Solder, Solder
28 August 2010, 01:08 AM CET
I’m switching to a combination of DVB-T and DVB-S to replace my current analogue cable tv. The main reason for this is that the cable dudes keep pestering me with please upgrade to our 3-in-1 service (meaning DVB-C + phone + internet). I called about the internet, it is crap, blocked SMTP and no fixed ip, just two features I happen to need. And the phone, well, I’ve heard of people having problems with it. Just upgrading from analogue to digital requires you to pay for the set-top-boxes yourself, which you don’t for the 3-in-1. Of course I understand you giving a bigger gift for the bigger commitment from the user, but nothing vs. big discount seems a little too obvious. So, a combination of a free set of satellite channels and a set of cheap DVB-T channels seemed to give me more channels for half the money.
So, after being set up by a friend, dishes installed, both STB’s connected, I discovered to my horror that one STB had gone dead. Being a bit of a electronic hobbyist (in a former life), I opened the box, yup, blown fuse. I didn’t have a spare, so I opened an old DVD player and ripped it from there. Blew that quickly. I ordered a selection of fuses (they’re little glass ones, not the kind most have lying about). I decided to pop in a larger fuse and take a look at the circuit as I connected the mains. Nothing like adding power to a failing circuit, bright lights and smoke pointed towards a bit black looking transistor. I removed it, checked it (online you mind, coz physically, this thing was fried, literally). Turned out to be some fancy power supply component. Found it online, and now, I’ve just soldered it back in. And voila! it works once again. Somehow I was amazed, after all, it has been a while since I attempted something like this (nowadays you simply replace the faulty part), but heck, I have a working receiver once again for a fraction of the cost.
The weird thing is, it brought back memories. The first being that of distrust, you sort of tend to watch the box for new signs of failure (smoke, smell etc…) It being never completely off doesn’t help 
. The second is that of wonder, you have this collection of dead black, silver copper things on a green board doing nothing. You poke around with some black box with a couple of silver legs and a soldering iron and suddenly, lights light up, tv shows a picture. It brings back the sense of magic I first felt when I had made my first crystal radio. I had carefully constructed the most simple radio, no batteries, and connected it all up and wow, I heard music. Literally pulling the sound out of the sky. Of course nowadays, it’s encrypted byte streams and you need quite a bit of power to make it work, but to see something like that come back to life by your own doing is still special. So, with my ego now fully praised I just had to show off…
Nokia 2710 - an Update
02 August 2010, 10:08 PM CET
Just a quick update, all of what I wrote on the 2710 still stands, but one thing I must mention. I was city hopping recently, had the right maps loaded and let me tell you, this thing is bloody brilliant…..
When you’re in the city, and at your point of reference, start the GPS, wait for it to lock (yeah, you might still need to have something to eat while it acquires a position) and save the current location. You can then walk, bus, metro off in any direction, and be assured you will find your way back as if you’ve been living there all your life. What’s more, feel tired, need a bite to eat, you can punch up shops, restaurants etc.. close by within a minute. And it really is fun, you get to go places you’d never see otherwise.
I still would like the Nokia to lock quicker, however, once it does lock, it holds position very well. The phone seems better in locking if you can muster the patience to stay put while it looks for the satellites, and of course, clear view of the skies helps. But it offers solid navigation, free maps for all time, of all places (that fact alone entices me to stay with Nokia, it’s better than the alternatives once you consider the map quality outside the US). I also found out that making the effort of lugging my DSLR around is worth it, the versatility of the camera is so much better than a compact, but this is not new. Perhaps I’ll write about that later..
Now I have a working E55 for local use, a 2710 for travel, I’m looking for a less bulky replacement for my HTC Touch Cruise (the original model). I require touch screen, GPS (with something as good as Ovi Maps) and an essential: Outlook mail and calendar synchronisation. There’s plenty of phones, but so far, the Nokia N8 seems to fit best on paper. But (why is there always a but), several reviews mention the user cannot replace the battery. I have mixed experiences with Nokia batteries, some are pretty bad. The idea I cannot replace a part that tends to wear quickly (my E55 currently runs best on a non nokia battery) bothers me. Or is just me resisting the way of the future? I know this is close to silly to ask, but if anyone has a good phone suggestion, please mail me. It has to be thin, nice screen, touch screen, GPS, 3G, last some time on a battery and sync with outlook. Bonus points for a wide selection of free applications, parts and funky low level software availability. I like Symbian, but Android is fine also, Windows Mobile less so. I really like the Samsung AMOLED display, but their GPS software worries me. European door to door is a must!
