I have copied the settings from my previous blog post into the device, and that works very well; Now just have to sync it with my iTunes and then I will have a working proper Phone, with email and everything .

Loupie can now have my Nokia 1661 to take to South Africa, and I wont mind as much if it is eaten by an elephant.

Also I have just managed number 31 in my 101 things, however Natalie beat me to her smart phone achievement.

So the question is Mac or PC, and to be honist its not a hard question to answer, I am looking to replace my MacMini (mid 2007, Intel core duo 2GHz 1~Ggi Ram), With Loupie having a uni-body aluminum Macbook (not pro . October 2008 – June 2009), so that gives me an idea of how powerful the Intel Core 2 Duo P7350 with 2gig of ram is; and the answer is much more powerful than the Mid 2007 Mac Mini.

Looking at apples current line up, and knowing I was after a laptop, I set out to chart the two most important parts of this desision, Cost V Power. Cost I could get from Apple, meaning power was going to be slightly harder. thankfully OSX Daily had been there for me [1] allowing me to plot Price, against benchmark. According to the benchmark for Loupie’s mac her benchmark  is 2706 and my Mac Mini’s is 2593, both well below the lowest benchmark of the current pros of 3390.

While I still have a number of people I know at university, mostly through TermiSoc, it may be worth using the Apple Education store, as there should be no reson why I may accidently be able to order the machine at education store costs…

I am looking at going for the 15″ Macbook Pro as that offers the Largest benchmark jump, for least jump in pennys requiring removal from my pocket.

Against my 4211, and Mac Mini it stacks up as such:

So the next challange is finding some pennys.

Well that is all very well and good, and who can argue with that logic, I for one cant; however, with the change in data allowance happening at the same time as the new iPhone coming out, and its ‘true’ multi-tasking capability, people will be running network attached applications in the background, where as before I would have to wait for a push notification before I looked at Twitter, or would check it on the bus, I can leave the client running while using Skobbler (free, and good) as GPS in my car, and staying signed into Skype, etc.

So why the change now? well at the moment they can say this will only affect 3% of the customer base, however on Thursday with the release of the iPhone, I think that 3% will get much bigger, very quickly, and it wont a be a few users, with abnormal use. but much closer to the norm.

O2 are quick to point out that you have free access to the cloud wifi network, however, every time I try to connect to that, i am required to sign in, so its not much use for jumping between that and the 3G while walking along a street, native, transparent handover between adjacent networks, and 3G would help this a lot though.

These are the settings that I found to have worked with Loupie’s iPhone 3.

I am very happy that Apple have chosen to sell the iPhone 4 without any  network locks direct from their shop, and when I have some cash I will be getting a black 16gig one.

At the moment I have an old O2 Simplicity £20 rolling contract, on which I get 1200 SMS, 600 minutes of talk time, and UNLIMITED internet, however if I was to change contract, I would only get 500MB of data, 300 minutes, and I would have to pay 20p per picture messaging (used to cost me 4 free SMS…). So on that I am in no hurry to change my service; and as for changing provider, the other providers that have announced there tariffs are all worse than what I have currently.

My only challange will be getting a new ‘micro’ sim to work in my iPhone.

The O2 data settings are as follows:

• Cellular Data
  • APN: mobile.o2.co.uk
  • username: vertigo
  • password: password
• Visual Voice Mail
  • Doesn’t work
• MMS
  • APN: wap.o2.co.uk
  • username: vertigo
  • password: password
  • MMSC: http://mmsc.mms.o2.co.uk
  • MMS Proxy: 193.113.200.195:8080

I don’t think I would miss Visual Voice Mail as its not a service I have ever had, so don’t know what the advantage would be.

Other networks should have about the same settings, but also have a look at my post about unlocking a 3G modem, which lists the settings for all the main UK providers.

At work we have a copy of the Alfresco Community edition software installed centrally, and I have one installed on my local machine. I have joined up to the online community, and they run on the enterprise version of the software.

It looks like it could be an awesomely useful application however it still feels very much like beta software, its the sort of thing I would install just for my own use as a way of replacing my ‘my documents’ folder and having version control, CIFs access, web access, and Sharepoint access to my documents from anywhere in the world.

Will have to see how it goes, and hopefully it will all work out in the end.

Well since they took over the mostly reliable iFuse hosting has had a number of extended outages, and response to support tickets and emails is non existent.

Things have got even worse recently when they invoiced my for my hosting fees, I went to try and pay them but have they wanted to take my money? have they responded to my trying to give them money? well no. so unable to contact them (they have no contact details in the public domain that I can find) my account has been suspended.

Due to my set up not being the normal set up on the server, (thanks to Ross being Awsome when he did work there) everything other than CamCrew.co.uk still works

Now with a lot of digging and poking it seems that Yomura Holdings is a part of LTT, Libya Telecom and Technology who have a twitter account, so I am now waiting for a response from them.

One general accepted way to speed up iPhoto is to vacuum the database using the inbuilt sqlite command. this is a bit like defraging the database and reducing the stuff contained in it.

1. Open Terminal and type cd and a space
2. Drag your iPhoto library into the terminal window and hit Enter.
3. Copy the command “for dbase in *.db; do sqlite3 $dbase "vacuum;"; done” and paste into the terminal window.
4. Hit carriage return, wait till the line prompt comes up and your finished. The larger the library the longer the time the vacuuming will take.

Mine took just shy of 15 minutes (did I forget to say I had a large library?) all in all it didn’t speed it up any where as much as I would have liked.

Another way of recovering a few bits of a second from iPhoto slowness is to remove the photo counts next to each album and library in the left-hand pane. The task of updating these counts whenever you modify your images appears to cause iPhoto to slow down sometimes.

To disable the item counts

1. Open iPhoto’s preferences,
2. Goto the General tab,
3. Uncheck the “Show item counts” box. (there may be a delay of a few seconds).

That may show an improvement for you; it also may not.

If iPhoto continues to be annoyingly slow for me, I may get desperate and try Fat Cat’s iPhoto Library Manager to see how that works with my iPhoto collection.

The exhibit itself was in a small gallery on the basement level. along with the steam punk exhibit there was a work shop to learn how to make steam punk jewellery and an area where you could play with Maccano.

Apart from the size of the gallery, everything else was really cool. We went for lunch in the (well according to Laces) the Burning Baby, or as the rest of us called it The Eagle & Child. a small pub of No notability at all

The Eagle and Child was once a favourite watering hole of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. They often met for discussion (and argument) over a pint.

On the bar wall is a signed note to the landlord written in 1949 stating that J.R.R Tolkien and C.S. Lewis have drunk to his health. well we mostly stuck to one drink each.

