* Posts by VerySlowData

46 publicly visible posts • joined 30 Mar 2017

Australia to build Top Secret cloud in AWS for military and spooky users

VerySlowData
Facepalm

TSOzCloud

Surely Albo and Co could have a TSOzCloud built here...if we are going to keep all our classified stuff on computers, I would rather they were built, owned and run right here in the wide brown land..

systemd 256.1: Now slightly less likely to delete /home

VerySlowData

Re: Isn't systemd great?

Ah, I bought one of them, long ago, 5Mb 5.25" Full Height Hard Disk (cost AUD500 back then) I remember thinking that I could copy all my floppy disk contents to it and still have lots of space!

China caught – again – with its malware in another nation's power grid

VerySlowData
Happy

Re: No need for China to infect the UK or other grids, they already have enough power

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.

Aerial cable tangles are still being strung up, but carriers are slowly burying the problem

VerySlowData
Thumb Up

trees and power lines

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.

That old box of tech junk you should probably throw out saves a warehouse

VerySlowData
Happy

Re: TBFOOTYSPHTOBKJIC vs managers - You Forgot

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.

An important system on project [REDACTED] was all [REDACTED] up

VerySlowData
Mushroom

The Italian Job

Shades of Micheal Caine...

Microsoft will upgrade Windows 10 21H2 users whether they like it or not

VerySlowData
Unhappy

marketing lies

Microsoft made much play of their statement that Windows 10 would be the last windows ever needed...then proceeded to browbeat Win 7 (and before) users into upgrading! I hope one day that there will be a viable Win7 frontend for linux or a BSD.. probably not in my lifetime.

Nice smart device – how long does it get software updates?

VerySlowData
Mushroom

Re: Nobody

shades of the famous Bluebottle from the late lamented Goon Show!

Google Japan goes rogue with 5.4ft long keyboard

VerySlowData
Thumb Up

useful for holding fabric

When not coding or communing with the computers, could be very handy for sewing folk needing to hold fabric down while laying out patterns. personally i would use it for fishing out stuff stuck under shelves, cupboards, etc.

Psst … Want to buy a used IBM Selectric? No questions asked

VerySlowData

Beyond Compare

Same here, bought a licence some years back and use it all the time.

It's time to kick China off social media, says tech governance expert

VerySlowData
Flame

Re: Fixed it for ya

Great idea; have IANA/IETF/whoever fence off an IP6 netblock and move all social media monoliths there. Publish the allocation so that the rest of us can block it and where possible not route it...

Then the internet can be returned to some semblance of sanity..

BOFH: The Geek's Countergambit – outwitted at an electronics store

VerySlowData
Trollface

new BOFHs are developing

Simon is alluding to other BOFH nests developing in allied businesses... The old trapdoor just in front of the Technical Service counter may be refurbished soon!

Earth to Voyager 2: Standby for connection – after we tip this water out of the dish

VerySlowData
Thumb Up

Re: Rusty scuppers?

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...

Robot vacuum cleaner employed by Brit budget hotel chain Travelodge flees

VerySlowData

old roombas never die

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..

DIY Sinclair clones: Left it too late to back the Next? Build your own instead

VerySlowData
Coffee/keyboard

Re: ZX80, ZX81 -- some of us used real computers!

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...

Reviving a classic: ThinkPad modder rattles tin to fund new motherboard for 2008's T60 and T61 series of laptops

VerySlowData

T61 Fans

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.

Macmillan best-biscuit list unexpectedly promotes breakfast cereal to treat status

VerySlowData

Re: Weetbix

VitaBrits FTW!!!

VerySlowData

Re: Hate to disagree but...

I'll have you know that Tim Tams are available with proper Dark Chocolate coating!!! Penguin bars (my step-daughter brought some back from the UK a few years back) are a bitter disappointment...

Sir Clive Sinclair: Personal computing pioneer missed out on being Britain's Steve Jobs

VerySlowData

Re: The ZX 80 in its white plastic shell

No CMC (Julian Barson) in Melbourne. We also had an early SoC 6502 eurocard computer pre-Acorn..

VerySlowData

The ZX 80 in its white plastic shell

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...

You walk in with a plan. You leave with GPS-tracking Nordic hiking poles. The same old story, eh?

VerySlowData

Re: recommend Witch? magazine

Really? I find that the 2mm hex keys round here seem to vanish into the black hole (that contains biros and single socks) whenever I need one...

When everyone else is on vacation, it's time to whip out the tiny screwdrivers

VerySlowData
Alert

Re: Two observations:

ThinkPads suffer from this particularly: however it is alleviated somewhat by the good diagrams in the HMM's still available from lenovo (an IBM tradition?) which give the size and length of each screw..

Go to L: A man of the cloth faces keyboard conundrum

VerySlowData

My late wife's father who was a linguist at Aston University in Brum also wrote dates this way: 4.vii.2021

I think he used this format when he was studying for his doctorate at Lyon in France.. I tend to do dates as SUN04JUL2021 these days..