Nokia 2710, one trip later
29 June 2010, 05:06 PM CET
After having worked through the E55′s quirks I got me a 2710 as my travel phone. The E55 is UMTS and tends to be easier to use if you don’t have to contend with reconfiguring the use of UMTS. Once I set things up I don’t like changing, so the 2710 seemed a good choice, no UMTS, Quad Band and GPS. Pretty basic cam, keyboard, not heavy, not big, not mini either. A simple phone.
My verdict:
The good
- GPS works, maps all over the world
- Phone works well
- Good battery life
- The alarm powers up even when switched off
The bad
- GPS is sometimes very slow to acquire a lock, as if you need have internet to load up sat positions
- it won’t charge on USB alone
- Ignoring the alarm for one minute shuts it up, when doesn’t this thing auto-repeat?
The ugly
- not the most sturdy, the front panel is already cracked, but not the screen behind it
- parts aren’t available (yet)
I think if Nokia would give an app that will allow you to preload sat positions before flying off, this would be a big plus. And why it requires that silly thing Nokia charger connection is beyond me. It has USB, but won’t charge on a USB charger. It’s bad enough Nokia has so many different sockets, my E55 uses a micro USB (which differs from the mini USB found a most smartphones), the 2710 uses the thin connector and I still have one older one that uses the original fat connector. Don’t these people realise that airport security don’t like it when they see my handluggage with all these chargers, wires etc… I tend to register as a walking gadget shop going through security.
And I’m hoping that the parts bit clears up soon, the crack doesn’t look nice, even if it is purely cosmetic
More Nokia
14 June 2010, 01:06 PM CET
I have recounted a couple of times of my experiences with the E55. I love the phone, but my first was a bit of a dud. It kept rebooting. I have, after a long time studying the time, identified three things that will make or break your E55 relationship.
- The motherboard. Some of them are simply not stable. My first was crap, my second was great.
- The battery, especially the performance at 50% to 0% charge is important. I run a non Nokia battery and it keeps my E55 happy for at least 3 days, with bluetooth on, email polling on and UMTS.
- Heat. Want you’re E55 to get unstable, just put it somewhere it gets warm (> 37 deg. Centigrade). It crashes quite reliably
The great thing about the E55 is the battery life, the feature set and the Ovi Maps. World wide, speech assisted and free forever. Might not worry Garmin or Tom Tom just right now, but at this price point, and a few upgrades, the shape of things to come.
Because I really like the map thing, I recently decided to add another phone to my arsenal. A Nokia 2710. It is no UMTS (so none of that expensive roaming shit to worry about), but it is a quad band, lasts well on a battery, isn’t big and, it has Ovi Maps It is destined to become my travel phone of choice and offer me a moment of nerdness, when I pass security with 3 phones.
I’ve not tried the 2710 yet, but I am sure to report on it’s use soon, once my travel plans are final that is.
Question?
24 May 2010, 05:05 PM CET
Are suicide bombers not the ultimate proof of Darwin’s theory? After all, if natural selection is all about the good genes surviving longer, surely those that choose to remove themselves from the DNA pool are doing mankind a BIG favour.
Partially, the big downside is they tend to take out others as well.
Leave out the bomb and just commit suicide, do us all a favour.
Human Delusion
23 May 2010, 06:05 PM CET
Sometimes you just get slapped in the face about what really matters. After hearing about complaints about a little ash, a currency doing the hula hoop, it is easy to think all this stuff really matters. And then you get hit by news that a plane went down. Think about it, people travelling, mostly back to their loved ones, and in a flash, all over. A little boy was the sole survivor of a plane crash, lucky? Is waking up to find your father/mother/brother are no longer with you lucky? Is waiting at the airport, anticipating the arrival of people you are looking forward to hug after being apart for some time, and then hearing they will never ever arrive lucky?
You could say that those that died had more luck, not having to live with the pain. But then, dying is hardly something to describe as a lucky situation. Besides, luck has nothing to do with it, it’s a certainty. But imagine the biggest tragedy of all, those that were apart and not being too friendly, determined to make up once they got together. The idea of having to live with a ‘if I only had…..’ seems almost the biggest torture of all. It does mean that you should never delay in showing affection to those you love, if shit happens, at least it happens without the need to turn time back, which, the last time I checked, is still somewhat tricky.
