[Les.]

Yesterday (before I asked this question), after getting the refusal to copy, I removed the drive from carrier, and connected via my little “connect any HDD and do something” device. I got the same refusal response.

This morning, I disconnected  my PC’s SDD’s SATA lead and connected that to the 1TB drive out of the LaCie.

Booted with a GPARTED disc and fathomed my way through the programme, deleting partitions, creating one partition (though there was 1MB before it and 1MB after it), as EXT4. That seemed OK. Next I formatted the drive with an EXT4 format.

All seemed OK, so shut down, returned everything to normal including the 1TB back in the enclosure.

booted up PC, connected LaCie and again tried to copy across some folders.

Permission refused.

Have I done something wrong, or just not done everything I should have done?

Les.

[Les.]

back in 1952, first year at high school, our form master, the PE teacher, gathered us all together rather than in the gym.

He then proceeded to tell us all about the report by the then Dr. Richard Doll. Lung cancer and smoking. I think it is now almost fully accepted, and had been for a few years. But it took 50 years of industries lies before the general population saw through it all.

It is now around 45 years I think since the first scientific statements coupling CO2 levels to the likely effect on global temperatures. Since then the theory has been extended to various other  screening gasses, ozone depletion etc.. I think it will only take a few more years before the doubters will either believe, be silenced, or maybe drowned by rising sea levels.

Les.

[Les.]

Edp, if I can remember that, it will be another instruction learned this year!

Cheers, Les.

[Les.]

Dave, yes, tried that as well.  In Terminal, only rt click – menu works. For years I only knew of that, before I discovered ctrl-(loads of things). I have not got my printer properly installed (should use the HP-Linux drivers), just the default stuff. certain items (pdfs opened in the default prog I think) will not bring up printer. However I find ctrl-p allows me simple printing. Similarly because not HP drivers, my scanner is not recognised by PC, so I go in via Firefox, 192.168.  etc. and use the PSC’s inbuilt stuff.

Every year I learn at least one new dodge!

I have some more stuff to copy/paste later if time allows, so I will do more experimenting.

Cheers, Les.

[Les.]

Edp, I have not tried any more yet, but do have some more emailed stuff to copy and save.

I learned about the loss of copied data if you close the originating source a long time ago. I do a lot of copying and pasting when I create certain drawings, so I have an almost automatic routine of ctrl-c    alt-tab   ctrl-V   alt-tab to move back and forth when just copying individual elements from drawing to drawing.

Les.

[Les.]

You won’t believe this. I went to the same email which would not copy two days ago, or this morning before I posted the above.

It works for you, but it does not work for me, lateral thinking time.

For the FIRST TIME EVER, I opened Libre Office’s “Impress” as I guess it is different to Writer, but capable of holding text (maybe). I selected just the first line of the mail **, ctrl-C then in the Impress box, ctrl-V. There it was.

I deleted it, selected ALL the wanted email text, and again transferred it to Impress, and there it was.

Now for more lateral thinking. Open Writer, ctrl-V, and there it is again.

I still don’t know if it is “just working” once more by coincidence, or if opening Impress was relevant. No doubt I will find out in due course, but for now it is working.

** The reason I only tried one line is that there have been occasions when copying a whole article would not work, but a paragraph might, but sometimes only sentence by sentence.

Les.

Still time to edit.  I saved my Writer document and closed it. I then returned to the Impress item, selected all except the first line (to ensure the original not in memory still), opened Writer, ctrl-V, and NOTHING happened. More to think about, not sure any of it makes sense.

[Les.]

Wasbit, it is back in new, smarter clothing. I did nothing, obviously RSB beavering away to please us all.

Great, Les

[Les.]

I found the “latest replies” a very useful adjunct. I will miss it.

Cheers, Les.

[Les.]

Ed, No, I don’t expect Sky is there ** and clearly that sort of claim is untrue, but I was commenting more on the technical side of it. Maybe I was not clear, it is just that I disapprove of all paid for stuff. BBC, ITV etc get short shrift from the public, but they have been financially starved since the paid for stuff arrived. They (the paid for companies) use their wealth to lobby against the BBC licence fee. If you look at what Freeview offers for £££s ZERO, and weigh that against the cost of the multiple subs some people pay, it takes a bit of thinking about. NOBODY can watch the whole lot!

** MAYBE Sky one (if it still exists) is on Freeview, it used to be freely available on satellite, but everything else was subs only.