[View with PicLens]

I have had a play with this software before, and based on that trial I have had a go at installing it on my parents computer; in the hope that it reduces the time I have to spend keeping the computer clean.

Deep Freeze works by freezing all the data on a patition and removes all changes made everytime the computer is re-started, to avoid wiping out all userdata I have the Documents and Profile folders on a diffrent patition.

I hope that at the end of my trial that it will have worked as well as I hope it will.

Although for those times support is required I have installed Cross Loop, fundimently Cross Loop is VNC wrapped in an easy to use userinterface that allows you to connect to another computer without needing to open up firewall ports and such; making it easy for parents to allow me to connect to their computer remotly.

As part of the re-installing software I had to choose a PDF application, and as we all know Adobe Acrobat reader is never the sensable choice. Previously I have used Foxit’s Reader which has been light and always done what it says on the tin, being that it claims to be:

• Foxit’s NO BLOAT PDF Reader
• Small download, fast, accurate rendering

However what it doesnt tell you is that every stage of install it will try and install crap you dont need, and that you have to make sure you de-select from the install. I am not sure how this behavure sits with other people,. but I consider it very anoying.

I have included the Screenshots from the install process below so you can see what it looks like:

[View with PicLens]

Also on this note:

• SUN -  I do not want the Yahoo bar with my Java
• Microsoft – No I dont want any extra crap when I am forced to use MS software
• Apple – Why on earth would I want Safari with my iTunes?

I am sure this list of Grrr will grow.

Project52 is a personal challenge geared toward getting fresh content on your website. The goal is to write at least 1 new article per week for 1 year. Because we all know what it‘s like to procrastinate on our content. A website is not just a fresh design that can be uploaded to the web and forgotten about!

And because this site so often is devoid of new content I have decided to sign up both this site and PhilipMcGaw.com to the challenge. This all coming from some one who has posted about 5 times in the last 3 years, so please wish me luck.

Jethro Has previously told me that there is no point to unlocking Mobile Modems as data only sim cards always come with them, however I just want to use mine when I really need internet and not as well as a mobile phone.

To unlock the Modem (I try to avoid calling them Dongles) your first port of call is getting a copy of Mobile Partner, this can be downloaded from here.

If You like pain you can try talking to the wonderfully unhelpful droids at Three [3] – (Hutchison 3G UK Ltd) but am not a huge fan of Phoning expensive phone numbers I use the 0800 358 6796 (or 01442 456050) that they try not to list.

This is where talking to the Droids gets interesting; as Three are not willing to have call centres in the United Kingdom they have all of theirs in India. and the script that they has tells them that the modem can not be unlocked. After getting through to the UK call centre (really the sales department) They tell me that they are willing to ‘unlock’ the device for £14.00 but this requires me to book it in for repair and will take 7 days (Phone 0843 730 500 (or the numbers above) and try and get through to the Pay as you Go Retentions Team.

So with that path not really viable, onto option Two: Option two seems to be much easer, as I found this on Ebay, follow the instructions as laid out by Grumpy Grayhound, and wait for the email back with the code in it.

Less than 24 hours (in my case 2 hours) you receive an Email with all the information you need in it, including links to the software to de-brand your modem.

Once the Modem is unlocked you need to change a few settings, however they are as follows for all UK mobile networks: (Found on this site).

So We now have a Mobile Skippy just in time for running away to the frozen north,

This should all now work nicely (well we can hope). but if it does this will allow me to make easer and quicker backups of my sites along with making security easer to manage.

There was Bolt.com an American web site that didn’t suck (in the beginning) and it was really the only place to hang out.

over time it started sucking, and some time a few years back they brought out a Bolt2.com that sucked lots, and in an attempt to move the Regs from Bolt to Bolt2 they killed Bolt. oh and then they got sued out of existence; (read more on wikipedia)

Today i receved the following message via email

Bolt.com is Back! And it’s packed with new Features and Upgrades!!!
Hey Skippy,
We just wanted to let you know that Bolt is back! Come see your old profile and friends.  And check out Tagbooks and all the new features just launched!!
Looking forward to seeing you around the site,

Now unfortunately it is not bolt that they brought back, they revived Boltfolio a site that well.. Sucks.

So Close yet so Far; they failed to get the revival right.

Rest in Peace Bolt

Omeds of the Wiccan board Regs

The reason Vista sucks is that it doesn’t need to be any good, because people will get it anyway. – Ben A’Lee

And i agree, Vista is so sucky that it did not last 10 days on my desktop, yes it was shiney, but it told me i didnt know how to use my computer, and locked me from doing things i wanted to do (all those files on a NTFS drive belong to Skippy, (XP install Skippy) not you Skippy, you need to log in as an Administrator, Mr Skippy of the Administrator group to change ownership to Skippy, from Skippy. that is not the only time that the rediculus security muck things up thing bugged me.

When using the computer, and you want to change your networking settings, do you want to wait for the screen to go gray, and then have to click a box which should have been marked "get out of my face, i know what i am doing!"

As for "easer and simpler file sharing" well the danm thing didn’t remember that the wire that connects it to the network is a trusted network (its a Desktop….) and my network has only trusted devices on it. so turing of the share //hlin/skippy$ every boot annoys the hell out of me.

Yesterday I got the same e-mail that Ben did. however the day before that i got the following email:-

EXTO Ready To Hit US Market Ahead OF Schedule.

EXIT ONLY INC
EXTO.PK
Price: $0.43

The time table has been moved up. EXTO’s overwhelming success in Canada with its used car marketing site has stepped up its pace to expand its coverage. This new venue now moving to th…..

Whats suspicious is that it came through on the email address “vontage AT skip..” well there is only one company that used that email address to write to me, and only one company who knows about me being unable to spell there name wrong when I signed up.

As Ben sujests I am going to contact them, and i would ask them about both incidents.

• Vista Business
• WinAmp (because it would be silly to use EMP WMP)
• Outlook 2003 (as 2007 is found through other sources)
• Mozila Firefox.

So not a heavy workload by any stretch of the imagination? so why is it that my 2.0GHz PC with 1GB of ram runs slower (boots faster) than my XP laptop (still the hi-grade pile of poop 1.4GHz 512MB ram),  that runs more stuff? (running as we speak)

• Windows Live Writer (to write this)
• Pidgin
• Mozila Firefox
• Mozila Thunderbird
• RSS Bandit – RSS reader.

True my desktop loads images faster than my laptop, but i think that is down to my ‘My Documents’ being located on a SATA hard drive away from the OS, as well as dedicated GPU.

