Still ranting about 4G...

Yes, click elsewhere now if you don't wish to read my latest 4G rant!

Having complained to Ofcom and received a pretty poor reply, I went over the head of that lot to the Culture Secretary, Maria Miller.
Of course, I had to contact her via the Department for Culture, Media and Sport website, so I suspect my rant will be filtered out by some oik, but at least I passed my views on.

As you may know, there was a meeting on Tuesday between the various outfits involved in mobile rollout of 4G. They have agreed to get on with things without attempting pathetic blocking etc.

What they haven't done of course is agreed to roll out 4G to those who actually need it.

There was an article on the Beeb earlier - from their "technology correspondent". I have dropped the BBC an email about the article, inviting Rory to contact me or even come down to deepest, darkest Kernow to see what we have to suffer - despite being involved in the 4G trial.

I look forward to the reply - although I imagine I shall be ignored by both the BBC and the Culture Secretary....

I contacted Ofcom regarding the 4G rollout I mentioned in my previous post. They tell me that this is a commercial decision (as I suggested).
To appease my frustration, they did let me know that the Government are committed to providing 2Mbps universally across Britain by .... 2015.  Wow!  2Meg! When the average speed in the UK now is around 9Mbps, I can only imagine what little use 2Meg will be in another two years (and that is assuming we are not going to be somehow "forgotten" here in the backwoods....

Eldest daughter just had 30Mbps installed in her flat in Bristol - and I guess it comes with free calls etc and will cost less than the 25 quid a month I am forced to pay to Talk Talk for half a meg!

4G failure

So EE (the new catchy name for Everything Everywhere, previously Orange and T-Mobile) have announced their 4G rollout. Great news - IF you live in one of the major UK cities.

Yes, 4G is being supplied to those who already have superfast broadband connections, presumably so that they can remain superfast when on their mobiles walking down the street....

Well, as one of the triallists for the 4G in the first place, I was hoping that rural areas would be first to benefit.

Seems to me that economics is driving this rollout. EE will sell lots of nice shiny mobiles with 4G connectivity (I saw the HTC back when we were trialling here - and it was very nice!) and city folks will pay up for the connections. Here in the sticks, wages are low, few people live in the area, so economically un-viable for now at least I suppose. I can imagine that there is some haggling behind the scenes with the various companies asking the government for a bonus to rollout the service to the sticks.

So, my predicitions were right - good news for people who probably don't want or need 4G and bad news for those of us struggling on sub 1Mb/s connections

OK, for reasons I won't go into, I have decided to stick Xubuntu onto my EeePC.

Hilariously, the installer gives you some suggested specs "for best results". These "suggestions" are actually non-negotiable - if you don't have them, then the install won't happen. One of them is that you need over 4Gigs of disk space - which, for those who know the EeePC 701, is a bit of a problem....

You also need an internet connection - so my "straight to install" rather than "try me first" also fails as the wireless connection hasn't been set up....

So, back to the start. Created the USB live disk and used that to boot my Eee. As mentioned, I then had to head back to the Try Me option to get the wireless up and running. The other issue - the hard drive size - needs a bit more geek effort.

The HD size issue I did a quick Google on and discovered this -

http://gobitech.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/install-ubuntu-1104-on-asus-eee-pc-701.html

So, based on the info there (the 12.04 stuff is near the bottom) I had a go at editing the relevant file. I found it easier to open a terminal . then use sudo and nano as my text editor - bearing in mind that I am installing Xubuntu, rather than the straight Ubuntu with its Gnome tools.

Then, back to installing....

Success! I now get the revised "suggestion" of 3.0Gb (I have of course already got the wireless up).

Kudos to the gobitech blog! A neat bit of work sorting that out.

From here on in, I go with my usual EeePC selections - a single partition, Ext2 file system (i.e non journalised) and no swap space. I go for these because I believe that excessive writing to the SSD card shortens its life - and journalised filesystems and swap space increases writes. This is of course debatable, but I stick to this system.