Summing up my technical opinion, the thing is JUST a TV antenna, of limited capability.

For a weak signal area, you either want (A) a dipole with numerous director and reflector elements, for high gain, or signal “pull in” ability. or “B”, one like mine which has lower gain, but a “clean” signal, usually needing further amplification.

I generally watch more than 30mins, but less than 75 mins weekdays, rather less at weekends. I have “pirated” some stuff which I can not legally receive in the past but not now. I listen to the Radio (a little local radio News, plus R3 or R4 much of the rest of the time if in a listenable situation.

Les.

[Les.]

Ed, you want a technical opinion. first, let us separate the untruths as I read them. get rid of all your paid for subscription TV (Good idea, LKA) and then use our amplified antenna. Hmm. What do you use it with? Your terrestrial digital TV of course, otherwise known as “Freeview” in the UK.

Does it work? Well, maybe. But remember you can not beat the laws of physics.There is a finite “amount” of signal at your location. If, like me, your only transmitter is “across the sea in Ireland” (change one word and you have an old song) then you will struggle to get good reception. I use what is known as a “Quad Bow tie” aerial, and an amplifier up on the mast, a tall one double lashed to the chimney stack. In the loft space is a second low power amplifier which also supplies the 12v to the masthead amp. That device would be a waste of money for me.

Now you might have a signal where you can pick it up on “a piece of wet string”, but if it is a bit poor sometimes (dry string?), then that thing would probably work.

If you are in a strong signal area, and don’t want an external antenna up on the roof, get one. Remember however, the further you are away from being “up in the sky” with it, the closer you are to all the interference generated in modern houses.

Most electronic devices sold legally over here cary a CE mark, but in reality, very, very few would individually pass the actual tests if so subjected. It is all “self certification”, with no checks. Very often you can open up some device (TV, Hi Fi etc.) and if you look at the actual printed circuit where the mains connect, there will be empty places where interference related components are not present. They MAY have been there on the prototypes during certification, but not in production.

It is ALL, a b***dy big can of worms.

Les.

[Les.]

Oh dear, my reply just disappeared in a “Forbidden operation”, error 403??)

I was trying to show how the web pages were saved, it must have been construed as a virus or similar.

Anyway, thanks for explanations Dave. I used to use SCSI a lot, as it was discarded by customers, I hoovered up the stuff. A high end card, multi-way small connector cables and quite a few good drives. Once I got the IDs sorted in my head, all straightforward. SCSI CD reader included.

I had two drives, with a switch on the front panel which allowed me to change an ID, so I could choose which drive to boot from, useful when I was dipping my toes into Linux.

If I set BIOS correctly, can I boot from a drive in the 1394 box?

Cheers, Les.

[Les.]

Boris, I could not access the links you gave, but looking at my spec sheet, –7850 should fit, but at a quoted power of 95W, it might be a bit too much for the PSU.But see if you still have it when you are home please.

Les.

[Les.]

Boris (or anybody), is the “AM2 Athlon Dual Core 4450B” the same as an “AMD Athlon 64 X2 4450e”, which claims a 65nM architecture and a total power figure of 45W? That is the closest match on the micoms listing for my shuttle. Mother board type SN78SH7?

The “Supports” statement says :-  Supports AMD Processors with AM2/AM2+/AM3 socket:
AMD Phenom II, Athlon II, Phenom, Athlon 64 X2, Athlon 64, Sempron processors
3 GHz HyperTransport v3.0 Technology x16 Up/Down links
*) Please refer to the support list for detailed processor support information.

Cheers, Les.

[Les.]

Dave’s advice looks too technical and comprehensive for me to pass comment, so take it as read.

JCD likewise writes total sense. Don’t get suckered into the “borrow money” route whatever you do. It HAS to be PAID back.

If you find yourself making loads’a cash, make sure you keep some back for the taxman. He is a greedy bugger, is first in line if things get tough, and he does not give up if you work yourself to death.

IF you can do your own SIMPLE accounting, and you don’t get BIG, you don’t need an accountant. If you do have one, talk to a few, and choose one you can talk to on a  person to person basis. It gets easier if he knows you, not just as an entry in his system.

Les.

[Les.]

Hugh, your comment that the USB plug gets hot indicates one of two possibilities.

The first is that the plug/socket connection is getting weak, giving a higher resistance at that point, meaning LESS current, but MORE heat dissipation at that connection.

The second is that the pack is knackered, so demanding more current.