A strange set of observations:

• It connects to Outlook for searching, yet it has its own calendar, and contacts folders? surly it would be more helpful if it data-bound to the Outlook PST and displayed them? at the log on screen on XP it tells you how meany unread emails you have in Thunderbird.
• It has its own Contact Folder, (all contacts are flat file .contact files) but you cant Tag these things, or group them. I can tag all my photos (using the Windows Imaging Component Meta Data space, doesn’t seem to be EXIF. See Comment one) so why not tag Contacts? or Documents?
• The Vista Search does not seem as fast as the Add in for XP, despite the XP one being an Add in. True the XP one does spend half its time writing an index for itself. but doesn’t the Vista one?

I am going to go back to XP on my desktop and by adding the following tools, most of the usefull parts of Vista can be replicated.

tools from MS:

• Windows Live Photo Gallery Beta – not a bad lite photo manager, with tagging capabilitys
• Windows Live Writer – Anyone know if there a Linux Equiv that will work with Ubuntu?
• Windows Desktop Search – It works, it reads Image Tags, it connects to my Outlook stores.
• Alt-Tab Replacement – A windows XP power toy that makes Alt Tab nicer

And tools not from MS

• iTag – works with the Tags to give you a Tag Cloud. (Vista doesn’t do Tag Clouds)
• TeraCopy – Makes the Copy/move progress bar more friendly, as well as speeding up the process.

Now to find my instructions for setting up Notepad2 as a Notepad replacement.

Well today I am sat on a train between NYC and Rochester, as such now is a good time to try out off line blogging, and see how well it works.

Windows Live Writer claims to work with a number of blogging packages, not just WordPress, and Windows Spaces, (I cant check the list at the second, due to being off line).

Things it claims it can do:

1. Manage more than one weblog, across a number of services.
2. Basic Formatting, numbered lists, tables, the etc.. if the company who write word could not do this.
3. As well as the the ability to post normal URI’s in posts, it seems to have the ability to remember the recent posts, as well as having a list of blogs you post about often [set up your self].
4. Inline picture (and pictures from a web site), will test this latter. but it seems to suggest it can upload the image at the same time as posting the post (or upload it via ftp)
5. Inserting maps and videos inline, not sure how video will be dealt with, but I will test out maps on my post warm and tall land.
6. tagging, but since I have not used them before I am not sure how much use that will be.
7. Previewing the post in a number of views, including using your sites style scripts, and a snap shot of the code, useful if you have strange rules relating to the layout I guess.
8. oh and offline writing mode. (what I am using at the moment).
9. More plugins are available via Download from the web… (can’t test at the second)

I would suggest that if you have a blog, you should have a look at it, and see if you like it.

It would have been cooler to have posted this post from it.

Rich and Ben (who’s permilinks never seem to work) have been descusing this on Planet TermiSoc. Some of you may remember i was a Office 2007 Beta Tester, and I still use parts of Office 2007 today[1]. so i though i would join in on this one and comment on some of the points.

1. Open Office V Microsoft Office 2007
   Microsoft Office 2007′s Visual interface is new, [please do not read good/better], yes some people have usability problems with OO, however at least it looks the same as office 2003. Open Office has a few quirks, but it is usable by my parents, (without them knowing i changed them over), i use it on my laptop, and my desktop as my office suit of choice, i have no need at the moment for any of the fetchers OO seems to be short on (cant think of any) oh and i dont wory about the lack of shiney ness in OO. My BIGEST complaint at the moment with MSO2k7[2] is does any one know how to wind back the interface? and why make it so hard to sort out file format prefrances? can we not have a per user choice? or per computer (Office is per application, per user.)
2. Outlook, whilst uncaring about other mail clients, is a DAMN good calendar system
   And I agree, its also Great with my phone (have a look at this if you use a smart phone). Thunderbird is good, Sunbird Sucks, Vista Mail, well its an email client… Evolution, well just have a go.
   Outlooks spam filtering still sucks majorly (even when switched off it eats ham, and lets through blatant spam), as for the standards compliance of Outlook? well lets not go there.
3. OneNote, is it worth it?
   OneNote used to be a killer app for me! truly it rocked my world, it was great, well then the Honeymoon ended when it got slower and harder to run [read 2003 turned into 2007] my application of choice now? well have a look at TiddlyWiki. It does most of the usefull things of OneNote, but its free, and fast. Ben doesn’t like it because its a JavaScript Wiki. but its easy to sync, and update, oh and if some one wants a copy of one, it emails. (requires an internet browser with Java Script)
4. biggest stumbling block for Rich – no Mac option.
   Now call me paranoid, but i suspect that is a marketing ploy.. MS are trying to drag Mac users into buying a copy of windows, or a PC to keep the Mac users from leaving PC’s all together,
5. Publisher
   Well ok, so it sucks, A LOT, but if the challenge is to make a professional brochure, then yes. if its a Christmas card your making for your Gran…. its easy(ish) to use, and gives quick turnarounds, so what if it sucks. what else is there out there for Grannies card, (don’t point me to Crater Card 2.1 for £9.99 in WHS)

All in all OpenOffice is good for what you pay for it, and MSO2k7 is expensive, but in summary i suspect that the entire idea is to stop mass MAC migration, and Piracy, after all how much software can you get given to you from a mate?, and along with the MSDNA Windows offers, it can help keep Uni Students on the MS path for life.

• [1] I still use Outlook 2007
• [2] MSO2k7 would mean Microsoft office 2700 (2k7 = 2.7k) unless that is them telling you it will be the latest version till 2700

Mobile Phone, My Orange SPV M600 (HTC Prophet) is still being a silly bugger and turning its self of far too often! so will be going back to HTC some time soon, (however i have left my emergency cover handset and a virgin sim card with Ruth) but it looks like it could be a battery problem, and as such is only covered by a 6mth warrenty? where as the handset is covered untill the 3rd october.

This weekend the sim card for my Contract number went tits up, and killed itself, being unable to find the SIM card for my old number (ending – 957) i had to make do with an obscure one that i don’t know the number for.

Phoned orange and two new SIM’s are winging there way to me .

It works by monitoring my web cam, looking for my face, and when it finds it, i can use my PC, when it cant it waits 10 seconds, locks the PC, and waits till it can see my face again.

Have to find out what its limitations are, and if it thinks me and my brother are the same person. but it looks good so far, as better than the security on my desktop was.
I think using blue tooth on a MAC would be cool though (here) via [LifeHacker]

Some of you may remember me playing with my password strenth a while back. so i think it may also be wise to check my password strenth has not decreased.

Wellington Grey — Articles — A physics teacher begs for his subject back: An open letter to the AQA board and the UK Department for Education

If you love Science and Technology, can you read the letter and pass its details onto others.

I use Outlook 2007 as my POP Cliant, but for the love of god, why is there no decent spam filter? so Outlook has been turned off, and Tunderbird is taking the spam out of my account using IMAP.