Installing one of the Ubuntu family (or any other main distro) means installing a mountain of stuff I don't want on an Eeepc - it won't be connecting to a printer for example or to a scanner. Nor will I be editing pictures...
So I shall be doing some serious editing once the system is installed.

The command line is the ideal place to see how large the installed system actually is - bearing in mind that the installer wanted 4.4GB of free space!
The command line command is  df -h and when I run it on the installed system I find that 2.1 GB is used and, incidentally, there are 280 updates....

I am off to firstly cleanse the system of drivel (e.g fonts that I do not use, printers etc..) then look at the updates...

Will post later !

Return of 4G?

The news today mentions that Everything Everywhere - the Orange/T-Mobile link up who where part of the 4G trials here in Cornwall - have been granted permission by Ofcom to start offering 4G connections.
They are slightly different to our trial - these are a different frequency I understand - but still should be a lot better than the "service" I am getting from Talk Talk (alleged 512kb "broadband" which works for 75% of the time...).

The report on the Pirate FM website quotes one of the trialists from back in the summer and then says that the 4G service may well be available in Cornwall by next month....

I shall believe that when I see it!

It will be interesting to see how much a commercial roll out of the 4G system will cost. Bearing in mind the claim the other day that average broadband speeds in the UK are now 9Mb, the stable service we had on 4G was 4Mb - so in theory, we should be paying 4/9ths of the price on average? Even if we allow for the extra expense of setting up 4G, then how about a similar price as the 10Mb ish services offered by the main ISPs? So around 15-20 quid per month?
When asked during the trial, users stated a reasonable price as being 20 to maximum of 25 quid per month - and I am happy to pay that.
I honestly expect the 4G roll out to -

1) Only be available in London
2) Cost a lot more than £20 -£25 per month
3) Be unreliable at first, despite the trials.

I would love to have my Huawei 4G router back! It was relaible, reasoanble speed and a good service.

Damn you IE9!

Just when you thought it was safe to use CSS, IE9 decides to somehow cock it up again....

Anyone who has looked at the source code for the St Enonder OPC website will notice that, to get some little "flyout" menus, I have used CSS rather than javascript. To enable the CSS to work with older versions of IE, you need t oadd a bit of code which detects IE browsers and serves up a static version of the page - doesn't look as nice, but that is what happens if you use a non-standards compliant browser I guess. At least I coded in a bodge for those using IE....

Anyway, I have now had two different people report that neither the flyouts nor the static bodge work in IE9.

So I am going to have to find a laptop with IE9 and see what is going on there....

Will let you know how it goes!

The horror of the slowband...

Since the 4G was turned off, we have been using our old Pipex/Tiscali/Talk Talk ISP connection. Although the max speed is around half a meg, the problem is actually the random disconnections and ridiculous slow downs from time to time.

For example, tonight I decided to post about the subject here on Blogger. I ended up closing the browser tab and attempting again a few minutes later. Not once, but several times did I do that - just to get onto Blogger and make a posting!

I intend to get the MAC and move to another provider soon.  Back when we signed up to Pipex, they gave up unlimited downloads for our 512kb connection. Although it is slow, I often downloaded .iso files of new Linux distro releases - either to work on them or to test and review.
Each successive buyout - from Pipex to Tiscali and from Tiscali to Talk Talk - brought more problems.
Talk Talk reduced our service from "unlimited" to 10Gb per month and increased the cost from 20 quid to £25 per month. Yes, I know those of you with cable will be laughing as you suck up your unlimited downloads, TV and phone for £15....

Although I hate BT with a vengeance (they raped their customers by sticking them through Phorm), they offer the same download allowance (10Gb) with their Openzone wifi use out and about for £13 and some free months to start you off...
They also reckon (as they di when "broadband" first arrived here) that we can get better general speeds (750kb - 1Mb).

Although I really find it frustrating to pay the same as someone getting 8Mb or more, I will probably end up going to BT.

Totally cheesed off with the whole internet rip off at the moment. 

PS - this took about 10 minutes to actually post. I had to attempt it several times. And this is after midnight in the UK, so hardly peak times....