So the next time you get hit by transport delays, some financial mishap, just think, it doesn’t really matter. Nobody who called home during the 9/11 attacks called their bank to make quick investment, all called the ones that matter, to make sure the last message was one that said, I like you. Don’t delay that message, ever.
Peace….
Do I want a wall of fire?
03 May 2010, 07:05 PM CET
After writing something about the need of a virus scanner, the problems one of them caused, and the fudge you have to deal with finding a good one, here’s a sequel…. a firewall. Like most security products they are somewhat hard to sell, because if they work well you shouldn’t be able to detect that they are running. So how do you sell something that should only surface when something goes wrong? Of course you could create the problem you can solve; which some nasties have actually done. You could make it so obtrusive you’re bound to notice it. You make it so flashy that everyone will just want to keep configuring it. The latter presents you with a problem though, a good piece of security kit should make the right default choices and be easy to configure. Of course after unlocking all the advanced options, the nerds out there will be happy, but these are not your primary source of revenue.
Windows out of the box includes no real protection to speak of, virus scanners are something Microsoft have not managed to establish a name for themselves, and a firewall did appear in Windows XP, but it would be fair to say that the term firewall could be disputed. What is a firewall? Apart from a mechanical blockage intended to keep fire away, in IT it is used to describe software that controls who/what talks to who/what. Nowadays firewalls are quite valuable, seeing the largest threat to your PC is all sorts of nasty software that tries to gather information and convey this through secret channels to someone without your best interest at heart. In some way, shape or form, some software tries to connect to another computer and use that connection to do harm.
Trying to set up a connection can be done by forcing the lock as it where, your computer accepts connections from other machines. Another option is to bribe a trusted party to open the door from the inside and let the nasty in that way, your computer allows you to connect to another machine. A firewall tries to ensure this is safe by alerting you to unexpected activity. It is governed by rules, and if the rules say alert, it alerts, if the rules say allow, it is allowed and if the rules say refuse, the connection is refused. The trick of course is how to determine the right rules, and are there any tricks that allow you to bypass the firewall (instead of picking the lock of the locked door, easier to look for an unlocked door).
Commonly you can filter on tech stuff (ports, protocols), you can identify safe locations (all the pc’s on your own network) and of course who is connecting (some applications are given freedom, some are not). There are some ways in which things can be automated (for instance you trust the software and the software is then allowed to instruct the firewall as to what connections it needs). Whilst a lot of firewalls (and some of them are free!) exist, a lot are also easily fooled into letting someone pass. And you can be sure that the ones that try are really nasty. The problem all firewalls face is how to instruct a potentially IT illiterate person on how to decide if a request is safe or not.
So, knowing all this, where to we look? Here!, Matousec is the firewall test site that doesn’t go for the bonus points of the used colour scheme, but does tell you how it came to these results without some of the more crummy test criteria. What you will notice is that some firewall’s consistently score well. So, do they pay Matousec? Not as far as I know, but they do take notice of the tests and they do try so fix any leaks that are found. And the best performing products don’t have to cost you a lot of money, in fact, the two best are free. It also shows that vendors in this market are varied, just read their responses and you’ll quickly see who is actually selling you security and who is just into the selling.
Another observation is that this is Windows only territory, of course, given the numbers. Those using Linux can find ample DIY packages to quickly get a very powerful firewall (which is probably already installed) up and running. As Apple decided to use a free unix as the base for their OS-X, in principle, they can do the same as Linux users. To do nothing can be foolish. Although you can negate a lot of risk by implementing certain policies, the truth is that for a majority of the PC owners with a internet connection, this is beyond either their ability or worth their time. And without proper thought, you can expect a probing inbound connection within a day. The firewall that protects my own home network is probed on average 20+ times each single day. There is no response, but it is logged and checked. The last four probes where on ports 80, 135 and 445 and occurred in the 15 mins I spent writing this.
So the simple conclusion, if you have no clue, get a firewall and go here to find out what to get.
Stay safe.
How to find a good virus scanner
22 April 2010, 12:04 PM CET
After the mess I blogged about concerning a McAfee update gone wild, of course the question pops up, what is a good scanner. Let’s not get into the debate of the need to have a scanner, yes, there are other ways of staying safe. The reality is however that most people couldn’t really be bothered, so installing something that helps you from being taken to the cleaners without having to actually understand stuff has its merits.