BOFH: But we think the UK tax authorities would be VERY interested in how we used COVID support packages

VerySlowData

Re: Auditors...

From Bob Howard's office ? (thanks Charles Stross!)

For blinkenlights sake.... RTFM! Yes. Read The Front of the Machine

VerySlowData
Mushroom

Re: Blinkenlights

And why oh why is the led brightness on the devices so high that a single box could light up a football stadium???

BOFH: 7 jars of Marmite, a laptop and a good time

VerySlowData
Pint

Vegemite

Vegemite on crumpets, toast, muffins... Icon showing vegemite origins

Dangerous flying car drone zoomed into UK's Gatwick Airport airspace after killswitch failed

VerySlowData
Big Brother

Hmm.. I wonder

Maybe what was flown at Goodwood was not what was submitted to CASA for approval. Here in Oz, CASA are very fussy about approvals for flying stuff, generally.

Let's Encrypt? Let's revoke 3 million HTTPS certificates on Wednesday, more like: Check code loop blunder strikes

VerySlowData
Go

got email

We got the email, followed the advice and the certs for our affected domains were renewed.. no muss, no fuss. Kudos to LetsEncrypt for being upfront about this..

Raspberry Pi goes 2GB for the price of 1GB in honour of mini-computer's eighth birthday

VerySlowData
Thumb Up

The Pi as a part

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!

All that Samsung users found on UK website after weird Find my Mobile push notification was... other people's details

VerySlowData
Meh

here in Melbourne

happened to my Samsung late last night.. very odd.. I ignored it also..

Aw, bad day at your air-conditioned, somewhat clean desk? Try shifting a 40-tonne fatberg

VerySlowData
Coat

not a great day at the ACCC

you could say the the ACCC were not flushed with success!

(I won't take a coat today, it's a bit warm out there!)

Remember the 1980s? Oversized shoulder pads, Metal Mickey and... sticky keyboards?

VerySlowData
Coffee/keyboard

Re: Coke Cleans

Actually, long ago when I was a Tech College student, The Workshop Technology teacher used coca-cola as a cleaning agent for for the copper side of blank FR4 pcb material, a solid rinse in clean water and over dry prior to coating with resist. Worked like a charm!

Boris Brexit bluff binds .eu domains to time-bending itinerary

VerySlowData
Thumb Up

Re: Yes EU Minister

upvote for Aldi Moser Roth chocolate (the 85% Dark is great, and good for you!)

Can't bear to part with that well-worn copy of Windows 7? Microsoft might let you keep it updated an extra year

VerySlowData
FAIL

Where is Windows 9?

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.

Galileo, Galileo, Galileo, where to go? Navigation satellite signals flip from degraded to full TITSUP* over span of four days

VerySlowData
Thumb Up

Re: What's the point of a pilot phase

upvote for space dicks! (or should that be Dicks in Spaaaaaace....?)

Jocasta? Jocasta! Don't ram that trolley into the man: New tech promises an end to this scenario

VerySlowData
Go

Why not homing trolleys

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...)

They're BAAACK: Windows 10 nagware team loads trebuchet with annoying reminders to GTFO Windows 7

VerySlowData
Alert

When MS wakes up and updates Win 7 to Win 9

If MS haven't woken up and released the proper update from Win 7 to Win 9, by Jan 2020, then its goodbye Windows and my computers will just boot to Linux Mint. Mint works for me, email, browser Arduino, Open SCAD etc..

Microsoft accidentally let encrypted Windows 10 out into the world

VerySlowData
Coffee/keyboard

Still waiting for Windows 9

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...

CADs and boffins get some ThinkPad love

VerySlowData
Alert

keyboards

I am reading the comments on my W520 tricked out with 16 Gb RAM and 1Tb SSD. It works just fine, but a P1 sounds rather grand (the Hi Res screen would be good), but I wonder if the keyboard quality is up to the standard of the older models!!

nbn™ CEO blames copper for performance problems

VerySlowData
Facepalm

The NBN will never be finished

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..)

There is no perceived IT generation gap: Young people really are thick

VerySlowData

Re: Yo Dabbsy

umm, here in Oz, buses stop at Bus Stops....

nbn™ loses its head: CEO Bill Morrow bails

VerySlowData
FAIL

Morrow going no great loss

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!

For some reason, you lot love 'em. So here are the many ThinkPads of 2018

VerySlowData
Happy

thinkpads do it for me

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!

Transport for New South Wales told to stop tracking oldies, students

VerySlowData
Angel

down here in Mexico

south of the border in Vic., if you have a concession card, you are required to show the evidence that you are entitled to it; e.g., for a Seniors Myki card (the 'S' card) you have to show a valid seniors card issued by the state government.

LISA Pathfinder sniffed out gravitational signals down to micro-Hertz

VerySlowData
Alert

too many hertz

Petahertz?? maybe LISA will look for picohertz signals!!

Speaking in Tech: Elon Musk and the AI apocalypse

VerySlowData

Vegemite - the wonder coating for toast

You can spread it a bit thicker on toast, great with 'soapy' sliced cheese!