Moving into the modern world

Well, moving to the updated Blogger interface anyway.

Although I was quite happy with the old interface and template, the new versions will be forced upon me eventually (as Google did with the ghastly Gmail new version), so thought I would give it a go.

And this is the result. It looks a bit like the old version (I like the black background, but not keen on the "surround" stuff - will look into fixing that!) but allows me to add stuff like the Follow widget (which isn't available easily for the old version).

Internets

Sooo.... with the imminent removal of the 4G trial (to be removed on Friday apparently), we were all advised to check our old ISP connection. I must admit that I didn't get around to it until yesterday, when, horror of horrors, the 4G connection went down! Actually, it went down the previous night but it was very late and nobody was really using it.

To appease the girls, I turned on the old 512kb connection and - nothing!  There was no attempt to sync the line or even connect by the looks of things.
After some fiddling, I tried connecting another router to the line - still nothing. Then I tried an old telephone, expecting to get a dial tone - but no.

This made me suspect the ADSL filter, fitted to the line. Luckily, as all good techies do, I have a stack of spare filters! One filter replaced and - voila! Internet back up and running.
Sadly, the speed hasn't improved. Coming from the 4G trial will make it seem even more shocking too.

Anyway, we are still using the 4G at the moment, but not at all looking forward to Friday.

4G end in sight

Sadly, the 4G trial is ending on the 29th of June. This means we will leave the modern internet and return to the backwaters of 512kb as the headline speed (which is more like 300kb at best in reality!). For that "service" we are expected to cough up £25 per month and accept a limited download. 

Frankly, I think that is a rip off and if it was up to me I would simply tell our ISP where to stick their service. But the kids expect a broadband service - even if it is almost unusable - so I have to keep paying for this crap.

Shame the various companies seem to argue about the 4G provision, instead of simply getting it out there to the customers! Here in Cornwall, we were amongst the first to have the analogue TV turned off and be forced to use the infinitely poorer digital TV. The idea was that the freed up bandwidth would be used for stuff like 4G, but sadly the various companies are all pissing about complaining that "they have more bandwidth than us..."  Pathetic and holding back those of us in rural Britain.

Update on HP laptop and the daughter's one too!

I forgot to update on the laptop which I mentioned a few weeks ago. As I said at the time, we suspected the problem with slow running (and maybe even failure to charge the battery) was down to a broken up power socket on the laptop motherboard. Well, a spare was found on an old motherboard and eventually (we needed a more powerful soldering iron!) swapped with the broken one. A slight snag happened when the cable for the touchpad and buttons was damaged during reassembly, but that was bodged fixed with some soldering too!

The repair worked!  The laptop now runs really fast and - as an added bonus - the battery charges and is actually rather good, holding a charge in general use for 3+ hours!

Daughter's Lenovo laptop is still working perfectly since I removed the dead battery. She has to use it plugged into the mains of course, but that is a mild inconvenience compared to buying a new machine!
It also earned me kudos with her!

Laptop fixed!

Older daughter appeared a week or two ago to tell me that her laptop died suddenly when she removed the power supply lead. After I explained to her that yes, laptop batteries do die pretty suddenly as a rule and that was the isue in her case, she stated that she was going to buy a new battery! "OK", says me, "but they are pretty expensive...". A few minutes later and I gather from the ranting that she finds £80+ for a new battery for a several year old laptop a bit much!

So life settled down to her using the thing plugged in to the mains charger. Then, one day, I am informed that the laptop has died. After further questions, it seems it randomly cuts out - simply shutting down instantly. I gave it a quick once over - waggling the power supply etc to check for loose connections - but nothing seemed obvious.
The machine was indeed simply stopping at random - somethimes Windows could be used for a few minutes, other times it was dying before the splash screen even loaded. Tried a live Linux disk - same issue, so not a Windows problem (but I didn't suspect that anyway as it was too sudden a shut off).
Ran Memtest+, but the machine died part way through. It didn't seem to be overheating (a common cause of this type of thing) and I had removed and cleaned out the fans about three or four months ago anyway.
So I went back to Computer Technician class theory and began removing non essentials to see if it made any difference. Having seen problems with laptops and batteries before, I took off the dead and useless battery.
The laptop didn't shut off! Despite running the machine for  hours, no shutdown! I gave it to my daughter who ran the machine all evening and then left it running overnight until she finished work the next afternoon - and it was still going strong!