Unfortunately, most reviews you’ll find out there are somewhat, what’s the word…. crap. Some are paid advertorials, others use clever criteria such as user friendliness to favour the snazzy screen over the better working application. In fact, a good user interface for this kind of software is the one you never really see. Low number of false positives (Oops I see a virus that isn’t one) is great to keep the blood pressure low, quick to scan, low usage of resources and reliable updating should mean the software sits in your tray and only shows its interface once a bad guy is detected.
So where the info? My all time favourite is AV-Comparatives. It is independent (and supplies quite a few publications with the raw info) and explains clearly how it tests and scores. Policy means I can’t give you anything but their main URL, but look for comparatives and you should quickly hit on the latest tests. Another is Virus Bulletin. You have to register to see the results, but it is free. It awards a VB100 to the products that detect 100% ITW virusses. ITW? Yeah, it’s short for In The Wild viruses, the ones you actually might get hit by. Most scan software producers have larger sets of variations, and it is debatable if there is merit to finding more. In my experience, the chances of getting hit by a virus are low and then it’s only a subset of the ITW set anyway. But, it does depend on your PC habits. Macro viruses, all sorts of nasty malware can be damaging and if swap out files with others, it is simply just good etiquette to ensure you’re not the one spreading stuff. And for those in IT, there’s no excuse. You cannot claim to be a professional and send out a virus through email. If you’re that sloppy, why would a client give you information that some malware would love to have. Trust in these matters is very important.
So, a good scanner should achieve a VB100 award, simply do not consider any scanner that doesn’t. Then check it out to see if the other bits of scanner match what you want, i.e. is it fast, does it detect a lot of false positives. After that, go and check the vendor’s site. Paying makes life easy, you get more features and the software is more likely to remain silent and not pop up some ad of sorts telling how bloody brilliant their free software is, but pay ‘m and it gets better. For me, I like to include a good email scanner, seeing the number of spam that loves to include nasty attachments. But as they say YMMV.
One word on AVG, which is usually praised to Kingdom come on the various discussion groups. I have used it, it tends to good, then bad as if on a sinus rhythm. But it is not the best. And realise that all free scanners will require you register, sometimes require you to update the software yourself, pop up an ad or two and redo the whole install process every year. AVG and Awill offer the more well known ones, but there are others. By nature, the ones you buy are more fire-and-forget, except when you’re license is about to expire. In any case, there’s no excuse, money or no money to not kit out your pc with a good virus scanner, just don’t trust everyone giving you good info. Really, if you read something like “I installed scanner A and have had any alarm for months, so it is good” you know, good intentions aside, it would mean exactly the same had this person not said anything.
When AntiVirus turns into something like a Virus
22 April 2010, 09:04 AM CET
This morning I woke up to the new that a faulty update caused mainly PC’s running XP to go barmy and end up not able to boot any more. Now I’m not saying that McAfee are doing this intentionally, but it has happened to me in the past (albeit not this serious, in my case the virus scanner kept bringing the operating system down, but I could boot and work as long as I didn’t open a certain folder). It was one of the reasons I have stopped using this particular brand. Anyway, what really amazes me is the response of company itself. My attempts to find any information on this problem have failed, it’s not on the homepage and support pages are at the time of writing this, not accessible. Of course Engadget (this is a really good site BTW), has the info.
Note that first McAfee are saying that consumers are not affected, apart from not being able to agree or disagree on this, realise that in order to fix this, you need a second PC. The affected machine won’t boot, as a core component has been effectively removed from the PC. And how does the supplier respond, by using the internet. 
If consumers are affected, how many would have more than one pc, and if so, and using McAfee, would they not protect all their pc’s with the same software?
If you’re a PC support person, I am glad I’m not, first you need to find a pc that doesn’t have the update (which, given how some companies deploy these updates, might not be as easy), download the fix (assuming the pc’s hooking you up to internet didn’t get affected) and then run around (because you need physical access) fixing every single pc. Not as easy, just read this. Not only does it admit a programming error, just look at what you have to do, and that’s if the pc hasn’t already been hit, in which case you probably need to break out this XP images, which then might require re-patching that particular file later on.