Hopefully the Flood will die down, and Outlook will have a Thunderbird style spam filter one day, (just click on the flame if its spam, and it will do the rest)

I am thinking that mounting it in a 200mm plastic tube with clear end caps, and mounting the infer red wand in condoms,

or dismantal one, put everything in the tube, bar the switch?

Of course, one can attribute that decline to music piracy and effective public health information, but lead author of the report Graham Brown says it’s clear that mobile telephony is emptying pockets and wallets: “In 2007 they [youth between five and 24] will spend over $150bn on their mobile. That’s up from nothing 10 years ago.” – El Register
Right thats it, any one know a cheap and easy free form of Audio and/or Video Mobile Telephony? I still have my CB Radio.

The two Nabaztags were to mark Ruth and I’s three years together. as a web controled rabits, they comunicate with servers in France, however this does not stop people writing there own functions for them, Nabaztalk is a forum set up for developers. and has a list of API interfaces, also you can get cloths and other things for your Nabaztag from Nabzone, however i am looking to make mine a coat out of Chainmail.

nabaztag

Bolt(folio) is no replacement, if your an old Bolter and want to keep in touch please check here.

one where every one can fordge links to eachother and common inttrests or groups, I have both a MySpace, and a Facebook. Myspace sucks, mainly because its UI is attortius, Facebook is better, but i am guessing they would have learnt a lot from MySpace, this all goes towards making it a usefull way of keeping track of people.
The two complainte, One no pingbacks, or useable blog addresses, (this blog post will be sindicated in facebook, but you cant ping back to the origanal or anything), Two. no RSS feeds, call me sad, but RSS made me a lazy surfer.

I have though about using a Wiki to store random data, some of it which lives only for a short time, (links, quotes) or some things that dont fit anywhere, and are only required for online activitys, such as links to sites at work. (Tagging works )
i know i could have used some bookmarks syncronisation tool, or a text file that i can keep with me, but then i found TiddilyWiki its a single file Wiki, using only javascript, you just keep it on your hard drive (my case i store it on my PDA) and carry it round with you.

Its Public AP i beleve runs in a VPN through your network to there servers, as such it totaly bypasses any of your network, making it imposible for a person conecting to it to get access to your network.

One anoying thing about them though, (reason that the Fon AP is not high on my prefered conection list) is that between the LAN port and its privert SSID is a Router, compleate with NAT and firewall, this stops me accessesing my own network in the open way i ushaly do.

Seth said yesterday that the One Year offer page had gone, and as such i dontated my invite to him. I think ben will be getting his soon, and then we should have a more technical autopsy of the free Router (including how to flash it and stop sharing your wi-fi).

• Mail messages are now stored in individual files instead of in a single database file. A transactional index database enables real-time searching and improves the stability and the reliability of the stored data.
• Account setup information is no longer stored in the registry. It is instead stored alongside the mail itself.
• A Bayesian junk-mail filter.
• Contacts are stored as VCards instead of in a single database file.

A really cool thing it does (well i like it) Vista Mail downloads ALL your mail (from IMAP) and caches it localy, i know this sounds silly, but if your like me and using a laptop with a slow network connection, (or on a train) its usefull.
Now if only Outlook would start using this methord of sensable structuring, and something that would make it much cooler…. The ability to Tell Mail where to store its files

• z:\skippy\emails\termisoc
• z:\skippy\emails\university
• z:\skippy\documents\contacts\

then life would be so much easer, and make sense for me.

Natsy and her sister

Hopefuilly will get to meet Natsy and her sister when they do get here

Check out there site. Hopefully they will put togethere a full photo album so we can see all the places they have been, and people they have seen.

I know they want a photo of them drinking coffee in every city they have been to, but i think it would be cool to have more photos than just that

Well they are one year old and are offering routers for free, so if you go here, you can sign up and get yours for free (Ben can tell us what free it is).

I signed up yesterday, and hope to be pumping-out gratis 802.11b/g soon!

1. It just works.

Windows XP SP2 just works, if it came pre installed chances are it works even better, just because Macs have a limited number of hardware configurations that they are delivered in, doesnt mean they just work, just means they know what drivers are required to wake up.

2. You can make amazing stuff.

Define amazing? Well iLife says “Make high-quality websites, photo books, DVDs, songs, slideshows, music CDs, calendars, cards, prints, podcasts, music videos, documentaries, and more.” ok, so Windows doesnt come with Office, and Publisher pre installed, (can you make a Make “high-quality website” with iLife? really?) but i can do some cool things, and some more with Vista.

3. Everything-ready.

“Mac is the only computer in the world that can run all the major operating systems, including Mac OS X, Windows XP, and Vista. With Software like Parallels or VMware you can even run them side by side” and you say i cant on a PC? if i wanted to get a Mac on my PC i can use PearPC. (Walktrough), Linux and VM-ware also come as options…

4. 114,000 Viruses? Not on a Mac.

Ok hands up the last time any sensable PC user got a virus, Rich? Dan? Seth? Ben? Ruth?, oh and while you are waiting for an answer free virus checker,

5. Still the most advanced OS.

ok, so i begrugingly say yes to this, but i am sure ben can tell me of something that will beat Mac OS (I still like the Cube program)

6. The latest Intel chips.

So can a PC, and the latest AMD chips.

7. No hunting for drivers.

See “it just works” My Windows XP SP2 and Vista Unlimited RC2 pc dont ask me for drivers, they have all the drivers to get them to work, some times, i use Driver CD’s but thats only because they are better drivers on the CD. Digital Camera, PDA, USB mass storage, all included, SATA drivers for a SATA card, well they were in the box.

8. Design that turns heads.

its in my room, under my desk, My Keyboard VDU, and Mouse are on the desk, my server is on the shelf in my desk, and if i had a Mac i would give it the same amount of deskspace….. Its out of my way, hiding….

9. Instant video chats.

I dont have Video Chats… and Skippy Cam is awating fixing, so not high on my buying points for a computer

10. More fun with photos.

…wtf?… ok, so i want to do cool presintation things with photos, i guess photoshop elements, or google picassa?

11. Hollywood-style movies.

Windows XP SP1 and SP2 come with Windows Movie maker 1 and 2 respectfuly, and vista RC2 as well.

12. One-click websites.

with only one mouse button, right clicking may be a two handed job, but i dont see how this is a good point? with all the free serveses out there, and all the 12 year olds making websites, do we need this as well?

13. Amazing podcasts.

I can podcast from a PC as well, i have chosen not to yet.

14. Rock star tunemaking.

I can make music from a PC as well, i have chosen not to yet.

15. Awesome out of the box.

Define Awesome?

And there we have it, My Personal Computer is a Personal Computer. and a Mac is also a Personal Computer.

And a Quick Question for Rich (or any other Mac users out there):- Do Macs come with a Word Processor already installed? (simmaler or better than MSWorks.)

that brings the cost of upgrading one of my computers up to a very affordable (?) £850.98.

