Posts by VerySlowData 52 publicly visible posts • joined 30 Mar 2017
so true, we had a major renovation done recently; as soon as a tool wore out, the tradies would zip off to Bunnings or elsewhere and buy a new one! the stuff that seemed to last longer was makita or dewalt.. (I'm a ryobi person myself, but I'm not flogging my tools as hard the tradies do..)
I would agree with other commentards that the best approach for the R4L team is to abandon fighting to get Linux changed, but build a linux-like OS (called Oxide OS) totally from Rust components and sub systems [not a rust expert here] the kernel would be the biggy, but with the salami approach - one slice of code at a time it may well be doable. The two code bases could be compared for performance and security, and people could choose the OS they want (as opposed to MS' laying down of the Windows law!)
I had my cataracts done abt 20 years ago, there wasn't any particular injunction about face washing (and you have the eye being done bandaged up for a day anyway, when you go back to the hospital and the opthalmologist removes the dressing and you can see properly!)
This was the Fred Hollowes style of intraocular lens replacement where they put a cannula in the side of the eye, (you are more or less awake for this!) ultrasonic emulsification of the cloudy lens, suction all the bits out of the lens sac than popin a rolled up replacement plastic lens which unwinds into position, bobs your uncle, you can see again!!!
If you have cataracts, definitely recommended!
Really? We have solar panels and an inverter. works OK and doesn't come with any connectivity at all. There is an LCD panel that tells you panel voltage and power that it is providing to your house and that's it.
Do what we had to do: get a qualified tree removal firm who will arrange for the power to the overhead power line to be switched off during tree removal. Painless and safe! Mind you, I had to ruthlessly prune a lemon tree that I planted as a seed in the wrong place years ago, after receiving a Notice to Remove Vegetation from the power reticulation company.
Luckily, my SWMBO doesn't as she is a great collector of sewing and kitchen stuff just in case...on the other hand my TBFOOTYSPHTOBKJIC has taken over the shed/workshop and is threatening my inside house room! It has been very useful for repairs over the years.
long ago, I also lived in Canberra and experienced torrential rain storms that flooded and closed main roads in the south (Woden Valley). Once such event caused cars to be swept away with at least one fatality.
The frost: removing the ice from your windscreen is a regular morning chore in Canberra...
Our old Roomba (3rd Battery pack, replacement handle, repaired power pack, etc) crashes around the house, but doesn't attempt to escape outside, as it can't handle steps (just like Mk 1 Daleks). It stops and bleeps in a foreign language, and sits there forlornly, waiting to be moved..
long ago, a friend of mine designed and built an addin 80 column video card for the Osborne 1 here in Oz; it was sold to the Osborne corporation and he and his family got a free trip to California while he did paid work for Osborne integrating the mod into their systems. Still got one in the junkbox outside somewhere...
My older T61 (battered case held together with stickers) suffers from ThinkPad fan disease. I have ordered replacement FRU's on eBay with varying success, but my best fix was fan disassembly (clean and oil bushes sparingly) and careful refitting. The noise comes back eventually, but if you work in a quiet environment (I don't) it would bug you after a while.
Long ago here in Oz, I recall unpacking and de-casing ZX80's (dozens of them) to replace the UHF TV modulator unit with a VHF version for Australian TV's (No UHF here back then). ISTR the keypads were always a bit iffy.
Still, we had never seen any computing device that retailed that cheaply. My employer at the time sold a lot of them...
I have some older pi's; one came as a freeby on MagPi magazine (the Pi Zero, ISTR) Amazed that a whole computer came on a PCB not much bigger that a 40pin dip and could get at the io ports easily. With Pi's and Arduini , we now have really blurred the line between discrete chips and complete systems to solve problems or scratch electronic itches!
Happy Birthday, Raspberry Pi!
Enough with Satnav Gnutella's wet dream OS, "Windows 10" already! Aren't there enough sane developers left at MS to do a proper upgrade of Windows 7 to Windows 9 for all the ordinary folk who have real work to do on not the latest hardware. Windows 10 is a warmed over, phone-interfaced GUI spyware abomination.
When the time comes to move on from Win 7, barring miracles, I will be migrating boxes to Linux Mint; tried ReactOS, nice but no where near finished.
Ford should work on trolleys that drive themselves back to the their owning supermarket, then we wouldn't have to put up with them loitering around the bus stop out the front of our house a kilometre from the shop, or in the laneway to the railway station (I refuse to say train station...)
another wierd release of whatever Microsoft thinks "Windows 10/UWP/???" is. I am still waiting for the desktop OS upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 9; the one with improved performance, total compatibility with Win 7 drivers (both 32bit and 64 bit!) no change to the appearance and a start menu with desktop for PC's and laptops; no catering to funny phones or fondleslabs or cutdown ports to Raspberry Pi etc...
Why don't Trumbull and his idiot crew supported by Shorten and his idiot crew admit that the whole NBN thing was an unmitigated cockup and just aim for a 10Gbps public backbone across the wide brown land then get ISPs to organize interconnects to Telco's and their infrastructure in towns, cities and suburbs via appropriate affordable/speedy media for end users (retail/business) Could be fibre/5G/wet string; whatever satisfies the customer need.. simples (thank you, sergei..)
if NBN prep around here is any indication of quality, then good riddance! a week ago Telstra dudes in our road 'preparing' to remediate the telstra cable network cable plant for NBN to be rolled out here, managed to rip out a 10 pair cable taking out our ADSL services and neighbouring phones. That occurred about 1000 local and to give them credit, they had it repaired by 1400 same day. The young chap who broke the wire, had to front his boss who came to fix it up. Not a great day for him!
I am typing this on a W520 (16 gbRAM, 1Tb SSD) workhorse machine which resisted the ravages of Windows 10 upgrades (still Win 7 pro/Linux Mint dual boot) It just works...I have a T61 on the workbench and in the shed and an X60 to use when out if needed.
Having looked at other folks lappies for repairs or software problems, they just don't cut it for repairability or longevity..
perhaps us dedicated Thinkpad fans are starting to sound like Mac aficionados!
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