Given the cost of this for any company affected, why isn’t McAfee rushing repair disks by courier to it’s corporate clients? Of course, licenses will say that McAfee isn’t liable, but I’ve known of the ability of a new DAT file to disrupt a stable situation for years. The virus software is, in its structure, vulnerable to bad updates, which have a greater fall-out effect than most others I know of (they stop working, but don’t chop down the OS). This means that in my opinion, they should have procedures in place that test for these things. Of course, this kind of software isn’t easy to write, but McAfee have been writing this stuff for years and seeing the numbers affected, it’s something easy detected in a test scenario.
See, even if your ass doesn’t get dragged into court, people who buy stuff from you have one weapon to wield, always, they can stop buying. Personally I’m not overly impressed by Symantec’s offer, but their corporate scanner is actually pretty good, not the same level of bloat as their consumer version and high detection rates. And in my years of experience, it has never taken the operating system down. So I’m guessing that Symantec’s sales department is currently quite excited, now what if they could write a letter to all the McAfee users and include disk to repair and replace? Methinks there would quite a few takers.
So all in all, even if this wasn’t intended as a virus, the cost of repair and disruption to customers is of similar proportion, so exactly the opposite of why people have virus scanners in the first place. And from the reaction, even a high-tech company like McAfee have become lulled into a state of making the users to all the hard work and not showing some appreciation for the gravity of this. Sometimes it helps to treat your customers as humans, and not just an IP address.
Murphy strikes again
04 April 2010, 10:04 AM CET
Yesterday a friend came over to install satellite TV, I’m slowly moving away from cable to satellite because I prefer the idea that I decide what I can watch instead of some company. Especially since said company is pressing hard for me to move to digital TV and in doing so, spend loads of money. Anyway, since mounting a dish requires climbing ladders, drilling and stuff, and it was raining, I decided my expertise for the day should be to upgrade my firewall, seeing it was long overdue. I tend to delay this kind of upgrade, because it usually spells disaster.
This time, I thought I was prepared, I had a new hard disk, downloaded the new firewall software and had a printout of the settings of the current one. As I wanted to upgrade the internet side of things, seeing it was using a very old 10Mb NIC (Network Interface Card), which prevents me upgrading the internet bandwidth, I want to exchange that card for a new one.
Opened the Firewall, surprise one, it already had 2 hard disks (my reasoning was, I’ll slot in a new hard disk and then if disaster strikes, I’d have a working old firewall to return to). So, first thing, connect that hard disk and start the installation. Because of all the many improvements, I couldn’t do an in place upgrade, so this was basically setting up one from scratch. The second hard disk that was already in, seemed to come from some other computer, so I shut down, installed the new NIC and started with configuration. Within 10 mins the basic installation seemed ok and was moved onto the hard disk. After some configuration, everything worked, I added most of the customisation of the previous firewall and I thought, job well done and went to have dinner.
So before sleeping, I decided to clean up the open case, various computer bits scattered around my firewall, so I closed the case, cleaned up etc… AND disaster struck! Internet went off. I rebooted the firewall, and it basically told me that the ISP was not providing me with the configuration info. This happens at times, and usually it comes back up in an hour or so. I waited more than an hour or so, still no internet. The next morning I woke up early (I hate it when things don’t work) and still no internet. The local LAN was working perfectly, the configuration of the firewall checked out. So, I finally decided to use my trusty T600e, and try to see what was going wrong on the ISP side of things (for those that don’t know, my firewall sits between my computer and the Internet Service Provider, it is the ISP that connects my firewall to internet). And guess, no problem, it got the configuration info and reported an all clear.
So, the NIC that was trying to connect to the ISP was now a clear suspect (finding computer faults is a lot like detective work I think). 
So I tried to swap the cards in the configuration and voila, ISP connection came up easily. But there was no internet…. I discovered a new feature of the firewall, a small display that showed the traffic stats. Seemed all traffic going through my suspect was failing. So, ripped a NIC from a dormant computer and tried that. Bingo, it all worked. So with one NIC heading to the scrapheap, my firewall upgraded (still minor tweaking to be done), internet has been restored. And I can enjoy Satellite TV as well. Better still, I have found a practical use for my very old upgraded laptop, so that investment has saved me from embarrassing myself with the ISP helpdesk 
and I’m ready for a speed increase. That’s all good, but just goes to show you, I’ve seen many computer parts fail, but this is my first NIC to appear to work (lights, sound), but still not work (so lights, sounds but no music). Murphy was right, but why is it that what does fail is what is usually least likely to fail, seems a contradiction in terms…