The only way to find out is to cut the lead from the charger, strip wires back, reconnect simply by twisting plus a bit of insulation, then checking voltage is 5v +/- say 0.2v. If OK, untwist one connection, and insert an AMMETER and measure the current. Compare with the specs (if any). Somewhere, it should tell you the consumption of the Garmin, and it needs to be (probably) a bit less than that since as you say it won’t run full brightness without discharging.

Next, if all OK, is to solder the connections, then insulate correctly. Messy, but you will get an answer. Is the duracell pack alkaline, or Lithium iron. If the latter, overcharging risks explosion / fire. Alkaline CAN overheat, but in the case of duracell, usually leak first.

For the record, I will NEVER buy another Duracell. 30+ years ago, the best. Today, never better than some others, and the number of items destroyed by leaking AA cells is unbelievable. They leak long before their “Best before” date!

Les.

[Les.]

Thanks all. No oatcakes today Bob, probably not until next time I cross the water to the UK and visit N Staffs.

Anyway, it seems I misread the upload limit, 500MBs per month not 50. I spent a while “duck duck”-ing (as opposed to Googling) and tried FFMPEG to play about with my video. Got it down to something over 200MBs, so successfully uploaded it.

If you want a chuckle, go and look here:-

No melting here, still quite pleasant, so a good, uneventful day with nothing going wrong, and I am now an ffmpeg expert (NOT!)

I will see what I can come up with next year (I hope!!!)

Les.

[Les.]

My printer is the HP 8500A officejet Pro. It has a soft power button. If there is a power outage, or if you switch it OFF with the button, then you need to switch it ON before next use. At switch on, it will spend 10 mins churning and setting itself, no doubt wasting ink as it does so. Consequently I never switch it off unless I know I am going to switch the main power off a few times, so it only needs one “churn” session.

It is upstairs, banished by SWMBO as she says it is too big for the living room. Unless I have router problems, when it probably gets assigned a different address (192.168.0.xxx), then it never needs touching.

Les.

[Les.]

I was going to post this in Bob’s archeology thread, but I can’t find it.

Anyway, this is for you bob. This morning as we went shopping, R4 had part 5 of “The Fens”.

It started on Monday (09:45) and continued on subsequent days until today. You WILL want to listen from part 1 on BBC Sounds.

Les.

[Les.]

As I said in a previous reply, the way the mother board is fastened down DOES matter. Various “different” fixing screws were supplied by different mother board suppliers, but they all had the same base size, sometimes looking like a built in washer.

We used to build PCs (Yours truly built well over 1,000) but we also used to sell components. I had very few component failures, but at least 30% of the “builds” supplied as components would bring complaints of (typically) faulty mother board. Instead of matching mounting holes for M/Bs, and fitting support pillars there, every threaded hole would get a pillar. Faulty M/B. I would always show exactly what they had done. Sometimes, with the offending pillar removed, the M/B was still OK.

Then there were the “This mother board is faulty” cases which I would “cure” by setting the bios correctly. Of course, often they did kill the M/B, but 9 times out of 10, the Boss would return it to gigabyte or whoever. Why he continued to supply to such customers I really don’t know. The way we priced stuff, it cost about the same if I built it, with no comebacks.

But back to motherboards. There was a time when electronics involved point to point wiring of everything. (1930’s radios) but tagboards were quickly invented saving time. Then in the ’50s, we had printed circuits with copper deposited on one side. Later, PCBs came with print on BOTH sides, and together with machine insertion of components, more improvements and time saving. Today, component boards (I will refrain from the term PCBs now) copper was deposited on numerous layers. Such are today’s computer mother boards.

Now quietly think about the result of distortion. An open circuit three layers down maybe.

All your mounting pillars, or whatever substitute is used, need to be the same height. Only fit screws and pillars where the hole has an obvious ring of print on both sides, and ensure the mounting screw (and pillars) do not exceed the diameter of that ring of tinned copper print around the hole.

Les, who was playing with things electrical over 70 years ago, and ever since.

[Les.]

This is the first time I have seen this thread, and one thing that caught my eye was Eds “Treacle mines”.

Here in the Isle of Man, there are frequent references to the Treacle mines, and I always assumed this was a Manx version of Ken Dodd’s famous “Butty Mines”. I know roughly the location of the Treacle Mines, now I just need to find if they are/were a hoax, or a reality. I will ring my (Manx) pal in a few minutes.

Les.

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