!) the problems with playing DVDs - since 10.04 I haven't been able to play DVDs smoothly - I did have to play around with DMA settings to get it to work pre 10, but those changes did nothing.
A few years back when the telecoms sector was opened up here in Ireland eircom (or they might have been Telecom Eireann at the time) - the BT "equivalent" (i.e. used to be state owned, controlled all the cables etc) were told to allow competitors access to the ducting etc to run their cabling.
Rumour has it that eircom knew this was about to happen so the engineers were told to go stuff the ducting with cable. (Not connected to anything)
So then they duly opened it up, and sadly, no room to run any of the competitors cabling.
All this is rumours, mind.
I use two different online banking systems - both have a usernumber + PIN + password system - both use random digits from the PIN and one asks for random characters from the password. To me that seems pretty decent. This will allow you list transactions and make existing bill payments/transfers.
(Aside - always wondered why they don't use a random digit from the PIN number idea at ATMs/chip and pin terminals - then even if someone got you entering the PIN it'd be unlikely to be the same random sequence. And yes, for oldies who can only remember the 4 digits you could offer the choice)
If you want to add new accounts/bills to pay money to one requires you to ring a call centre, answer security questions, then take a call back on the number you gave to them at account opening. The other uses a unique chipped card and fob combination.
So the systems as a while seem quite good.
In terms of passwords I think I'm like a few others here - same general password, but variations thereof. Also an easy way to create pretty good passwords, but remember them - take an album say, then the song titles - then mix up vowels and number like letters. Easy enough to remember (song title) and then if you're made change password X days later pick another song title. e.g.
1st1llH@vntF0undWh@t1ml00k1ng4
Isn't all this stuff about the scanners old news?
I went through Heathrow May 2006 and was "randomly selected" for a scan - one of the full body x-ray scans. (Not sure the specifics) I asked the operator could I see the image (I'm not sure if they'd show you know) but he did show me - in pretty good res. nekkidness - blurred my face and gentleman's area, but I could recognise myself. Pretty cringey - felt a sudden need to go on a diet...
At home I use FF 3.5 on a 7+ year old P4 Dell with 512 memory. I've 13 extensions (not sure if that's a high or low number - a mixture: Adblock+, NoScript, Web Dev, Tree Tab, Greasemonkey...). Never experienced any problems at all (using Ubuntu, that may help!)
In work I'm on XP - a dual core machine with 2 gb - use FF again, same extensions - same sites, give or take, all seems very similar. The extra CPU and memory is probably being used by various development tools that I'd have going.
Also in work I use IE6 (developing for a certain CRM application that insists on using ActiveX controls limits your choices somewhat...) I have an MS Web Development toolbar installed, that's about it. To be fair I don't really have too much trouble with this either, but I wonder is IE6 less featuretastic that IE7 or 8, so better suited to lesser machines/OSs?
Anecdotally, I think I restart IE the most - and the odd time I do need to restart FF (only on the XP machine, I don't think I ever have on Ubuntu) it brings all the tabs back in (not sure if that's FF or the Tree Style Tab plugin) as they were, so no real panic.
So seeing as neither machine is terribly well specced here, but by and large run fine, I think the trick is to keep extensions lean as possible and/or be careful where you point the browser at
Oh, and I use FF (both XP and Ubuntu) for my internet banking.