COMPUTERS, THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY

[Whyperion]

China, unless it was an IR Mouse, doesn't cleaning the fluff out with a 'B' Pencil solve most errant mouse problems?

[chinatyke]

China, unless it was an IR Mouse, doesn't cleaning the fluff out with a 'B' Pencil solve most errant mouse problems?

Do they still have the rotary ones? The faulty one was the red laser light USB-wired type and the replacement is the same. At a cost of £1.11 for a replacement the faulty one becomes a throw-away item. Next time I go downtown I'll buy another one as a spare.

If you think about the technology involved in this item aren't we lucky to live in this age? I would love to be here in 50 years time when our grandchildren will regard us as dinosaurs.

[Pluggy]

I resigned the ball mouse to the scrap heap of history a decade ago. Working in school where the kids would liberate the heavy ball and Chuck them through windows probably had a bearing on that. Can you even buy a ball mouse these days ? The whole concept of the mouse has had its day in the era of trackpads and touch screen.......

Having said that I'll usually plug a rat into a laptop I'm working on.

[Pluggy]

Having done a search of my source for all things cheap,obscure and geeky aka eBay a ball mouse is a led job with a trackball instead of a scroll wheel in this day and age......

[Stanley]

I always found it was a good thing to wash my mouse ball occasionally! Janet once told me that in her early days in the industry it was standard practice to pinch the ball out of a new mouse and substitute your old one. I know you don't like wireless mice Pluggy but I love mine.....

[Pluggy]

Oh joy, unnecessary batteries.......

I always found it was the rollers rather than the ball that picked up all the muck. The ball remained clean by transferring all the yuck to the plastic rollers. I used to dismantle 'em to scrape and wipe the rollers because they were a pig to clean inside the mouse.

[PanBiker]

Oh joy, unnecessary batteries.......

I always found it was the rollers rather than the ball that picked up all the muck. The ball remained clean by transferring all the yuck to the plastic rollers. I used to dismantle 'em to scrape and wipe the rollers because they were a pig to clean inside the mouse.

I used a fibreglass tipped cleaning brush on the rollers,worked a treat and you could get in without dismantling. Only worked on staff mice, all the students mice had their trap doors glued on to stop them nicking the balls. Fibre brush still the best once inside though.

[Stanley]

Better than unnecessary cables Pluggy! A small price to pay.

[Stanley]

I note that BA had a bad day yesterday. The failure of the baggage handling system on Friday was followed yesterday by a general failure of all the booking systems and all flights had to be cancelled. The GMB union blames the decision of the management to outsource their software maintenance systems to 'save money'. There is a ring of truth in this.... (See THIS BBC report.)
Later at 07:30.... The better the day the better the deed so as part of the morning's household activities I vacuumed out the inside of the FM3 and blew the heat sinks out with the compressor. (I was triggered by the fact that I could hear a low hum from the cooling fans which are normally silent. Usually caused by dirt build up unbalancing the fans I find) I put it back together and got an error message 'CPU fan problem'. Oh shit moment! I took the side off the case again jiggled the contacts and moved all the wiring about. Switched on and everything back to normal. The compressed air jet is a bit savage but does a good job. Can't hear the fans now!

[PanBiker]

I thought the Heathrow problems were due to a power outage, that was what was reported last night and would account for all systems being down. If that really was the case it beggars belief that one of the largest airports on the planet does not employ a redundant power supply system for such occasions.

[Stanley]

The same thing struck me Ian. Someone somewhere cocked up badly.......

[Stanley]

Pressure grows on BA to give more detail about their IT failure. Investors are asking some very pertinent questions and the suspicion grows that they haven't got a firm grip on this essential part of their operations. It begins to sound like the old story, cutting expenses in the wrong place.

[Stanley]

You may remember me reporting over three years ago that my daughter Janet, during a discussion on the use of Big Data, had told me that in the course of her latest project to make access to this data easy for the general public she had become convinced that four companies (I can remember Amazon and Google but forget the other two) had a game plan to take over the world using their ability to manage Big Data.
I noted a new book yesterday, 'Move fast and Break Things' by Taplin. I have ordered the hardback copy and will report. It sounds to me as if he is addressing exactly the same thing.

