COMPUTERS, THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY

[Tripps]

I understood the BBC to say that the report said that Facebook etc postings went to a foreign server, and thus were communications outside Britain, thus it was legal to monitor them without a specific warrant.

Lord Carlile - the top man in such matters - has just been on to say exactly the opposite! He says that if the origin of the message is in Britain, and the destination of the message is also in Britain, then it is an internal message, despite it being routed via a foreign server, and any interception would have to be authorised.

I'm puzzled.

PS the Guardian tonight is saying the same.
"The UK government has revealed that intelligence service GCHQ can snoop on British citizens' use of Facebook and Google without an individual warrant because the firms are based overseas.
UK spy boss Charles Farr said that the services are classified as external communications."

[Stanley]

Not a lot of point worrying about security... GCHQ ought to be called Everything Everywhere, they have access to anything we do online. What they do with it depends on how great the perceived need to know, nothing to do with legalities....

[Pluggy]

If you're worried about on-line privacy, don't connect your computer to the internet. Its that simple. You can't expect privacy when you invite the world into your home.

[Stanley]

Quite.....
What is the 'Dark Net'?

[Pluggy]

The 'Dark net' referes to traffic on the internet that is passed through TOR ('The Onion Router' : https://www.torproject.org/) and peer to peer file sharing with no central authority. Its encrypted and bounced around the planet to make it very difficult to track. Its not impossible though, because most of the traffic it carries is seedy (TOR is widely used by kiddie porn merchants and money launderers) it attracts a lot of attention from spooks. Its not difficult to establish who is using TOR and peer to peer, and since most use it because they do have something to hide, they become 'marked' as questionable. The owners of the 'Outside World' access points for TOR come in for a lot of scrutiney. Such people have been charged with aiding and abetting because some perp's files have been through their system. (Its not common, but it has happened). Whether using such services can be used in part as evidence to 'obtain a warrant' for the law enforcement authorities is open to question. Kind of like hanging around area's used by drug dealers tends to arouse suspicion, its not illegal but just doing it speaks volumes.

[Stanley]

Thanks for that Pluggy. One thing I heard yesterday was that it can be very useful for political dissidents as well as they can communicate under the radar.... Like the net, good and bad users....

[Tizer]

When I dispose of an old PC I take out the hard drive and smash it with a hammer so that no-one can access any traces of data still on it. What do people do when disposing of an old laptop? We've got Mrs Tiz's father's old laptop and I want to get rid of it. It's password-protected but he's got dementia and no longer knows the password, so I can't even delete data. Can you get the hard drive out of a laptop?

[PanBiker]

Hard drives on many laptops are often accessible via a trap door in the base or sometimes behind a screw on cover at the side, depends on the model. Otherwise you may have to open the case to get access to the drive.

Another option would be to set the bios to boot from cd and whack it with a new installation of your favourite OS, opt for the reformat option on the drive if offered.

[Tizer]

Thanks for the advice Ian, I'll have a look for the `trapdoor'. I tried to get at the bios so I could install Ubuntu but when you switch on the computer it goes straight into asking for a password. I've tried hitting the usual keys (Del, F1) immediately after switching on but it ignores my attempts and persists in asking for the password. Perhaps there isn't much point in trying to resurrect the laptop - we haven't got anything to charge it up with, the cable and whatever was attached to it went missing in the clear out, it wasn't with the laptop.

When I typed `password' above I spelt it wrong the first time. As I checked the text it reminded me of that Englishman pretending to speak French in Ello Ello!

[Pluggy]

Sometimes, a machine will let you into the select boot device menu even if its been bios password protected. Usual keys are Esc,F8,F9,F10 or F12 (one of them, not all of them) on laptops that aren't really ancient. Del and F1 are in the really ancient category. Quick and dirty laptop aging algotrythm : If its got a floppy its really ancient (pre millenium ish). If its got a wide screen rather than a 4:3 aspect ("square") screen its post 2004/2005. If it has a parallel or serial port or PS2 type connectors that puts it in the really ancient/ old category. If the hard drive isn't under a trap door or stuck in the side, its usually a fairly modern machine that isn't too difficult to get in bits. (Newer is easier, really ancient are dogs to get in bits). Once you've got the drive out, if its a SATA rather than PATA (google it) that puts it post 2003/2004. There are exceptions, occasionaly the likes of PC world would find a warehouse full of 'old dogs' and flog 'em off cheap/cheaper/not so expensive/seen you coming....