So, when faced with a laptop which has no obvious issues with clogged fans or intakes etc, but it is still shutting down randomly, it is well worth removing the battery to see if there is some issue with that!
Several years ago, my wifes laptop had a dead battery and suddenly started having problems - but they were different - CPU running at 100% all the time etc - but caused by the dead battery.

4G conference

Attended a 4G conference at Trerice on Friday. Unlike the one back in November, this was solely for the Government bodies and other parties involved in the future of the 4G spectrum. MPs were supposed to have been there, but due to a late sitting in the House on Thursday, they didn't attend. On the other hand, there were several senior Civil Servants plus Ofcom members as well as some other bodies.

The event was most interesting and four of us "Trialists" gave our views on the technology, equipment and what the 4G connection was like for us.

Met up with several BT and Everything Everywhere management people who I have met before - which allowed me to push for extension of the trial (especially when Ofcom were there too!).

No, Google, no!

I hate the "new look" Gmail. I do not want it, yet Google have enforced this eyesore upon us.

Perhaps Google's top designers didn't get the message when so many people commented about how ugly and unpleasant to use the new look was when first produced. Or perhaps they did - after all, they held back on making it compulsary to change until now. But surely, the number of people hitting the "revert to old look temporarily" button if the new look sneaked in, should have warned the designers that people hated it.

Now it is here - forced upon us with no "revert to old look..." button.
I suppose Google will just ride this backlash out - after all, most Gmail users will not find it a practical option to delete their accounts and move to an alternative. Although I have several email accounts, the Gmail one is the one I give out to general contacts - keeping my others for specific uses.

A good example of why "cloud" computing is dangerous. The guy with the server can call the tune and you dance as requested. I cannot understand why so many computing people are being sucked into the idea that storing files and data on some remote server is a good idea.

Can I also point out to Google that changes for the sake of it on other products is bloody stupid. They are messing with the Blogger interface now as well.....

I hate change for the sake of giving someone something to do - if it adds a missing required feature, then fair enough; but change simply to keep idiots employed in doing something is crap.

Laptops

Anyone who has read my previous stuff about laptops will know that my old Acer with its broken hinge threw its hand in a while ago. Being without a laptop is pretty frustrating as I am forced to use my main old desktop machine which is upstairs.
Luckily, my mate is a bit of a magpie when it comes to computer bits and, having been notified about my predicament, he has delivered a couple of lappies around to me.
Not state of the art, but not exactly old slugs either. The one I am currently using is a Toshiba Satellite M30, which has a 1.6 gig Intel M processor and an  nVidia graphics chip - so not too bad for a freebie! I have upped the RAM from the 512Mb which was in it to a gig (I had some old sticks here so put in what I could find). The only snag is a broken hinge on one side - which seems to be a common fault with these things doesn't it! It is possible to fix, but a nightmare involving stripping the entire lappie down.... so it might just stay broken!

The other laptop is actually much higher spec - it is a HP one. Unfortunately,  that one is currently awaiting repair. It works, but seems to shift into a "limp mode" where it slows to a crawl (e.g opening Windows Control Panel just gives the torch thing for literally minutes and minutes before - if you are lucky - it displays the CP). Three or four indicator lights on the laptop also flashed each second....
We did some research and it seems this is a fault which can be caused by power supply issues. Several folks report that another AC power supply (or running on battery) fixes it. I can't try the battery as it is dead, but we did have another HP laptop available with the same power adapter! Connected that one and booted the machine - only to discover the same problems were still there....
Initially confused by this, we looked at the actual sockets on the two machines to see if there were any differences. Surprise - the faulty laptop socket was mashed completely. The plastic parts were broken off (one bit fell out as we looked) and the connectors were broken and bent. Seems the laptop was limping with good reason!  Luckily, my mate happens to have a similar laptop available for spares (it has a busted screen) and he has pinched the socket from that one to fit onto my laptop. A small snag has arisen meantime - his soldering iron isn't man enough for the job, so a new one is ordered. Hopefully we can sort the laptop with this socket!  Fingers crossed - I will report back once it is up and running (or not!)