I wonder if it would cost me £850.98 to learn Linux properly? i get 89 hours to learn it (at £6.50 a hour) which is just over two weeks.

Todays XKCD shows the peral of G33k break up.

and how to deal with the return of all your stuff from there logon.

Today I hope to have my account set back to Chip and Signiture, How? Well i asked my bank.

As we all know Chip and Pin was introduced to prevent fraud. how do we know that, well we were told that it was a good idea. but unlike 186,282 miles per second; it’s NOT the law!

Because of this, there are Exseptions to who has to pin, I went into my bank and asked them to put it back to a chip and signiture card, and as such under the 1995 DDA they can not say no.

You too can have a Signiture

I started with [Cory Doctorow's short storys](http://craphound.com/index.php?cat=6), showing he is not only a great Technologist, but he is a good provider of Sci Fi, he has 15 of his short storys available for free download from his site, I would recomend you going and having a look, he also makes life easy and provides a direct link to each of the mp3 files from his articals. After finishing all of his short storys relised so far (waiting for part three of Power Punctuation).

Next up is a Trilagy of books by a guy whos pen name is JC Hutchins, he is upto secton 9 of his second book [7th Son](tp://www.jchutchins.net/7Son/Home/Home.html) but i advice starting at book one!

“Three weeks ago, President Hank “Gator” Griffin was assassinated at a political rally by a four year old boy. The child, Jesse Fowler, said only one sentence during his week-long confinement in a psychiatric facility. It was an obscenity-filled phrase no four-year-old should know.” – 7th Son

Now i have two books to choose from to listen to next, [the tenth cow](http://tenthcow.libsyn.com/), a Compleated Book that is revied quit hightly, or another highly rated PodioBook [Nina Kimberly The Merciless](http://www.ninakimberly.com/), an on going book, that sounds like a fantisy book…..

As for Media Playser, because WMP sucks and doesnt deal with OGG files (most of my music is in OGG Vorbis format) i have bought a copy of [Pocket Music](http://www.pocketmind.com/pocketmusic.htm), a small media player application that has two views, a simple to use D-pad style player, with seperate playlist, or Winamp 2.X skin mode, personly i use the simple D-Pad more, but its up to you for taiste.

It looks a bit better, and to be honist is less listy…

The UP:Cam still works, however there is no curent links to it anywhere on the web, so i will have to see if i can find the IP address of the thing again, (help out anyone?) The Last? Live link to the UPSU Web camera [http://141.163.124.241/](http://141.163.124.241/)

Take one Ford Ka, with a broken heater bypass solenoid, look at the thing, and go, fcukin hell, how does that go in there? well the answer is not as simple as it first may appear. If you ever need to move house, ask the people at ford to come and pack for you, as they can probably get the contents of the house (including the kitchin sink) inside a ford ka’s boot (Students take note!).
work out its behind more screws, and bolts than soft mick, and keep looking. yes its that small silver bit with the two pipes comming out from behind that large black lump of plastic. and yes you will need to hunt down the six screws holding that bit of plastick in place, and remove them all, to get too it, (they are on the moter side of the plastic).
As you can see from these two photos, the problem with the modual is apparent, and could posibly have been much worse had i been on the moterway. and hadent seen the steam.

The correct procedure for fixxing the thing is to attach the two ends together with a bit of 15mm OD copper pipe and re fill the system with water (as my lovely assitant is doing in the third photo)

So now off to hand over £34.66 (+vat) for a new one, and i will have to work out how to get to the blinking fittings deep inside the bulk head of my car.

also check out these anty DRM videos! they are part of a compatition run over on freeculture.org 

Protect your freedom!

Help spread the word, and take part in maintaing your freedom to use digital media as you wish to!

If you are down in Plymouth See what TermiSoc have Planned and join in if you can! or Check out Defective by Design’s site

Oh and another part of the action is, this googlebomb:- DRM

Pictures of highspeed events such as popping ballons, breaking glass, and splashing liquids reveal intresting structures not visible to the naked human eye. You can take your own high-speed phtos to capture these ephemeral events.

the PDF is here

My Desktop is now back to running Vista, espeshaly since Microsoft have relised some code bridging patches giving me functonality back , and i am also liking my [Samsung SyncMaster 913n TFT](http://computing.kelkoo.co.uk/b/a/prl_12623813/114401.html), they are a good model, so if your looking for a good VDU, take a look at them.

• #105 We recommend that the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) bring forward appropriate labelling regulations so that it will become crystal clear to consumers what they will and will not be able to do with digital content that they purchase.
• #113 We recommend that the OFT labelling regulations we proposed, in #105 above, should ensure that the risks are clearly spelled out, at the point of purchase, whenever consumers could lose access to digital content if systems are discontinued, or devices fail, or players are replaced by systems from a different manufacturer.
• #118 We recommend that OFCOM publish guidance to make it clear that companies distributing TPM systems in the UK would, if they have features such as those in Sony-BMG’s MediaMax and XCP systems, run a significant risk of being prosecuted for criminal actions

My Stickers came yesterday, so i think i will have to find some thing to do with them, like help inform the public of the dangers of DRM (as defined above).

Orange SA

1. The British dont really like the french
2. The Customer is the person you as a buisness are supposed to help
3. That the french are crap at customer service
4. retail staff are front line customer service
5. Being owned by France Télécom is not a good thing.

so with one Anal Nob end causing me pain, and my wanting to try and get half my life back to normal, i did not need to have three days of pain and anguish imposed on me by a bunch of indian call center opratives telling me that “new customrs only”, i sware that Nationwide would make a killing if they started a mobile phone comapny (if they do what they say on the adverts),

Anyway, new sim card, Same number, same account (hopefully with an origanal out here package on it), need to find the address book again, and get a new handset (oh new customers only) .

The next challange is getting Data off the Data Protection Officer, who orange claim is “non customer facing” – so “it dont work like that”

at the moment i ma not using Vista, it has no support for most of the games i play, and was a bit slow, however in a week i should get my RC1 DVD(s) and try them over the top,

I am unistalling OneNote2007 from my laptop, and rolling that back to 2003, because despite being a lot better than 2003 (sp1) it is not backwards compatible, so when i don’t buy a copy of office 2007 comes out, i will loose all of my 2007 files, however the rest of office 2007 is staying, Outlook 2007 despite having a few silly problems is nicely polished, and once it goes into relise i would love to use it again once SP1 has been relised for it, and the rest of office, I know at first i didnt like the UI, but in some ways the 2007 ui is more inteative than the previous versions, (but let me have it in Silver).