If its newer rather than older and generally working, I might give you a few quid for it. PM me.

[Pluggy]

Since business has been good lately I think I'll buy myself an SSD and see if the difference is worthwhile. Just a small one for the OS and I'll use my big ugly HDD for the user area. The one machine with an SSD I briefly played with didn't seem anything special. I know how my machine runs with an HDD so I'll have a comparison. From a cold start, including logging in I can be on the internet in around 50 seconds. The BIOS takes 15 seconds to do its thing, so the saving will have to come out of the 35 seconds the rest of it takes.

Took a bit longer to arrive than I anticipated but its now in and running. I guess this old dinosaur has learnt a new trick, its blisteringly fast. I tweaked the BIOS to get the BIOS time down to 12 seconds from 15. With the SSD in place I can start Ubuntu from cold, login (still about 4 seconds), go on the Internet with chrome, display a web page, shut chrome down and shut Ubuntu down again in 42 seconds start to finish. It can start Libreoffice Writer in about a second and a half.

From September 15th and 21st 2013, Update on the SSD situation, I pulled it out and put 'spinning rust' back in on Monday this week after updates became increasingly slow and culminating in a Ubuntu Update taking three quarters of an hour. The situation is much more complex than what is apparent on the surface, With old school 'spinning rust' (usual HDD drive) you can read and write at will with no negative consequences and after thirty years you take it completely and utterly for granted, thats the way it is. Enter the SSD and a whole load of other factors come into play. Nothing is actually erased with an SSD until the drive has no free space left, its just marked as not used and the controller moves onto pastures new. When there are no unused pages left it gets ugly, and how ugly depends on the type of SSD and the controller and software it uses. you can read all the technical stuff here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trim_%28computing%29 . The particular SSD drive I bought is not a good one and it handles 'TRIM' very badly even though Ubuntu does support it. The solution isn't pretty and can't be done 'in situ' https://ata.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/ATA_Secure_Erase , I haven't gone down this route yet (the number of disclaimers on the page isn't exactly encouraging)......

[Stanley]

Sounds OK for data but not for the OS!
Susan wants an Ipad and I'm inclined to buy her one for being such a splendid support for me. I'd want it to be a reasonably high end model. Any suggestions? Any cheap outlets?

[Pluggy]

Ipad Air 64 gb wIFI & Cellular at Tesco £659
http://www.tesco.com/direct/apple-ipad- ... d=756-9986.

Ipad Air 64 gb wIFI & Cellular at BT Business Direct (DABS) £653.07
https://www.businessdirect.bt.com/produ ... refs=50336

Ipad Air 64 gb wIFI & Cellular at Apple £659
http://www.apple.com/uk/ipad/compare/

One of Amazon's 'hangers oners' has them at £529.50


Personally I'd go for a Tesco Hudl and have a holiday on the change.......
http://www.tesco.com/direct/hudl/?sc_cm ... wgodC1cAxQ

[PanBiker]

Horses for courses just like any other computing device, depends what you want to use it for. I got Sally a Google Nexus 7 WiFi for Christmas, she loves it and we are going on holiday with the change.

[Pluggy]

One day I'll bite the bullet. Having played with numerous tablets at my school job (usually setting 'em up on the network for teachers) I fail to see the attraction, except if it was all you had with you. I'd be forever misplacing it - I lose my 2 laptops often enough, the old dinosaur desktop I love is always there, always faithful.

[Tizer]

Thanks for the laptop info, Pluggy, I'll report back when I've examined the device further.

My thoughts about Ipads etc are like Pluggy's but Mrs Tiz has greater interest in having something of the type. She travels a lot more than I do (here and abroad) and could benefit more from a mobile screen. She also does a lot of birdwatching and sees other birders looking up IDs on their devices or listening to bird song recordings (or making recordings) and swapping information. But neither of us really knows the ins and outs of all these devices, what they do, how much they overlap (what's the differences between having a smartphone and an Ipad clone?), do you have to pay a monthly subscription (we already pay Plusnet for broadband, do we have to pay someone else if we have a mobile gadget?) etc etc. Neither of us is sufficiently motivated to find out more!

[Pluggy]

The ones with Cellular access need a sim card and payment to a mobile network provider to work away from a Wifi connection. They'll all work using your Wifi connection without extra payment.