Sony- piss off

Seriously - Sony racked up the prices for two "greatest hits" type albums by the late Whitney Houston?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17039076

Sony claim they were "mistakenly mispriced"!  Hmmm... Robbing bastards is how I view it.

Whitney's music isn't my thing - but I appreciate her amazing vocal talent (and her looks too if I am honest!) - but Sony - a company which has fallen foul of alleged rootkits in the past - are taking the piss

Mini distro fun

Just been playing around with SliTaz, a tiny (and I mean tiny) distro.
Although ridiculously small (around 30Mb download), it is actually a really useable little distro.
I installed it onto a 1Gb USB stick for now to play around a little (as well as having a live version in a virtual machine) and have been updating it, adding Firefox 10, Flash etc to bring it up to the spec which my wife would want on her EeePC (she is pretty cheesed off with the Xandros install on her 701 and wants an alternative on a SD card). We have tried various other light and mini distros - LXDE versions of the main distros mostly, but they all need well over 1Gb of disk space to install in - which on a little 4Gb drive isn't really useful.

Check out SliTaz - I think you will be impressed!

http://www.slitaz.org/

4G down!

Horror at our house in the last 24 hours!  The 4G signal had been turned off by the trial team so they could presumably sort out the problrms being experienced by a small number of triallists. But of course, that meant ALL of us were then left with no service - which, here, means lots of wailing and complaints from my daughters!

All back up today though!

We could have resorted to the old half meg "broadband" but with one of the daughters watching (or attempting to watch!) streaming TV stuff, there would be no point.

Alan Turing

For the few who have no idea who Alan Turing was, I suggest a quick "google" or "wikipedia" to enlighten you.

I was one of those who called (via one of the UK "e-petitions") for a posthumous pardon for Mr Turing.
Now, today, the UK Government has refused to grant this because apparently, in the 1950's, homosexuality was seen as a criminal offence and Turing was "properly convicted of what at the time was a criminal offence"

Without the efforts of Alan Turing and others, we would be living under the rule of the Nazi party today. I. for one, appreciate the work of this hero of Britain.
Shame the UK government.

Yet 2012 will see the issue of Royal Mail stamps commemerating the centenery of his birth...So they are happy to make money from Alan Turing, happy to live free from oppression because of Alan Turing and colleagues, but not write off the trumped up charges he faced (and the horrific "chemical castration" he suffered) simply because of his sexual orientation?

Pretty pissed off to be honest. I am not "gay", but this man was a major player in the UK war effort and in computing (who hasn't heard of the Turing Test?)

4G extended!

Great news for me here in the depths of mid Cornwall! The 4G trial - which was due to end at the end of January - has been extended until the end of June.
Like to think that those of us who attended the Trerice demonstration for the press and Ofcom helped a little bit in Ofcom taking the decision to keep us in the 21st Century for a little longer!

Blast from the past!

Downloading the latest Yoper Linux distro to see how my old mates there are getting on.

As I have probably mentioned, I used to be one of the development team on Yoper (back in the days of 2.1 and 2.2). Over time, with things changing to use a new package manager and various other changes - and with poor health, I dropped out of the team and moved on. I still watch the distro and download the current iso from time to time to see how things are going. Tobias and the guys are working hard, but with a small distro it is hard to keep up with the corporate might of the big three or four main distros.

One of the reasons I use PCLinuxOS as my main distro is because it follows the ethos of the old Yoper - and still uses Synaptic as the package manager with the rpms!

Anyway, off to play - I shall report back once I have given Yoper a run.