Now despite the incompatibly Vista is looking hot, and i mean that in a good way and i love the way it lets you play with folders full of images, (may screen shot if i write a longer review). Oh its also the only Microsoft 64 OS i have ever got to work, despite no one (including my Bios) knowing what my processor is.

What happend, some little Fcukwit stole my Samsung X700 mobile phone while i was on the way back to [ruths](http://loupie.co.uk) from a good night out. while i was on the night bus, in london,

It was reported “lost” as soon as i realised (to report it stolen you need a crime number, from the police area where it was stolen) and i hadnet got one at that point.

And now to top it off i have to deal with the great (famiously so) Orange customer service again, and try and collect those phone numbers i only had in one place again (on my phone)

My Little HP IPAQ hx4700 has died, so i am going to wait till the beguining of next month and send it off to customer services with a check for £170 ish pounds to bring it back to life, and then the next few challanges will be getting a Bluetooth GPS recever. and save my long sufferign [map illitrate girlfriend](http://loupie.co.uk) from navigating for me. (hopefully address book intergration is available)

For Plain text editing we have [Notepad2](http://www.flos-freeware.ch/notepad2.html) A great text editer, with line numbers and Sintax highlighting. it also starts up very quickly and does not require insterlation, also has a very nice find and replace function.

For more indepth Note Taking applications i have two choices, at work i use a application called [TreePad](http://www.treepad.com/), I use the [Lite](http://www.treepad.com/download/#tplitewin) version (Linux versions available as well), which can be run just from the main executable, so again no need to install, The lite version only alows text to be stored, which is a bit of a drawback, but for more indepth note taking, I use the [Microsoft One Note 2003](http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX010858031033.aspx) which unforchantly has to be installed, I am currently a Office 2007 beta tester, and to be honist i wont bother upgrading, there realy is no point.

And now for one i can thank [Dan](http://www.danbjorn.termisoc.org) over, [Novell's NetDrive](http://www.bcuc.ac.uk/default.aspx?page=2117). An ancient tool, great for mounting FTP conections as drive letters.

For keeping my Laptop, Desktop, downstares computer, and my Termisoc account all how i want them, i use a Microsoft Power toy [Sync Toy](http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=E0FC1154-C975-4814-9649-CCE41AF06EB7&displaylang=en) is a small application that syncronise (and more) the content of two folders, and with [NetDrive](http://www.bcuc.ac.uk/default.aspx?page=2117), and knowing the network path of folders (if you want to hide a windows share from casual browsing givve it a name ending with a $) i can keep all of my computers swinging along in sycronus time.

While we are in the [Powertoys section](http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx), we cant fail to mention the one that kicked them all off, [Tweak UI](http://download.microsoft.com/download/f/c/a/fca6767b-9ed9-45a6-b352-839afb2a2679/TweakUiPowertoySetup.exe), this little toy alows you to play about with your User Interface settings, Including, Making your Preview Icons bigger for Thumbnail View, and changing the quality of them, another tool you can use if you play with Digital Photography is [RAW Image Thumbnailer and Viewer](http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=D48E808E-B10D-4CE4-A141-5866FD4A3286) (more Photography info and tools can be found [here](http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/prophoto/default.mspx).) If you are using an LCD screen you may want to install [ClearType Tuner](http://download.microsoft.com/download/b/7/0/b7019730-0fa3-47a9-a159-98b80c185aad/setup.exe), This Powertoy makes it easier to read text on your screen, I still use it with my 19″ Dell CRT VDU, and its better on that too.

This list is not in any way an exsorstive list of stuff i use, and i know some of them are old, and most are not oppen source, but if some one can recomend something to me that does the same please tell me, I would like to test drive it. also if you can think of anything that i may want to have a go at using, please [drop us a comment](http://skippy.org.uk/those-toys/#respond).

• 17% are scared of links
• 17% of Windows users curse it
• And one that ben wont like:-
• 4% of Linux users selected Bill Gates as their hero
• And Loupie got 71%

I think i will have to make one when i get a place of my own, mainly because it has that ultra modern and industrial look, and because it is a cheap way to have a four poster bed.

here is another exsample of a bed made out of Kee Klamp

Now what can i say, that is really nice of them, and i am proud that they would think so highly of me, even now i am running Vista 64 on my desktop, and not XP 64.

And MSN search want to be taken seriously, against Google? well they will have to try harder, a lot harder.

you get a free 30 day trial, or it costs you £40, well we will have to see how good it is, or if there is anything simaler for free, as its an intresting idea.

Oh and the auther used a Nikon D70, (well i think it is)

And following the Free Camera Post, I have found another cool Home made Pinhole camera, that you too can make!

For some reson it looks more like Publisher, than a web design tool…..

I have a few photos of the lass demonstrating it, it would be lovely if it was a DTP software, and not Web Authering Software,

Using information the government has collected on noise levels within London, a map has been plotted of the capitals most silent spaces. The map intends to reveal a hidden landscape of quiet spaces and shows an alternate side of the city that would normally go unnoticed.

This looks like a great map! – Link Via BoingBoing

Here is how to make your own boing boing proxy, and here is an exsample of why you may need it

Well its nice to see that the RIAA and the American Goverment are not the same organisation, afterall the RIAA are a buisness, and the American Govemrment are a Demograticly elected organisation……. who are there to look after the Population, not self obsesed, money grabbing, companys. [unless the company donates money?] So what is it about the stupidity of copyright companys? and when did they get so powerfull that they could influance the WTO?

Allofmp3.com is Cheaper than iTunes, does that not mean that iTunes is using the wrong buisness model, afterall i dont think allofmp3.com are supporting terrorists, or drug dealers, ergo no problems there then, also the RIAA can not claim that the quality is lacking in the same way as illegal films are, The Music AllofMP3 sells is technicly Legal, just not a legal exsport, Oh well, if the RIAA was an anty drugs organisation, they would probably still just send nasty letters to every one,

So just what is the cost of Piracy? well according to the RIAA it is like this

the total cost to the music industry was $11,440,939,650,000!

that is more than i get in pocket money….. and chances are that it is also more than the music industry makes in a month – link to full story

1. Get into the university,
2. Get a Copy of Windows XP 64 bit edition,
3. Get a Legal (shock! Horror!) Key for it,
4. Try to beat the 5 hours or less of this guy,
5. Install all the required software (Office 2003..)
6. Then Try to make an image of my fully installed Windows.
7. Install KnoppMyth on the computer, and run away screaming like a Banchee.

So there is the Plan, lets see if we can do it.

Yes…… and that is what they all say, Sorry that 12 year old was supposed to be a 12th Centery composer of Clasical Music, so if i download Open Source music does that mean i also download incrimanating images of oranges?

Anyway if you are one of the strange people who checks out my blog, Check the Planet out as well!