A tablet is just a big phone, same OS, same apps, just a bigger screen, but doesn't nessecerily have a cellualr connection (and you look a complete spanner if you take a picture with one.... )

You can use a smartphone as a Wifi access point (maybe not officially and if its an applke device they'll probably charge you extra for the privilege) to get an internet connection on a tablet (or laptop) in the middle of a field. I do it all the time, but its not strictley pukka by Threes T&C, Androids don't tell the the ISP you're doing it and unless they started analysing traffic they aren't going to find out, bit of a stupid ruling really, I pay for the data and presumably the more of it I use, the happier they'll be, but 'Thou shalt not tether'

[David Whipp]

Keep the advice flowing... am thinking of putting toe in smart phone water, having 'lost' my £10 pay as you go antique. Offspring assure me that, using predictive text, I'd soon get used to typing on a touch screen (ha, ha!). (Could I connect a keyboard?!)

[Tizer]

WiFi isn't much use at our home, we have 18-inch thick solid, stone walls - even the wireless doorbell doesn't work properly. So our house is perhaps like your `middle of a field' example and we'd need the mobile network provider and a tablet with cellular connection! So far we've only used PAYG mobile phones and I hate the idea of having to sell my soul to one of the companies on a monthly rate.

David, welcome to the club. There are lots of us out there and perhaps it's time we all `came out'!

[Pluggy]

If it has a USB port,you probably can connect a keyboard (I've never tried but I've hooked up a mouse to one that did have a USB), iPads don't do USB, and I suspect many Androids don't either.

If you're getting a Smartphone might I reccomend Three as a service provider, they do a cheap pay as you go deal and unlike some networks in Barlick, their 3G works most of the time. You can buy SIM free smartphones (not locked to any network) fairly cheaply at Carphone Warehouse (soon to be swallowed up into the Dixon retail group -PC World & Curries). Three will give you a PAYG go Sim. If you don't spend your life peering at a phone you'll probably find it cheaper than a contract.

Do, not, do not, get Vodaphone or any network piggy backing of it in Barlick (CPW's own for one), their 3G is next door to useless.......

[David Whipp]

OK then, I'll come out and admit to failing to move my number when ASDA's PAYG transferred to EE. That's how I 'lost' the use of my £10 model. (I couldn't hear a blasted thing on it anyway, so it wasn't much missed.)

Thanks for further advice Pluggy. Extended family (who live on their phones) are extolling virtue of Giffgaff as a telecoms provider; is it easy to find out whose network they use?

[Pluggy]

WiFi isn't much use at our home, we have 18-inch thick solid, stone walls - even the wireless doorbell doesn't work properly. So our house is perhaps like your `middle of a field' example and we'd need the mobile network provider and a tablet with cellular connection! So far we've only used PAYG mobile phones and I hate the idea of having to sell my soul to one of the companies on a monthly rate.

David, welcome to the club. There are lots of us out there and perhaps it's time we all `came out'!

Can you get a mobile phone signal in the house ? I have old school thick stone walls and mobile inside is very iffy, the Wifi router is inside and doesn't have to come through the thickest walls. You generally have an element of choice as to where you put the router, you're stuck with what the mobile ISP provides with cellular. Three and Orange/EE work best in our house, your milage will almost certainly vary.

As I've said, I have a smartphone on PAYG, I don't use it a huge amount and Three's PAYG costs me a fraction of the typically £10-£12 a month a cheap Smarphone on a Cheap contract costs. (I top up a fiver at a time and it usually lasts me 6 toi 8 weeks- last of the big spenders).

[David Whipp]

PS. I realise that lugging a keyboard around maybe defeats the object of a 'mobile' phone, but hate the thought of not being able to use touch typing...

[Tizer]

In our house we find it tricky connecting to Vodaphone and Orange/EE but O2 is OK. I wouldn't want to take out a contract and then find I couldn't receive the connection, so a PAYG is safer.

What's 3G? I see the term often and know it's to do with smartphones.

[Pluggy]

OK then, I'll come out and admit to failing to move my number when ASDA's PAYG transferred to EE. That's how I 'lost' the use of my £10 model. (I couldn't hear a blasted thing on it anyway, so it wasn't much missed.)

Thanks for further advice Pluggy. Extended family (who live on their phones) are extolling virtue of Giffgaff as a telecoms provider; is it easy to find out whose network they use?

GiffGaff use O2, the same as Tesco. My daughter has Tesco, she's happy with it althouh she spends most of her time in her bedroom upstairs where the signal is better. She has a Sim only contract which is limited (it basically stops wrking when she's burnt all the minutes) and she starts using the house phone and cadging our mobiles..........