[Tizer]

The Times was running extracts from Taplin's book as I went on holiday. Judging from those it should make good reading. There's a Guardian review here: LINK

[Stanley]

Thanks for that Tiz, I shall report back.....

[Whyperion]

I thought the Heathrow problems were due to a power outage, that was what was reported last night and would account for all systems being down. If that really was the case it beggars belief that one of the largest airports on the planet does not employ a redundant power supply system for such occasions.

I'm also surprised that the back-up systems were not in a data warehouse in a separate location ( we had a dedicated to third parties one somewhere in London Docklands ) TV this week some channel or other has been doing a reality show on Quantas Airlines which was interesting to see their computer networks, including note that Airbus monitor effectively telematics of their aircraft.

[Tizer]

...including note that Airbus monitor effectively telematics of their aircraft.

Expect more of that. There's increasing interest by manufacturers in having monitoring systems installed in all their products and reporting back continuously. Of course the reason given is that it gives the manufacturer the possibility of detecting faults before they cause serious trouble, and no doubt that's a good idea for airliners, trains, lorries etc. But it will also be used as the excuse to put such systems in our cars, fridges, washing machines, computer and so on.

[Stanley]

Such systems are already installed in RAF aircraft bought from US firms and report back continuously to private companies. The data includes tasking and current missions. The US Defence Department is fighting this for their own planes at the moment. Even they are not amused.

[Stanley]

Late news not on the web yet. Willie Walsh boss of IGA (BA) has revealed that the computer melt-down was the fault of an engineer who switched off the power supply to the data centre but followed the wrong procedure when he switched it back on. This doesn't explain why the back-up systems (if any!) didn't kick in to take over the operation. Were they on the same power supply?

[Stanley]

Reports trickling through that the attack that crippled the NHS and other systems originated in North Korea.....

[Big Kev]

That was the rumour. Has someone found some evidence?

[plaques]

It probably is but what do you expect? This is no more than a 'tit for tat' exercise where the West places embargoes so they show how good they are and retaliate. Then the West (US) sends a naval fleet so they set off a few rockets. Then..... Until someone starts talking it could all end in disaster. America is still trying to rule the world but times have changed. It all started before the 38 parallel cock up and has continued ever since. But who remembers that?

[Tizer]

I saw that my regular bill for broadband from Plusnet had jumped by about 30% last month so I contacted them and found that an 18-month contract had expired. It's the first time I'd been on a contract for broadband and I'd forgotten about it - which is what they're hoping for of course. Until then it had always been non-contract and free to leave when I wished. But then they started the usual game of making that very expensive so the only way you could get the discounts was to go on a contract. I got a new contract which was less than the high rate I'd been bumped onto but more than the earlier low rate - and now it had to be for 24 months. When I told Mrs Tiz she wanted to know if that would create a problem when we moved house - something else I'd forgotten to check. And yes, Plusnet charges £65 to move your account if you're on a contract but it's free if you are starting a new contract. So now I'm using the 14-day cooling off period to get out of the contract and start a new one when we move. But I'll bet they throw lots of obstacles in the way!

[Stanley]

I do P. I also remember they had to sack MacArthur because he wanted to go into China!
Tiz, well done Janet. Every good man has a better woman behind him!
I am constantly impressed by Canonical on their updates. There is a constant feed and all of them install with no problems whatsoever. I still have scar tissue from Windows...... Let's hear it for Ubuntu!!

[Tizer]

I'll give Plusnet their due- they replied in less than 24 hours, as follows:
"Thank you for getting in touch, as requested I have removed your pending contract and reverted you back to a rolling month to month contract as you were previously."
A good, simple reply! It was signed off with the name Thomas Pullen. We've been with them since around 2006 and I can remember correspondence in the past with someone there called Bob Pullen. I wonder if it's his son?