bärn~nĕt~lănd

| Category Holidays | Permalink

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Coming to America?  Well, make sure you take good care to follow the new process....and be confronted with the mother of all Javascript Alert messages....

| Category Tech | Permalink

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Thanks to a bit of Googling and someone fixing the problem, my long-standing annoyance of having to enter another password has been solved.

I'd go as far as to say that npnotes was missing from HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\NetworkProvider\Order and I had to reboot to get it going....

| Category Holidays | Permalink

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Having just rented a car, I wondered what their "Super Insurance" for £12 daily was.  Now I know:  a rip-off!!

The internet on a Sunday morning is a great place - I found that I could pay £60 per year for an annual policy insuring the gap between the mandatory insurance that you'll likely have when renting a car.  This cover is global - so will cover trips everywhere that a car might be rented.

The US and Canada have slightly different issues - but if you rent from a non-US site then you'll likely get some basic insurance thrown in....and therefore your £60 policy will cover you there too.  If not, you can get a full insurance policy for around £120 and elect to not bother with insurance from the rental company.

And, most excitingly, the exchange rate with the £ has made this exceedingly cheap!

| Category Tech | Permalink

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Due to the terrible exchange rate that the £ has right now, for little over 400 francs I've managed to order one of these puppies; on the downside, I'll have to suffer a UK keyboard but that's life.........and luckily, even though Dell appears to not allow different address for delivery and charge, it seems that Verified by VISA has been my friend.

Let's hope that it's delivered in time for me to "enjoy" it.....!

| Category Tech | Permalink

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I've a new, recommended application that's free from the AppStore - TouchTerm.  Whilst the free version is a little limited, it works perfectly allowing an SSH connection and terminal session.  It can even create RSA 1024-bit keys that I've included in my SSHD setup as I don't permit "normal" logins.

So I now have the chance to SSH to my server from my Touch.  Marv

| Category Tech | Permalink

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Firstly, no I don't have an iPhone

My Touch is now running with a bookmark for iNotes Ultralite; it even runs on my BlackBerry in Opera Mini 4.2.  I would not say it's brilliant but it is good.  A new experience for my mobile email needs.

If I use the gmail client for Touch and BlackBerry, the IBM/Lotus team have duplicated the look and feel of this but it still remains a web client;  It even apes the behaviours I don't like - for example not returning to the Inbox when you delete a message you're viewing.

If you have a fast connection, you do have a good experience using Ultralite.  I'll continue using it as it's nice and quick and works well enough - and, most importantly, uses the limited screen size in a balanced manner

| Category Tech | Permalink

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I managed to test the BartPE USB stick I made recently and, after some initial moments, I got it to work.

Fantastic!

Since then, I was looking to make an Acronis True Image USB device too - but then I found Acronis True Image plug-in for BartPE which simply must be copied into a /plugins/acronis folder underneath your PEBuilder installation.  This means that I can now copy a TI of the machine to another USB stick and ....... make things happen more quickly.

My opinion is that I am overjoyed () with this.  Woo-Hoo

| Category Tech | Permalink

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It's always nice to live close to the power station yet suffer power failures ...... so, in order to save my poor servers getting hammered with power cuts (twice in the last month), a UPS is now on it's way.  Shame we need it

| Category Tech | Permalink

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| Category Tech | Permalink

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I'll be testing this solution shortly - on a CD-less Atom desktop.  Being able to install from USB may well be quicker and easier - after all, CD is dead, right?

More news this coming weekend

| Category Football | Permalink

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The BBC with another classic live commentary "slip"

On the bright side, the Premiership table makes good reading

| Category News | Permalink

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Due to the snow, some local trees have many snapped branches.

Poor trees.

| Category Tech | Permalink

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How much do we need power?  We don't actually think about it much as we take it for granted.  So what happens when you have none?

• Imagine waking up to darkness and the fact that the alarm did not go off as the power went for the whole area hours ago
• Imagine not being able to make it light because your blinds are electrically-powered
• Imagine not being able to have coffee because the coffee machine needs, erm, light
• Imagine looking outside and seeing many in the same situation

But, on the bright side.....

• Imagine that you can still get internet access over 3G
• Imagine that you have a backup coffee machine and cook with gas...
• Imagine that you still have summer tyres on the car and that those summer tyres are nearly worn out
• Imagine that you're working from home today!!

The thing I'm most gutted about is that my Uptime of 222 days has been interrupted by the local power station being snowed-upon and giving up hope at 5am this morning

But, on the bright side, there are some "broken" trees from the weight of the snow.....pictures coming soon!!

| Category News | Permalink

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Yes, these scallywags decided that they would move house.  Using the train I have to say it's a most excellent idea.  Considering the short distance they were moving, that's an awful lot of (crap) beer they have there......!!

| Category Football | Permalink

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From LJ's site....the Spurs/Hull game today is on Show Comedy Extra.  Given the way Spurs have started this season, it's quite apt......

Update: Classic......the result - home defeat to Hull!

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Someone in Zurich recently crashed into a speed camera.  Yes, the b3ta.com-style image does look like it has been Photoshopped (especially with the bed or lounger being transported).....but if you click on the image, you'll see it is a real incident

I don't know if the car was speeding but I can guarantee that no picture of the rear of the car has been taken

| Category Tech | Permalink

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Well I've had Genius for nearly 24 hours and I have to say it is good.  The playlists that you get are 25 songs long and usually have some goodies - more goodies than baddies.  Of course this is based on my chosen playlist as I have about 88Gb of music and there is less than 20Gb on my Touch.  But - as the missus will confirm, there is some "chaff" in the music collection...!

It will be interesting to see how Genius moves forwards; if there is a bias towards oft-played tracks then the gap between the rich and the poor will grow (top-class anology, eh ) - and my little-heard tracks will disappear.

I've never used playlists - rather chosen either to randomise on the whole 'pod or to play albums.....so this playlist orientation is good.

And it has awoken some memories of songs and times gone by.  Can't be bad

| Category News | Permalink

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It's worth sparing  a thought this morning for those who perished in 9/11.  As I type, it's 7 years to the minute since the first airliner hit the North Tower.

There is nothing more to say.....perhaps watch 9/11 Loose Change and think of those no longer with us....

| Category Tech | Permalink

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I was looking forwards to Genius until I saw this: Erm, hello Apple - thanks but no.  "Turning on Genius will send information about your iTunes library to Apple"? Eat my shorts  Until someone convinces me that Apple isn't using the fact that I listen to music some people consider "dodgy", I ain't enabling it How d'you like them apples?   Update: call me weak, call me geek - I want to look at it.  So....enabled...

| Category Birthdays | Permalink

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I've put Nana on Facebook and am in the process of getting the whole family to sign up as her friends.  Call it a social experiment if you will - it's not to coerce her into getting a computer (remember the first VCR...?!!) but to show her how much we appreciate her.  So, if you know or are related to her, sign up and link yourself to Nana