Posts by farvoyages 19 publicly visible posts • joined 11 Nov 2016
I borrowed my brother-in-law's spare prius while my ICE car was being serviced. the prius had not been driven for a while and the 12V standard car battery in the boot ran flat. I was absolute flummoxed that the car could not start even though the big main battery was charged. like wth ? which designer thought that was a smart idea ?
whenever i see an Apple Airport Express discarded in someone's computer junk cupboard I grab it. If you have old-school analog amps the Airport Express is a great way to get the amp onto the LAN. The wifi in them was average so I always run them with the wifi turned off in bridge mode on ethernet
re: "I'm amazed...that politicians ever approve state investment in infrastructure.
It doesn't matter what a government builds, there'll always be some bunch of ungrateful tossers to slag it off[1]. "
I think that's a fair comment and I have upvoted your post -it's just that I thought the politicians' job was to mandate that investment *and* make sure it is done wisely/efficiently/for the benefit of the people and the country, not the telco's.
what bewilders me is that Aussies have not taken to the streets with pitchforks over this whole NBN misadventure
"This story was filed over an NBN connection rated to 100Mbps and delivering 52Mbps downloads and 14Mbps uploads over WiFi. Which seldom troubles your text-dependent correspondent."
This story was read from a NZ UFB connection rated to 1000mbps and delivering 862Mbps downloads and 360Mbps uploads and costing AU$80 per month. I think the correspondent lets the NBN bastards off too lightly. Maaate, Have you really gotten value for money ?
His eyes flicked open. He stared straight ahead. Where there should have been the awful white furred face above him, jaws hinging open, or the cold stars spinning slowly as he tumbled, there was instead a familiar figure, hanging upside down from a branch inside a large, brightly lit circular space. He was sitting up in a sort of cross between a bed and a giant nest. He blinked, ungumming his eyes. It did not feel as though it had been blood keeping them shut. He squinted at the creature hanging a few metres in front of him. It blinked and turned its head a little. Praf?' he said, coughing. His throat felt sore, but at least it was properly connected to his head again.
The small, dark creature shook its leathery wings. 'Uagen Zlepe,' it said, 'I am charged with welcoming you. I am 8827 Praf, female. I share the bulk of the memories associated with the fifth-order Decider of the 11th Foliage Gleaner Troupe of the dirigible behemothaur Yoleus which was known to you as 974 Praf, including, it is believed, all those regarding yourself'
Uagen coughed up some fluid. He nodded and looked around. This looked like the interior of Yoleus' Invited Guests' Quarters, with the sub-divisions removed. `Am I back on Yoleus?' he asked.
`You are aboard the dirigible behemothaur Yoleusenive.'
Uagen stared at the hanging creature in front of him. It took him a moment or two to work out the implications of what he'd just heard. He felt his mouth go dry. He swallowed. 'The Yoleus has . . . evolved?' he croaked.
`That is the case.'
He put his hand up to his throat, feeling the tender but whole flesh. He looked slowly up and around. 'How was I,' he began, then had to stop and swallow and start again. 'How was I brought back? How was I rescued?'
`You were found in the without. You wore a piece of equipment which stored your personality. The Yoleusenive has repaired and reconstructed your body and quickened your mind-life within said body.'
'But I wasn't wearing any . . Uagen began, then his voice trailed off as he looked down to where his fingers were stroking the skin around his neck where, once, there had been a necklace.
'the piece of equipment that stored your personality was where your fingers are now,' 8827 Praf confirmed, and clacked her beak once.
Aunt Silder's necklace. He remembered the tiny sting at the back of his neck. Uagen felt tears well in his eyes. 'How much time has passed?' he whispered.
Praf's head tipped to one side again and her eyelids flickered.
Uagen cleared his throat and said, 'Since I left the Yoleus; How much time has passed?'
'Nearly one Grand Cycle.'
Uagen found he could not speak for a little while. Eventually he said, 'One . . . one, ah, galactic, umm Grand Cycle?'
8827 Praf's beak clacked a couple of times. She shook herself, adjusting her dark wings as though they were a cloak. 'That is what a Grand Cycle is,' she said as though explaining something obvious to someone just hatched. 'Galactic.'
Uagen swallowed on a dry, dry throat. It was as though it was still ripped out and open to the vacuum. 'I see,' he said.
********
I treasure my Ian M Banks books; the world is worse off for his passing
can't speak highly enough of A&A - i organised a connection with them from here in New Zealand for my elderly parents who were returning to Sussex, was able to program a spare work draytek router here, put it in my father's suitcase, he plugged it in when he got there and I have able to connect to the VPN immediately. I explained to the A&A staff at the beginning what we needed to do and they were very helpful. Every UK winter, we shut down the connection while my parents visit us here in warmer climates and then spark it back up again in spring. being doing this for the past 4yrs with no issues at all.
I've done that job successfully both ways: backing up the original HD with acronis to USB HD then booting from acronis and restoring the TIB to new stick, and also cloning by putting the original NVME stick into a USB-C NVME external enclosure which i bought from eBay. worked fine. HTH
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