Windows Vista build 5365

We’ve received several inquiries on the status of Windows Vista build 5365 and when it might be added to MSDN Subscriptions. As indicated by several press accounts, build 5365 is only being released to the TAP, Beta Program and Partners. Build 5365 is not a CTP or IDW build and will not be released to MSDN.

We expect to receive Windows Vista Beta 2 later this spring and will make it available on MSDN Subscriber Downloads as soon as possible.

But i want to Play!

I Think a go with Vista would be good fun, and i want to see what new and shiney stuff is now in the new windows, Ben’s commented on ClickOnce, and i think there will be more new and shiney!

Fraud using the new Fraud free chip and pin system, SnakeOil Labs have writen in more detail on there post on the topic,

Any one else wonder just how safe Chip and Pin really is?

Want to use AOL like a Pro 12 year old?

Well now you can just go to the [English-to-12-Year-Old-AOLer Translator](http://ssshotaru.homestead.com/files/aolertranslator.html), and Make all your Electronic comunications utterly unreadaball

I know there is not much to be seen on it, but thats because the side bar is commented out, but once the tags are taken out, more will apear,

A nother site that may be of slight interst is [My Hub Site](http://skippy.termisoc.org) a Site that for a longtime went really no where has been given a quick lick of paint, and turned around.

for exsample the bottem line needs hidden, and the focus needs sorted out, and i think the appature needs opened a bit.

[click to see just the camera](http://141.163.124.241/popup.html)

some how i feel my password is strong

however [wordpress 2.0](http://wordpress.org/development/2005/12/wordpress-20-release-candidate/) (currently on RC3) is drawing near, so [skippy.org.uk](http://skippy.org.uk) may be jumping another relise up soon!and after a while (say a few days, if nothing breakes in any nasty way [Kris's Election Site](http://voteforkris.co.uk), [Ruth's Site](http://loupie.co.uk), [the Nus Extra site](http://nusxtra.co.uk], [PaganStudents](http://paganstudents.co.uk), and the [Greenbelt Stewards](http://greenbeltstewards.co.uk) will all be migrated up to 2.0 as well.
All of these sites, with the exseption of the [Nus card site](http://nusxtra.co.uk) have been running 1.5 ish, NUS has been running 1.2 for well forever, so a large set of upgrades are now in order,

but i have got a 5kg anywhere in the world delivery,

now all i need is a large box of packing peanuts

“Backups are for wimps. Real men upload their data to an FTP site and have everyone else mirror it.” — Linus Torvalds

A while ago i posted about the [Great 10,000 image loss](/hard-drives/) Well i think that i am doing quite well at recovering them at the moment , so if all goes to plan i will have them back shortly,

I am using a peice of software called [File Scavenger®](http://www.quetek.com/prod02.htm) it is a Disk Data Recovery Program, and for the £50 i had to part with for it it seems to be doing a danm good job at the moment

so soon the photos will be back in my grubby little paws then we can all rejoice

After that they are getting burnt to DVD and strored in the fridge

Dear Customer

Re: Free BlackBerry 7100v

Thank you for submitting a request to open a new account with DHL.

Once you have your new account number and have sent your first shipment simply visit www.dhloffers.co.uk/blackberry, to claim your free BlackBerry 7100v. (If you have already done this please disregard this email).

If you have any questions please let me know.

Kind regards,

Andrea Cavalheiro-Langham
DHL Direct Marketing Manager

Would you send this Email 75 Times? with all the recipiants in the To Box? so they can see each other? No well Andrea did,

- Would you now trust DHL with your personal information, Yes?
- If I told you that Drop Hide Leave have lost a Package of mine before, Yes?
- Have you heard of FedEx or City link, or UPS, No?

well i would recomend you check them out

So, if you don’t keep a vast archive of every email you’ve ever sent or
received, and you want to laugh at Tim just one more time, you can visit
http://termisoc.org/pipermail/termilist/ for a complete collection.

so if your after a quick laugh at [Tim](http://tim.termisoc.org) have a wonder along to [here](http://termisoc.org/pipermail/termilist/2005-November/thread.html) and look for any line sufexed tim at termisoc.org

I think its a Cunningly good idea, it would certianly make life easer, However i think time zones and Daylight saving should be left in for legacy and for backwards compatability

- CPU: AMD SEMPRON 64BIT 3300 + 1600MHz HTT/128K
- Memory: 2048 MB DDR400 PC3200 WITH LIFETIME WARRANTY! (2x1GB)
- Motherboard: FOXCONN 760GX WITH SIS760GX CHIPSET, 8X AGP, SATA, 3 PCI
- Graphics Card: 256MB GEFORCE 6600 8X AGP + DVI + TV-OUT
- Sound Card: ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL SOUND (RECOMMENDED)
- Network Facilities: ONBOARD LAN & WIRELESS 802.11G NETWORK CARD
- Power Supply: Silent 550W PSU + 120mm Fan + 19.2 dBA CPU Cooler! Super Quiet!
- Firewire & Video Editing 3 PORT FIREWIRE CARD.

Ok, so looking at this, it seems a lot cheaper to upgrade my desktop a little, than buy a [Mac Mini](/mac-mini-i-will-get-one-one-day/)

[Arkku](http://www.flickr.com/photos/arkku/50012122/in/pool-make/) made this glowing Keyboard using a just one Blue LED!

I didn’t take any pictures while I was installing the LED, but it wasn’t difficult. Basically, I opened up the keyboard (three screws in the bottom), located the +5v and ground leads (red and black wire in my keyboard) and soldered a 3.3v/30mA 5mm bright blue LED to them, with a 68ohm resistor.

To make the light reach the clear base of the keyboard, I also made a small hole in the white plastic that touches the clear acrylic at the bottom of the keyboard and taped the LED in that hole with electrical tape. (Note that the hole only goes deep enough to reach the clear base, not through it.)

All in all, I’m very happy with the results. The mod took about 30 minutes to install and cost practically nothing (had the LED and resistor lying around

I think i will have to mod my Mac Keyboard when i get some spaire time, it certanly beats my plans for making mine glow,

I had thought about using EL wire, and wrapping that inside the base, but an LED is certianly a lot les power hungry, and wont require an external power source

[solo tees](http://solotees.com/) have some danm cool T-shirts, such as these ones; i am tempted by the 5pm one, however that will have to wait untill after i get my [shinney box of goodly-ness](http://skippy.org.uk/mac-mini-i-will-get-one-one-day/).

And if you dont think it is posible to get fired by blogging have a look at [this entry](http://www.woolamaloo.org.uk/2005/01/those-who-profess-to-favor-freedom-and.htm) in [The Woolamaloo Gazette](http://www.woolamaloo.org.uk/index.htm) and just how carefull you have to be with images [Diary of a (fired) Flight Attendant](http://queenofsky.journalspace.com/?cmd=displaycomments&dcid=471&entryid=471), see [offending images](http://queenofsky.journalspace.com/?cmd=displaycomments&dcid=393&entryid=393)

this little tool is Inspired by [Tristan Louis's research](http://www.tnl.net/blog/entry/Doing_the_numbers_on_the_AOL-WeblogsInc_deal) into the value of each link to Weblogs Inc, some one then created a little applet using [Technorati's API](http://www.technorati.com/) which computes and displays the requested blog’s worth using the same link to dollar ratio as the AOL-Weblogs Inc deal, click [here](http://www.business-opportunities.biz/projects/how-much-is-your-blog-worth/?url=skippy.org.uk) to see your worth

1. Thou shall [backup, backup BACKUP.](http://skippy.org.uk/hard-drives-2/)
2. Thou shalt not make thy password be “password”.
3. Thou shalt not adopt early or install version 1.0.
4. Thou shalt use a firewall.
5. Thou shalt not steal thy neibor’s bandwidth.. and get caught.
6. Thou shalt not covet thy neibor’s toys. Instead, buy a newer model and one-up him.
7. Thou shalt not open unkown email attachments, nor reply to SPAM, nor C.C. jokes to your entire address book.
8. Remember the Slacketh Days. Six days shalt thou slack and do all thy surfing.
9. Don’t be Evil.
10. Thou shalt not curse at thy computer when thy problem lies with its user

The money is almost in the right account, just got to wait the customery too long for the check to clear, then i can place my online order to MAC and get myself the Rather Spangaly 1.42GHz box of shiney:-

- 1.42GHz PowerPC G4
- 512MB DDR333 SDRAM
- ATI Radeon 9200
- 32MB DDR video memory
- 80GB Ultra ATA hard drive
- Combo drive (DVD/CD-RW)
- DVI or VGA video output
- AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth included
- 56k Internal Modem optional

As such we will have to wait and see

It would be very hard to claim that you didnt sign it, as to fill in the form you have to log in to the university servers, then log into the enrolment server, using more than just your username and password, after all this, you then have to submit the form, that they can then run Autentication, and Validation on,

so after getting a email

Completion of Enrolment

We note that you have completed the online enrolment screens on the student portal however we have not received a copy of your online enrolment certificate. To complete enrolment you must provide us with a signed copy of your enrolment certificate and provide details of the arrangements made to pay your fees.

Can you please attend Smeaton 006 with your signed enrolment certificate. We will be able to give you advice on the payment of your fees. You may be required to visit our Finance Office if you are unable to make a fee payment at this time.

Please remember that there are a number of fee payment options that include payment by cash, cheque, card payment and banker’s draft. Please note that you can complete a debit card/credit card form for payment in mid-October.

If you have lost your enrolment certificate you can reprint the certificate by visiting the online enrolment screen option on the student portal. This facility is only available for a short period of time, so if required, please reprint the certificate immediately.

If you have any queries or concerns please contact us immediately. If you do not provide a signed copy of your enrolment certificate by 7 October you will be de-registered as you have not fully completed enrolment.

If you are de-registered the following will happen: -

• your email and IT access will be withdrawn
• your borrowing facilities at all University libraries will be withdrawn
• you will be excluded from University managed student accommodation
• other academic services such as marking, assessment and the provision of results will be withdrawn
• you will be prohibited from attending teaching sessions

These sanctions will be effective from 14 October 2005. Any academic consequences arising from these sanctions will not be grounds for extenuating circumstances claims.

It is therefore essential that you contact us as soon as possible and by 7 October 2005 at the latest.

Donna Sanders
Faculty Registrar
Faculty of Technology

I e-mailed the lass back telling her that the form had been compleated online, and that Payment had been made in the form of a check,

after being reminded they needed a signed copy i took a copy of the Certificate off the website, put it all into a email, and inserted my [public key](http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?search=0x32C1F39A&op=index), next to my printed name, i relaise that signing aginst an enrolment form that is Autenticated, and validated as above agains the [Public key infrastructure](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Key_Infrastructure#Web_Of_Trust) is posibly over kill,

however even that is not enouth for them….

However what it does, is it “allow[s] you to let other un-closeted geeks know who you are in a simple, [codified statement](http://www.geekcode.com/geek.html)”, for exsample, my geek code is as follows:-

-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.1
GCC/E/IT d-(++) s+: a-- C+++ U? P? L+ E? W+++ N? o? K- w++>++++ o?
M+>++ V? PS++ PE++ Y+ PGP+>++ t+ 5 X+ R tv+ b+>++ DI>+ D+ G e*>++
h++ r+++ y+>+++
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------

If you want to read it take a copy of it to [here](http://www.ebb.org/ungeek/)

What is chip and PIN?

Chip and PIN is the new, more secure way to pay with credit or debit cards in the UK.

Instead of using your signature to verify payments, you will be asked to enter a four-digit Personal Identification Number (PIN) known only to you.” – [Chip and Pin](http://www.chipandpin.co.uk)

After reading above I think you would be best looking at [This](http://software.silicon.com/security/0,39024655,39151961,00.htm), [This](http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1562638,00.html), [This](http://itvibe.com/news/3719/), or [This](http://software.silicon.com/security/0,39024655,39127507,00.htm)

So are we any safer from fraude thanks too a four diggit number, that we have to remeber, and has to be diffrent from all our other cardf numbers, Phone Sim Lock number, and that we should never write down….

after all if i have your number, i dont have to pretend to be you to steal your cash

- [Arthur](http://termisoc.org/notices.php) – Maxtor
- Trillian – IBM
- Esmerelda – Weston Digital (tim droped it)
- Magrat – Small Laptop hard drive died….
- [Kris](http://voteforkris.co.uk/) – External Maxtor Hard drive (dont plug your laptop power supply into your hard drive!)

If i have missed any [hard drives](http://wiki.termisoc.org/index.php/Hard_disk) please tell me, [gem](http://blog.gemmapeter.co.uk/) details please

[Gemma](http://blog.gemmapeter.co.uk/2005/08/26/backup-now/) States:-

“It is strange the hard drive started to error just as I was planning to transfer my data to somewhere safer. One of my previous posts commented on this phenomenon, it feels like your hard drive is more likely to fail when you are planning to back up than when you are not planning to back up. So when you plan a backup you must backup immediately to avoid Murphy.”

and remember boys and Girls Backing up is the [FIRST geek Commandment!](http://skippy.org.uk/geek-commandments/)

a lot of the images were photos of friends, and most, if not all of them are unrecovarable from any other source.

and before any one tells me about back ups. this was my back up

its a small Laptop Hard drive contained in a caddy, so when i get some time, i will have to try recovering them.